The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 153

The breath caught in her throat, stealing the words she couldn’t utter.

Roxana shuddered at the sudden kiss, but Cassis bit down on her lips, forcing them open to deepen the connection.

Roxana reflexively tried to pull away, but she was already against a hard wall.

Moreover, a firm arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her forward until their bodies were pressed tightly together, leaving no space between them.

Roxana was slightly taken aback by the unexpected intensity.

She had come to talk to Cassis. Thanks to the butterfly [a magical means of communication] she had sent in advance, Cassis seemed to have anticipated her arrival.

“Wait, Cassis…”

However, Cassis clung to Roxana, not giving her a chance to speak whenever she tried to part her lips.

Her breath grew short with the continuous kisses. Cassis devoured even that.

It wasn’t a rough, forceful assault.

His actions felt like they still allowed Roxana to refuse at any time.

Nevertheless, his kisses were more persistent than usual, cornering her.

This was evident in how he didn’t allow her even a single word, relentlessly entangling his tongue with hers.

She felt a sense of incongruity in that gap.

Because she was deprived of the freedom to express herself verbally, she would have to express her intentions through actions to get Cassis to stop.

If Roxana raised her hand and pushed him away, Cassis would surely step back without forcing her, just as he had always respected her.

As the kiss deepened, Roxana’s hand, which had been gripping Cassis’s arm tighter and tighter, finally relaxed.

However, instead of pulling her body away, Roxana brought her hand to his face.

Cassis paused for a moment as her feathery touch reached his cheek.

Roxana knew why Cassis was reacting this way.

So, she simply wanted to caress him like this now.

The throbbing energy that had been transmitted from their touching bodies gradually began to subside, like a ship catching a favorable wind.

As if Roxana’s touch was the key, their tightly locked lips slowly parted.

Golden eyes met hers again from close range in the silence.

This time, Roxana placed her lips on his first.

A softer, gentler kiss like spring rain followed.

After their lips parted again, Cassis called her name softly.

“Roxana.”

“Yes.”

Cassis exhaled evenly at her immediate response.

The warmth at his fingertips, the intertwined gaze from close by, and the voice echoing in his ear instantly brought his turbulent heart back to its place.

Roxana thought that Cassis, now calmed, would ask about what had happened during the day.

What kind of conversation she had with Deon Agriche after he had left.

“I…”

However, what flowed from Cassis’s mouth was slightly different from what she had expected.

“I hate Deon Agriche treating you carelessly.”

Cassis clasped Roxana’s hand, which trembled for a moment.

“I also hate the fact that he hurts your body.”

He had been thinking about it since he was in Agriche three years ago.

“I especially can’t tolerate the thought of him hurting your heart.”

Cassis had always been concerned that Roxana neglected her own pain.

She didn’t seem to realize it herself, but she tended to be overly insensitive to her own suffering.

Whenever he recognized that, Cassis was sometimes seized by the urge to destroy all those who had made Roxana like this.

Kant Agriche was already dead by his hand, and Deon Agriche was still stubbornly remaining by Roxana’s side.

He wanted to make sure that Deon Agriche would never lay a finger on Roxana again.

Nevertheless, the reason Cassis suppressed his intensely murderous intent and didn’t kill him was simple.

…Because Deon Agriche was a person belonging to Roxana’s domain.

If he said these words, Roxana would surely deny it.

No… Perhaps Cassis didn’t bring up these thoughts on purpose because he was afraid that Roxana wouldn’t be able to deny his words.

In any case…

“Don’t let anyone hurt you.”

He hoped that Roxana would cherish herself more.

Cassis said, burying his lips in their clasped hands.

Roxana didn’t know what to say, so she stared blankly at the person in front of her.

There were often moments like this when she was with Cassis.

When something swelled up inside her chest until it was about to burst, giving her the feeling that there was no empty space left.

“If I could choose, as you say…”

Roxana said, looking at Cassis, expressing the thoughts that were now spreading in her heart.

“I wouldn’t mind being hurt by you.”

She felt that even pain would be sweet if it came from this person.

So, she smiled faintly and said that, and Cassis, as if he had heard something unexpected, looked momentarily taken aback before letting out a broken laugh between his lips.

“No, don’t allow even me.”

He slowly caressed Roxana’s lips, which he had been clinging to so persistently until just now, with his fingers before lowering his own lips onto them again.

The touching lips seemed to smell of sweet honey.

A shallow breath, like a sigh of unknown origin, was exhaled.

As expected, it was still far from enough.

It had been quite a while since they had been in such close contact, and both of them felt the lack.

Inevitably, they decided to postpone the necessary conversation for a while.

Until the kiss that had started again ended.

* * *

The air in Bertium felt ominously heavy and quiet.

“No… This isn’t it either…”

A cracked voice, sounding somewhat unstable and precarious, melted into the thick air.

In the middle of the spacious room he usually used to make dolls, Noel Bertium moved his parched lips.

“I failed again. Why…”

He muttered something incessantly, staring blankly at the motionless body in front of him.

Noel’s appearance had deteriorated remarkably in just about ten days.

The dark circles under his eyes suggested that he hadn’t slept for a long time, and his face was dry and gaunt, as if he hadn’t eaten properly for a long time.

Above all, Noel’s smooth eyes held a terrifying light that felt like madness, and the innocent look from before was nowhere to be found.

All of this began with the death of Dante, the only person Noel had kept by his side in Bertium.

After Roxana and Nix disappeared, Noel spent his nights in tears before falling into a deep sleep.

Then, when he opened his eyes and looked for Dante, for some reason, he didn’t respond to Noel’s call.

Noel, who had called a doll to find Dante, found him dead in the hallway, a cold corpse.

At first, he couldn’t believe it.

But the fact that Dante’s breath had stopped was undeniable.

Noel smashed all the stupid dolls that hadn’t woken him up while Dante was like this.

Then Noel thought about it.

Dante had been busy coordinating between Noel and the patrons after a major conflict.

Since he was found dead like this in the meantime, it was thought that the people in the patronage had killed Dante in retaliation. There was no other explanation for why Dante had died like this.

So, he went to the patronage and dragged out a few people to torture, and eventually they pointed to one of the people in the patronage as the culprit.

Noel painfully killed the person who the tortured people pointed to as the culprit, sobbing.

Only then did Noel finally realize that Dante was really dead.

He returned to the main building and hugged Dante’s body, which he had moved to the bed, and cried day and night for two days.

Dante had been the only person who had been by Noel’s side since he was born.

After crying for a long time, Noel finally decided to revive Dante with doll magic.

However, no matter how hard he tried, the spell would not take root in a real human body.

Noel had succeeded in this method only once a long time ago, and that was only by chance.

“What should I do… What should I do…”

As Noel muttered to himself again and fell into 고민 [Korean word for “worry” or “anguish”], a guest arrived.

They were people from Yggdrasil [a powerful organization] to urge Bertium, who had not yet attended the social gathering.

Only then did Noel recall a being he had forgotten for a while after Dante’s death.

“Nix…”