Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 167

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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 167

Like a wounded beast cornered at the edge of a cliff, the demonic beast’s wariness upon facing Cesar was far from ordinary.

Nevertheless, the reason the demonic beast didn’t immediately flee to the forest behind it was probably because it instinctively sensed something.

That the moment it set foot in the forest as a demonic beast, it would never be able to escape again.

However, Cesar also had no intention of sending the demonic beast into the forest.

This was something he had to finish with his own hands.

Cesar looked at the old portrait and spoke the final words he couldn’t convey to Theodor, as if talking to himself.

“On the day we first met, you said to me, brother. That you would never die by my hand.”

Did he know how much comfort those words had given to young Cesar?

“So, brother.”

Cesar slowly put on the demon mask.

His blue eyes turned red, and the fully risen sun distorted his shadow into something sinister like a demon’s.

Shing.

The moment Cesar drew his sword, a killing intent colder than a midwinter blizzard descended upon the North, where summer was just about to arrive.

“I promise you as well. I will never, ever die by your hand, brother.”

His father’s strictness, his mother’s tears, his brother’s affection still lived and breathed within Cesar’s heart.

Thanks to this, the child who had once feared human touch was able to grow into someone who knew the warmth of love and could love others.

Therefore, Cesar still loved his one and only brother.

He cherished him so much that he would stain his hands with his brother’s blood to prevent Theodor from committing any more killings.

* * *

“He said he would go to the forest and told us not to follow.”

“His will was so firm that we couldn’t block our lord’s path.”

Penandel’s grip on the reins tightened even more at the knights’ words.

He barely restrained himself from lashing out at the knights on the spot.

To those who didn’t know the truth of the night of rebellion, Cesar was an unprecedented tyrant who had killed his parents and brother, using the demonic beast’s curse as an excuse, driven mad by his lust for power.

They couldn’t possibly have the courage and loyalty to stand in the way of such a tyrant.

Even though six years had passed, what happened on the night of rebellion remained vivid in people’s memories.

The burning separate castle and ash flying like snow.

The day when the wails of people who had left family and friends inside the separate castle heated the cold air more intensely than the flames.

Cesar had declared calmly with a face that showed not a trace of sorrow.

“I killed my blood relatives and burned the separate castle to usurp the throne.”

If they had just thought calmly for a moment, they could have realized that something was wrong with the separate castle even before Cesar arrived at the castle.

However, Cesar’s blood-red eyes gave his words an irrefutable weight, and instilled in people a fear that prevented them from daring to question him.

‘I should have stopped His Excellency’s will that day.’

Penandel’s heart grew even more anxious as he rode toward the Barrier Forest.

While all his nerves and muscles focused solely on looking ahead and reaching the Barrier Forest, his complicated mind kept retreating further into the past.

Where exactly did things start going wrong?

When he learned that Theodor, whom he thought had been burned to death with the separate castle, was hiding in Herington Mine recovering his strength?

When the previous head of the Blanche family, who had promised to transfer the mine, died before stamping the contract?

Or was it when, despite finally obtaining the mine transfer, an avalanche occurred like divine mischief, opening a crack in the mine and freeing Theodor who had been trapped inside?

Penandel clenched his jaw as he reflected on past events.

He had wanted to prevent Cesar from killing Theodor at all costs.

Yet fate seemed to desire Cesar’s death, interfering at every turn.

As if Cesar’s death, which could never be avoided…

“…Lord!”

Was predetermined.

“Lord Penandel!”

It was then that Penandel emerged from his thoughts and heard a human voice through the tearing sound of wind.

Soon a massive shadow fell over his head, and something blocked his path.

The startled horse reared up on its front legs and came to a rough stop.

Penandel skillfully gripped the reins to calm the horse, then looked up at the massive thing blocking his way.

“Cerberus?”

A giant monster with three heads blocked Penandel’s path like a guardian of the city gate.

Soon a person on horseback appeared from behind. Penandel was more surprised by her appearance than by Cerberus.

“Marquess Blanche, this area ahead is the Barrier Forest. It’s dangerous, so please immediately…”

“Guide me to Lord Cheri.”

Penandel thought he had misheard.

However, upon meeting Belinda’s resolute expression, he intuitively realized that she knew the entire truth.

“I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to fulfill your duty as an aide.”

The duty of an aide.

Only the strongest knight in the North could earn that glorious position, but on the other hand, they were also mocked as those who never got a drop of blood on their sword.

The reason was that the aide’s sole duty was to behead their lord when they became a demonic beast.

Therefore, Penandel had always stayed by Cesar’s side, going back and forth to the forest, but had never once slain a demonic beast.

However, today, he was prepared to draw his sword if necessary.

To take the neck of the only demonic beast he could slay.

“This is not a matter for outsiders to interfere with.”

Penandel answered in the most emotionless voice he had ever used and turned away from Belinda.

Just as he was about to ride past Cerberus, Belinda’s voice from behind stopped him in his tracks.

“I have a way to help Lord Cheri.”

Penandel’s gaze naturally turned to Cerberus.

He thought he knew what method she was talking about.

Since she was said to command monsters thanks to her ability to tame fairies, she must be planning to use Cerberus to stop Cesar.

He acknowledged that it would be helpful.

However…

“A tamed monster cannot subdue a demonic beast.”

Certainly, Cerberus was a large-class dangerous monster designated by the Temple, but in the end, it was still a being tamed by human hands.

Once a beast becomes subordinate to humans, it loses its wildness.

So a monster that has lost its wildness, especially Cerberus who hasn’t even recovered its original size yet, cannot match Cesar.

“Who said I would use Cerberus to stop Lord Cheri?”

Click.

At the sound of metal friction from behind, Penandel had no choice but to turn around.

Belinda, mounted on a jet-black horse, held a pistol in her hand.

Her red hair whipped wildly in the wind, but she gazed at Penandel with calm, unwavering eyes without blinking once.

“I’ll explain on the way to our destination. So, Lord Penandel, if you want to save your lord, guide me.”

* * *

The trees of the Barrier Forest contained magic and divine power.

Therefore, ordinary blades couldn’t even scratch the forest trees, but demonic beast claws and extremely sharp, refined aura were a different matter.

Crash.

A forest tree fell with a heavy noise. The solid ground, intertwined with tree roots, was turned upside down in chaos.

The brothers’ fight didn’t last long.

Cesar’s martial prowess had long surpassed Theodor’s. No matter how much Theodor had become a demonic beast, the weak could not defeat the strong.

Finally, Cesar pinned the demonic beast’s limbs to the ground with his aura and brought his sword tip to his brother’s heart.

And he plunged his sword straight into the heart of the demonic beast that was screaming and thrashing about.

Thunk.

The sensation of piercing through the heart with his sword tip was vividly felt.

Sweat drops rolled down his cheeks like tears.

The demonic beast’s hate-filled eyes, trembling intermittently, turned toward Cesar.

Its curse, murderous intent, rage, and resentment became a curse that strangled Cesar’s heart and stained his soul.

However, Cesar did not avoid the demonic beast’s gaze and held his sword until it completely closed its eyes.

The demonic beast’s hand, with claws sharpened as if squeezing out its last strength, reached toward Cesar.

The demonic beast’s hand, which seemed to aim for his eyes, lost its murderous intent right in front of Cesar.

After the demonic beast’s hand, grotesquely distorted by burns, brushed across Cesar’s cheek once.

“….”

The demonic beast turned to ash and vanished instantly, leaving not even bones behind.

A moment later, Cesar brushed his own cheek.

“Brother, please stop touching my face. I’m now a proper adult with a nephew.”

“Even if you have great-great-grandchildren instead of just a nephew, Cherry, you’re still my little brother. Can’t your big brother dote on his little brother a bit?”

A conversation with Theodor from some day in the past scattered gently through the flying ashes.

Even so, Cesar did not collapse. He simply pulled out the sword embedded in the ground and recalled the teachings carved into his bones.

He must not surrender his body to emotions.

So he thought and thought again.

Why did Theodor have to become a demonic beast and die?

Why must House of Baluashten bear such a terrible duty?

Despite being so devoted to duty and protecting the North, why does that bastard king reject the North?

When the Northern Knights shed tears of blood while staining their hands with their comrades’ blood, the nobles of the Royal Capital enjoy wine and luxurious parties, laughing and making merry.

Why do such unfair things happen?

Unanswerable questions began to overflow in Cesar’s mind.

The moment Cesar habitually brushed off the frost on his blade and sheathed his sword.

Click—as the sheath and sword fit together, an answer to his contemplation suddenly came to mind.

Perhaps it was because people didn’t know of the North’s suffering.

Because they didn’t know of the blood and resentment pooled in the forest, they could be so happy.

‘Then if I let them experience firsthand the tragedy that unfolds in the North, things might become just a little more fair.’

That would surely be a good opportunity to make people realize the sacrifice of the Northern Knights.

‘I should kill just a little bit.’

If he stained his hands with too much blood, Lady Blanche might be upset.

When Cesar raised his head with that thought, his eyes were red, and the whites were darkening.

It was the final sign of complete transformation into a demonic beast.

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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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