Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11

Most of Leo’s clothes that I had collected through in-game purchases came with the subtitle “A work by Madam Olleng.”

When I was playing the game, no character named Madam Olleng appeared, so I just thought it was part of the setting.

But after looking into it, she really existed—this person called Madam Olleng.

She was a craftsman who supplied clothing exclusively to the Royal Court.

So let’s think about this for a moment.

This world is both a game and reality.

In other words, the paid items I purchased in the game exist somewhere in this world, and there’s someone who can create those paid items.

All the paid items that sparkled brilliantly from my spending are desirable, but among them, what I’m targeting is…

‘Spring Water of All Things.’

‘I don’t care about anything else, but I absolutely must get my hands on the ‘Spring Water of All Things.”

The highest-grade healing potion that could make even a dying person jump up and shout hurray.

In 【Hirome】, when the protagonist dies, they do come back to life, but some stat values drop significantly.

To prepare for such situations, users would purchase the ‘Spring Water of All Things’ with real money.

No matter how much you spent, you could only obtain five of these revival potions, and they came with a description only users could see.

[Item] Spring Water of All Things

A masterpiece of the ages, concentrated with the wishes of the mage Vivian and extreme technical skill.

Like a severed lizard’s tail that grows back, it heals even lost body parts.

That’s right. In this world, the ‘Spring Water of All Things’ was created by a mage named ‘Vivian’!

And very fortunately, I knew who Vivian was and where I needed to go to meet her.

* * *

“Now, please form a line. There’s plenty of food for everyone.”

“Oh my, thank you, Priest.”

A free soup kitchen for the poor set up in one corner of the Grand Temple.

I watched the people in line with my eyes practically bulging out.

I knew that Vivian occasionally visited the free soup kitchen, but since I didn’t know the exact timing of her appearances, I had no choice but to camp out near the Grand Temple like this.

At least I was fortunate enough to have given Leo a gold coin and sent him off to attend service as an errand.

Boring time passed.

Eventually, the long line at the soup kitchen shortened and the crowd thinned out.

‘Is today a bust?’

Right, things couldn’t go well from the very first day.

Just as I was about to give up and turn around.

Some black cocoon came wriggling to join the soup kitchen line.

No, it wasn’t a cocoon.

It was a person wearing a black hood pulled down so that not a single strand of hair was visible.

‘That’s it!’

I had a feeling the moment I saw it. That cocoon was Vivian.

I immediately strode toward Vivian, then screeched to a halt.

It had been two weeks since living in Belinda’s body. I had now somewhat grasped Belinda’s way of speaking.

‘She would definitely call her a vermin.’

And she had to dress like a cocoon of all things. Let me try to put it more diplomatically.

“Hey there, you lower insect.”

Oops, was that too diplomatic?

Vivian didn’t even turn around. I had no choice.

“How shameless. Do mages these days beg for food at temples?”

“Eek!”

Vivian was startled and made a choking sound.

If she had been a cat, all her fur would probably have stood on end.

This ended up drawing the attention of the priest who was distributing food.

The priest, who had been watching Vivian with narrowed eyes, asked a question instead of giving her bread and soup when her turn came.

“Excuse me, but are you a mage?”

Mages and priests have a terribly bad relationship.

It’s because the sources of power they handle are complete opposites, though I don’t know the details.

Anyway, Vivian, who found herself in the position of begging for food at her enemy’s house, bit her lips and couldn’t say anything.

The priest looked at Vivian with suspicious eyes, then handed her a piece of bread.

A benevolent smile bloomed on his face.

“God is merciful to all His creatures.”

As if to say ‘but not to you,’ the priest handed Vivian only the smallest, hardest chunk of bread and turned away.

“Sniff.”

A sniffling sound came from under the hood.

Vivian hung her head and bit into the bread, but oh my. That wasn’t biting—it was practically gnawing.

The bread was that hard.

I cleared my throat and casually struck up a conversation.

“You look like you’ve been starving for a long time. How about it—instead of begging from God, how about begging from me?”

Our Belinda sure has a pretty way of saying she’ll buy someone a meal.

Vivian glanced at me sideways, then shook her head.

“N-no, no. I can’t accept such, such kindness from someone I’m meeting for the first time.”

She was so timid and fearful that she couldn’t even look at me properly, just rolling her eyes this way and that.

Afraid that approaching too hastily might cause her to die of a heart attack on the spot, I recited menu options as if testing her while she gnawed on her bread.

“Fresh salad made with newly harvested vegetables.”

Gnaw gnaw.

“Tomato stew loaded with seafood.”

Gnaw gnaw.

“Hmm. Premium steak?”

Freeze.

The glasses lenses hidden under the hood’s shadow seemed to flash for a moment.

She wiped her thick glasses with her sleeve as if cleaning her ears, then clasped her hands together very reverently and asked.

“…Did you perhaps just mention Lord Beef?”

She looked like a rabbit that only ate grass, but it turned out Vivian was an incredibly carnivorous rabbit.

* * *

Sizzle—the sound of the steak cooking stimulated the appetite.

It was a restaurant where the chef grilled the meat on the spot, and Vivian must have been quite hungry because her gaze never left the meat.

I took advantage of the moment when all of Vivian’s attention was focused on the meat to carefully observe her appearance.

Small build and twin braids hanging down.

Perhaps because of the large glasses that covered half her face, Vivian looked like a timid and exemplary high school girl who had never once rebelled.

‘She’s still so young.’

The future I knew awaited her left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Only today did I learn that Vivian’s hair was a warm orange color like sunset, and that her eyes were a deep green like ancient forests.

Because in 【Hirome】, she was portrayed in a colorless, black and white appearance.

【The Last Regret of an Unfortunate Genius Mage】.

That was the name of the quest involving Vivian.

She appeared as a ghost who had starved to death in a corner of the Grand Temple, making one request to the player.

Mage Vivian’s final wish is to hold a spell pen one last time.

Please purchase a ‘spell pen’ from the shop and give it to her as a gift.

The spell pen is the most basic tool used when creating magical instruments and is used to draw magic circles.

Her last attachment that kept her in this world was such a trivial thing.

Since Vivian was already dead at the beginning of the game, there was no way to meet her alive no matter what you did.

So now was the only opportunity.

To increase my number of lives, and perhaps save Vivian too.

Soon, the fully cooked beef was placed on the table.

The presence of the meat stacked in layers like pancakes, this restaurant’s trademark, was overwhelming.

‘Will I be able to eat all of this?’

…Making that thought meaningless, Vivian began inhaling the chunks of meat.

It was literally that. As if most of her organs were made of stomach, Vivian gulped down the meat like drinking water.

Leo beside me was so surprised that he stopped using his fork and stared blankly at Vivian.

If this were Korea, she could have made money doing eating broadcasts.

After watching Vivian’s eating show with regret and confirming that her guard had melted away like snow after two chunks of meat, I suddenly opened my mouth.

“‘Comet’s Lighthouse’, ‘Twin Migratory Birds’ nest. Do you know anything about these?”

What I mentioned were magical instruments currently selling well in the high-end shopping district.

They’re known to the world as inventions of mage Bruno, but they’re actually Vivian’s works.

That Bruno fellow is currently just a mage belonging to the Gray Tower, but later he would invent a potion that heals any wound and earn the honorable title of ‘Creator of All Things’.

But who could have dared to suspect?

That the ‘Spring of All Things’ which brought him the title ‘Creator of All Things’ was the final work of his apprentice and Vivian sitting before me.

If it hadn’t been written ‘Vivian’s masterpiece’ in the item description, I wouldn’t have known either.

“N-no. I, I don’t know anything.”

Vivian said that, but the way her eyes instantly lost their light and became like dead fish eyes suggested she had received thorough brainwashing education instead of magical education from her master.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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