Roxana
Chapter 71
Chapter 71
How to Protect the Female Lead’s
Oppa
Chapter 71
* * *
It was a harsh season, relentlessly battered by cruel, biting winds and swirling blizzards.
After a night that felt as though it would never end, the first chill light of dawn broke over the ruined land.
Morning arrived without fail, even for those departing a land laid to waste.
Rattle.
Perhaps the smoothly rolling wheel had caught on a stray stone, for the carriage suddenly jolted violently.
Roxana stirred from a deep slumber, lifting her heavy eyelids.
Dim darkness filled her blurry vision, making her think at first that it was still night.
Yet as she blinked her unfocused eyes slowly, she caught sight of a slender beam of light flickering before her, seeping in from somewhere.
As it turned out, sunlight was filtering through a small window shielded by curtains.
Rattle.
The carriage lurched once more, and the ray of light creeping past the curtain wavered before her eyes.
In that instant, she realized that this space was not her room back in Agriche.
“You’re awake.”
Just then, a low voice resonated above her head.
Roxana drew in a sharp breath and bolted upright.
Thump!
At the exact same time, the cabin rocked even more violently than before.
Losing her balance, Roxana reached out blindly.
There was nothing to brace herself against, however, and her outstretched hand caught only empty air, plunging straight down.
Had a sturdy arm not swept around her waist just in time to catch her, she undoubtedly would have tumbled to the floor.
“Careful. We’re still in a moving carriage.”
The low voice murmured in her ear, carrying a strange familiarity.
Without even thinking to push away the body pressed against hers, Roxana turned her head.
In the next breath, her gaze collided with a pair of golden eyes looking down at her from close range.
“……Cassis.”
Roxana uttered his name unconsciously.
At the sound, a flicker of light flashed through those golden eyes. She could not comprehend the situation she found herself in.
She strained her stiffened mind, scouring through the memories of last night, but it yielded only a throbbing headache and nothing useful.
The only thing she could gather was that she was currently traveling somewhere alongside Cassis.
Naturally, what flooded Roxana’s mind next was sheer bewilderment.
8. Turning Point
When I opened my eyes, Cassis was by my side. Yet I couldn’t make sense of why.
No, why had I lost consciousness in the first place?
My memories were patchy, as though pieces had been forcibly torn away or wiped clean.
I had no idea why or how I had ended up here.
“You’d better lie down a little longer.”
The quiet voice resonated above my head once more.
Was it because of that low whisper that sent a sudden shiver down the back of my neck, or because deep shadows veiled his face from clear view?
It felt as if the person beside me wasn’t someone I knew.
For now, I decided to pull away from Cassis.
The moment I moved, the arm wrapped around my waist tightened faintly.
Yet as if deciding to grant my wish, he soon loosened his grip and let me go.
Only after breaking away from that close contact did my rigid mind seem to relax slightly.
Come to think of it, I had been lying with Cassis’s lap as my pillow until just a moment ago.
“What happened?”
Why was my voice so raspy?
Perhaps because I had only just regained consciousness, my throat stung.
It felt almost as though this were the first time I had spoken in days.
I tried once more to recall what had happened last night.
“Why am I here? Why am I with you right now……”
Just then, a tiny fragment of memory suddenly bloomed across my blank mind like ink bleeding into water.
“Noona…… are you going to abandon me too?”
A sharp throb seized my head.
Pressing a hand against my brow, I slowly closed and opened my eyes.
……For some reason, I didn’t particularly want to remember.
Cassis was watching me quietly.
The interior of the carriage was dim, but my eyes had grown well accustomed to the darkness and met with no hindrance.
Thus, I could clearly make out his face without difficulty.
This was the first time I had seen Cassis since we met outside the banquet hall on the final day of the Harmony Conference.
Of course, since I must have met him at Agriche afterward, we were now sharing the same space, but still…….
I truly couldn’t remember a thing.
I wanted to glean something from the face before me, but I couldn’t read the intentions hidden beneath it.
Soon, Cassis parted his lips once more, speaking slowly.
“For now, don’t think about anything and just lie back down to rest.”
What he said next made me doubt my own ears.
“You’ve only just regained consciousness after three days. It will take time to fully recover your strength.”
* * *
To think I had been unconscious for three whole days. It seemed my body had completely burnt out from severe overload.
Not only had I been under immense strain for a while, but even if I couldn’t remember everything, a great deal must have happened before leaving Agriche like this.
I gently drew back the curtain and looked outside.
The carriage was stationary, having paused its journey for a brief moment.
Right now, I was the only one inside.
The moment I pulled aside the heavy fabric, bright sunlight struck my eyes. I instinctively narrowed my gaze.
Flap!
A grayish-white shadow abruptly swept across my dazzled vision.
A hawk diving swiftly from the azure sky landed cleanly upon a vambraced arm.
With a strange, unfamiliar sensation, I watched the man standing beneath the deep blue sky.
Three years seemed to have been longer than I thought.
More than enough time for a boy to become a young man, and for a once-familiar figure to turn into a stranger.
His height, which seemed to have grown two handspans taller than in my memory; his broadened shoulders; the solid arm that had wrapped around my waist earlier—all of it was unfamiliar to me.
That face, carrying a chill reminiscent of dawn frost, was just as foreign.
Back then, he had felt more like a delicate, pretty youth with soft lines.
Now, even as mere flattery, one could hardly call him ‘pretty’ to his face.
Of course, that didn’t mean his striking features had gone anywhere, but the aura he exuded was distinctly different from the past.
I had felt it when I saw him at the Harmony Conference as well, but the grown Cassis resembled his father, Richel Pedelian, even more than I had imagined.
It was less about his features and more about his presence.
Even now, standing against the wind with the great hawk perched upon his arm, he looked like a sturdy crag rising solitary from an open plain.
So this is what Cassis would have become had he survived his youth without dying—the thought stirred a profound, novel sentiment within me.
Just then, a man stepped up beside Cassis.
A brown-haired man wearing an eyepatch over one eye. He was the one I had seen at the border of Agriche three years ago.
He had guided the way to the Black Forest along the northern border where Cassis was, and it seemed he had survived unscathed.
I tried to recall his name, but it didn’t come to mind easily. The hawk that had flown to Cassis appeared to be a messenger bird.
After untying and checking what was bound to the hawk’s leg, Cassis said something to the man beside him.
Watching the scene, I soon lowered the hand holding the curtain.
Click.
As I opened the carriage door, cold air rushed inside as though it had been waiting.
Because the interior had been warm, I had momentarily forgotten, but this was the coldest time of the year.
Even so, undeterred, I stepped outside.
There were far more people gathered in the vicinity than I had expected.
Some were maintaining weapons, others tending to horses, and several were busy inspecting the carriages.
Those without specific duties stood nearby, keeping watch over the surroundings.
One might expect a few servants among them, but peculiarly, every single one of them appeared to be a knight.
All those occupied with their respective tasks abruptly froze and turned their eyes toward me.
The surroundings fell dead silent in an instant.
It was as though time had stopped the moment my foot touched the ground outside the carriage.
The terrifyingly intense focus of their gazes felt slightly burdensome, but it was hardly something worth dwelling on.
Paying no mind to the others, I walked straight toward my destination.