Translator: Nox

Roxana

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s

Older Brother

Chapter 28

Good grief, the nonsense coming out of his mouth seemed to grow by the day.

Roxana nearly let out an involuntary scoff. It sounded completely absurd, but Lant seemed entirely in earnest.

An instinctive displeasure flared within her, but thinking about it from another angle, Lant’s delusion was proof that she had played her part flawlessly so far.

“When you were young, you had nothing to show for yourself—only weak-willed and frail.”

Lant clicked his tongue as if recalling the Roxana of those days.

“Come to think of it, was his name Arle? Your dead older brother, who didn’t possess a single useful bone in his body no matter how hard you looked.”

He had taken after Sierra, so his face at least was decent enough, but aside from that, Lant could not stomach him in the slightest.

Recalling his dead son weeping and clutching at the hem of his trousers, crying, ‘I cannot do this, anything but this,’ the irritation from that day surged anew within him.

“No one rivaled that boy when it came to sheer weakness. It must have been Arle who cast such a foul influence over you.”

“If you are referring to my older brother who was disposed of and put to death, his name was not Arle, but Asil.”

At that moment, Roxana, who had been listening in silence, parted her lips.

Lant lifted his gaze from his cup.

“Of course, since he met such a disgraceful end, there is no reason for Father to remember his name. Mother and I also find the memory utterly shameful.”

Roxana wore the same faint smile as before.

“Just as you said, Father, it is true that I began showing notable results only after Asil died, but I believe the timing was merely a coincidence.”

Thus, Lant could not fathom just how icy cold her heart had turned in this moment.

“Asil was a person of no consequence to me, so whether he lived or died, I would have ended up standing right here regardless.”

Not a tremor wavered in Roxana’s voice as she spoke.

Though she appeared arrogant, it was the exact attitude expected of anyone bearing the blood of Agriche.

“For I am a proud Agriche, and a daughter who resembles her respected father more than anyone else.”

Agreeing with Roxana’s words, Lant tipped his cup back in satisfaction.

Naturally, he could never have imagined that Roxana was mocking him from the depths of her soul.

---

“You may leave now, Emily.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Having returned to her room, Roxana ingested her daily dose of poison brought by Emily as usual before sending her away.

For some reason, she felt far more exhausted today than usual.

She wanted nothing more than to lie down on her bed and fall straight asleep, but it seemed her day was not destined to end so easily.

Flutter.

Two butterflies materialized in midair and fluttered toward Roxana, who sat upon the couch.

They were the butterflies she had previously dispatched to the western boundary.

“You’ve returned.”

When she held out her hand, they alighted gently upon her fingers.

“Now, what did you find?”

One of the butterflies shared with Roxana the scene it had witnessed at the western boundary.

The silent Black Forest.

A crimson new moon.

The cawing of crows stirred from their sleep.

Blood drenching the blades of grass.

Slaughtered corpses.

And standing tall and solitary in their midst, a man with eyes redder than blood.

“…!”

Clatter.

Before she realized it, Roxana had shot up from her seat.

At her sudden movement, the butterfly resting on her finger took flight into the air, severing the link between them.

Yet the scene she had just witnessed replayed with vivid clarity inside Roxana’s mind.

The man who stood like the Grim Reaper amidst the butchered corpses was someone Roxana knew all too well.

The son whom Father Lant Agriche cherished most, a monstrous man who held an unshakable first rank at every Monthly Evaluation and never missed a single Grand Banquet.

Deon Agriche.

He had returned.

5. Who Is the Tamed One?

From morning on, my nerves had been on edge.

It had been that way ever since I learned Deon had returned, but this morning was particularly bad.

There was a time lag between the day the butterfly spotted him at the western boundary and the moment I confirmed it, which meant I would likely see Deon here in Agriche sometime today or tomorrow.

Recalling the vision the butterfly had shared, a curse naturally welled up in my mouth.

The people lying dead before Deon were most likely Pedelians who had come searching for Cassis.

Yet they had already been turned into cold corpses.

Damn it. To be a step behind in this manner.

Could the task Lant assigned to Deon have been clearing out the boundary?

Still, of all places along that vast boundary, for them to run straight into Deon in the west.

There was no other way to put it than sheer rotten luck.

“What is it? If you have something to say, speak.”

Perhaps my troubled thoughts showed on my face, for Cassis spoke up in his usual cool, composed manner.

He was fiddling with the nape of his neck as if his collar felt especially uncomfortable today.

Drawn in by his steadfast composure, my lips parted before I could stop myself.

“Cassis…”

Yet the moment the first word left my lips, I closed my mouth again.

It seemed better not to reveal the truth to him just yet.

The Pedelians would never give up their search for Cassis like this, so tightening reconnaissance near the boundary and waiting for the next opportunity seemed the best course of action.

“Heal quickly.”

So I left it at that, and Cassis looked at me with that same peculiar gaze he had shown before.

---

Drip. Patter, patter…

I was on my way back after feeding my blood to the Poison Butterfly eggs in the breeding room.

Storm clouds had been gathering since early morning, and now rain had finally begun to pour.

I looked up at the dark sky for a moment. The rain was still light enough that I could walk through it without trouble.

Had Emily been by my side, she certainly would have rushed ahead to fetch something to shield me from the rain.

Yet I was alone here right now.

Most people of Agriche possessed strongly individualistic streaks and preferred to act alone.

Thus, someone like Maria, who trailed a line of maids whenever she stepped outside her room, was actually an anomaly.

The rain-soaked vegetation gave off a distinctive, faint fragrance. I walked past the path and stepped into the mansion.

Then, suddenly realizing where my feet were taking me, I halted.

Ah, right. It isn’t time to go to Cassis’s room.

After hearing Jeremy’s words last time, I had changed the schedule for visiting the breeding room.

Yet because my mind was preoccupied elsewhere, I found myself walking toward Cassis before I even realized it.

What’s more, I was damp from the rain, my hair and clothes wet.

Going to see Cassis looking like this… I should just head back to my room.

The reason my thoughts were so thoroughly scattered was unquestionably Deon.

And merely acknowledging that fact sank my mood even lower.

Step.

Just then, a sudden presence made itself known behind my back.

It was closer than expected, causing me to react on instinct. But by the time I sensed it and spun around, the other person was already well within my personal space.

A faint scent of grass, identical to what I had smelled outside moments ago, brushed past the tip of my nose.

In the next instant, a man composed entirely of black and white came into view, standing before me like an ink wash painting bleeding through water.

Drip. Drip.

Clear water dripping from his body and mine pooled in speckled stains across the floor.

The man who had closed in to block my field of vision was like an ancient, solitary tree looming over a frozen lake.

The surrounding temperature plummeted in an instant. It felt as though everything around me had plunged into a frost-bitten winter.

Having shed his boyhood to become a fully grown young man, he looked down at me with his usual chilly gaze.

His frigid face, carved as if from ice, appeared strikingly pale in contrast to his pitch-black hair.

Feeling the air around us grow noticeably heavier, I parted my lips.

“Deon.”

In that moment, a strange glint flashed across his glass-like crimson eyes.

I nearly took a step back without realizing it to put distance between us.

Yet before I could, Deon’s outstretched hand seized my wrist.

The chilling cold of his flesh seeped into my skin with such a sudden shock that my eyes twitched.

It felt as if a serpent were slithering up my arm, coiling tight around it.

At the same time, Deon’s gaze dropped straight down.

“Here.”

Then a low voice, scarcely louder than a whisper, brushed past my ear.

“Why are you hurt?”