Roxana
Chapter 3
“Could you lend me the key for a moment?”
Returning to the present, I was down in the dungeon.
As I descended the stairs and stood before the iron door, I could feel the damp chill and humidity leaking from within.
“You cannot, milady. The Master ordered that no one be let inside…”
“So, you’re refusing? Really?”
At my question, the guard standing watch flinched.
I tilted my head slightly as if telling him to think carefully before answering, fixing the jailer with a steady gaze.
From the moment I was first invited to the Grand Banquet until now, just past my sixteenth birthday, I had been a permanent fixture among its guests.
In other words, I was Agriche’s rising star and most promising prospect.
Well, not that I was remotely proud of it.
If you asked me how someone who never even aspired to be a villain ended up like this, I would answer that I put in a hell of an effort just to survive.
“But…”
The jailer hesitated.
Looks like he’ll give in with just a little more push. Should I threaten him, or sweet-talk him?
I pondered for a moment, looking at him intently.
Then, slowly, the jailer’s face began to flush red.
Wait a minute. I haven’t even used my feminine wiles yet—what are you doing blushing already?
Well, well, look at this guy with plenty of potential to end up in handcuffs.
Of course, being the lowest of the low-ranking subordinates, he looked quite young—somewhere in his late teens.
Apparently, since I had never come down to the dungeon before, he had zero immunity against me.
Well, all the better for me.
While the guard was flustered, I smoothly snatched the key from his hand.
“I’ll just take a quick look at his face and come right out. No one will ever know, so there’s no need to report this to Father, right?”
I deliberately whispered in a gentle, coaxing tone and gave him a smile, which instantly settled the matter.
The guard hurriedly unlocked the door himself, stammering that he wouldn’t tell a soul and begging me to make it quick.
Hmph. By the looks of it, this guy won’t last long working in this household.
Passing a cold judgment in my mind, I stepped inside the dungeon.
Once fully inside, a chill sharper than before seeped into my skin.
On top of that, an unpleasant stench hung in the dungeon air.
Then again, it made sense, considering this was a place where generations of abductions, confinements, and tortures had been carried out.
Hardening my expression, I walked further inside.
Before long, the figure of someone trapped behind iron bars came into view.
Using the key extorted from the guard a moment ago, I unlocked the door and stepped inside.
The rusty iron door opened with a sharp, piercing screech.
The boy abducted earlier was still leaning against the wall, all four limbs bound.
His head hung down at an angle, making his mystical, bluish-silver hair the first thing that caught my eye.
The murderous golden eyes that had glared at my family earlier were now closed.
Seeing him like that, he seemed to have lost consciousness.
Standing by the doorway, I called out to him quietly.
“Excuse me.”
Hey, heroine’s oppa. Open your eyes.
“Cassis Pedelian.”
Even when I called his name, the boy did not budge in the slightest.
I quietly looked down at him before taking a step forward from the doorway.
Up close, the boy looked in far worse shape than I had thought.
Not only were his wrists and ankles deeply gouged from chafing against the restraints, but fresh wounds that hadn’t been there when I first saw him marked his body.
They were told to lock him up until he became compliant, so he must have already been whipped in that short time.
Still, looking at the marks, they seemed to have used an ordinary whip rather than one embedded with glass, which was fortunate.
Seeing that his limbs were still intact, it seemed they had no intention of deciding his fate right away.
After all, the people Lant Agriche had brought in before were never left in this whole of a state.
Of course, describing this boy’s condition as ‘intact’ might sound absurd.
Yet by Agriche standards, this was exceptionally good condition.
In that case, I could breathe a small sigh of relief for now.
If this boy died like this, I, as a member of this family, wouldn’t be safe later either.
I pulled out the medicine I had hidden inside my dress.
Then I took hold of the boy’s tilted head and lifted it.
The chains gave a dull clatter.
Hmm, handsome as expected.
He looked every bit the noble young master. With wounds marring such a delicate, handsome face, he even gave off a rather masochistic air.
An appearance that made one want to torment him, so to speak.
His intensity had been tremendous when he was glaring with wide, fierce eyes earlier.
Seeing him with his eyes closed so quietly now, he looked disarmingly gentle and delicate.
He seemed a little older than me. According to my information, he would be seventeen right now.
“This is troublesome.”
Had I seen him somewhere else, I would have purely admired his looks, but right now I was quite serious.
This is quite Charlotte’s type.
Charlotte was one of the two younger siblings who had been chattering earlier about wanting to play with this boy.
A younger sister three years my junior, she was already a splendid budding villain whose rotten nature showed early on.
Despite being so young, she possessed a sadistic temperament and made a hobby out of playing with the ‘playthings’ Father brought home.
Narrowing my brows, I scanned his face from various angles before gripping his jaw and forcing his mouth open.
Ugh. First, let’s get the medicine down him.
Perhaps I brushed against his bloodied lip, for the boy flinched and grimaced.
Wondering if he was waking up, I paused for a moment. But the boy remained quiet.
Well, what was this much? These were wounds we wore after every Monthly Evaluation anyway.
I thought somewhat numbly as I slipped the pill into his mouth.
Maybe it was better that he was unconscious like this.
If he had been awake, there was no way he would have meekly swallowed the medicine I gave him.
“Ugh…”
Right at that moment, a small groan escaped the boy.
Ah, was that a false alarm earlier? This time, it looks like he’s really waking up.
My guess was right.
After his eyelids fluttered faintly, golden irises revealed themselves. His unfocused eyes blinked, closing and opening slowly.
Damn, what a mess. I thought he’d stay knocked out a bit longer.
The next moment, his eyes met mine.
“Uh, hi?”
The greeting slipped out before I could stop myself. Naturally, this was hardly the time to be casually saying ‘hi.’
The boy before me didn’t seem to grasp the situation yet.
Soon, however, a spark flared in his hazy eyes.
He seemed to finally register my presence standing right in front of him. Moreover, he appeared to realize there was medicine inside his mouth.
“What… is—mph!”
His hoarse, ragged voice was forcefully cut off.
Because I had clamped my hand over his mouth.
It was an almost purely reflexive reaction.
At that instant, sparks seemed to fly from his eyes.
He began to thrash violently in an attempt to pull away from me.
The chains rattled loudly against the stone wall.
Good grief, he still has plenty of fight in him.
I was a little startled, not expecting him to have this much strength left.
Still, with the chains connected to his restraints anchored tightly to the wall, his thrashing didn’t affect me much.
“Mmph, mmph!”
“Don’t spit it out. It’s an antidote.”
“Mmmph!”
“If I wanted to kill you right now, why would I bother using poison?”
Judging by how he kept wildly thrashing, though, he was in no state to listen to reason.
Then again, of course he wouldn’t.
After being forcibly abducted into an enemy stronghold, only to wake up with someone shoving medicine down his throat while unconscious, staying calm would have been stranger.
Still, from my perspective, his continuous flailing was undeniably a nuisance.
All I needed was to wait until the pill dissolved, but this was getting a bit troublesome.
“Sorry. You leave me no choice since you keep squirming.”
Keeping his mouth covered, I shoved my arm forward and forced his head straight back.
“Mmph, cough!”
Helpless against the sudden strike, the boy was forced to swallow the pill I gave him.
Hmm, but if I let go now, there was a very, very high chance he would vomit the medicine right back up.
Then there’s only one thing to do. Go back to sleep.
“Cough! Ugh, what kind of…”
“Oppa, sorry once more.”
Thud!
“Urgh!”
After apologizing in advance, I slammed my fist into his solar plexus.
Struck squarely in a vital point, the boy let out a choked gasp, lost consciousness, and went limp once again.
He looked far more drained of strength than when he had been unconscious earlier.
Oops. Did I hit him a bit too hard?
Feeling a little sheepish, I pulled my hand away from him.
Since all children of Agriche learned basic martial arts, subduing a boy around my age was hardly a difficult task for me.
All the more so when the opponent’s limbs were bound tight. What was more, he had even been poisoned.
Still, he had been thrashing around with so much vigor that I thought this much force was necessary—maybe not?
Well, what was done was done, so it couldn’t be helped anyway.
Leaving the unconscious boy behind covered in a cold sweat, I slipped out of the dungeon.
