Roxana
Chapter 36
Chapter 36
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 36
“Y-Young Master Jeremy, why are you doing this to me… Ugh!”
Jeremy relentlessly brought his foot down, crushing the fallen man’s hand beneath his boot.
The agony forced the man to lose his grip on the chain he had been holding.
“Hey, did you see this bastard try to shake off his hand and bolt just now?”
Jeremy spoke toward the other man who was already sprawled across the floor.
It was a shameless act, shifting the blame for what he had just done onto Cassis.
“The bastard resisted so violently that our Subordinate Number Two went and dropped the leash entirely.”
A vile sneer curled on Jeremy’s lips.
“To dare attempt an escape right under my watchful eyes—you’ve certainly got nerve.”
He was desperate to brand Cassis a runaway by any means necessary.
Yet when Cassis refused to dance to his tune, he changed tactics, intending to stage this pathetic charade.
It only proved how desperately he needed even the flimsiest pretext.
Cassis felt certain he now understood what made the boy tick.
The hostility this youth directed at him, yet his inability to lay a hand on Cassis—all of it stemmed from the fact that Cassis was Roxana’s plaything.
The boy’s noticeable fury earlier had flared up the precise moment he checked Cassis’s nape.
Cassis glanced at the two fallen men, then at Jeremy’s twisted smile, before murmuring in a low voice:
“It seems there isn’t a single sane soul in the Agriche family.”
To Cassis, such transparent ploys felt utterly contemptible.
Even so, the situation was far from unfavorable.
The boy before him clearly believed Cassis could never actually slip from his grasp and escape this room.
He had committed this farce merely to manufacture a justifiable reason to strike Cassis down.
Cassis found that unearned confidence almost laughable.
Their gazes clashed in midair.
Jeremy sneered at Cassis once more.
“A dog that refuses to listen and tries to run must be beaten to a pulp until it learns its place.”
Yet who could say for certain?
Whether the hunter would catch the hound, or end up savaged by its fangs, remained to be seen.
The moment he stepped outside, fierce sunlight bleached his vision white.
Beating directly down upon his head, the raw rays made their presence overwhelmingly felt.
Perhaps it was simply because it had been far too long since he last stood under the sun.
Passing through corridors flooded with pure white light, Cassis stepped onto the lush green grass.
A barrage of tumultuous noise rushed into his ears.
Whoosh!
All at once, one of the primary culprits behind that noise closed in on him at blinding speed.
In the next breath came the sharp sound of tearing air.
Cassis twisted his head to the right to evade the strike.
Instantly, an extended leg grazed past the strands of hair whipping in the air.
“You slippery rat!”
His earlier composure entirely shattered, Jeremy screamed in venomous rage.
Kicking off the ground without pause, he lunged at Cassis once more.
The long chain bound to Cassis’s wrist whipped out like a lash, slashing toward Jeremy.
Having already suffered a grueling ordeal at the hands of that very chain back in the hallway, Jeremy instantly dropped his stance low.
Yet as if anticipating the dodge, a kick soared upward from below.
Jeremy swallowed a curse and raised his arm to block the blow.
Clang!
Rather than following up with another strike, Cassis used the boy’s arm as a springboard to vault lightly backward.
The retreat only provoked Jeremy further.
Perhaps the blow he took inside the room had split his mouth open; the metallic tang of blood coated the tip of his tongue.
Glares still locked onto Cassis, he spat blood-stained saliva onto the grass.
“Stop running like a dog with its tail between its legs and fight me properly!”
He hurled the words as a taunt, yet the truth was that the situation had spiraled completely outside his calculations.
He had only meant to discipline this insolent dog a little.
Yet as if mocking Jeremy, Cassis had unleashed a flurry of strikes that left him reeling, before slipping straight out of the room.
I need to tear this bastard to pieces right now.
Jeremy ground his teeth fiercely.
He had taken the man somewhat lightly until now, but Cassis Pedelian moved far more nimbly than expected.
Worse, as if deliberately mocking Jeremy, Cassis pinpointed only his absolute blind spots and drove straight into them. Then, at the slightest opening, he would shake him off and advance far ahead.
His actions made it abundantly clear that his objective was not to fight Jeremy, but to break out of this estate.
Perhaps for that reason, Cassis’s restraints had yet to activate.
That cunning rat might have anticipated the mechanism and deliberately chosen this evasive method.
It was not just Jeremy; Cassis barely engaged anyone he encountered along the way, neutralizing them as swiftly as possible before moving on.
Even now, Cassis ignored Jeremy’s outburst. After a fleeting sideways glance as if checking his bearings, he turned sharply to the left.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Inevitably, Jeremy closed the distance behind him.
Annoyed, Cassis drove a knee toward Jeremy’s flank.
Jeremy dodged with ease, seized the trailing chain with his bare hand, and wrenched it back with violent force.
Thud!
Yet Cassis pressed his body even closer, driving straight into Jeremy’s chest and forcing an opening.
Even as Jeremy refused to loosen his grip, the chain snapped, unable to withstand the opposing momentum.
“Get lost. I don’t have time to waste on someone like you.”
Having nimbly pulled back, Cassis finally spoke.
“You son of a…”
“Watching you desperately chase after my heels and bark so loudly when I’ve made it clear you’re a nuisance, I honestly can’t tell who the real dog is.”
Cassis’s voice was placid, yet his composure made Jeremy’s vision flush crimson.
“I have no scraps to throw you, so stop being an annoyance and get lost.”
“You bastard, you’re begging for death…”
Treated like nothing more than an irritating insect beneath his notice, Jeremy’s mind snapped entirely.
For some reason, the sight conjured the image of that cursed Deon, stoking his murderous intent to a boil.
Until now, he had not truly intended to kill Cassis, Roxana’s plaything.
Yet in this moment, pushed entirely past his boiling point, Jeremy’s mind was consumed by pure, unadulterated bloodlust.
“Fine! Let’s see how long you can keep acting so damn superior!”
Furious beyond measure for the first time in ages, his vision blazed red. Malice pooled deep within the eyes glaring at Cassis.
Drawn by the commotion, subordinates had gathered and encircled Cassis before anyone realized.
Rattle!
Having lost all reason, Jeremy reached out and hurled the broken length of chain sideways.
Instead of targeting Cassis, it flew toward an iron gate hidden deep within the overgrown thicket.
Screeech! Clang!
The grating screech of metal striking metal tore painfully at their eardrums.
The chain coiled around the serpent-like locking mechanism securing the iron gate.
Jeremy gritted his teeth and hauled back with monstrous force.
“Young Master Jeremy, what in the world are you doing!”
The subordinates surrounding Cassis cried out in sheer terror.
They scrambled to stop Jeremy, but the rusted lock succumbed first, shattering beneath his brute strength.
Skreeeech!
With a bone-chilling shriek, the iron gate swung wide.
Crash…!
Kieeeek!
In the very next instant, a mass of black shapes poured out from beyond the iron gate like a surging flood.
“A-Aaargh!”
Cassis’s eyes widened. Amid the screaming, fleeing crowd, he too moved with utmost urgency.
Swish! Thud!
The moment he cleared his ground, a sharp black projectile impaled the earth where he had stood. What emerged from the iron gate were the Karantul—monsters resembling giant spiders.
The beast that had attacked Cassis wrenched its lethal leg from the ground and drove it downward once more.
One of the fleeing subordinates was impaled straight through the torso.
Kiek!
Cassis swiftly scanned the area for the perpetrator of this atrocity.
Just as he had done when opening the iron gate, Jeremy was already using the chain to hoist himself up into the canopy of a tree.
“You…!”
“A pest should act like a pest and become beast fodder.”
Looking down at Cassis with a vile smirk, Jeremy stepped onto a branch and ascended higher into the trees.
