The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 164

Deon Agriche stood in the deserted back garden as the evening banquet drew to a close.

The sky, darkening with the setting sun, was streaked with thick orange clouds.

In the back garden, flowers similar to those in the vase beside Roxana’s bed were blooming.

They weren’t the exact same species, but their appearance was strikingly similar.

Usually, he wouldn’t have given the flower bushes a second glance, but something about them caught Deon’s eye and drew him in.

Deon tightened his grip, crushing something within his hand.

The flower that had been blooming elegantly was now a crumpled mess.

His gaze was unwavering, direct, and calm. However, his seemingly indifferent face was, in reality, frozen with extreme coldness.

The crushed petals fell from his loosely dangling hand like pus.

Then, a flash of red caught the edge of his vision.

Deon’s still eyes silently shifted.

His gaze followed the light fluttering of a red butterfly playing among the flower bushes.

However, it was not one of Roxana’s poison butterflies, but just an ordinary, plain butterfly.

“So, you were in a place like this, my friend.”

The voice from behind him belonged to Hyakinth Hyperion, the leader of the Whites [one of the influential families within Yggdrasil].

Turning slightly, Deon saw the slender man with light blue hair streaked with white.

The moment their eyes met, Hyakinth creased his eyes and smiled faintly.

“It’s been a while. It feels like the first time seeing you this close since Lant was alive.”

His tone was quite affable.

It wasn’t strange, considering they often saw each other at the meetings of Yggdrasil [a powerful organization] and at gatherings for transactions between families.

Of course, Deon indifferently turned his head away, maintaining the chilling attitude he held towards everyone.

However, Hyakinth didn’t seem to mind and instead moved even closer to Deon.

“Were you admiring the flowers? I didn’t know you had such a hobby.”

Deon reacted as if he hadn’t heard Hyakinth’s words. However, the leader of the Whites didn’t seem to care.

As if intending to indulge Deon’s hobby, Hyakinth admired the flowers in front of him for a moment before speaking again.

“Actually, I was a bit surprised when your brother, Jeremi, appeared at the Yggdrasil meeting and said he would take over the family.”

“…….”

“I thought you would become the head.”

Black eyes with a faint smile turned towards Deon’s face, tinged with the evening glow.

“Wasn’t the coup last winter for that purpose?”

Those words drew Deon’s gaze for the first time since Hyakinth had approached him.

But it wasn’t that surprising.

Although the Agriche family was particularly outstanding in that area, other families also had their own information networks.

Deon once again turned his head away without emotion.

Seeing that, Hyakinth chuckled.

“You’re still as silent as ever, aren’t you.”

And Hyakinth Hyperion was excessively talkative.

“Well, I don’t have any particular business with you since you’re not the head or the successor.”

As Deon showed no reaction, Hyakinth seemed to have lost interest.

Perhaps thinking of ending this fruitless one-sided conversation, he offered Deon a farewell with the opposite meaning from before.

“Then, I’ll see you again later.”

Then, his footsteps faded away.

Feeling the diminishing noise, Deon released the strength in his hand that he had been gripping all along.

The remains of the flower, no longer retaining its original form, fell onto the green grass.

How much more time had passed since then?

“Deon Agriche.”

One of the beings who could draw out Deon’s raw, unrefined emotions more fiercely than anything else in the world appeared before him.

Red eyes, like shattered light flashing, moved as if piercing through their target.

What was etched in his vision was a man with silver hair fluttering in the wind, dyed in the sunset.

The moment he saw Cassis Pedelian, the murderous intent that had never disappeared from within Deon began to stir.

Similarly, Cassis’s eyes, frozen as hard as an ice sea, were fixed on Deon.

“Did you do something in Vertium?”

A cold question scraped against Deon’s eardrums.

He could have rushed at the adversary before him and stained this place with blood, but Deon didn’t do so.

Instead, he retorted in a chilly voice.

“What?”

“Anything.”

Not a single change surfaced on Deon’s face, and it was impossible to discern what he wanted through his expression.

Then, finally, the words that leaked from Deon’s slowly opening lips wrapped around Cassis’s ears like thorny vines.

“Are you talking about killing that man?”

At that moment, a rough crack appeared on Cassis’s face.

On the other hand, Deon was still staring at Cassis with an unchanging face.

“The man Noel Vertium always brought with him whenever he rarely visited Yggdrasil.”

There was no need to ask who Deon was talking about.

Dante, Noel’s confidant, whom Cassis had also met in Vertium.

Noel Vertium only had one person by his side.

“No… Dante is… now…….”

Cassis was aware that Deon had headed to Vertium before coming to Yggdrasil.

As an Agriche skilled in infiltration and concealment, he thought Deon might have been able to sneak into Vertium and find out Roxana’s whereabouts.

But he never imagined that he would go so far….

The energy fluctuating in Cassis’s body shifted.

Whoosh!

The next moment, the floral fragrance that had been subtly flowing in the air stung the tip of his nose more intensely.

The red sunset, like melting, filled Deon’s vision as if it would overflow.

Cassis’s face, half-eaten by the twilight, looked down at Deon with a temperature like ice crystals, completely different from that color.

His neck was constricted by the collar that was suddenly grabbed.

Deon was roughly pushed by Cassis, almost slammed down, and his body was crushed onto the flower bushes.

Deon’s black hair scattered among the white petals and lush green leaves.

The leaves and petals, unable to withstand the commotion, fell, briefly floated with a strong fragrance, and soon scattered finely in the wind.

“Why do you always…….”

A suppressed voice flowed out from between clenched teeth.

“Can you only act in that way?”

A gaze like shattered glass mixed with the dense air and poured down from above.

Deon met it with eyes as cold as if he were indifferent.

He could have shaken off the hand choking his neck right away, but Deon didn’t show any particular movement.

Red sunlight dyed the white petals that had fallen under his body. The petals scattered on the blue grass looked just like bloodstains.

“Is breaking and killing everything the only thing you can do?”

It was the next moment that Deon’s motionless hand was raised.

However, instead of grabbing Cassis’s heart, which he wanted to tear out right away, he grabbed something else attached to his body.

Crack!

A red butterfly that was about to fly away was mercilessly crushed in Deon’s hand.

Unlike the one Deon had seen earlier, it was definitely one of Roxana’s poison butterflies.

Roxana had probably attached it to Cassis.

Deon thought it was like a kind of territory marker.

A frosty smile bloomed on his emotionless lips.

Roxana was truly bold.

She didn’t separately monitor Deon after their meeting in the garden.

Even after pushing him away from her like that, she didn’t seem afraid that he might do something foolish.

That was probably because Roxana knew.

That Deon was already a tamed dog.

So, even knowing that Deon was following her from an unseen place, she wouldn’t allow him even a shred of her gaze.

It was the same when he followed Roxana as she left Yggdrasil last night and headed to the monster habitat.

That was why he couldn’t help but feel twisted inside when he saw the poison butterfly she had attached to Cassis Pedelian.

A chilling twist was etched on his face, like a bleak north wind blowing.

The butterfly, roughly held in Deon’s hand, was finally completely crushed and scattered like dust.

Cassis was already aware of the existence of the poison butterfly attached to him. In the first place, Cassis had directly allowed it when he met her some time ago.

It was a means to facilitate communication in preparation for any unforeseen events.

However, with Deon’s actions now, the butterfly was annihilated before it could even communicate with Roxana and convey the news.

“You are the only one who knows that I killed Noel Vertium’s confidant, Cassis Pedelian.”

A low voice cut through the dense air of the quiet late evening.

“In accordance with Pedelian’s beliefs, are you going to reveal that fact in Yggdrasil now?”

At Deon’s question, Cassis coldly retorted.

“You speak as if you would easily condone your own murder in front of others if I did.”

In fact, there was no evidence anywhere that Deon had murdered Noel’s closest aide inside Vertium.

However, Deon stared directly at Cassis with eyes that showed not a single flicker and said.

“I have no intention of denying what I did. I won’t stop you even if you go inside right now and reveal what I did.”

Deon’s eyes, darkened to the point of appearing black, proved that his words were sincere.

“However, if that happens…….”