Roxana
Chapter 76
Chapter 76
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 76
“Ugh……! Wait, don’t come near me!”
He immediately warned the others.
Seeing him stagger and sink to his knees as if struck by an unseen hand, everyone fell into confusion.
Before anyone knew it, a dense miasma of poison had blanketed the surroundings.
Realizing this, his companions covered their noses and mouths, regulating their breathing.
Fortunately, Cassis returned at that moment.
He grasped the situation at a glance.
The poisonous energy he had forcibly suppressed earlier had regained its fury in the brief moment he stepped away, running wildly out of control.
Considering that not even five minutes had passed, it was a remarkably swift relapse.
“All of you, fall back.”
“Young Lord, wait…….”
Cassis walked unhesitatingly toward the woman presumed to be the source of the poison.
Naturally, those beside him tried to hold him back.
Yet Cassis stepped forward without hesitation, reaching out toward the woman collapsed on the cold snow.
“Roxana.”
But to her, having lost consciousness once more, no voice seemed to reach.
As his arm supported her back, her limp body slumped powerlessly against him. The miasma of poison surrounding Roxana grew even more intense.
A red butterfly materialized from thin air, alighting upon her shoulder.
Realizing he could not delay for even a single moment, Cassis immediately lowered his head.
At what followed, the surrounding people could not help but gasp.
Cassis parted her lips with his own, directly sharing his life force with her.
Using the same method he had used to forcefully bring back Lant Agriche’s breath would have been far simpler and faster.
However, that was a forceful and violent method that paid no heed to whether the recipient’s soul was torn apart.
He could never use such a thing on this person.
Carefully, so as not to burden Roxana’s body, Cassis slowly channeled his life force into her over several passes.
Then, lifting her body as warmth began to return to it once more, he turned his steps from the spot.
What he had just done was merely a temporary measure; a faint fragrance of poison still drifted from Roxana’s body.
“Do not approach until I give permission.”
Leaving behind that brief command, Cassis opened the door to the carriage where Roxana had originally been resting and stepped inside with her.
The people around could only open and close their mouths in dazed disbelief as the door shut in front of them.
Could he truly be tending to her himself?
After some time passed, the poisonous miasma that had been leaking outside the carriage began to quietly subside.
A moment later, the firmly shut door opened.
“Bring the medicine and drinking water.”
Just earlier, Cassis had stepped away specifically to have medicine prepared for Roxana.
Hearing his words, the companion beside Ollin hurried over immediately, handing Cassis what had been readied in advance.
Right after that, the door closed again.
Even after that, the surrounding area remained dead silent.
Everyone held their breath, keeping their eyes fixed on the carriage where Cassis and the mysterious woman were together.
Had the collapsed woman already regained consciousness? But earlier, there had been no sign of that. Then how was he going to give her medicine……?
At this very moment, all of them shared the same thought, recalling the scene they had witnessed earlier.
The sight of Cassis lowering his head without hesitation, pressing his lips against hers.
The conclusion they all reached afterward was the same.
‘She isn’t a prisoner after all.’
If anything, this treatment was closer to that of an honored guest.
There was no way a person whom Cassis personally waited on and treated with such care could be a captive.
“Sir Winston, do you happen to know anything about the lady our lord brought with him?”
That night, one of the companions asked Isidore, unable to contain his burning curiosity.
Everyone pricked up their ears to listen in on their conversation, though pretending otherwise on the surface.
Isidore’s brow furrowed briefly. But perhaps deeming it better for the others to know as well, he soon opened his mouth to answer.
“If one had to define it, she could be called something closer to a savior.”
“Pardon?”
“So treat her accordingly.”
At the curt answer devoid of any further explanation, their bewilderment only grew.
However, Isidore walked away as if he had nothing more to say. Thus, they could ask him nothing further.
And so, while curiosity blossomed and grew day by day, Roxana fully regained consciousness.
And at last, today had arrived.
* * *
“Ah.”
From Roxana’s lips came a faint sound, halfway between an exclamation and a groan.
Memories from the time she was unconscious had just flickered back to her.
Back then, she had been burning with a parching thirst.
Unable to control the poisonous energy in her body, a fever had flared and subsided repeatedly, leaving her mouth dry and her lips parched to the point of stinging.
Yet her body had felt so heavy and her consciousness so hazy that she couldn’t lift a single finger.
Then, something warm had pressed down firmly upon her lips.
As if sensing her desperate need, water soon flowed between her parted lips.
Moistening her tongue, the water tasted so intensely sweet, almost like the water of life itself.
So she had clung to it, as if begging for more.
Then, someone had stroked her hair and cheek soothingly. Under that gentle touch, her entire body felt as if it were melting away.
Once more, warmth overlapped atop her lips. Fortunately, the person beside her channeled enough water to fully satisfy her.
“…….”
Had she fallen asleep again after that?
All throughout recalling those past events, Roxana felt somewhat displeased.
She knew she was being a little obsessive.
Yet showing an unintended moment of vulnerability to someone else was still never pleasant to her.
So as she sat alone with a frown, the words Cassis had spoken yesterday suddenly brushed across her mind.
“Give your remaining time to me.”
“If you truly do not care where your destination is from now on, stay by my side. Until you die.”
Roxana’s eyes slowly sank low.
Is that so……?
If it was truly worthless time that made no difference whether she possessed it or not, was it all right to spend it in such a way?
While she was lost in such thoughts, the poison butterflies she had sent out earlier returned.
Roxana watched through the window as the swarm of butterflies approached where she was.
Even from afar, their fluttering wings were remarkably vigorous and full of vitality.
Having gorged themselves after so long, the slaughter butterflies seemed ecstatic.
Roxana sent them back to where they belonged before they drew any closer.
Normally, she would not have released the slaughter butterflies like this due to the risk of losing control.
Yet today, her physical condition was the best it had been in recent days.
Besides, they happened to be passing near a beast habitat, allowing Roxana to bring out the slaughter butterflies and feed them for the first time in a long while.
Suddenly, the moving carriage came to a halt. A moment later, the person who came to see Roxana was Cassis.
“Do you have a hobby of overworking your body?”
Looking at his face before her, Roxana realized he had noticed the poison butterflies.
“You never listen even when told to rest quietly.”
Cassis stepped inside and shut the door. Resting her chin on her hand, Roxana gazed at him quietly.
Even after what had happened yesterday, Cassis treated Roxana with complete normalcy.
Of course, there was no noticeable change in Roxana’s attitude toward Cassis either, but……
Was it because she had just remembered how Cassis had looked after her when she lay bedridden after leaving Agriche?
Facing him like this, something stirred deep within her.
She didn’t know exactly what it was, but it felt as if she had swallowed a thorn.
“Look. Your complexion has turned pale again already.”
Looking at the face before him, Cassis furrowed his brow slightly.
He felt he shouldn’t have complied with her wish when she said she wanted to be alone, had he known this would happen.
A low sigh escaped Cassis’s lips.
“Truly…… I can’t take my eyes off you.”
Soon, he reached out his arm to restore Roxana.
Suddenly, however, her hand thrust forward first, grabbing Cassis by the collar.
He could have dodged or held his ground, but Cassis did neither, leaning his upper body forward just as Roxana wanted.
Yet what she did next was something even Cassis had not anticipated.
The lips that met his were cooler in temperature than Cassis’s, who had just come in from the cold air outside.
Biting Cassis’s lips to part them, Roxana kissed him.
Though brief and shallow, it was distinctly a kiss that tangled their tongues together, far beyond a simple pressing of lips.