Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 18

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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 18

“Bel.”

“Is it because I’m a bad child? But still… even if I’m a bad child, I want to become Uncle’s real daughter!”

Belinda screamed and ran to her room, crying loudly until her anger subsided.

He acted like he would do anything for her, but wouldn’t grant her the one thing she wanted most.

‘It’s cowardly. Uncle is a liar.’

As Belinda’s sobbing quieted down, Uncle’s voice came from beyond the door.

“Belinda, I told you before about my wife who died giving birth to our daughter, didn’t I?”

Belinda didn’t answer, but Uncle knew she was listening to his story.

“I think of you not as my niece, but as the daughter I lost along with my wife. Wouldn’t that be enough?”

Uncle’s quietly continuing words became the key to open Belinda’s tightly locked room door.

Click. The sound of the latch turning echoed, and Belinda peeked her swollen, puffy face out.

Her tear-stained face looked pitiful, but her expression was stubborn.

“That’s nowhere near enough. I need proof that I’ve become Uncle’s real daughter! Only then will I feel at ease.”

“Belinda, this uncle is confident he can be a good guardian to you, but a good father… I might not be able to become that for you.”

“It’s okay! I can’t promise I’ll be a good daughter either, right? So, Uncle. Please? Please.”

Uncle couldn’t say anything and stared for a long time at his niece’s small, delicate hands desperately clutching his own.

And again, after four seasons had passed, on the anniversary of the former Marquess couple’s death.

Placing the adoption papers in Belinda’s hands, Uncle awkwardly scratched his cheek.

“Thank you so much for becoming my daughter, Bel.”

Belinda, I, instead of answering, tightly embraced Uncle’s neck.

Unlike on the funeral day, Uncle smelled not of rain but of something similar to Father’s scent.

It was the day I gained my second real family.

Soon, with a ringing in my ears, my vision gradually darkened.

You have acquired the special item, ‘Lie Detector Glasses.’

A system window appeared alone on the pitch-black screen.

* * *

Belinda’s childhood memories poured down over my head like a torrential downpour.

My legs swayed momentarily from the sudden influx of information, but I barely managed to maintain my balance.

The tutorial reward was shit.

I tightly gripped the glasses that had appeared at some point.

I wasn’t the real Belinda, yet her emotions felt as vivid as if they were my own.

No, while glimpsing her childhood, I actually was Belinda herself.

Belinda’s life, which had only felt foreign to me, now felt somewhat like part of myself, and my memories and Belinda’s memories became jumbled together.

I unfastened the choker I was wearing and fingered the ruby pendant.

Though it looked like a simple jewel on the outside, it was actually a locket with a hollow interior.

I twisted open the pendant and looked at the couple’s portrait contained inside.

They had been nothing but strangers before, but now I know who they are.

Belinda’s real parents.

I gazed at them for a long time before closing the pendant and tracing with my fingertips the engraved inscription on the back.

[To my precious Bel]

“Uncle…”

Only after unconsciously uttering that word did I realize.

That what was in front of me was Belinda’s uncle’s grave.

It’s a somewhat strange feeling.

Before acquiring the memory fragments, I didn’t even know Uncle’s face, yet now I feel tender longing.

‘Calm down. These are Belinda’s emotions, not mine.’

I was shaking my head, trying to shake off Belinda’s emotions, when.

“Lady Belinda?”

At the cautious voice, I unconsciously turned around.

Leo stood there with a bewildered expression.

He must have been scared to come to the graveyard, but apparently he had come this far looking for me.

“Um, well…”

Leo hesitated, then without saying anything proper, turned around and ran away.

Do I look that scary right now? What kind of expression am I making?

I was feeling dejected for no reason, scribbling in the dirt with my shoe tip, when.

“Lady Belinda!”

Leo, who had quickly returned, was panting heavily and held out a handkerchief to me.

“Please wipe your tears with this.”

Huh? Tears?

I casually rubbed my cheek, and what do you know. There really were tears.

Only then did I realize. That I had been crying.

I nonchalantly wiped away the tears with the handkerchief and blew my nose loudly.

Ugh, how embarrassing.

It was frustrating that I couldn’t explain that these weren’t my tears but the real Belinda’s tears.

“Lady Belinda, are you alright?”

Leo, who had carefully approached my side, asked while examining my complexion.

Was he worried because I had been crying?

‘How kind of him.’

I felt mentally drained because of the Quest reward.

So without thinking, I gently patted Leo’s fluffy, cotton-soft hair.

Though I quickly pulled my hand away when Leo froze stiff.

“Ahem, ahem. I’ll take care of this handkerchief.”

I awkwardly cleared my throat and changed the subject.

But Leo fidgeted with his fingers and said something incomprehensible.

“Um, I borrowed that from a guest, so I have to return it.”

A guest? What guest all of a sudden?

“You don’t need to return it.”

The answer came from not far away.

When I turned my head, I could see Penandel’s figure, though I didn’t know how long he’d been there.

I discreetly hid the handkerchief that was covered with my tears and snot behind my back.

Ah, if I had known it was his, I wouldn’t have blown my nose.

* * *

Penandel’s purpose for visiting me again was simple.

“I came to ask your intentions once more.”

“His Grace instructed me to prioritize any conditions the young lady might have.”

Since Penandel was still wearing his mask, I couldn’t read his expression.

On the day Penandel came, I had researched the Herington Mine to understand the Grand Duke’s intentions.

The Herington Mine was the only place on the continent where high-grade magic stones were currently being produced.

Magic stones are literally minerals containing magical power, and they’re extremely valuable because they serve as power sources for magical tools.

So everyone would think the value of the Herington Mine would be tremendously high.

But absolutely not. There was one trap here.

Somewhere inside the mine’s interior, which was as complexly intertwined as a cave, there was a gate connected to the demon realm.

The contaminated magic power from the demon realm flowing through that gate, namely demonic energy, transformed the mine’s minerals into magic stones, but at the same time, it also changed the creatures there into bizarre and grotesque forms.

In short, to extract magic stones, they needed not ordinary miners, but workers with enough strength to defeat monsters.

The Blanche family wisely solved this problem of being too risky to mine and too valuable to give away to others.

They kept ownership of the mine but transferred the mining rights to House of Baluashten, known as monster hunters.

House of Baluashten was promised exclusive mining rights on the condition of extracting a certain amount of magic stones annually, and the Blanche family exclusively received supplies of superior magic stones and sold them throughout the kingdom through their own trading company.

The somewhat isolated North didn’t possess trading companies that extended throughout the kingdom, so it was a mutually beneficial deal.

There was no reason for the Grand Duke, who hadn’t even secured sales routes, to suddenly want ownership of the mine.

‘Indeed suspicious.’

If Penandel had visited a day earlier, I would have driven him away without even listening to his words.

But now, the timing was quite coincidental in many ways.

“What if I might have ordered your death.”

Ever since hearing those words from Schubel, one question had been clinging like a stain in a corner of my mind.

Among Belinda’s endings in the game, there were often cases where she died in accidents.

I used to think it was simply showing a poetic justice ending, but now I had one suspicion.

Were all those accidents really just simple ‘accidents’?

‘If Schubel had a hand in it…’

Then a simple marriage couldn’t serve as a refuge.

Someone with enough power to oppose Schubel who had become the family head, and a high-ranking noble unshakeable even by the wealth of the Blanche family, which could be called the kingdom’s purse strings.

Moreover, it would be perfect if they could assign capable knights as guards to protect me 24 hours a day.

‘…Only Baluashten.’

There was no luxury to be picky about this and that.

But I also couldn’t just trust and entrust myself to a Grand Duke rumored to have killed his family.

‘At least I need to know if the Grand Duke is trustworthy.’

“Since the Grand Duke’s intentions are so earnest, I’ll at least look over the contract.”

I pretended to examine the contract disguised as a marriage proposal that Penandel had left before, and took out my glasses.

[Item] Lie Detector Glasses

A recommended item for guardians of Heroes who have entered adolescence.

Lies are a signal of deviance! Heroes must grow up properly. Try to see through your Hero’s lies.

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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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