Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 270
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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 13
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Blanche Estate was in a festive mood.
People who heard the news gathered at the estate to congratulate Leo, and the scale gradually grew until it resembled a small party.
Chaser, still unable to escape from Cookie’s body, sat demurely at the edge of the annex roof, looking down at the garden where the party was in full swing.
Leo was laughing brightly with joy, surrounded by various people of different genders, ages, countries, and social standings.
They were all connections that Leo had made. His disciple was a child loved by everyone, and a person who deserved to be loved.
‘At least it’s good that he’s smiling.’
Chaser twitched at the fur on his back that his tongue couldn’t reach, then shook his body once.
After finishing the ceremony for receiving the title of Border Count, Leo didn’t attend the congratulatory party prepared by the royal court and instead first sought out Chaser, who had been tied tightly around Kiss’s neck.
“Teacher!”
He had run away with the firm intention of never seeing him again.
But facing Leo again like this, his heart was torn to shreds with guilt.
Leo snatched up Chaser, who couldn’t say anything and could only roll his eyes, hugged him tightly, and buried his face in his back.
Even if he strangled him right then, he wouldn’t make a peep, but Leo just stayed like that for a long while.
Soon he lifted his face and spoke with a slightly mischievous expression.
“Teacher, were you late because you were bathing? You smell really good.”
His disciple’s smiling face, not blaming him, weighed on his heart.
The damp moisture he felt on his back broke his heart.
Chaser could only nod his head without saying anything.
However, behind Leo, Belinda was glaring at him with eyes boiling like lava, and behind her, the Elders of the Magic Tower were shedding tears like chicken droppings, clamoring to personally drape a handmade cape over his shoulders and attach a translator bell.
It was truly a dilemma situation.
But fortunately for Chaser, people knew that the brothers didn’t have much time left.
Everyone seemed to have a lot they wanted to say, but they gave the brothers some grace period.
They probably expected the brothers would have much to say to each other before the end…
“How dare he do such shameless things!”
Kiss didn’t care about such things, and with a face messed up by jealousy and envy, he pounded on the roof.
His gaze was directed at the Duke and Duchess sitting with their heads together in a spot far from the people.
The Duchess plucked a lushly bloomed rose and placed it behind her husband’s ear, then smiled contentedly.
Then when the Duke whispered something, her cheeks flushed as if rose fragrance would rub off on them.
Then, not knowing the mage brothers were watching, she glanced around innocently before tilting her head slightly to lightly kiss her husband’s lips.
Soon Cesar wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her between the vines full of roses.
And the brothers…
“Hey, did you see that?”
“Uh…”
Before disappearing beyond the vines, they saw the Duke’s bright red eyes glaring directly at them, sending a silent warning, and they trembled.
“When sister’s husband’s eyes turn bright red, he gets a bit… crazy.”
“That’s why I told you not to provoke him.”
No more people would suffer from the curse of demonic beasts now, but remnants of the curse still remained in Cesar’s body like a virus.
So it was a secret known only to those who knew that when the owner of the body occasionally lost his reason, it would turn his eyes red.
However, Kiss, who didn’t know this, had properly touched the Duke’s reverse scale.
“Sister, have you ever kissed?”
“It’s my last wish. I wish sister would kiss me!”
“My name is Kiss. But it’s too unfair to die without living up to my name! I’m a beginner, you know.”
Chaser couldn’t tell him that it was a wish he shouldn’t dare make, and moreover, something he shouldn’t say in front of the Duke.
He was also extremely conflicted. The soul contained Kiss’s, but the body was his own after all.
However, Kiss’s words as he twisted his body and tapped his forehead made his worries pointless.
“Here, on my forehead.”
“…?”
“Not on the lips?”
“How could I do such a lewd thing! Sister, are you crazy? Do I look like such a shameless person?”
“Hey, you absolute idiot!”
Belinda, who had been contemplating, said she’d let it slide since the contents were a little kid and lightly kissed his forehead like a goodnight kiss.
“Madam, won’t you grant my wish too? Only you can grant it.”
“…Ce, Cesar?”
The Duke’s eyes, who had watched it all, turned red.
The two decided to avoid people’s eyes until Cesar could calm the curse with his ability.
However, Kiss, who ended up witnessing the couple’s affectionate display, ground his teeth.
Chaser looked at Kiss like watching a child who would lie flat on the ground and throw a tantrum when he wanted something, then sighed.
“Brother, that’s what being married is like.”
“Sob, I’m jealous! I want to marry sister too!”
“Then do you want to keep living?”
“What?”
Kiss, who had been half out of his mind with jealousy, paused.
Chaser continued calmly.
“Besides the Protagonist, you might meet someone you like as you live.”
“…Will she be as pretty as sister?”
“Ah, that’s a bit…”
“Then I don’t want to.”
Nevertheless, Kiss seemed conflicted and took out the artifact he had been carrying in his inner pocket. He placed it on his palm and pondered with a serious expression.
“But well, the world is pretty good. Magic power is abundant, it’s free, and there’s so much to enjoy… If I search the entire continent, couldn’t I meet someone as pretty as sister?”
The more Kiss spoke, the more detached Chaser’s expression became.
Then.
“Alright! Fine then, I’ll gratefully take this body and live well… Ah, damn. My mistake.”
“Brother!”
As if he had made up his mind, Kiss was excitedly waving his hand when he dropped the glass bell he was holding below the roof.
Chaser was startled and quickly threw his body off the roof. Then he wrapped the artifact with his whole body and squeezed his eyes shut.
Even if his body got hurt, as long as the artifact wasn’t damaged. Then…
“Look at this? You acted like you’d hand over your body to me right away, but I guess the artifact is precious.”
“…”
When he felt no pain and sneakily opened his eyes, Chaser couldn’t hide his sense of defeat.
Kiss used magic to place Chaser, who was tightly hugging the artifact, back on the roof while sneering.
“It wouldn’t matter if it broke, right? If you’re going to give me your body anyway.”
“I, I, that’s not it, I just… I, I just moved my body on my own, meow.”
“Meow?”
“Hup! I was just trying to make a joke, you spatula!”
“I guess there really isn’t much time left.”
Kiss erased his playful expression and sat up straight.
Chaser still looked up at Kiss while holding the artifact in his arms.
“Chaser.”
“Brother, what just happened was really an accident. I really can’t give you my body…”
Kiss cut off Chaser’s words and spoke firmly.
“I have a desire for life.”
“Then…”
“But it’s not to the extent that I’d want to live in your place. My desires are so modest that it takes me two weeks just to come up with ten things I want to do.”
“That’s because you haven’t lived long enough, brother. As you live, you’ll surely find plenty of things you want to do and purposes in life…”
Chaser’s voice gradually lost its strength.
These words—he had definitely heard them somewhere before.
“Really? Then what about you? If you had to write down ten things for a bucket list right now, how long do you think it would take?”
Chaser blankly tried to think of ten wishes as he suggested. To his own surprise, so many wishes came to mind at once.
Helping his still clumsy disciple grow into a 9th Rank mage.
Holding funeral services for the Magic Tower elders who had no disciples or children.
Attending his disciple’s wedding and blessing his future.
When the unexplored regions of the North are developed, establishing a new branch of the Magic Tower there.
Far from just ten things, he had so many desires and wants that his mind felt too small to contain them all.
Then he suddenly realized who he had heard those words from.
“So Chaser, just live tenaciously for now. Things like life’s purpose can come anytime later. Life is such that absurd things happen, like suddenly entering a magic mirror one day and gaining a family.”
These were the words Belinda had said to him that day when he had killed the Magister and completed his revenge.
Somehow, that day when he had relied on Belinda even for his life’s purpose felt very distant now.
Chaser, who once didn’t even have a wish to make upon a falling star, finally realized.
That human life is too short.
Life was so short that it felt regrettably brief.
“I also… I also have a desire for life, brother. So much that it’s almost greedy—I want so many things.”
“That’s enough then.”
Kiss, grinning like a mischievous child, suddenly stood up.
Living as Chaser for two weeks, he had learned how beloved his younger brother had become.
Ten years ago, when they shared one body, most people couldn’t detect Chaser’s presence.
That was probably because people knew so little about Chaser, and Chaser himself was wary of letting people get close to him.
But now it was different. Many people immediately recognized that he wasn’t Chaser.
Finding this admirable and proud, Kiss felt no regrets whatsoever.
Finally, Chaser was ready to let go of the ghostly shadow he had been clinging to for twenty years.
“Ah, that was fun!”
Kiss shouted while throwing his hands up in celebration.
His face held something like the wistfulness of a child who had played to their heart’s content all day and now had to go home as the sun set.
Kiss spoke lightly to Chaser, as if suggesting they play again next time.
“I’ll go ahead and wait for you. Don’t come too quickly, little brother.”
After a long moment of hesitation, Chaser nodded and answered.
“Yeah, I’ll do everything I want and come leisurely.”
Kiss bent down to take the artifact from Chaser’s arms and nagged like an older brother until the very end.
“Chaser, don’t think you owe me anything—whether it’s a heart or magical power. People originally live while owing debts to others. I’ve accumulated plenty of debts to many people during these two weeks.”
With those final words, Kiss shook the glass bell.
“Oh, now that I think about it, I forgot to mention—I saw some kind of magical circuit in sister-in-law’s belly? Not hers, though.”
“What? Brother! Wait, what does that mean…!”
Ding—.
The light that burst forth with the clear bell sound painted Chaser’s vision pure white.
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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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