Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 14

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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 14

“Jui-bam-tol.”

“Hup! S-s-sorry!”

Leo quickly pulled away.

Ah, you could have kept clinging to me!

With a wistful heart, I gently patted the hem of the dress where Leo had been clinging.

“Th-that is, well, h-here is… everyone says th-things c-come out…”

Come out?

“What comes out.”

“Gh-gh-gh-ghosts.”

Leo said while trembling like a vibrating phone. He was incredibly cute.

I put strength into keeping the corners of my mouth from rising, then nodded as if it was no big deal.

Well, sure. In a world with magic, spirits, and magical beasts, it wouldn’t be strange for ghosts to exist too.

Come to think of it, I heard the servants whispering about the annex. Was it because of rumors about ghosts appearing?

‘Even if it’s a house with ghosts, a house is still a house, right?’

Besides, it’s an incredibly spacious and magnificent house.

If it’s this spacious, I could tolerate a few ghosts freeloading in a room or two.

I didn’t mind and examined every corner.

And the reason this place got a reputation as a haunted house was revealed as soon as I opened the terrace window.

‘I’ve heard of Han River views, but this is my first tomb view.’

I could clearly see in the backyard – the Blanche Family’s ancestral tombs.

According to the story I heard, the Blanche Family once had desperately poor times.

They were so poor that they sold off all their territory, and despite being nobles, they didn’t even have land to place a family tomb, so they had to dig in the manor’s backyard.

So this place called the annex was actually the Blanche Family’s main residence in the past.

Then, among the ancestors, someone with extraordinary business sense was born.

When he bought abandoned mines, ore veins were discovered, and when he bought desolate beaches, hot springs erupted nearby making them famous tourist destinations.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all the current wealth was the result of that one ancestor’s achievements.

The descendants just gradually ate away at that fortune while living luxuriously.

Anyway, after amassing such tremendous wealth, they bought up all the land around the house and built the current main residence, naturally making this place the annex and ancestral burial ground.

The moment I stuck my head out the window to examine the cemetery more closely.

Creak.

“Kyaaah!”

The wooden floor I stepped on made a twisting sound, and Leo let out another adorable scream.

This time he couldn’t bring himself to cling to me and instead gripped tightly to the end of the fan I held in my hand…

My heart felt like it would burst, not from fear of ghosts but because Leo was too cute.

Poor Leo seemed completely terrified by the fact that he would be living alone with me in this annex from now on.

Whether it was because of ghosts or because he was afraid of being alone with me, I couldn’t really tell, but I had no intention of changing my mind.

‘To care for Leo without worrying about people’s stares, the free annex would be better than the main residence.’

I strengthened my resolve and spent a very long time touring every corner of the annex with Leo until he felt the manor was safe.

* * *

Belinda pointed to the side room attached to her room and said, “Jui-bam-tol, this is the solitary cell where you’ll be staying from now on,” then smiled ominously.

Leo swallowed his saliva and opened the door in front of him with a tense face.

To Leo, a solitary cell was a cold, lonely place where abandoned things were gathered.

…It definitely should have been.

Warm-toned wallpaper and carpet that softly compressed under his feet.

In the center of the room was a spacious bed, along the walls were gleaming children’s furniture, and by the window a glass-crafted mobile sparkled dazzlingly.

A dumbfounded voice leaked from Leo’s mouth.

“This is a solitary cell…?”

This wasn’t a solitary cell but…

‘It’s exactly like the “my room” that Hailon talked about.’

Leo looked around the room while muffling his footsteps as if he had secretly entered someone else’s room.

The first place his gaze naturally went to was the bed.

The blanket filled with goose feathers carried the scent of sunlight.

He couldn’t bring himself to climb onto the bed, so he carefully rubbed his cheek against the blanket.

‘Huu. So soft.’

Like a cat basking in sunlight, Leo’s expression quickly became blissful.

How long had he been rubbing his cheek like that?

Leo hesitantly climbed onto the bed and lay down.

“…!”

His body sank deeply as if lying on a cloud. Leo flailed his arms and then caught his breath for a moment.

Some impulse gently scratched at Leo’s insides.

The child looked around once for no reason, then.

Roll roll roll.

Like a puppy seeing a snowy yard for the first time, he rolled around on the bed.

The bed was so wide that even after rolling five times to the left and five times to the right, he didn’t fall off.

“Whoa!”

Only after rolling to his heart’s content until his face turned red did Leo neatly arrange the wrinkled blanket, then lie straight in the center to prepare for sleep.

And he quietly closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come.

He waited and waited, and finally…

“I can’t fall asleep…”

He opened his eyes.

High ceiling. Soft bedding. Even a gentle night light reflected off the crystal lamp to softly illuminate his bedside.

Despite everything being unprecedented luxury, sleep just wouldn’t come.

‘It’s too quiet.’

At the orphanage, everyone slept together in one room.

It was so cramped they couldn’t move a muscle, but they could feel each other’s body warmth.

But now he was alone in this spacious room.

‘Me alone…’

Without realizing it, he recalled the nights spent in the solitary cell filled with abandoned items.

He used to stay awake all night feeling as if he too had become a useless object.

Eventually Leo left the bed and wandered around the room with small steps, feeling restless.

Then, he saw dim light seeping through the slightly open door crack.

Beyond the door was Belinda’s room.

But without time to hesitate, Leo’s steps headed toward the door like a moth drawn to light.

Beyond the door, he could see some kind of tent set up in one corner of the room. The light was seeping out from inside it.

‘Am I dreaming?’

Looking closely, the tent was nothing more than thin cloth draped over two wooden chairs used as pillars.

Yet it couldn’t have looked more cozy and wonderful.

Just then, the shadow of a very elegant and delicate woman was visible inside the tent that looked like a secret hideout.

“…Lady Belinda?”

At Leo’s voice, a hand suddenly popped out of the tent.

Beckon.

Following the gesture of the index finger beckoning him to come in, Leo entered the tent as if enchanted, like a child in a fairy tale discovering a witch’s candy house in the forest.

Inside was very cramped, and the floor was covered with pillows, making it difficult to keep balance.

“A servant shouldn’t dare fall asleep before his master has gone to bed.”

As always, Belinda’s tone was cold, and her gaze toward Leo was chilly.

But for some reason, Leo wasn’t afraid of Belinda.

“It’s milk so hot it’ll burn your tongue. Pour it into your mouth.”

Perhaps it was because of the warm glass of milk Belinda had pressed into his hands.

“Despite your impoverished appearance.”

Or perhaps it was because of the blanket she carefully tucked over his thin pajamas.

“Jui-bam-tol, I shall grant you the opportunity to experience my elegant recitation. Now, prostrate yourself flat like a proper servant and listen.”

Or maybe it was because Belinda’s voice sounded unusually gentle as she read the fairy tale book.

Leo lay face down on the pile of feather-filled pillows as Belinda instructed.

At first he was tense and didn’t know what to do, only fidgeting with his fingers, but soon he became absorbed in the story Belinda was telling and relaxed into the pillows.

It was a story about a princess who had been cursed with dark magic to say everything backwards.

Even when the princess said she was hungry and asked for food, all the servants could hear was that she was full and to take all the food away.

“The princess confessed her feelings to the prince. But the words that came from the princess’s mouth were hateful words saying she despised the prince more than anyone in the world.”

Belinda’s voice gently patted Leo’s back like a lullaby.

Soon nodding drowsily, Leo thought about the princess in the fairy tale.

Why couldn’t the prince understand the princess’s heart?

Though she said with her mouth that she hated the prince most in the world, the princess had given him a handkerchief she had embroidered herself, and even when the prince was rude, she couldn’t bring herself to get angry.

Yet despite this, everyone in the castle didn’t understand the princess’s heart and all spoke ill of her.

‘It’s just like… Belinda’s story.’

When he was in the main building, Toma and the other employees would freely talk about how wicked and cruel Belinda was.

But the Belinda that Leo had observed was different from what people said.

‘They all don’t know what kind of person Belinda really is.’

Though her expression when looking at him was mischievous, as if pondering how to torment this guy.

And when she occasionally twisted her lips into a silent smile, it was terrifying enough to make his skin crawl.

‘But still…’

How gentle the sincerity hidden within her harsh words was.

How warm the touch that stroked his head was.

‘Only I, only I know this. So…’

Leo’s hand, now fast asleep, was clenched into a tight fist as if he had made some kind of resolution.

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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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