Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre - Chapter 59

The situation where the seemingly normal man referred to himself in the third person as “Master has come to see Penadel, how touching!” was quite awkward, but his face still made it okay.

Since I know there’s a charming beauty under that mask, it’s kind of new, cute, forgivable, and all that.

‘No, let’s stop escaping reality.’

I opened my mouth, hoping my expression would be as shameless and haughty as usual.

“Are you Duke Baluasten?”

“Um, yes, yes. That’s correct. …Lady Blanche?”

While the Duke remained stiff and awkward, I sat opposite him and asked Terry for tea.

Only then did the duke seem to regain his composure and sat back down somewhat hesitantly.

The eyes behind the mask darted back and forth between me and Penadel.

It was quite different from the vague impression I had in mind.

Of course, I couldn’t see his appearance because of the mask, but I vaguely expected him to be like the men in the north, few in words or rough, or maybe a macho man.

But the Duke I saw with my own eyes… was like a circus bear.

Riding a unicycle, wobbling back and forth, looking at the trainer.

It wasn’t as difficult to deal with as I had thought, so I spoke in a slightly milder tone.

“You came without notice.”

Of course, as always, just because I sounded mild didn’t mean my words were mild.

The duke didn’t know how to respond to what sounded like a complaint.

“I-I’m sorry, no, um, excuse me.”

Upon scrutinizing him with the lie detector glasses, I knew that the duke was far from the figure in the rumors, but… isn’t this a bit excessively mild?

I examined the duke’s appearance with renewed scrutiny.

From what I could deduce beneath the mask, he seemed to have more pronounced signs of aging than I expected.

I heard that the Grand Duke is about twenty-four years old.

Looking at him, he looks almost half a century old.

Perhaps the Grand Duke doesn’t wear a mask to hide his ugly appearance, but rather to hide his tremendous presbyopia, which has turned malicious.

Or maybe he’s only presbyopic from the bottom, not the top of his cheekbones.

Let’s not jump to conclusions.

“Wait a minute. But I thought you had to wear a mask when you left the north.’

Then perhaps the people have never seen the Grand Duke’s face properly.

I squinted and scrutinized every inch of him.

As if he could bear it no longer, the Grand duke coughed a few times and then spoke.

“I have come to see Lady Blanche……”

The Grand duke’s eyes rolled to Sir Penadel, who stood behind me.

He nodded as if he’d been told what to do, and then spoke heavily.

“To get Sir Penadel back.”

* * *

Pernadel’s steps as he walked out were weak.

Cedric, who followed silently behind him, opened the carriage door, and the two of them awkwardly looked at each other for a moment before getting into the carriage.

And when the carriage was more or less out of the Blanche mansion.

“Your Grace!”

Pernadel’s suppressed sobs burst out.

“Do you know how terrified I was? Lady Blanche looked at me as if I were the most repulsive creature in the world. No, Your Grace! I mean me pretending to be your Grace!”

It was rumored how fearsome Belinda Blanche could be. However, Penadel was a knight who had fought in wars.

Dealing with a noble lady causing mischief in society was nothing to him.

But…

“What do you mean by ‘retrieve’?”

“There’s an urgent matter that requires Sir Penadel’s presence…”

“Look me in the eyes when you speak. So, what’s this urgent matter?”

“Well, uh, it’s something that requires Sir Penadel’s presence for about two hours…”

“Requires his presence?”

“If you could lend Sir Penadel for about two hours, I would be grateful.”

“Do you need exactly two hours?”

“……No. Well, maybe three hours, just in case…….”

“Then you should have said so from the start, I thought you were breaking the terms of the agreement when you said you wanted Sir Penadel back.”

With each word Belinda picked apart, it felt like his mouth was getting drier.

For some reason, he couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling, but Belinda confidently took out a pocket watch and precisely stated the time.

“I’ll give you three hours starting now. Return him without a single hair out of place. See you at the coffee house on Melvet Street in three hours.”

***

The king’s summons demanded that the Grand Duke of Baluasten come to the capital at once as if the situation were urgent.

As soon as Penadel had passed through the gates of the royal city in the guise of Cedric, he was also ordered to visit the palace without delay.

So Penadel, with no time to rest, immediately traveled to visit Cedric at the Blanche family home.

Thanks to the mask he had been wearing all along, reverting to his original identity posed no problem.

Thus, Penadel returned to being the Duke’s subordinate, while Cedric returned to being the Duke, standing before the threshold of the royal palace.

There might have been a reason why the king urgently summoned the grand duke to the royal palace, and although it seemed like a fleeting hope, Penadel had some expectations.

However, as the thick and ornate doors of the royal palace emitted music from beyond, Penadel realized that his expectations for the king were perhaps too high.

’He’s still not in his right mind.’

Even as Cedric and Penadel received the royal summons and entered the royal palace, the party continued without pause.

It wasn’t a gathering where the people or nobles presented petitions or grievances to the king.

The once red carpet that the oppressed had to walk on was soaked with alcohol and the scent of revelry, turning the solemn interior into a lively dance floor.

Seeing some unknown dirt splattered on the flag behind the throne, Penadel wished he could just turn around and return to the North.

But unlike Penadel, Cedric walked along the long carpet without hesitation, ignoring the surrounding clamor.

Step by step, as Cedric approached, the bustling movements of the revelers and the musicians slowed down for the first time.

As if blood was freezing in their veins, everyone held their breath as the figure wearing the iron mask strode confidently along the carpet.

When he finally reached before the king, everyone was tense, unable to take their eyes off the enigmatic figure before them.

For the first time in a week of uninterrupted revelry, the music in the Hall of Audience ceased.