Roxana
Chapter 82
Chapter 82
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Oppa
Chapter 82
“It looks similar to Clanetaria, but this one is prettier.”
“Clanetaria? There’s such a flower? It’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”
Seeing that Roxana seemed to like the flower garden, Sylvia’s face brightened noticeably.
“They bloomed in all four seasons in Agriche’s garden.”
“Does it smell this good, too?”
At Sylvia’s question, Roxana seemed to recall something from memory. Soon, a calm voice flowed from her lips.
“I suppose so. Though anyone without immunity would die if they smelled it up close for more than five minutes.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s a highly toxic narcotic flower, you see.”
“What…?”
“Still, the fragrance is lovely. It was right outside my bedroom window, though, so smelling it every day did make me grow rather sick of it.”
Sylvia’s eyes went wide as saucers.
She blinked repeatedly, looking as if she had no idea how to react to Roxana’s words.
She could not even discern whether what Roxana had just said was true or false.
Then, when their eyes met, Roxana crinkled her eyes and gave a bright, charming smile.
The scale in Sylvia’s heart, which had been tilting back and forth without leaning fully to either side, finally tipped completely in that instant.
“Ah, what was that? Were you joking?”
Sylvia laughed along with Roxana. Yet Cassis knew that it had been no joke.
Having exchanged smiles with Sylvia for a brief moment, Roxana soon turned her head aside.
She gazed at the scenery unfolding before her eyes. It was a peaceful moment—so peaceful it almost felt wrong.
Cassis quietly watched Roxana from the side. There were times when Roxana would stare into the distance like this.
Whenever she did, Cassis found himself wanting to turn her gaze back to him.
“Let’s head back inside.”
When the words finally tumbled from Cassis’s lips, Roxana turned to look at him.
Suffocatingly dense golden light wrapped around his entire body.
In the midst of that sweet fragrance, a breathtaking beauty surpassing anything else in this place struck his vision.
Yet it carried the quality of a mirage, giving the uneasy impression that if he let his guard down and looked away for even a single second, she would vanish before his eyes without leaving a trace.
Was that why…?
The moment their eyes finally met, Cassis thought for the very first time that he would rather lock the person before him away somewhere.
It was a desire so dark and intense that it startled even himself.
* * *
Outside the window, the sun dipped below the horizon.
Roxana tilted the bottle and poured the liquid into a glass.
The deep golden liquor churned with small ripples as it filled the empty vessel.
The color looked as though the twilight air itself had been melted into it.
The fragrance brushing past the tip of her nose was as sweet as honey.
Roxana emptied her glass while taking in the view beyond the window.
Click.
Before long, the door opened, and the person Roxana had been waiting for stepped inside.
“Welcome.”
At her casual greeting piercing his ears, Cassis paused.
Naturally so. After all, this was his room.
Cassis resumed his stride as if he had never stopped, approaching where Roxana sat.
He was the one who had told her she could visit anytime, so he did not consider her unannounced arrival an intrusion.
However, what sat before Roxana was not something he welcomed.
“Who brought you the liquor?”
“Who else? The servants, of course.”
Cassis had been keeping anything that might strain Roxana’s body as far from her as possible.
He had told Roxana to ask for whatever she needed, but that was strictly within the bounds of what was deemed harmless to her.
Of course, liquor had not been explicitly forbidden, but…
Even so, he had given certain instructions to the servants, yet they had brought this directly to her.
“Did you think there is anything I desire that I cannot have?”
Roxana smiled with narrowed eyes, as if reading Cassis’s thoughts.
Watching her, Cassis realized his own naivety.
She was entirely right.
There was surely no one who could refuse what Roxana requested until the end.
“I told you before. You’re the strange one.”
Cassis took the seat across from Roxana.
Now that it had come to this, he had no intention of stopping her from drinking.
From the looks of it, the liquor the servant had brought had a low alcohol content.
Roxana pushed the second glass she had just refilled toward Cassis.
“I’ll give you a cup. Drink. It’s the rent for the seat.”
“Rent?”
A subtle, faint smile touched Cassis’s face.
Roxana turned her head and looked out the window once more. From here, the rear garden behind the annex was in full view.
“The view from here isn’t bad either.”
While less extravagant than the main garden, it possessed its own quiet, profound charm.
“If you like it, I can change your room.”
Cassis followed Roxana’s gaze toward the window. Roxana stared intently at Cassis before parting her lips.
“No need. I can just come over whenever I want to see it, just like now.”
At the end of those words, their gazes met.
A moment later, however, Cassis’s eyes were severed from Roxana’s face as if carved away.
His hand reached for the glass Roxana had pushed forward earlier.
The two shared their drinks in silence for a while. Then, after some time passed, their eyes tangled once more.
The sunset spreading beyond the glass panes sat like dewdrops atop the small golden lake resting at the center of the table.
“…Now that I see, you are barefoot again.”
A low voice cut through the orange-tinged air that thoroughly soaked the room.
“If the slippers in your room are uncomfortable, I will have others prepared.”
At Cassis’s words, Roxana recalled what she had cast aside on the carpet.
“No, they’re wonderful shoes. Warm, soft, comfortable, and pretty.”
And so, she felt as though they were not something she had the right to possess. Just like everything else in Pedelian.
Cassis looked into Roxana’s face for a moment.
The gaze she met felt as if it were sweeping through her very core.
Soon after, Cassis rose from his seat.
Roxana watched him approach in silence. Until his careful hands lifted her into his arms.
The scent of his body, which had become familiar in the meantime, stimulated her sense of smell.
Without offering any resistance, Roxana nestled quietly into Cassis’s embrace.
His touch was like applying glaze over delicate porcelain.
It was as if he were handling a shard of glass that might shatter the instant he grew careless.
Every time Cassis held her like this, Roxana felt as though she had become a tiny dewdrop clinging to a blade of grass, or a doll crafted from soap bubbles.
Holding her in that manner, Cassis moved his feet and carried Roxana to her room.
It did not take long, as her door was just across the hallway.
The place Cassis set Roxana down was upon the sofa.
Roxana had already finished bathing and changed into nightclothes right after returning from their walk in the garden earlier.
While being held in Cassis’s arms and placed onto the sofa, the loosely fastened front of her nightclothes parted slightly.
Through the gap, the luscious curve of her chest was revealed without filter.
Yet Roxana did not fix her disheveled clothes, merely looking up at Cassis with a steady gaze.
A brief look brushed against her.
Yet Cassis turned away as if he had seen nothing at all.
When Cassis returned a moment later, his hand held the slippers that had been sitting forlornly on the carpet.
Cassis bent down before Roxana.
Inevitably, it formed a posture as if he were kneeling before her, bowing his head.
Yet there was not a single trace of hesitation or reluctance in his actions.
Roxana looked down at Cassis without blinking once.
Immediately, Cassis took hold of Roxana’s foot as if enveloping it. A chill ran through the skin that had been exposed all this time.
Yet just before the soft slipper could be slipped on, Roxana pulled her foot back, as if evading Cassis’s touch.
The hand that had lost its destination paused in midair.
The next moment, the pale foot that had drawn back descended upon Cassis’s knee instead.
Slide.
The smooth tip of her foot began to slide slowly down his firm thigh.
It was an alluring movement steeped in explicit implication.
Roxana, still sitting in her disheveled attire, quietly watched Cassis, who remained lowered before her.
Her gaze fixed motionless on the face before her, as if waiting for the reaction that was bound to follow.
Just as the foot tickling its way down his thigh attempted to move with even greater coquetry, a powerful grip intercepted it midway.
A firm palm caught the wickedly moving foot rather roughly and squeezed tight.
Scalding warmth pressed flush against the slender ankle steeped in cold.
The air stagnant in the room grew several shades thicker.
Cassis’s golden eyes, having lifted to gaze at Roxana once more, had sunk as dark as a nighttime forest.
Yet the burning thirst embedded within them like a blazing light was unmistakable.
The vivid longing seemed to cling thickly to Roxana, traveling through their touching skin.
Neither spoke a word, but the dense air was already overflowing with something invisible to the eye.
Cassis’s hand, which had been cupping the heel of her foot, finally moved, unable to fully suppress his desire.
The moment his fingers, retaining lingering heat, slowly rubbed the hollow below her ankle bone, Roxana’s hand resting on the sofa twitched.
Just like her movement earlier, a touch brimming with undeniable intent slid smoothly, stroking her skin.
It felt as though the sensations wherever she touched Cassis were standing sharply on end.
And the moment Cassis’s silver hair tumbled before her eyes along with the tilt of his head—
“Cassis…”
Roxana parted her lips without realizing it.
Yet she could say no more, cut short by the heat that immediately transferred onto the top of her foot.
Roxana instinctively curled her toes.
She tried to pull her leg back, just as she had when Cassis tried to put on her slipper earlier, but this time she could not escape the grip clamping her ankle.
Within the golden eyes cast downward, an intense spark was embedded.
As if branding a mark into the top of Roxana’s foot, Cassis pressed his lips down once more, spreading lingering heat.
The sight seemed so endlessly reverent that one might unconsciously gasp, yet conversely, it appeared so unbelievably depraved.
Cassis’s lips pressing down repeatedly were as scorching as a brand.
Roxana parted her lips again. In the end, however, she could utter no words between them and merely swallowed her breath.
Meanwhile, Cassis, who had traveled along the top of Roxana’s foot to reach the vicinity of her ankle, was not satisfied with stopping there. He parted his lips greedily, as if determined to carve his own mark onto the pale sanctuary before his eyes.
Yet in the end, it was not carried out.
His hot breath tickled her skin, lingering above it for a fleeting moment.
The hand gripping Roxana’s ankle tightened firmly.
Roxana held her breath in tandem.
Finally, after the time it took to draw two or three steady breaths, Cassis’s lips, which had hovered close enough to nearly touch Roxana, moved no closer and slowly drew back.
“…That was a bit too much for an aperitif, it seems.”
A low voice mingled with an exhale settled quietly into the sunset-drenched room.
Cassis halted himself before surrendering to the impulse any further and losing control completely.
Then his hand moved again. Cassis slipped the shoe back onto Roxana’s foot, which had grown warmer than before.
Yet Cassis’s hand did not leave Roxana immediately, even after achieving its original purpose.
The hand clamping her ankle like a shackle was still burning hot.
A moment later, however, Cassis released Roxana without doing anything more.
“I will come call for you when it is time for dinner. Rest until then.”
Cassis gathered all the surging emotions still stirring within him and turned around.
Roxana did not take her eyes off his receding back until Cassis had completely left the room.
And when she was finally left alone, unable to endure it any longer, she drew the foot that had touched Cassis onto the sofa and wrapped her hands around it.
Every place he had touched felt as though it had suffered a burn.
What had directly touched him was clearly only her foot and leg, yet her entire body burned as though the heat were spreading throughout.
Even though she was clearly the one who had provoked Cassis first with that wicked mischief, she could not conceal her agitation at the scene that had followed.
“What in the world…”
Roxana collapsed limp onto the sofa as if crumbling down.
And soon, as if to hide her slightly flushed face, she buried it deeply into the cushion.