Adopting the Male Protagonist Changed the Genre

People were scattering flower petals into the sky, and the laughter of the crowd filled the air.

I had spent most of my life in the city, but this was the first time I had ever been out on the streets in the middle of the day during a festival.

There were so many people; it seemed like the whole world had gathered here.

“Here’s your chance to see top-notch performers and magical creatures! Come to the Moon Circus!”

“You can only see these rare items from the Eastern lands once a year! Come and take a look!”

Leo’s head turned busily, as his entire surroundings were a spectacle. Everywhere he turned was like a different world.

Then, a dazzling sword caught his attention.

‘If I had something like that, I could become stronger, right?’

Lost in that thought, Leo’s steps slowed down.

And when he looked ahead again…

“Uh…?”

Belinda and Cedric were nowhere to be seen.

The crowd was so dense that even Cedric’s tall figure and his mask were no longer visible in Leo’s line of sight.

In a state of confusion, Leo stood there, hesitating for a while, before he suddenly decided to push through the crowd and run away.

But just as he was about to do so, a hand emerged from the crowd and grabbed Leo’s shoulder.

“There you are.”

“K- knight!”

It was Cedric. He held Leo’s shoulder gently to prevent him from getting pushed around by the crowd and whispered in a low voice.

“Well done. When you’re lost, it’s best not to leave the spot where you were separated from your group.”

Belinda, who had caught up, looked down at Leo with a grim expression on her face.

Her neatly tied hair was disheveled, possibly from running through the crowd.

“Ratchet!”

“Um, I’m sorry…”

A frightened Leo trembled and spoke. Cedric patted him gently on the back.

“The child stayed in place, so we could find him quickly.”

Even with Cedric’s words, Belinda’s expression remained unchanged.

She took a deep breath as if controlling her anger, then declared coldly, “I’ll have to put a leash on you.”

Cedric blinked. 

A leash…? Tying a leash on a child just because he got lost.

Cedric was about to step forward, unable to tolerate it.

“Stop!”

“Ha-hand.”

Leo’s hand was extended, and Belinda grasped it firmly.

Rather than shaking Leo’s hand back and forth in anger, she smiled with a sense of accomplishment, as if she was satisfied.

Then she gestured to Cedric, who was standing behind her.

“Sir, will you take the lead?”

“……Yes.”

And so, they walked along the path that led to the square, enjoying glasses of lemonade filled with honey as they strolled.

Leo, who had been moving quickly, suddenly fixed his gaze on something, causing his head to turn in that direction.

“Ratchet, what are you looking at so stupidly?”

“Miss Belinda, look over there. People are eating cloud-like treats!” Leo exclaimed excitedly in a whispering voice.

What he was pointing at was a cotton candy stand.

Belinda responded coldly.

“Silly. That’s called cloud candy.”

“Cloud candy…….”

Leo couldn’t take his eyes off the cloud candy, mesmerized. He couldn’t imagine what they tasted like.

Just then, Belinda let go of Leo’s hand.

Leo fidgeted with his right hand, which was now empty except for some coins that were left in his tiny palm.

“By the way, I forgot to pay you your allowance.”

“Allowance……?”

“I mean the money you get to spend however you want.”

Normally, Leo would hesitate to accept money. But the sweet smell of the cloud sweets wafting in all directions made him forget his patience.

Leo quickly ran over and bought two white, fluffy clouds.

He offered one to Belinda, but when she refused, he offered it to Cedric.

He took a bite out of the cloud-shaped puff of sugar in his hand.

“……!”

As the cotton candy fluff melted like a snowflake on his tongue, joy and excitement exploded on Leo’s face.

“The cloud candy……really is like a real cloud!”

“Of course, they are.”

A murderous grin appeared on Belinda’s face as she looked down at Leo, but fortunately, Leo was too preoccupied with the cloud snack to notice.

Bite by bite, he ate it carefully, but like snow melting in the rain, the cloud sweets disappeared into thin air.

With the last bite in front of him, Leo’s gaze suddenly turned to the lemonade in his other hand.

‘Adding something delicious to something delicious will make it even more delicious, right?’

Leo carefully dipped a bite-sized piece of cloud candy into the drink.

He opened his mouth wide to take a big bite.

“……?”

As if in an illusion, the cloud candy disappeared.

Leo looked back and forth between the empty wooden skewer and the lemonade with his mouth open, then muttered to himself.

“Cl-cloud candy. My cloud candy is…….”

Belinda, who had been silently observing the whole scene, covered her face with a fan and trembled with laughter.

“Ahem, ahem. Ratchet.”

“Yes…”

“Here’s one from Sir Penadel…….”

Belinda patted Leo on the back and glanced back at Cedric.

“Sir, why are you empty-handed?”

“Ah…….”

“Could it be that you actually ate it? Did you really eat the cloud candy that Ratchet  bought with his first allowance?”

Cedric couldn’t even make an excuse.

After giving him a murderous glare behind Leo’s back, Belinda finally pulled out a few more coins and shoved them into the child’s hand.

“Here’s your pay. Go buy another one.”

“But…….”

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

“Yes, yes!”

Leo’s steps were light as he ran with the money in his hand. Fortunately, the cloud candy stall was not far away.

Just as Leo was about to buy a cloud candy, something happened.

“What’s up, you little brat?”

At the familiar voice, Leo froze in place.

To his surprise, there stood Heiron, the son of the orphanage director where Leo had once lived.

“H-Hello, Heiron…”

His grumpy, scowling gaze fell on the money in Leo’s hand.

“You stole that money.”

“Oh, no! It’s my money.”

“You’re lying. You don’t have a mum or dad. So, who gives pocket money to a beggar?”

“My master…….”

“Hmm, so it’s true that you were sold into slavery?”

The words were sharp, coming from a child who should’ve been innocent.

“I’m not a slave, I…”

Leo’s voice grew weaker and weaker.

When he thought about it, he wasn’t even an official servant. He hadn’t become an adult.

In the end, Leo ran away from the spot.

Belinda, who had been watching the whole scene from the beginning, asked Leo as he returned.

“Are you acquainted with that piglet?”

“He’s not a piglet, his name is Heiron… He’s the son of the orphanage director.”

“Because that piglet said something, you came back empty-handed like a loser?”

Leo didn’t want to answer and murmured with his head down.

“Just…… what he usually says.”

“What does he usually say?”

“…That I’m a beggar……. without parents…”

As Leo hesitated in his response, he caught a glimpse of Belinda’s gaze and was startled. He hunched his shoulders and stopped talking.

“How dare he……”

Belinda wore an expression of anger that Leo had never seen before.

“Why don’t you have parents? They might appear later! No, go and tell him that you have them now.”

“Have parents? How?”

“Here.”

Belinda tapped her chest with her index finger.

“And there.”

She pointed at Cedric.

“But… that’s a lie…”

With an unexpectedly gentle expression, Belinda bent her knees and lowered herself to Leo’s eye level.

“Ratchet, listen carefully.”

Belinda’s hands wrapped around Leo’s shoulders as she met his gaze.

“Among the language used by nobles, there’s something called boasting and exaggeration. It’s just slightly inflating the truth, but it’s never a lie. If you want to become my servant, you need to know how to boast and exaggerate to this extent.”

“Boasting and exaggerating…”

“Now, try to repeat after me.”

Belinda rose from her seat, folded her arms, and said, with a look of condescension in her eyes.

“You don’t have such a pretty mum and a devilish dad at home, do you?”

“I-I-In your house, don’t you have a b-beautiful m-m-mother like this and a d-d-d-devilish f-f-f-father?”

“Good. Let’s go right away. Sir Penadel, grab the leash.”

With that, Leo held Belinda’s hand on one side and Cedric’s hand on the other as they all headed towards the cloud candy stand where Heiron was lingering.

“He- Heiron!”

“What? Why did you come back… Oh!”

Heiron, upon spotting Cedric next to Leo, let out an audible groan of despair.

Leo, feeling the firm warmth in both his hands, tightly closed his eyes and shouted.

“You don’t have such a pretty daddy and a devilish mommy at home, do you?” 

The sound of muffled laughter came from somewhere.