Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 284

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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 27

Another unpowered carriage perhaps?

Maybe Mother and Father had noticed their adventure and were chasing after them.

Clatter, clatter.

Ria, who had been tensely watching their pursuer, suddenly whispered.

“Something’s… strange.”

They still couldn’t see what was following them.

However, one thing they could tell was that it made no sound at all.

No sound of carriage wheels rolling.

No sound of horse hooves.

Not even the sound of mechanical devices turning.

Despite chasing the twins at a speed too fast to believe for a running person.

Fear began to gradually fill the twins’ faces.

A moment later, when it got close enough for the children to faintly see their pursuer’s silhouette.

“Magic pouch! Take out Guardian’s magic pouch!”

Theo gripped Guardian’s magic pouch that he’d received as a birthday gift, just as his older sister instructed.

Ria also pulled out a long wooden sword from the dimensional bag rolling around in one corner of the carriage.

The two children finished arming themselves and pressed against the window again.

In the distance, they saw a pitch-black dark horse.

A black knight, dark as pitch itself, was riding on the dark horse.

But it wasn’t a knight from the North.

No, it wasn’t even human.

Because it had no…

“It’s a Duraham.”

It had no head.

Ria, who preferred reading monster encyclopedias instead of fairy tale books, spoke its identity aloud.

A spectral monster that wanders the world searching for its lost head.

It considers anything running ahead of it an enemy and chases until it cuts them down.

“S-Sister, I’m scared.”

“It’s okay, I’ll protect you!”

Ria had nurtured her dreams listening to tales of heroes’ adventures and learned swordsmanship from the strongest knight in the world.

But the fact that she was just an 8-year-old child remained unchanged.

Though she bravely comforted her younger brother, Ria’s legs were trembling just the same.

The Duraham finally caught up to the unpowered carriage and raised a sword as large as the children’s torsos.

Whoosh!

The Duraham’s sword cut through the wind and struck down at the carriage.

Thunk!

However, instead of being half-destroyed, the carriage deflected the Duraham’s sword.

The barrier magic surrounding the carriage had activated.

Taking advantage of the moment when the Duraham on horseback staggered, she shouted.

“Theo, now! Guardian’s magic pouch!”

Theo quickly untied the knot of the hand pouch and opened its mouth toward the window.

“A-attack magic! The zappy kind!”

Crackle!

Lightning shot out from the pouch as everything flashed before their eyes.

The lightning pierced straight through the Duraham’s heart.

“I hit it!”

“We got it!”

The twins anticipated victory, but it was far too hasty a conclusion.

Though it had clearly pierced through the torso, the monster seemed to have taken no damage at all.

“Theo! Different attack magic!”

“Mm-hmm!”

All sorts of attack spells poured out from the magic pouch.

However, none of them could slow the Duraham’s steps even slightly.

Ria’s grip tightened on her wooden sword.

The Duraham has no physical form.

That means,

‘Ordinary magic or swords won’t work.’

It meant only divine power or aura could deal effective damage.

Even so, while continuously pouring out attack magic.

The magic pouch deflating and the Duraham’s sword shattering the carriage’s barrier happened almost simultaneously.

The Duraham’s blade sliced through the carriage like cutting pudding, passing right by Ria’s side.

“…!”

Even so, the carriage continued running without stopping.

“D-didn’t a blade just pass right by me?”

“Uh-huh, I saw it too…”

There wasn’t a single scratch on the carriage.

“Come to think of it…”

If physical attacks don’t work on it, that means it can’t make physical attacks either. In other words!

“Hahaha! Did you see that, stupid! Your sword won’t work on…”

Creak.

“Huh?”

Ria’s booming voice suddenly cut off.

Both children’s heads turned toward the carriage floor that had made an ominous sound.

Like rapidly spreading mold, the part where the Duraham’s blade had touched was gradually rotting away.

As if only that part had experienced the ravages of time very quickly.

“C-coward! How can you attack when you don’t take our attacks!”

With Ria’s cry as the finale, one wheel came off and the carriage body collapsed to the ground.

“Aaaaah!”

The twins’ bodies tumbled about in chaos.

The unpowered carriage that had left the Blue Road continued sliding for a while before stopping.

“Uuuugh.”

Fortunately, they hadn’t been seriously injured thanks to the pillows piled up haphazardly in the carriage.

As the siblings crawled out of the carriage supporting each other, pitch-black horse hooves blocked their path.

Ria held up the wooden sword she had tucked at her waist.

Swords don’t work.

Even so, Ria gripped her sword and swung it. The sword tip futilely grazed the horse’s leg.

“S-Sister…”

Ria readjusted her grip on the sword and swung it desperately.

She couldn’t retreat or run away.

Because Theo was behind her.

“Don’t underestimate me!”

Right at that moment.

Whoosh.

There was a smell of something burning.

Without even realizing what had happened, Ria swung her sword with all her might.

For the first time, the Duraham stepped back.

It had felt an instinctive threat from the flames dwelling in the sword.

Belatedly, Ria also noticed the aura dwelling in her wooden sword.

However, that energy was so feeble that it lost its strength like a candle before a strong wind in front of the sword the Duraham wielded.

Ria’s wooden sword aged instantly and snapped in half.

“Theo!”

Ria tried to grab Theo’s hand and flee, but Theo’s entire body was frozen and he couldn’t move a single step.

“You fool! We have to run!”

The Duraham on horseback approached right behind the shouting Ria.

‘I need to use some magic…’

However, his mind was frozen with fear just the same.

Nothing, nothing came to mind.

Finally, the Duraham raised its sword toward the twins.

Ria embraced her younger brother to protect him.

At that moment, someone gently stroked Theo’s head.

The owner of the gaze that Theo had felt throughout the journey.

But perhaps it was because he faced the terror of death.

Theo was no longer afraid of that presence.

He simply followed his instincts and stretched his hand forward, filling it with magical power.

Something caught at his fingertips. Though nothing was visible, he definitely felt that he had ‘touched’ it.

When the deep mark of magical power appeared in Theo’s eyes as he was held in his older sister’s arms.

A blade that didn’t even reflect light fell toward the twins’ heads.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing rang out.

Ria’s tightly shut eyes slowly opened.

“Wh-what?”

In the pitch-black darkness, she saw the back of a tall man bearing golden, glowing magical chains.

The sword the man held in his hand was blocking the Duraham’s sword that nothing else had been able to stop.

Jet-black hair and a large frame.

Though it was only his back, he seemed very familiar.

“Father…?”

At that voice, the man shook off the Duraham and cut down the rider’s horse.

Instead of blood, ash-like mist erupted.

The man shrouded in black mist turned to look at the twins.

Ria immediately realized that the man before her eyes was not their father.

He resembled their father, but was strangely different.

Theo shook his head and whispered.

“It’s not Father. That person is…”

Where had he seen him before?

It was definitely a face he had seen before.

Theo worked his drowsy mind as hard as he could, though it wouldn’t move as he wished.

The Winter Castle, the long corridor.

The portraits of the Baluashten Clan members visible when walking along it.

Father had definitely pointed to one of them and said…

“Theo, your name was inherited from this person.”

“…Uncle Theodor?”

Theo’s quietly uttered words were drowned out by Ria’s following scream.

“Fake Father, watch out behind you!”

The Duraham’s blade flashed through the pitch-black mist. However, the Duraham’s attack aimed at the man’s back failed once again.

Crack.

A sharp sword pierced into the Duraham’s shoulder.

The familiar cold energy spreading from there quickly froze the Duraham’s body.

As the mist gradually cleared, the silhouette standing behind the Duraham was revealed. Relief appeared on the twins’ faces.

“It’s red-haired Father! Waaahhhhh.”

“Huuuhhhh, it’s really red-haired Father.”

Ria and Theo ran to their father, each grabbing one of his legs and clinging to him as they burst into tears.

When he found the children, he had resolved to scold them very, very sternly so they would never cause such trouble again.

But Cesar could say nothing and could only comfort the children.

Then, as he turned his head to suppress the curse that had manifested outwardly.

His breathing stopped.

He even forgot his last bit of wariness that he hadn’t completely finished off the enemy.

The brightening dawn.

A phantom-like mirage rose between the scattered sunlight.

It drew a shape that was so dear and unbelievable.

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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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