Roxana
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 22
* * *
“Sana noona!”
Hardly had I stepped out of the room and taken a few paces before I ran into Jeremy.
Walking from the end of the hallway, Jeremy called out to me in delight and came bounding over like a puppy in the snow.
Caught off guard at running into him right outside the door, I froze for an instant. Jeremy, too, ground to a halt the moment he laid eyes on me for some reason.
Of course, it lasted only a fleeting second, and soon both Jeremy and I closed the distance between us as if nothing had happened.
“What’s this? You’ve got blood on your clothes, noona.”
Ah, so that was why. It was because of the blood on me.
Subtly shifting the sleeve that still covered my mouth, I deliberately smeared the blood onto my cheek.
“The toy was being disobedient, so I punished him a bit before coming out.”
“Ah, so it’s that bastard’s blood.”
Fortunately, the blood on my face must have looked natural enough, as Jeremy’s expression brightened.
What was more, he seemed all the more delighted to hear that I had punished Cassis.
Though all children of the Agriche ingested poisons from an early age, they took great care never to reveal to others what poisons they took or what kind of side effects they suffered.
For in the worst case, it could easily become a fatal weakness.
Indeed, there were siblings who tried to exploit such vulnerabilities to secure a higher rank during the Monthly Evaluation.
Of course, I didn’t think Jeremy would ever use something like this to threaten me, but…
In a way, this defense mechanism had simply become second nature after living in the Agriche for so long.
Besides, had I vomited blood right before Jeremy’s eyes, that would be one thing, but otherwise, there was no reason to volunteer the truth.
“Noona, I think you’d better stop rubbing it. It’s spreading everywhere.”
“Is it? Thinking of having such filthy blood on me just disgusted me.”
At Jeremy’s words, I lowered my arm. Glancing down, I saw that the patches of blood staining my bodice looked fairly convincing as well.
It looked convincing enough that anyone would assume someone else’s blood had splattered onto me.
“I’ll have to go to my room and wash up.”
…Wait, why do you look so pleased with yourself?
Jeremy wore a contented expression, like a child with a sweet in his mouth, as if my description of Cassis’s blood as ‘filthy’ had deeply satisfied him.
“Jeremy, what brings you here? Did you come to see me?”
“You weren’t in your room, noona, so I wondered if you went to see your toy and came over.”
So he really did come looking for me. It was a good thing I left Cassis’s room a bit earlier than usual today.
“All right, let’s head to my room then.”
I took a step closer toward Jeremy. Just then, he sniffled briefly before speaking up.
“By the way, Sana noona, did you go to the Poison Butterfly Hatchery again?”
I flinched inwardly.
Does this brat have the nose of a hound? Did he actually catch the scent and figure it out?
“You smell like poisonous herbs, noona. Just a faint trace, though.”
Calling Cassis a dog when Jeremy’s own nose was like this—talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Since Jeremy had already known for a while that I frequented the Poison Butterfly Hatchery anyway, it wasn’t something I needed to keep secret.
“Yes, I just dropped by for a moment earlier.”
Still, faint as it was, if Jeremy could smell it, that meant the venomous miasma of the greenhouse was still clinging to me.
If so, there was a chance that the poison lingering on me might affect Cassis as well.
From now on, I had better not visit the greenhouse before stopping by to see Cassis.
“Do you think it’ll hatch this time?”
Walking alongside me, Jeremy asked in a sullen voice.
“Can’t you just throw that egg away after all? Or just pawn it off to someone else.”
I remembered having a similar conversation before.
From the very beginning, Jeremy had disapproved of me trying to hatch a poison butterfly.
To the point where on the day Emily procured the poison butterfly egg on my orders, he had even tried to drop and smash it under the guise of an accident.
“Jeremy.”
Though I doubted he would do it again, I still felt the need to caution him once more.
“If you try to interfere like last time, I will be truly angry.”
“I won’t!”
At my warning, Jeremy cried out in a panicked rush.
The chilling glare I had given him back when he feigned an accident to break the poison butterfly’s egg must have left quite a lasting shock.
“I’m only saying this because once that parasitic monster hatches, you’ll have to feed it your own blood, noona.”
Jeremy soon mumbled under his breath.
I was not blind to why he acted this way.
Because a master who imprinted a poison butterfly effectively became its host.
Besides, a demonic creature was still a demonic creature; even if one succeeded in taming it, great danger remained.
As a prime example, there had been a case where an owner, after successfully imprinting a poison butterfly, could no longer provide blood and was devoured alive by the very butterfly they had raised.
So Jeremy truly was acting out of concern for me.
I raised my hand toward Jeremy beside me, only to freeze midair.
“I’d like to pat your head, but there’s blood on my hand.”
“It’s fine, I can just wash it off too.”
Aren’t you answering a little too eagerly?
Jeremy replied without a second’s hesitation. Hearing him, a small laugh escaped my lips.
Just as Jeremy wished, I patted his head with my bloodstained hand.
Delighted nonetheless, Jeremy beamed at me with his hair thoroughly tousled.
“Still, I’m glad those two eggs that were on the verge of hatching ended up dying… Ah, no! I mean, I’m sorry things didn’t go the way you wanted, Sana noona, but…”
Having spoken without thinking, Jeremy startled at his own words and scrambled to make excuses.
“Taming more than one is too difficult anyway, and you can just succeed this time… You know what I mean, right?”
“I know. As expected, you’re the only one who cares for me this much. Thank you.”
Pitying him as he squirmed and struggled, I freed Jeremy from his agony.
When I gave a gentle smile and stroked his head once more, a look of relief washed over Jeremy’s face.
His hair now looked practically like a bird’s nest.
Leading Jeremy, I climbed the stairs toward my room.
What Jeremy had just said was wrong. For I had already succeeded in hatching one poison butterfly egg.
* * *
Gazing at the closed door, Cassis’s expression was set colder and harder than usual.
The image of Roxana, who had just walked through that door, still lingered like an afterimage before his eyes.
The faint footsteps echoing faintly from outside soon faded into silence.
In the quiet room enveloped by stillness, Cassis finally lowered his head. Drops of crimson blood were scattered where Roxana had stood moments ago.
A slight furrow formed between Cassis’s brows. The food right in front of him had been giving off an appetizing aroma for a while, but he didn’t spare it so much as a glance.
His appetite, never particularly strong to begin with, vanished entirely. The reason, of course, was what had just transpired.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”
“Yes. Things like this have happened often since a long time ago.”
Was vomiting blood so frequent a regular occurrence that she could react with such composure?
In fact, Roxana had stated that it was so routine for her, she hadn’t realized that throwing up blood would startle someone else.
The memory of Roxana wiping her mouth with an impassive face flashed through his mind.
Along with the crimson stains dotting her white sleeves and bodice.
In truth, Cassis had often felt questions arise whenever he saw Roxana.
For whenever the distance between him and Roxana grew very close, a faint scent of poison would graze his senses.
The first time or two, he wondered if it was merely his imagination, but as their meetings became more frequent, he grew certain of his assessment.
Of course, the scent of poison radiating from her was so subtle that unless one possessed a constitution naturally attuned to such things, even Cassis would surely have missed it.
In any case, such an occurrence stemmed from one of two causes.
Either the body was producing and releasing poison from within, or poison had been ingested from the outside.
The former meant illness had taken root in the body; the latter meant one had been poisoned.
Cassis could not tell which of the two applied to Roxana.
Yet seeing how a trace of poison emanated from her every time they met, it was evident that she had remained in this state for a very long time.
Yet for some reason, the aura of poison felt from Roxana when she visited Cassis during lunch today was slightly stronger than usual.
Furthermore, she had been giving off a faint scent of blood as well.
That was why Cassis had been discreetly watching Roxana from the moment she first entered the room.
And yet, to think she would vomit blood right before his eyes…
Come to think of it, he had smelled blood on Roxana back when he was in the dungeon as well.
The day Roxana had forewarned Cassis that she wouldn’t be able to come for several days.
He remembered feeling suspicious when she arrived at the dungeon without offering any explanation, carrying a distinct scent of blood on her that day.
Could it be that she had vomited blood back then, just as she had now?
Deep furrows creased Cassis’s neat brow.
Suddenly, a murmur Roxana had let slip to herself when she came to see him not long ago surfaced in his mind.
