Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 88

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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 88

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That night when everyone in the village was convinced that Belinda was the one who stole the sacred relic.

The back door of the inn where Belinda was staying opened silently.

The intruder entered, making slight noises as if knowing there was no one on the first floor of the inn.

Though his face wasn’t visible under the deeply pulled hood, his footsteps were quiet and refined, as if he had received proper education.

He headed straight for the stairs leading to the second floor.

Creak, creak. The sound of climbing stairs echoed through the empty inn several times.

Finally arriving in front of the room where Belinda was staying, the intruder opened the door with a key he had obtained beforehand and quietly entered.

The room’s owner was sleeping soundly on the bed, covered with blankets, oblivious to the world.

The intruder surveyed the room’s interior by the faint moonlight streaming through the window, then approached the hunting outfit hanging in one corner of the room.

True to its practical design, the outer fabric had pockets attached here and there.

Just as the intruder was about to take something from his inner pocket and put it into Belinda’s clothing pocket.

“Is it Holy Empire etiquette to leave gifts in the dead of night without asking the owner’s preference?”

“…!”

The startled intruder turned toward the bed to see Belinda sitting with her legs crossed, her cold face showing not a trace of sleepiness.

“H-how….”

At that moment, Lionel appeared at Belinda’s signal and instantly subdued the intruder.

In the process, what the intruder had been holding fell to Lionel’s feet.

What was revealed under the moonlight was none other than the sacred relic that all the villagers had been desperately searching for.

Lionel confirmed the intruder’s shocked face and spoke with a sorrowful expression.

“This is truly regrettable, Priest Mellio.”

* * *

The day before, having discovered the cause of the landslide, Belinda took the risk to visit Giuseppe.

Whatever his true intentions might be, Giuseppe welcomed Belinda.

Serving her tea, Giuseppe spoke sociably.

“I never expected Lady Blanche to visit me. You must have enjoyed the dinner.”

Right, the dinner. Belinda had been wondering all along why she was invited to the dinner.

At first, she thought it was simply because Giuseppe suspected her of being a dark mage.

But even so, there were parts that didn’t quite make sense.

The others had motives for betraying the temple and stealing the sacred relic, but she only had the suspicion of possibly being a dark mage.

The idea that a dark mage would automatically steal sacred relics was irrational thinking.

Yet Giuseppe had placed her alongside the suspects of the sacred relic theft.

Why?

After pondering for a long time, Belinda finally realized Giuseppe’s real reason for inviting her to the dinner.

“You intended to use me as bait.”

“Could you explain what you mean by that?”

Giuseppe maintained his leisurely smile to the end as he elegantly tilted his teacup.

“No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand. Why invite me to dinner? While pondering that reason, I tried thinking from your perspective.”

Belinda habitually tapped her index finger.

“There are suspects for stealing the sacred relic. But there’s no evidence. Also, as a priest, you couldn’t torture the suspects.”

“You understand well. Those who follow God must be merciful, so we don’t torture people carelessly.”

“Then how could you corner a culprit without physical evidence to retrieve the sacred relic? What you came up with was bait to lure the suspects.”

The culprit, pressured by Giuseppe, would have tried to dispose of the stolen sacred relic somehow. But now even disposing of the relic wasn’t feasible.

Moreover, the temple had taken a hard stance that they wouldn’t lift the blockade until the sacred relic was found.

With watchful eyes everywhere and Giuseppe’s suspicion upon them, the culprit had to shift their crime onto someone else to escape suspicion.

But what if there was a noble lady suspected of being a dark mage right beside them?

How perfect it would have seemed for framing someone needed no explanation.

Afterward, catching the culprit in the act of framing Belinda would end the situation.

Of course, from Belinda’s perspective as the bait, it was like a bolt from the blue, but she had to admit it was a clever move.

Click. Giuseppe set down his teacup and smiled leisurely.

“You’re quite clever, unlike what I observed.”

Observed? Not heard through rumors?

It was a strangely concerning remark, but that wasn’t what was important now.

I voiced the plan I had been considering.

“I’ll play the role of the best bait to lure out the culprit, and in return, I want to earn your trust.”

“My trust… That sounds as if I don’t trust Lady Blanche.”

“I don’t know what you know about me, but I won’t say whether that’s true or false. However, I want you to believe that what I’m about to say is the truth. If you wish, you may use the ‘Eye of Truth’ to judge if there are lies in my words. I permit it.”

For the first time, something resembling laughter appeared on his lips, which always bore only a faint smile.

“Very well. I accept. However, Lady Blanche, you’re mistaken about the prey you’re trying to catch.”

“What?”

“What I’m targeting isn’t those who sat alongside Lady Blanche. It’s the one who dared sit closest to me.”

The one who sat closest to Giuseppe would be….

“…You’re saying Priest Mellio is the culprit?”

Giuseppe answered with a beautifully painted smile instead of words.

There was no need to investigate whether his words were true.

【Ew, poop lump!】

While leaving the temple.

Suga, whom I had brought along thinking fairy blessings might be needed, suddenly started making retching motions.

“Suga, what are you looking at?”

【There, there! Smelly poop lump! More awful than the pink poop lump in Suga’s house!】

What Suga was pointing at was Priest Mellio, who was serving the villagers more diligently than anyone else.

* * *

“H-how did this… Why is Lord Lionel here?”

Mellio looked back and forth between Lionel and Belinda in dismay.

Lionel, restraining Mellio with one hand, picked up the sacred relic she had dropped and held it up to the moonlight.

It was a rosemary brooch of modest appearance. However, the divine power contained within it was comparable to that of a high-ranking priest.

Though no one could claim the divine power in the sacred relic as their own without finding its rightful owner.

Confirming that the brooch was genuine, Lionel muttered in a devastated voice.

“How could you commit such an immoral act as one who serves God?”

“Th-there’s a misunderstanding! I, I merely received divine revelation and snuck in here to retrieve the sacred relic. That’s right, divine revelation! Please let me see His Eminence the Cardinal. He will understand my innocence!”

At the ridiculous excuse of divine revelation, Belinda’s shoulders sagged.

‘So Priest Mellio really was the culprit.’

Now she understood why the sacred relic theft incident was covered up.

Both the culprit and the one who judged the culprit belonged to the temple, so it was thoroughly hidden for the temple’s honor.

However, if there was one question, it was how Giuseppe had figured out that she was the culprit.

She spoke toward the man who would be watching all of this.

“She’s pleading like that, so how about showing your face now, Cardinal?”

“What…?”

At Belinda’s words, Priest Mellio’s trembling gaze turned toward the door.

Then neat footsteps were heard, and Giuseppe appeared.

Like a flower that blooms at night rather than day, Giuseppe’s delicate features under the moonlight were shadowed with melancholic beauty.

“Priest Mellio, could you explain how I can prove your innocence?”

“Of, of course! Didn’t His Eminence the Cardinal swear to God! That among the three people who attended the dinner, there was a culprit. But if you treat me like a criminal, you’d be breaking your oath to God, and you might lose your divine power!”

“Ah, now that you mention it, I did make such a vow.”

Giuseppe nodded as if agreeing.

Just as Priest Mellio’s face was about to brighten as if finding hope.

“But Priest Mellio, think carefully. Did I really vow that one of the three people I invited to dinner was the culprit?”

“Wh-what do you mean….”

Mellio frantically racked his brain.

Surely, surely at that time he made a divine vow….

“…Could you make a divine vow?”

“Of course, Priest Mellio. There is a culprit among those who attended this dinner tonight. I swear to God.”

Mellio’s wide-eyed, dazed gaze turned toward Giuseppe.

That day, Giuseppe hadn’t said there was a culprit among the three.

He had simply vowed that there was a culprit among the dinner attendees, and Mellio was one of them too.

“Su-surely you knew everything from the beginning….”

“I have quite a keen sense for the stench of unbelievers. Lord Lionel, you can let him go now.”

“Yes.”

When Lionel released his hands, Mellio’s body collapsed and he fell to his knees.

Giuseppe stood before Mellio with light, quiet steps as if trampling flower petals.

Then he asked in a gentle voice as if singing a hymn.

“Mellio Sezarik, as God’s representative I ask you. Have you dabbled in black magic?”

In that moment, the air surrounding him changed.

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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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