Roxana
Chapter 86
Chapter 86
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s
Oppa
Chapter 86
“Is there something on my oppa’s face?”
At that moment, a voice as clear and bright as rolling glass beads echoed through the banquet hall.
Pandora snapped out of her daze and turned her head. Sylvia, who had been watching her for some time, came into view.
The moment their eyes met, Sylvia put on an innocent, curious expression.
“Or is there some other issue? You were looking at oppa with such a frightening expression all of a sudden.”
“Ah, no, it’s not that. I was just lost in thought for a moment…”
Pandora smiled awkwardly, making an excuse. She was inwardly flustered by Sylvia, who had caught her completely off guard.
“Ah, is that so?”
Looking at Pandora, Sylvia’s expression relaxed as if relieved. Then she beamed with a bright smile.
“Something I’ve felt throughout the banquet is that the people of Hyperion seem to have built very distinct worlds of their own.”
Yet Sylvia’s following words left Pandora completely at a loss for how to respond.
“When I was speaking with the White Beast Tamer who just stepped out, he felt like someone living in another world entirely. But seeing you, Miss Hyperion, also lost deep in your own thoughts and oblivious to your surroundings, it’s so fascinating and amusing to see how much you two resemble each other, sharing the same Hyperion blood as you do.”
“Th-that…”
“You mentioned earlier that Lord Orca Hyperion was an unusual exception, but from where I’m sitting, you two are remarkably similar.”
…Was that an insult?
Pandora felt an overwhelming sense of having just been deeply insulted.
To say she resembled the likes of Orca. It felt immensely humiliating and shameful.
Even setting that aside, Sylvia’s words sounded like a sharp reprimand, pointing out the ill manners of two people who showed no consideration for their dinner companions at a formal banquet.
Yet Sylvia smiled with such pristine, radiant innocence that it was impossible to press the matter.
Furthermore, looking at that guileless face, it genuinely seemed as though she had spoken without any ill intent.
“Sylvia.”
Cassis quietly called his younger sister from beside her. But Sylvia merely smiled brightly.
“Hm? Don’t you think so too, oppa?”
To Pandora’s further dismay, Cassis did not deny Sylvia’s words.
“You’re not wrong, but I think that is enough for now. Speaking so bluntly to someone’s face can be considered rude depending on the circumstances.”
He spoke gently, as though tenderly instructing a younger sister who was hosting guests for the first time in their parents’ absence.
“Oh my, really? I meant it in a good way, though. I just found it fascinating how much cousins could resemble one another. Still, if my words offended you, I apologize.”
“No… it’s quite all right.”
Pandora could only give a lukewarm reply.
She was undeniably displeased, but Sylvia’s conduct was not overtly breach of etiquette enough to warrant an open challenge.
Moreover, since Sylvia had gone so far as to apologize, acting petty here would only reflect poorly on herself. It didn’t help that both Sylvia and Cassis carried themselves with such pure, sacred grace.
Yet a lingering discomfort remained lodged in Pandora’s chest.
She dropped her gaze from Cassis, whom she had been staring at this entire time, and resumed her paused meal.
The banquet felt unnaturally long.
’Orca, what on earth is taking you so long to get back?’
Watching Pandora, Sylvia discreetly let out a haughty sniff behind her back.
* * *
After slipping out of the banquet hall, Orca walked down the corridor clutching his stomach.
When he explained his condition to a servant, they kindly gave him directions right away.
Orca offered exuberant thanks before quickening his pace once more.
In truth, however, he was not suffering from stomach cramps nor battling an urgent call of nature as he appeared on the surface.
Sharp, silver-gray eyes darted with keen precision.
Cassis Pedelian was sharp as ever. To dispatch someone to tail him immediately.
However, Orca specialized in moving covertly through the territory of magical beasts, eluding the senses of the very masters of the land.
Throwing off his pursuers proved effortless.
“That direction has looked suspicious for a while now.”
Treading through the shadows, Orca fixed his gaze on a distant towering building.
It was where the annex stood. Somehow, a strange energy seemed to drift from that place.
From tracking magical beasts and living among them, Orca’s animalistic sixth sense had grown astonishingly acute.
After confronting Sylvia in the banquet hall, he had become certain that she was not the master of the Poison Butterflies.
Above all, the distinct, pristine qi characteristic of the Pedelian clan was completely incompatible with the Poison Butterflies.
On top of that, Sylvia herself seemed entirely uninterested in taming magical beasts.
At first, he had suspected she might be playing dumb with feigned innocence, pretending to know nothing.
Yet after speaking with her further, it clearly was not the case.
“Over there!”
Oops. Orca broke into a run to evade the pursuers who had already caught up to his trail.
As expected, his destination was the annex that pulled at his senses.
* * *
“He truly is the White Beast Tamer.”
I let out a soft chuckle as I watched the vision transmitted by the Poison Butterfly. What I was currently watching was the scene inside the banquet hall.
Though I already knew from reading the book, the White Beast Tamer, Orca Hyperion, was a strikingly beautiful man.
His dazzling appearance far exceeded whatever I had imagined from written text alone.
His eccentric personality went even further.
To compare himself to a flower.
No matter how well aware he was of his own beauty and how brimming with self-love he might be, that was hardly something to say before the female lead.
Sylvia’s utterly dumbfounded expression was so transparent that I nearly laughed out loud once more.
It was also noteworthy that the person accompanying Orca was Pandora.
While her light blue hair was identical to Orca’s—a hallmark of the Hyperion clan—her eyes were a contrasting pitch-black.
Pandora was an intensely captivating beauty who exuded an alluring, bewitching charm.
And in 『The Flower of Hell』, much like Roxana Agriche, she was a supporting character who coveted Sylvia’s man.
In the novel, she harbored feelings for Ryuzak Gastor and grew jealous of Sylvia, regarding her as a romantic rival.
On top of that, hiding behind her title as the cousin of Orca—another male lead—she had played the role of the tormenting sister-in-law figure to Sylvia.
Well, Sylvia never actually married Orca, so she wasn’t a true sister-in-law, but that was the best way to describe her role.
In the novel, when Orca abducted Sylvia and confined her within Hyperion, Pandora tormented Sylvia behind Orca’s back.
And given that Hyperion was a clan that handled magical beasts—and the novel was an R-rated mature work—was it any surprise?
As a result, I recalled that the Hyperion family episode involving Sylvia, Orca, and Pandora was particularly notorious for its extreme content.
If I remembered correctly, there were scenes involving magical beast tentacles used to violate Sylvia, using magical beast pheromones to drug Sylvia with aphrodisiacs to torment her… and things of that nature.
Of course, even when Orca and Pandora committed similar acts, Pandora was the only one ever punished.
Everything the male lead Orca did to Sylvia was forgiven under the banner of love.
Yet seeing Orca’s face in person like this…
It was hard to believe someone who looked so perfectly decent had committed such deranged atrocities in the novel.
Granted, his personality didn’t seem great even now, but at this level, it felt well within the realm of being dismissed as merely eccentric.
Wondering if Orca might fall for Sylvia in reality just as he had in the novel, I focused my attention on the vision.
Fortunately, however, as time passed, Orca spoke to Sylvia less and less frequently.
Judging by his expression, something seemed to have defied his expectations, leaving him disappointed.
I knew the reason why. It was because I had sent a Poison Butterfly to the place where Orca had been detained.
Thus, deducing what he was thinking right now was not difficult.
Orca had spotted my Poison Butterfly somewhere and entered Pedelian to search for it.
To feed the Slaughter Butterflies, I had sent them flying to the magical beast habitats outside Pedelian about twice, so he must have witnessed them then.
Orca had probably gotten his hopes up thinking Sylvia might be the master of the Poison Butterflies, only to be disappointed.
I knew full well how chillingly relentless Orca could become when in love.
Of course, as befitting one of the novel’s male leads, he was described as a remarkably charismatic man, but someone who kidnapped, imprisoned, and even violated a woman could hardly be sane.
Therefore, it felt like a relief that he had lost interest in Sylvia.
Still…
What was this?
For some reason, my attention had kept drifting toward Pandora rather than Orca for a while now.