Roxana
Chapter 24
Chapter 24
How to Protect the Female Lead’s
Older Brother
Chapter 24
Deon was currently not at the Agriche mansion.
He had been away on an assignment given by Lant Agriche.
Perhaps the only person who still did not know that was the woman standing right before my eyes.
Though I already knew it, Maria was never particularly interested in her only child.
This casual indifference that surfaced from time to time, and the chill lingering beneath it, actually resembled Deon in some ways.
“Well, go on. Someone go fetch Deon quickly.”
Besides, even if Deon were at the mansion, having tea with him was out of the question.
He and I were hardly on the kind of terms where we could sit facing each other across a table and chat.
“Mistress, Young Master Deon is currently away on business.”
One of the maids standing behind Maria reported Deon’s absence.
Only then did Maria seem to realize that Deon was not in the mansion.
“Is that so? What for this time?”
“I do not know the details, but I understand the Master gave him a mission.”
Maria nodded slightly as if taking it in.
Right after that, she asked the maid,
“What was your name again? You’re the child Lewell recommended to me a while ago, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I am called Lana, Mistress.”
“What a lovely name. And how admirable of you to tell me something I didn’t know.”
At Maria’s praise, the maid bowed her head even deeper.
Maria looked down at her with gentle eyes and smiled softly.
“But who said you could open your mouth without permission?”
Slash—!
At that exact moment, crimson liquid erupted before my eyes.
Simultaneously, the body of the maid standing across from Maria began to crumple slowly, like a broken doll.
Thud.
At last, not a single breath remained in the flesh that collapsed onto the ground.
“Throw it as feed for the monsters.”
Maria spoke casually, shaking out the parasol that had just severed the maid’s neck.
Once more, red blood splattered across the lush green grass.
The maids who received her order moved in flawless unison.
Amidst them, Maria turned her head toward me, her eyes widening in sudden realization.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry, Sana. Did any filthy blood splash on you?”
The moment Maria’s hand had moved, I knew blood would spray, so I had already stepped back.
Thus, the maid’s blood had soaked only up to the edge right before my feet.
“None got on me.”
“What a relief. Shall we head to the garden, then?”
I glanced down at Maria’s blood-soaked dress.
Having swung her arm right in front of herself, Maria had taken the blood splatter head-on.
And yet, she was asking to go to the garden together looking like that.
Even though I already knew what kind of woman she was, a wave of disgust washed over me.
“Unfortunately, I have another engagement. Let’s have tea together next time.”
Maria had a fairly simple nature, so although she looked disappointed by my words, she did not pester me any further.
“Very well. Then come visit my room when you have time later. I bought new clothes to dress my dolls in not long ago. I have plenty of pretty clothes I’d like to give you, too.”
I smiled sweetly as if agreeing.
However, just as I had always done, I would never set foot in her room of my own accord.
And so Maria and I smiled, each harboring entirely different thoughts.
Of course, after parting ways with her a moment later, the smile on my face was wiped completely clean, as if it had never been there.
* * *
“Ugh, damn fishy stench.”
Jeremy scrunched his face in irritation.
His entire body was caked in monster venom.
Because of that, his vision was clouded in a hazy darkness.
“Vile vermin bastards. Not like I can just exterminate every last one of them, either.”
The training syllabus for this stage was gathering venom stingers from the monsters in Zone B Monster Breeding Ground.
The Agriche family’s illicit business also included the black-market trade of narcotics and poisons.
So from way back, under the pretext of training, they would make the children harvest goods to be used in trade on the side.
But it was easier said than done; they had to extract only the necessary parts without killing the monsters in the pen, making it far more troublesome than one would think.
Training, my ass. Isn’t this just unpaid labor exploitation? At least pay us if you’re going to work us to the bone.
Jeremy spat out the fishy, viscous liquid that had gotten into his mouth, cursing inwardly.
Right then, he saw a group of people approaching in the distance.
With an annoyed swipe of his hand, Jeremy wiped the venom roughly from his face and flicked his fingers toward the ground.
Only then did his dark, murky vision clear up a bit.
Jeremy’s gaze swept over the people drawing nearer.
“What, come to take out the trash?”
He asked, looking at the corpse in the hands of the people approaching the monster pen.
“Yes, Young Master Jeremy.”
“You’d better go to another pen. If you go in right now, you’ll die.”
The inside of the pen Jeremy had just emerged from was in complete shambles.
Growing irritated while collecting the stingers, he had provoked the monsters to no end before stepping out.
So if they entered now, they would surely be attacked indiscriminately by the monsters, who were enraged to the brink of madness.
“It is all right. Even we can hold out among the monsters for a brief moment.”
Yet they answered calmly.
“Wait, whose maids are you?”
Hearing that, Jeremy asked out of sudden curiosity.
“We belong to Lady Maria.”
At that moment, Jeremy’s expression shifted as if everything made sense.
If they were Maria’s maids, they would indeed be able to endure inside for a few minutes, just as they said.
Maria detested weaklings serving her, so she never drafted such people as servants in the first place.
Of course, even so, the fact remained that Jeremy could kill them right here with a single flick of his hand.
Still, it meant they possessed a decent amount of martial skill for mere servants.
Honestly, Jeremy couldn’t understand Maria’s tastes.
They weren’t trusted retainers used like limbs, but just servants ordered to do menial chores—what did martial prowess even matter?
“Fine, then go on in and come back out.”
In truth, it would be a simple matter if Jeremy helped them, but unless it concerned Roxana, he had no intention of wasting his energy on useless things.
So Jeremy simply stepped aside from the gate of the pen and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.
The maids walked past Jeremy and entered the breeding pen.
From inside, the muffled sounds of monsters rampaging could faintly be heard. Yet even as more time passed, no screams mingled among them.
A short while later, the maids closed the pen gate and came out empty-handed.
Indeed, they had spent less than two minutes inside, and no one seemed to have been killed or injured in the meantime.
However, it clearly hadn’t been an easy task, as cold sweat dripped from every one of them.
“Told you you should’ve just gone to another pen.”
Jeremy straightened his upper body from the wall, pulling up one corner of his mouth in a spiteful smirk.
Yet the distance to the other pens was rather far; moving there would have caused too much delay.
If they made a wrong move, they might displease their mistress once again.
Maria was a woman whose moods shifted on a whim, after all.
“Then we shall take our leave now, Young Master Jeremy.”
“Yeah.”
At the maids’ farewell, Jeremy gave a careless nod.
Afterward, the maids took the first steps to leave.
Jeremy’s footsteps followed behind them.
A moment later, sensing something odd, the maids looked back.
“What are you doing? Keep going.”
Yet Jeremy merely said so with an innocent face.
Although it was obvious Jeremy was following them, the maids had no justification to stop him.
And so, with Jeremy trailing behind them, they had no choice but to resume the steps they had briefly halted.
