The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 250

Special Episode 1. The Children of Fedelian

Cassis stared silently at the small creature before him.

Grrr!

A small animal with dirty gray fur was huddled in front of the wagon wheel.

When their eyes met, it bared its teeth at Cassis and hissed fiercely.

“Huh? I don’t remember seeing this cat before. Did the young master and lady decide to raise it while we were on patrol?”

“No, I’m seeing it for the first time today, too.”

One of Fedelian’s close aides, who was nearby, noticed Cassis and the cat and approached them.

Today was the day Lisel and his aides returned to Fedelian after their border patrol at the beginning of the month. So, the castle was bustling for the first time in a while.

Cassis, who was only eight years old, was too young to participate in the outer guard duty, so he stayed in the castle and came out to greet the returning party.

“Geez, where did it come from? Is there a hole in the castle walls or something?”

“What are you looking at so intently?”

“Oh? It’s a cat.”

The aides nearby also noticed the cat and strolled over. Then, the cat, whose origins were unknown, growled once more, filled with threat.

“Is that blood, not mud? It looks like it’s hurt?”

“Oh. That reddish-brown grass on its fur, doesn’t it look similar to what was on the plateau we passed last?”

“Ah, then maybe it secretly got on our wagon while we were resting back then?”

The gathered aides speculated about the cat’s origins, chattering among themselves.

Cassis listened to them and carefully reached out his hand to the cat in front of him. But the cat dodged Cassis and leaped to the side.

“Oops.”

One of the aides who happened to be there quickly grabbed the cat.

“Look at this blood. It seems the cat is more seriously injured than we thought. I’ll take it to the doctor.”

Cassis glanced at Lisel, who was standing a little further away.

Silvia, who had come out with Cassis to greet the people, had disappeared a while ago and was now clinging to her father, playing around.

Lisel was talking to Jeanne, but he smiled helplessly and picked up Silvia.

Cassis pondered for a moment as he watched them.

In the meantime, one of the aides who often played with Cassis lifted him up.

“Oop. Let’s see, our young master has grown so much since I last saw you.”

“It’s only been a fortnight [two weeks]?”

“Haha, children grow up so fast.”

Then, the scar on the arm of the aide holding him caught Cassis’s eye. When his small hand covered it, the scar healed in an instant.

“Ah, you shouldn’t do this.”

The aide looked at Cassis, seemingly embarrassed. He was one of the few who knew about the ability inherited by the Fedelians.

“This much can be treated at the medical unit.”

“It’s easier and faster if I do it.”

“The Lord also told you not to do this.”

Cassis, who had been scolded by Lisel several times for this, shut his mouth.

The aide was about to say something more, but when he saw Lisel and Jeanne approaching with Silvia, he simply put Cassis down and stroked his head.

“I’ll keep it a secret from the Lord. But this is the only time.”

“Okay.”

“And thank you for healing me, kind young master.”

Through the messily tousled hair, he saw the aide’s friendly smiling face.

Cassis smiled back at him.

“Cassis. Selmon messed up your hair again.”

“Haha! I’m sorry, Lord.”

Lisel, who had come with Silvia in his arms, smiled kindly and hugged Cassis with his other arm.

Jeanne also smiled and tidied Cassis’s hair, which had become like a bird’s nest.

“Father, you’re back.”

“Yes, I’m back.”

The father and son exchanged friendly greetings.

“It’s still a bit chilly, let’s go inside.”

“Father, Mother. It seemed like a cat followed us in the wagon earlier, can we keep it?”

“A cat!”

Silvia’s eyes sparkled as she heard Cassis’s words.

“A cat? I don’t see it now?”

“It was a little injured, so it went to get treatment.”

“I want to see the cat!”

The four family members talked as they walked towards the mansion, appearing as harmonious as could be.

A gentle breeze softly brushed past them.

***

“…”

A few days later, Cassis found the cat sleeping, half-buried in the bushes in front of the training grounds.

It seemed to have been washed and treated since the first day, as its body was a bit whiter and wrapped in bandages. But the cat was still dirty, not quite looking like it was being consistently cared for.

Cassis knew the reason. The Fedelian’s physician and aide had apologetically confessed that the cat they had taken to treat had disappeared without a trace the next day.

Silvia, who had been eagerly anticipating meeting the cat, was greatly disappointed and even teared up. Since then, they had tried several times to find and catch the cat, but its movements were so swift that they failed every time.

So, today they were planning to set up an ambush with bait on the path the cat mainly used… But the place where the aides were setting up the trap and the place where Cassis found the cat were in completely opposite locations.

Silent, careful footsteps moved forward. Cassis tried to be as quiet as possible and reached out his hand to the sleeping cat.

Kyak!

Even though he tried to be careful, the sensitive cat woke up and struggled as soon as Cassis’s hand touched it. Instinctively, he tightened his grip, and the small creature struggled, clawing and biting Cassis with all its might.

Its ferocity was so great that even pieces of flesh were torn from the back of his hand, and red blood flowed out. His face naturally contorted at the considerable pain. Still, he didn’t loosen his grip on the captured animal.

Cassis didn’t want to scare the cat, but the noticeable wounds still looked severe, and he felt he had to treat it as soon as possible.

“Shh. It’s okay.”

Both the cat and Cassis had significant injuries, but it was okay. He could heal them quickly anyway, so Cassis treated the cat first.

As the energy flowed out through his hand, the struggling in his hand gradually subsided, as if it had a tranquilizing effect. The blood that had been soaking the bandages, where the wounds had reopened due to the desperate struggling, also stopped.

Did it sense that Cassis wasn’t trying to harm it but was trying to help it?

Before he knew it, the small creature was quietly entrusting its body to Cassis’s hand and staring at him with round eyes. Cassis held the calmed cat and left the spot.

“Cat!”

Silvia, who had been playing alone, saw them and jumped up and ran over.

“Wow! Did Oppa [term of endearment for older brother] find it?”

Then, as the distance narrowed, her eyes, which had been sparkling with excitement, widened.

“Uh? But does the cat hurt?”

“It’s okay. The cat doesn’t hurt now.”

Cassis’s hand unwrapped the blood-soaked bandages around the cat’s body.

From a very young age, Cassis had been able to heal both injured animals and people according to his will. Every time he did, he felt like he had become an adult who could do anything.

“Did Oppa make the cat not hurt?”

Silvia, who was squatting in front of Cassis, looked at him with sparkling eyes like before and asked. Cassis raised a finger to his lips and made a shushing sound.

“It’s a secret from everyone else.”

Then Silvia followed him, nodding her head vigorously.

“Yes, shh! It’s a secret.”

Of course, no matter how meticulously they hid it, the secrets of children were always visible to adults.

However, just a while ago, Cassis had been scolded for the same thing, and the couple was wondering how to properly educate their child in this regard, so they decided to turn a blind eye this time, unable to resist the children’s earnest eyes.

***

The small creature was very fond of Cassis.

As time passed, its body grew so much that something seemed wrong, and when they investigated, it turned out to be not a cat but a white tiger. At first, they tried to take it back to its original place, but it had already been touched by humans and couldn’t be released into the wild.

Within a few months of entering Fedelian, the white tiger’s body had become as big as Cassis. Still, the two children were not afraid and played well with the animal.

“You two, you’re hurt like this again. Can’t you play more carefully?”

“It’s okay, Oppa can ‘hoo’ it and it’ll all heal.”

It was common for young children to get hurt while playing, so it was nothing special, but Silvia’s words, spoken so innocently without a second thought, were hard to ignore.

Silvia was particularly outgoing among her peers. But the fact that Silvia sometimes acted recklessly, even dangerously, was largely due to Cassis’s influence. Knowing that no matter where or how she got hurt, Cassis’s touch could quickly heal her, the child was fearless, too fearless.

Cassis was the same, and the two children often made the adults’ hearts drop. Moreover, no matter how much they were persuaded, using their powers secretly, against Fedelian’s ideology, was a problem in itself.

In Fedelian, they had always been particularly careful in educating children, fearing that a young child might blindly believe in their powers and regard living humans and animals as dolls or objects that could be healed at any time. As such, it wasn’t that Cassis treated life carelessly, but he didn’t seem to properly understand its weight either.

Lisel and Jeanne were always concerned about that.

“I’m worried. She’s stubborn like you, and no matter how many times I persuade and scold her, it doesn’t last long.”

“Let’s watch a little longer. She’s still young and doesn’t know the limits, she’ll get better over time.”

As time passed day by day, the children gradually grew up.

***

“Oppa, hurry up!”

“Silvia, don’t go too far.”

One clear and sunny afternoon, Cassis and Silvia headed to the garden with the white tiger.

No sooner had he finished speaking than Silvia, who was running ahead, fell. Cassis hurried to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Heeing… It hurts.”

Silvia, with her knees scraped and palms skinned, looked back at Cassis, tearfully. The scratched and bleeding wounds looked quite painful, so Cassis picked up Silvia.

“Let’s go inside first. If we wash it right away and go to the medical unit, it’ll be okay…”

“Why? Oppa can just heal it right now.”

Lisel and Jeanne didn’t like Cassis using Fedelian’s powers usually. Cassis knew that too and was trying to refrain from using them as much as possible. But when two tearful eyes looked at Cassis with questions, he couldn’t hesitate.

In fact, Cassis had been weak to other people’s tears since he was very young.

So, whenever someone was injured and had tears in their eyes, he felt like he wanted to stop them as soon as possible, and his body moved on its own. Of course, he also felt good when he received thanks or friendly looks after healing injured people or animals.

But that wasn’t the only reason that motivated Cassis.

In the end, Cassis gave in to Silvia’s tears again today and used his powers without Lisel and Jeanne knowing. Silvia, as if she had never been tearful, smiled and ran across the lawn again, leaving Cassis behind.

Cassis played with Silvia and then sat down in the shade of a tree and examined the white tiger’s fur. The white tiger had been strangely snuggling up to him and groaning for a while.

“Ah, there was a thorn here. There, are you okay now?”

Cassis pulled out the thorn stuck in the white tiger and stroked its fur. As if Cassis’s touch felt good, the white tiger lay down on his leg and purred softly. Cassis smiled as he watched it.

It was then.

Suddenly, there was a thud! and something falling from behind. An ominous premonition flashed through Cassis’s mind.

“Silvia?”

He turned his head and called out to his sister.

The sound clearly came from where Silvia had run off to a while ago, but the surroundings were eerily quiet.

Eventually, Cassis got up and went to find Silvia.

Soon after, he found his sister collapsed in a corner of the garden.

“Silvia…!”

His heart dropped as he saw the pool of blood spreading wider and wider on the grass. It seemed that Silvia had climbed onto the statue in the garden to play and had fallen, hitting her head on the stone slab in front of it.

“Silvia, are you okay? Wake up, Silvia…!”

Cassis ran over in shock, and Silvia groaned. It was the first time he had seen someone so badly injured. Moreover, the person was his sister, Silvia…

Cassis was still only a ten-year-old child, so he didn’t know how to deal with this situation. In fact, the most correct thing he could have done at this time might have been to run and ask an adult for help right away.

But Cassis soon tried to calm himself and brought his trembling hand to Silvia.

It’s okay. It’s okay, I can fix it.

However, perhaps because Silvia’s condition was too severe compared to the power Cassis had?

The energy flowing from his hand didn’t heal Silvia as it had done until now.

“Ugh, cough…!”

Rather, Silvia suddenly convulsed, spitting out blood from every hole.

His mind went blank for a moment at the terrible sight, and he couldn’t think of anything. Silvia’s body, which had been heaving painfully a few times, became frighteningly still after a while.

He instinctively realized. He no longer felt the energy of life from Silvia. He couldn’t understand what had happened to them.

However, even in this situation, only one thing was clear. Cassis had made his sister like this.

“Ah… Aaa…”

He gasped for breath. An unbearable fear washed over him, trying to swallow him.

Grrr…

Then something white nudged Cassis’s body. It was the white tiger, who had been following him and was next to him since earlier. The white tiger’s body, soaked in the pool of blood Silvia had made, was also stained red and mottled.

At that moment, a story he had heard from his father Lisel in passing flashed through his mind. With Fedelian’s power, it was possible not only to simply heal but also to take life force from other living things and transfer it…

Of course, that was followed by a strict warning that humans should live according to the laws of nature, so they should never commit such a taboo, but that didn’t seem important now.

As he met the eyes that looked at him without any wariness as usual, Cassis weighed the importance of life with his own hands for the first time.

His trembling hand touched the white tiger’s head. Cassis had sincerely liked and cherished the white tiger, who had been with him since he was younger than now, like a friend, but it wasn’t more precious than his sister Silvia.

Cassis was in a state where other rational thoughts were impossible. Only the obsessive thought that he had to save Silvia before it was too late filled his mind.

Then, the white tiger’s desperate scream pierced his ears. The living thing in his hand twisted painfully.

“Cassis? Why are you doing that there…”

If Jeanne hadn’t come at that time, Cassis would have certainly committed something far more terrible than what he had just done.

Jeanne, who had come to give snacks to the playing children, froze at the sight before her eyes. What she saw was Silvia and the white tiger, covered in blood, and Cassis touching them both.

“Silvia!”

The things in Jeanne’s hands fell to the ground miserably. She ran to her daughter, who was lying in a pool of blood.

“Oh, Mother.”

At that time, Jeanne couldn’t see Cassis’s crying face.

“No…”

Silvia wasn’t breathing.

It is the heart of a parent to be concerned about even a hangnail on their child’s finger. But seeing her daughter lying dead in such a terrible state, it was as if the sky was collapsing and crushing her.

“You can’t die, open your eyes, please… Silvia!”

Jeanne’s scream pierced his ears painfully. Then, her tearful rebukes and resentful words passed over Cassis blankly.

He didn’t remember what happened after that.

***

“Do you know what you have done?”

Lisel finally decided to bind Cassis’s power.

“Your power, which you cannot control, is like a disaster.”

That day, when he was young, Cassis learned terrible despair and regret for the first time in his life.

“From now on, you must never use your power for the same thing again.”

It was an event that was too heavy and terrible for him to bear, so the memory of that day was sealed from Cassis.

“From now on, I will place a seal on you.”

So, he only vaguely remembered that he had been forbidden by Lisel from using his power until he became an adult. But the bitter frustration of that time was already painfully engraved in his subconscious.

On the day he took Silvia’s last breath with his own hands, Cassis thought for the first time that Lisel was right.

This power was not a blessing but a curse.

So, he thought that he would never be happy to use it for the rest of his life.

“What’s your name?”

“Roxana.”

Until he met someone he wanted to dedicate his entire remaining life to.

The human heart is truly fickle, and from then on, Cassis thought that he was truly fortunate to be able to protect her with his own hands, not anyone else’s.

“Give me your remaining time.”

“If it doesn’t matter where your future destination is anyway, stay by my side. Until you die.”

When their time finally met completely after many days, Cassis yearned for his life to be subordinated to someone else for the first time.

If one person’s life could be woven into a single story, he hoped that her name would be engraved together in all the remaining chapters of the story with him as the protagonist.

Of course, the young Cassis Fedelian at this time did not know at all that the day would come when he would secretly cherish such a desperate wish in his heart.

So, in the end, this is the story of his still imperfect days.

It was just a small story of a boy before he finally met his girl under the irresistible pull of fate.