Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 73

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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 73

Belinda hesitantly opened her mouth.

“So the reason I, I came to see Your Highness was… as I mentioned before…”

‘What was I trying to do?’

I almost put Uncle in a difficult position. I knew the palace was a place where even the walls had ears and eyes.

Belinda clasped her hands together in front of her and stabbed the heart of a friend who had lost his mother just days ago.

“Your Highness and I are nothing to each other now.”

“…Yes. I made a mistake, my lady. Thank you for coming to Mother’s funeral.”

Saying this, Mikhail smiled.

Because he didn’t cry, Belinda secretly cried in his place.

A few weeks later, her birthday came around, but her melancholy mood wouldn’t easily fade. Even the pile of gifts stacked high beside her bed couldn’t make her smile.

Mikhail’s smiling face kept coming to mind.

Belinda gloomily changed clothes and went down to the dining hall for breakfast. And…

“Bel, happy birthday.”

“Uncle?”

“Why does today’s star look so sullen?”

“Even brother… What about your classes?”

Not only Uncle was there, but even Schubel, who should have been at the Academy, was waiting.

“Well, skipping just one day should be, ahem, fine.”

“I thought spending just one day with you, Bel, would be, ahem, fine too.”

A meal too elaborate for breakfast was prepared, and Schubel and Uncle’s gifts were placed on the table.

Schubel’s gift was the toy tiara that had caught Belinda’s attention longest during the festival.

It wasn’t a crude, rough iron replica, but made of silver with real gems that would look fitting even on a queen.

In contrast, Uncle’s seemingly modest gift was a ruby pendant.

“I chose it because it resembles your hair color.”

Uncle’s gaze glanced toward the tiara.

The tiara caught in the sunlight shone dazzlingly like a light source.

Belinda wore the tiara at an angle and examined Uncle’s gift.

As she fingered the engraved words ‘To my precious Bel’ on the back, the pendant’s seam opened and both sides opened like a locket.

Looking inside, Belinda was left speechless.

“…”

“Despite how it looks, it’s the work of Master Servator, the Royal Capital’s finest jeweler. The portraits inside were commissioned from a court painter I managed to contact with difficulty…”

Perhaps worried by Belinda’s reaction, Uncle hurriedly added his explanation.

Inside the locket were portraits of her father and mother.

Not the intimidating expressions from the portraits decorating the manor’s corridor, but gentle smiles as if they would call out “Bel” to her at any moment.

Uncle said he chose ruby because it resembled her hair color, but when you thought about it, none of them lacked red hair.

That made it even more appealing.

As if the gem proved the bond and immortality of this relationship.

“I chose the family over Misha, and Misha has no reason to apologize for that choice.”

This is the price for my choice. It was this sweet.

“I like it.”

For the first time, Mikhail’s smile faded from her mind.

Belinda clutched the ruby pendant preciously in her hand.

Soon, with a ringing in her ears, her vision gradually darkened…

You have obtained the special item ‘Location Tracking Ribbon.’

A system window appeared alone on the pitch-black screen.

* * *

Clatter.

The carriage shook violently once, as if the wheel had caught on a stone.

Because of that, I opened my eyes, and Leo in my arms also stirred slightly.

I felt the soft texture of ribbon strings rustling in my hand.

I stroked the child’s disheveled hair as if to comfort him, then turned my gaze to the window.

In the distance, the brightly lit Blanche Estate floated alone in the darkness like a lighthouse on a deserted island.

The Blanche Estate, which was merely a stopover for me, looked so comfortable probably because of Belinda’s memory I had just seen.

It seemed like the image of young Belinda laughing while celebrating her birthday with her new family was etched on the inside of my eyelids.

Every time I blinked, that afterimage came to mind, making even me, not Belinda, feel happy as if I owned the whole world.

When reality was this harsh and sharp as a dagger.

‘Uncle was the one who gave the sealing stone as a gift.’

My heart ached at the terrible truth.

‘I can’t be swayed by Belinda’s memories.’

I squeezed my eyes shut to erase the afterimage of the memory.

“Lady Belinda?”

Leo, who had somehow slipped out of my arms, and Lord Penandel across from us were both looking at me.

Only then did I realize I was gripping the pendant tightly as if choking it.

“Lady Belinda… are you alright with returning to the manor?”

Leo asked carefully.

‘Why such a question…’

Looking at the child’s eyes trembling with anxiety and worry, I suddenly realized.

Leo knew. He knew who had tried to kidnap him.

I felt devastated, as if I had shown the child the bottom of the world.

When it wasn’t enough to show him the image of family members loving and caring for each other.

I spoke self-mockingly to Belinda with her haggard expression reflected in the window.

“You can’t choose your family. So sometimes… there are families that are worse than having none at all.”

Both Belinda and I were just unlucky.

Yes, just unlucky.

“It’s quite cold tonight.”

Making my talk about adaptability to Lord Penandel meaningless, I made an excuse about the cold and gestured to Leo.

“A child’s body temperature is higher than an adult’s, they say. Come here, Jui-bam-tol.”

With a face that looked ready to cry, Leo carefully nestled into my arms.

It was like holding a small sun.

The small warmth in my arms completely filled the abyss in my chest.

I patted the child’s back and turned my gaze back to the window.

A night with thick dark clouds. It was truly a perfect night for demons to run wild.

* * *

Crash.

The crystal glass thrown against the wall shattered into pieces.

All the expensive decorations adorning the family head’s study were soaked in strong liquor, but Schubel didn’t stop there and swept everything on the study desk to the floor.

Even so, his anger wouldn’t subside.

“Pig-like bastards. After all the money Father fed them, now they’re backing out!”

He had been carefully bribing high-ranking officials to secure a position in the Judiciary following in his father’s footsteps.

Belinda’s political marriage was also one of those bribes.

Maintaining appropriate friendships with the noble families who contacted him seeking Belinda’s dowry while giving them hope.

That alone would yield much.

And at the right time, he planned to kill Belinda and embezzle her dowry through the welfare organization under the Prince’s name, offering about half to the Prince as tribute.

As the young Prince came of age, the earnest struggle for the throne was accelerating.

To eventually place the Prince on the throne would require substantial funds, and he planned to fill that need with Belinda’s dowry.

He had already requested a private audience with the Queen and finished discussing everything!

“Young Marquess, is what she said true? Forming ties with Baluashten?”

“Ahem, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to consider that previous deal null and void. Blame yourself for trying to hide such an important decision until the end.”

“How thick-skinned. Just how long were you planning to keep it secret?”

With Belinda’s confession, Schubel’s grand plan had all become a sandcastle swept away by waves.

Far from securing a high government position for future schemes, even obtaining a lowly seat had become uncertain.

‘To think she would consider forming ties with the North.’

This wasn’t like Belinda. To walk into that barren North with her own feet.

“Unless she’s gone mad, that woman wouldn’t make such a choice.”

This must be what it feels like to discover that the chess piece you were holding had somehow slipped from your grasp.

Moreover, when he came to his senses, the pawn that had been merely a foot soldier had somehow become a queen, boldly targeting his formation.

What Schubel couldn’t understand, however, was what had changed Belinda, who had been nothing but a pawn.

When had she started to change?

Puffing thick cigar smoke, Schubel spent a long time retracing his memories before his eyes suddenly gleamed with sinister light.

“Right, it was after bringing in that brat.”

The orphan boy he had brought to provoke Belinda.

As it turned out, that boy wasn’t merely a weakness.

He was the trigger that could grasp and shake everything about Belinda.

“Ha.”

A bitter laugh escaped at her foolishness.

To think she would go and create something precious with her own hands again.

“Well, she always did like playing house and such childish games.”

Schubel straightened his back and roughly stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray.

A rough plan had formed in his mind.

The attempt to kidnap Belinda’s servant had been a kind of warning and threat, like when he sent the raven creature.

‘But those idiots, even though I provided guards, they couldn’t even properly kidnap one child.’

Next time, he absolutely had to kidnap Belinda’s servant to get a hold on Belinda’s weakness.

Schubel was rising from his seat to call his aide when it happened.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A calm knocking sound broke the midwinter frost-like silence.

Schubel irritably turned toward the door. However, the sound wasn’t coming from the door.

Schubel’s head slowly turned toward the window.

In front of the glass window of his study located on the manor’s third floor, a raven with blood-red eyes sat quietly like the opening of a ghost story.

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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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