Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 48

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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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Chapter 48

You’re determined to make me into trash who survives by using my younger brother’s life as a stepping stone. Did you think I’d be grateful to you for that?

Even thinking about it again makes me furious. Chaser, you’ve never once listened to what this older brother has said.

So I’m not going to ask for your opinion either and do whatever I want.

Live well. Give my regards to Sister Belinda.

Chaser read the reply written in crooked handwriting like a child’s several times over.

As he mulled over each meaning, Belinda’s words suddenly came to mind.

“Chaser, black magic… is it something you can learn if you just set your mind to it?”

“Ah.”

It was more in the realm of instinct than reason.

Chaser hurriedly pulled out an old fairy tale book from the bookshelf and flipped through the pages.

It was a cherished item from childhood that had shown the twin brothers there was a world beyond the Magic Tower.

Since there could be no room for error, Chaser had been writing the soul magic circle on paper, hiding it between the book pages, and gradually refining it.

He had definitely hidden it between these pages.

“No way.”

No matter how much he searched, it was nowhere to be found.

Chaser hurriedly checked the time.

The moment the second hand pointed to midnight, cutting through time like a guillotine blade with its scraping sound.

Chaser felt a terrible sense of helplessness and lost consciousness.

* * *

It’s a night full of thoughts.

Following Chaser’s advice, I kept Terry and Penandel by my side and focused on my book, but there was no way the letters would register in my eyes.

Tonight, the fates of Chaser and Kiss would diverge.

Even I couldn’t know whether they would meet the same ending as 【Hirome】 or show new changes.

“Master, your sighs are going to, whew, make the ground cave in.”

Terry, who was lying prone on the couch tending to his weapon, said while breathing on the blade. Terry seemed quite carefree.

Since I couldn’t speak carelessly about Chaser’s situation, I brought up whatever topic came to mind.

“Terry, do you know what a sealing stone is?”

But the reaction came from an unexpected source.

“Where did you hear about that?”

Penandel, who had been silently keeping watch, spoke up instead of Terry.

I immediately realized that Kiss calling my choker a sealing stone was true.

Penandel’s gaze honestly lingered on my choker.

‘Come to think of it, Penandel had been eyeing my choker from our first meeting.’

Then he must have known it was extremely rare, as Kiss had said. And yet he claimed the choker was to his taste!

I stared meaningfully at Penandel and voiced my own speculation based on what I could infer from the gem’s name.

“If it’s a magic stone, it can’t be a simple gem. What’s it mainly used for?”

“Yes, it has the power to… seal magical power.”

“…What?”

It seals magical power?

‘But Chaser said I have no magical power…’

I was feeling suspicious and unconsciously fiddling with the pendant’s gem when it happened.

Suddenly the gem cracked with a snap, and I felt a sharp pain at my fingertip.

I stared helplessly at my index finger, which was bleeding from being cut by the broken fragment.

What kind of magic stone breaks just from touching it?

“My lady, stay still for a moment.”

Then Penandel suddenly pulled me close and watched over my shoulder.

More precisely, my shadow.

It was close to midnight.

Since I hadn’t opened the window, naturally there wasn’t a breath of wind inside the manor.

Yet my hair fluttered gently as if swaying in a breeze.

“…?”

The moment I tried to examine my shadow following Penandel’s gaze.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“I’m most anxious when you say that…”

The rest of my words were swallowed back down my throat.

Because Penandel had hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack.

“Terry, guard the manor.”

Penandel said only that to Terry before starting to run straight out of the manor.

If you’re going to carry me while running, at least piggyback me properly or carry me princess-style!

…That complaint disappeared when I saw my ominously writhing shadow.

Among the shadows stretching long behind us, only mine had its boundaries distorting messily and bubbling up.

Then, like a shaken carbonated drink exploding, countless ravens poured out.

‘Damn!’

“Ha, what a spectacle.”

I cursed elegantly while frantically beating Penandel’s back like whipping a racehorse.

Run, Penandel. Run!

* * *

The Blanche Family’s Annex was thrown into chaos by an untimely attack of ravens.

An enormous number of Shadow Crows filled the sky, their ominous cries audible even from a distance.

Cesar calmly faced the situation before his eyes.

On the day of the Shadow Crow attack, the main body must have taken position in Belinda’s shadow.

Normally, after consuming some darkness and growing its body, the monster would have emerged from the shadow, but the sealing stone Belinda wore was the problem.

The stone that sealed magical power had trapped the crow, which fed on dark magic as its life force, inside her shadow.

Naturally, due to the sealing stone’s influence, Cesar also couldn’t sense the monster’s presence.

And when the sealing stone could no longer suppress the dark magic of the monster that had grown in the darkness, it cracked, ultimately leading to this situation.

Cesar confessed his painful mistake to Belinda.

“I apologize, my lady.”

“Watch the front.”

Belinda coldly replied to Cesar, who was looking at her and apologizing even with numerous monsters before them.

This must be what it feels like to be a passenger in a car going 200 kilometers per hour on a winding mountain road while the driver looks away instead of watching the road ahead.

“Since this happened due to my complacency, please file a formal complaint with House of Baluashten. I’ll gladly accept any punishment.”

“Watch the front, I said!”

I get it, so please watch the front, you unlicensed speed demon!

Belinda ended up screaming.

They had now reached the end of the graveyard behind the annex, with their backs against a massive wall.

They could escape by climbing over the wall, but beyond it was the Royal Capital teeming with people and residential areas. They couldn’t involve innocent people.

Moreover, fortunately or unfortunately, what the monsters were targeting was all too clear.

Dozens, hundreds of red eyes were fixated obsessively on Belinda alone.

“Then my lady, please don’t move from that spot.”

She couldn’t move even if she wanted to. Whether he knew her feelings or not, Cesar, after pondering briefly, draped his light coat over Belinda.

“The night is cold.”

With those words, Cesar stood in front of Belinda.

Belinda looked at Cesar’s broad back with a dazed expression.

The moment she grabbed the collar of his clothes as he stood alone before the numerous monsters, she was startled by the cold sensation that touched her hand and let go.

“Huh?”

Her exhaled breath formed white vapor.

By the time she came to her senses, the surroundings had already frozen white as if winter had come to the entire world.

The grass and trees, everything had frozen so transparently that they would shatter into pieces with just a touch.

In that pure white world, only Cesar and Belinda standing behind him retained their colors.

Soon, as Cesar drew his sword, a pure white crescent moon appeared in the pitch-black sky.

To Belinda’s eyes, the sword energy cutting through the sky simply looked like that.

Soon after, the frozen corpses of monsters poured down like hail.

It was truly overwhelming force.

‘This is just a Northern Knight?’

Impossible. In Belinda’s view, he seemed comparable even to the sword saints of the Royal Capital.

Cesar didn’t let a single monster pass behind him, standing in place and steadily reducing their numbers.

And finally, just when hope seemed visible.

Flutter.

An unusually clear sound of bird wings was heard.

Not from in front of Cesar, but from behind Belinda.

“…!”

When Belinda turned around, she saw a raven monster emerging from her shadow as if wading through a swamp.

One that had been hiding until the very end, as if waiting for an opportunity.

The moment she instinctively realized it was the main body of the monsters.

Cesar reached out his hand.

The monster’s sharp beak, which had been rushing toward Belinda’s eyes, was just about to pierce through Cesar’s hand that he extended to protect her.

“Sir!”

The magic circle of Chaser dwelling in Belinda’s sealing stone briefly sparkled and emitted light.

“It wasn’t magic I placed to protect my master’s capable knight’s hand.”

When the afterimage of the white flashing light disappeared, what appeared before Belinda’s eyes was a raven monster bound by golden threads, unable to move.

White vapor rose from her rapid breathing.

Belinda looked back at Chaser, who had appeared without a sound.

Like a whale swimming through the ocean, Chaser gracefully floated down through the air.

Chaser’s eyes, which usually only had faint golden rims, were shining with brighter golden light than ever before.

“How….”

Whether from belated fear or the cold, Belinda’s hands trembled slightly.

Chaser stood right behind Belinda and carefully grasped her coldly frozen hands.

“Remember? When I said I’d check your magical power, I told you that your mana vessel was empty ‘at that time.'”

She remembered. That’s why Belinda thought she had no magical power. But….

“That was only half true. It was empty ‘then,’ but now that the sealing stone is broken, you have about a ripple’s worth of magical power.”

“What?”

“So this is a supplementary lesson, master. Ah, Sir Knight, please handle the remaining stragglers while we’re in class.”

Chaser’s hand covered the back of Belinda’s hand, interlocking their fingers and bringing them toward the struggling monster.

The warmth transmitted from Chaser’s hand seemed to spread throughout her entire body.

No, it wasn’t an illusion. A gentle energy flowed through her blood vessels like dipping cold fingertips into warm water.

“It’s my magical power. Feel that flow and think about gathering it at your fingertips.”

Chaser’s voice gently stimulated Belinda’s ears like a single flower petal falling on a calm lake surface.

A faint golden light appeared in Belinda’s violet eyes, sparks flew in front of her outstretched palm, and a strangely shaped magic circle appeared like a language.

Chaser poured high-purity magical power into her parched mana vessel like spring rain on dry earth.

Her skin tingled as if frostbitten areas were melting in the spring breeze.

“Master doesn’t need to try to understand what kind of magic circle it is.”

Though Chaser’s hand slowly pulled away, Belinda didn’t withdraw her outstretched hand.

Chaser, who had instantly interpreted the magic circle that appeared at Belinda’s fingertips, slowly guided her.

“Supernatural abilities have magic circles already engraved in that magical power. So it’s not simple magical power. What master needs to do is just wrap magical power around your body….”

Chaser’s voice gradually became fainter.

Belinda felt like she instinctively knew what to do.

Her hand fearlessly touched the monster before her eyes like a child seeing fire for the first time, not knowing how hot it would be.

Clang!

Chains of light shining with brilliant golden radiance bound the monster’s entire body from all directions.

Belinda’s eyes, glowing with complete golden light, directly faced the monster before her.

The monster’s movements, which had been struggling while bound by the magical chains, gradually became sluggish.

‘Once you’ve bound it, brainwash it by giving it a name.’

It felt as if someone was whispering that in her ear.

Belinda nodded and quietly whispered.

“Submit to me.”

Her words became a magic that bound the monster before her eyes.

The raven’s red eyes, which had been gleaming with murderous intent, suddenly became docile and looked at Belinda.

The monster’s pitch-black demonic energy climbed up her arm to the top of her head, coiling and tangling to form the shape of a faint crown.

“From now on, I’ll call you ‘Cao.'”

The moment she named the monster, the magical chains that had been stretched taut as if they would break at any moment snapped.

As Belinda staggered from the terrible exhaustion, Chaser caught and supported her body as if he had been waiting.

Ice crystals summoned by Cesar were pouring down from the pitch-black night sky.

“Chaser.”

“Yes, master.”

“Did you receive Kiss’s reply?”

Chaser didn’t answer.

However, Belinda thought the smile forming at the corners of his mouth seemed to give her an answer.

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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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