Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 259

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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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Side Story 2

It was the kind of statement that would have made the loyal retainer Penandel, who had pushed his workaholic lord toward the Royal Capital over ten years ago while prepared for overwhelming duties, fall backward in shock.

In the end, Belinda burst into laughter and pulled his arm, drawing him into the blankets.

When someone who once valued their duty more than life was now so brazenly acting coy, there was no choice but to indulge them.

“Then just chat with me for exactly 10 minutes before you go.”

The two leaned against the headboard and bumped their toes together while sharing trivial conversation.

Time disappeared like snow melting in a warm breeze.

“Go to work now, everyone will be waiting.”

“Yes.”

His answer came without hesitation, but Cesar showed no signs of getting up.

Instead, he carefully kissed Belinda’s forehead like a cat leaving footprints in snow and whispered.

“I’ll stay just until the sun fully rises.”

“Alright, let’s do that then.”

When the sun fully rose, he gently kissed her eyelids like falling petals and pleaded.

“Just until the fireplace embers completely die out.”

“Mmm.”

When the fireplace embers completely died out, he finally finished what he hadn’t completed earlier.

“Just a little bit more.”

With her mouth completely occupied, Belinda couldn’t give any response to those words.

In winter, morning comes late to the North.

So even if their lord was running a little behind schedule, the northern knights would understand.

* * *

Belinda left the Duke and Duchess’s bedroom quite some time after Cesar had departed from the castle.

Belinda, who had dozed off during the brief moment he was adjusting his clothes, ended up not even seeing her husband off.

Despite all that sleep, another yawn escaped, so Belinda wiped the tears from her eyes and muttered.

“Is it spring fatigue? I’ve been feeling sluggish lately.”

At her soliloquy, the two young maids helping with her grooming chimed in one after another.

“Madam, you’ve become a true northerner! Spring will come to the North soon!”

“The Royal Capital is probably in full spring right now, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps Madam’s body is still accustomed to the Royal Capital’s seasons.”

“Still, just in case, shall we call a physician if you feel very drowsy?”

Listening to the maids’ chatter pouring out like rapid fire from both sides, Belinda shook her head.

Despite her refusal, the two maids worried that their mistress might catch a cold breeze or wind chill, and devoted themselves to her attire with utmost care.

It had been a year since Baluashten Castle welcomed its mistress.

Initially, the castle’s employees welcomed her presence while harboring inner concerns they couldn’t hide.

The Belinda they knew was a central noble who had never left the temperate Royal Capital in her entire life.

Therefore, they worried endlessly that someone as beautiful as a summer rose might wither in the North’s harsh cold.

As expected, the deeper the seasons grew, the more sounds of distress escaped her lips.

“Winter really comes fast in the North.”

“It’s still early autumn.

“What? When it’s this cold?”

A month later.

Belinda, wrapped tightly in a fur-lined coat, asked again.

“It must be deep winter now, right?”

“Not yet…”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to say something crazy like it’ll get even colder from here?”

Seeing that face filled with shock beyond doubt, all they could say was an apology: “We’re truly sorry that the North’s weather is so insane.”

During the time when everyone was anxious that Madam might never adapt to the North and leave for the Royal Capital.

Winter arrived as always.

An unusually fierce cold spell hit, causing Belinda to suffer from the flu and throwing the castle into chaos.

After barely recovering, she would lock her room’s door tight and only show her face through the crack.

And on the day when a snowstorm swept through the North, freezing everything pure white.

“Are there no packages for me?”

“…The courier carrying mail to the castle got buried in snow with his carriage and is stranded. Everyone has gone out to rescue the courier, so we should be able to retrieve the mail by evening.”

The Maid Supervisor tried to speak as if nothing was wrong, but it was actually an urgent situation.

Due to unprecedented heavy snowfall rare even in the North, all the castle’s soldiers and workers had been deployed for snow removal in nearby areas.

So while maids and servants rolled up their sleeves and searched through the snow for the courier, the rescue operation was struggling due to snow piled so high that even roads couldn’t be found.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

Belinda rose from her seat with a fierce expression and headed straight to where the rescue operation was underway.

The startled Maid Supervisor and employees hurriedly followed behind her, trying to dissuade her.

“Madam! Please leave such matters to us servants. We’re worried you might catch cold. Besides, we don’t know where the carriage is buried, so it will take time…”

“Suga, 100 gold settlement.”

“Um, Madam. Since it’s very cold, could you at least wait inside a carriage…”

“I have my heating device, so it’s fine.”

Heating device?

The maids were looking around searching for this heating device when.

“Cerberus.”

“…!”

At Belinda’s voice, three Dobermans that had been innocently rolling in the snow came bounding over and cast dark shadows over the heads of the Maid Supervisor and employees.

“Let’s see. Yes, dig over there.”

As soon as Belinda’s index finger pointed to a spot, the giant three-headed monster leaped into the high snow pile.

Ignoring the people doing snow removal work scattering in all directions in panic, Cerberus excitedly dug through the snow.

Thanks to snow instantly melting and disappearing just from touching the monster’s body, Cerberus carved out a path like a bulldozer.

“M-Madam? You mean that m-monster is a heating device…?”

“It’s warm when you keep it in the room.”

Only then did the Maid Supervisor realize why Belinda had kept her room’s door tightly locked during winter. With such a ‘heating device’ nearby, everyone who encountered it would have screamed.

Soon after, the courier who had been shivering in the cold carriage was rescued.

Seeing the courier’s daughter, who was also a castle maid, run to her father, the Maid Supervisor conveyed thanks to Belinda on behalf of the father and daughter.

“Thank you so much for helping.”

“What strange words you speak. Since my husband protects the estate’s nights, I too must wholeheartedly care for the estate’s days. The castle’s employees are also my people, are they not?”

“Your Grace the Duchess….”

The Maid Supervisor finally saw Belinda anew.

Belinda, who had held her wedding wearing a splendid Royal Capital dress decorated with spring flowers, had somehow become the master of Baluashten, perfectly suited to Northern attire.

Ah, why had she thought this person was a rose that would wither away from mere cold?

She was no different from the frost goddess in ancient tales who awakens from deep slumber when winter comes.

To the Maid Supervisor who kept wiping away tears of emotion, Belinda asked with an extremely anxious face, as if checking on the courier’s well-being.

“So, where’s my package? Leo said he was sending a gift.”

After that day, the Maid Supervisor and Butler, who had been treating Belinda with somewhat cautious attitudes, began reporting every detail of the castle’s affairs to Belinda.

As Belinda began to properly govern the castle’s internal affairs, many things changed.

The haphazard command system that had operated under the excuse of old customs was efficiently restructured.

The mysteriously leaking money decreased, and those who had been privately embezzling public funds while avoiding others’ eyes were caught and forced to leave the castle.

It was around that time when trust and respect began to appear in the employees’ gazes toward Belinda.

Though Belinda’s workload ultimately increased, having experience governing a family as its head, Belinda skillfully directed the internal affairs.

So it was natural that the two maids personally selected by Belinda devoted their utmost effort to her.

“Master, here are today’s meeting materials and the list of guests scheduled to visit.”

While being attended to by the maids, Terry gently shook Belinda’s shoulder as she dozed like a sick chicken and spoke.

Belinda, who barely came to her senses while yawning languidly, stretched.

‘I pushed him to go to work, so I can’t be the only one being lazy.’

Belinda, having finished her preparations, got up from her seat. When the two maids opened both doors of the inner chamber wide, the high-ranking employees and administrators who had been waiting in the corridor for the Duchess to emerge greeted her.

“Good morning to you all.”

“Yes, Your Grace the Duchess.”

“Then let’s begin today’s work.”

Many people began following behind her as she headed to the Duchess’s study.

* * *

Late in the evening, Belinda returned to the Duke and Duchess’s bedroom after finishing work and immediately lay down on the bed.

She was so tired that she was confident she could fall asleep immediately if she just closed her eyes.

‘Have I been overworking lately?’

Indeed, she often felt chills and mild fever as if she had caught a cold.

If she had really caught a cold, she should immediately call a physician for examination, but lacking even the energy to pull the bell cord by the bedside, Belinda simply pulled the blanket over herself and closed her eyes.

How much time had passed? Belinda, covering her face with both hands, muttered gloomily.

“…I can’t sleep.”

When Belinda opened her eyes again, the empty space beside her came into view. She finally realized it. That she was spending the night without Cesar for the first time since coming to the North.

Though she had thought mornings came late, she had never thought nights were long.

Just the absence of the person who used to warm the bed beside her suddenly made the Northern nights feel extremely long.

‘He’ll have to camp outdoors, I wonder if it won’t be too harsh.’

‘I should have sent at least one Cao with him.’

‘He said he’d return by tomorrow evening. He won’t be delayed, will he?’

While spending the night with such various thoughts, a sharply cut beam of light fell across the window that was swaying loudly in the night wind.

Someone had opened the bedroom door.

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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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