Roxana
Chapter 47
Chapter 47
The Way to Protect the Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 47
Perhaps because I had been so sick, my guard had unwittingly dropped.
Then I suddenly realized that I had never once been able to fall sick in peace like this in this house.
Because here, I could never show a single moment of weakness to anyone.
So displaying such an unsightly state in front of another person like this was a first for me.
Perhaps it was possible only because Cassis Pedelian was an outsider.
He was someone detached from the world of Agriche in which I lived.
Maybe that was why I felt it was all right to show him this exhausted side of myself.
Being held like this in Cassis’s arms gave me a strange feeling, as if I were being protected.
The warmth of another person seeping into my body was unfamiliar. Yet for some reason, I felt no desire to pull away from it.
“It’s warm…”
I let out a shallow breath and murmured softly.
Just as he had in the Hallucination Room not long ago, Cassis’s hand soon covered my eyes.
“You’d better sleep until your body fully recovers.”
At his low, steady voice, my consciousness sank into darkness, unbelievable as it seemed.
Falling asleep with someone beside me like this was something that hadn’t happened since I was very young.
As had been the case for as long as I could remember, Asil appeared in my dream.
For once, instead of weeping tears of blood in bitter anguish, he held out a flower crown to me, just as he used to when we were children.
Truthfully, whenever Asil visited my dreams, I felt a tremor of fear.
Because I couldn’t shake the thought that the person who had appeared in his hallucinations and driven him to death might have been me.
Because I feared that Asil resented me.
But today, Asil smiled at me, allowing my heart to ease just a little.
The fifteen-year-old Asil placed the flower crown upon my head—I who had now grown nearly as tall as he was back then.
Then he gave me another bright smile.
I tried to smile back, but strangely, my lips wouldn’t form the curve.
Pathetically, I burst into tears as I looked at Asil.
At that, Asil wore a faint smile, as if saying, ‘You really can’t be helped,’ and gently wiped my tears away.
Even as I woke from the brief dream, I was still crying. Someone’s firm fingertips brushed against my tear-dampened cheek and the corner of my eye.
Hesitating for a moment before pressing with a little more weight to wipe away my tears, that touch was remarkably gentle and warm.
I closed my eyes again, as if this very moment were nothing but a dream.
Yet sleep did not return, and for a long while, I simply kept my eyes closed in silence, feeling the touch that wiped away my tears.
* * *
After that, facing Cassis became uncomfortable.
Of course it was. After making such a spectacle of myself.
The one silver lining was that neither of us ever brought up what had happened that day.
Cassis seemed unwilling to speak of the ability he had displayed that day, and I had no desire to mention the disgraceful sight I had shown before him.
So, as if bound by a tacit agreement, we both maintained our silence.
“Good evening.”
Even now, meeting his gaze the instant I entered Cassis’s room made the awkwardness feel ready to burst.
How pathetic that I was offering such an idiotic greeting.
I wanted to swallow back the words that had slipped out before I could stop them.
It wasn’t even morning—the sun was already setting into dusk, so why on earth had I offered such a greeting? Besides, it wasn’t even the first time we had seen each other today.
“Yes. It seems evening has already arrived.”
Yet Cassis merely answered while looking at me with calm eyes. His tone was just as steady, which at least subdued my embarrassment a little.
Cassis was currently wearing new restraints that had been secretly procured through Emily.
Of course, for someone who had already shattered the previous restraints, new ones would hardly be effective.
Yet he did not watch for a chance to attempt another escape; he silently wore the restraints just as I wished.
“I came to deliver this.”
I handed Cassis a small scrap of cloth inscribed with a cipher.
It was something I had received from the Pedelian people I contacted yesterday. Naturally, I had no way of deciphering what was written on it.
However, seeing a faint relief surface in Cassis’s eyes upon reading it, I figured it must carry good news.
“Those… are they Poison Butterflies after all?”
Suddenly, Cassis looked at me and asked casually.
Only then did I realize that two or three Poison Butterflies had emerged unnoticed and were fluttering beside me.
I was inwardly flustered.
Why had they come out when I hadn’t even called them?
What was worse, before I could retrieve them, the butterflies flew over to Cassis and settled upon his shoulder.
Right over the spot where he had been wounded during the escape incident not long ago.
For some reason, it felt as though the butterflies were ravenously craving Cassis’s blood.
A faint memory resurfaced of them emerging on their own and clinging to Cassis back when I had vomited blood and passed out.
Was it because they had tasted his blood once before?
Still, the saving grace was that these were not the lethal butterflies I intended to raise for killing, but rather the ones I had hatched first for other purposes.
Cassis’s gaze briefly flicked over to the butterflies resting on his shoulder.
“They seem rather covetous of my blood.”
Unnecessarily sharp as always.
“Probably not. They only feed on my blood.”
Making excuses that they weren’t Poison Butterflies seemed entirely pointless by now, so I didn’t bother.
After all, he had already discovered the heavy accumulation of poison inside my body last time, and I had inadvertently exposed the butterflies as well.
Even now, Cassis was looking at my butterflies with absolute certainty in his eyes.
People who weren’t Beast Tamers usually knew little about Poison Butterflies, so how did he recognize them at a single glance?
Then again, since he seemed to have personally scouted the borders near the Pedelian territory, it wasn’t surprising if he possessed considerable knowledge regarding demonic beasts.
Then, suddenly sensing Cassis’s gaze, I shifted my eyes away from the butterflies.
What met my eyes was the same look I had seen before. Because of that, I could tell what he was thinking.
“…You’re unstable.”
After a moment, Cassis parted his tightly sealed lips and broke the silence. It sounded almost like a murmur to himself.
I was about to ask what he meant by that, but his following question was faster.
“Once I leave this place, what will happen to you?”
Is he actually worrying about me in a situation like this?
I wasn’t a fool; the whole reason I had taken time preparing for his escape in the first place was to secure my own survival.
Did he honestly think I would sacrifice myself for him?
He had no idea what kind of torment he had suffered because of me. Thinking of that suddenly made my chest feel heavy and sour.
“You aren’t mistaking me for your younger sister, are you?”
Perhaps out of discomfort, my words came out rather sharply.
Whenever Cassis looked at me with those eyes lately, it felt awkward to look straight into them.
He ought to worry about his own little sister instead. If he died, Sylvia wouldn’t just fall into darkness like in the novel—she might end up trapped in an obsessive confinement story with all the lunatics in this world.
“Am I not allowed to worry about you?”
Yet at Cassis’s ensuing words, I was rendered utterly speechless. Not a single sound leaked past my parting lips.
A mistake. I shouldn’t have just averted my eyes; I should have covered my ears as well.
In the end, I pressed my lips tightly together and met Cassis’s eyes.
His golden eyes were still gazing straight at me, unswerving.
Unable to hold that gaze for long, I subtly glanced aside.
The voice that slipped from my mouth after that was noticeably stripped of its earlier sharp edge.
“I have my own plans figured out.”
Yet in truth, by this point, I wondered if Cassis couldn’t just break out of this place under his own power.
He had shattered the Anti-Monster Restraints, after all, and possessed that strange ability.
Surely he hadn’t refrained from escaping all this time because of thoughts like that?
Considering he was the type to save my mother even in a perilous situation, it didn’t seem entirely impossible.
Somehow, an unpleasant sensation—as if the upper hand I thought I held had been overturned without my knowing—began to crawl up my spine.
In fact, I had discreetly asked about his ability yesterday, but Cassis naturally refused to tell me.
When I asked why he hadn’t broken the restraints before if he was capable of it, he had merely replied that circumstances hadn’t permitted it at the time, and fell silent once more.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever explained the plan in detail. I’ll tell you now.”
In an inexplicably soured mood, I explained the future plan to him.
At that, Cassis’s expression hardened.
He looked as though he had much to say, but seemed to acknowledge that it was the most reasonable method.
“The Pedelian personnel have been guided to a safe location. So you can join up with them then.”
