Roxana
Chapter 98
Chapter 98
How to Protect the Female Lead’s
Older Brother
Chapter 98
* * *
Just as I had sensed the last time we met, Jeanne was a noblewoman of profound elegance. The aura she carried was serene and quietly dignified.
Somehow, she seemed to carry the faint, delicate fragrance of blooming magnolias—or perhaps wild orchids.
“I heard from Cassis. He said you were unwell?”
At Jeanne’s gentle question, I felt a slight twinge of guilt as I answered.
“It was nothing so serious as to cause concern. My energy had merely run low, so I took some rest.”
She studied my face for a quiet moment before speaking again.
“I heard there was quite a commotion outside not long ago.”
Ah, so she heard about what happened with Pandora. Did she invite me here today because of that?
Of course, when we ran into each other in front of Richel’s office earlier, Jeanne had already mentioned that we should share tea together sometime.
Still, it seemed she had chosen this moment to see me with that matter in mind as well.
It was hard to believe no one other than Cassis and Orca had noticed the poison butterflies I summoned that day.
Above all, when Pandora gave her account of the incident to the Pedelian family, the truth was bound to come to light anyway.
Perhaps Orca had offered his own testimony alongside hers.
They were both of Hyperion, after all.
From their standpoint, it was far better for Pandora to have threatened a woman who commanded magical beasts rather than a defenseless guest under Pedelian’s protection.
Cassis had mentioned that very point over breakfast this morning as well.
Setting down the teacup in my hand onto the table, I spoke calmly.
“I apologize for causing such a disturbance within the estate.”
“Why do you apologize? I heard Hyperion was the first to overstep their bounds.”
“My own response was somewhat excessive as well.”
In truth, there had been no need to go so far as to have my butterfly devour Pandora’s beast.
Yet perhaps because Cassis was involved, looking back on it now, I could not deny that I had overreacted.
In a sense, it could certainly be called an excessive retaliation.
However, Pandora already had a history of using her beasts to breach the gates of Pedelian.
To turn around and cause another incident within Pedelian’s walls the very moment she received her confiscated beast back must have only compounded her guilt.
Perhaps that was why no one blamed me for how I had dealt with her.
“I am no beast tamer, so I cannot claim to understand the intricacies, but I have heard that poison butterflies are parasitic beasts that feed upon the vitality of their master.”
As expected, Jeanne was fully aware that the creatures I had summoned in the garden were poison butterflies.
“Pedelian boasts no renowned beast tamers, but Isidore has frequently ventured to the borderlands to subjugate demonic beasts, so he possesses some knowledge on the subject. When I asked him, he suggested that your three-day illness was likely due to mental and physical exhaustion from commanding that beast.”
Ah, right. Isidore had already seen my poison butterflies three years ago.
“That only made me worry all the more.”
This, however, came as something of a surprise. Was everyone else truly thinking along those lines?
In reality, even to my own surprise, summoning the poison butterflies had taken no toll on me whatsoever.
If anything, receiving Cassis’s restorative qi so regularly as of late had only made my resonance with the butterflies sharper and more vibrant than before.
Even after releasing them, my body had felt completely unburdened.
Spending those past three days bound to Cassis, bathed in the circulation of his energy, I had been restored as fresh and vivid as grass after rain.
And above all else, the reason I had not stepped outside the annex all that time was because Cassis and I had been……
Well. There was no need to dwell on that thought; I decided it was best to simply hold my tongue.
Besides, if everyone was eager to look upon me with such delicate pity on their own, I had no reason to step forward and correct them.
“Thank you for your concern.”
Keeping my expression carefully composed, I answered mildly.
“It was my own inadequacy that unintentionally caused you worry. Fortunately, thanks to Cassis looking after me so attentively, I was able to recover swiftly.”
Jeanne gazed at me quietly. Looking at her like this, the expression she wore when lost in deep thought bore a distinct resemblance to Cassis.
“Roxana.”
After a brief pause, Jeanne called my name in a low, gentle voice.
“Do you know…… what kind of power Cassis possesses?”
In that instant, I realized.
This was the true purpose of this meeting.
A sharp premonition brushed down my spine, telling me this was what she had truly called me here to speak about.
Should I answer that I knew, or that I did not?
After a breath of silence, I parted my lips.
“I suppose I could say…… I know of it in broad strokes.”
It was an honest, yet carefully veiled answer. At my words, the face before me clouded slightly.
She seemed both somewhat relieved, yet conversely, tinged with unease.
“I see. You do know.”
Whatever her feelings were, they were not something I could easily define.
“Long ago……”
At the faint, soft words that slipped from her lips, I closed the mouth I had been about to open again.
“Because of that power, Sylvia’s life was once placed in grave danger.”
Jeanne studied my face in silence, just as she had before, watching for my reaction.
It was as though she were discerning whether it was right to continue.
“Sylvia was an incomparable tomboy back then, always running off alone to play dangerous games. That day was no different—she climbed atop a stone statue in front of the garden by herself.”
Having made up her mind to share the rest, she spoke in a hushed, steady cadence.
“She fell from that height and sustained a severe head wound. It was Cassis who found her.”
Jeanne’s eyes softened with a distant sorrow, as though the memory were unfolding before her eyes once more.
“At the time, Cassis did not yet know how to properly control the power he possessed. But seeing his younger sister lying in a pool of blood, on the verge of death, he unleashed that power.”
It was not difficult to guess that nothing good had followed.
Jeanne had already stated mere moments ago that Sylvia had been endangered by Cassis’s power.
“Yet midway through, a severe backlash occurred. And Sylvia……”
Even so, the words that followed were far grimmer than I had imagined.
“Her breath stopped completely.”
“…….”
“I was a foolish mother, and I resented Cassis for it. In the midst of all that panic and grief, my memory of that day is blurred, but I believe I lashed out and blamed that child quite harshly.”
A brief silence settled over the space between where she and I sat.
Soon, a faint, bittersweet smile touched Jeanne’s lips.
“I may not remember the exact words I spoke that day, but I am certain Cassis has never been able to forget them.”
Unable to readily determine what comfort to offer, I carefully measured my words.
The image of Cassis, who must be meeting with his father Richel at this very moment, flickered through my mind.
“I have regretted that day ever since. I carry a shame and remorse beyond words.”
“Have you…… shared those feelings with Cassis as well?”
At my quiet question, an expression entirely different from before gently washed over the features looking back at me.
“Yes. Three years ago, after that child returned from Agriche.”
Ah…… I see.
“Of course, I do not believe that alone fulfills all my duties as a mother. Yet had the worst come to pass, I might never have had the chance to say even that much for the rest of my life.”
Had it been the original timeline of the novel, she truly would never have conveyed her remorse to Cassis.
For in that story, Cassis never returned alive to Pedelian.
Nor would this elegant noblewoman have ever smiled with a face so partially cleansed of long-held guilt, as she did now.
While I could not fathom the full depths of Cassis’s heart……
Still, hearing such heartfelt words of truth from his mother, even if late, was undeniably far better than never hearing them at all.
Thinking of that, a quiet wave of relief washed over me once more—the simple, profound relief that Cassis was here, safe and whole, within Pedelian.
“I do not wish for Cassis to ever endure such an experience again. Though with the mastery he holds now, there is likely no one he could fail to save if he truly set his heart to it.”
In the next breath, Jeanne’s clear, steady gaze met mine directly.
“Even so, I truly hope you remain free of illness and live a long, healthy life. Perhaps more desperately than anyone else in the world. Because your happiness will ultimately be Cassis’s happiness.”
I listened quietly to her words before slowly lowering my gaze.
“When I saw you last, you were standing right before my eyes, yet somehow it felt as though you were not truly there at all. Like an empty shell of a person. It weighed on my heart with worry, but……”
Was keen perception a shared trait among the blood of Pedelian?
It seemed Jeanne had accurately seen right through my inner state during our last encounter.
“Today, your expression looks far brighter than before. It puts my mind at ease.”
As she spoke, a gentle warmth settled over her countenance.
Finally, Jeanne spoke to me.
“Please take good care of Cassis.”