How to Survive as a Supporting Male Lead - Chapter 1.1
In the Empire of Riastein, there’s a rumor that’s been around for the past decade.
‘If you want to throw a bustling party, drink coffee in the morning. But don’t expect peace to follow.’
Though it may seem completely baseless, many nobles believe in this saying. After all, it’s not entirely untrue.
The most popular coffee in the Empire right now, ‘Helaina Coffee,’ was obtained by Archmage Iann after subduing a beast in the north.
In the past, Iann had participated in many parties to promote this coffee.
What’s important here is that whenever Iann attended a party, ‘that Northern Duke,’ Kallian, known for rarely showing himself, would show up 80% of the time.
In other words, any party that both of these big names in the empire attended was bound to be packed.
But while the party may be crowded, 92% of the time, it would end in disaster.
Iann and Kallian—those two were notorious rivals in the Empire.
* * *
“Hm….”
Iann sipped his wine as he meticulously scanned the party hall. Good. Kallian wasn’t here. That antisocial loner, the Duke of the North with zero social skills, clearly hadn’t been invited to this party.
“Loser loner, turtle and crane….”
Iann hummed an old, half-forgotten song as a victory chant. Then, his aide, Derrick, approached him.
“He’s coming.”
The sound of Derrick smashing Iann’s triumph into pieces. But still clinging to hope, Iann had to ask again.
“Who?”
“‘Mr. Frozen to death but still wearing a coat.’” [1]
Iann exhaled deeply and set down his wine glass. ‘That idiot Kallian who’s Frozen to death but still wearing a coat,’ or in short, ‘Ice Coat’—this was the nickname Iann and Derrick used to refer to Kallian.. Which meant, Derrick was saying that Kallian was on his way.
“How does he even find these parties when I barely manage to?”
After blackmailing Count Lumoa, the host, to get an invitation himself, Iann shamelessly criticized Kallian’s persistence. Then, he began to meticulously inspect himself, just in case there was anything Kallian could use against him.
From his stylish silver hair, to his bold T-zone that stood out today more than ever, his well-toned body that didn’t look like a mage’s, and the clothes he had crafted with a sense of modernity brought over from 21st century Earth—everything was perfect.
“Alright. Bring it on.”
“Better brace yourself. I heard the Duke’s already gotten word about the Occurus region.”
Derrick whispered to Iann.
“Already?”
“Didn’t you personally feed that to the newspapers? ‘In 27 years, there’s never been a gold mine like this! Is this a gold mine or a solid gold nugget?’ That’s your line, remember?”
“Yeah, that’s right….”
It was true Iann had leaked the story to the press to rile Kallian up, but actually facing Kallian, enraged and fired up, was another story altogether. The fierce aura of the Duke of the North, a Sword Master, often reduced grown men to peeing children.
And now he was furious too.
“Am I going to die…?”
T/N:
[1] ↩
