The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 184

“Lady Hyperion, behind you…!”

Ryuzak shouted, his eyes wide with alarm.

Pandora, sensing danger, whirled around.

*Thwack!*

In that instant, a figure erupted from the ground, lunging at Pandora with a diagonal slash.

“What…!”

Fortunately, Pandora’s agility, honed from her time navigating monster-infested areas, allowed her to instinctively evade the attack.

Instead, a lock of her light blue hair, almost completely severed, fluttered to the ground like a ghostly echo.

Roxana was immediately certain.

It was one of Vertium’s dolls.

But why here?

Of course, this wasn’t the time for idle speculation.

Vertium’s doll was already attacking Pandora again.

Roxana acted without hesitation, pulling out a hairpin she had been wearing.

Channeling her energy into her fingertips, she flicked the hairpin towards Pandora.

The hairpin struck the doll squarely in the center of its forehead.

Ryuzak looked astonished, both by Roxana’s incredible accuracy – the hairpin hadn’t missed by even an inch – and by the fact that she had so readily launched a potentially lethal attack at another person.

However, Roxana knew this was only a temporary reprieve.

She had put all her strength into the throw, causing the doll, its forehead pierced, to momentarily tilt its head back, stunned.

But as she expected, that was all it accomplished.

Pandora, wisely, didn’t counterattack her attacker but used the opportunity to dodge.

*Crack!*

The blade sliced through the air, grazing a stone pillar in the corridor. Fragments of shattered stone rained down.

*Thwack.*

At that moment, the other dolls, who had been passing by as if they hadn’t noticed anything, all turned their heads in unison, except for the one that had attacked Pandora.

The faces of the three humans were reflected in their eerily clear eyes.

Moreover, the doll with the pierced forehead was also standing there, facing them.

“What is this…?”

Ryuzak groaned, seemingly at a loss for words in the face of this incomprehensible situation.

But there was more to come.

From the signals the poison butterflies had been sending, Roxana’s mind was already racing. [Poison butterflies are Roxana’s method of scouting and sensing danger.]

There was no need to share vision separately to confirm; it was clear that these dolls were scattered everywhere.

The fact that the dolls had infiltrated this corridor, somewhat removed from the main entrance, was telling.

As if to confirm her suspicions, more dolls poured out from around the corners where the others were standing.

Pandora’s sharp intake of breath was audible.

As if it were a signal flare, the dolls in front charged.

Roxana urgently sent signals to the butterflies, pulling out the knives and other concealed weapons she had hidden in her sleeves.

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