Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 279

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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 22

Should I call it fortunate?

The Countess had met Belinda after she came to this world.

Back when Mrs. Boren was still an innocent young lady of a baronial house.

She attended a royal ball and carelessly reached for a suspicious wine glass offered by some young nobleman.

Right at that moment, a woman so dazzlingly beautiful, as if adorned with all the brilliance in the world, descended upon the ballroom!

“Your Majesty knocked out that scoundrel nobleman with overwhelmingly terrifying dignity, then said to me.”

“‘Do not bow your head like a flower broken by heavy rain. You are too wonderful to make yourself a wallflower.'”

That seems like a considerably fabricated memory.

The Countess’s memory was quite questionable, but I couldn’t bring myself to say “That’s your delusion” to her as she blushed like a young girl.

Afterward, the Countess devoted herself wholeheartedly to helping Belinda and appointed herself as her right hand. Thanks to this, Belinda was able to take control of northern social circles without much difficulty.

Today too, Mrs. Boren visited the Winter Castle to fulfill her role as an excellent right hand.

She came to help Belinda, who had experience with national projects but not with preparing large-scale banquets.

“An excellent choice!”

“As expected of Your Majesty!”

“Wonderful!”

…If only her loyalty weren’t so excessive, it would have certainly been helpful.

Since she just clapped like a seal saying everything was good, there was no point in asking for help.

After finishing the detailed check of the banquet with an uneasy feeling.

What awaited Belinda as she headed to the drawing room to serve tea to the Countess who had worked hard praising everything was Cesar.

“My lady, do you have a moment?”

“Oh my, when did it get so late? I should be heading back now.”

The Countess tactfully declined even a farewell and quickly left.

Once the guest departed, the couple headed to the Summer Castle, which was the twin castle of the Winter Castle and where the Baluashten clan resided.

“The children must have sent you again to ask if my anger has subsided.”

Cesar answered Belinda’s question with silence.

It meant her words were half true.

Belinda let out a deep sigh.

Fighting and quarreling, breaking and smashing.

Thanks to the siblings’ wild, bewildering, spinning days, Belinda was so busy she didn’t know how time passed.

“I’m warning you in advance, no matter how much you intervene, it won’t work this time.”

Belinda firmly threatened.

Belinda had sternly lectured the twins about taking Suga’s gold coin.

She was worried they might become adults who carelessly take others’ belongings if they believe they’re justified.

Yet the children cried saying they were wronged, and finally,

“Mommy doesn’t understand our feelings!”

“We hate mommy!”

They ran away.

Because of that, resolving the cold war between Belinda and the siblings was Cesar’s responsibility today as well.

He took his wife’s hand and headed to the couple’s bedroom.

And on this peaceful afternoon like any other.

What Belinda discovered was the children’s handwritten letter placed at the scene of the dress disaster.

[Mommy, we made up with Suga.]

[We got Uncle Paul’s house from Suga and we’ll buy mommy a pretty dress!]

Belinda’s heart melted at the children’s letter, still not knowing what they did wrong but excited about buying mommy a dress.

“They’ll need a lesson that gambling is absolutely forbidden.”

Belinda slumped onto the long chair in one corner of the room. Cesar sat beside her and said leisurely.

“We can teach them gradually. The children are still young.”

“I guess having done child-rearing once doesn’t make the second time easier.”

Raising the twins who caused trouble every other day was sometimes hell. But every day except those few moments was heaven.

Belinda rested her head on Cesar’s shoulder and sighed.

“I’d want nothing more if they just grow up healthy, even if they cause trouble.”

* * *

At that moment, in the twins’ playroom.

“The time has come.”

Ria’s solemn voice echoed through the room. Theo, who was scribbling magic circles on paper, turned his head.

“What time?”

“Time for adventure!”

Ria raised the wooden holy sword that daddy had carved for her and shouted bravely like a hero receiving divine revelation.

Theo buried his nose back in the magic circle with an indifferent expression and answered.

“I’m not going on adventures anymore. We just get scolded by mommy every time.”

“What? You won’t go on adventures because you’re scared of getting scolded by mommy? How can you be so unromantic!”

Ria grumbled and kept poking Theo’s side.

“Don’t do that and come on an adventure with me. Huh? Huh? I think I can really find my roots this time.”

“You still haven’t given up on that?”

Finding one’s roots.

The North had a custom of giving children the names of people they held dear.

Therefore, northern children’s first adventures usually began with searching for the adult whose name they inherited.

Theo had already completed his root-finding adventure splendidly.

In contrast, Ria’s root-finding showed no progress at all.

When Ria asked who ‘Ophelia’ was, adults would look troubled and busy pretending not to know, saying ‘Ask your mother.’

So when she ran to mommy to ask, the answer came back that she’d tell her when she became an adult.

Mommy’s face looked somehow very sad when she said that, so Ria couldn’t pester her further.

Then one day, Ria accidentally obtained a big clue.

A few days ago, she discovered Theo bragging to mommy about a new friend he made. She quickly ran over and poked her clueless younger brother’s side, whispering.

“Be quiet. Mommy has no friends.”

“Ah!”

After an awkward silence, Belinda cleared her throat and tried to speak calmly.

“Why doesn’t mommy have friends? King Mikhail is here. He’s mommy’s friend.”

Being friends with the king – this was quite a friendship to boast about, she thought with self-satisfaction for a moment.

“He’s not mommy’s friend, he’s daddy’s friend.”

Theo’s words left Belinda speechless.

Of course, Cesar and Mikhail met frequently for diplomatic relations.

And perhaps because they now bore similar duties, they sometimes met privately to share drinks.

To the children, this must have looked very intimate. But still…

“She’s also close with Mom. She was originally Mom’s friend.”

“Gasp, then did Dad steal Mom’s friend?”

“Kids. Friends aren’t something you steal or get stolen. Everyone can be friends together.”

“That’s exactly what kids who got their friends stolen always say.”

“Besides King Mikhail, what about other friends?”

“Who’s Mom’s best friend?”

“Well… that is…”

Cold sweat ran down Belinda’s back.

The children’s bright, sparkling eyes kept stabbing at Belinda’s heart.

Unable to become a mother with no friends, Belinda hurriedly opened her mouth.

“There’s Ophelia, Mom’s best friend. Ria, your name was also taken from Mom’s hometown friend, you know?”

Belinda didn’t realize at the time that those words spoken in haste would fuel her daughter’s adventurous spirit.

From that day on, Ria, who had been restless the whole time, took out the summoning name tag she had been treasuring.

“Ta-da! With just this, I can meet the adult who gave me my name!”

She had asked her Guardian about how to use it long ago.

All she needed was accurate information and a name to specify the target she was looking for!

Ria immediately wrote the name clearly on the paper that was as big as an adult’s palm.

[Our Mom’s best friend Ophelia!]

Then the summoning name tag trembled and spat out a magically created hourglass.

The moment the hourglass spun round and round in place and then stopped abruptly, a faint magic circle flashed!

Ding.

Search complete.

A flower-pink system window appeared in front of Ria.

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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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