Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 126
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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 126
“You remember the child you sent me. She was smarter and more adorable than I expected, so raising her has been quite enjoyable.”
Of course he remembered.
She had been a disposable tool prepared to provoke Belinda’s anger and ruin her reputation, but before he knew it, she had become Belinda’s weakness.
Belinda tapped Schubel’s contorted cheek with her fan as she concluded her words, as if she couldn’t understand why he looked so confused.
“She’s the only thing my brother ever gave me that I actually like, so shouldn’t I treat her preciously? That’s why I’m planning to leave everything I have to that child.”
In that moment, Schubel felt a rage that seemed to melt his brain.
He struggled to lunge at Belinda, as if he didn’t care that the shackles would cut his wrists.
“You, you crazy bitch! What kind of family do you think this is! After everything I did to get my hands on it, you’re giving it to that lowly pauper!”
The sound of chains being pulled taut rang out loudly, but he couldn’t lay a single fingertip on Belinda.
Belinda, who had remained emotionless throughout, furrowed her brow and warned him.
“Watch your words, Schubel. That child has far more qualification to stand above others than the likes of you or me.”
However, Belinda’s warning didn’t reach Schubel’s ears.
He glared at Belinda with bloodshot eyes as if he would tear her apart, shouting like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth.
“You think I don’t know that you fabricated evidence to frame me? Once I get out of this place, I’ll tear apart that little brat you cherish so much first!”
It was meant to provoke Belinda, but instead his opponent burst into laughter.
After laughing like that for a while, Belinda finally stopped and shook her head with a rather pitying expression.
“Since you kept shouting about injustice until the very end in court, I thought it was quite a pathetic last words, but now I see you were just too stupid to grasp the situation.”
Having regained her cold sneer, she left the prison.
“I don’t know what absurd dreams you’re having, but yes. Struggling and dying in such delusions would be a fitting end for you. You won’t even have time to beg God for forgiveness.”
Schubel had no idea that he would recall Belinda’s muttered words as she looked down at him crouched like a beast beyond the bars, in his final moments.
* * *
The deepest underground prison of the royal palace, where death row inmates were gathered, was noisy day and night with sobbing sounds and prayers begging God for mercy.
In that place, only Schubel remained composed.
Even the guards clicked their tongues seeing how calm he was even on the day of his execution.
“Is he so detached because he lived as a noble?”
“Hey, since when does death discriminate by social status? It’s not that—he’s lost his mind. Didn’t he even refuse the last chance for confession with a priest?”
Hearing the guards’ murmuring, Schubel gritted his teeth inwardly.
‘Stupid fools. Chatter all you want. If we meet again later, you’ll regret today’s events forever.’
Soon his aide would come to rescue him.
Schubel believed this fact without a doubt.
The hound that Eleanor had left him was extremely capable and had never disappointed him even once.
He had silently erased Belinda’s personal maid from the world, robbed the once most famous jeweler in the Royal Capital of his sight, and even dealt with Belinda’s Doberman that had dared to bark at Schubel until the end.
And that wasn’t all.
The aide had even cut the lifelines of several cadet branch members who had been targeting Jonas’s life, aiming for the head position of Blanche.
‘He couldn’t retrieve mother’s letter, but that much, well, I can forgive generously.’
Because his faith in him was so solid, Schubel couldn’t imagine his own death even facing immediate execution.
“I’ll give you time to compose yourself. Shortly, you’ll be executed in front of the crowd.”
When he was led by the guards’ hands to a solitary cell with almost no people around, he actually rejoiced.
Now. Right now.
When the guards were off guard and everyone’s attention was distant.
Thinking this, the moment he turned his head toward the prison door, he saw the face of the one he had been waiting for so long.
“Aide! I knew you’d come!”
Through the small barred window, he could see his aide’s face.
“We need to leave the Royal Capital immediately. Because of that damn bitch, I’ve lost everything, but if I just stay alive, someday I can get revenge…”
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
It was probably the first time the aide had interrupted Schubel’s words.
“When you intended to poison Lord Jonas, why didn’t you have me do it and proceeded with the task yourself?”
Schubel, who had been clinging to the bars, hesitated.
“Poisoning father? That’s a false charge Belinda pinned on me. I made a joke once to torment that bitch, and she used that joke in the Sacred Tribunal!”
Schubel became desperate somehow and repeated the excuse he had made several times during the trial.
“Besides, evidence that I poisoned father—there’s no way such a thing exists.”
“Why is that?”
“That’s because…”
Because he had thoroughly erased all traces so no evidence would remain.
However, not using his aide’s hands for poisoning Jonas was due to a certain premonition.
A premonition that he wouldn’t follow his orders for that particular task.
Schubel trailed off with an uneasy heart and then snapped at his aide.
“I’ll explain everything later. More importantly, I need to get out of here. Open this door right now.”
“I saw the records of the court clerk who handled Lord Schubel’s royal trial.”
“Hey, Aide! This isn’t the time for such idle chatter!”
“When you refuted about your origins, you said that Lord Jonas had dishonored Lady Eleanor before their engagement. That’s why Count Barbet had no choice but to push for the marriage between Lady Eleanor and Lord Jonas.”
“If I hadn’t made that argument, it would have been over long ago!”
Even that had come to nothing because of Count Barbet’s testimony, but he had to try anything.
He was getting irritated with his aide for bringing up the court proceedings that remained as shameful memories for him.
So just as Schubel was about to burst into anger.
“How could you dishonor Lady Eleanor like that?”
Only then did he realize that the familiar face visible beyond the door was different from usual.
Anger began to slowly spread across Hound’s face, which had never known emotion.
“Your mother… and how could you so miserably trample the honor of the one Lady Eleanor cherished so much?”
Only now did Hound understand the meaning of what Terry had said.
That nothing is more futile than repaying kindness for the dead.
He was only now realizing this.
“Hound, please take good care of Schubel. Accept that child’s whims in my place.”
Hound recalled Eleanor’s last words, who had saved his life.
He had stained his hands with many people’s blood to fulfill her last request, but he had never once felt faithful.
So now it was time to end this debt of gratitude.
“My final act of gratitude was not for Lady Eleanor, but for Lord Jonas. I wish you good health, Lord Schubel.”
At Hound’s calmly spoken words, Schubel’s expression became blank.
An act of gratitude for Jonas?
As he stupidly repeated those words in his mouth, his face gradually began to contort.
“Ha, you… you bastard, you were the one who fabricated the evidence! How dare you betray me!”
He belatedly rushed to the door and looked outside, but Hound had already disappeared like smoke. Only Schubel’s shouts echoed through the empty corridor.
Soon the sound of guards’ footsteps began to be heard from afar.
Then his limbs trembled as if having a seizure and his knees gave out.
“What is this…”
Schubel stared blankly at the opening door.
“It’s time for execution. Follow quietly.”
Execution? Me?
In that moment, everything went dark before his eyes.
“That can’t be. Why should I… be executed? I’m supposed to live… No, let go! Let go of me!”
Schubel, who finally grasped reality, struggled but couldn’t shake off the guards’ hands.
“No, no. This is wrong somehow! Why should I… Save me!”
“My goodness, his reaction is slower than others. To cause such a commotion before execution.”
“Or at least call a priest! Give me time to make confession to God!”
“Yes, yes. You’re already too late. If you wanted to pray to God, you should have done it long ago.”
The guard clicked his tongue and pushed Schubel up onto the execution platform.
That day, just as Belinda had said, Schubel was hanged at the execution site without even a chance to beg God for forgiveness.
* * *
Schubel Blanche met his death as Schubel.
For the crime of patricide and a commoner murdering a noble, he was publicly executed, and in front of the crowd, he shed tears and snot, even wet himself while crying out to be spared—what a disgraceful sight it was.
‘It seems the trial records I sent to Hound served their purpose.’
That was all Belinda felt when she learned of Schubel’s death through the newspaper.
And that day, Belinda had people erect a small, nameless tombstone next to Uncle’s grave.
Perhaps people who didn’t know the story would assume she had made a grave for Schubel, but even so, Belinda couldn’t carve a name on that headstone.
The owner of that grave, which couldn’t even hold a coffin, belonged to Belinda Blanche.
She removed the choker from around her neck and carefully placed it before the nameless grave.
She had the ruby that Jonas had prepared for his niece crafted into a locket, and inside it placed portraits of Belinda’s birth parents and Jonas to complete it.
“I hope you find peace there.”
After whispering those words, Belinda placed belated flowers before the headstones of the father and daughter standing side by side.
Belinda’s shadow writhed as she turned her back on the graves, and soon several Shadow Crows took flight.
From the direction of the manor, three Cerberus came running to greet their master.
Belinda didn’t look back once as she returned to the manor with her loyal servants.
Jonas Blanche’s decision not to change his will to leave everything of the Blanche Family to Belinda in his final moments was likely because he judged that she wouldn’t be able to bear the weight of the crown.
The unbearable weight of the crown would eventually break her neck.
Therefore, it was the loving father’s tender denial, hoping she would instead live out her remaining years peacefully with someone she loved.
Though that affection was visibly pure and good, unfortunately, Belinda had no intention of fulfilling his final wish.
Now, at last, she was ready to shoulder the weight of the crown.
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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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