Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 289

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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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Special Side Story Episode 2

Penandel complained with a face full of despair, like a parent dealing with an adolescent child who had completely gone astray.

“His Excellency, who has undergone mental rejuvenation, says he’ll postpone recovering his memories!”

“What…?”

It was a completely incomprehensible decision.

“Why on earth?”

“He says he feels no inconvenience even without his memories! So he’s ordered the knight order to prioritize finding the North Gate over exterminating Mac’s Nest.”

No inconvenience at all?

“Do you think that makes any sen-“

Belinda trailed off mid-sentence.

Right, for a normal person it would be absurd.

Eight whole years of memories. Most people would try anything to recover their memories, but Lord Cheri—that is, the emotionally hollow Cesar from eight years ago—would be different.

‘He’s thinking that since his limbs are intact, there’s no need to waste manpower on unnecessary matters.’

Eight years ago, he was that kind of person.

A man bound only by duty, like a marble sculpture without even the smallest hobbies.

But Belinda knew.

She knew that once he fulfilled all his duties, he would ultimately be like a sandcastle swept away by waves, disappearing without a trace.

“Even now, he heads to the unexplored regions at the crack of dawn, focusing solely on finding the North Gate. Of course, thanks to that, we’re hiring private soldiers to prepare for exterminating Mac’s Nest, but it’ll take quite some time before the actual extermination.”

Though Penandel added this cautiously, Belinda also knew that extermination would be a distant prospect unless done by the Northern Knights.

The Northern Knight Order was an incomparably powerful military force compared to ordinary knights.

And more stubborn than that supreme military might would be the obstinacy of the memory-lost Cesar. For him now, nothing would be more important than duty.

After a long while, Belinda, who had been lost in thought while leaning back in her armchair, finally spoke.

“…In that case, there’s only one method.”

“There’s a method? As expected of Madam!”

Penandel, who had been anxious, gazed at Belinda with a face full of deep respect and trust.

“I’ll give it my all to…”

“Yes! Give it your all to!”

“Seduce Lord Cheri.”

“Pardon? I must have misheard?”

Penandel was bewildered, but soon cleverly read Belinda’s intention.

“Ah! If His Excellency falls for Madam again, he’ll regret losing his memories!”

Exactly right.

Cesar’s postponement of memory recovery was probably because he had no attachment to them.

‘Then I need to make him overflow with attachment to what he’s lost.’

Above all, Belinda was overflowing with confidence that she could make Cesar fall for her again.

When it came to Cesar, she knew him better than he knew himself.

“I’ll handle it within a month.”

“Truly worthy of Madam!”

Receiving Penandel’s enthusiastic support, Belinda hurriedly made her way to her dressing room prepared in Winter Castle.

* * *

Losing one’s memory might, in some ways, be similar to forbidden magic that manipulates time, Cesar thought.

Just moments ago, he had been troubled by news that Herington Mine was tied up as Marquess’s Daughter Blanche’s marriage dowry.

He had only blinked once, yet somehow eight years had passed.

At first, he thought he had been swept into the future by the influence of forbidden magic.

But fortunately or unfortunately, the truth wasn’t so dramatic.

“You lost your memories trying to save a new knight who fell into Mac’s Nest. A whole eight years’ worth!”

“My limbs are still intact after eight years.”

Thanks to loyal Penandel, who still remained by his side after eight years, Cesar realized he had simply lost his memories.

His more trained body and the family ring encircling his left ring finger.

The atmosphere of Winter Castle that felt more vibrant than before, and the people who looked at him with respectful gazes.

During this time that was short if short, long if long, everything around him had changed.

Probably any ordinary person would have desperately tried to recover their memories or traced their past actions.

But Cesar was different.

In the middle of an unexplored region that had lost its barrier forest.

A sword blade filled with freezing aura cleaved the demonic beast before him in two.

The beast probably didn’t even realize it had died until the very last moment.

It was such a clean strike that it even felt elegant.

Nevertheless, Cesar stared at the pitch-black blade for a long time as if dissatisfied.

Eventually, sheathing his sword, he muttered briefly.

“It’s become dull.”

Since losing his memories, he had been constantly disappointed in his future self.

“Even if it was to save a new knight, to allow a demonic beast’s attack and lose memories.”

Unlike his trained body, the killing intent in his sword had become dull,

“You still haven’t found the North Gate, yet you left the North every year? For half a year at a time?”

He had neglected his duties and repeated irresponsible acts,

“To give the castle’s deepest inner chambers to a woman you’re not even engaged to…”

He had even committed shameless acts without hesitation.

What use was being the hero who led humanity to victory in the war against demonic beasts?

In reality, he was no different from a scoundrel who neglected training and disregarded responsibility and duty.

Most shocking of all to Cesar was his own dissolute private life.

Though he was supposedly engaged, to live under the same roof with an outside woman.

He couldn’t forgive himself.

Hard to believe, but apparently his future self had become intoxicated with honor and victory, his heart had rusted, and even his sword edge had dulled.

Then there was only one solution.

He made his decision.

“Since this causes no hindrance to work, I’ll suspend the Mac extermination.”

To postpone recovering his memories.

If the glory of victory had corrupted him, then he just needed to forget the memories of victory.

At this decision, Penandel’s mouth fell wide open.

Though he expected all sorts of nagging to pour out, he said just one thing.

“Ma, Madam!”

It was a voice as desperate as calling upon a god.

And as if that prayer had been answered, not long after, a message arrived. News that Cesar’s fiancée, Marquess Blanche, would personally visit Winter Castle.

Nevertheless, Cesar headed to the northern wastelands without concern.

His duty still remained there.

The Barrier Forest had disappeared, but the desolate landscape of the unexplored region remained unchanged.

However, unlike what he remembered, it was no longer a land where death was so prevalent that it could be trampled underfoot. That fact reminded him that the end was not far off.

The task of exterminating all demonic beasts beyond the Barrier Forest.

For Cesar, it was a belief so earnest that it would not be a waste to sacrifice his life for it.

Once he found the North Gate, everything would be over.

With that single belief, he wandered the wasteland every day.

But strangely, very occasionally, moments came when even he himself didn’t know what he was searching for.

Not the North Gate, but something else.

A sensation as if he were wandering in search of something so precious that it would not be a waste to sacrifice not only his life, but even his soul.

However, never knowing what he was looking for, those tedious days of returning to the castle empty-handed repeated endlessly, until one day.

“Your Grace, the Duke.”

A beautiful, clear voice instantly rooted Cesar’s feet to the spot.

In the corridor leading to the bedroom, a strange woman stood with the evening sunset behind her.

Though half-buried in the corridor’s shadows with even her features not clearly visible, in an instant his world was swept away by the woman before his eyes, leaving him unable to go anywhere else.

“I won’t say this is our first meeting. Do you remember me?”

As the woman stepped forward, her appearance was finally revealed.

Vivid red hair more blindingly bright than the burning sunset, and a gorgeous, beautiful face.

In her clear violet eyes, something like intense sparks of unknown origin flickered brilliantly, making it impossible to look away.

She was certainly a beauty one might see once in a lifetime, but Cesar felt no emotional stirring whatsoever.

…No, surely that’s how it should be.

His heart was beating dangerously fast.

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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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