Roxana
Chapter 92
Chapter 92
The Way to Protect
the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 92
I had no idea what Cassis thought of what I had said, but at the very least, he did not refute it.
As far as I was concerned, having my words validated directly from Cassis’s own mouth—just as I intended—was a satisfying outcome.
“Ahem, humph.”
Pandora, who had been listening stiffly to our conversation, cleared her throat as if barely regaining her composure.
“Hello. You must be the guest who arrived and stayed at Pedelian ahead of us.”
Pandora took the initiative to acknowledge me, breaking the ice.
I gave a bright smile, as though only just noticing her presence, and spoke.
“Ah, we ran into each other in front of the corridor last time, didn’t we?”
Seeing my smile, Pandora’s gaze turned dazed.
It seemed the Hyperion cousins were born with a constitution particularly vulnerable to my looks.
Still, possessing some capacity to learn, Pandora regained her senses far more quickly than she had last time. She hastily composed her expression.
“I am Pandora Hyperion. And your name?”
“It’s Roxana.”
I did not offer my surname. Perhaps because of that, Pandora appeared confused.
I could practically feel her racking her brain, frantically trying to deduce my identity.
She seemed to have a faint inkling, yet not enough to be certain just yet.
Cassis’s gaze settled on my face as well. Even so, he said nothing regarding my words or actions.
“I don’t see the other gentleman. I was hoping to get my ribbon back.”
Watching Pandora deliberate, I continued nonchalantly.
This time, the reaction came first from Cassis beside me rather than Pandora.
“Ribbon?”
“Yes, the one Sylvia tied in my hair back then. It was swept away by the wind while I was out on the terrace.”
“Then we shall have it returned to Sylvia directly.”
All throughout, Pandora’s expression had been shifting by the second as she watched Cassis and me converse.
Soon, however, she smiled as though nothing had happened and addressed me.
“Miss Roxana, if it suits you, would you care to take a stroll in the garden with me?”
Lurking covertly within Pandora’s eyes as she looked at me was a dark venom she hadn’t managed to hide.
Looking at her, I tilted my head slightly.
What a strange person. Why look at me with those eyes?
As if I had snatched away a bowl of food right before she could eat it.
Yet Cassis was mine from the very beginning.
Only now did I seem to understand why I had felt displeased at Pandora stealing glances at Cassis in the banquet hall.
Perhaps I had thought so ever since I first met Cassis in Agriche three years ago, all the way until now.
That ownership over Cassis belonged to me. And that the connection between him and me had never once been severed, even while we were apart.
“Since meeting like this is a twist of fate, I would love to share a cozy chat to build our acquaintance.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yes.”
Pandora made her request in an exceedingly friendly manner, but the look in her eyes carried an unmistakable challenge.
I smiled brightly and readily accepted.
“Very well, then.”
Thus, the moment I took a step toward Pandora, Cassis, who had been watching me closely, caught my arm.
“Walking for too long will still be difficult for you. Straining yourself is not good for your body.”
“I am fine with this much. It is only a stroll.”
“Then I shall accompany you.”
“No need, you are busy.”
Yet I brushed him off with a firmer attitude than usual. Cassis’s eyes narrowed into a slit for an instant, but I pretended not to see it.
Then, I offered a soft, smiling gaze toward Pandora.
“Shall we go, Miss Hyperion?”
* * *
Roxana was a woman of such dazzling, resplendent beauty that one couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Is she truly human?’
Surely she, too, was made of flesh, bone, and blood just like anyone else, yet it felt impossible to place her on the same plane as other human beings.
Her beauty was so peerless that it felt as though one’s eyes were being opened for the first time.
Watching her stroll through the garden where fresh green shoots were sprouting, one would think, ‘If the fragrance of spring took physical form, would it become such a creature?’
Even the sunlight pouring down over her head felt like a sacred halo.
’No, what am I doing marveling at my romantic rival’s beauty?’
Pandora, who had been staring blankly at Roxana, snapped back to her senses.
Afterward, she felt an urge to slap her own cheeks repeatedly.
Pandora had made the exact same mistake when she first saw her in the corridor.
Recalling how pathetically she had babbled about monsters, sirens, and nymphs in front of Roxana and Cassis still made her shudder with humiliation.
Ah, she shouldn’t have listened to anything that fool Orca had said.
Orca, who had been captured by Pedelian’s subordinates after vanishing from the banquet hall a while ago, had been out of his mind for some reason.
Then, as if he had eaten something rotten, he kept spouting nonsense about seeing a monster-like woman in the annex, raving that she wasn’t human but a spiritual creature.
That was why Pandora, too, had blurted out similar words the instant she laid eyes on Roxana.
Yes, this was merely because she had been brainwashed without realizing it; she certainly hadn’t shared the same thoughts as Orca!
“What were you discussing with Cassis just a moment ago?”
Ah, damn it.
Even her voice was enchanting.
Would dew rolling across a blade of grass sound like this?
“I was expressing my gratitude for having my confiscated beast returned.”
“Ah, you mean the beast used to breach the gates of Pedelian.”
Even if someone claimed the Creator had starved for days and nights on end to pour all His heart into crafting Roxana, she would have believed it.
Yet recalling how Cassis and Roxana had lovingly locked eyes while speaking just moments ago caused a surge of burning heat to boil up from within.
This time, Pandora asked Roxana:
“Since when have you been acquainted with the Young Lord of Blue?”
“Counting by the years, it has been three years now.”
To give up without doing a single thing was unacceptable; she coveted Cassis Pedelian far too much.
According to what Turobe had recounted before she met Orca, the woman the Young Lord of Blue had brought away was supposed to be an Agriche.
Yet how could Cassis, a Pedelian, and Roxana of Agriche have formed such an intimate bond? It made no sense at all.
Still, whether to call it a blessing or not, Roxana appeared so frail and delicate that she looked as if she would collapse with a single tap.
She seemed like the type who would instantly burst into tears and fall chronically ill if someone were to bully her even slightly.
Even Pandora felt as though a protective instinct she never knew existed within her was being provoked just imagining such a scene.
She remembered how the Young Lord of Blue had carefully carried her like a glass doll last time as well.
Even today, he had said her physical condition was poor enough to warrant his worry…….
“That’s because you kept me awake until so late.”
At that moment, the conversation she had overheard earlier surfaced once more, making it difficult to maintain her composure.
In any case, summing everything up, Roxana Agriche appeared to be quite a frail woman, just as she looked.
Then wouldn’t she back off on her own if frightened just a little?
Of course, Cassis seemed to hold Roxana quite deeply in his heart, but…….
In the end, when affection between a man and a woman is separated by distance, it naturally fades from the heart.
“Then have you been as close with the Young Lord of Blue as you are now since three years ago?”
At Pandora’s probing question, Roxana’s gaze shifted.
At the answer that followed, Pandora made up her mind.
“Yes. From the moment we first met, Cassis was mine.”
It was an unexpectedly arrogant remark, yet bizarrely, it felt entirely natural.
Because of that, Pandora did not find it strange either. As Pandora halted her steps, Roxana also paused and turned to face her.
“Miss Roxana. I don’t harbor any particular ill will toward you, but I happen to have a personality where I must possess whatever I want to be satisfied.”
My, so do I.
Roxana thought so inwardly while gazing at Pandora with an innocent expression.
“So having you clinging to the side of the man I’ve set my sights on is an eyesore.”
That, too, went both ways for Roxana.
“Therefore, I need you to disappear from my sight.”
Pandora summoned her beast. From the jewel bracelet returned to her today, a clear, chiming sound rang out like glass striking together.
Whooosh.
A small gust stirred before her eyes, and immediately afterward, a colossal black silhouette revealed itself in her field of vision.
Durectus, a beast resembling a flickering mass of ominous black flames, parted its jaws menacingly as if it would swallow Roxana whole at any second.
Kroooar!
Roxana appeared surprised, just as Pandora had anticipated. Her eyes widened round as she stared at Pandora’s beast.
Yet the voice that tickled Pandora’s ears shortly after was far from panic-stricken.
“Ah, what a pity.”
Following that softly murmured whisper, Roxana let out a shallow breath.
It resembled a sigh in a way, but what surfaced on that breathtaking face immediately after was a smile that seemed coated in sweet poison.
“I had no intention of taking it this far. But I have no hobby of avoiding a fight someone else picked first.”
Unexpectedly, Roxana was smiling with genuine, deep regret. Before Pandora could even comprehend what that meant, the smile before her eyes vanished entirely.
As if a light had been extinguished, in the place where that smile had vanished in an instant, only a shockingly frigid chill remained.
Fwaaaash!
The next moment, Roxana’s figure was buried within a red storm that engulfed the field of vision.
“Then I shall gratefully accept the gift you have given me.”
A sweet whisper laced with an eerie chill clung stickily to Pandora’s ears.
Directly after, the sun above their heads was swallowed whole in an instant.