Roxana
Chapter 37
Chapter 37
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 37
Furious, Cassis shot a venomous glare at Jeremy, who had casually slipped away by himself.
Yet that lasted only a moment; he had to throw himself to the side immediately to dodge a flying poisonous needle.
Whether it was just his imagination or not, an irritating snicker seemed to drift down from above.
With a heavy metallic click, his limbs grew sluggish.
A sharp, stinging pain began to radiate across his body.
The moment his composure wavered, the first stage of the restraint device had activated.
Damn it. They were breeding monsters like this inside the estate?
What was worse, there wasn’t just one or two. The surroundings quickly thickened with the venomous miasma spewed by the beasts.
“Aaargh!”
A shrill, high-pitched scream rang out from the distance.
Cassis reflexively snapped his head toward the sound.
A woman who appeared to be one of the estate’s servants was fleeing from a beast when a poisonous needle struck her, sending her crashing to the ground.
“H-Help m—!”
Hearing her desperate plea, Cassis moved to rush over without thinking.
Yet in the blink of an eye, the woman vanished from view behind the massive bulk of a monster.
Whoosh!
On top of that, another beast that had crept up on Cassis seized the opening and lashed out with its leg.
“Ugh…!”
Cassis swiftly raised his arms, blocking the strike with the chains binding his wrists. But facing a monster without a proper weapon had its limits.
The sheer crushing force pushed him back, feeling as though it would drive him straight into the tree trunk behind him.
Just then, something caught the sunlight nearby, flashing with a blinding glint. Gritting his teeth, Cassis threw off the monster and lunged toward a fallen body nearby.
The moment his fingertips brushed against cold, hard steel, another poisonous needle from the beast pierced him.
“Lady Roxana, your dress will be soiled.”
Skreee!
The instant Emily’s hand made contact with the black carapace, the monster lunging toward Roxana shrieked hideously and thrashed in agony.
“There is no need for you to step forward yourself, Milady. Please stand back.”
Roxana’s gaze drifted over Emily’s outstretched hand. Emily had removed the glove from only her right hand.
The crest engraved upon the back of her hand stood out, far more distinct than before.
“Emily. I forbid you from using your power from this moment on.”
As Roxana’s trusted subordinate, Emily’s power exacted a toll on her life force; prolonged use was dangerous. Emily obeyed Roxana’s order without a word of protest. Since the glove she had taken off earlier was long lost in the chaos, she untied one of her hair ribbons and wrapped it around her right hand.
“Emily, want one of these too?”
Griselda had already torn an iron bar from a birdcage and was wielding it as a weapon.
Without answering, Emily stepped over the shattered dishware littering the floor and pinned down an overturned tea table with her foot.
Crack!
Then, she snapped off one of the table’s elegantly curved legs.
Since it too was forged of iron, it made for a passable weapon.
Screeech!
Those capable of fighting the beasts remained in the greenhouse, while those who could not fled through the back door.
“Griselda.”
Roxana gathered her skirt and delivered a light, poised kick to an overturned chair on the floor.
It flew through the air and struck with pinpoint precision right into the eye of a monster charging at her.
Skreeek!
An ear-splitting shriek tore through the air.
“I need to head outside. You can handle things here without me, right?”
Tap.
Beneath the hem of her pure white gown, which cascaded like seafoam, her elegantly shaped shoe stepped down.
“Sure, go ahead. If you ask me, this whole mess smells like one of Jeremy’s nasty little pranks. If you’re not careful, your toy might end up broken beyond repair.”
Given the circumstances, Griselda seemed all but certain that Jeremy was the one who had opened the monster pens.
Tearing her gaze away from Griselda’s amused smile, Roxana took her leave.
Emily followed closely behind her like a shadow.
Screeech!
Having tasted blood, the monsters grew even more frenzied, rampaging wildly.
“Aaaargh!”
One of the men barely managing to fend off a Karantul collapsed after a poisonous needle struck his leg.
The monsters that had scattered the moment the pen doors opened were still swarming all around.
“S-Save me!”
Left alone to face the beast, the man screamed, but there was no one around to come to his aid.
Swish!
The monster’s hardened leg, gleaming like a blade, sliced through the air with lightning speed.
Leap!
Right then, someone vaulted atop the monster’s head.
Moving with fluid agility, he drove the weapon in his hand deep into the Karantul’s forehead.
Skyaaa!
With a hideous screech, the beast collapsed. A heavy thud shook the ground, kicking up a faint cloud of dust.
Emerging from within the haze was none other than Roxana’s toy—the very prey they had been pursuing right before the monster pens were breached.
Aside from scrapes on his arms and face, Cassis appeared largely unharmed.
The fabric at his flank was torn, but the skin beneath bore no wounds.
Under normal circumstances, they should have attacked and recaptured Cassis, but in such dire straits, they had neither the luxury nor the leeway to care.
Cassis wrenched the weapon from the twitching beast’s head, then shook the foul fluid of the monster from his hand.
The weapon Cassis held was a spear identical to those carried by the Agriche subordinates.
He had snatched it earlier from the grip of one who had fallen to the beasts.
“Th-Thank y—”
Cassis’s expression hardened as he looked down at the man stammering his gratitude.
In truth, he had no reason to help anyone belonging to Agriche.
Yet seeing someone overpowered helplessly before his eyes, screaming for their life, his body had moved on instinct.
Cassis felt a flicker of regret for wasting precious time.
Turning away at once, he moved to leave the area.
“Wow, what a cockroach. You’ve still got all your limbs intact.”
Just then, a familiar voice drifted down from above.
“Is that restraint of yours defective? How are you still so fine after dealing with all these monsters?”
Sparks flashed in Cassis’s eyes.
“Jeremy Agriche…!”
Jeremy, who had vanished earlier, was perched up in a tree, looking down at Cassis once more.
Even under the piercing, chilling glare fixed on his face, Jeremy remained completely unfazed.
“Ah, well, good for you anyway. I lost my temper for a second back there, but if you died because of me, I’d be in serious trouble.”
To open the monster pens with his own hands and now claim it would be troublesome if Cassis died was utterly absurd.
Cassis ground his teeth in fury.
“You’re still perching up in that tree like a coward, watching things unfold, and you dare spout nonsense…!”
Swoosh!
The spear in Cassis’s hand flew straight toward Jeremy in an instant. Startled, Jeremy wobbled precariously, nearly tumbling from the branch.
“Whoa!”
Yet the ear-piercing scream that followed erupted from an entirely different direction.
A Karantul that had crept near was seen driving its leg down toward a person collapsed on the ground.
Yet the one who died in the very next instant was not the person pinned beneath the beast.
Gwaaagh!
In the next breath, the Karantul let out a monstrous screech as its massive frame crashed to the earth.
“What is all this commotion?”
A languid voice, reminiscent of a predator stretching its limbs, seized everyone’s attention.
As the swirling dust slowly settled, a tall young man came into view.
Whether he, too, had picked it up from the ground like Cassis, the spear in his hand was in battered shape.
Down along the lowered blade, a viscous mixture of venom and body fluid dripped steadily to the ground.
Black hair and crimson eyes. He looked to be barely twenty.
The man bore a passing resemblance to Lant Agriche.
Yet he was far younger, and the aura he exuded was distinctly different from Lant Agriche’s.
Whether it was merely an impression or reality, the very flow of the air seemed to shift the moment he appeared.
Cassis instinctively knew he had to be on guard against the man before him.
Straightening his spine, Cassis pulled another spear embedded in the ground into his grasp.
Yet with the restraint activated, his limbs felt heavy, hindering his movement.
“Were you walking the dogs? Quite an extravagant spectacle for a stroll.”
Seeing him speak of walking dogs with such an elegant face, he was clearly brothers with Jeremy Agriche, the culprit behind this catastrophe.
“It seems my younger siblings have picked up a new hobby while I was away.”
Having barely regained his balance in the tree, Jeremy muttered under his breath, ‘Ugh, I seriously can’t stand the sight of Deon’s damn face.’
Hearing that, Cassis realized that the man who had just appeared was the ‘Deon Agriche’ mentioned earlier by the subordinates sent to fetch him.
“Jeremy. Did you open the pen doors?”
