Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 33

***

It was an ambiguous night.

After confirming that Leo was asleep, I quietly left the room and headed straight towards the study.

‘I’ve been too complacent these days.’

When Terry conveyed the fact that an assassination request has come for Belinda with such causality, I really didn’t take it that seriously.

Belinda meets her end for various reasons around the middle of <Hirome>, so that essentially meant she was unharmed until just before <Hirome> started.

But then again, I haven’t seen the entire scenario but rather a part of it.

Thus, my ultimate goal is to change Belinda’s ending in <Hirome>.

I didn’t realize that my actions to change Belinda’s fate would endanger Belinda’s life, which I guess would have been very safe otherwise.

The real Belinda wouldn’t have gone out to watch a street parade full of commoners.

‘I almost shortened her lifespan by acting recklessly.’

It was when I opened the study room door with a tired sigh, three shadows suddenly loomed from the dark study.

My head froze up for a moment looking at the unexpected visitors.

“Master, you’ve come?”

“Mi-Miss Belinda!”

Tap.

As the light illuminated all the candles which was placed on the table, the faces of those gathered subordinates started becoming visible.

I asked them back with a belated scream.

“What are you all doing here, especially at this hour?”

My heart nearly dropped!

Apart from Vivian, the combination of the off-duty assassin and a demon-masked northern knight was terrifying and was very harmful to my heart.

“Of course, we have gathered here to hold a crisis meeting. We heard that you were attacked by demons during the festival. Please, have a seat. We want to have a conversation with you.”

Terry soothed me gently and sat me down at the place of the head.

It’s so heart touching that they have gathered for me in the middle of the night, but why are they sitting here in dark without even turning on the lights?

They look like villains who are plotting up for a conspiracy.

I was still trying to calm my trembling heart, when Terry brought some papers and spread them out in front of me like a deck of cards.

It was the list of individuals who had commissioned the assassination of Belinda that I had requested.

Terry soon pulled out a pair of glasses from her vest pocket to put them on and cleared her throat with a cough.

“Then, let’s start the briefing.”

The suit and the polite attitude that she had put on seemed quite butler-like.

As I nodded, she began her explanation.

Belinda’s death had always been commissioned by nobles who had some grudges against her.

Some would propose her in order to obtain her dowry, while others would make passionate confessions, yet some others would try to seek her and settle their old scores.

‘My reasons to emigrate keeps increasing.’

My life is threatened for the crime which I have not even committed.

“The creature that attacked the Master this time was a demon called the Shadow Crow. It’s usually tamed and used by assassins for tracking. If it eats a part of the target’s body as its first meal, it will relentlessly track down the target and attack, even if the target is at the end of the continent.”

Crackle.

“However, its attacking power is not particularly outstanding. So, it’s better to take this attack as not an intentional attempt to kill the master but more of… a kind of warning.”

Rustle. Slurp.

“Since it couldn’t consume his target in this attack, it won’t give up and will wait for the next opportunity. Especially at night…”

I raised my hand to momentarily silence Terry.

Then I turned to Vivian, who had been fiddling with something incessantly from the very beginning.

“Vivian, what exactly have you been fidgeting with in your hand?”

Vivian, with her plump cheeks, widened her eyes as if she had been caught unexpectedly.

While observing my reaction, she moved her mouth, gurgled, and swallowed the food in her mouth. With a dying voice, she explained,

“I-I was just anxious… so I was calming my mind with a meat pie.”

I’m not sure why she’s soothing her anxiety with a meat pie, but that was not the point.

I gave reproachful look to Tarry as if to ask why she brought the timid Vivian along, but instead she shrugged helplessly.

“After hearing about the master’s attack, she insisted on following me, saying she’d come with me too. I couldn’t help it.”

As soon as the talk about demons came up, I addressed the pale-faced Vivian, who looked like she was about to pass out.

“Bring a salad.”

“S-Salad? Yes, yes!”

Without asking for a reason, Vivian obediently rushed down to the kitchen as I instructed.

I ran through the briefing in the meantime.

So, to summarize it clearly: The attack was aimed at me, but it was more akin to harassment than a direct assassination.

And because we couldn’t eliminate the main body of the Shadow Crow, the demon is still wandering around freely.

Lastly, as if drawing a joker from the opponent’s deck, Terry gently pulled out a document that was kept unfolded in front of me.

[sc name=”add_image” image_url=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ABLVV85_kHSW6dbVzh7ZrNqItAXvdfJCFRAls1DIdOfxeoonXZuKJJFFiVTmJlFB0o0yAh-kczO30AXzIErTMpq9ShiwiXnKjdst4Dyhg8EYhvIurGnTfTk=w2400″][/sc]

I skimmed down the half-torn article.

[sc name=”add_image” image_url=” https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ABLVV84aE_E0WGwgS-5bifyzSEVlLTxNiPu4RTUvpNkEtaBEMfKWKkPamZr48qeGjiBfjoGBu4nF6lsigO23c1iLVBG9tXNWPIGE_4Yus2yOIWwrlzVVCwM=w2400″][/sc]

The article went on to say that Sybel, who sustained injuries as a result of the accident, abandoned the path of knighthood and left the academy.

Witnessing the news on the article about Belinda tormenting Sybel, I put down the documents with a perplexed heart.

Perhaps this incident was the beginning of it all.

Because from then on, Belinda’s behavior became insanely malicious, and her name appeared frequently in the articles.

“How should we handle this?”

At Terry’s quiet question, I mentally organized my priorities.

The top priority was the safety of my own life.

It’s natural to corner the little rat who stole a part of my body without shedding a drop of blood and offered it to Sybel, but that’s something I could think about later.

“First, we need to cancel the assassination requests on me, that should be the starting step we need to initiate.”

“Hehe, it’s been a while since we went on a field mission!”

Terry replied, sounding rather excited.

I didn’t inquire about her plan to cancel my assassination requests, as she seemed confident enough, and I didn’t press on to it any further.

At that moment, the office door quietly opened, and Vivian, who was holding a salad bowl, slowly entered.

By this time, I had said everything that I didn’t want Vivian to hear.

I picked out pieces of celery and carrots from the salad bowl she brought and stuffed them into the meat-filled pie.

I understand she’s a carnivore, but Vivian eats too much meat.

Even Leo doesn’t have such picky eating habits.

“Eat.”

Vivian took the special vegetable meat pie into her hands with an expressionless face.

She chewed and swallowed the rest of the pie with soulless eyes, like a carnivore that was chewing onto beans.

By the time she finished devouring the remaining pie, the crisis meeting concluded.

There was still a long way for the sunrise.

On the first day of the festival, the streets were bright with all kinds of lights, but it wasn’t enough to completely drive away the darkness.

If the Shadow Crow is targeting people in the darkness and If that’s the real case then…

“I’ll be back.”

Sir Penadel, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly spoke up.

I looked at him with a slightly stunned expression.

It was as if he knew what I was thinking.

“…Where are you going at this hour?”

“I thought you were worried about the shadow crow, weren’t you?”

“…….”

‘How did he know about my thoughts?’