Roxana
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 21
* * *
“Lady Roxana. Are you heading to the toy right away?”
“No, I’m stopping by the Poison Butterfly Hatchery first.”
Three days had passed since then.
My daily routine with Cassis was much the same every day. I visited him three times a day to bring him his meals in person.
It seemed Cassis used these visits to gauge the passage of time.
Since I could not tend to his wounds every time, I had not forgotten to summon a physician separately.
In truth, I had plenty to do besides looking after Cassis.
Stopping by the Poison Butterfly Hatchery was one of those tasks.
Today, the hatchery was thick with humid, sultry heat. The air circulating in the enclosed space was heavy and suffocatingly damp.
This place had originally been one of the Agriche greenhouses used for cultivating poisonous herbs, but after acquiring the Poison Butterfly egg, I had it converted into a hatchery.
Because of that, it remained completely overrun with flora exhaling toxic vapors.
If an ordinary person were to step inside, they would surely collapse within ten seconds.
Yet this murky air, steeped in a medley of poisons, hardly affected me at all.
I cut through the dense thicket of toxic herbs and walked deeper inside.
Before long, a black egg enveloped in thorny brambles came into view.
The Poison Butterfly egg had now grown to nearly the size of two clenched fists placed together.
Standing before it, I drew the dagger I had prepared in advance. Then, without hesitation, I pushed up my sleeve and slit my arm.
The sharp blade sliced through skin. With a stinging prick, blood welled and rose in bead-like droplets.
Drip, drip.
Soon, the red blood streaming from my arm spilled down over the black egg.
The egg, bathed in blood, gradually began to stain a dark crimson.
“Eat well. And if you can, grow a little faster.”
Originally, I had three Poison Butterfly eggs in total, but this was the only one remaining.
By nature, the success rate for hatching a Poison Butterfly was a mere thirty percent.
As a type of demonic beast, locating a habitat where their eggs lay was exceedingly difficult, but subordinating one was harder still.
To imprint as a Poison Butterfly’s master, one had to periodically feed it blood even before it cracked from its shell.
Aside from that, the nourishment beneficial to its hatching—as its name suggested—was poison itself.
Thus, this greenhouse, which had long cultivated poisonous herbs, was an ideal breeding ground for the Poison Butterfly.
The same held true for my blood, laden with toxins I had ingested since childhood.
For that reason, my current intake of poison was far greater than before.
Ordinarily, the one who found this Poison Butterfly egg was supposed to be the ‘White Beast Tamer,’ one of the novel’s male leads.
He possessed the innate ability to command demonic beasts, and within the original story, he succeeded in locating the Poison Butterfly habitat and hatching its egg.
Having a vague recollection of that scene, I had given Emily the location of the nesting grounds and ordered her to retrieve the eggs.
Breeding or taming demonic beasts was an exceptionally rare gift. Naturally, I possessed no such talent.
Yet if it were an unhatched Poison Butterfly, I thought it might be possible to imprint myself as its master.
After all, the more means one had to protect oneself, the better, was it not?
Even if it ended in failure, I had nothing to lose.
So, with the mindset that I had nothing at risk, I had the egg gathered and continued to feed it my blood at regular intervals.
Having fully absorbed my blood, the Poison Butterfly egg now looked as though it were enveloped in a thin, translucent membrane.
After roughly stanching the bleeding from my arm, I stroked the egg’s surface. A faint, gentle warmth seeped into my fingertips, much like touching the skin of a living creature.
Somehow, I had a feeling the day this egg hatched would not be far off.
* * *
Leaving the Poison Butterfly Hatchery, I made my way to Cassis.
“It’s time for lunch.”
Today’s lunch menu consisted of chicken stew, grain bread, and fruit.
Because anything requiring a fork and knife had to be avoided, the dishes I could offer him were limited.
“You come in person every time, troublesome as it must be.”
Cassis still maintained a cold demeanor toward me, but he seemed less ill at ease around me than he had at first.
He was gentler and more cooperative than I had anticipated.
I brought the food over to Cassis, who was sitting on the bed.
As I set the tray down upon the bed and took a step back, I suddenly felt something surge up from deep within my gut.
Urgh. A sound akin to a dry heave broke past my lips.
Drip.
What followed, trickling past the hand clutching my mouth, was dark crimson blood.
My stomach had been aching ever since I ingested the poison Emily brought me yesterday, and in the end, it had come to this.
I wiped the corner of my mouth with my sleeve, thinking casually to myself.
Clatter.
At the sudden sound ahead, I looked up to find Cassis staring up at me. His face was frozen stiff, as if shaken by what had just occurred.
His rounded eyes, opened slightly wider than usual, looked somehow unfamiliar.
It seemed he had gone to lift the tray on the bed only to drop it back down.
“You…”
Cassis parted his lips as if to say something.
Yet he seemed at a loss for words, unable to fathom what he ought to say.
“That blood just now…”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Seeing him like that, I offered an apology.
To Cassis, this must certainly have been a jarring sight.
“It’s mealtime, and I’ve ruined your appetite.”
Having someone suddenly vomit blood right before his meal, it was only natural he would wear such an expression.
He didn’t find it repulsive, did he?
At my nonchalant response, Cassis’s expression shifted. He looked at me with a bewildered gaze and spoke again.
“That’s not it… Didn’t you just cough up blood?”
“I did, but… don’t mind it. It’s nothing.”
I spoke as I covered my mouth with my sleeve. Without a mirror here, I could not cleanly wipe away the blood that must have smeared my lips and chin.
Moreover, my sleeve was already stained with red.
Cassis’s gaze remained riveted to the crimson marks upon my clothes.
“Coughing up blood is nothing?”
Cassis’s face seemed to harden even further than before.
“Yes. Something like this…”
Pondering for a moment how I ought to reply, I continued.
“It’s happened quite often since a long time ago.”
There was no real need to explain the circumstances behind vomiting blood, was there?
If anything, telling him that ingesting poison from childhood to build immunity was the Agriche family way might backfire.
He might even be appalled, taking me for a ruthless monster no different from the rest of the Agriche family for consuming poison as routinely as meals.
Ah, so perhaps I shouldn’t have acted so utterly unfazed?
Would it have been better to act startled, as if seeing blood like this were a first?
Of course, it felt a bit late for that now.
To the people of Agriche, something of this degree truly was nothing, so I had failed to consider how my reaction might appear to Cassis.
“Often, since a long time ago?”
Just then, Cassis, who had been watching me with a rigid expression, furrowed his brow as though a thought had struck him.
“Come to think of it, last time as well…”
Hm? Last time?
Had there been another occasion when I coughed up blood in front of Cassis?
I had no such recollection. Nor did Cassis add anything further.
Curiosity piqued as to what he had intended to say.
Yet more than that right now…
“Are you perhaps worried about me?”
I asked softly, watching his face. At once, Cassis flinched.
“Worried? Why would I be?”
Abruptly, a chill settled over his features.
“Anyone would be startled to see someone vomit blood right before their eyes, would they not?”
A cold voice rang in my ears.
Between his face—now far more frigid than before, as if my words were utterly preposterous—and his sharp retort, it was an outright denial.
Yet instinctively, I sensed an opening I could slip through.
“Ah, I see… It’s so familiar to me that I never considered another person might be startled.”
Looking back, from what I had grasped of Cassis so far, he was the type to stand firm against the strong and soften before the weak.
In that case, showing him a slightly more vulnerable side at this opportunity wouldn’t hurt.
“Still, I thought you despised me… To show concern even for someone like that, you really are kind.”
I offered Cassis a faint smile, deliberately casting an aura of wistful, aching melancholy.
“Thank you.”
Faced with that, Cassis looked completely at a loss for words.
Ah, but to play frail now, hadn’t I already struck him in the solar plexus and knocked him cold before?
Ugh. Still, Cassis seemed to have forgotten about that for the moment, so let’s just pretend not to know.
Besides, at that time, Cassis hadn’t even been able to see.
“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
It would be best to make a graceful, bittersweet exit here.
Even if only for Cassis’s peaceful meal, it was best to step aside.
“I’m sorry for startling you.”
Having said that to Cassis, I turned around.
When I caught a final glimpse of his face, Cassis had his lips tightly shut, stiff and motionless.
Behind my turned back, Cassis’s gaze seemed to linger far longer than usual.
