The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 105

“I’m so sorry!”

The servant immediately knelt down and apologized.

Red blood was dripping from my ear where she had touched it.

I looked down at the person at my feet with a cold gaze.

The servants who had been choosing shoes and gloves were also frozen in shock at the sudden situation.

I coldly recited,

“Is this how you treat guests in Vertium? You can’t even change a simple ornament without injuring someone.”

The woman, who was bowing her head, apologized again at my words.

“I was wrong, Lady. I was clumsy and injured your precious body. Please forgive me…”

“Enough. Give me something to wipe the blood.”

The servant who was organizing the ornaments next to me quickly handed me a handkerchief.

I used it to press down on my bleeding ear to stop the bleeding.

In fact, I had deliberately caused the injury so that blood would come out if my ear was touched, so I had no intention of blaming them any further.

“My interest has waned. Let’s stop with the adornments.”

I stood up from my seat with a blank face.

At my words, the servants quickly removed the earrings and bracelets that had not yet been worn from my sight.

“Forget the other things, just give me the gloves I picked out in advance.”

“Yes, we have them prepared.”

After putting on the gloves, I said to the maid in charge of wearing the accessories.

“I’ll overlook this mistake this time. Be careful next time.”

“Thank you for your forgiveness, Lady.”

She expressed her gratitude as if relieved by my words.

Her face, as she bowed her head and looked up at me, was filled with joy and relief.

The other servants around her were the same.

But the moment I saw that, the same strange sensation I had felt outside earlier passed through me again.

I frowned slightly and left the room.

* * *

“I will escort you to the banquet hall, Roxana.”

Dante was waiting for me outside the room.

He had also changed into formal attire suitable for the banquet, like me.

Dante’s face was noticeably paler than before.

He looked very tired and exhausted.

I recalled the scene I had seen in Noel Vertium’s room and remained silent.

“Vertium is quite an interesting place,”

I said to Dante after a moment.

“Is that so? Noel will be pleased to hear that.”

“Yes, I’ve never seen a place so precariously balanced on the border between illusion and reality.”

Dante’s gaze, as he walked beside me, fell on my profile.

There was a strange light in his eyes.

Dante seemed surprised by my words, and perhaps a little embarrassed.

“Of course, the gift prepared for me isn’t an illusion, is it?”

I looked at him and raised the corner of my lips in a smile.

Even though I was smiling like this, the content of my words was close to a warning, and Dante must have noticed it through my cold eyes.

“I have high expectations, so I’ll be very disappointed if what I see turns out to be fake.”

“That is…”

Dante soon opened his tightly closed lips to answer.

“I think it’s a matter that Roxana should judge with her own eyes.”

Then he and I exchanged glances in silence for a moment.

“Alright. I’ll judge for myself.”

Then I turned my head away from him.

Dante and I headed to the banquet hall without any conversation.

When we reached the huge door of the hall, Dante released my hand, which he had been escorting, and bowed politely.

“I am only allowed to go this far. Then I hope you have a pleasant time inside, Roxana.”

Then, the heavy door opened silently.

I left Dante behind and stepped into the bright light.

As soon as I stepped completely inside, the door closed quietly behind me.

I stopped in my tracks at the sight before me.

Inside the banquet hall, cheerful music and bright laughter were mixed together, surging intensely like waves.

The lace hems swaying splendidly in time with the rhythm were like white foam crashing against rocks.

“Ahahaha!”

Before my eyes, dozens of couples were smiling brightly and dancing. They were all wearing masks on their faces.

Yes, a masquerade ball was being held here.

“Welcome to Vertium’s masquerade ball!”

At that moment, someone approached me with a fluid movement as if dancing, and knelt down on one knee in front of me.

“A gift for the beautiful lady who is the protagonist of today.”

Both the appearance and the words that followed were exaggerated and comical, as if performing a play.

He was a man wearing a black tailcoat and a parrot mask that covered his entire head.

What he presented to me as if offering a tribute was a butterfly-shaped mask placed on a red velvet cushion.

Unlike the man in front of me, it was shaped to cover only about half of the front of the face.

I smiled coldly and lifted it up.

Then the man wearing the parrot mask stood up and bowed exaggeratedly again, before disappearing into the crowd as before.

I suppressed the urge to smash the mask and put it on my face.

The reason I’m going along with this ridiculous farce is because I also had something I was curious about Noel Vertium.

If that weren’t the case, I would never have set foot in this unpleasant space.

Vertium’s castle was as beautiful as paradise, but a strange sense of incongruity was spread here like fog.

It was leaking out from the silently twisted and distorted cracks from within Vertium.

I already had an idea of what that sense of incongruity was.

Most of the people in this castle, almost all of them, were dolls.

The people who greeted me, the servants who helped me dress up, and the people who are dancing in this masquerade hall now, almost all of them, or perhaps all of them.

They certainly had an appearance that was eerily similar to humans, but they had a subtle unnaturalness somewhere.

The reason why I felt a sense of incongruity in the expressions of the servants I saw earlier was the same. The same was true of the people dancing in front of me now.

In my eyes, they seemed to be ‘imitating humans’ to the best of their ability.

The people who had been dancing in high spirits began to part in front of me one by one.

It was as if they were making way for me.

As they wished, I walked towards the person at the end of that path.

“Luna.”

The dancing men and women were completely divided to both sides, and in the center of the hall that was finally revealed stood a man wearing a black goat mask.

“I’m so glad to see you again. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

He, wearing a white tailcoat, spread his arms towards me.

“I sincerely welcome you to my kingdom, Vertium!”

His high-pitched voice was filled with overwhelming joy.

Soon after, the man took off his mask, and as expected, it was Noel Vertium.

His bright orange hair sparkled like flowing honey under the light of the chandelier.

His bright green eyes, close to lime green, were also filled with the same emotions as his voice, as if they would overflow.

“Luna?”

I tilted my head and asked.

Seeing that my name was written correctly in the letter, it wasn’t a mistake.

Then, could it be that he has been calling me that on his own until now? Just like he arbitrarily gives names to his dolls?

Besides, Noel’s attitude towards me now was very casual.

I found it unpleasant.

My gaze towards him must have been as cold as it could be.

But Noel seemed to be so excited that he didn’t notice my condition.

“Ah, really. You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this moment.”

He approached me with a look of being unable to control his emotions and grabbed my hand.

I didn’t realize it because of his boyish face, but he was quite tall when I was this close to him.

“Okay, first, I’ll show you my gift that I prepared for you as a sign of welcome!”

I was about to coldly shake off his hand, but I stopped moving at the words that followed.

“I heard from Dante that you had very high expectations while coming here. I’m so glad that you like my gift.”

Unlike when he sent the first letter, Noel no longer seemed to have any intention of threatening me or stalling with this matter.

He immediately said that he would give me the gift he had prepared in advance and smiled brightly.

“Nix!”

Then Noel turned his head and called someone.

The music that had been filling the hall had completely stopped.

“Noel, really.”

Someone appeared from among the glamorous men and women who were gathered like pre-arranged spectators.

It was the man wearing the parrot mask who had approached me earlier.

“I told you to make my turn the last one. If you turn over all the cards you have from the beginning, what fun is there to be at the remaining welcome party?”

“But Luna is curious! So come here quickly and take off your mask.”

“Well, I can’t help it.”

At Noel’s words, the man in the parrot mask eventually smiled faintly as if he couldn’t help it.

Following that, his hand moved.

The mask that had been covering his entire head finally fell from the man’s face.

When he shook his head slightly, his curly blonde hair became slightly disheveled.

The face that was faintly smiling was very beautiful and lovely.

One eye was crimson, and the other was a clear blue like a lake.

The delicately woven features and the gentle atmosphere that was spread throughout his face were not unfamiliar.

No, to be precise, it was very familiar, as if it were engraved in my retina.

Because….

That was Asil’s appearance that I saw in my dreams every time.