Roxana
Chapter 84
As night fell, Roxana sat by the window after finishing her bath.
The breeze drifting through the open window was quite cool, yet she made no move to close it.
She had still not met the master and mistress of Pedelian.
Supposedly, they had departed the very day she arrived and had not yet returned.
Roxana wondered whether that was true or simply an excuse Cassis had come up with. If the latter, it might be their way of signaling that she was unwelcome in Pedelian.
Yet neither Cassis nor Sylvia mentioned the matter again. And since Roxana had no intention of bringing it up first, the subject quietly faded away.
Of course, she could easily learn the truth by sending her poison butterflies to the main manor. But she saw no reason to go that far, nor did she want to.
Aside from what Roxana fundamentally needed to know, Cassis gave her few details about anything else.
If she asked, he would answer. Just as he had when they sat facing each other across the campfire before reaching Pedelian.
Even then, Cassis had offered no more explanation than she asked for.
At the same time, it felt as though he hoped she would ask him something first, just as he had that night.
Yet she did not.
Roxana produced the knife she had secretly pocketed while Cassis’s attention was momentarily diverted during their meal. Then, she drew it across her arm.
Drip…
Blood poured from the deep gash. Poison butterflies swarmed forward in an instant, clinging to her flesh to lap up the blood. The butterflies cleanly consumed even the droplets that fell to the floor, leaving not a single stain behind.
After a moment, Roxana parted her lips and let out a sighing murmur.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Turning her head, she saw Cassis standing in the doorway.
No lights were lit in the room, and Cassis stood with his back to the light spilling in from the hallway. His face was entirely swallowed by shadow.
He had evidently sensed something amiss from the room across the hall and come to check on her.
As always, he was perceptive in the most useless ways.
“It’s something I have to do periodically until I die anyway.”
Cassis did not answer.
Leaving the door slightly ajar, he crossed the room and approached her.
Only when the distance between them closed could she clearly see his face. He looked down at Roxana with an expressionless gaze.
“Give me your arm.”
The moment Cassis’s hand covered the wound, the parted flesh knitted together and the bleeding stopped. The remaining poison butterflies vanished from sight one by one.
Roxana watched the scene quietly before speaking.
“How convenient. Since it’s all healed, can I cut it once more? I haven’t fed them enough lately, so I’d like to give them a bit more while I can.”
The hand holding her arm tightened slightly. The golden eyes meeting hers grew colder than before.
Roxana blinked slowly, as if yielding to his silence.
“Fine. I’ll stop for today.”
Cassis took away the knife from her hand. The blood on the blade had already been consumed clean by the butterflies. Roxana watched him quietly, then asked out of the blue:
“By the way, why aren’t you doing anything to me?”
Cassis’s hand paused as he set the knife down on the table. When he turned around, Roxana rose from the windowsill where she had been perched.
Stepping up before Cassis, she tilted her head slightly.
“It’s strange.”
A soft wave of spun gold rippled along her slender jawline.
“When you look at me with those eyes every single time.”
Then, her delicate hand came to rest against Cassis’s chest.
It was not done with a hidden motive as it had been in the carriage or in the room before, but a simple gesture meant only to confirm something.
“Do you know?”
Her crimson eyes, which had briefly lowered, looked straight back up at him.
“Your heart is beating awfully loud right now.”
A faint fragrance drifted from Roxana, who wore nothing more than a light robe after her bath.
“So why? When you look at me, you want to touch me…”
“……”
“And kiss me.”
Roxana was not trying to seduce him. She was merely asking because she genuinely did not understand him.
Even so, the problem was that in this moment, everything about her in his eyes was agonizingly alluring.
At last, Cassis’s firmly set lips slowly parted.
“…You speak as if you can read every last thought inside me.”
Hearing his quiet murmur, Roxana asked in return, “Are you saying I’m wrong?”
“No, you’re right.”
Cassis conceded with unexpected ease. His hand enclosed Roxana’s where it rested against his chest.
Then, pulling it closer, he pressed his lips to the fragrant tips of her pale fingers.
A low, whisper-like voice drifted quietly through the room.
“That night… when we walked out of Agriche.”
At his next words, Roxana’s hand flinched against his touch.
“It wouldn’t have mattered to you even if the person holding out a hand wasn’t me.”
Though he surely felt the tremor, Cassis continued to whisper without hesitation.
“But for me, it had to be you.”
Their gazes locked in the air.
“Even now, if the person standing before my eyes weren’t you…”
Breathing shallowly, Roxana stared into the golden eyes fixed unwaveringly upon her.
“I wouldn’t have thought about ravenously devouring you from head to toe to make you mine.”
The cool breeze swirling through the room lightly stirred their hair.
“And not just that—I wouldn’t be this desperate to reach the deepest depths of your heart, either.”
Though the open window was clearly behind her back, she felt an almost overwhelming pressure surging from where Cassis stood.
She could not tear her eyes away from his.
Nor could she carelessly open her mouth to speak.
And so, after a stretch of time that might have been a fleeting instant or an eternity slipped through their fingertips, Cassis looked at Roxana and offered a faint, brittle smile.
“…I just wanted to tell you that.”
He added the words casually, as if trying to lift the weight of what he had just said from her shoulders.
Cassis lowered the hand he was holding and gave his farewell for the night.
“The night air is still cold. Change into your nightclothes before you sleep.”
The gentle warmth that had seeped into her skin drew away.
Just as she had last time, Roxana remained standing stock-still long after Cassis had gone, as though rooted to the spot.
* * *
Orca and Pandora were released from detention relatively quickly.
Upon learning of their reckless antics, Hyperion had sent a reply as swiftly as possible. Having dealt with Orca’s bizarre stunts countless times before, their response was practiced and prompt.
As expected, Hyperion seemed to have quite a headache over what Orca had done. With the situation already complicated by the matter of Agriche, it was only natural given that their thoughtless heir had blithely pulled off such a stunt without any sense of propriety.
Besides, the heads of the four major families were currently gathered at Yggdrasil to discuss the matter at hand.
Upon receiving word from Hyperion, Pedelian relaxed some of their vigilance toward Orca and Pandora. After all, they were already acquainted with Orca, so they could not shut him out entirely. Even without that acquaintance, unless they intended to antagonize another family, a certain level of courtesy was required between them.
Cassis stationed his subordinates around the annex to stand guard, just in case.
Though they had released them from detention out of consideration for their relationship with Hyperion, it did not mean they had let down their guard. Given how unpredictable Orca was, there was always the risk that he might go poking around the annex where Roxana stayed while Cassis was away.
“There are people outside I haven’t seen before.”
Roxana noticed the guards standing watch inside and outside the annex. Hearing her casual remark over tea, Sylvia explained:
“Guests considered dangerous have arrived at the manor. They’re guarding the annex to make sure they can’t approach.”
Unlike usual, Sylvia’s brow was slightly furrowed. She, too, seemed thoroughly displeased by the uninvited guests from Hyperion who had breached the castle gates on such absurd pretenses.
“It looks like we’ll be formally greeting them at dinner.”
Now that the two from Hyperion were being treated as guests, it was only natural.
“Then Cassis will be away this evening as well.”
“Will you miss oppa?”
At Roxana’s offhand remark, Sylvia asked with a subtle teasing tone.
Roxana looked up to find Sylvia wearing a faintly mischievous smile.
“If the dinner drags on, I’ll figure out a way to send oppa back early, so don’t worry.”
Sylvia beamed, as if telling her to leave it all to her.
Roxana could guess what she was thinking, but she chose not to correct the misunderstanding.
More importantly, a dinner banquet between the Pedelian siblings and the guests from Hyperion.
Since Orca had not attended the Harmony Conference, tonight’s dinner would effectively be Orca and Sylvia’s first official meeting.
Would Orca end up falling for Sylvia in reality just as he had in the novel?
If so, she worried whether he might develop the same twisted obsession with Sylvia that he had in the original story.
“Sylvia.”
“Um.”
Just as Roxana opened her mouth, Sylvia spoke at the exact same moment.
As Sylvia hesitated, Roxana yielded first.
“Go ahead.”
At that, Sylvia hesitated for a moment. Seeing her act so unlike her usual self, Roxana found it rather curious. Finally, as if making up her mind, Sylvia bit her lip and said:
“Um… may I touch your hair just once?”