Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 264

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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 7

Kiss paid no attention to the two people’s murderous gazes and stared intently at Belinda like a student waiting for test results to be graded. His face showed the confidence of someone certain they’d scored perfectly.

Belinda checked the first task on the only bucket list that had been written and touched her cheek with a troubled expression.

Normally, she would have blamed Chaser’s mischievous tone and asked what he wanted.

‘But it seems like he’s being sincere.’

Though the core had changed, it was still Chaser’s face she’d always seen, yet every word and expression felt different in weight.

Eventually, Belinda felt a strange sense of déjà vu and asked.

“Kiss, do you like me?”

“Yes!”

Even without a lie detector, his face clearly showed 100% pure sincerity.

Though it was sudden, she didn’t ask why. She knew all too well that her own face was plausible reasoning enough.

So instead of showing a clichéd reaction, she answered plainly.

“How unfortunate. I don’t like you. And I’m already married.”

She raised the back of her hand beside her face to show him the wedding ring she wore.

Cesar also casually extended his hand to show his. The deep blue gems of the wedding rings the couple shared sparkled brilliantly.

Kiss nodded with a face that showed no impact from this confirmation.

“Okay, I understand.”

“…Do you really understand?”

“So to summarize, sister doesn’t like me and is married. But what does that have to do with dating?”

“…?”

While everyone was bewildered, Kiss confidently swept his nose with his hand and declared.

“I’ll just make sister like me the most from now on!”

…What insane nonsense is this kid spouting right now?

Chaser, who had been skillfully balancing on his hind legs, rubbed his forehead with his front paw and climbed onto Kiss’s shoulder with a sigh.

Then he explained with the most solemn expression a cat could make.

“Brother, you can’t do that to a married person. It goes against morality.”

“What are you talking about. I’m already dead anyway. So this world’s moral concepts can’t stop me.”

“…Protagonist. You saw that just now, right? I did my best. So please try to stop His Excellency.”

Chaser said this to Belinda because the temperature around them had dropped significantly.

It wasn’t metaphor or exaggeration. The freezing aura emanating from Cesar slowly spread to the surroundings, and thin ice began forming on the floor.

Cesar’s presence was ominous, and Belinda fully understood his feelings.

For the sake of this adult-child whose body had grown but mind remained the same, with a strangely twisted view of romance, Belinda kindly spoke up.

“Kiss, I’ll explain it simply so even someone who died and came back can understand.”

And she firmly interlocked her fingers with Cesar’s hand.

“I like this person. I like him the most. I like him so much that I married him. Since it will only be this person until I die, there’s no chance I’ll ever come to like you. So dating is impossible.”

As soon as Belinda finished speaking, the cold air dissipated and silence fell.

“Oh, Knight sir. Your ears have turned really red.”

Leo, who had been restlessly observing the situation, whispered in admiration.

As if coming to his senses at those words, Kiss pouted and grumbled.

“Tch, you told me to write down anything since you’d let me do whatever I wanted.”

“I’ll grant everything else, so just write down the rest.”

Belinda failed to notice that Kiss’s retreating figure didn’t carry the same despair as Asillia when she had tasted the failure of first love.

* * *

Naturally, the Duke and Duchess hadn’t suddenly visited the Royal Capital just to see the faces of those they missed.

They had a clear purpose, and to achieve it, they needed to move as secretly and quickly as possible.

Especially to accomplish ‘that thing’ Mikhail had proposed without interference from nobles sensitive to power struggles.

So the couple did what they could from their respective positions.

Cesar wore down the threshold of the Royal Palace with his frequent visits for private meetings with Mikhail, while Belinda went around meeting renowned geologists and mages with Ian.

Even during this busy time, they made sure to have meals together, but somehow Kiss would invariably intrude and disrupt the couple’s intimate moments.

He found them with such ghostly precision that even Cesar’s vigilance couldn’t help them avoid Kiss’s eyes.

After a week of this, Belinda, whose dates with her husband had been repeatedly interrupted, finally exploded.

“You seem to be in a good mood today.”

“Yes, not seeing that Kiss brat’s face makes me feel so refreshed.”

The couple strolled intimately through the west park of the Royal Capital where they had once walked together.

It was an open secret that Belinda had borrowed 1,000 gold worth of luck’s power to achieve this peace.

Late that evening, after leisurely enjoying their date alone.

Returning to the Belinda manor, Belinda discovered that her 1,000 gold worth of luck had been fulfilled in a very peculiar way.

“What is this mess?”

Kiss was sprawled face-down in the middle of the drawing room like a poisoning victim, while Chaser lay on Leo’s lap with his eyes closed, purring weakly.

Leo explained what had happened during the day while combing his completely exhausted mentor’s fur.

“Well, the teacher came to the manor looking for Kiss sir…”

Terry had caught him.

However, Chaser didn’t panic and walked past her on all fours with practiced ease, as he’d grown quite accustomed to it.

The fact that Kiss had taken over Chaser’s body while Chaser entered the cat’s body was a matter that had to be kept top secret.

Magic related to souls was forbidden magic, so if they got carelessly involved, it might be discovered that Chaser was a dark mage.

Fortunately, the Elders believed he had suffered an unfortunate accident due to the artifact he was researching.

Since having more people know the truth would only be harmful, the moment Chaser safely passed by Terry while pretending to be an ordinary cat.

“Pfft.”

A sound like someone forcibly holding back laughter came from behind.

Chaser felt all his fur, including his tail, puff up.

Unable to shake off his ominous premonition, when he turned around, what he discovered was.

“Bwahahaha! You actually became a cat. Serves you right, mage!”

“Right? Bwahahaha!”

“…”

It was Kiss, laughing heartily beside Terry, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.

At that moment, memories of the past week flashed back—following Kiss around and taking care of him, worried he might cause trouble.

Soon Chaser’s pupils dilated into perfect circles. Anyone could see he was taking an attack stance, but Kiss, unaware of this, even put his arm around Terry’s shoulders.

“Wow, I get along well with the mage’s brother. Do you happen to drink?”

“Alcohol? I haven’t tried it. Since I’m still a minor.”

“You mean only in spirit? Then it doesn’t matter. Your body is of age. I’ll teach you how to drink. I’ll mix it underworld style with poison.”

Then Chaser crouched low and began wiggling his rear end.

“Great! I’ll just add it to my bucket list!”

As soon as Kiss finished speaking, Chaser leaped at his face and wildly swung his soft paws with claws extended.

“Ack! This is your face, you know!”

“So what! It’s not my pain! You bastard! I told you not to get caught, and you had to get caught by that woman of all people! What did you spill that made her realize I became a cat!”

“I, I didn’t spill anything first! Terry figured it out with amazing intuition!”

“Then you should have run away instead of putting your arm around her and agreeing to go drink! Did you act like me this badly before too?”

“Everyone was fooled just fine back then!”

Terry, who had been fondly watching the brothers’ fight, plucked some weeds that had sprouted nearby. Then he waved them in front of Chaser’s eyes and said.

“Here, kitty? Want to see this?”

“Do you really think I’m a cat?! Get that stupid weed away from me!”

“This house cat meows strangely. You should go ‘meow.'”

Though he may be trapped in a beast’s body now, his soul was still undeniably that of a noble human.

Naturally, there was no way he’d be interested in such weeds.

“I… wouldn’t… fall for… such… grass…”

However, his head and body moved separately. Chaser’s head moved left and right following the grass’s movement.

But as if hypnotized, he persistently followed the target’s movement, then kicked off the ground with his hind legs to catch the foxtail grass flying through the air.

When he realized what happened and checked behind him with the grass in his mouth, both Kiss and Terry had already disappeared.

“After that, he wandered around the back alleys looking for Sir Kiss and Sir Terry before returning to the manor not long ago. Sir Kiss had too much to drink, so um…”

“He got completely wasted.”

Belinda shook her head and examined Chaser’s condition.

Just a week ago, he was going on about human dignity, walking on two legs, and insisting on using small teacups when drinking water, acting somewhat human-like.

But now he was purring contentedly from the brushing, looking exactly like a cat.

‘Yesterday he was even grooming himself. He’s becoming more and more like a real cat.’

A strange sense of unease crossed Belinda’s mind. And it seemed Leo felt the same way.

Their eyes met briefly.

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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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