Roxana
Chapter 39
Chapter 39
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 39
Skreeeech!
Deon closed in on Cassis just as he broke free after slaying the monster.
Because he had rushed to save Roxana’s mother, Cassis had been unable to dodge the creature’s poisonous stinger in time.
As a result, his movements were noticeably more sluggish than before. In front of the beast’s carcass sat Roxana’s mother, her face completely pale with shock.
Her legs having given out beneath her, she collapsed helplessly onto the ground.
Yet Deon did not spare her so much as a glance, launching an immediate attack at Cassis.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
A violent blow struck the side of Cassis’s head, sending him staggering.
Even then, he tried to push himself up using the weapon in his hand for support, but the next moment, a kick caught him square beneath the jaw and slammed him down.
“Deon… Agriche…”
A voice heated with fury ground out through clenched teeth.
Drip, drip. Blood tracked down his forehead and spattered onto the lush green grass.
Deon spun the shaft of the spear that had struck Cassis and thrust its broken point into a specific part of the restraints.
In that instant, agonizing pain ripped through Cassis’s entire body.
The Anti-Monster Restraints instantly engaged at their maximum level, Stage Five.
Cassis convulsed under the sheer intensity of the agony piercing down to his very bones. Deon’s boot pressed down mercilessly upon him.
The unfocused eyes of Roxana’s mother, Sierra, stared at the two of them.
She was gazing at them blankly, as if in utter shock from what had just transpired.
Then, as though the reality of the scene unfolding before her eyes finally registered, her eyes went wide.
Drawing in a sharp, sudden breath, Sierra parted her trembling lips.
The ragged gasps spilling from them grew increasingly rapid.
“Aunt Sierra, are you hurt anywher—”
“Ah, ah… no…”
Jeremy, who had stepped forward to check on Roxana’s mother, was overtaken by bewilderment.
“Stop, please stop… Don’t kill him.”
“Ah, wait a second. I really hate situations like this.”
“Don’t kill Asil…”
Damn it, she’s lost it.
From the look in her eyes, Roxana’s mother was no longer in any state to think clearly.
Not only were the hands clutching her face shaking violently, but her entire body was trembling.
Even so, her gaze remained pinned to Cassis pinned beneath Deon’s foot.
Watching her, Jeremy could not help but let out a curse under his breath.
Deon looked down at Roxana’s mother with eyes as cold as ice.
“What do you think you’re doing there right now?”
At that very moment, the only person capable of bringing order to the chaos appeared.
“Sana noona!”
Jeremy called her name in relief. Roxana stood there with an impassive face, Emily flanking behind her.
Her gaze swept slowly across the scene: her mother collapsed on the ground, Jeremy, the dead monster lying before them, Deon, and finally Cassis crushed beneath his boot.
“Emily. Clean up the remaining monsters around here.”
Having given Emily the order, she resumed her halted steps.
Only two or three beasts remained lingering in the vicinity now.
Roxana, too, was stained with the monster’s venom and bodily fluids.
“Why is Mother out here?”
Roxana’s eyes fixed upon Sierra, who was huddled on the ground, trembling.
Jeremy answered cautiously.
“Well, she seemed to come out because she was worried about you, noona.”
At that moment, Roxana’s eyes twitched slightly.
“Is she injured?”
“I don’t think so.”
“This place is still too dangerous for Mother to remain. Jeremy, take her inside.”
At Roxana’s words, Jeremy opened his mouth to say something.
Yet, as if quickly remembering his place, he read Roxana’s expression and nodded.
“Got it.”
Just then, a shrill voice rang out from behind Roxana.
“Sierra!”
The voice, crying out almost like a shriek, belonged to Maria.
Having followed Roxana out of the greenhouse, Maria spotted Sierra collapsed before the monster’s corpse and came rushing over in a fluster.
“Good heavens, are you alright, Sierra? I thought you’d be in your room—what on earth happened here?! You weren’t hurt by that beast, were you?!”
Maria fussed frantically, checking Sierra all over.
Only when she finally realized that Sierra had sustained no injuries did she let out a long, relieved sigh.
The worry clouding her face began to fade.
“Deon, did you kill this monster? Well done, well done! I don’t think you’ve done anything this commendable since the day you were born!”
Assuming Deon was the one who had slain the beast beside him, Maria showered him with praise.
Hearing that, Jeremy’s expression naturally twisted.
“What are you talking about? Deon is the one who shoved that monster right at Sana noona’s mother!”
“What?”
Maria’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“N-No…”
It was then that a faint, sobbing voice reached everyone’s ears.
“Please don’t, I beg you…”
Covering her face with her hands, Sierra gasped for breath and mumbled incoherently.
Glimpsed between her fingers, her pupils were dilated as if under immense shock.
Tears pooled in her wide blue eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Her despairing gaze remained locked onto Deon, who was treading Cassis underfoot.
“Asil… please don’t kill Asil…”
Maria was thrown into confusion. She tried her best to soothe the weeping Sierra, then shot a fierce glare toward Deon.
“Deon! Why on earth did you have to go and kill Asil back then—!”
However, when her words only caused the weeping beside her to grow louder, Maria panicked again and gently patted Sierra’s back.
“Sierra, calm down. That’s not Asil. Come, look closely. He doesn’t look anything like him.”
Watching this unfold, Roxana moved.
Deon kept his eyes on Roxana as she walked toward him. Standing right in front of him, Roxana raised her hand.
Slap!
A sharp, tearing crack echoed through the air.
As his head snapped slightly to the side, strands of black hair scattered in the air.
Two pairs of crimson eyes, both burning with a frigid light, collided in midair.
Though most would have shrunk beneath that piercing gaze looking down at her, Roxana did not falter in the slightest, meeting Deon’s eyes straight-on with an icy chill that rivaled his own.
“Not only did you dare try to steal what is mine without permission, but you even put my mother in danger.”
Deon stared quietly at Roxana for a moment before slowly raising a hand to touch his cheek.
His left cheek, where Roxana’s hand had struck, was flushed a faint red.
His firmly shut lips parted slowly.
“Rather excessive, isn’t it? For a reward given to someone who caught a mutt that ran away from its master.”
“I never asked you to do that.”
Maria and Jeremy watched the two of them, unconsciously holding their breath.
“Furthermore, what you are doing right now is utterly presumptuous.”
Roxana’s chilling gaze slid toward Cassis.
Though he had not lost consciousness, the shock from the activated restraints had taken a heavy toll, leaving him unable to shake Deon off.
His barely open eyes were hazy and unfocused. The blood trickling from his head was staining the green grass red.
“This belongs to me. If punishment is to be dealt, I will deliver it myself.”
Roxana lifted her eyes once more to meet Deon head-on.
“Step back. Right now.”
Deon stared into Roxana’s eyes, his own as still and dark as an abyss. How long did their gazes hold?
At last, Deon broke into a twisted smile and lifted his boot off Cassis.
“It was moderately entertaining, so I suppose I’ll leave it at this for today.”
Immediately afterward, his hand reached out toward Roxana.
Seeing this, Jeremy flinched as if he would leap up at any second.
Yet Deon did not retaliate for the slap Roxana had dealt him, as the others feared.
“It’s been a while since I last saw you this angry. So I don’t feel half bad.”
A seemingly tender touch brushed across Roxana’s face. The sensation of his cold fingertips trailing over her skin was chilling.
“Still, though…”
Yet Roxana merely returned a frosty glare, without shifting an inch from where she stood.
The smile on Deon’s face deepened as he looked down at her.
“It would be even better if you cried, like you did back then.”
The voice murmuring those words was as soft as a whisper, failing to reach where Jeremy and Maria stood.
Only Cassis, lying in close proximity to them, caught the sound of Deon’s voice.
A sharp prickle spread across the corner of Roxana’s eye where Deon’s fingertip had grazed.
Soon, a single bead of red blood began to trickle down her fair, finely cut skin.
It looked almost like a tear of blood. Deon looked down at the sight with a cold smirk before drawing his hand back.
Having sprung up from his spot, Jeremy spat out a curse and acted as though he would lunge at him that very moment.
Yet Deon ignored Jeremy as he always did, turning on his heel and walking away.
Roxana’s frigid gaze lingered on the empty space left behind by Deon, before she finally looked away.