Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 44

Vivian’s throat tightened like a shrinking plum.

Feeling like a shrimp wedged between whales, she decided it was better to keep quiet and step back.

Cedric studied his opponent in silence.

His temperament, which had been so gentle before he fainted, had turned ferocious.

His expression, his demeanor, the way he walked, the way he spoke, it was impossible to tell that it was the same person.

“You aren’t ‘that’ wizard.”

“What, the hell. I‘m Cheshire.”

“You’re clueless.”

It was an insignificant comment, but strangely enough, the man was offended, as if he’d just heard a very strong swear word.

There was a moment of intense hostility in the man’s eyes and an indescribably dark golden glow.

Clang!

“Ah! Damn, that startled me!”

Suddenly emerging from the darkness, Terry thrust her dagger toward the man’s head.

However, despite Terry’s retaliatory attack, only loud sparks flew off.

Examining the blunted blade due to the impact against the golden barrier protecting the man, Terry whispered in admiration

“Well, you’re more thick-headed than I thought.”

‘Cheshire, this bastard is looking for a place to die.’, she thought.

Instinctively, Cheshire surrounded himself with magic to block the attack, but he didn’t even feel a hint of the opponent’s presence.

Two enemies.

No matter how much of a genius magician he was, handling two opponents one of them using aura in this narrow indoor space was quite challenging.

‘It’s not running away, it’s a strategic retreat!’

Quickly, the man flew out of the window, floating through the air without any magic circles or even a flick of his fingers. The remnants of magic were just traces of glittering magical power falling like stardust in the air.

Terry, who chased the man out of the mansion, observed the missed opportunity like a fisherman eyeing a lost catch.

The advantage of a magician in combat lies in the fact that only magicians can engage in aerial battles.

‘I should have broken his neck with the first attack.’

At that moment, Cedric, who had been watching the magician floating in the night sky like a hunter eyeing prey, spoke.

“Terry.”

“Yes? Me?”

“When I push him, finish it.”

Did the lord also know how to fly?

He spoke so naturally that for a moment, she was about to ask. Otherwise, how was one supposed to push an enemy flying in the sky? Especially, a magician who had created a barrier strong enough to withstand her sword.

About to protest, Terry paused as Cedric, holding his sword, looked at him.

Suddenly, the temperature plummeted in his vicinity, and the grass beneath his feet froze, glistening like ice crystals.

Cedric’s breath, now visible in the form of white vapor, resembled the breath of midwinter.

Observing this, Terry realized something.

This knight from the North had never drawn his sword before, not even once.

The reason was…

Swish.

Because he had never encountered an opponent worthy enough for him to draw his sword.

“Crazy.”

Realizing this as she watched the moonlight-like aura flying through the night sky

Thud.

After swinging the sword once and suppressing the ferocious aura, Cedric stood tall and cold like a god ruling over the winter.

Terry decided to restrain herself from challenging Cedric in the future as she ran back to the man who had been hit by the aura and thrown back into the mansion.

***

When I opened my eyes, it was still midnight.

I blinked slowly with a hazy mind.

“Did I hear something?”

While lying down, I tilted my head to listen, but the surroundings were silent as if it had been my imagination.

As I awkwardly sat up, the fairy tale book that covered my chest fell with a thud.

Only then did I remember that last night, in an attempt to comfort the disheartened Leo after the fire in the flower garden, I had opened the secret hideout I made by stacking pillows for the first time in a long while.

I had intended to move Leo to the bed after watching him fall asleep, but it seemed I had dozed off in the meantime.

“There’s no such thing as a flower that never wilts, and if you feel like it’s your fault that it did, then…… Alright, next spring, let’s plant new sprouts in the flower garden with your hands. That should make up for your mistake.”

Unable to simply consider the mistake as just a mistake and feeling the need to somehow make amends, Leo could only fall asleep after hearing those words.

I gently patted Leo’s back as he slept, huddled as much as possible.

I must be dozing off again.

Perhaps it was because drowsiness was creeping back.

In the shadows cast by Leo and me under the tent, only mine seemed to blur vaguely.

“Did I see it wrong?”

Rubbing my eyes and attempting to focus on the shadows again.

Bang!

A deafening noise echoed through the mansion, startling Leo to sit up abruptly.

This time, it wasn’t a misconception.

It seemed like something was causing a commotion inside the mansion.

“Keep sleeping. I’ll check and come back.”

“I, I’ll come with you.”

In the end, I left the room with Leo.

And soon, we found the source of the commotion.

Crash!

The windows in the corridor vibrated as if shaking in the strong wind, and something smashed the windows, hurling into the mansion.

An unseasonable chill filled the air, and the man pinned to the mansion’s walls was eerily familiar.

“Geez, old man. Pull out your aura a bit more gently.”

Speaking roughly as if talking to a ruffian, the man grumbled.

“Teacher?”

At Leo’s call, the man, Cheshire, turned to look at Leo.

“What’s this little crump? Hey, crump! Stop yapping around here and get lost!”

What caught my eye at that moment was not the unfamiliar expression or tone of the strange Cheshire.

It was the brooch of the magic tower attached to his lapel.

The brooch, which measured the wearer’s magical power, was fluctuating haphazardly between the 3rd and 9th rank.

“Teacher, are you okay?”

Leo tried to rush towards Cheshire in one breath, but I grabbed the child’s shoulder to stop him.

For some reason, I could instinctively tell that the man in front of me wasn’t Cheshire.

Even though he looked exactly like him.

And finally, Cheshire’s gaze landed on me.

His fiercely furrowed brow slowly relaxed.

He looked up at me with a blank expression, as if he had witnessed something unbelievable.

It was an incredibly innocent face for a man so calculating and adept at hiding his true intentions.

The man stared at me blankly, as if mesmerized by something, and then muttered.

“…… Angel?”

“Gap found!”

That’s when Terry, seemingly melting out of the darkness, punched Cheshire in the back of the neck as she had once done.

Cheshire collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Terry, finally catching her breath, pointed at the stunned Cheshire and said, as if she were a snitch.

“Master, he’s really out of it!”

It certainly seemed that way.

I turned to the one person who probably knew the truth about this whole debacle.

“Vivian, is this why you’re scared of Cheshire?”

To Vivian, who was trembling at the end of the corridor.