Roxana
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 16
Usually, no matter how hard someone tried to feign unconsciousness, it was bound to show in one way or another.
Especially when they were pressed as closely together as this.
If nothing else, the very rhythm of breathing differed between someone who was conscious and someone who was not.
Yet Cassis showed not a single suspicious sign, leading me to assume he had genuinely passed out.
Even now, he lay quietly with his eyes shut, letting out the same shallow, undisturbed breaths as before.
I observed him for a short while, but nothing changed as time passed.
That left me puzzled.
If Cassis had truly regained consciousness, could he really keep from showing even the slightest stir of emotion?
After all, turning one’s head was something one could do even in deep slumber.
Was it just my imagination, then?
Still, I did not entirely let go of my suspicion as I looked down at his face.
Hmm. Still, just in case—considering even the slimmest possibility, shouldn’t I lay some groundwork?
“…It feels a bit ridiculous to say this to someone who isn’t even conscious.”
I parted my lips again, letting out a soft voice as though murmuring to myself.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him earlier.”
If Cassis truly was unconscious right now, that was fine; if he was merely pretending to be, that was fine as well.
“But I couldn’t step in right there.”
Of course, it would be all the better if he could hear the words I was whispering.
“Still, that won’t happen from now on. You belong to me now, so no one else can lay a hand on you as they please.”
In this household, pretexts and formal claims mattered more than one might think.
Therefore, from this moment on, not even Lant Agriche could treat Cassis—who was now my plaything—however he wished, as he had just done.
Once more, I gently stroked Cassis’s hair.
“I will make sure you get out of here.”
Rather than words meant solely for Cassis, it was closer to an encouraging resolve aimed at myself.
Could I truly help this man escape Agriche safely?
The question I had asked myself countless times since meeting Cassis lingered in my mind once more.
Of course, no one knew the answer to that.
* * *
Meanwhile, just as Roxana suspected, Cassis was not unconscious at that moment.
To be more precise, he had never fainted in the first place.
“My shoes have gotten dirty.”
After declaring that Cassis would be placed under Roxana’s possession, Lant Agriche called for a subordinate standing nearby.
“Clean them.”
“Yes, Master.”
The man rushed over immediately, dropping to his knees without hesitation to wipe Lant Agriche’s blood-soaked shoes with the hem of his clothes.
He looked less like a subordinate and more like a thoroughly tamed slave.
Collapsed on the floor, Cassis watched the scene with a wave of disgust.
Then, once Lant Agriche departed, he feigned losing consciousness from overwhelming pain.
“Lady Roxana, what should we do with the plaything?”
“Take him to an empty room in my quarters.”
Right after that familiar voice rang in his ears, two burly men approached, seizing Cassis by both arms and dragging him along.
Cassis let the strength drain from his body and drooped his head, making himself appear genuinely unconscious.
“Just who on earth is this plaything for the Master himself to step in and beat him into a bloody pulp like this?”
Once they were some distance away from where they had started, the man on Cassis’s left lowered his voice and spoke in curiosity.
From his words, it seemed rare for Lant Agriche to personally lay hands on someone brought in from a hunt like this.
The man on the right clicked his tongue in response.
“Drop it. People like us do best not prying too deep. Once someone ends up in Agriche in this state, they’re not leaving alive either way.”
At that, the first man fell silent in agreement.
Firmly convinced that Cassis was unconscious, the two paid him little attention.
Maintaining his pretense of unconsciousness, Cassis mapped out the path connecting the previous location to where they were now.
He needed to determine in advance where he was being taken and grasp the layout of this estate.
If the opportunity presented itself right now, he was prepared to attempt an escape even at considerable risk.
But Cassis could not help hesitating.
Even in his injured state, dealing with the two men beside him would not be difficult.
However, he could not be certain whether he could find the right exit and make it out afterward.
Furthermore, his vision had not yet fully recovered, leaving his sight decidedly narrow.
If only it were poison rather than sorcery, his recovery would have been faster than this.
If he forced the issue in this condition, it was plain as day that he would be recaptured before he could even clear the estate—a hundred times out of a hundred.
Cassis recognized the recklessness of the plan, yet because he could not be certain if even an opportunity like this would come again, he could not easily bring himself to give up.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time Lady Roxana has ever taken a plaything, isn’t it?”
“He’s probably the luckiest bastard out of all the playthings so far. If he’d ended up with one of the other young masters or ladies, his internal organs would’ve been dissected within a few days and fed straight to the wild dogs.”
At the sudden mention of that name catching his ear, Cassis briefly recalled the person he had just met.
Roxana Agriche.
When he first learned that the girl visiting the underground dungeon was Lant Agriche’s daughter, Cassis could not help being somewhat surprised as well.
But once the truth came to light, the doubts he had harbored until then were resolved to some degree.
A sense of betrayal was out of the question. Nor did he feel deceived. Such things were only possible between people who trusted each other.
Rather, it felt as though the murky fog before his eyes had cleared away.
Yes, it was far better than having to harbor endless, vague suspicions because he could not identify the person approaching him.
Of course, another question had arisen after that.
The girl had claimed it was purely out of goodwill, but Cassis was neither innocent nor foolish enough to take that at face value.
“I will train him well so as not to disappoint you.”
“Until you escape this place safely, I will protect you.”
Which of the two was the truth was something only Roxana knew.
Just then, he sensed another presence ahead.
Cassis closed his eyes again and quietly focused his senses.
“Ah. Greetings, Madam.”
The men holding Cassis’s arms tensed in surprise as they offered their greetings.
Madam?
At the appearance of this unexpected figure, Cassis knitted his brows ever so faintly.
Come to think of it, he had heard that Agriche made up a considerably large family.
Unlike Pedelian, which had only one mistress of the house, he vaguely recalled hearing that Lant Agriche had taken over ten women as his wives.
The person appearing before Cassis now seemed to be one of them.
“Is that child… dead, by any chance?”
What followed was a voice so frail it was hard to believe it belonged to a member of Agriche.
Perhaps it felt even more so because the voice reaching Cassis’s ears trembled faintly.
Seeing Cassis feigning unconsciousness, she seemed to have mistaken him for a corpse.
To be fair, Cassis was drenched in enough blood that mistaking him for a corpse would hardly be unreasonable.
Part of it was due to meeting Lant Agriche just now, but he had already been steeped in blood long before that.
“No, Madam. He has merely fainted.”
“By the way, what brings Madam here when you should be in the East Wing? Have you come to see Lady Roxana?”
The men diverted the topic without explaining Cassis’s condition in detail.
It even seemed as though they were reluctant to let the woman before them see Cassis in this state.
Judging by the woman’s reaction just now and the men’s attitude, she appeared to be someone unaccustomed to the sight of blood.
More importantly, didn’t they just say Roxana?
Cassis recalled the name that had just slipped from the man’s mouth.
Could this person be Roxana’s mother, then?
“I heard Sana brought in a plaything. May I see him as well?”
“This is Lady Roxana’s plaything right here.”
“This child?”
A plaything. Hearing the term again made his stomach churn with unpleasantness.
The woman raised her voice slightly, sounding somewhat surprised.
It seemed she had not imagined the person before her eyes right now was the boy who had become Roxana’s plaything.
“Then… did Sana do this to him?”
She asked back in disbelief.
“No. This was not Lady Roxana, but the Master who…”
At the reply that followed, the woman let out a soft breath. The strange tension felt from up ahead slowly dissipated.
Moments later, the sound of light footsteps approached Cassis.
