Roxana
Chapter 93
Chapter 93
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s
Older Brother
Chapter 93
* * *
“What? Pandora and that woman?”
Orca went looking for Pandora, only to discover she was not in her room.
On top of that, hearing that Pandora was meeting Roxana alone made his eyes go wide.
The very reason Orca had sought out Pandora in the first place was to find a way to lure the guest in the annex outside.
He had figured that, compared to a man like him, a fellow woman like Pandora might have an easier time disarming the other party’s guard.
Yet Pandora had moved first. At this stage, there was no way Pandora’s motives aligned with his own.
And so, Orca’s interest was piqued. He felt as though something amusing was about to unfold.
Of course, while it might be fascinating for him, the odds were high that it would spell trouble for Pandora.
In Orca’s estimation, the chances were great that the woman in the annex was the master of the Poison Butterflies.
Pandora, naturally, did not seem to have realized this yet.
Well, that was only natural. Though Orca and she were both beast tamers, the gap in their caliber was immense.
‘I knew she fancied the Young Lord of Blue, and it seems she finally decided to clear away the thorn in her side.’
Knowing Pandora’s personality, she would never have sought a private conversation merely to foster pointless goodwill.
She was undoubtedly scheming to harm her.
However, if that woman truly was the master of the Poison Butterflies, Pandora would be the one getting bested.
Recalling the butterflies that had swept through the pack of Gyrotes, Orca was certain of it once more.
Among the Poison Butterflies, those were undeniably Slaughter Butterflies.
How could Pandora, who at best mainly commanded mid-grade monsters, ever hope to stand against that?
Of course, there was a chance she was not their master, but the probability of that was exceptionally slim.
Either way, it worked out well for Orca, as he would finally get another look at the woman from the annex.
Chuckling softly, Orca made his way toward the garden where Pandora and Roxana were reportedly meeting.
When he first heard that the Young Lord of Blue had taken a woman, he wondered just what kind of remarkable woman she could be.
She had turned out to be a masterpiece beyond all imagination.
When he caught his first glimpse of her in the annex, Orca had genuinely believed some previously unknown species of monster had emerged into the world.
After all, the woman who appeared before his eyes was simply too breathtaking to be human.
And so, when he later learned she was Cassis Pedelian’s woman, Orca had been unable to close his dropped jaw.
The Young Lord of Blue, walking while carrying someone so tenderly in his arms—even having witnessed it with his own eyes, he still found it hard to believe.
So what did that mean? Had the great Cassis Pedelian truly been bewitched by a woman? Really?
Well, then again…
Even if so, he couldn’t help but understand.
In Orca’s opinion, faced with a woman like her, even a man carved of stone or wood would be utterly powerless.
So in the end, even the Young Lord of Blue was just an ordinary man after all.
Orca grinned, indulging in such vulgar thoughts.
Cassis, who had always felt so distant, suddenly seemed just a bit more approachable.
“Hm?”
Then, at that moment, he sensed the aura of Pandora’s monster not far away.
Good grief, what an impatient woman. Nagging me endlessly about being reckless, only to take things a step further herself?
To openly unleash a monster in broad daylight like this—he wondered if Pandora had lost her mind.
Granted, Pandora was suppressing the monster’s presence as much as possible. Moreover, the monster she had summoned seemed to be the one among hers with the faintest presence.
It was likely Durectus, whose specialty was stealth.
She surely wouldn’t commit the sheer madness of actually injuring a guest with a monster inside the Pedelian estate, so she was likely only intending to scare her.
Those without the ability to sense monsters usually could not detect them well. Pandora might have believed this much would go unnoticed.
“Still, isn’t that underestimating the Pedelians a bit too much?”
It seemed Pandora had spent so much time roaming monster habitats lately that she had lost her sense of judgment.
This is why one shouldn’t obsess solely over monster subjugation and should socialize with other people in moderation.
This was precisely the fatal flaw of mid-to-low-tier beast tamers who lacked self-management.
Orca clicked his tongue at the thought.
Naturally, he had no idea that Pandora had said the exact same thing about him at the banquet hall.
Perhaps, as Sylvia had said, the two truly shared a lot in common.
Of course, had anyone said as much to their faces, both would have shuddered in revulsion and vehemently denied it.
A soft rustling swept through the air.
Orca stepped into the garden where the monster’s energy lingered.
He, too, could have moved much faster by using a monster, but held back since he had no desire to be thrown out of Pedelian so soon.
The figures of Pandora and Roxana pierced into his view through the flowering bushes.
The Young Lord of Blue was also there, having apparently arrived in the garden a step ahead of Orca.
A sudden flutter flared into motion!
At that moment, a swarm of crimson butterflies dispersed hazily before his eyes like a storm of scattered petals.
Forgetting even to breathe, Orca froze in his tracks, utterly stunned.
What Orca saw in that instant was a sight so breathtakingly beautiful that he doubted he would ever witness the likes of it again in his lifetime.
* * *
“Good grief.”
A languid voice drifted into her ears. Pandora could hardly believe what had just transpired.
As Pandora merely moved her lips in stunned silence, another bored whisper washed over her.
“Trying to threaten me with something that isn’t even worth a single bite.”
The butterflies, having devoured Pandora’s monster in an instant without leaving a trace behind, flew back toward Roxana.
For something that had unfolded in barely a minute, the impact was staggering.
Overwhelmed and appalled by the crimson butterflies hovering menacingly behind Roxana, Pandora murmured in a daze.
“Poison Butterflies…”
Right after her connection with the monster severed, a blue gemstone on the bracelet she wore shattered with a crisp snap.
Without so much as blinking, Pandora stared at the scene before her.
Standing amid the red butterflies, Roxana radiated a dangerous beauty, like a queen of monsters.
She could not fathom how on earth she had ever thought this woman frail until now.
Since what Pandora had brought out was merely a low-grade monster, its death was not a great loss.
Rather, the surprise, shock, and awe of witnessing the master of the Poison Butterflies overwhelmed everything else.
For any beast tamer, there were rare monsters one inevitably coveted with burning curiosity, and Poison Butterflies were among them.
Even Pandora had gone so far as to lend him Turobe before entering Pedelian upon hearing from Orca that he had discovered Poison Butterflies.
And so, momentarily forgetting that Roxana’s Poison Butterflies had devoured her monster, Pandora simply stared at her in a daze.
Meanwhile, Roxana found it utterly anticlimactic.
She had brought out a monster with such bravado that Roxana had expected something more.
Pandora’s monster was barely a morsel—so meager that the Poison Butterflies complained it wouldn’t even begin to fill their stomachs.
Still, thanks to Cassis lately, she had regained the ability to control the Poison Butterflies as she once had.
Because of that, the butterflies did not run wild of their own accord without her permission.
It also seemed to help that they had gorged themselves while sweeping through the outer monster habitats for a while.
“Unfortunately for you, Cassis is already mine, and I cannot stand others coveting what belongs to me.”
Roxana said, offering Pandora a smile.
It was a smile that appeared gentle at a glance, yet held countless shards of razor-sharp glass within.
“So you, of all people, had better fold away those foolish thoughts.”
It carried the unmistakable weight of a barbed warning.
Then, Roxana suddenly realized that more than one pair of eyes was watching her.
Shifting her gaze, she caught sight of Cassis standing motionless not far away. Behind him was Orca as well.
Orca was dressed even more flamboyantly than usual today, draped in string after string of accessories.
Seemingly trembling with a shudder of thrill, he was staring fiercely at Roxana as if ready to devour her.
Yet it was not someone like Orca who commanded Roxana’s attention. Conscious of Cassis, Roxana immediately sent the Poison Butterflies back.
Ah, dear. Did he see everything? If so, just how much of it did he see?
There was no telling just how long Cassis had been standing there.