Rejected by Daughter’s Second Male Lead Chapter 96

Gillen struggled to come to his senses. At first, his vision was so blurry he couldn’t see anything. There was even a ringing in his ears. Unable to grasp what was happening, he heightened his sixth sense and tried to feel Yuan’s presence and pheromones.

Fortunately, the scent of Yuan’s pheromones was nearby. A scent Marius could not smell. This was a weapon Gillen possessed.

A moment later, his vision cleared, and he slowly began to see his surroundings. Gillen was enveloped in a pure white protective shield that Yuan had conjured with magic. It seemed the light from this shield had been too strong, temporarily blinding him.

But that wasn’t all. Over Gillen, who was wrapped in the shield, lay a large, round, long iron prison reminiscent of a birdcage.

“What is this…!”

Startled, Gillen grabbed the iron bars. At that moment, a white spark crackled from the bars.

“Ugh!”

Gillen pulled back, feeling a burning pain in both palms. If it was this painful even while he was surrounded by a protective shield, what would happen if he touched it with his bare hands?

“Gillen!”

Yuan, who was also wrapped in a shield, ran over to Gillen. He too touched the iron bars, but a spark flew out just the same, and he couldn’t touch them any longer.

Marius, who had been standing in silence, opened his mouth.

“It’s a special iron cage prison made with divine power. It reacts to anything that has hostile intentions toward me. You can think of it as a duplicate of myself. What do you think, Yuan? I originally designed it for you, but on second thought, it seemed perfect for His Grace the Duke.”

Marius, explaining with a gentle smile, had chains wound all around his body. Why in the world was he wearing those things? Did Yuan do it? But regardless of his appearance, the prison itself was utterly absurd. Gillen, dumbfounded, asked.

“Are you truly insane? You made something like this with the divine power given by God to save people?”

He no longer wanted to even use honorifics with Marius. However, Marius shrugged, his face filled with unwavering belief.

“This is also a way of saving people, Your Grace the Duke. I am saving the future High Priest, and I am also saving Your Grace the Duke, who would commit sacrilege against the son of God, in advance.”

He was a complete lunatic. Gillen had to admit it. Marius was insane. He didn’t know whether to call it love, faith, or simply obsession, but in any case, it had driven Marius mad.

“Gillen, stand in the middle so you don’t touch the bars. I’ll use magic to get you out.”

Yuan said in a voice that was lower and heavier than usual. Surprisingly, he looked reliable and cool. Yes, even in this situation, Gillen thought that. Considering how things were at the beginning, it was a rather generous, biased assessment. In any case, Gillen and Yuan had had satisfying sex several times.

And the thought that a madman like that coveted this Yuan made him want to keep him even more. Or maybe, being an alpha after all, he was feeling a sense of possessiveness.

“…Alright, don’t overdo it.”

Gillen barely managed to reply in a choked voice. It was a voice meant to suppress the sudden, unseemly desire that was surging up, but Yuan seemed to take it differently and bit his lip hard.

“…You crazy old man, this time I’ll send you to the side of that God Retina you love so much.”

“Haa… Yuan, how can you say such irreverent things… I really must re-educate you from top to bottom.”

Contrary to the content of his words, Marius’s expression was one of pure ecstasy. His face even seemed to have flushed red. Gillen wondered if his own face looked like that and quickly hardened his expression. Seeing it firsthand, it was utterly hideous. The honest, bare face flushed with desire had a way of making others feel a certain degree of shame.

“Stop spouting nonsense and just die.”

Yuan, filled with rage, shot magic at Marius.

“[Intere].”

Along with the low, cold incantation, an intense light flowed out and struck Marius. However, Marius didn’t flinch at all. The chains wrapped around his body had reflected the spell.

Only then did Gillen realize what those chains were. They were the magic-blocking chains that had been on the floor just a moment ago—the very chains that had bound Yuan as a child. He had turned the tables by draping the chains that had restrained Yuan over himself, taking measures to prevent magic from getting through.

But the bizarre phenomenon didn’t end there.

Crackle, KABOOM! Yuan’s spell hit the chains, bounced off, and poured into the divine prison trapping Gillen. It was as if it was absorbing the magic.

“Oh…!”

Gillen was so startled that he stepped back without realizing it. At the same time, the white protective shield that had been enveloping him disappeared. Yuan’s attack magic had ended up breaking his own protective magic.

“Ahaha, this is so much fun, Yuan. The fact that you’re so strong excites me so. How can there be a child as precious as a jewel like this? And right before my eyes…”

Marius laughed as he fiddled with the chains like they were a rosary.

“What you just used on me was a powerful lethal magic, wasn’t it? I am wearing chains that block magic, and you shot magic at me, so the prison, my duplicate, took the hit instead. And it will continue to do so from now on. Do you know what this means, Yuan?”

Of course, he knew. Even Gillen, who was no genius, could figure it out. The more Yuan attacked Marius, the more those attacks would be taken by Gillen, who was trapped inside this prison.

Since the last spell had broken the protective shield, if he attacked again, Gillen would be hit directly by the magic. Even if he didn’t attack and put a protective shield around Gillen again, it would be useless anyway. As long as Gillen was trapped in here, Yuan could never directly attack Marius.

“You cowardly bastard.”

Yuan swore as if spitting. However, Marius, far from being affected, accepted the curse as if he were happy.

“You think that way because you’re still angry with me, Yuan. If you would just let down your guard and give me a little opening, all of us could be at peace.”

“Do you not know the meaning of peace? You crazy bastard?”

“My, Yuan, your language is so rough.”

Marius laughed joyfully as if he had heard a joke. He raised one hand slightly.

“Yuan, if you put on these chains yourself and swear to become my successor, I will release Duke Blake. But if you continue to be stubborn, I will start siphoning the Duke’s life force from now on.”

“What…?”

“You know that divine power is the ability to handle healing and life, right? That’s why we priests can heal the sick. But there is something people don’t know. We can also use that same divine power to extinguish life.”

“What kind of bullshit is that.”

Healing and recovery were the domain of priests; creation and killing were the domain of mages. This was like an established truth in this world. So why was Marius suddenly spouting world-breaking lore?

Gillen stared at him in astonishment. He wondered if he was bluffing, but it didn’t seem like it.

“Is it so hard to understand? If one can make another’s life force overflow, then one can also siphon their life force in reverse. Why did you think priests, especially the High Priest and high-ranking priests with strong divine power, don’t age well?”

“That’s just—”

“Mages may be able to extend their lives and maintain their youth for a long time with the magic in their bodies, but divine power is an ability solely for others. One cannot use divine power for oneself. So, if you can’t use it for yourself, wouldn’t you have to receive it from others?”

“…That’s insane!”

“If only you had listened to my teachings from the beginning and converted that overflowing magic into divine power, Yuan, you would have understood what I’m saying right away. It’s truly a shame. But we still have a lot of time left.”

Marius slowly walked toward Yuan. With every step he took, the clanking of the chains echoed ominously.

“Yuan. Worldly love or pheromones… such filthy things do not suit someone as beautiful and strong as you. Enjoy God’s blessing with me. I will help you.”

Marius brushed Yuan’s chin with his fingertips. Yuan pushed Marius away. But Marius, who was surprisingly strong, wasn’t easily pushed back.

“It does bother me a bit that you’re an alpha, but I heard you’re good at controlling your desires. Before you met the Duke, suppressants were enough, weren’t they?”

Had he planted a spy in the Mage Tower? To his horror, Marius even knew how Yuan had been spending his ruts all this time.

“I’d rather kill myself than spend the rest of my life with a bastard like you, talking about serving God or whatever.”

Yuan said fiercely. Marius made a surprised expression.

“Don’t you even dream of such a thing. Remember that the Duke is inside my duplicate. The moment you try to escape from me in any way, Duke Blake will taste a pain worse than death.”

The Duke is inside my duplicate. It was a truly disgusting and terrible expression. Gillen suppressed a wave of nausea and took a calm, deep breath. He couldn’t let things continue to go Marius’s way. In the original novel, Marius had been a notable supporting male lead and villain, but he hadn’t been this important or this powerful.

There has to be a way to break through this. Gillen closed his eyes. His brain, which had been frozen in shock, slowly began to turn again.