Roxana
Chapter 19
Chapter 19
The Way to Protect
the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 19
He was clearly trying to change the subject.
I considered ignoring his diversion and pressing the matter of his clothes, but in the end, I answered him plainly.
“Eat well, sleep well, rest well, and heal as quickly as you can.”
Cassis had clearly not expected such an answer from me. He stared at me like someone who had just heard something utterly unforeseen.
“Eat, for now. There’s no poison in it.”
Cassis’s gaze lowered to the tray resting on the floor.
“Just in case you have your doubts.”
Before he could say a word, I took a bite of each dish on the tray and put them into my mouth.
Watching what I was doing, Cassis’s eyes narrowed with a subtle flinch.
I waited a moment, allowing him to see that the food I had eaten was harmless.
Of course, no poison here could ever harm me anyway, but Cassis didn’t know that.
In truth, this was nothing more than a show put on for his benefit.
“If it’s still hard to believe, shall I take another bite?”
“No need.”
His tone somewhat curt, Cassis pulled the tray toward himself across the floor. Then, crossing his arms, he stared at me in silence.
Thinking it would be uncomfortable for him to eat with me watching, I told him I would go check if the servant fetching his clothes had arrived, and left the room.
Seeing that there was nowhere decent even to sit for a moment, I thought it would be wise to have a chair brought in later.
Once I was certain he posed no threat to me, I intended to provide him with other necessities as well.
A short while later, I headed back toward the room with a set of fresh clothes for Cassis.
Naturally, I hadn’t carried the garments myself; I had Emily, who followed behind me, carry them.
It had been the same when bringing the food and medicine earlier.
Troublesome though it was in a way, I could not afford to give the impression that I was personally attending to Cassis hand and foot.
Reaching the door, I dismissed Emily.
“That will be all. You may go, Emily.”
“Yes, Milady.”
Taking the clothes handed to me by Emily, I stepped into the room where Cassis was kept.
Having to unlock and lock the door every time I enter or leave is truly a bother. It must feel awful for the one locked inside, too.
Not that there’s any other choice for now.
Furrowing my brow slightly, I pushed the door handle.
Click.
And the moment I finally stepped inside, I froze.
Unlike before, Cassis was on his feet. My eyes were drawn instinctively to his back, turned toward the doorway.
The reason my steps halted was that he had taken off his shirt, baring his upper body.
The flickering light from afar traced a hazy contour across his physique.
Bandages were wrapped here and there around his body, and wherever bare skin showed, countless crimson scars and wounds were etched into his flesh.
Yet, the moment I saw his bare torso, the first thought that crossed my mind was not that it must hurt.
The released door slid shut behind my back with a soft hiss.
Thud.
The door shut completely at last. Cassis angled his head slightly, looking toward me.
The moment my eyes met those calm, shadow-veiled golden orbs, my breath caught in my throat for reasons I could not name.
Needless to say, it was neither my first time seeing a man’s bare chest nor my first time seeing Cassis like this.
Earlier, when tending to the wounds the physician had treated so inadequately, I had stripped his garments away with my own hands.
Back then, I had certainly felt nothing in particular at the sight of his bare body.
But now…
Why was this subtle sense of fluster washing over me now?
Was it because the room was dimmer than before? Or because Cassis, who had been lying motionless earlier, was now moving with such vivid presence, staring straight at me?
It felt as though I had trespassed upon a profoundly private scene.
The reddish glow spreading from the candelabra made Cassis stand out starkly against the surrounding darkness.
Just then, Cassis parted his lips slowly.
“I need to wash.”
His low voice, little more than a whisper, grazed my ears.
The tattered shreds of cloth fell from his hand with a soft drop. The finely sculpted muscles of his back flexed along with the motion, carving out even sharper contours.
“Ah, right…”
I replied without thinking. A beat later, I snapped to my senses.
Really, why am I acting like this over merely seeing someone half-naked?
And what on earth is with this strange, loaded atmosphere?
It seemed keeping the candlelight low and dim earlier had been the mistake.
But brightening the room now felt awkward, given that Cassis was standing there undressed.
It would look bizarre to suddenly brighten the room the very moment he took off his shirt after leaving it dim all this time.
Of course, entertaining such thoughts at all was proof enough that I was overly conscious of him.
Furrowing my brow slightly, I let out a calm, nonchalant voice.
“That door over there leads to the washroom. Having me attend to everything all the time would be awkward for both of us, so I deliberately chose a room with an adjoining bath.”
Attached to this room was a modest washroom. Naturally, all dangerous objects had already been cleared away.
The layout of the room wasn’t flat and open, so from where Cassis stood, he likely hadn’t spotted the other door along the wall.
His gaze shifted toward the direction I indicated.
“This.”
Immediately after, Cassis lifted his arm slightly to show me.
“I can’t change clothes with these chains.”
Ah, now that he mentioned it, he was right.
The restraints themselves were fitted snugly around his wrists and ankles, so they wouldn’t matter much, but the chains would certainly get in the way of dressing and undressing.
But how did he take off his shirt just now, then?
With that question in mind, I looked down at the floor and quickly found the answer. The garment Cassis had just discarded was torn into complete rags.
His shirt had already been ripped to shreds from the floggings in the dungeon and Charlotte’s assault.
So he must have simply ripped it off this time as well.
Even if stripping it off could be handled that way…
It was impossible to thread sleeves and pant legs over his limbs while bound by heavy chains.
After a moment of thought, I proposed to him:
“How about I remove the chains from your wrists and ankles, and put a collar on you instead?”
“…….”
Cassis remained silent. Naturally, he looked thoroughly displeased by my suggestion.
The look in his eyes seemed to grow a fraction colder.
“I’d think it’s better than dragging four separate chains around your limbs.”
Of course, the restraints would stay. They were tools designed to suppress the bound subject’s power.
In particular, they served to restrict physical movement whenever an aggressive act was attempted.
Naturally, Anti-Monster Restraints possessed far greater binding force than ordinary monster restraints.
Yet given that he had shattered the restraints during the incident with Charlotte, I had my doubts about whether their effect truly worked on him in full.
That was precisely why I remained on guard, wary that he might attack me despite wearing them.
But conversely, if even the restraints held no complete sway over Cassis, the chains were essentially useless from the start.
So swapping the chains on his limbs for a collar was merely keeping up appearances anyway.
Yet, mere appearance or not, from my standpoint I could not skip it entirely.
Cassis gave no verbal reply, but his gaze conceded to my words.
Needless to say, it wasn’t as if he liked the idea of a collar.
But Cassis, too, seemed to agree that detaching and reattaching chains to the restraints whenever necessary would be a nuisance.
Presently, he lowered his arms as if telling me to do as I pleased, and looked at me.
I stepped toward him at once.
In truth, when having Cassis’s clothes prepared, I had already ordered a collar brought along. While I hadn’t foreseen that the chains would hinder him from changing clothes, the loud clanking they made at his slightest movement had been grating on my nerves anyway.
Of course, how the servant who prepared the collar on my orders looked at me… I shall refrain from mentioning.
Since I still had no intention of letting anyone else into this room, I had to fasten the collar around Cassis’s neck myself.
And to do that, I inevitably had to step close to him.
Cassis, seeming to understand this, accepted my approach.
“Bear with it, even if it’s uncomfortable.”
I stood facing Cassis. For a brief moment, his gaze fell upon my face.
But a second later, he averted his eyes, turning away.
He could look a bit longer, but he’s quite resolute. Isn’t my beauty supposed to be one of my greatest weapons?
If things turned out that way, with Cassis falling under the spell of my looks like other men, everything would become so much easier.
Feeling a trace of regret, I reached out toward him. The moment my fingers brushed against his neck, Cassis flinched slightly.
But aside from that, he made no other move, allowing me to fasten the collar around his neck without difficulty.
“…….”
Then, looking at Cassis wearing the black leather around his throat…
Somehow, the atmosphere lingering in the air felt distinctly stranger than before.
A handsome youth, bare-chested and covered in cruel scars, collared by a leash.
Feeling as if I had turned into some sort of pervert, I grimaced reluctantly.
And I discovered that Cassis was wearing a remarkably similar expression.
I unlocked the chains binding Cassis’s arms and legs, connecting one of them to the collar instead.
Though he still wore the restraints, feeling relieved simply by the absence of the heavy chains, Cassis rotated his wrists and ankles as if stretching.
“The layout of this manor is like a labyrinth, to the point where even some of my siblings lose their way from time to time.”
I spoke up, just in case Cassis harbored any reckless ideas.
“Someone coming to Agriche for the first time would naturally be unable to find the exit and end up wandering the manor.”
At my seemingly offhand remark, Cassis turned his head.
“Of course, I know the shortcut leading straight to the exit.”
Immediately after, my eyes met his golden gaze at close range.
I flashed Cassis an innocent smile, as if to say, What could I possibly have meant by that?
“Go on inside and wash up.”
