Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 120

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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 120

 

It was fortunate that Schubel Blanche was unaware of this letter’s existence.

 

Just as Terry was delighting in this unexpected stroke of luck and tucking the letter into her coat’s inner pocket.

 

Suddenly, a strange sense of unease pierced her mind like an awl.

 

‘Did Schubel Blanche really not know?’

 

Even if he didn’t know about the letter’s existence, the notary’s very presence must have felt like a thorn stuck under his fingernail.

 

The notary was someone who might know that the will had been ‘changed’ once.

 

Yet the reason the notary remained safe until now was because, feeling guilt and anxiety over Jonas Blanche’s matter, he had fled the Royal Capital and gone into hiding as soon as the will was made public.

 

The Strays were only skilled in physical combat, nowhere near the Sewer Rats when it came to information warfare.

 

Especially the Strays who made the Royal Capital their territory were bound by the rule of never leaving the Royal Capital.

 

In short, once a target left the Royal Capital, they had no way to find them.

 

Schubel’s aide, who was a former Stray, would be the same. Then what method would the aide use to find the notary whose whereabouts were unknown?

 

Terry, who had been thinking like a Stray, cursed under her breath.

 

“Ah, damn it.”

 

The aide’s unaccounted whereabouts.

 

She thought she knew where he was now.

 

Terry moved silently without making a sound and peered out through the curtained window.

 

A hotel located on the busiest street in Baekchakryeong.

 

Through the window, she could see countless people enjoying an exceptionally beautiful day.

 

And Terry’s eyes caught sight of them. People loitering around the hotel without purpose.

 

“Jerry.”

 

At Terry’s call, Jerry, still disguised as a girl, stuck out his lips before noticing her serious expression and immediately hardened his face.

 

“What is it?”

 

“We’re being tailed. We need to take the notary and leave this place immediately.”

 

The method by which Strays find lost targets.

 

Ironically, it was to follow the tail of a little rat.

 

* * *

 

A group of rough-looking people surrounded the hotel and exchanged glances with each other.

 

They were street thugs who roamed the back alleys of Baekchakryeong, lowlifes who would do anything for money.

 

However, compared to the slums of the Royal Capital, the back alleys of Baekchakryeong were like a heavenly paradise.

 

Unaware of this fact and boasting that they were the most vicious villains in the world, a customer with a large sum of money had come to them a few days ago.

 

The man, who strangely had no distinctive features in his appearance, introduced himself as Hound and commissioned the kidnapping of an old man staying at the hotel.

 

Their joy at the opportunity to grab a large sum was short-lived. They realized that kidnapping someone was more difficult than they had thought.

 

“Why does that old man have so many friends around him?”

 

Kidnapping should be carried out when there are no witnesses.

 

But the old man’s sociability was so good that there were always people around him.

 

Moreover, they couldn’t attack him while he slept.

 

Since the old man was staying at a luxury hotel, they couldn’t even set foot in the entrance.

 

Then an opportunity came. The old man headed to the carriage rental with two women.

 

Inside a carriage was an enclosed space blocked from people’s view. This time they would surely kidnap him…!

 

“It seems they’ve noticed the tail.”

 

At the voice suddenly heard from behind, the men were startled.

 

“Aaah!”

 

“Huh! Wh-when did you get here…!”

 

“I-I almost had a heart attack.”

 

Having been there for who knows how long, Hound looked at the building the target had entered.

 

Because his expression was so calm, the men momentarily didn’t realize what the problem was.

 

Not until much later, when they saw four shadowy figures presumed to be targets completely wrapping themselves in cloaks that reached their feet and each boarding separate carriages.

 

“Huh? Which one is that old man?”

 

The moment the men who had lost their target hesitated, four hired carriages that departed simultaneously scattered in each direction—north, south, east, and west. It was the perfect number to effectively disperse their forces.

 

Hound, who had checked the coachmen rather than the carriage interiors, said quietly.

 

“I’ll chase the carriage heading north.”

 

Leaving those words behind, he disappeared again without making a sound.

 

The men, who checked where Hound had vanished with bewildered faces, belatedly began moving to chase the remaining carriages.

 

The carriage Hound was chasing ran north without rest.

 

Then, when it reached a deserted dirt road outside the castle, it gradually came to a stop.

 

The coachman who had been wearing a hood stood up from his seat and lightly jumped down from the carriage.

 

“Long time no see, Hound.”

 

The coachman greeted Hound with a cheerful voice and removed the hood he was wearing.

 

Terry, who had been disguised as a coachman, tapped the carriage and signaled to the real coachman inside that he could leave now, then continued speaking.

 

“What happened to you? Your face changed so much I almost didn’t recognize you.”

 

“You’re one to talk.”

 

Hound, who had dismounted from his horse, answered in a dry voice devoid of any emotion.

 

Terry shrugged as if she had nothing to say.

 

It had been quite a long time since they last met. But even if it hadn’t been, if they had seen each other’s faces with the venom drained and looking so gentle, they probably would have passed by thinking they were just people who looked similar.

 

Just like how they hadn’t recognized each other at Blanche Manor.

 

“You knew my side was a trap. So why did you chase me?”

 

“If I kill just you, the rest are small fry.”

 

“Ah, geez. I can’t deny that. My little brother takes after father and is quite weak.”

 

Terry completely removed the cumbersome cloak and lightly loosened up, cracking her neck.

 

“Still, we were comrades once, weren’t we? I’d appreciate it if you’d answer out of consideration for that bond.”

 

Hound didn’t answer.

 

However, Terry knew that was his way of agreeing.

 

Because they were none other than comrades who had shared four seasons together at the dog fighting pit operated by the Strays.

 

The Strays gathered orphans from the slums who showed ‘potential’ and trained them in a place called the dog fighting pit.

 

They could eat their fill and stay under a roof that sheltered them from rain, but ironically, begging on the streets had a slightly higher survival rate than staying at the dog fighting pit.

 

What the children learned at the dog fighting pit was violence to subdue opponents through force and methods to build resistance to poison.

 

Thanks to always living with poison and wounds, all memories spent at the dog fighting pit were hazy like a mirage.

 

However, the most terrible thing about staying there wasn’t strangling the throat of a comrade who shared the same blanket with your own hands, nor enduring the sensation of poison that looked as sweet as candy burning your throat.

 

“If you grow up splendidly, Master will personally take you out of this cage.”

 

It was that they had begun to place hope in the boss of the Strays, whom they had never even seen.

 

He felt like a savior who would break this entire chain of misfortune.

 

It was the result of drug brainwashing accompanied by psychological abuse.

 

Terry couldn’t bear that alone.

 

The idea that the owner of her life would be someone else rather than herself.

 

She could not tolerate handing her leash over to another.

 

Probably, Hound thought the same way.

 

“My little puppies’ baby fur has finally fallen out. You all look good. From today, you too are true Strays. Tomorrow you’ll be able to meet your master.”

 

That day when they had endured a full year at the dog fighting pit.

 

Terry made eye contact with Hound, with whom she had never exchanged a single word.

 

She had never heard his voice, and couldn’t even make out his features because of his disheveled hair, but from the brief glimpse of his eyes, Terry realized he was thinking the same thing as her.

 

And the day the cage of the dog fighting pit was opened.

 

“Agh! These things are biting me? Catch them right now!”

 

Terry and Hound escaped from the dog fighting pit and fled.

 

They ran and ran, seeking only their own survival.

 

Then, by luck, they were taken in by Sewer Rat.

 

That was Terry’s ending, and now she learned of Hound’s ending that she hadn’t known at the time.

 

“Hound, are you also repaying a debt of gratitude?”

 

Just as she had been taken in by Sewer Rat, he too had been taken in by Eleanor Barbet and had his life saved.

 

Though they had escaped the dog fighting pit, the education and memories from that place had already become their essence.

 

Like dogs whose life’s purpose had become receiving their master’s commands and being praised for the results.

 

Hound drew a thin, flat dagger from his chest as if answering Terry’s words.

 

Terry continued speaking without concern.

 

“You know there’s nothing more futile than repaying gratitude for someone who’s dead.”

 

Only then did Hound look up at Terry properly. Eyes as black as a black hole that swallowed even light. Eyes that seemed as if he were still trapped in the dog fighting pit.

 

Hound answered her words for the first time.

 

“I don’t care.”

 

“Stupid fool.”

 

Terry also drew her weapon.

 

His debt of gratitude would never end.

 

No matter how much gratitude he repaid, the dead person would never praise him.

 

“My master, you know. She looks like she’d eat steak rare with blood dripping from it, but she actually hates blood? So I had no choice but to act docile in front of my master… but my master isn’t by my side right now, is she?”

 

“…”

 

“Let’s have some fun like when we lived in the dog fighting pit, Hound.”

 

Terry caught the sharp dagger blade flying toward her with her hand.

 

Her hand was cut to pieces by the blade, but she didn’t care.

 

‘When I lived in the dog fighting pit, I never beat that bastard even once, but…’

 

That was then and this is now, isn’t it.

 

Terry shrugged her shoulders once and immediately charged toward Hound.

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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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