Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 285

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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 Episode 28

Just as Cesar was about to open his mouth toward the apparition.

The other party shook his head.

As if there was no need to say anything.

Soon, the man’s form scattered like sleet falling in midsummer.

“Ah, Daddy.”

Cesar finally came to his senses at the voices of the children tugging and shaking his sleeves.

Gurgle.

Making a sound like phlegm bubbling, the Duraham floundered in the darkness that had pooled like blood.

Even without a head, he could feel with his whole body that it was enraged.

Though its momentum was ominous, not a trace of killing intent appeared at the tip of Cesar’s sword.

Because he knew that bringing the monster to its knees was not his job.

Bang!

At that moment, a thunderous roar that exploded the air split the dawn.

Clatter!

Golden chains extending from the bullet bound the Duraham.

The children, covered in tears and snot, looked in the direction the bullet had come from.

Caw, caw!

The ominous cry of ravens echoed first, as if announcing its harbinger.

In the dim darkness, someone galloped on horseback while pulling the trigger of a long rifle.

Bang!

The thunderous roar of gunfire that erupted again bound even the Duraham’s horse that had been writhing on the ground.

The siblings’ faces turned pale when they spotted the massive three-headed dog running alongside the horse.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Kiiiaah!”

The twins screamed in terror, more frightened than when they had encountered the Duraham.

“We’re, we’re going to be hunted! We’re going to be hunted!”

“Daddyyy! Save us!”

Even the strongest knight on the continent and the hero who had beheaded the Demon King had a weakness.

Cesar, who had instantly lost his fighting spirit, lowered his sword.

“That… cannot be defeated.”

“Daddy’s useless!”

“Useless!”

Patting the backs of the sniffling children, he encouraged them.

“I’ll serve the punishment together with you.”

It was when the siblings, who had finally steeled their resolve with their father’s encouragement, turned around holding each other’s hands.

Neighhhh!

A black horse rearing on its front legs stopped before them in an instant.

From atop the war horse that seemed dizzyingly high to the children, a deadly voice fell.

“Ophelia. Theodor.”

“Uh, uh, Mother.”

“Hic.”

Click.

Belinda, who had secured her long rifle and slung it on her back, jumped down from her horse.

【Criminals… apprehended…】

The Lich Queen guarding her rear chanted ominously.

Belinda’s appearance, accompanied by Cerberus and the Lich Queen, was no different from the legendary Demon King.

“To dare… run away from home…”

Belinda’s shadow fell over the faces of the trembling children.

The moment the siblings reflexively squeezed their eyes shut.

Swoosh.

“You damn little rascals. Just how much do you plan to worry me to death.”

Belinda hugged the children so tightly they could barely breathe.

The children, who had been blinking, soon began to cry their hearts out.

* * *

Near the Great Frozen Sea of the Duchy of Baluashten, the top floor of the Green Mage Tower.

“Sniff!”

“Sniffle, sniffle.”

The twins, kneeling on the floor, were sniffling as they wrote their letters of reflection.

Cesar occasionally checked the children’s reflection letters and helped edit the insufficient parts.

“Come on, kids. You need to blow your noses, right? Hmph!”

When Chaser, who had been hovering around, brought cloth to the children’s noses, the siblings familiarly blew their noses with a “puff.”

“Ah, try this. I’ll give you chocolate. Eating something sweet will improve your mood a bit…”

At that moment, Belinda, who had been watching the scene with triangular eyes, raised her voice.

“Chaser! Don’t cheer up the kids! And don’t help them write their reflection letters either.”

It was the moment the truth was revealed about how the twins had managed to write perfect reflection letters with introduction, body, and conclusion.

Unlike Cesar, who reluctantly withdrew his hands, Chaser was shameless.

“I wasn’t cheering them up, was I? I naturally think the kids should be scolded too.”

Chaser, standing with his back to the twins, flicked his fingertips.

Then two pieces of chocolate slipped out of his pocket and went right into the children’s mouths.

Theo and Ria glanced at Belinda while chewing and melting the chocolate in their mouths.

Belinda pressed her forehead as if she had a headache.

“There’s no point in me scolding the kids in front of you…”

This was Chaser, who had grown his hair long after Ria’s comment that he would look pretty with long hair, and had used all sorts of public authority and dirty tricks to build a new Magic Tower branch at the Great Frozen Sea after Theo said he wished his guardian lived closer.

In the end, Belinda chose the next best option.

“You two go to the playroom and reflect on what you did wrong.”

After driving the children out of the drawing room.

Worry appeared on Belinda’s previously stern face. She asked with an anxious expression.

“So, how was it?”

Cesar’s face was not much different from Belinda’s.

Chaser sat across from the couple and shrugged his shoulders.

“Theo must take after the Protagonist. He’s awakened his ability.”

Taking up his words, Cesar added.

“Ria has also awakened her fire aura.”

Though it was the birth of the youngest aura awakener, no one could rejoice at that fact.

Because it meant that Ria and Theo had been in that much danger.

After a moment of silence, Chaser spoke again.

“I’m not certain, but it seems like he can subjugate spirits.”

“Spirits?”

With an unusually uncertain face, Chaser continued.

“In other words, you could call them ghosts. Since it’s still an area that magic hasn’t reached, opinions are divided on whether ghosts really exist.”

At those words, Belinda and Cesar’s eyes met.

Because there was something they could guess at.

Unlike Ria, who grew like a weed, Theo often had inexplicable fits and feared something invisible, causing the couple much worry.

From a certain day, he stopped saying such things, so they had been relieved thinking he was fine now.

But what if that was because he had sensed the presence of ghosts?

Cesar opened his mouth toward Belinda, who was lost in thought.

“She’s probably right.”

He paused for a moment as if choosing his words, then spoke about what he had witnessed.

“I saw… my brother.”

Theodor’s figure had been too vivid to dismiss as a hallucination.

It had been weighing on his mind all along.

That last day when his brother had gently brushed his cheek with the back of his hand.

Had his brother been in pain?

What expression had he worn when facing his final moments?

But…

“…He was smiling.”

Though they hadn’t been able to have a proper conversation, that one smile was enough.

Cesar gave a gentle smile to Belinda, who was holding his hand.

“That’s all I needed.”

Now he could finally remember his brother’s last moments with that smile.

After hearing from Chaser about Theo’s ability, Belinda stood up from her seat.

“I’ll talk to Theo myself.”

But first, there was somewhere she needed to take the children.

* * *

“Follow me.”

At Belinda’s cold words, the twins hesitantly left the Magic Tower.

Belinda didn’t say a single word during the walk, and the siblings didn’t dare try to start a conversation.

How long had they walked while watching their mother’s mood?

The three of them climbed up a low hill overlooking the Great Frozen Sea.

The children watched their mother’s back anxiously as she gazed down at the Great Frozen Sea.

After a moment.

“This is the real reason why Mom comes to the Great Frozen Sea every winter.”

When Belinda stepped aside, the siblings realized that what their mother had been looking down at wasn’t the Great Frozen Sea.

A single white gravestone standing alone.

Both Ria and Theo were old enough to understand what it meant.

‘Mom said she came to the Great Frozen Sea to meet a friend…’

‘Then Mom’s friend is…’

The twins looked at each other and couldn’t say anything.

Seeing this, Belinda smiled helplessly and extended her hands to the children.

“Both of you, come here. You don’t need to freeze up like that.”

Realizing that Belinda’s anger had subsided, the siblings hesitantly took their mother’s hands and stood before the gravestone.

Theo traced the short inscription on the gravestone with his eyes.

Half was in a strange foreign language he didn’t recognize, and he couldn’t understand the meaning of the other half.

“Gu, gii, guihyang? What does guihyang mean?”

“It means she returned home.”

Belinda took a short breath and added an explanation.

“Ophelia didn’t die—she returned home. But that home is in such a distant place that we can never meet again. I erected this stone to remember her.”

Ria, who had been nervously watching, asked.

“What kind of person was she?”

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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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