How to Survive as a Supporting Male Lead - Chapter 16.1
“Yes, over there! I heard a strange sound!”
“Ah.”
Iann frowned. What kind of hideously ugly monster would show up this time? His appetite was already plummeting.
“Alright, let’s go…”
Iann leapt off his horse. He wasn’t great at riding anyway, and it was better to have his feet firmly planted on the ground when fighting monsters.
“Derrick, stay here with Yuhwa—”
He stopped mid-sentence. This was a classic cliché. If the strongest member left the group, villains always appeared where the remaining party members were, taking them hostage. Iann quickly changed his mind.
“No, let’s all go together. Yuhwa, Derrick, stay close to me.”
Derrick, who had also dismounted, gently helped Yuhwa down from the horse.
“Don’t worry. Even if he doesn’t look it, he’s the youngest-ever Tower Master,” Derrick reassured Yuhwa, who nodded obediently like a model student.
“I can hear you, Derrick. ‘Doesn’t look it’? Try ‘obviously does,’ yeah?”
Iann grinned, exuding a confidence that bordered on arrogance.
“I mean, I’m good-looking enough to match my Archmage status, aren’t I?”
“My apologies, Lady Yuhwa. Please bear with him for a moment.”
“It’s alright. He is handsome.”
Derrick apologized, but Yuhwa replied with a soft laugh, shaking her head in amusement as she walked between the two of them.
“Derrick, are you okay with this?”
“I dislike them, but I’m not afraid.”
Derrick replied calmly, and Iann interjected with a mischievous smile.
“No, Yuhwa, he’s a total coward. He even cried once, you know.”
“Don’t spout nonsense. And you’re the one who cried. Don’t you remember when the spider monster clung to you?”
Thanks to Derrick’s factual rebuttal of Iann’s exaggeration, Iann was forced to recall that awful memory. A former alien movie fanatic, Iann had been unable to bear the sight of the spider monster’s egg-filled body crawling over him without breaking into tears.
His lips trembling slightly, Iann forced a grin.
“What are you talking about? Who’s scared of bugs?”
“You. Iann de Loite. You’re scared of bugs.”
Derrick was right. Even now, Iann was subtly emitting a rough magical aura to keep any lower-grade monsters at bay. The hunting festival monsters were weak enough to flee from the aura’s force. Yet, here he was, shamelessly mocking Derrick.
“That would be you.”
As the two bickered, Yuhwa stepped forward to stop them, a playful smile tugging at her lips.
“So, neither of you are afraid of bugs, right?”
“Of course not!”
“Absolutely not!”
Prideful as ever, the two answered confidently.
“That’s a relief! The thing ahead looks like a bug monster.”
Yuhwa said, pointing ahead. Ahead? Both men’s gazes followed Yuhwa’s gesture. There—
“Let’s catch it together!”
A giant silverfish monster.
“Ugh.”
“Ah.”
Though blurry in the distance, its shape was unmistakable, and both men instinctively took two steps back. Oblivious, Yuhwa took one step forward, widening the gap to three paces.
“Wow. It’s really ugly. It looks like someone exaggerated every gross feature. More legs, longer antennae, and most of all, it’s huge.”
Yuhwa observed, turning back toward them. She noticed their retreat and awkwardly added,
“Right? Isn’t that right, Sir Iann, Sir Derrick?”
“Y-yeah, definitely!”
“Yes, very much so!”
Their eyes met. A fierce silent exchange passed between them: Who’s going first? Who’s getting closer?
As the standoff dragged on, Yuhwa finally spoke up.
“Um, it looks like others are already fighting it over there. Shouldn’t we go help?”
Now that she mentioned it, there were indeed others around the monster. They hadn’t noticed earlier, too fixated on its grotesque appearance. Alarmed by the situation, Iann stepped forward.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
The monsters at the hunting festival were weak—always weak. Every participant should be capable of taking one down alone. If a monster appeared that required seven or more people to tackle, this place wouldn’t have been chosen as the festival site.
But there were far too many people gathered around this one. And the monster’s movements were too aggressive. Something wasn’t right.
