Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 151

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

Chapter 151

* * *

The ferry carrying the three children moved like a gliding motion, carefully examining the complex waterways that were tangled like a ball of yarn.

Soon, when they reached a three-way fork, Leo raised his hand to signal, and Asillia, who was at the stern of the boat, raised her oar to stop the boat.

A fork in the road where they couldn’t see an inch ahead.

Leo spread both hands, brought them together to his mouth, and blew a breath with a “hoo” sound.

The child’s breath became a palm-sized white weasel, which stepped on the air and ran vigorously toward the first alley.

Leo sent messenger beasts to each of the remaining forks to scout the paths, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and relayed the information to Ian.

“The first path is blocked, and the second and third paths each have forks. Which way should we go?”

It had already been two hours since the children began wandering through the underground waterways.

What had initially been nothing but a blank white page in Ian’s mind was now drawing a fairly sophisticated three-dimensional map.

“Take the second alley.”

At Ian’s answer without hesitation, Asillia controlled the rudder and moved the boat toward the second alley.

“Left.”

“The third path connects to the alley we just passed. So take the second one.”

“Ah, damn. I guess we should have gone right earlier. We need to turn the boat around.”

As they divided roles and became somewhat accustomed to wandering through the maze-like waterways, Ian seemed to have enough leisure for other thoughts and muttered to himself.

“Why aren’t there any monsters?”

Ian had been wondering about this all along.

Such a complex maze was far from sufficient as a device to protect sacred objects.

So it wouldn’t have been strange if monsters had already appeared to interfere with their journey.

The strangely quiet surroundings felt ominous.

Ian checked on Leo’s condition, who looked more tired than before, then muttered quietly toward Asillia behind them.

“Asillia, let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

Though he didn’t know much about magic, he could easily guess that constantly summoning messenger beasts consumed quite a bit of mana.

So instead of Leo who was in front, he asked Asillia in the rear to keep watch of their surroundings.

“….”

“Asillia?”

For some reason, no answer came.

Come to think of it, that talkative Asillia had been quiet the whole time.

“Asillia!”

When Ian hurriedly turned around, what caught his eye was Asillia’s face, which was not just pale but had turned blue.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Leo, who heard Ian’s voice, approached the stern of the boat with a messenger beast on his shoulder.

Asillia, who had been keeping her mouth tightly shut and silently looking ahead, whispered in a dying voice.

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Nothing my ass, your face is blue!”

When Leo stepped forward hastily out of worry, the ferry shook roughly.

“Hey, don’t move… Ugh!”

Asillia stopped mid-sentence and began dry heaving with her head hanging over the side of the boat.

“Asillia?”

“Don’t tell me you’re…”

“Uweweweugh.”

Ian watched Asillia retching grandly and asked as if he couldn’t believe it.

“…Are you seasick?”

“….”

“….”

Getting seasick on such calm waterways…?

Under the gaze of her two friends looking down at her blankly, Asillia’s face turned bright red as she shouted angrily.

“Damn it, yes! I get seasick! So what!”

“So what? We’re going to laugh our asses off, that’s what. Kekeke, puhahaha!”

The third son of House of Hereios, which dominates the seas, getting seasick.

Now Ian understood why Asillia had left the duchy and come all the way to the Royal Academy.

And also why she was so obsessed with competing with Leo.

“Ah, seriously. I’ve done all the laughing I’ll do for a lifetime today.”

When Ian, who always wore only crooked sneers, burst into laughter that was refreshing to see, Asillia lost even the energy to be angry.

She just gritted her teeth and recalled the resolution she had made when leaving home.

“Just wait and see, I’ll definitely graduate from the Academy as valedictorian and earn my brothers’ recognition.”

“Yeah, I’m rooting for Asillia!”

“Don’t say stuff like that when you’re the top student!”

It was when Asillia, unable to bear it any longer, screamed at Leo’s encouragement.

Splash.

The sound of something falling into the waterway came from far away.

“Wait a minute. I think I just heard something.”

Leo brought his index finger to his lips and looked around the stern of the boat.

When he sent light far ahead with his messenger beast leading the way, he could see something pitch black standing still in the middle of the endlessly connected waterway.

“What is that?”

The moment Ian, who had poor eyesight, squinted and muttered.

As if it had heard that sound, the thing began limping toward the group.

The approaching figure looked exactly like a person.

Perhaps it was an adult who had come to rescue them.

Just as Ian was about to open his mouth and wave his hand in welcome, Asillia, who was standing behind him, quickly covered Ian’s mouth.

“…?”

Only after seeing that Asillia’s hand was trembling did Ian realize that something was wrong.

Splash, splash.

The facial features of the thing that approached through the calm water finally became visible to Ian’s eyes.

“…!”

Whites of the eyes dyed pitch black and red pupils flashing with murderous intent.

As if it had no neck bones, whenever its neck bent this way and that, bones twisted and made sounds.

It was human, yet not human.

Splash, splash.

As the distance grew close enough to smell the terrible stench emanating from its body, Ian noticed that it was constantly muttering something.

“Wha, wha, wha, what, t-t-t, what is, wha, wha, what is thaaaat.”

If Asillia hadn’t been covering his mouth, Ian would have definitely screamed.

“Grrrrreuk. What is tha, t. Wha, t is tha, t.”

The thing made a sound like phlegm bubbling and repeated Ian’s words as if practicing a foreign language.

And suddenly, the thing that had stopped in place…

“What is that?”

Spoke human words in a clear voice.

“…!”

Making a sound would be dangerous. Everyone there felt that instinct.

In the breathless silence that followed, the thing looked around as if it couldn’t see Leo’s group right in front of it.

Swoosh.

The thing’s arms that had been hanging underwater came up above the surface, and its bizarrely long and thin arms completely encompassed the width of the waterway.

“Whatisthatwhatisthatwhatisthat.”

As if humming a tune, the thing muttered incessantly and slowly approached Leo’s group. As if it were trying to find something.

Even while watching the thing get closer and closer, the children couldn’t move a finger.

Not only could they not turn the boat around immediately, but the moment they made noise, they would be caught by that thing.

At that moment, Leo boldly bent down and took off one of his shoes, gripping it in his hand.

Then, after quietly steadying his breath, he threw it with all his might over the creature’s head.

Whoosh- Splash!

At the sound of the shoe falling into the waterway, the monster slowly turned its head.

Then it just stared for a long while as if gauging something, before turning around and beginning to move with shuffling steps.

The children held their breath until its form disappeared from sight.

How much time had passed like that?

Leo opened his mouth with a completely hoarse voice.

“Did everyone see that?”

“Yeah. It looked like it was wearing clothes, but I must have seen wrong, right?”

“…It was priest robes.”

At Ian’s words, Asillia was horrified.

“What?”

“I said it was wearing priest robes.”

“There’s no way something like that could be a priest!”

However, they couldn’t think of it as a demon beast either.

A demon beast is literally a beast possessing demonic energy.

Even if its appearance has some resemblance to humans, its thoughts and language system are different from humans, so no matter how cunning it might be, it’s ultimately just a beast.

But what they just saw walked, spoke, and acted just like a human.

“I think we need to abandon the boat. Its movements showed it knows we’re traveling by boat.”

“It seemed like it couldn’t see? Damn it. Does it react to sound?”

“Whatever that thing is, it’s definitely been in this dark underground waterway for a very long time. Long enough to lose its sight.”

The children walked along the narrow paths on either side of the waterway, quietly sharing their opinions about what they had seen.

“Could that thing be a demon beast guarding the sacred relic?”

“I don’t know. The Temple basically advocates non-violence, preaching the sanctity of life. But that thing…”

“Looked like it would kill you if you ran into it.”

At Asillia’s words, everyone fell silent.

Before they could even feel relief at having avoided it, anxiety about when they might encounter it again overwhelmed the group.

Leo checked the amount of mana remaining in his mana vessel, then channeled mana to make the messenger bird emit brighter light.

Hadn’t Cesar said so? That in times like these, one must act rationally without being consumed by fear.

So Leo deliberately spoke in a cheerful voice and pulled his two friends’ hands along.

“Let’s move while listening carefully to the sounds around us. If we hear water sounds somewhere, surely…”

“What is thaaaat?”

Stop.

At the spine-chilling voice that twisted their insides, all three of their steps froze as if by agreement.

Neither ahead nor behind could they see its form.

‘Then…’

Leo gripped the messenger bird tightly in his hand and slowly raised his head to look up at the ceiling.

It was there, looking down at the group with its long fingernails and toenails embedded in the waterway ceiling.

Crack, creak.

Its neck, bent like a marionette puppet, swayed like a pendulum before slowly coming to a stop.

The moment it looked directly at Leo’s group and grinned with its mouth torn wide.

“Run!”

The children began running for their lives without looking back.

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