Roxana
Chapter 35
Chapter 35
The Way to Protect
the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 35
* * *
It was about thirty minutes ago that Cassis was made to leave his room.
Two burly men unlocked the door, stepped inside, and approached Cassis to fasten chains to his restraints.
“He’s already wearing restraints—do we really need to hang all these chains on him too? What a pain.”
“Just hurry up. We’ll catch hell if we’re late.”
Perhaps because his hands were bound and he remained quietly obedient without a word, they were not particularly wary of Cassis.
“Where are you taking me?”
Cassis spoke coldly as he looked at them.
“Why, you little bastard, acting all cocky.”
“Hey, don’t lay a hand on him. That’s Lady Roxana’s toy.”
The man who had flared up at Cassis’s tone quieted down at the other’s words.
Even so, he was still glaring daggers at Cassis.
“There’s an order to bring you to Lady Maria’s tea party. Don’t act up and bring harsh trouble on yourself; just stay quiet.”
That was where their explanation ended.
Cassis deduced the rest on his own.
So, Roxana was attending a tea party hosted by someone named Maria, and she had ordered them to bring him there?
Suddenly, the red mark still lingering on his neck came to mind.
It was a mark etched into plain view as if meant to be seen—perhaps she truly intended to put him on display for others.
At that thought, something stirred in his gut as a faint, simmering heat flared up. The icy chill in his eyes sharpened further.
Cassis subtly tilted his head, dodging the hand reaching out to gag him.
“What? Can’t you stay still?”
Cassis’s gaze shifted from the men before him toward the door. With all its locks undone, the door stood slightly ajar.
In an instant, the muscles in Cassis’s arms tensed.
“Wow, what’s with the open door for once?”
Had he not sensed a presence outside the open door right then, Cassis surely would have put the thought in his mind into immediate action.
The person who stepped inside was a boy with black hair and blue eyes.
Unlike his pretty appearance, reminiscent of a pampered house pet, the glint in his eyes resembled that of an untamed beast.
“Greetings, Young Master Jeremy!”
As he had suspected from the black hair, this was a son of Lant Agriche.
The boy, who looked slightly younger than Roxana, ignored the men’s greetings and fixed his gaze straight onto Cassis.
“So you’re the Blue’s little mutt?”
At the blunt, insolent words, Cassis’s eyes narrowed.
The boy clearly knew who he was and had chosen those words deliberately to mock him.
“Are your ears clogged or something? Why aren’t you answering?”
Cassis silently stared at the boy in front of him.
The boy called Jeremy was exuding blatant hostility toward him.
Coming all the way here just to pick a fight laid his intentions bare without reservation.
Cassis’s silence bordered on outright disdain. As Jeremy realized this, his expression grew increasingly sinister.
“Um, Young Master, what brings you here?”
Caught between the two, the men broke into a cold sweat.
“Why are you bastards here in the first place? Taking him out? Did noona tell you to take the mutt for a walk?”
“No, Young Master. We were about to take him to Lady Maria’s tea party.”
Hearing that, Jeremy nodded as if he understood.
“Ah, that damn tea party? Was that today?”
At his subsequent words, the subordinates’ expressions stiffened awkwardly.
“I know all about that disgusting little tea party where they put their toys on display and play with dolls or whatever. Honestly, that old hag Maria is always dying to harass noona. Sana noona doesn’t give a damn about that wretched tea party, yet she keeps sending those repulsive invitations day in and day out.”
Faced with such blatant slander against Maria, one of the Agriche mistresses, the subordinates were left speechless.
They could neither chime in with Jeremy to insult Maria nor dare to contradict him to his face.
Fortunately, Jeremy seemed unconcerned with their reaction and casually added in passing:
“But noona never said she was bringing her toy to that tea party.”
“Perhaps she changed her mind? We only heard it through the grapevine, but Young Master Deon said to bring Lady Roxana’s toy to the greenhouse right away…”
Unfortunately, he never got to finish his sentence.
For at that exact moment, a merciless kick slammed straight into his stomach.
Thwack!
“Guh……!”
Violently kicked by Jeremy, the man went flying backward and rolled across the floor.
“Y-Young Master Jeremy!”
Considering the force and speed that had driven into the man’s gut just now, there was a high likelihood his ribs were broken.
“Did you bastards all swallow rat poison together?”
A menacing voice fell over the fallen man’s head.
“In this situation, you dare bring up that bastard Deon’s name?”
Receiving that murderous glare head-on, the men turned pale.
Though who in Agriche wasn’t, Jeremy truly showed that blood ran true—he possessed a savage and cruel streak.
Yet in front of Roxana alone, he acted like a hedgehog that had lost all its quills, so among the subordinates who admired Roxana, many found him utterly detestable.
Jeremy was especially prone to losing his temper over anything involving Roxana. Clearly, their words had struck a raw nerve.
At times like this, there was nothing to do but prostrate themselves so as not to provoke his temper any further.
“You, speak. Whose property is this?”
“L-Lady Roxana’s.”
Smack!
“Ack!”
“If you know that, you bastard—”
Smack!
“Ugh……!”
“—why the hell are you flapping your mouth like that?”
Jeremy would leap to his feet even in his sleep if it involved Roxana, so bringing up Deon—with whom he had notoriously bad blood—was bound to twist his mood sour.
“Why carry a mouth around if you can’t read the room? Huh? Is that head just for decoration? It looks useless—should I separate it for you?”
As he beat the man in annoyance, he suddenly turned his head as if recalling Cassis, who had been standing nearby the entire time.
“And why the hell did you crawl out so obediently to piss me off? If this is that bastard Deon’s scheme, don’t you realize you’re totally fucked too? You stupid piece of shit.”
It was unreasonable bluster, close to venting his frustration. Strictly speaking, Cassis had not taken a single step outside the room yet.
Cassis’s cold golden eyes took in the scene before him in complete stillness, without the slightest tremor.
“Hey, you go sprint over right now and ask Sana noona properly if we’re really supposed to bring this bastard to the greenhouse—”
Right then, Jeremy spotted something exceedingly unpleasant on Cassis.
A red mark carved into the neck exposed between his parted collar.
It caught Jeremy’s eyes and dug right in.
It was a deeply vivid, overt mark, bordering on sadistic.
With bite marks clearly visible, the impression stood out all the more distinctly.
Contrasting sharply against pale skin, the vivid red mark looked painful to behold.
There was no need to ask who had left it.
In an instant, sparks flew in Jeremy’s eyes. He gritted his teeth so hard they creaked.
“Ha, my mood is already shit, and now some worthless bug…….”
The air hovering around them turned violently turbulent, incomparably more savage than before.
Jeremy clenched and unclenched his fists, cursing repeatedly under his breath.
He tried everything to quell the churning fury inside, but it was impossible.
“Hey. Turn your back to me right now and take just one step over there.”
His gaze toward Cassis remained as fierce as though he were confronting a sworn enemy.
The direction Jeremy gestured toward with his chin was the door that still stood slightly open.
From the conversation that had just passed between them and what the boy said now, Cassis grew certain: the person before him was in no position to touch him directly.
The straight line of Cassis’s tightly shut lips slanted upward on one side.
“Do I have any reason to follow your orders?”
At Cassis’s deliberate provocation, the face before him contorted.
In that instant, a fierce fist flew straight toward Cassis.
It carried an intensity so fierce that anyone else would have flinched instinctively.
Yet Cassis did not even blink.
Crack!
Instead of striking Cassis’s face, the fist grazed his cheek and slammed into the wall. Powdered debris scattered from the shattered surface.
Jeremy looked even more sour that Cassis hadn’t dodged his punch.
“Look at this bastard. Unnecessarily quick on the uptake.”
As expected, he was apparently forbidden from laying a hand directly on Cassis.
He had seemingly intended to feign an attack to manipulate Cassis into moving as he wished, but Cassis’s refusal to play along had only stoked his anger.
“Ah, forget it.”
Jeremy pulled his fist back as if all the fun had been ruined.
Yet what he did next was strike the man standing beside him.