The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 227

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 227

Side Story 18

Side Story 4. A Somewhat Unhealthy Amnesia: That Disease Commonly Afflicting Male Leads in Romance Novels

I opened my eyes one day to find the world had changed.

‘Why am I here?’

The structure of the room reflected in my blurry vision felt strangely familiar.

As soon as I realized I was in Lant’s office, I jumped up from where I was.

‘What the—why am I lying on the desk?’

I was even asleep on Lant’s office desk.

A chill ran down my spine.

Thankfully, I was alone, so no one had witnessed my undignified state.

But I couldn’t understand how I had woken up in such an absurd situation.

But I could think about it later.

First, I quickly got down from the desk.

Then, I tripped over something and saw several ledgers on the floor.

What—I don’t remember doing this, but did I mess this up?

I didn’t have time, so after a brief moment of contemplation, I picked up the fallen items and shoved them onto a nearby bookshelf.

Aside from that, there were no other obvious signs of me.

Actually, I didn’t have time to look around carefully.

So, I didn’t touch anything else and quickly left Lant’s office.

* * *

Fortunately, I didn’t run into any servants outside the office.

I felt a cold sweat on my back, probably from being so tense in the room.

I was managing my expression as usual, in case I met someone, but my head was in chaos.

I had no idea how I ended up in Lant’s office, or what I was doing before I fell asleep.

But soon, I saw a welcome person in front of me.

It was Emily.

I walked towards her a little faster. Emily saw me and opened her mouth.

“I was just about to come and get you, Roxana…”

“Emily, where is Father right now?”

I asked, trying to figure out Lant’s whereabouts.

As I walked past Emily, she followed me as usual.

To avoid any possible questioning, I needed to figure out why I had gone to his room in the first place.

If Lant had called me to his office, I would have an excuse if I was caught, but if not, I had to hide the fact that I had secretly entered.

“Pardon? I’m sorry, I think I misheard you. Could you say that again?”

But very rarely, Emily didn’t answer right away and questioned me.

“I’m talking about Father. I asked if you knew where he is now.”

I thought it was unlike her, but instead of scolding her, I asked the same question again.

But after a slight pause, Emily’s answer was still not satisfactory.

“…I apologize again, but I am too foolish to understand the meaning of your question.”

I was already frustrated, so why was Emily being like this today?

I frowned and looked back at Emily.

But after hearing what she added, I had no choice but to stop in astonishment.

“…As far as I know, Lant, the former head, did not have his body and memorial tablet [a tablet used in East Asian ancestral veneration] enshrined separately, so he is not anywhere in Agriache…”

“What?”

Lant, the former head?

His body and tablet?

I couldn’t understand what I was hearing.

Was Emily teasing me right now? Or was she trying to test my reaction to see if Lant or someone else had ordered her to?

But I couldn’t see any such signs on Emily’s face.

If it was Emily, whom I had known until now, it would have been impossible for her to deceive me in this way.

Emily, who rarely showed any change in expression, was now hardening her face with eyes as bewildered as mine.

Her eyes, examining my face, were extremely cautious.

But the moment I faced her properly from the front, I felt an indescribable sense of incongruity.

There was a subtle strangeness in Emily’s familiar face.

After a while, I broke the silence and asked her.

“Emily. How old are you this year?”

“I am twenty-six years old.”

This time, an answer came back without hesitation.

A chill went down my spine at that moment.

Emily is twenty-six years old now—that doesn’t make any sense….

I’m sixteen years old now, so Emily should be twenty-two. That was right.

But when I heard what Emily said after kneeling in front of me, I felt like I had been struck by lightning again.

“Roxana, Head of the Agriache.”

This time, a sharp sensation resembling a tremor scratched down my spine.

“If there is a problem that I need to know, please tell me.”

There was a faint tremor in Emily’s successive voices.

“Perhaps there is… confusion in your memory?”

I didn’t answer right away.

During the short time I looked down at her, many thoughts were tangled in my head.

But it didn’t take much thought to make a decision.

I ordered Emily.

“Emily, tell me everything you know about me now.”

* * *

The story Emily told me was surprising.

I am now twenty years old.

I am the head of Agriache with Jeremy, and my father Lant, the former head, is already dead.

My mother left Agriache and is living with Maria in the middle district….

According to her, there was almost a four-year gap in my memory.

Emily heard about my condition and hurried away to call a doctor.

I, too, headed to my room with a restless heart.

The servants I met in the hallway bowed and greeted me. I put on an indifferent face and walked past them.

Strangely, the faces of the servants were all bright.

That also felt out of place, and I had to confirm once again that this was not the Agriache I knew.

But even after hearing Emily’s explanation, I still felt confused and didn’t know what was going on.

The me I remember was sixteen years old, two months before my birthday.

And before I woke up in Lant’s office, I was definitely on my way to take a class as scheduled today.

“…”

As I pondered, I suddenly stopped walking.

…Is it really true that I lost my memory?

Or….

Could this be an illusion that is made to feel real?

With the newly sprouted suspicion, my heart, which had been beating slightly faster, gradually calmed down and soon turned cold.

When I first woke up in Lant’s office, I thought it was most likely that a temporary memory loss had occurred due to the side effects of the poison I took every day.

After hearing Emily’s words, I thought that maybe I really had lost four years of memories.

But now I was starting to have another suspicion.

Maybe I’m in a hallucination right now.

Objectively speaking, the possibility seemed considerable.

Like at the monthly evaluation last year when I saw Ashil, there might have been a class where I went into a hallucination room during today’s training….

“Yeah, it didn’t feel real at all.”

I muttered to myself and looked out the window of the hallway.

Yellow and red leaves, dyed in the colors of autumn, were visible.

Then, is this a hallucination that reflects my wishes?

A free future where Lant is dead and I am no longer oppressed by anything.

For a moment, a burst of laughter flowed between my lips.

Was it because my agitated heart had regained its composure?

The faint noise that had been subtly stirring up the air in the hallway was now clearly recognized in my ears.

I carelessly lowered my gaze from the window and was startled to find someone.

My eyes were fixed on the black-haired man who was making the loudest noise and directing something among the people gathered outside.

“Jeremy?”

He had the appearance of an adult who was older than the boy I knew, but it was definitely Jeremy.

Wow, he grew up better than I thought.

It’s been subtly noisy since earlier, and it seems that the people who went out in groups have returned. I don’t know what’s going on.

Wait, but if I’m twenty years old now, Jeremy must be nineteen….

According to the original novel, Lant dies, I die, Jeremy dies, and everything should have been ruined, but the development has changed here.

And the further thoughts that were about to continue were cut off the moment the person who was leaning against Jeremy turned towards me.

The silver hair sparkling in the sunlight was pretty. It was a strange color with a subtle blue tint, which was very unique and mysterious.

He was the tallest man among the people standing around him.

Like Jeremy, he was wearing clothes similar to those that Fontaine or Deon sometimes wore when they went out.

The dark-colored, active clothes and leather boots that went up to his calves revealed his athletic build.

Even from a distance, it was clear he had a well-trained body that was balanced and strong.

‘Who is it? I’ve never seen him before.’

I was wondering about the unfamiliar face I saw for the first time.

Originally, in Agriache, children who had not become adults were not allowed to go outside, except in special cases where Lant had issued a public order.

So, I had never met anyone from outside Agriache until now.

Agriache was extremely closed off, so there were no visitors.

‘Is that man working in Agriache, seeing as he’s with Jeremy?’

…I thought for a moment, but I quickly dismissed that as a rude thought.

That man looked too noble for that.

Besides, looking at him directing something to other people outside, it seemed like he was not working under Jeremy, but had a position equal to him.

In fact, the people gathered outside felt like they were divided into two groups.

Ah, but maybe the premise was wrong from the beginning. This was Agriache in the future without Lant, so maybe he was a guest of Jeremy or someone else….

Just as my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly made eye contact with the man outside the window.

I don’t know how he found me, but he was definitely looking at me.

The man’s face, which had turned towards me, came into view completely from the front this time.

It was a handsome face that suited my taste so well that I forgot about my current situation for a moment and fixed my gaze on him.

But the next moment, the man smiled at me.

I thought he might have a cold personality after seeing him interacting with other people next to him, but the atmosphere changed in an instant, which surprised me a little.

Oh? But wait a minute.

Silver hair and gold eyes?

That’s a Fedelian trait….

No, but why would a Fedelian be here right now?

As I was about to take another good look, the man disappeared from my sight.

I shook off my stray thoughts and started walking down the hallway again.

If this is really a hallucination, I wondered if I should slap myself hard to wake up.

But as I was going down the stairs, I heard someone coming up from below.

After a while, the man I saw outside the window appeared in front of me.

“Roxana.”

The beautiful face, which seemed to shine even when standing still, was much closer than before.

The low voice that flowed into my ear was so affectionate that it made my heart skip a beat for a moment.

I didn’t know how to react, so I stopped.

The man, who had leisurely climbed up to the stairs where I was in a few steps using his long legs, looked down at me from right in front of me and smiled again.

“I’m sorry I’m a little late because I was busier than expected. I missed you.”

And then he lowered his head and kissed me.