Roxana
Chapter 89
Chapter 89
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 89
My field of vision rose in an instant. It was because Cassis had scooped me up in his arms, just as he had done inside the annex.
“……I didn’t say that to mean I couldn’t walk, you know?”
What on earth is he doing? Flustered, I protested, and Cassis glanced down at me.
“Is that so? You expressed yourself vaguely, so I must have misunderstood.”
No, what about it was vague in the slightest……?
“Now that you know, won’t you put me down?”
“From what I saw earlier, your stride adds about five minutes to the walk between the annex and the main residence. It’s faster to go like this.”
Cassis began walking with an unperturbed tone.
His inflection was so flat, as if he were calculating mere efficiency versus inefficiency, that I found no fitting way to refute him.
It was clear that even if I said anything more this time, he wouldn’t listen in the slightest.
“Haa.”
Right, giving up is easier on the mind.
In the end, I let out a sigh and rested my chin on Cassis’s shoulder.
Doing so naturally brought Orca and Pandora, whom we had just left behind, right into my line of sight.
Seeing us, their mouths hung open even wider than before. Their round, wide eyes looked ready to tumble right out of their sockets.
Catching sight of their faces left me momentarily at a loss for words again.
“You really don’t care about what others think at all, do you?”
After a moment, feeling somewhat resigned, I muttered aloud.
“I’ve never paid attention to that sort of thing before, but hearing you say it, perhaps that’s true.”
“I suppose it’s no use if I tell you it bothers me a little?”
“Just get used to it.”
Just how much more of this did he plan on doing to tell me to get used to it?
Resting my head on his shoulder, I looked up at the clear sky.
Perhaps it was only my imagination, but the weather seemed brighter and sunnier now than when we had walked this path in the opposite direction earlier.
But when I lowered my gaze again, I noticed the people walking about the Pedelian estate, either utterly flustered or frozen like statues as they stared in our direction.
Right then, Sylvia appeared in my field of view and flinched at the sight of Cassis and me.
Soon, she smiled with satisfaction and tiptoed backward until she vanished from view.
Ah…….
Overcome by a feeling I could hardly describe, I buried my face into Cassis’s shoulder as if to hide it.
* * *
I stepped out onto the terrace for some fresh air and caught sight of someone unexpected.
The rounded, olive-colored crown of her head blended seamlessly into the surrounding grass and foliage, almost like camouflage.
Sensing my presence, the woman beneath the terrace raised her head.
“A-Ah, greetings!”
Ollin bowed politely to greet me.
Even if she tried to hide it, she seemed inwardly shaken by running into me like this, her movements tinged with embarrassment.
“Hello.”
After returning Ollin’s greeting, I asked,
“Why are you here?”
She was one of Cassis’s subordinates whom I had not seen since our journey from Agriche to Pedelian.
Aside from going to the main residence for a brief meeting with Richel, I had stayed shut inside the annex the entire time.
So it was only natural that we hadn’t crossed paths.
Yet for some reason, she was standing beneath the terrace of my room as if on guard duty.
“There was an order to strengthen the security of the annex.”
Ah, is it because of Orca?
Recalling what had happened, I nodded in understanding at her words.
“We felt that merely guarding the perimeter of the annex was insufficient, so from now on, sentries will stand in three layers leading to the interior. That is why I was assigned to this post.”
Ollin explained, her expression faltering for a moment. She seemed somewhat ashamed.
It was because of Orca.
Even when Orca had slipped into the annex unnoticed, they were said to have been on guard under Cassis’s orders.
Even so, letting Orca slip past and infiltrate all the way inside clearly weighed heavily on her conscience.
But it was likely something beyond their control.
For Orca, despite how he seemed, was one of the novel’s male leads, was he not?
To begin with, his renown as the White Beast Tamer was not for nothing.
As a man who had survived among magical beasts without losing his life, his physical capabilities were bound to be extraordinary.
In particular, his agility and ability to conceal his presence were undoubtedly the finest among the three male leads.
Thus, once Orca made up his mind, it was only natural that others would find it difficult to catch him.
Just then, a faint noise drifted in from the distance.
I couldn’t tell what it was, but another disturbance seemed to have broken out toward the back garden of the annex.
Could it be Orca again?
I heard he had already been caught trying to sneak into the annex earlier. Why was he trying so desperately to crawl in here……?
The fact that the area he frequented was near the back garden made me even more uneasy.
Because it wasn’t far from the terrace where I had run into Orca by chance last time.
Seeing him persistently target the rear of the annex, it seemed he might have mistaken Cassis’s room—where I had been before—for mine.
Did he realize that I’m the master of the Poison Butterflies? Is that why he’s trying so hard to get into the annex?
With those thoughts in mind, I fixed my gaze in the direction of the noise.
“No matter what happens, we will protect you, so please rest easy.”
Seeing me like that, Ollin spoke with a firmer gaze than before, as if misunderstanding my concern.
A sense of duty was even visible on her face. She looked truly dependable.
It seemed Ollin believed she had to dedicate herself to protecting me from Orca and any other dangers.
Perhaps she, too, thought of me as frail after seeing me ailing like a sick chicken throughout the entire journey here.
Or perhaps Cassis’s relentless habit of treating me like an invalid had rubbed off on her.
Well, either way, it left me with a rather complicated feeling.
I gave her a faint smile, thanked her, and went back inside the room.
* * *
As it turned out, Ollin was her first name, not her surname. Her full name was Ollin Olivia, with a surname very similar to her given name.
Because of that, she had apparently been teased since childhood with shortened nicknames like ‘Ollin Ollin’ or ‘Olli Olli.’
So she had told people to just drop the surname and call her Ollin instead, a practice that had continued to this day.
She said that nowadays, she felt more comfortable being called by her first name rather than her family name.
This was a story I heard directly from Ollin, who had been assigned to guard duty beneath my terrace.
For reference, Cassis supposedly addresses all of his subordinates by their first names rather than their surnames.
It wasn’t a particularly useful conversation, but small talk like this was surprisingly not bad.
Ollin flinched every time I spoke to her, yet she faithfully answered whatever I asked.
Not that I struck up conversations with her often, of course.
I simply exchanged light greetings with her whenever I stepped out onto the terrace for air, feeling it would be awkward to ignore her presence below.
Besides, talking with her served as a decent change of pace.
For ever since my meeting with Richel, I had found myself lost in thought far more frequently.
“Still, I think I ought to tell you this now. It concerns news about Agriche.”
The words I heard that day echoed in my mind several times a day.
“Cassis told me to do whatever you wished, so the choice is yours. Do you wish to hear it?”
I wondered whether my heart would have been lighter now if I had given a different answer back then.
Yet even if I were to return to that moment, I would undoubtedly make the same choice.
Therefore, this anguish was entirely mine to bear.
For that reason, whenever I was on the terrace or in my room, I often lost myself in contemplation.
Then, in the late afternoon, I went into Cassis’s room. He was away, having left the annex.
Cassis continued to breathe life energy into me these days.
I still did not know how else to describe what he did to me other than that.
When Cassis pressed his lips to mine and channeled a pure, pristine energy resembling himself into me, warmth gradually circulated through my body and my mind cleared.
In some ways, it felt as though the filth encrusted against my chest were being purified.
Just a short while ago, Cassis had done the same before stepping away.
Yet he merely pressed his lips to mine, and still did nothing more beyond that.