Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 198

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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 198

* * *

The temporary residence owned by the Temple, located in the town square.

Only after drying our wet bodies did we have a moment to catch our breath.

Though it was nearly dawn, the sky remained dark due to the typhoon’s influence, and aside from the noise of strong winds rattling the windows, the interior was quiet.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

No, correction.

The Red Mage Tower Master, who had regained consciousness, had been barking something since earlier. Though I couldn’t make out what he was saying due to his gagged mouth.

I didn’t even glance at him and instead petted the Cerberus dogs who were licking their wounds.

If we captured a dark mage, we would come to the square.

Then Giuseppe, who was waiting, would read the location where the dark mage had hidden the magical artifacts and eliminate them—that was our final plan.

‘Since Chaser was confident, he’ll capture the dark mage and bring him here soon.’

Though somewhat hasty, I opened my mouth toward Giuseppe, anticipating victory.

“High Priest, you remember the terms of our deal, don’t you?”

Giuseppe, who had been watching the door, turned halfway around to look at me.

There wasn’t a trace of a smile left on his face, but rather, my heart felt at ease. At least it meant he was no longer treating me while wearing a mask.

I couldn’t tell what he had been trying to test about me during this journey, but it seemed he had at least acknowledged that we were heading toward the same destination.

“How about it? Can you trust me now?”

Giuseppe didn’t answer immediately. After being lost in thought for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.

“…Before I answer, there’s one thing I’d like to ask.”

When I nodded affirmatively, Giuseppe turned to face me completely.

“Marquess, can you trust me?”

I was momentarily speechless at his unexpected words.

I could believe that he was a good and righteous person by ordinary standards. So since we were in the same boat, I should trust him.

I opened my mouth without hesitation.

“I am…”

That was exactly when it happened.

Bang!

An explosive sound different from the typhoon violently shook the glass windows. Our gazes simultaneously turned toward the window.

“What in the world is that…”

In the distance, I could see pitch-black smoke rising through the sheets of rain. No, looking more closely, that wasn’t smoke.

“It’s dark magic.”

Giuseppe said in a low, sunken voice.

What I had thought was smoke rose into the sky as if it had its own will, then drew out a magic circle so enormous it could cover the entire city.

I didn’t know what was happening, but the signs weren’t good.

I quickly looked back at the Red Mage Tower Master. He was still completely bound and unable to move a muscle.

But his complexion was filled with mad ecstasy.

It was when I instinctively realized that things were going wrong.

Rattle, creak.

Ominous sounds echoed from the building’s ceiling.

“Step back.”

Giuseppe reached out his hand to me, perhaps trying to get me to safety.

However, as if I were being threatened, I quickly pulled my body away and avoided his touch.

“…”

“…”

A brief silence and awkward eye contact followed. I was equally flustered.

Anyone could see it was goodwill.

‘Why did I just avoid Giuseppe’s hand?’

I couldn’t understand it myself.

Soon, familiar hands wrapped around my waist and lifted me up. It was Cheri.

Unlike before when he would sling me over his shoulder like luggage, he gently lifted me in a princess carry, supporting the back of my knees and my back, and said quietly.

“Please keep your mouth closed so you don’t bite your tongue.”

“Why?”

Cheri didn’t give me an answer to my question, but even if he had, I probably wouldn’t have heard it.

Crack.

As if an earthquake had struck, the walls inside the building began to crack horizontally.

Soon, like peeling off the roof of a dollhouse, the building’s ceiling was lifted right up.

“…!”

When I confirmed the identity of what had lifted the single-story building’s ceiling, I couldn’t even scream.

It was a giant skull that made the building look like a miniature prop.

Rattle.

Chattering its jawbone, it reached its skeletal hand into the building.

Following Cheri’s warning, I gritted my teeth and clung to his neck. A roar and fierce wind struck my cheeks.

By the time I felt rain soaking my shoulders, we had already escaped the building.

Only then could I properly confirm the identity of what had attacked us.

Like destroying a toy house, a giant black-boned skeleton slowly rose and looked down at us.

Above its head floated a dark magic circle that was now familiar to the point of being sickening.

“This is driving me crazy. Really.”

It seemed I had been too quick to be certain of victory.

* * *

Among the ‘Those Who Lift the Veil of the World,’ there was said to be a necromancer who dealt with the dead. The one controlling that giant skull must be that person.

At first, I was overwhelmed by its enormous size, but it didn’t take long to realize the situation wasn’t as dangerous as it looked. Because the enemy’s movements were sluggish due to its massive body.

Thanks to this, Cheri easily avoided the skeleton’s attacks even while holding me, and whenever the skeleton’s attention was focused on Cheri, Giuseppe’s spear would pierce into the enemy’s joints.

Rattle, rattle.

Each time, the skeleton’s massive jaw would clatter, and honestly, when Giuseppe’s spear mercilessly pierced the skeleton’s knee cartilage, even my own joints felt cold.

After several rounds of such exchanges, the skeleton that had lost its knee cartilage and joints collapsed pathetically and returned to being just a pile of bones.

Fortunately, since the battle took place in the square, there were no casualties, and the Cerberus dogs also safely escaped the collapsing building.

But we couldn’t relax. A strange sense of unease had been nagging at the back of my head.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one feeling this unease.

“It’s strangely easy.”

I nodded in agreement with Giuseppe’s muttering.

For the Veil Lifters’ final resistance, it was too anticlimactic.

‘What exactly were they aiming for?’

As I casually looked around, my gaze caught the dark magic circle branded like a mark in the sky.

“Was that originally that shape?”

At my words, everyone’s gaze turned skyward.

When we first heard the explosive sound, the dark magic circle had definitely been single-layered, but now it was overlapping in two layers.

“The Red Mage Tower Master…”

At Giuseppe’s quiet voice, I belatedly looked back at the debris of the collapsed building.

The Red Mage Tower Master, bound tightly with sacred relics and sealing stones with his magic and dark magic sealed, was no different from a defenseless ordinary person, practically a child.

“At least his body probably isn’t intact…”

In the worst case, he might have died just like that.

Though it would be a futile end, at least Giuseppe and Chaser wouldn’t fight over his custody, so perhaps it might be the best outcome.

“He’s still breathing, though weakly.”

However, unfortunately, Cheri, with his keen senses, confirmed the life and death of the Red Mage Tower Master buried in the debris.

“He’s someone we can’t let our guard down around. I’ll secure his custody.”

“We’ll check the place where the loud noise came from. It seems like that dark magic circle and the recent attack aren’t unrelated.”

I was worried about Chaser and Ophelia, who hadn’t made any contact despite all this commotion.

It was just as I turned my back to Giuseppe.

In the far east, something that rose like smoke could be seen drawing another magic circle over the dark magic circle.

The sight of three layers of dark magic circles covering the sky was eerily grotesque enough to send chills down one’s spine.

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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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