Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 208
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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 208
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The First King’s Report.
I thought that place would be incredibly splendid and luxurious like the dragon’s lair that appeared in the fairy tale I had read to Leo.
However, the scene that unfolded before my eyes was….
“This is the King’s Treasury?”
It was as modest as a log cabin that a hunter had temporarily built in the forest.
There was a door leading to the outside, but no matter how much Cheri and I pulled on the handle, it wouldn’t budge.
In the end, this two-room cabin was supposedly the First King’s treasure vault.
‘Did I think wrong?’
Just as I was thinking that and picked up a decorative hourglass that was carelessly scattered about.
[Item] Hourglass of Time Regression
The moment you break this hourglass, all clock hands in the world will turn back 5 minutes.
A system window popped up, indicating it was a cash item worth a whopping 1,300 coins.
Only then did I examine the props filling every corner of the room.
Inside the old but antique wardrobe were custom-made clothes for a boy that I had seen somewhere before.
Unlike the furniture that showed signs of use, the household items were clean as new, and now I realized that each and every one of them was a cash item!
While I was half out of my mind comparing the cash shop items with the objects before my eyes, Cheri, who had been examining the interior of the cabin with Leo, lowered his guard and said.
“It’s an artificial dungeon without monsters. There are no clear conditions either, so we just need to exit through the door we entered.”
“A kind of bonus stage, then.”
I whistled inwardly while examining the various weapons that decorated one wall of the cabin in splendor.
They were all sold in the cash shop, but their value was so enormous that purchasing them with coins acquired through quests would require tremendous grinding.
Soon, Cheri’s gaze, following mine as he turned his head, became fixed on one particular spot.
“That is….”
“Do you recognize any of the weapons?”
“They are all well-known weapons. However, it’s puzzling that several weapons currently owned as heirlooms by prestigious families or known to be lost due to mysterious circumstances are included here.”
I could explain that.
Judging by the fact that the cash item I had shown Chaser was a replica, that is, a replica made by the First King, the weapons stored in the treasury would also be replicas.
“What about this? Is this also a sword owned as an heirloom by a prestigious family?”
I pointed to a sword with a blade that had an ominous dark hue, which Cheri’s gaze had never left.
Cheri was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“It’s a sword that our family once owned. It’s a famous sword that the first head of our family wielded when driving out monsters alongside the First King during the Bongma War, but….”
But?
“In addition to enhancing the owner’s aura, it incites murderous desires, so it was classified as a cursed sword. The First Duke of Baluashten had stronger abilities than anyone else, so he could freely handle the cursed sword, but after his death, many family heads were consumed by that sword and became monsters. Therefore, I heard that several generations ago, they shattered that sword into pieces and buried it in the sea.”
Though his voice was calm, Cheri’s feelings as he looked at the sword seemed complicated.
Cheri had heard from Giuseppe that he was originally destined to be unable to protect the North.
What was lacking that caused the North to fall? To find out, he asked detailed questions about future events and eventually heard about his original fate.
“The knights of the North are strong, but they weren’t organized enough to face the army led by the Monster King.”
Cheri couldn’t even properly argue against those words.
Cheri’s monster hunting moved with small units, and due to the monsters’ curse, it was mostly his job to behead the monsters.
Therefore, he was a general with outstanding individual martial prowess rather than tactics for moving armies.
So commanding the knights of the North was mainly handled by Penandel.
Then why did the North collapse so helplessly even with Penandel there?
Giuseppe calmly answered that question.
“I met him when he made a pilgrimage to the shrine in the kingdom a few years ago, so I know his fate well. The knight you’re referring to was originally destined to die last summer.”
Last summer.
Cheri’s and my gazes met.
“In the future I glimpsed with the person’s permission, he lost his life fighting against some monster in front of the Barrier Forest.”
The battle with the monster that took place in front of the Barrier Forest.
I realized intuitively. That the monster referred to Theodor.
And that originally, it was Penandel, not Cheri, who was destined to kill Theodor.
Having learned the truth, Cheri had no choice but to ruminate on his own powerlessness for days and nights.
For him, the famous sword that the First Duke of Baluashten wielded would be of great help, but I knew why Cheri hesitated to grasp that sword.
He was probably afraid of being consumed by the sword.
I made a face full of regret, then firmly called out to him as he finally turned away.
“Cheri, your hand.”
Though puzzled, Cheri reflexively extended his hand to me.
I grasped that hand tightly, then infused it with my mana.
“Don’t worry and grasp the sword. If you start to look like you’re going a bit crazy, I’ll make you submit.”
Hmm, depending on how you hear it, it sounds a bit dangerous, but it’s the truth.
Besides, for some reason a strange confidence was welling up, so I looked into Cheri’s ruby-like eyes and grinned.
Did my words give him courage? Cheri’s lips curved into a faint arc.
“I’m always ready to submit to the Marquess’s Daughter, but it seems I’m not prepared to grasp that sword right now. So I promise that when I’m ready later, I’ll definitely visit this place again and grasp that sword.”
“Really, so stubborn.”
Then let’s at least gather the other weapons, and I began selecting the cold weapons to prioritize moving.
I chose weapons with high coin values, and Cheri told me whether those weapons currently existed.
This was because carrying out weapons that looked identical to other families’ heirlooms could cause troublesome problems.
While selecting weapons like that, a thick letter envelope placed squarely in the center of the desk came into my view.
The reason that thing, which didn’t even look like an item, caught my attention was because of the recipient written small at the bottom of the envelope.
To my dear ‘Star of Heroes’ and his guardian.
From the past.
The sender was written as ‘the past’, but I realized immediately upon seeing it.
That this was a letter left by the First King.
Only after confirming that Leo was hovering near the cabin door did I carefully grasp the letter.
And just as I was about to open it.
“Belinda! Knight!”
Suddenly Leo raised his voice.
Startled, I turned to look at Leo, and the child had opened the door that wouldn’t budge so easily and was shouting.
“Look outside! It’s amazing!”
“How on earth did you….”
The question of how he opened it didn’t make it out of my mouth.
Sunlight poured in through the wide-open door.
Spring lingered outside the cabin. We gazed for a long time, forgetting reality for a moment, at the nameless flowers tangled together stretching to the far horizon.
It was truly a landscape that suited the name ‘The First King’s Report’.
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The cabin door leading to the outside opened only by Leo’s hand, just like when finding the passage from the World Tree.
Thanks to that, the search range expanded beyond the cabin, but we examined every corner of the vast flower field without any complaints, as if taking a leisurely stroll.
In the end, we concluded that cash items were only stored inside the cabin, but we didn’t feel disappointed.
Just as we finished our long search and were about to return to the cabin.
Cheri suddenly stopped walking and stared at the end of the horizon.
Following him, Leo and I also looked at the distant scenery, but there was no danger worth being wary of.
We could only see darkness slowly approaching from far away.
“The day seems to be ending. Were we here that long?”
It felt like we had only spent half a day here at most.
“Marquess’s Daughter, excuse me for a moment.”
“I’m most anxious when you say things like that…!”
Sure enough, before I could even finish speaking, Cheri swept me up in his arms.
“Leo, we need to run to the cabin.”
“Y-yes!”
Soon Leo and Cheri began sprinting toward the cabin at full speed.
When the cabin came close, I could see it too.
What was approaching from the distant horizon wasn’t simply night.
It was darkness that devoured everything like a black hole.
“Wh-what is that!”
“The dungeon is collapsing.”
Only after hurriedly taking shelter inside the cabin did we realize we had been too relaxed.
“W-we need to move the things here first!”
We were woefully short on time to move the cash items in the cabin.
Just as I grabbed the First King’s letter.
Rumble. Crash!
The earth shook and we heard sounds as if the sky was falling. No, it wasn’t a metaphor—the sky and earth were really collapsing.
Through the swaying window curtains, we could see pitch-black darkness like outer space.
Making our item selection meaningless, we grabbed whatever we could get our hands on and desperately threw ourselves into the World Tree’s passage.
“Belinda!”
Having barely escaped the dungeon by a hair’s breadth, gaunt shadows fell over our heads. Having just managed to plant my feet on the ground, I craned my neck to look up at the World Tree.
The World Tree, which had provided abundant shade when we entered ‘The First King’s Treasury,’ was now swaying gloomily in the wind with only bare branches remaining.
“Why is the World Tree…?”
Mikhail explained something beside me, but it didn’t properly register in my ears.
I steadied my trembling breath and barely managed to mutter.
“Cash Shop.”
Then, just as it always had, the Cash Shop window appeared before my eyes.
However, there was one different thing.
All items have been sold.
All those cash items that had filled the Cash Shop window had completely disappeared.
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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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