Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 241

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 241

‘He’s going to use dark magic.’

The hand pressed against the floor trembled violently. Leo, who grasped that hand and helped me to my feet, asked anxiously.

“Did you see what happened to the teacher? He’s safe, right?”

“Chaser is a dark ma…”

I started to speak with a dazed mind, then barely managed to clamp my mouth shut.

The staff members were still captivated by the massive attack magic spread across the battlefield.

So there was no one to hear my words. Except for Leo, who was supporting me.

However, I had no intention of explaining and immediately ran straight to the room where I was staying.

Chaser intends to use dark magic.

The moment I realized this, a very ominous premonition swept through my entire body.

What dark magic requires is intense desire, a price worthy of that desire, and a dark magic circle.

Chaser could interpret most dark magic circles, but that didn’t mean he could handle all dark magic circles.

Even if he were to master the dark magic circle of immortality, without an intense desire for immortality, it would be nothing more than an unusable tool.

Therefore, there was only one dark magic that I knew Chaser could handle.

“What I want is to kill a certain soul.”

Magic that kills another’s soul at the cost of one’s own soul.

Even knowing it was just speculation, I couldn’t stop walking. Anxiety clung to me like a weight, making my steps heavy.

When I reached my room, magical light flashed outside the window, but I stubbornly refused to look at the situation outside.

‘Don’t look back.’

I just whispered to myself several times as if brainwashing myself.

And as soon as I arrived at the dormitory, I inserted the key into the keyhole of the chest where I kept my valuables and twisted it open.

“Lady Belinda.”

I heard Leo’s voice behind me, but every minute and second was precious, so I didn’t answer.

It was when I found what I was looking for among all the valuables piled up like miscellaneous items in the chest and grasped it in my hand.

“Is the teacher… a dark mage?”

Just as Leo asked that, a roar and intense light burst from outside the window. An ominous purple magic circle eerily illuminated the dark room.

However, Leo and I looked at each other without being distracted by that light.

I glanced down at the hourglass in my hand and shook my head.

“Leo, I can’t answer that question right now. Later, when I return, let’s talk again.”

“‘When you return’? Lady Belinda, where are you going?”

Leo, who was much more perceptive than his uncle, didn’t miss even the smallest clue.

However, instead of answering, I smiled apologetically and raised my arm to throw what I held in my hand.

The glass tube part of the hourglass shattering into pieces and Leo grabbing my hand happened almost simultaneously.

Using item ‘Hourglass of Time Regression’.

As soon as the system window appeared before me, the black sand from the hourglass spilled on the floor enveloped me.

My vision was a mess, as if I were isolated in a desert sandstorm. It was impossible to keep my eyes open and endure.

The world’s clock hands are turning backwards.

Only after seeing such a system window through my blurred vision did I finally close my eyes tightly, unable to endure any longer.

And when I opened my eyes again, what I saw before me was neither the remains of the broken hourglass, nor the scenery of the room where I was staying, nor Leo looking at me with an anxious expression.

“We must withdraw our forces while the barrier of the mages and holy knights holds.”

“And after withdrawing? The Barrier Forest is our last line of defense! If we abandon this place, this kingdom, no, this continent is finished!”

“But at this rate, everyone will just die meaningless deaths.”

“The surprise attack force hitting the rear of the demonic beast army is doing its job well. If only the center can hold like this, we can meet an honorable death, not a meaningless one.”

The staff members and Lord Penandel surrounding the massive table in the war council room.

The heated atmosphere of the meeting.

The lines I had heard just 5 minutes ago were being reproduced exactly.

I had returned. Really.

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

I immediately moved my body.

Time remaining: 5 minutes.

Could I reach where Chaser was in 5 minutes? Even crossing the Barrier Forest?

‘No, don’t think. Move your body instead of thinking.’

Whipping myself forward, I headed straight to my room.

Time remaining: 295 seconds

Time remaining: 294 seconds

Time remaining: 293 seconds

.

.

.

A timer showing the hourglass’s effect blinked like a warning light in one corner of my vision.

As soon as I entered the room, I shouted.

“Suga!”

Suga, who had been sprawled out with her face buried in a cushion, raised her head at my call.

【Beeeeel?】

I only realized after seeing Suga that if fairies, who are essences of nature, had a weakness, it would be the battlefield filled with the smell of blood, slaughter, and ruins.

After the war began, I shook awake Suga, who had been spending all day sleeping like she was drunk, and said.

“It’ll be difficult, but I need your blessing. Can you do it?”

【Mmm. More gold coins than usual… yawn, are needed.】

Fortunately, Suga nodded with a drowsy face. She meant she needed more gold coins than usual as payment for the blessing, but I didn’t care.

I didn’t even have time to properly count how many gold coins I had plundered or how much cash I had received from the northern lords.

“Settle with all the gold coins in my room. Is that possible?”

【…Really?】

Suga’s green eyes suddenly sparkled.

The greedy but honest fairy glanced around my room once.

Normally she would have done somersaults with joy, but unfortunately, Suga had no energy now, and I had no time.

“Yes, pour out blessings as much as you can!”

Shouting like that, I opened the chest just like I had 5 minutes ago in the past.

I stuffed the revolver, the remaining authentic ‘Spring Water of All Things’, magical tools received as gifts, and everything else I could grab into a leather bag.

I had no leisure to choose what I needed. Right now, trusting in Suga’s blessing and moving my hands as they went was the best option.

I slung the bulging leather bag over my shoulder and then ran to the stables.

Time remaining: 252 seconds

50 seconds. I had already wasted 50 seconds.

My breath was already rising to my chin, but I didn’t stop walking. Each passing second felt like my lifespan.

‘The Barrier Forest isn’t deep.’

‘If I ride a horse at top speed, it’ll take 3 minutes.’

‘But can I pass through the Barrier Forest with a fairy’s blessing, with mere luck?’

As soon as I made plans, negative thoughts came rushing up.

I knew best that all these hastily conceived plans were absurd… but this was all I could do to stop Chaser right now.

I was trying to shake off negative thoughts and rush down the stairs when it happened.

“Lady Belinda!”

Leo’s voice came from behind me.

I didn’t look back and practically ran down the stairs.

Time remaining: 246 seconds

Time is flowing too quickly. I haven’t even reached the stables yet.

“Lady Belinda, please wait!”

I can’t just do nothing and let Chaser leave like this.

I should at least punch that stupid mage in the head.

To be so helpless and unable to do anything…

“Lady Belinda!”

Suddenly my legs tangled and my body flew toward the staircase landing.

“…!”

‘No, if I waste time here…!’

Rather than physical pain, I calculated the time I’d waste and squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the coming pain.

But perhaps thanks to Suga’s luck, when I opened my eyes, I was perfectly fine without a single broken bone.

No, that wasn’t all. I looked up with a dazed expression at the face of the person who had caught me and was now running.

“Leo, how did you…”

“You’re going to see the teacher, right? I want to come with you.”

“What?”

Why does Leo know about my plan?

The answer came immediately.

“I have a lot to say to both Lady Belinda and the teacher. But now isn’t the time. Please tell me when you come back.”

The words I had spoken before turning back time with the hourglass.

“As soon as Lady Belinda left the war council room, I moved too. I don’t know what happened, but Lady Belinda did something to save the teacher, right?”

Perhaps it was because Leo and I were in physical contact when I activated the time regression hourglass. I wasn’t the only one who knew the future five minutes ahead.

Leo, who had run swiftly through the Northern Castle while carrying me, carefully set me down and said.

“So I prepared in my own way too.”

I looked at the Cerberus dogs wagging their tails enthusiastically while looking up at Leo and me, then shook my head.

“Cerberus is faster than horses, but these kids won’t work.”

Monsters or demonic beasts with magi can never escape the Barrier Forest. That’s why I hadn’t originally planned to traverse the Barrier Forest riding Cerberus.

“Yes. But I’m here.”

Leo looked back at me while petting Ker’s head.

“I’ll guide the way. I’m confident about that much.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t even have time left to argue about this.

“…Cerberus.”

At my call, Cerberus became its giant adult form, looking down at us with a mountain-sized bulk.

Leo climbed onto Cerberus first and extended his hand to me.

“Hurry, Lady Belinda.”

I grasped his hand and climbed on, gritting my teeth as I muttered.

“There’s not much time. We need to run at top speed.”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

Finally, Cerberus carrying Leo and me began running toward the Barrier Forest.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————