Roxana
Chapter 46
Chapter 46
The Way to Protect the
Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 46
Cassis gritted his teeth against the voice that bound him like heavy shackles.
[We are the noble arbiters, the Pedelians. Never forget the meaning of that name.]
But…
[For those who lose their pride, there is only ruin.]
But…
Could he truly leave the person before his eyes to die like this and never regret it?
Sparks flared within vivid golden eyes that seemed to cradle the sun. The answer had already been decided.
[I shall place a seal upon you from this moment forth.]
Cassis awakened the power that had long lain dormant deep within him.
Crack! Crash!
Pushed to its absolute limits in a single breath, his power shattered the restraints that could no longer contain it.
In that instant, the butterflies clinging to his body crumbled into dust and vanished.
With the restraints broken, he felt the heavy, stagnant aura of death lingering in the air all the more clearly.
He had anticipated it from the moment she coughed up black blood, but Roxana had sustained severe internal injuries.
The scent of poison emanating from her was so potent it was suffocating.
Lowering his head, Cassis pressed his lips against hers.
Whoosh!
Life force flowed through the intimate point of contact.
A clear, pure energy drifted through her body, spreading to its every corner.
Color gradually returned to Roxana’s face, which had been as pale as a sheet of paper. Warmth began to seep into her freezing body as well.
From the moment Cassis pulled Roxana close, the butterflies that hovered helplessly around them, unable to alight, vanished one by one.
After a moment, the body held in his arms stirred faintly. Only then did Cassis part his lips from hers.
The eyes meeting his at such close range were still unfocused.
Having only just regained consciousness, the crimson eyes gazing up at him seemed hazy, as though still wandering through a dream.
Roxana did not yet seem to grasp the situation.
Yet feeling some vague bewilderment, her lips parted slightly. Upon them, Cassis’s lips descended once more.
Because Roxana’s injuries were internal rather than external, this method was the most effective for her recovery.
Soon, Roxana’s breath hitched. She seemed to have finally realized the situation she was in.
Raising her hand, she clutched at his clothes just as she had before.
But perhaps sensing that her internal injuries were steadily mending, her faint resistance soon subsided.
As a little more time passed, the power coursing through Roxana’s body began attempting to purify the poison.
It was at that very moment that an intense wave of rejection surged from the body pressed against his.
Cassis yielded readily to the hand pushing him away.
“Stop.”
A slender voice that had not yet fully regained its strength struck his ears.
Yet the steady gaze staring straight into Cassis held unyielding resolve.
Her refusal was not merely about the act of pressing their lips together.
“Do you even realize what state you’re in to be saying that?”
Roxana’s body was practically consumed by poison. The venom pooled inside her was steadily eating away at her even at this very moment.
Held directly against her like this, he could tell with absolute certainty.
Yet Roxana spoke in a voice without a shred of hesitation.
“That’s why I’m saying it. Stop.”
Cassis did not ask her why. Their gazes met in midair.
He recognized this look. It was the gaze of someone who lived every single minute and second prepared for death.
Cassis realized that this was precisely why he had found himself unconsciously minding her all this time, and why he felt he could not simply leave her be.
In that moment, a breeze stirred within him—one he himself did not yet recognize.
It was faint, to be sure, but it was the beginning of a change that would grow unimaginably vast in the not-so-distant future, shaking him to his very core.
* * *
I marveled at Cassis’s ability. I could feel the agonizing pain that had felt like my entrails were being torn apart cleanly subsiding before I even realized it. My breathing was markedly easier than before.
Having vomited so much blood, my clothes and hair were completely drenched.
Still, the room had been designed with automated ventilation, so it was a relief that the nauseating stench of blood had mostly cleared.
Only the sound of my soft, shallow breathing echoed in the room.
Overwhelmingly enough, I was practically embraced by Cassis, taking up his bed.
Even just staying like this, I could feel my weakened body gradually recovering.
Just what kind of ability was this?
I didn’t know what it was, but when Cassis’s power flowed into me earlier and tried to purify the poison as well, it gave me quite a fright.
All the hard work I’d put into ingesting poison up until now almost went down the drain.
Then, it suddenly struck me that Cassis’s younger sister, Sylvia, also possessed a mysterious ability.
Wow, how on earth had I forgotten about that until now?
But it made sense. Sylvia’s ability was thoroughly R-19, truly befitting the female lead of an R-19 novel.
If I remembered correctly, kissing her restored one’s stamina, and doing things worthy of censorship healed wounds, or something along those lines.
That was right. That was part of the reason Sylvia became a plaything for the male leads of other families and went down the confinement route.
But I had no memory of reading that this was a hereditary trait of the Pedelian family.
What’s more, Cassis’s ability seemed slightly different from what I vaguely recalled of Sylvia’s.
Because Sylvia’s ability… well, it seemed to only work through the exchange of bodily fluids.
Thinking about it again, it really was an ability tailor-made for the heroine of a reverse-harem R-19 novel.
Yet Cassis was aiding my body’s recovery right now just by holding me.
Seeing that, it felt as though Cassis possessed an even superior ability compared to his younger sister.
Was that also why he had been able to distinguish poisonous herbs?
Pondering such thoughts, I subtly raised my gaze. Sensing my look, Cassis shifted his eyes down toward me.
Before I knew it, the blood on me had smeared onto Cassis as well. But he didn’t seem to care much about it.
His face remained somewhat rigid as he looked at me, so I couldn’t help but speak.
“I’m fine. Something like this won’t kill me.”
Of course, coming from someone who had just coughed up a bucketful of blood, it wouldn’t sound very convincing.
“I told you. I’ll protect you until you can get out of here safely.”
When I said that, Cassis looked down at me in silence for a long while. Then, he finally parted his tightly closed lips.
“Why do you say such things to me?”
But the words that came from him were completely unexpected.
“I’m not your oppa.”
Why is he stating the obvious all of a sudden?
Unable to grasp what he meant by that, I mulled it over for a moment.
Then I realized that Cassis had gotten an utterly absurd misunderstanding in his head.
No, of course, I did spin a story about how ‘looking at you reminds me of my oppa’ to build rapport and get closer to him, but…
Still, to think I was helping him because of Asil?
In the first place, the two didn’t even look alike. Where was this groundless confidence coming from?
I was merely doing this because I didn’t want to meet an annihilation ending later down the line for the crime of being an accomplice to Cassis Pedelian’s death.
“I know.”
Yet it was strange. The words suddenly caught in my throat, as though a stone had rolled in and lodged itself there.
I had intended to reply that I hadn’t thought anything of the sort, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t leave my mouth.
That irritated me a little.
“You don’t look a bit like my dead oppa.”
Blurting that out while forgetting the demeanor I had maintained before him until now was something even I couldn’t understand.
What’s more, a somewhat sharp tone slipped out, as if I were someone whose sore spot had been struck and was stubbornly denying it.
“So don’t flatter yourself.”
It would have been a far better approach to play on Cassis’s weak spot and let him pity me, just as I had done all along.
Yet strangely enough, I felt an urge to deny his words.
Deon, Cassis—I hated how they both acted as if Asil were some massive weakness of mine.
Come to think of it, the promise I made to Cassis about ‘protecting’ him was identical to what Asil used to tell me like a habit when we were young.
Remembering that fact soured my mood as well.
Asil had acted like an oppa to the fullest in front of me, but in truth, I never really considered him my oppa.
Naturally.
If I factored in the memories of my previous life, I was far older than him. If anything, it would make more sense if Asil were my younger brother.
“Ridiculous… Who’s protecting whom?”
Recalling that old memory so suddenly, I ended up murmuring softly to myself.
Whether I was speaking to the deceased Asil or to my current self, I couldn’t tell.
Cassis merely looked down at me quietly, saying nothing in return.
Perhaps in this very moment, I was showing him my truest, most honest self.