Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 143
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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 143
The past six months had been a time of grueling patience for Chaser.
He could have killed the Magister at any time with just a snap of his fingers. That was precisely why he had mastered dark magic.
Yet the reason he researched magic circles to reverse slave marks and collected countless magic stones was all due to his petty pride—he couldn’t bear to become a shameful mentor to his disciple.
It was taking the hard way around an easy path, but he had no regrets.
“【Master, from now on you must not move even a single step. Of course, casting magic circles is also forbidden.】”
He whispered, forcibly scraping together what little mana remained after creating the reversal magic circle.
The Magister, bound in speech and action, could only glare at Chaser with eyes shooting sparks.
Chaser leisurely met that gaze and stood before the prison the Magister maintained most carefully.
Inside crouched a chimera, nearly immortal, created by the mad old scientist who had devoted almost his entire life to experiments.
As Chaser reached for the prison’s lock, the Magister opened his mouth for the first time, enduring the heart-crushing pain.
“Stop, gah, stop!”
But Chaser paid no heed.
Click.
Finally the prison door opened, and the monster, gaining freedom for the first time in its life, rose to its feet.
Grrrrr.
Made from mixing the flesh of demons and beasts, it should have possessed a savage nature that distinguished neither enemy nor ally, yet it seemed to know its role—it didn’t even glance at Chaser, focusing solely on glaring at the Magister.
“The rulers of the Gray Tower have traditionally proven their abilities by successors killing their predecessors.”
The monster cautiously approached the Magister step by step, never lowering its guard.
“Mmph! Mph!”
“So think of this as an early succession.”
Realizing the Magister was completely powerless, the monster immediately pounced on him.
Crunch.
The sounds of flesh tearing and bones crushing, along with agonized groans, filled the air.
“【Master, please do not lose consciousness and witness your final moments clearly.】”
Chaser’s final command didn’t even allow the Magister to lose consciousness.
Then, without looking back, blood-curdling screams erupted behind Chaser as he headed toward the surface.
“Gah, gahhh, st, stop!”
But those sounds soon became distant ringing in his ears. It was a side effect of his mana reserves being completely empty.
Chaser staggered up the stairs step by step, struggling with each movement.
Perhaps due to his dizzy head, Kiss’s voice echoed in his ears like a hallucination.
“Be honest. When you look at sister, doesn’t your heart go thump-thump, your face get hot, and your palms get sweaty?”
Chaser answered as if replying to Kiss’s letter.
‘Yes. You’re right, brother. I fell for my master at first sight.’
But at the same time, he realized that love and affection couldn’t become his driving force in life.
The past seven months had been the most peaceful time of his life. Sometimes he even mistook his desire for revenge as having worn away.
However, when the Magister announced he would return to the Mage Republic once his final experiment was complete.
What dominated Chaser wasn’t regret about parting from Belinda, but anxiety that killing the Magister would become difficult once he reached the Mage Republic.
In the end, nothing was more important than revenge.
Soon Chaser finished climbing the stairs, exited the basement, and collapsed against the basement door.
He didn’t have the strength to move even a finger. His whole body’s senses were dulling, and his vision began to blur.
Usually, even when he squeezed out mana and fainted regularly, human instinct was to leave at least the minimum mana needed to sustain life.
But Chaser had used every bit of mana to complete the reversal magic circle.
In that moment, he hadn’t thought about returning to his disciple and Belinda.
And now it was time to pay the price.
‘They say you die when your mana reserves are completely empty like this.’
No, even if he didn’t die and just fainted like this, his plan to disguise the Magister’s death as an accident caused by a monster would be ruined.
When dawn broke, the mages returning from Walpurgis Night would discover them.
So Chaser squeezed out even his last drop of mana to summon what might be his final messenger.
It was the most insignificant and fragile messenger he had ever created.
Like the single yellow butterfly that had climbed over the bars of the underground prison where young Chaser lived, only to meet its death in his hands.
But now he was grateful even for this.
Chaser whispered to the messenger slowly fluttering its wings in his cupped hands.
“Tell Sprout and my master… that I was grateful.”
The yellow butterfly, having received its master’s message, fluttered up and over the tower’s high window.
Only then did Chaser begin to let go of the consciousness he had barely been maintaining.
He had no regrets now.
Perhaps never waking up again wouldn’t be so bad. After all, he had achieved what he wanted.
Hadn’t it been an insignificant life sustained only by revenge from the beginning?
Chaser mocked himself as he slowly blinked his eyes.
Though his eyes were clearly open, he began to hear nothing and feel nothing.
As his vision gradually darkened, something whitish caught the edge of his blurred sight.
Perhaps it was the monster that had escaped from the basement.
Lacking even the strength to drive it away, the moment he closed his eyes, it leaped straight into Chaser’s arms.
Immediately after, Chaser had no choice but to open his eyes again.
He could feel his empty mana reserves filling, even if just slightly.
“What the…”
In Chaser’s barely opened vision, he saw a beast curled up in a ball, nestled in his arms.
A white, elongated weasel.
The creature with jet-black eyes looked up at Chaser once, then transferred all its mana to him before disappearing like smoke.
A messenger in the form of a white weasel.
Chaser knew very well whose high-purity mana this was.
That’s why he couldn’t believe it even more.
“Why…”
Why was Leo’s messenger here?
As if answering that question, the edge of Chaser’s shadow rippled and spat out a small crow.
Only upon seeing that red-eyed crow did Chaser press his forehead.
“I didn’t want to show you this side of me… You’re really too much, master.”
He had no idea when she had planted the Shadow Crow in his shadow.
Chaser staggered to his feet and followed where the crow led him.
Thanks to Leo’s mana, he could barely pull himself together, though not enough to escape the tower.
However, the crow didn’t guide him to the tower’s entrance.
“Why are we going to my dormitory?”
Chaser soon found his answer. Inside Chaser’s dormitory, the wooden door used as a closet was slightly open and glowing faintly.
Only upon seeing the complex magic circle carved on the door could Chaser recall the ‘Returner’s Key.’
A magic item that could connect any door to Chaser’s room simply by inserting the key, anywhere, anytime.
“I really can’t win against you.”
The door opened by the Returner’s Key could only be passed through by the single person the key recognized.
Chaser squeezed out his last strength and placed his hand on the closet door handle.
But he couldn’t readily open the door.
Chaser belatedly looked down at his appearance. He hadn’t paid attention before, but blood stains that were definitely the Magister’s had splattered on his trouser cuffs.
If Leo and Belinda saw him like this…
Just as Chaser was about to remove his hand from the door handle, as if reading his thoughts, Belinda’s voice came from beyond the door.
“Leo sent you his messenger and fell asleep. So you can rest easy.”
“…”
“Chaser, it’s okay.”
He didn’t know what was supposed to be okay, or why he was hesitating to open the door.
However, Belinda’s next words made Chaser’s heart sink.
“I’ll become your accomplice. So you can come over.”
Yes, if he opened this door, it would mean using Belinda for his revenge.
If something went wrong and the fact that Chaser had killed the Magister was revealed, Belinda too would not be able to escape punishment.
It was when Chaser finally took a step back from the wardrobe door.
“Leo and I need you. So…”
Before Belinda could even finish her words.
The door slowly opened, and Chaser, looking extremely exhausted, stepped over the threshold into Belinda’s room.
Belinda had been planning to give him a good beating once he crossed over.
She was going to curse him out, asking why he would give up on life so easily…
“Master, just once… please let me lean on you just this once.”
“…”
“Please.”
Chaser looked exactly like a lost child, so Belinda had no choice but to nod.
Chaser carefully embraced Belinda as if nestling into her arms.
Warmth returned to his cold fingertips, and his dying heart beat vigorously. In that comfortable embrace, Chaser whispered as if confessing.
“I miss my brother.”
“…”
“I already killed the Magister, but I want to bring him back to life and kill him again, and again.”
In truth, he wanted to slice the Magister’s flesh like the chimera had done and tear apart the old man’s beating heart.
The only reason he hadn’t was because he knew that the moment he got blood on his hands, he would torture the Magister until the old man wailed in agony, over and over again.
“I thought that once I killed the Magister, everything would end and I’d be able to live a new life… but nothing has changed.”
“Chaser…”
“Master, I’m a pathetic human who lives on revenge. No, now that the Magister is dead, I’ve even lost my reason to live.”
Faced with Chaser’s bare truth for the first time, Belinda couldn’t rashly open her mouth.
However, she soon took a step back, placed her hands on both of Chaser’s cheeks, and looked straight into his eyes as she spoke.
“You can call Kiss’s name now. So why do you say nothing has changed from before?”
Now that the Magister was dead, the binding spell that had constrained Chaser must have disappeared too.
Though she knew it was cowardly, Belinda spoke Kiss’s name.
“Chaser. What did your brother, what did Kiss say? He left you a message.”
“To live freely… even his share.”
“Then stubbornly survive as he said. Things like life’s purpose can come along anytime later. Life is such that absurd things happen, like suddenly entering a magic mirror and gaining a family.”
Perhaps it was ridiculous to tell a fairy tale-like story with such a serious face.
Chaser smiled weakly.
Soon, through the window behind Belinda, a meteor shower could be seen pouring down like streaks of rain.
If he were a mage, he would have made a wish, but Chaser wished for nothing.
Instead, he spoke to Belinda.
“Then Master. Please give me any order, anything at all.”
“What?”
“Right now, I’ll make following Master’s words my life’s goal.”
After pondering, Belinda barely managed to speak.
“First, praise Leo for summoning his messenger beast.”
As if it were unexpected words, Chaser let out a light laugh, then pulled her hand that was cupping his cheek and gently kissed her palm.
“Yes, if that’s what Master wants.”
Now Belinda was the only one who could give orders to Chaser.
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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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