The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 237

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother Extra Story 28

Extra Story 5. The Villain’s Way of Love: Roxana Agriche’s Perspective on ‘Flower of the Abyss’

On the day of a grand banquet.

Lant Agriche, thoroughly drunk, asked his cherished daughter with a satisfied smile, “I am very pleased today. I will give you a gift, so tell me anything you desire.”

Roxana, who had just enlivened the banquet with her beautiful dance, knelt gracefully and bowed her head to Lant.

“What greater gift could there be than my humble talent bringing even a small amount of joy to Father?”

Roxana, adorned with splendid jewelry, was beautiful enough to inspire admiration in anyone.

However, in her red eyes, reflecting the light of the chandeliers, a strange, madness-like brilliance secretly flickered.

“But if Father would show me kindness on this joyous day…”

Raising her head, Roxana wore a smile so dazzling that it felt somewhat chilling.

“Cassis Pedelian, give me his head. That is the only thing I desire, Father.”

* * *

The first time Roxana saw her brothers’ toy was on that day.

“Hey! Catch that bastard quickly!”

It was the day of the monthly evaluation.

‘That boy’ appeared before Roxana in the maze.

A toy from Pedelian who had entered Agriche three months ago.

He was stained with dirt and blood, appearing almost gray, but his hair, catching the sunlight, was clearly a dazzling silver.

At first glance, the boy looked quite battered. Yet, even in that state, his movements were very swift.

If it weren’t for the trail of blood, painting the green grass red like a shadow, one might not have even noticed he was injured.

“I almost fucked up completely! I let that pathetic bastard wriggle around like a worm because it was fun, and he dares to stab me in the back like this?”

But eventually, he was caught by the other brothers.

The enraged brothers surrounded the boy, binding him with chains.

He was a particularly difficult toy to tame, and he had often attempted to escape like this. She had heard that he had almost succeeded two or three times.

Once, they all coveted him, saying his novelty was appealing, but now the brothers were furious and beat the boy.

In a way, it was understandable.

He had caused such a commotion during the monthly evaluation, and if this news were to reach Father Lant’s ears, the brothers would certainly face severe consequences.

Roxana, in truth, had not been particularly interested in the toy until then.

Whenever she vaguely heard news from afar, she merely thought, ‘To almost succeed in escaping so many times, breaking through Agriche’s ironclad surveillance, he’s quite resourceful,’ with a somewhat indifferent attitude.

But that day, the moment she encountered the blood-soaked boy as if by fate,

Roxana’s world underwent an unprecedented upheaval.

When the boy, backlit by the sunlight, pierced her with his sun-like eyes, she felt as if her soul was being sucked into the intense golden light, hotter than molten metal in a furnace.

She realized at once.

That boy was someone very special, unlike anyone Roxana had ever seen in her life.

She never realized it until the day she died, but that was the very first moment she fell into a terrible love.

* * *

“Hello, you’re finally in my hands.”

A month later, Roxana smiled happily, standing before the boy she had finally met again.

The boy, who was always surrounded by her half-brothers and whose face was hard to see properly, was now close enough for her to reach out and touch.

Unsurprisingly, the brothers’ toy was even more broken than she had seen before.

The tendons in his limbs had long been severed, and his body was covered in traces of all sorts of torture.

His face, once rumored to be beautiful, was now hideously disfigured with festering wounds and burn marks.

Indeed, some of her half-brothers said they didn’t even want to look at him because he was so ugly.

But Roxana reached out without hesitation and cupped the boy’s face.

“So lovely.”

Her gentle touch caressed his scarred cheeks without hurting him.

“You know, your eyes are especially beautiful. From the moment I first saw them, I was so eager to have you that I was beside myself.”

Her gaze, endlessly tender as if looking at something truly beautiful, fell upon his face.

“Do you know how hard I worked to bring you here?”

“……”

“But I wouldn’t have regretted giving up everything I had to get you. So, I didn’t lose out either.”

However, the boy kneeling before Roxana remained unresponsive to the kind words constantly offered to him.

His golden eyes, merely staring blankly, were like a thick film, reflecting nothing.

Roxana eventually stopped speaking and stared at him silently.

She had heard that they had even used drugs on him because he wouldn’t listen, and the boy really seemed like nothing more than a living, breathing doll.

“It’s okay, Cassis.”

Roxana looked at him and pulled his head to her chest.

“I won’t hurt you.”

He remained motionless, obediently entrusting himself to Roxana’s caresses.

Roxana liked that she would never be rejected by the boy, no matter what she did.

Hugging the toy she had finally obtained tightly in her arms, Roxana whispered with a satisfied smile.

“Now that I am your master, I will cherish you until the day you die.”

* * *

Roxana treated the boy as if he were a cute doll or pet she had begged and pleaded to get.

This was evident just from the fact that she had brought him to her room instead of the collection room.

Roxana always spent time in her room with her toy, except for unavoidable times when she had to leave, including education hours.

“You haven’t touched your food again while I was gone. Do you want me to feed you again today? My toy is such a spoiled child.”

“……”

“Oh? But this wound has opened up. Did you touch it while I was gone? That must hurt. Let’s treat it first.”

“……”

“And you left your hair so carelessly dried. I’ll have to scold the bathing attendant…”

There was no reply, no reaction.

Still, Roxana never felt bored while she was with him.

“Ah, all done. You’re even prettier today than yesterday, Cassis.”

Roxana smiled contentedly after drying her toy’s wet hair and neatly combing it.

“I’ll apply this medicine too. It’s a medicine that helps remove scars if you use it consistently. It’s precious, but I get it from time to time. Of course, if anyone else finds out, I’ll be punished by Father, so it’s our little secret.”

It was a medicine with such a small supply that only a very few people in Agriche could use it.

If Lant were to find out that such a precious thing was being used on a toy, especially Cassis Pedelian, it wouldn’t end with a simple punishment.

Knock, knock.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door from outside.

The smile vanished from Roxana’s face in an instant, as if sensing something.

“Lady Roxana. It’s time for your special education.”

A brief silence lingered in the room.

After a moment, Roxana relaxed her stiff lips again and let go of the toy.

“I have to go. I’ll be a little late today. It’s dangerous to touch anything in the room while I’m gone, so I’ll shorten the chain a bit before I leave. Please bear with it, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

Leaving him on the bed and draping a shawl over her shoulders, Roxana walked towards the door.

“……”

The broken toy’s unfocused eyes meaninglessly captured her receding figure.

* * *

Roxana returned around midnight.

With a blank face, she locked the door and entered, heading straight into the bathroom attached to the room.

And only after a long while did she come out again.

Even as she walked from the bathroom, Roxana compulsively rubbed her arm, which was exposed through her gown.

She had scratched so hard that the visible skin was all red and looked as if it was covered in blood droplets.

In contrast to how she had been about to scold the servant for not drying the toy’s hair properly, Roxana now had water dripping from her body, leaving wet traces like footprints with every step.

Drip… drip.

Her hair, soaked and tangled from not being brushed, sparsely covered her breathtakingly beautiful face.

Roxana’s face, from which the smile she always wore had completely disappeared, was utterly desolate and bleak.

The next moment, her eyes, which had been gazing at the mirror, shone like flames that had just been ignited.

Her hand moved forward, grabbing anything it could find on the vanity and throwing it at the mirror.

Crash! Clatter…!

Not satisfied with that, she swept everything on the vanity to the side.

Her chest heaved rapidly with rough breaths.

Roxana calmed down only after some more time had passed.

She turned her head, startled as if belatedly realizing the presence of someone else in the room.

“Sorry… Did I scare you? I’m not angry at you.”

The voice apologizing to the boy on the bed was so gentle and soft that it felt incongruous with her violent behavior just moments before.

“It’s just… I’m a bit capricious, so there are times when my emotions fluctuate a lot. But I don’t hit people or anything, so don’t be afraid.”

As someone who was accustomed to decorating and hiding herself in front of others, her change in attitude was abrupt.

Even though Roxana’s toy was only staring blankly at the wall as if he hadn’t heard anything, she put in unnecessary effort to soothe him.

Then, Roxana stood still for a moment, and then, as if it were an unconscious action, she scratched her arm again with her fingernails. As if trying to peel off a dirty shell.

“……It’s late. Let’s go to sleep.”

Soon, Roxana’s face, as she took a step and slowly approached the bed, was instantly exhausted.

The fragments of broken objects crushed under her indoor shoes made a crunching sound.

The figure walking across the messy room looked so frail that it seemed precarious.

Roxana lit a strong sleeping incense at the head of the bed and turned down the flames of the candelabra hanging on the wall.

Then, she went to the side of the bed where the toy was and lay down with her back to him.

The outline of her small, curled-up body, buried deep in the blanket up to her head, was faintly visible in the darkness.

Even though the boy next to her was close enough to reach out and slit her throat, she seemed to have no such worries at all, appearing completely defenseless.

For a while, only shallow breaths echoed in the silent room.

“Good night, Cassis……”

Then, a small whisper faintly permeated the darkness like a flickering light.

It was a night better than the day, as she could escape into dreams.