Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 171

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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 171

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Night inevitably came to the Barrier Forest as well.

Fortunately, the moonlight struggled to penetrate between the densely stretched trees, allowing them to barely distinguish their surroundings.

Cesar comforted Belinda, saying that the knights of the North would surely find them.

To them, the forest was like an old enemy, and sometimes they could see through its depths more clearly than their closest friends.

However, the problem was time.

‘They need to find us before the poison reaches Cheri’s heart.’

Belinda trembled with anxiety, burying her forehead against her drawn-up knees.

She was restless not knowing how many days had passed, or how much time remained before Cesar’s heart turned to stone—nothing was clear.

And most of all.

‘Is Leo alright?’

It had been so urgent that she left the castle without properly explaining the situation to Leo, only saying she’d return soon.

At the time, she truly thought everything would be resolved in a day—no, in just a few hours.

If Cesar’s transformation into a demonic beast progressed, she would tame him.

Then, she would put him to sleep for a very long time until he could purify the curse with Baluashten’s power.

That was Belinda’s plan, and it seemed to have succeeded.

…If only they hadn’t set foot in the forest.

‘I should have endured it somehow back then.’

It was while she was blaming herself and letting out a sigh tinged with white breath.

“What are you doing?”

At Belinda’s question, Cesar paused as he was about to remove the cloak he was wearing and drape it over her shoulders.

“You seemed to be feeling cold, so I was going to wrap the cloak around you.”

Unlike during the day, the forest at night had dropped considerably in temperature, and he had even spread a thin layer of freezing aura around them like thin ice to detect any approaching demonic beasts.

So he thought she might be cold.

Belinda looked back and forth between her own outfit—bundled up in thick fur clothing—and Cesar, who wore nothing but light indoor clothes except for his cloak, with a fierce expression.

“What, don’t you feel cold since you’re from the North? Do people from the North walk around in just thin shirts even in the middle of winter?”

“Not exactly, but I can’t feel the cold anyway because my body is stiffening from the poison. So it would be more necessary for you than for me.”

Belinda let out another deep sigh with the expression of someone holding back many things she wanted to say.

Then she snatched the cloak from Cesar’s hands, pressed close to him, and covered them both with it.

“Stop talking like a stone and conserve your strength instead. You should take care of your own body—who’s worrying about whom right now?”

Unaware that his gaze had turned to their touching shoulders, Belinda grumbled for quite a while.

Cesar reluctantly tore his gaze away from her and lightly clenched and unclenched his gradually stiffening hands.

He could feel the poison spreading. He would probably lose consciousness soon.

He looked at Belinda with a worried expression.

Knights who had experienced being isolated alone in the Barrier Forest all said the same thing.

The most frightening thing in the forest wasn’t the demonic beasts hiding like traps or the forest’s illusions, but the silence so complete it seemed like it would deafen them.

So…

“Lady Blanche.”

“Yes.”

“Would it be alright if I held your hand?”

This isn’t selfish desire. It’s for her sake.

Even while thinking this, Cesar hurriedly added an excuse, worried he might be rejected.

“When I lose consciousness from the poison, it will surely be helpful to you.”

Belinda, who had been looking at him with a suspicious expression, halfheartedly extended the hand that had been gripping the cloak.

Cesar carefully enveloped her hand like discovering and cradling an injured bird.

And leaning on that distant warmth, he spoke of that day’s story, which he had never told anyone.

“We had finished camping near the forest and were returning to the castle. In the distance, I could see smoke rising from Baluashten Castle.”

Belinda instinctively realized that Cesar was telling the truth about six years ago.

That day, when Cesar hurriedly arrived at the castle, everything was already over.

The gruesome corpses of the Duke and Duchess and the Young Duke’s wife told him that Theodor had crossed a river of no return.

The beautiful tapestries that once decorated the castle walls were torn to shreds by bloody handprints and people’s screams.

Not a single person residing in the separate castle had survived. However, Endymion’s body could not be found anywhere.

While Cesar ransacked the entire castle searching for that small child who might have survived, the fire spread beyond control.

It was Penandel’s idea to trap the demonized Theodor in the separate castle and burn him to death along with the castle.

“Young Master, you are the last remaining Baluashten. We cannot let you stain your hands with your brother’s blood.”

Thus everything was swept away with the flames.

All that remained for Cesar were the duties and teachings carved into his bones, and the faint hope that his young nephew had survived.

Cesar could not bear to abandon that fleeting hope, like the remnants of a shooting star.

That was why. He declared that he had stained his hands with his brother’s blood while turning his back on the burning castle.

“I wanted to pass on only Brother’s kindness to Endymion. Rather than having the child living somewhere bear the weight of truth, it would be better for him to chew on resentment toward me.”

Afterward, he sent people throughout the estate to search for Endymion, but nowhere did news of a red-eyed child reach them.

How long had he spent his time cutting down demonic beasts beyond the forest during the day and searching for Endymion’s whereabouts at night?

Multiple disappearances began occurring at Herington Mine, which extracted magic stones.

At first, he thought it was the work of monsters inhabiting the mine.

He never expected that Theodor, who had survived those flames, would be hiding in the mine while recovering from his wounds.

It was Penandel who blocked Cesar’s path as he headed straight to the mine.

“If you accumulate evil deeds, the curse will deepen. Your Grace, I will kill him instead. Please command me.”

“I refuse.”

“Please withdraw the order.”

“Penandel, are you trying to make me command you to behead your closest friend?”

“Your Grace is commanding me to watch a younger brother strike down his elder brother!”

Sparks flew from Penandel’s eyes as he shouted.

If left alone, he seemed ready to go to the mine and stain his hands with Theodor’s blood, even if it meant disobeying orders.

He couldn’t lose Penandel too.

In the end, Cesar had no choice but to order the cessation of mining and the sealing of the mine.

How many years would it take for Theodor to starve to death while prolonging his life with the flesh and bones of monsters?

He knew it was the best choice for everyone, but the sensation of starving something to death was as terrible as turning his back on the burning castle.

Cesar wanted to run to the mine dozens of times a day to personally give Theodor, who would be wandering around starving, a peaceful end.

However, his duty to protect the forest held his feet back.

And last winter.

An unexpected avalanche finally cracked open the mine, and the starving demonic beast massacred the people of nearby villages.

Spring came, but Cesar could not leave the North.

Belinda came to the North in place of him, who could not go to the Royal Capital, and he finally stained his hands with his brother’s blood.

“You may not believe me, but Lady Blanche. Nevertheless, I am alright.”

Cesar remembers the hatred and madness that dominated his mind, evaporating his reason when he plunged his sword into Theodor’s heart.

His madness tried to play the role of a judge punishing those who had driven Theodor to death.

It was Belinda’s words that shattered that mask of deception.

“Don’t even have nightmares, sleep sweetly, and come back to me as my Cheri.”

At that moment, Cesare Baluashten was neither the lord ruling the harsh lands of the North, nor the unfilial son who killed his brother, nor the guardian of the forest who spared not even his life for duty.

He was simply Belinda’s Cheri.

“So when we escape the forest, I will return to the Royal Capital with you this time. I promise.”

At those words, Belinda’s gaze, which had been resolutely looking straight ahead, turned toward Cesar.

He wanted to see his own reflection in her violet eyes, but his vision was too blurry to see properly.

Through his distorted sight, Belinda’s voice reached him.

“But you’ve never kept a single promise you made to me.”

Was it his imagination that her voice seemed to carry moisture?

“You always lie to me. Even now, you just keep saying you’re fine…”

At that moment, Cesar’s world darkened as if someone had covered the moon with their hand.

Though he could no longer see Belinda’s figure clearly, Cesar could recall every detail of her as if drawing her meticulously with a pen tip.

Suddenly, he remembered a story Theodor had once told him.

Theodor would sit young Cesar down and tell him about the day he first met his wife, rambling on about how great and noble love was.

But to Cesar, love was never noble.

It made him endlessly cowardly and selfish, turning him into the worst kind of man who constantly lied.

Yet because he was greedy.

For the first time, he surrendered himself to impulse by his own will.

“That’s because I love you, my lady.”

Do not speak falsehoods.

Always live for justice.

Do not try to understand the name of emotions that flow beneath the surface.

Never forget your duty, not even for a moment.

The teachings and principles of his father that had built Cesar’s life came crashing down.

For Cesar, who had believed nothing was more important than duty, something had appeared that he wanted to protect, possess, and be with even if it meant abandoning that duty.

He had finally surrendered to love.

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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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