Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 214

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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 214

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The winter in the North is so harsh that even one’s breath freezes in place upon being exhaled.

Nevertheless, the reason Northern knights conduct beast hunts every winter is that the demonic beasts, which are immune even to poison, become sluggish in the bitter cold.

Cesar, who had come to personally survey the Barrier Forest and the Land of the Beasts in preparation for the Day of Destruction, stood in the verdant forest and looked around.

‘It’s unusually quiet today.’

The Barrier Forest, said to bewitch and drive people mad.

Cesar’s impression while examining its interior was surprisingly mundane.

Apart from the significantly fewer number of beasts wandering the forest than usual, he saw no other differences.

The Land of the Beasts beyond the forest was the same.

Four years ago, thanks to his half-mad rampage of slaying beasts, their numbers had drastically decreased.

However, the fact that there was no individual among them that could become a Beast King made Cesar truly realize the cruelty of fate for the first time.

To protect Belinda, the only person who could stand against that fate, he needed even greater power than he had now.

Cesar’s gaze naturally turned to the two swords hanging at his waist.

One was the sword he usually favored, and the other was the cursed blade he had taken when escaping from the First King’s Treasury.

Though he had only held it briefly at the time, Cesar immediately realized that he wasn’t yet ready to wield the cursed blade.

But perhaps by divine providence, the ancestor who had broken the First Duke’s sword for being ominous had left the scabbard, allowing him to suppress the cursed blade’s ominous power with that scabbard alone.

However, he couldn’t muster the courage to draw the sword.

‘If I were to lay hands on Lady Blanche like when I was consumed by the beast’s curse…’

Ironically, while her presence had made Cesar strong enough to overcome the beast’s curse, she also made him feel an unprecedented fear.

If it had been before meeting her, he surely would have drawn the cursed blade without any hesitation.

As Cesar quietly tapped the cursed blade’s hilt with his fingertips, he suddenly sensed something and craned his neck to look up at the sky.

Ordinary knights would only see the dense foliage tightly binding the sky, but to Cesar’s eyes, unaffected by the forest’s bewilderment, it was clearly visible—the hawk that had been circling around the Barrier Forest.

It was none other than the hawk that delivered Belinda’s letters.

As soon as Cesar emerged from the forest, the hawk, first to notice its master’s return, landed on Cesar’s arm and ruffled its feathers.

Penandel, second to confirm Cesar’s return, hurriedly took his place beside his lord.

Without taking his eyes off the brief message tied to the hawk’s ankle, Cesar asked.

“Where is the Saintess?”

“The Saintess? She’s probably tending to the wounded in the rear. Speaking of which, we’re truly saved by the Saintess coming every winter.”

Penandel warmed his frozen hands with stones heated by fire aura while adding praise for Ophelia.

His words were no exaggeration. Thanks to Ophelia participating in the expedition and treating the wounded at the base camp near the Barrier Forest, the death toll had noticeably decreased.

However, Cesar paid no heed to Penandel’s words and spoke.

“Assign guards to stay close to the Saintess for the time being.”

“Pardon? There are already several holy knights assigned to the Saintess. If we’re not careful, they’ll make a fuss about overstepping authority and such. Holy knights are people who live on their pride, aren’t they?”

Cesar knew this fact as well.

For that reason, he had never assigned Northern knights to Ophelia, nor had he received detailed reports of her movements while she was in the North.

But now, he had to assign knights to the Saintess under any pretext to track her location.

[Cheri, keep watch over Ophelia and inform me.]

That was Belinda’s order.

As he burned the letter in one of the bonfires lit throughout the area to warm frozen bodies, Cesar looked back at the Barrier Forest.

The Barrier Forest was as solid and majestic as always, but somehow he felt an ominous presence from that massive grandeur for the first time.

* * *

The Saintess prioritizes treating the wounded in the rear but shows no other particular movements.

It has been 63 days and 13 hours since I last saw Lady Blanche. I am counting down the days until I can see the young lady again in 23 days.

There was a beast attack on the rear. Under the Saintess’s guidance, the wounded were able to evacuate to the Barrier Forest and save their lives, but many went missing in the Barrier Forest.

I am sending pressed flowers from the precious blooms of the North to the young lady.

Today the Saintess…

Said she misses you…

.

.

.

I will see you in two days. I miss everything terribly.

“…What is this bittersweet report supposed to be.”

Cheri’s final letter, which had been informing me of Ophelia’s movements throughout the winter, was brief.

I stared at his final letter saying he missed everything for a long while, then unlike the previous letters I had burned for security reasons, I hid it deep in my drawer.

Since he said he missed everything, it probably wasn’t referring to me alone.

‘So keeping just this one letter should be fine.’

It was right after I locked the drawer tight with what felt like a guilty conscience.

Knock knock knock.

There was a knocking sound, and as soon as I gave permission, Vivian and Terry visited the study.

“Belinda! We’ve finally completed the anti-demon revolver version 6!”

Vivian, whose twin braids had somehow ended up on top of her head like rabbit ears with no intention of coming down, proudly presented an ivory-colored revolver.

The existing revolver wasn’t suitable for containing Cerberus’s magic. The barrel would heat up from the magic’s temperature, causing burns.

So I had requested modifications to contain Cerberus’s magic, and this time too, Vivian seemed to have brought excellent results.

But I examined Vivian’s complexion before looking at the completed revolver.

Not only did she have a confident expression, but the dark circles under her eyes that she’d always carried were completely gone, giving her a healthy vitality.

To me, that was more valuable than the news of the revolver’s completion.

“Since it’s heavy, remove as many decorations as possible.”

That didn’t mean I’d go easy on weapon feedback though.

“And I’d like the noise reduced further to enable assassination. For that, the light from the magic circle would need to be minimized too. Is that possible?”

“…I’ll make version 7 and bring it up.”

At my merciless feedback, Vivian trudged out of the study.

Following Vivian, Terry presented a bundle of papers.

It was a report on successor lessons, and after carefully examining its contents, I slowly began.

“Terry.”

“Yes, Master.”

“…It seems Leo doesn’t realize the classes he’s taking are successor lessons, does he?”

“Even someone like me who stabs people’s hearts like eating meals felt a bit guilty about crushing the heart of a child who firmly believes he’s taking classes to become Master’s aide with sparkling eyes.”

Ah, as I thought. I should have figured this out when I asked Terry about family matters instead of handling them myself.

“Well, since an aide needs to know all family affairs, it’s not that different from successor lessons, is it?”

“Right. I’ll explain this matter to Leo properly, so please call a lawyer as soon as possible.”

I spoke casually, but no response came back.

When I looked back at Terry, she was staring at me with obvious eyes, asking why I needed to call a lawyer.

As she had just said, knowing all family affairs, she knew there was no urgent matter that would require summoning a lawyer.

I hadn’t planned to say this much.

I had no choice but to resolve her doubts.

“I’m going to draft a power of attorney transferring everything I have to Leo in case something happens to me.”

“Is this related to investigating the flow of funds from this dark mage merchant’s double ledger?”

Terry asked, waving a map folded in half.

I took the map from her and unfolded it while answering halfheartedly.

“Yes. I’ll inform you of the details after attending the Council of Five Nations this summer. So don’t try to dig into it prematurely.”

“If that’s Master’s will.”

Terry smiled brightly and bowed her head, but in her eyes as she turned around burned a determination to definitely dig into it.

I shook my head back and forth as I pulled out a thin, translucent piece of paper from the drawer.

On that semi-transparent paper, along with a map of the kingdom, was marked the activity range and movement patterns of ‘a certain person’ over the past three years.

I overlaid it on the map Terry had brought, then marked the areas where the Black Mage Sect of the Beggar’s Guild had been active.

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped my lips as I examined the map with its complex tangle of lines and circles.

The regions where the dark magic sect first began their activities and where the dark mage merchant’s funds had flowed.

To a degree that could be called certain, ‘that person’s’ movements had either passed through or lingered in those places.

In my complicated mind, Giuseppe’s voice echoed—the one who had first planted the seeds of suspicion about this ‘person.’

“The novice priest who belonged to the dark magic sect has been confirmed to have dabbled in dark magic to increase her divine power.”

“But the person in question had such insignificant divine power that she remained a novice.”

“Yes, so we suspect the novice priest was used to enhance someone else’s divine power. This is a list of those whose divine power suddenly increased over the past two to three years.”

On the list Giuseppe handed over was a name familiar to all of us.

Giuseppe pointed to that name and spoke quietly.

“We confirmed through divine authority that all the others had no connection to dark magic, but this person alone we could not verify.”

“…”

“Before we knew it, her divine power had grown to surpass even mine, making it impossible to glimpse even her past through divine authority.”

With the same devastated feelings as back then, I spoke that ‘person’s’ name aloud.

“What the hell is going on, Ophelia.”

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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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