Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 165

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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 165

The name Theodor gave him soon became the child’s nickname.

Time passed, and when Cheri turned ten years old.

Summer, the only season in the North when snow was hard to see.

Like the first snow falling suddenly without warning, the curse that had clouded the child’s eyes was lifted.

The Duchess finally embraced her son whose eyes bloomed with blue snowflakes, and the Duke placed his hand on the child’s shoulder and spoke aloud for the first time the name he had kept only in his heart for ten years.

“Cheri suits you better than the name Cesar. Isn’t that right, Cheri?”

Theodor habitually brushed Cesar’s soft cheek with the back of his hand and smiled playfully.

Cesar finally understood.

He had been able to overcome the curse thanks to his father’s strictness, his brother’s affection, and his mother’s tears.

He must have been incredibly happy.

However, his father’s teachings had already become flesh and blood, stealing away Cesar’s expressions, so no particular emotion showed on the child’s face.

Time flowed gently like falling petals, and Cesar reached the age of fourteen.

Following the tradition of House Baluashten, he went to the Barrier Forest, beheaded three demonic beasts, and returned.

Though the sword he held was covered with the frozen blood of demonic beasts caught in his freezing aura, not a single drop of blood appeared in his eyes.

Though it was a coming-of-age ceremony held four years earlier than others, the knights of the North were ecstatic seeing the young master return without a single wound.

Even Theodor was impressed by his talent.

“Ah, to lose to Cheri. As his brother, I’m losing face.”

Theodor had his coming-of-age ceremony at sixteen.

Though he too had his ceremony two years earlier than others, unlike Cesar who found all the killing and rules in the Barrier Forest far too easy, he had pushed himself considerably.

It was all to earn the qualification to meet his young brother.

Knowing this, Cesar answered plainly.

“You don’t need to save face in front of me. The fact that you’re my brother will never change.”

At those words, Theodor looked at his brother with stunned eyes, then brushed his brother’s cheek with the back of his hand as if proud.

“You little rascal. You know how to say quite admirable things. You’ve grown a lot.”

“If you think I’ve grown a lot, then please stop touching my face like you’re dealing with a child.”

“Ah, then I take back what I said about you growing a lot.”

“….”

Time flowed like running water, and Cesar reached the age of fifteen.

“Cesar, you’re an uncle now.”

Theodor, who had married an aristocratic noblewoman from the North two years ago, had a child.

Cesar held the white, soft, peach-like child that Theodor handed him and didn’t know what to do.

Newborn babies were so fragile that Cesar was careful even when breathing in front of his nephew.

And when the child, who had been sleeping soundly, opened his eyes and looked at Cesar.

“His eyes… are red.”

For the first time, he could feel what it meant for one’s heart to sink.

Ignoring Cesar’s words, Theodor stroked the child’s cheek with the back of his hand as if caressing the most precious treasure in the world.

“The child’s name is Endymion.”

“But….”

“Cheri, I won’t raise my child the way Father did. That’s my and my wife’s decision.”

Unlike the Duke and Duchess who were consumed with worry, neither Theodor nor his wife shed a single sigh.

“They say the young master overcame the curse. Thanks to you, we too can hold hope. Endymion will surely overcome the curse safely, just like his uncle.”

Theodor’s wife didn’t even refuse to wear an iron helmet that protected her neck, holding her child in her arms every day.

The young Duke and his wife were strong people.

They talked every day about what color the child’s eyes would be when the curse was lifted.

Watching them, Cesar wanted to do what he could.

“Brother, I will exterminate the demonic beasts beyond the forest.”

“What?”

“When this child grows up, I’ll turn the demonic beasts beyond the Barrier Forest into nothing but legends passed down through generations. That’s the only thing I can do for Endymion.”

“Cheri….”

He swore to do anything to protect his young nephew.

The aura that beheaded demonic beasts grew colder and sharper with each passing day, but his inner self became more solid than ever, without even a hint of wavering.

Only true love shall free us from the curse of the demonic beasts.

A record that the Duke dismissed as romantic nonsense, while Theodor evaluated it as proof that at least one ancestor among them had their head screwed on right.

If forced to give an opinion, Cesar also agreed with the Duke’s words, but after that day, he could understand Theodor’s heart.

At least when thinking of Endymion, the curse could not stain his soul.

It was conviction, not arrogance.

Time passed sluggishly like slowly growing stalactites in a cave, and Cesar reached the age of twenty.

He was returning after finishing ten days of hunting beyond the Barrier Forest.

Penandel, who had been following Cesar around persistently, complained.

“Ha, finally I can lie down on a bed and sleep. I was raised preciously, so camping really doesn’t suit me.”

“Being raised preciously doesn’t mean camping doesn’t suit you. What matters is your mindset.”

“No, young master. You’re young, so why are you saying such old-fashioned things….”

Penandel, who had been grumbling, suddenly discovered something and froze in place.

In the distance, a stream of black smoke was rising from the Castle of Baluashten.

It had something eerily chilling about it, like magical light announcing the appearance of demonic beasts that made the viewer’s heart feel sinister.

Cesar and the knights returning from the forest headed quickly to the castle without even having time to gather their tired bodies and minds.

What kind of intuition was it? While heading to the castle, Cesar repeated his father’s teachings several times.

“Don’t make ripples on the surface. You mustn’t even think of looking to see what lies beneath.”

Cesar’s heart was always submerged in the deep sea, unshaken by any external intrusion.

But that day, Cesar faced for the first time a violent storm that dug all the way to the deep sea.

An indelible wound was created in his soul.

It was truly the night of rebellion.

* * *

Cheri, who had explained up to that point, paused for a moment.

He, who had been looking straight into my eyes the whole time, turned his head to look at the dawn sky beginning to be tinged with murky gray.

“It was a disturbance caused within the castle grounds by a knight who had hidden his progressing beastification.”

Cheri’s voice as he told his past sounded as weary as stars faintly shining at dawn.

“Murderous intent and madness are contagious. The knight’s desperation shattered my mental strength, having returned from the forest not long ago… So when I came to my senses, everything was already over.”

He calmly explained how he, half-consumed by the curse of the demonic beasts, had killed his parents and brother.

As a result, the separate castle was completely burned down, many casualties occurred, and yet Endymion’s body was never found.

However, I could somehow tell that there were lies mixed in with Cheri’s words.

It wasn’t because I had glimpsed the truth of the incident with lie detector glasses, nor because I didn’t want to believe his words.

It was because I noticed something in Cheri’s story that didn’t fit the cause and effect, like a thorn stuck in the throat.

However, I didn’t press him to tell the truth or offer hasty comfort.

Instead, I spoke of something that had been weighing on my mind throughout listening to his story.

There was something everyone in the castle said about Cheri.

He always goes to the forest. Someday he’ll never return, going without looking back.

“Cheri, are you going to the forest for revenge?”

Cheri’s eyes, which had been gazing into the air as if tracing past stations, turned toward me.

What was contained in those eyes, half-submerged in the past, was different from Chaser’s, however.

“…I think that’s how it was at first.”

Deep within his pupils that I thought held only glaciers, there was something I hadn’t noticed before—something like the hardest primordial seed in the world, frozen solid.

“But I’m someone with dull emotions, so afterwards I only thought of duty. I didn’t want others to experience what I had gone through.”

He called it duty, but I don’t think of it that way.

“That’s not because your emotions are dull.”

I carefully reached out and grasped his hand like comforting a wounded beast. And I spoke more firmly than ever before.

“It’s because you’re a kind person.”

When the day comes that his glacier melts, surely many people will come to know.

Just how strong and warm a person he is.

Cheri’s gaze fell to my hand like a setting evening glow.

Just as his scarred hand was about to grasp mine in return.

Whoosh, bang!

A bright red light shot up, cutting through the faintly brightening dawn sky.

Both our gazes turned toward the window simultaneously.

What that sight meant, now so familiar to me, could only be one thing.

The appearance of demonic beasts.

However, if there was one thing different from before, it was that the light had been fired from within the castle grounds.

And the moment we faced each other again, I could be certain we were thinking of the same thing.

“Leo….”

For some reason, I called out Leo’s name like a moan and shot up from my seat.

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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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