How to Survive as a Supporting Male Lead - Chapter 2.1
“I’ve heard some good news, Iann.”
Kallian skipped the pleasantries, going straight for the attack. It was no surprise. The two knew each other inside and out, and they certainly weren’t close enough to exchange warm greetings.
“Oh? Which one? There are so many good things happening.”
“Ah… The best one, I suppose? It was all over the papers. That has to be the biggest piece of good news, don’t you think?”
“Oh? I wouldn’t know.”
Iann stretched out his words, clearly trying to provoke him. Despite his calm demeanor, his heart was racing. Iann took another gulp of wine to steady his nerves. Facing off against someone who could kill him at any moment wasn’t exactly easy.
But his desire to torment Kallian outweighed the fear.
Kallian, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in dragging out the conversation with such trivial remarks. He got straight to the point.
“I hear a gold mine’s been discovered. In Occurus.”
“Oh, that. Right.”
It’s starting. Iann set down his wine glass and answered.
“Well, it’s funny… as soon as the land went from being yours to being mine, good news like that comes up. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but hey, I’m sorry. What can I say? I guess even the land knows who its rightful owner is.”
“You speak too much.”
“Whatever.”
The word slipped out of his mouth before he knew it. Iann could feel the eyes of the entire party shift towards him.
In his late twenties, Iann was old enough to feel a twinge of embarrassment as his face flushed slightly. He thought he could even hear Derrick sigh quietly behind him.
“….”
But the effect was powerful! Kallian’s expression darkened even more. Despite being the quintessential cold and terrifying Duke of the North of every romance fantasy, Kallian had an unexpected weakness—he was strangely sensitive to childish wordplay.
‘Or maybe, since he’s the Duke of the North, he’s not immune to this kind of banter.’
Iann thought as he kept his guard up while observing Kallian.
Well, people like the Duke of the North didn’t need words to deal with someone they disliked—they could just slice them up. The problem for Kallian was that the person he disliked happened to be Iann, the Archmage.
‘Hmph. Who cares if you look intimidating when I’m still the one winning.’
Iann glared up at Kallian, attempting to control his thoughts. The only downside was the awkward 5 cm height difference, but Iann refused to back down. In his mind, once you’re over 185cm, height stops mattering. Sure, Kallian was 191 cm, and he was 186 cm, but still…
“Bold of you to act so confident after stealing land.”
“Stealing? Let’s be clear. I won that land fair and square in our duel. Why call it stealing?”
Iann puffed out his chest as he responded. The onlookers, who had been eagerly watching their spat, nodded in agreement.
Right, right. That Occurus land was won in a bet made by the Master of the Magic Tower. The Duke doesn’t have much to argue about here.
Kallian scowled, but he had something to say too.
“You mean that duel where you stole my sword and forced me into it? Did I have any way to refuse?”
Kallian’s words made onlookers buzz again. What? He stole a knight’s sword and then forced him into a duel with it? Has he no honor? No shame? Wait, but how did he manage to steal the Second Knight Commander’s sword?
“I don’t see what’s so dignified about that.”
Perhaps recalling the event made his emotions boil over, Kallian’s low, ominous voice oozed with rage and murderous intent, silencing the party hall. All eyes turned toward Iann.
Would he really dare to respond?
By all accounts, this was clearly Iann’s fault.
Were they finally going to see Iann apologize to Kallian? The dopamine levels in the room spiked as the crowd anticipated the next move in this eventful showdown.
But Iann didn’t look the least bit apologetic. In fact, he looked rather indignant.
“I…”
Oh, wait, was he actually going to say sorry? The guests felt their hearts race as the word ‘mi’ left Iann’s lips. Was the arrogant, proud Archmage about to say “sorry”?
“I….”
Finally!
“I…. think you’re a crazy bastard! You’re the one who started this!” [1]
T/N: [1] ↩
When Iann stutters “I…” here, I changed it from the original: “Mi… (미…)”
The conversation goes (with some text in between removed for a shorter note lol):
“미….”
“미….”
“미친놈아! 네가 먼저 잘못했잖아!”
So it goes
“Mi…”
“Mi…”
“Michinnom-a” (this means crazy person)
Both 미안해 (mianhae// sorry) and 미친놈아 (crazy bastard/guy) start with 미 (mi). So essentially, he pretends he’s going to say mianhae
Note that this is different from 미친 새끼야 (michin saekkiya// Crazy fucker/s**t/asshole/bastard). This one is not really relevant, but just in case you’d like to know! hehe
