Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 80

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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 80

“Jui-bam-tol, actually the ocean is made of sweet sugar water.”

When Belinda said that, this time Leo was absolutely determined not to believe her words.

But unexpectedly, the knight joined their conversation.

“That’s not right. Seawater is salty.”

“No, Jui-bam-tol, think about it. Many fish live in the ocean. But if seawater is salty, could those fish live properly?”

Is seawater salty like salt, or sweet like sugar?

Leo, who had been seriously pondering these two claims, finally opened his mouth.

“…I think the fish would be happier living in sweet water.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s too much.”

“Even when you say that, you’re not cute at all.”

Still having some doubt, he had asked Hammer about it.

‘The knight tried to deceive me.’

Having only lost trust in the innocent knight, Leo chatted away with the mercenaries.

“That’s why fish don’t have teeth. The seawater is so sweet that all their teeth rotted away.”

“Oh my, is that so? I didn’t know that.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a fish with teeth either.”

“We should brush our teeth well so we don’t become like fish.”

Leo’s chattering was so adorable that everyone secretly wiped their eyes, reminded of the children they left at home.

“But what are you doing now?”

Belatedly, Leo’s gaze turned to the mercenaries’ hands as they rolled clumps of snow.

“We’re making snowmen.”

Hammer answered while scratching the back of his head embarrassedly.

On the first day they arrived at the villa, the first order from their client was to make targets for shooting practice.

“What should we make the targets with?”

“Just roughly… well, there’s plenty of snow around, so make them with snow.”

Thanks to that, everyone ended up making snowmen at their age.

“What’s a snowman?”

At Leo’s innocent question, Hammer, who wasn’t good with words, stammered.

“It’s a person made of snow… if you’d like, would you make one with us?”

“Yes!”

And so an unexpected snowman-making contest began.

Leo packed the snow tightly as the mercenaries taught him and rolled it in the snow field.

Having even thrown off his gloves, he finally completed a snowball the size of his head and another slightly larger one.

“I’ll help you put the head on.”

With the mercenary’s help, Leo’s first snowman was finally completed.

When they picked up tree branches for arms and made eyes with round pebbles, it really looked like a proper snowman.

Leo looked at Tori fluttering around beside him, pondered seriously, then said.

“I’ll name him Jui-bam.”

Leo’s second friend gained a name that way.

“Uh… is that so? Hmm… but then…”

That doesn’t seem right.

Hammer couldn’t bring himself to tell the child that this Jui-bam was destined to be killed soon.

Instead, he awkwardly changed the subject so the child wouldn’t see the snowman being killed.

“Let’s go warm up our hands for a bit. It would be even better if we could eat some stew to warm our insides too.”

“Yes!”

Leo followed Hammer, blowing on his frozen hands.

Little did he know what terrible fate would befall his second friend while he was briefly gone to warm his hands.

* * *

‘They made them so well it feels bad to destroy them.’

Behind the villa, I examined the snowmen of various sizes lined up in a row and gauged the distance.

Magic itself has no attack power, but when shot like a bullet, it could smash snowmen to pieces.

Lord Penandel, who was my escort knight and Leo’s swordsmanship teacher, was also very capable as a shooting instructor.

“Spread your feet shoulder-width apart, and put strength in your legs to withstand the recoil.”

I took the stance as he instructed, then gathered magic in the hand holding the gun.

As soon as magic settled in my right hand, the magic circles carved throughout the gun glowed and absorbed the magic.

Click.

There was a sound of something engaging, as if a bullet had been loaded.

“You must always prepare for recoil. I’ll stand behind you, so try firing.”

Following Lord Penandel’s words, I aimed at the closest snowman.

And when I pulled the trigger.

Bang!

With a crisp sound, the magic bullet flew and shattered the snowman’s head.

My arm trembled from the recoil, but it wasn’t unbearable.

It didn’t take very long to take down five snowmen after that.

Though it helped that the distance to the targets was short, I couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

Finally, I shot the last snowman that was somehow smaller than the others and had a squished face, making it particularly ugly, then turned around proudly.

Immediately after, I came face to face with it.

Leo, whose face had turned deathly pale.

“Jui-bam-tol? Why do you have such a face…”

“He, he’s dead.”

With the expression of someone who just heard that a close friend was transferring schools, Leo trudged toward the snowman I had just shot.

“Jui-bam is…”

Jui-bam?

The moment my puzzled gaze reached Tori on Leo’s shoulder, I realized like a bolt of lightning.

‘Don’t tell me that snowman…!’

I quickly looked at Hammer, the mercenary captain who had followed. He was looking at Leo with a pitiful expression, shaking his head.

Only then did I realize what I had done.

‘Leo made it!’

No wonder it looked particularly cute and lovable!

I looked at Leo’s small back as he sat down helplessly in front of the snowman’s remains.

Seeing that he even gave it a name, he must have made it a friend like Tori, and I had killed it.

“Jui-bam-tol.”

So it’s not like I did it on purpose…

‘Actually, this snowman was made to be used as a target.’

“Snowmen are made to be shot and killed.”

‘What I mean is… Jui-bam probably closed his eyes peacefully without pain.’

“This mere lump of snow can’t feel pain.”

The more I spoke, the more awkward the atmosphere became.

The mercenaries muttered behind us, whispering things like ‘How could she do something so harsh!’

No, I know too. I know!

“…you.”

Just then, Leo mumbled something. I quickly went to the child’s side and listened closely.

Our Leo. What did you just say?

“For the next ten minutes, I hate Lady Belinda the most!”

Leo clutched tightly in his hand a pebble that had served as the snowman’s eye, like a keepsake, shouted at me, then ran straight into Shabert Forest.

“He… hates me?”

My goodness, Leo has developed likes and dislikes!

I had been secretly worried that he was just enduring everything by saying he liked it all. Finally, something he dislikes!

‘Ah, but saying he hates me is a bit hurtful.’

But still, likes and dislikes!

For a long while, I couldn’t decide whether to be happy or sad about Leo’s words.

* * *

The entrance to Shabert Forest.

As it was a tourist destination for nobles, gazebos were installed throughout the forest for tourists to rest.

Leo crouched inside a gazebo at the forest entrance, holding his head and groaning.

“Tori, what have I done.”

To shout that I hate Lady Belinda.

When he came to his senses, he was already yelling at Belinda and running through the forest.

Leo regretted his words immediately, not even a minute later, let alone ten minutes.

“I should go back and tell her I didn’t mean it.”

Leo sprang up like a spring.

Just as he was about to step outside the gazebo.

Thud.

The sound of snow falling from somewhere made his hair stand on end.

“…Huh?”

There wasn’t a single human shadow visible in the neatly maintained forest.

Yet goosebumps rose on his arms, and the snow-covered forest felt strangely frightening.

Leo couldn’t take a single step outside the gazebo and held back his footsteps.

‘Why is my heart pounding like this.’

He wasn’t lost. He could follow the footprints in the snow to get home, to Lady Belinda’s side.

But he couldn’t carelessly step into the forest.

The moment he left the gazebo, it felt like something hiding in the snow-covered forest would pounce on him.

‘I might be chased by ghosts like before.’

He thought that unconsciously, then blinked.

‘Like before?’

As if he had witnessed something truly terrible in a winter forest like this before, his body wouldn’t obey him.

Then Leo realized.

That his heart pounding when he saw the snow-covered scenery on the first day wasn’t from admiration or excitement, but from fear.

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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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