Roxana
Chapter 59
Chapter 59
How to Protect the
Female Lead’s Older Brother
Chapter 59
* * *
The following evening, the grandest banquet yet was held. Lant, Jeremy, and I headed side by side toward the central hall on the first floor.
“Where is Deon?”
“Not here yet.”
Lant furrowed his brow at my response.
“It is strange for him to be this late.”
“Having a bastard like that around would only be a nuisance anyway. It’s better this way, isn’t it?”
Jeremy chimed in, snorting without missing a beat.
Dressed in formal attire for the banquet, he cut a dashing, remarkably tall figure.
His face, which had still possessed a delicate prettiness just a few years ago, had grown noticeably mature, and his height, once similar to mine, had shot up considerably.
Though he had seemed thoroughly uncomfortable at first, having never dressed up to attend such a formal occasion before, he appeared to have adjusted in no time.
Jeremy was already tugging down the tie around his neck with his usual swagger.
Lant’s eyes flashed chillingly at Jeremy, displeased with his insolent tone.
Yet Jeremy was growing more fearless by the day, no longer shrinking back even before a look like that from Lant.
Watching the two of them, I let out a faint smile before speaking to Lant.
“He does seem later than expected. Could the one under surveillance have caused some other trouble while Father was away?”
Lant’s face stiffened subtly at my words. I smiled softly at him.
“Still, please do not worry. It is Deon oppa, of all people. He will surely arrive before the banquet ends.”
Lant’s expression smoothed over, seemingly persuaded by my reassurance.
Though Jeremy, of course, pouted discontentedly by his side.
“Let us head in, then.”
Jeremy and I followed behind Lant into the hall.
Inside the banquet hall, a mural of a colossal World Tree was carved, its branches winding all the way up to the ceiling.
Extravagant chandeliers cast a dazzling glow, sparkling overhead like the Milky Way.
The assembly was strangely, eerily quiet.
Aside from the sweet strains of music, not a single whisper could be heard.
This was a scene I had experienced before.
Everyone in the banquet hall was staring at me, their faces painted with utter disbelief.
“Wow, look at their pathetic faces.”
Jeremy twisted his lips in amused mockery as he surveyed the dazed crowd.
I took a glass of liquor from an attendant who wore the exact same dumbfounded expression as the other guests.
As I had already expected, no one dared approach to speak to me.
Even back in Agriche, when I merely walked around in everyday attire, people constantly stopped in their tracks, catching their breath.
Now that I had dressed up like this to attend the banquet, it was only natural that they were completely losing their senses.
I stood quietly in place, maintaining my distance from the others.
Glancing lightly around the room, a familiar figure caught my eye.
Standing not far away among his family members, Ruzark Gastor was looking at me.
The scowl contorting his face this time was even deeper than yesterday.
“Seriously, get a hold of yourself! Straighten your back, and fix your clothes properly!”
Just then, an urgent male voice carried in from the entrance of the banquet hall.
A whining voice followed right after.
“Mmh… I want to go home and eat the tarts Nyx made for me…”
“You’re heading back tomorrow anyway, so why are you whining like this? That’s exactly why Nyx finds you such a nuisance, Lord Noel! Ah, honestly. Stop clinging to me and stand properly, will you?!”
Perhaps because the hall had grown so quiet after our entrance, the voices echoing from outside sounded exceptionally loud.
Soon after, two men appeared at the entrance.
One of them was leaning heavily against the man beside him, practically clinging to him like a sloth.
Then, as if suddenly sensing the strange atmosphere, the two lifted their heads and looked around.
The man acting as a support startled at the converging gazes and frantically tried to haul the other man to his feet.
Yet the clinging man merely rolled his eyes with a dazed expression, still entirely oblivious to the situation.
Wavy orange hair and bright green eyes reminiscent of fresh sprouts. A face that looked as innocent and adorable as a young boy’s, despite being an adult.
He was Noel, the head of the Yellow Bertium family.
It was in the next instant that his eyes, drifting sluggishly as though he were half-asleep, froze dead in their tracks.
“Uh…?”
Noel’s unfocused eyes locked onto me. Immediately after, his mouth fell open in a blank gawk.
“Huh?”
It was precisely at that moment that his hazy green eyes flashed with sudden brilliance, as if jolted wide awake.
The arm clinging to the man beside him slipped limp.
He slumped even heavier against his companion, melting like softening ice cream.
From the look of it, he had been struck so senseless that his legs had given out entirely.
Left practically embracing him, the man frowned and looked down, only to gasp in sheer horror.
“Lord Noel, your nose…!”
“Uh-uh? Huh?”
Sure enough, blood was trickling from Noel’s nose.
Yet even at that panicked shout, Noel merely wore a completely spaced-out expression, still failing to grasp what was happening.
In the end, Noel was dragged out of the banquet hall in a flash by the man beside him.
“What is with that brand-new kind of idiot?”
Jeremy muttered sourly as he watched the spectacle unfold.
All Noel had managed to say upon showing up at this Harmony Conference was “Huh?”
What’s more, the first and last thing he had shown of himself was getting a nosebleed just from looking at me…
It was quite understandable why Jeremy found it utterly absurd.
In any case, thanks to Noel, the atmosphere in the banquet hall grew lively once more.
Naturally, the majority of the chatter was people whispering about his eccentric antics just moments ago.
Even Lant seemed to think Noel had looked exceptionally pathetic; clicking his tongue, he did not bother pursuing him outside.
“Noona, aren’t you hungry? What do you want to eat? Should I get you something?”
A moment later, Jeremy fired off a three-part barrage of questions.
Having turned down my suggestion to mingle with the others, he had stayed firmly by my side the entire time.
Before answering, I glanced subtly toward the entrance of the hall.
The people of Pedelian had yet to show themselves in the banquet hall.
“Alright, please do.”
Delighted that I had given him a task, Jeremy bounded happily toward the tables set up on one side of the banquet hall.
By now, Lant had moved away and was conversing with figures from other families.
For some reason, time felt as if it were passing far slower than usual.
In truth, I had been subtly anxious for a while now. Or rather, I was not even sure if anxiety was the right word for it.
It was just that my thoughts kept drifting away to somewhere other than the space I occupied.
Perhaps, right now, I was waiting for something.
“Ah!”
Just then, a sharp intake of breath sounded from somewhere in the room, followed immediately by an involuntary gasp.
Like wildfire spreading, the murmuring ignited from that sound and rippled out across the entire banquet hall.
Lant Agriche knitted his brows and turned his head.
I, too, slid my gaze toward the source of the commotion.
It was right at that moment that a familiar name pierced my ears.
“It’s Cassis Pedelian!”
“What? The Young Lord of Blue?”
“Is that really true?”
Crash!
The sharp sound of breaking glass cut through the murmuring din.
As though that were a cue, a heavy silence settled over the banquet hall.
A stillness so profound that even the sound of breathing felt loud pooled thick within the enclosed hall.
Over that silence rolled a surging blue wave.
Soon after, the eye of a colossal storm revealed itself. Emerging under the rapt gaze of the crowd were three figures from the Blue Pedelian family.
Richel, who had arrived in Yggdrasil yesterday, his daughter Sylvia, and the Young Lord of Blue who had not shown himself for the past three years—Cassis Pedelian.
“Good heavens. Just how many years has it been…?”
Just as someone murmured in a low voice, it had been a very long time since he last appeared in such an official setting.
Emerging after three years, Cassis was exuding an overwhelming presence that more than eclipsed even his father, Richel.
His handsome face, refined even before, now carried the unmistakable air of a fully grown man befitting a twenty-year-old youth, and his frame, taller and broader than three years ago, looked noticeably robust and solid.
In Cassis Pedelian, appearing on the public stage after so long, there seemed to be no opening or weakness whatsoever.
His steady gaze, looking straight ahead, held an incomparable depth and gravity.
But above all, the aura enveloping Cassis had undergone the greatest change.
It felt as though one might be crushed beneath the immense, raging current flowing around him.
“N-Noona. Is that really Cassis Pedelian I’m looking at right now?”
Jeremy, who had returned to my side before I noticed, asked in a stammer. His face looked as if he had just seen a ghost.
Seeing his reaction, I could not help but check Lant’s expression.
I shifted my gaze to look for Lant standing not far away.
Just as expected, Lant was staring at Cassis with wide, glare-struck eyes, as though dealt a massive shock.
An indescribable astonishment was etched across his frozen face.
Taking in his state for only a fleeting second, I let my gaze glide away once more.
At that very moment, my eyes met with brilliant, radiant golden eyes from afar.
As if finding me effortlessly among the sea of people, Cassis looked straight at me without wavering.
For this brief instant, it felt as though he and I were the only two people in existence.
Tick.
From somewhere came the faint sound of a clock’s hand moving.
A feeling struck me that the flow of the world surrounding me had just shifted.
It was a signal that the time which had stopped on the day we parted had begun to flow once more.
