Roxana
Chapter 65
Chapter 65
How to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 65
“Where are you heading in such a hurry?”
Jin, one of the Agriche servants, flinched, his shoulders trembling at the voice that seemed to seize him by the nape of his neck.
Turning around, the sight of a dazzlingly beautiful woman struck his eyes.
“L-Lady Roxana.”
He stuttered without meaning to.
Yet stuttering before Roxana was something everyone did, so it was hardly out of the ordinary.
Watching him stammer, Roxana tilted her head slightly.
“The servants were summoned to the annex, which isn’t in that direction.”
“Ah, th-that’s… I felt a bit sick to my stomach…”
“Is that so?”
“Y-Yes…”
Jin’s face was deathly pale. Seeing the cold sweat beading on his brow, it genuinely looked as though he might be unwell.
Roxana nodded in understanding.
“Then you had best rest.”
A gentle voice washed over his ears.
Jin bowed repeatedly, feeling both relief at having successfully deceived Roxana and a twinge of guilt.
A quiet footstep echoed.
Yet Roxana did not turn back right away; for some reason, she stepped toward him instead.
“When you wake, everything will be over, so you have nothing to worry about.”
There was no time to even ask what those words meant.
“So close your eyes and rest easy.”
A melting smile blurred across his vision.
The soft touch stroking his cheek felt like a dream. The sweet scent washing over him from so close made his head spin.
The sight of that breathtaking face drawing closer—constricting his very heart—was the last thing Jin remembered before his consciousness cut out.
“Should I say this is just like Father to the very end?”
Roxana gave a chilly smile, clutching the crumpled letter in her hand.
He certainly shouldn’t have had the time to contact anyone else, yet here was someone trying to smuggle Lant’s message outside.
Did this mean he had always kept at least some minimal contingency in place for the worst?
Moreover, the person entrusted with this role was not one of the subordinates Lant favored or the servants he constantly kept by his side, but an inconspicuous servant whose very presence in the mansion had gone unnoticed until now.
Since those blindly loyal to Lant had already been eliminated, utilizing such a ghost of a person was clever in its own way.
That is, assuming he didn’t get caught.
Roxana’s cold gaze pierced down at the man collapsed at her feet.
The moment his face came close to Roxana’s, he had lost consciousness and collapsed.
In reality, Lant had not made his daughter, Roxana, use her body to seduce other men as he had in the novel. It was more accurate to say he hadn’t been able to.
The reason was that Roxana’s entire body was virtually a lethal poison.
It was the result of steadily consuming massive amounts of deadly poison to become the master of the Poison Butterflies.
Thus, anyone without immunity to poison would show symptoms of toxicity and faint merely from sharing breath in close proximity with Roxana, just as this man had.
Naturally, with training, she had learned to rein in the venomous aura of her body to an extent, but that only held true in the absence of intimate contact.
Unlike in the novel, where Sylvia’s kiss healed people, Roxana’s kiss could kill.
“Still, Bertium again.”
Roxana tilted her head. She had known for a long time that Lant wanted to cultivate ties with Bertium, but was their relationship truly one where he could demand troops in a crisis like this?
At least, Lant clearly believed so.
Which meant there was a secret thread connecting the two families, unknown to others.
At the very least, Lant must have given Bertium something substantial enough to warrant asking for aid in a situation like this.
Yet hadn’t he already harbored suspicions toward Bertium regarding Cassis during the Harmony Conference?
Ah, but now that Lant was aware of Roxana’s betrayal, it was hardly surprising if he distrusted every single word that had come from her lips.
Roxana pondered this for a moment before setting aside her thoughts on the relationship between Agriche and Bertium.
Because at this point, such things felt utterly pointless.
Even if Bertium were to dispatch forces now, it would be in vain anyway.
Besides, Roxana now found the whole thing tiresome.
“Noona.”
Just then, Jeremy appeared at the end of the hallway.
Having slipped out first from the training hall building, he walked up and came to a stop before Roxana, who was holding the letter.
Jeremy’s gaze flicked past the man collapsed on the floor.
“What’s Emily doing that you’re here all alone, Noona?”
“I sent her to Mother.”
At Roxana’s reply, Jeremy stared silently at her face for a moment. His eyes were shadowed, sinking into a dim quiet.
“Noona, I did what you told me to.”
Unlike earlier when confronting their father, Lant, in the Room of Judgment, or just a moment ago when inciting their half-siblings to eliminate the instructors, Jeremy felt somewhat conflicted now.
He was prepared to follow any order from Roxana.
Though he detested that wretched Deon sticking so closely to Roxana’s side, Jeremy had not laid a finger on him once over the past three years, solely because of her command.
Even though, unlike before, he no longer felt he would simply lose to Deon, he had clenched his itching fists and suppressed his competitive urge because Roxana did not desire it.
The last time he had acted recklessly out of childish impulses was three years ago, when he had accidentally put Roxana’s toy, Cassis Pedelian, in danger.
Now, Jeremy wanted to become someone truly useful to Roxana, standing proudly by her side.
And so, whatever her wish might be, he wanted to fulfill it with his own hands.
Thus, if Roxana wished to possess Agriche, he intended to offer it to her without hesitation.
If she wished to see their father Lant meet a miserable death, he was more than willing to take the lead.
Yet what Roxana ordered Jeremy to do after driving Lant out was somehow strange.
It was almost as if…
…taking Agriche had never been her goal in the first place…
“Yes, you did well. Lastly, could you take this person to the servants for me?”
Roxana spoke in a nonchalant manner, as if oblivious to Jeremy’s inner turmoil. And so Jeremy, too, swallowed down the doubts and anxiety rising in his throat.
“Yeah, I’ll do that.”
Because no matter what it was, he wanted to aid whatever Roxana desired.
Hefting the fallen man onto his shoulder, Jeremy made his way toward the annex where the servants were gathered.
Roxana watched Jeremy’s retreating back, turning away only after he had vanished entirely from sight.
She held the letter to the flame of a wall sconce.
Then, she brought the smoldering paper to the curtains hanging by the window opposite her.
Whoosh!
Flickering flames instantly caught on the thick fabric.
Roxana gazed with an emotionless face at the fire steadily spreading its reach, then turned around.
A low, resonant wail tore through the corridor.
Right on cue, the alarm warning of intruders resounded throughout the hallway.
A chaotic din surged in from afar. Yet through it all, Roxana’s stride did not falter in the slightest.
Having received their orders, the butterflies scattered across the estate.
Behind her, the flames, grown far larger than before, opened wide like the gates of hell.
As it had always been, survival in Agriche was up to each individual.
At the tail end of the new year’s first month, the Blue Pedelian breached the gates of the Black Agriche and stormed inside.
The clashing of weapons and armor shattered the stillness of the night, tearing through the frozen winter wind.
The Pedelians laid a watertight siege around Agriche, unleashing a fierce assault from all directions.
Caught off guard by the surprise attack, Agriche failed to mount a swift response.
It was largely because internal strife had already plunged them into chaos, leaving them without proper orders from above.
Cutting down the one blocking his path in a single stroke, Cassis commanded:
“Do not pursue those who flee! Securing Lant Agriche’s person is our top priority!”
They did not attack those who were unarmed or fleeing.
Their goal was not the slaughter of everyone within Agriche.
In the midst of the chaos, someone must have unlocked the breeding pens, for the interior of Agriche had turned into utter bedlam, with monsters and humans tangled in frenzy.
Without pausing for a single step, Cassis swept aside everything in his path.
Raising his head, a building with spreading flames caught his eye.
Cassis knew who would be there.
Even with all preparations completed, holding back from immediately attacking and storming the fortress before him had been the utmost patience and courtesy he could offer.
Even if Agriche were to surrender, Cassis would not stop. For what the person beyond those flames desired was surely the exact same.
Skreeeech!
The monster lunging at him from the front was split in two by a blade cleaving straight down through the air.
Looking down at the Agriche subordinate trembling beneath a shower of monster blood, Cassis spoke coldly:
“Where is Lant Agriche?”