Translator: Nox

Roxana

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

How to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother

Chapter 30

“Thank you.”

I quietly took the towel Cassis offered.

As I pressed it against my bleeding arm, the white cloth quickly soaked red.

“You should sit down.”

At Cassis’s suggestion, I gazed at him blankly.

Sitting on the bed beside me seemed to mean nothing to him now.

But if I sat down now, the bed would get soaked, too.

While I hesitated over that thought, Cassis sat on the edge of the bed first and set down bandages and a fresh towel beside him.

Then he looked back up at me.

Ah, so that was what he meant.

I walked over to Cassis and sat down on the towel he had laid out.

Yet the moment I did, Cassis flinched, his brow furrowing.

Hm? Was that not it?

When I looked at him as if asking what was wrong, Cassis let out a heavy sigh.

“You’re soaked, too. At least dry yourself off with this.”

Apparently, the towel on the bed hadn’t been meant for me to sit on.

Having no other spare towels, Cassis reluctantly handed me the thin blanket from the bed.

“No, it’s fine. You don’t have to go that far.”

I refused.

I didn’t plan to stay here long anyway, nor did I want to make a fuss and bother him.

When I turned it down, Cassis fell silent.

Unexpectedly, a subtle look of embarrassment crossed his face.

“Then… at least drape it over yourself.”

Cassis reached out again, averting his gaze from me.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t been looking straight at me for a while now. Even now, his eyes were carefully looking away.

I cast a glance downward. Only then did I realize why Cassis was acting this way.

Drenched from the rain, my clothes clung tightly to my body. To make matters worse, because I was wearing white, my skin was faintly visible beneath the fabric.

His voice and expression had been as cool as usual, so I hadn’t realized, but he seemed flustered in his own way.

That was why he had been looking away all this time—trying to be considerate.

It wasn’t even that revealing, but look at him being cute.

“Alright, thank you.”

I took what was in Cassis’s hand and loosely draped it over my shoulders. Only then did his gaze return to me.

As I rolled up my sleeve, my bandaged arm came into view. The cloth was already thoroughly soaked with rainwater and blood.

I unwound the bandage that was clinging to my skin.

Cassis watched me quietly.

Once the bandage was completely off, the wound revealed itself, gaping wider than when I had checked it in the breeding room.

The blood that had pooled in the cut trickled down.

Ah, what a waste.

With the Poison Butterflies demanding blood so often these days, it felt like I was donating blood once a week as it was.

If I had known this would happen, I would have wrapped the bandage more carefully back in the breeding room.

I had only tied it loosely because I needed to feed the Poison Butterfly that had already hatched anyway.

If I hadn’t run into Deon on the way, I would have returned to my room long ago to feed the Poison Butterflies and stop the bleeding.

I couldn’t summon the Poison Butterflies to feed them in front of Cassis now. In the end, this precious blood was just going to waste.

“Looks like a cut from a blade.”

Cassis, who had been silently staring down at my arm, spoke up.

Apparently, he could tell just by looking at it.

“And your bandaging is a mess. Didn’t you say you were good at it last time?”

Ah, I’ve been looked down on.

I had my reasons for wrapping it so carelessly this time.

“Well, I’m usually good at it. This one just happened to come loose.”

Of course, he didn’t look convinced. Cassis stared at the wound on my arm with a dissatisfied look.

Then, as if lost in thought, his eyes sank slightly.

Next, Cassis reached over, took the fresh bandage I had just picked up, and began wrapping my arm without a word.

I gazed at him quietly.

“I think you’d be a good oppa to your sister.”

At the words I tossed out, his hands paused for an instant.

“I heard last time that you have a younger sister. To tell you the truth, my family is quite large, with multiple mothers and many siblings.”

As if he had never reacted in the first place, Cassis silently resumed wrapping.

But I was still carefully watching his face.

“None of us are close, though. We rarely even run into each other in the manor if we can help it.”

Ever since the last time Cassis had let his guard down for a moment in front of me, I had been pondering why.

And I had come to my own conclusion.

“Looking at you reminds me of my dead oppa.”

At that moment, Cassis’s eyes locked onto mine.

As our gazes met at close range, I smiled inwardly with satisfaction.

Yes, this was it. The weakness I needed to exploit.

As I already knew, Cassis clearly cared deeply for his family.

In particular, his special bond with his younger sister, Sylvia, had been mentioned several times in the novel.

For that reason, what made Cassis soften was probably…

“You only have one younger sister, right? My only full sibling was an oppa, too.”

The fact that I, too, was someone’s younger sister.

It must have reminded him of his sister, Sylvia.

Cassis remained tight-lipped, but I could sense that his atmosphere was slightly different from before.

I weighed several things in my mind. And I concluded that now was the right time.

“Cassis.”

Just as Cassis finished bandaging and was about to pull his hands away, I called his name.

Holding Cassis’s gaze, I raised my free hand and reached forward.

I felt the solid expanse of his chest beneath my fingertips.

Putting strength into my hand, I pushed him back.

With a soft thud, Cassis’s upper body was pushed halfway back.

But rather than falling back completely, he braced himself with his arm, halting the movement.

Cassis grabbed my arm, furrowing his brow as if asking what on earth I was doing.

Without hesitation, I pressed my body over his. Cassis’s breath hitched instantly.

Whether caught off guard by the sudden ambush or not, the muscles beneath my fingertips went rigid.

“What are you suddenly—”

“Don’t you think things have been a little too peaceful so far?”

At my soft whisper, Cassis’s eyes flickered slightly.

He opened his mouth again as if to say something, but I was faster.

“As you know, the situation you and I are in isn’t exactly safe.”

The dampness from my wet clothes gradually seeped into Cassis’s shirt. The blanket draped over my shoulders had already slid off behind my back.

Pressed tightly against him, I could feel a heartbeat pounding—unsure whose it was.

“Help me, Cassis.”

Cassis’s movement to push me away suddenly froze, the change transmitting clearly from his body to mine.

“…Help you?”

His low voice, mingled with faint breath, tickled my ear.

I saw a droplet of water roll down from my hair and wet his cheek.

“You and I, we both need an insurance policy. So, whatever I’m about to do to you…”

I chose my words with utmost care.

So that I wouldn’t provoke his revulsion, but still strike at his vulnerability.

So that he would submit to what I was about to do.

“Promise me you won’t get angry.”

Cassis continued to gaze at me in silence.

“Promise me you won’t strike me, either.”

This time, the corners of his eyes twitched.

It was just a precaution in case something went wrong.

Of course, I didn’t think he would resort to violence against me, but he might still shove me away in surprise.

“And… don’t hate me.”

Having said that, I slowly lowered my head. My hair tumbled down over Cassis’s shirt.

He still didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to do. Cassis’s gaze followed my face with confusion.

I pulled Cassis’s shirt open a little wider and buried my face into his exposed white nape.

Then I parted my lips as if trying to breathe in more of that subtle, crisp fragrance.

The moment bare skin touched bare skin, the body pressed against mine froze rock-hard, as if struck by lightning.

But without paying it any mind, I moved my lips.

With a sharp jerk,

immediately after, Cassis grabbed my shoulder with one hand and my arm with the other, tearing me away.

“What…”

A heavily strained voice struck my ears.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?”