The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 228

How to Protect the Heroine’s Older Brother – Extra Story 19

A stranger’s warmth was lightly pressed onto my lips. The sensation of a hand cupping my face was equally unfamiliar.

I inhaled sharply, my emotions a jumble of bewilderment and surprise.

Who is this person?

Why is he doing this to me? And why does it feel so natural?

What’s strange is me, too.

It was unexpected, but it wasn’t as if this man had ambushed me. From the start, it was absurd that I hadn’t avoided the contact while spacing out.

It wasn’t as if my limbs were tied and I was being restrained, so if I felt unpleasant, I could have pushed away the body in front of me right then and there.

But as soon as the man lowered his head and touched his lips to mine, my eyes closed as if I were bewitched.

Following that, I gripped the firm arm that reached my hand tightly and even unconsciously parted my lips slightly.

The man willingly responded, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me closer, and delving between my parted lips.

I almost let out a moan from deep within my throat.

The moment our tongues first intertwined, a shiver ran down my spine. A residual heat, not my own, spread from our close contact.

Each time the hot breath swept through my invaded mouth, a tingling sensation shot up my spine.

The sensitively flushed mucous membranes were teased, and every sensation of my tongue being sucked was incredibly vivid.

Yes, it was too much to be a hallucination…….

While I was floundering in unfamiliar pleasure and confusion, the deeply locked lips parted, leaving a lingering sensation.

Lifting my fluttering eyelids, golden eyes casting a faint shadow beneath sparkling silver eyelashes came into view.

The man, who had already opened his eyes, was looking down at me from close range.

“……Roxana?”

As if sensing something was wrong, he stared intently at my face.

The heat in my face, held in place by the man’s hands, felt even hotter to me than before.

The feeling of suffocation wasn’t just because of the kiss.

I was confident in my ability to manage my expressions, but the moment our eyes met, I felt my eyes tremble slightly.

I was just so embarrassed by the situation.

What Emily had briefly told me earlier was only about the internal affairs of Agriche, and even that was only a small part.

It was only natural that she couldn’t tell me the details in such a short time, but there was no information about this man.

So, it was impossible to judge whether he was someone I could reveal my current situation to.

In that case, I had to act as naturally as possible…….

The moment I met the man’s eyes, I realized.

This person would not be fooled by my lies.

And I was sure of it after what had just happened.

This was not some illusion. This could not be an illusion.

I pushed the man away.

The body, as hard as a stone, was pushed back as I wanted. But he didn’t move far away from me, only taking a step back.

The face looking down at me had lost its earlier smile and was now stiff.

“Sis, where are you? I’m home!”

Jeremy’s voice was heard from below.

I ignored both the man in front of me and Jeremy, who was looking for me downstairs, and ran down the stairs.

“Wait, Roxana!”

But the man’s hand grabbed me halfway, and my body was turned halfway around.

I met his golden eyes again.

“……Let go.”

I said to him briefly.

I don’t know what expression I had on my face as I looked at him.

But in the next moment, an indescribable light appeared on the man’s face as he faced me, and the hand holding my arm loosened.

I left him behind and ran again.

I went straight to my room in the next building and closed the door.

Then, I went to the vanity and looked in the mirror hanging on the wall, and there was really an adult me.

* * *

Emily came right away.

I wasn’t sure how much I could trust the doctor, so I didn’t explain my condition separately and had him examine me first.

In the meantime, the silver-haired man from earlier and guests presumed to be Jeremy came to my room.

But Emily went out and sent them back.

According to the doctor, there was nothing particularly wrong with me. There were no special signs of abnormality.

So, at least my memory hadn’t evaporated due to poison or illness.

I thought for a moment and then told Emily to bring the most tight-lipped sorcerer in Agriche this time.

So, what appeared in front of me 10 minutes later was…….

“What, why did you call me? What’s going on this time that you’re looking for me so urgently?”

Grizelda asked as she plopped down on the chair in front of me.

I stared at her silently and then slid my gaze coolly to Emily.

“Emily, why did you bring Grizelda?”

Then Emily bowed her head as if she was sorry.

“I dared to judge that Grizelda seemed to be the most suitable person for the conditions Roxana wanted.”

I frowned at her words.

I didn’t tell Emily separately, but the conditions I wanted were three things.

The most capable sorcerer, tight-lipped, and someone who belonged to me or a trustworthy person equivalent to that.

Emily was a competent confidante enough to think about that much.

So, does that mean that the current me and Grizelda have built up that much trust?

Seeing Grizelda running over like this at the mention of me looking for her, it seemed so.

“Grizelda, check if there are any magical traces on my body.”

I held out my arm to her.

“Magical traces?”

Grizelda reached out to me as she was told, even though she had a puzzled expression on her face.

After a while, horror appeared on her face.

“What? Where did you get this? Weren’t you just in the mansion all day today?”

As expected, it was a magical influence, and Grizelda’s voice grew louder and louder.

“Suspicious items coming in from outside should be filtered out from below? Or is there someone in the mansion trying to harm you……!”

“I can’t be sure, but I don’t think that’s why this happened.”

I raised my hand to stop Grizelda’s words.

“I think it might be because I touched something in Lant’s office.”

“Father’s office? What did you touch there?”

“The black ledger in the bookshelf. Maybe I touched something else without knowing it.”

“So, what are your symptoms now? Tell me everything that bothers you.”

I stared at Grizelda’s face silently for a moment before parting my lips.

“Just some of my memories are a little hazy.”

“Is it a spell that damages the mind…….”

“There’s no big problem. I called you to see if there are any other side effects.”

Emily had already certified it, but I still couldn’t completely trust Grizelda, so I weakened the symptoms and said it.

The reason I was so honest was that I vaguely saw a feeling of concern for me in Grizelda’s eyes that I hadn’t seen before.

I could have had someone bring the suspicious items in Lant’s office directly to my room. But I didn’t do that because it could be dangerous if I touched it carelessly.

“I’ll have to go and see it myself.”

Grizelda seemed to be thinking the same thing, frowning and getting up from her seat.

“No wonder, Jeremy and your boyfriend outside the door were so on edge.”

I tried to get up following her but stopped.

Are those two still outside the door? I thought Emily had chased them away earlier, but wasn’t that the case?

No, more than that, the title that came out of Grizelda’s mouth bothered me.

I was reluctant to meet other people right now, so I thought about entrusting Emily with monitoring Grizelda instead, but I just took the lead and went out the door.

Anyway, I had to go back to Lant’s office, where the problem had occurred once, to check it out myself.

“Roxana, sis! What, what’s wrong all of a sudden? Did something happen while I was gone?”

As soon as I went out of the room, the grown-up Jeremy ran over as if he had been waiting.

He had gotten older, but this worried face was similar to what I knew.

The silver-haired man standing against the wall with his arms crossed behind Jeremy also caught my eye.

He also took his body off the wall and moved towards me as soon as he saw me.

“Roxana.”

A low voice pierced my ear.

“Let’s talk for a minute.”

The face, frozen without a smile, looked somewhat cold, like when I peeked through the window earlier.

I passed by the two of them.

“I have something urgent to do right now, so let’s talk later.”

Emily remained behind me and said something to them.

Thanks to that, no one followed me.

Even though she didn’t know the details, Grizelda’s gaze flew to me from the side, as if she felt a strange atmosphere.

After a while, Grizelda, who had carefully examined Lant’s office, fortunately reassured me that the situation was not serious.

The ledger I touched was connected to a secret passage inside Lant’s office.

Grizelda was also surprised that there was such a device in this room.

Anyway, the reason I suffered this damage was because of the backlash of the magic that had broken down while it was left unattended.

She said that the symptoms would heal on their own in about a week to ten days, but she would still research reverse magic in the meantime, just in case.

Grizelda was quite active, even though I didn’t tell her to do so first.

“Emily.”

“Yes, Head.”

I left Lant’s office and turned to another place.

I felt like the two people I saw earlier would still be in front of my room, so I asked Emily and moved my destination to my office, which I had newly created after becoming the head.

“Let’s finish the story we couldn’t finish earlier. Tell me as much detail as you know about my current situation and the people around me. Don’t leave out anything about the man next to Jeremy earlier.”

Emily’s explanation continued much longer than before.

This time, it included quite specific information about the silver-haired man I had encountered earlier.

“Cassis Pedelian? Really Cassis Pedelian?”

I was dumbfounded.

I had a slight feeling that it might be him based on his appearance, but it was really Pedelian.

Besides, what Grizelda said earlier and, according to Emily’s explanation, he and I were in a romantic relationship.

But how could that be?

Could it be that Lant didn’t bring Cassis Pedelian, the heroine’s older brother, to Agriche, unlike in the novel?

But it wasn’t. The story Emily told me was more complicated than I thought.

Of course, Emily was only conveying the story from her point of view, so there were some gaps in the content.

So, there were parts that I didn’t understand, and there were parts that I had to guess at.

Anyway, Cassis Pedelian is my lover, and the reason he is in Agriche with his subordinates is for the exchange between the two families. This seemed to be an undeniable fact.

I heard that this wasn’t the first time Cassis Pedelian had come to Agriche.

The purpose of this visit was to subjugate the monsters around the Agriche border.

Emily explained that the schedule was originally planned for late summer, but the timing was postponed to autumn due to various circumstances.

Once the border cleaning on this side is roughly finished, then conversely, they plan to move from Agriche to Pedelian to help with monster disposal.

I don’t know why they bothered to plan such unnecessary work when they had been solving it on their own until now…….

Mutual aid between Agriche and Pedelian like this.

As someone who knows the ending of the novel, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Perhaps because I had become more suspicious while living in Agriche, I suddenly felt a little suspicious.

Is Cassis Pedelian really my lover?

Or are we using each other for political purposes…….

Then, what happened earlier suddenly came to mind, and I unconsciously touched my lips.

The sensation of touching Cassis Pedelian still seemed to linger.