Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 176
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 176
* * *
As summer in the North was coming to an end, we prepared to return to the Royal Capital.
Of course, Lord Cheri was coming with us, but this time he would be entering the Royal Capital with his proper status, so there were many things to prepare.
On the day we left Baluashten Castle.
“My lady, please take good care of our lord.”
Lord Penandel earnestly requested of me like a parent entrusting their child.
I pondered his words several times before opening my mouth.
“Lord Penandel.”
“Yes, Marquess.”
Oh my, look at this. He just called me my lady and now he’s pretending otherwise?
“Why do you sometimes call me my lady?”
Lord Penandel’s gaze flickered toward my hand. It was where the ring Lord Cheri had given me as a token of promise had been.
As soon as my eyes narrowed, Lord Penandel immediately stepped back and began making excuses.
“You must have misheard. Well then, I’ll go help load the Marquess’s luggage.”
In the end, I had no choice but to ask the person in question.
I asked directly in the carriage leisurely heading toward the Royal Capital.
“My lord, that ring you gave me as a token of promise—does it happen to be a named jewel?”
“Yes.”
Cesar’s monotone answer only deepened my suspicions.
“You told me it was second-hand.”
“It is second-hand. However…”
“However?”
“It’s rather old second-hand.”
“How old is it?”
“Old enough to share the family’s history.”
“That’s…”
I pondered what he had said and cried out in shock.
“That means it’s a family heirloom!”
“It’s sometimes called that.”
Who on earth calls their family’s heirloom a second-hand item!
Suddenly, I recalled the suspicious looks from the senior employees who had observed me on my first day at the castle, and their voices pleading for me to visit the North again as they saw me off from afar when I left.
I swallowed dryly and asked.
“Don’t tell me that ring is part of a pair?”
“That’s correct.”
I had no choice but to hold my forehead at those words.
A pair of rings passed down as family heirlooms.
The meaning was obvious. They were undoubtedly wedding rings shared between the head of the family and the lady of the house.
As I imagined what rumors might have spread throughout the castle grounds, Lord Cheri spoke to me in a rather innocent tone.
“I wanted to give you the most precious thing I owned as a token of promise.”
“…Never mind, let’s not talk about it.”
If someone else had said those words, I would have snapped back telling them to stop their nonsense.
I could only hope that none of the Royal Capital nobles would recognize the meaning of that ring.
The carriage ran without rest until we arrived at Blanche Manor, which was welcoming early autumn.
The people who came out to greet me were surprised once at Lord Cheri’s bare face, twice at his eyes having turned red, and three times at the fact that he was the Duke of Baluashten.
“Why… did you do something like ‘hiding your identity as a duke’?”
Terry began racking his brain to see if he had made any mistakes with Lord Cheri.
“A duke…? Baron, viscount, count, marquess, duke—that Duke Your Grace?”
Vivian counted the noble ranks one by one on her fingers before her face turned deathly pale. And…
“So what. Want me to call you Your Grace now?”
Even Chaser, who was somehow in a bad mood and muttering spitefully.
Everyone was initially surprised by Lord Cheri’s identity and treated him awkwardly, but when Lord Cheri showed the same attitude as before, they gradually began to restore their previous relationship.
Meanwhile, Leo had to spend frantically busy days as he began attending the Academy’s winter semester classes.
Unlike the summer semester attended by nobles who had some foundation in swordsmanship from childhood, the winter semester classes attended by commoners selected purely on talent were quite rough and demanding.
Nevertheless, Leo never complained about the difficulty and tended to the Penfel flowers he had brought from the North.
“They said it only blooms during summer in the North, but here in the Royal Capital, it’s still flowering even though summer has passed.”
He seemed to find comfort in the Penfel flowers that persevered despite leaving their homeland.
Perhaps it was thanks to Leo’s devotion in tending to the flowers twice a day. Even when autumn deepened in the Royal Capital, the Penfel flowers remained vibrant without a single damaged spot.
But when winter’s sharp winds began to blow, they could no longer endure and started dropping their petals one by one.
Leo also experienced some difficulty adapting to the winter semester classes.
Nevertheless, on a day when he was steadfastly enduring his classmates’ hazing and the winter cold.
“Lady Belinda, I made a friend in the winter semester! May I invite them to the manor next time?”
Leo had claimed the top position in the winter semester.
Though not even a trace remained of where the Penfel flowers had bloomed in the pot, by then Leo had come to realize.
As long as the roots remained alive beneath the soil, he would be able to see the blue flowers bloom again next spring.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————