The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 181

How to Protect the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 181

* * *

The sun rose, painting the sky with the hues of a new day.

A brief drizzle at dawn had left the ground damp and glistening.

The hearing, which had been adjourned early the previous day, was scheduled to resume that afternoon.

Noel remained isolated in his room. Following his outburst yesterday, the number of guards stationed outside his door had been increased.

This was also due to Noel’s repeated attempts to leave the room and find Nicks after the hearing.

At the appointed time, lunch was delivered to his room.

However, Noel didn’t touch a bite.

He anxiously gnawed at his nails, the faint snapping sound echoing in the otherwise silent room.

“Nicks…”

Noel’s agitation had reached a fever pitch since seeing Nicks at the assembly hall yesterday.

The hearing remained the least of his concerns, as it always had been.

“I have to see Nicks. But why…”

Why were they interfering?

Nicks is mine.

I need Nicks to save Dante.

That’s why I came to Yggdrasil in the first place.

However, as Dante had said, reclaiming Nicks, who had already been taken, wouldn’t be easy.

Wasn’t that why Dante had prepared various measures while he was still alive?

Of course, everything had fallen apart when Dante died. Noel, overwhelmed by the loss of Nicks and Luna, hadn’t been able to focus on Dante’s plans and didn’t know what they were.

However, there was something he could do because he was Noel Vertium.

But he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, and Noel became increasingly anxious after leaving Vertium [his family estate].

Now, there was no one beside him to praise him for his successes or to chide him for his foolishness.

Noel bit his ragged nails again.

“Dante… Nicks…”

Right…

First, I just need to get Nicks back into my hands.

Nothing else matters right now.

* * *

Because of the events at the assembly hall the previous day, the atmosphere among those gathered in Yggdrasil had become even more tense.

At the center of it all was, of course, Agriche [a powerful and controversial family].

Of course, there weren’t any dramatic changes overnight.

People still hesitated to approach the Agriche, and when they saw them, they huddled together and whispered.

However, the subtle antipathy and exclusion had lessened somewhat.

In that environment, the Agriche members acted calmly and with composure.

Meanwhile, three people in Hyperion [another influential family] appeared particularly unwell.

They shared a common experience: they were the ones who had bet and played cards with the Agriche the other day.

Since then, they had been constantly on edge.

Because strange, unsettling things were happening to them every day.

It always happened while they were asleep, so every morning they woke up tense and immediately scanned their surroundings.

At first, the position or condition of objects in the room would subtly change.

Several times, they woke up to find that a candle they had clearly extinguished the night before had completely melted as if it had been burning all night, or that the curtains covering the window had been fully drawn and tied with a string.

Sometimes they would find that all the flowers that had been neatly arranged in a vase had been pulled out and scattered on the table overnight.

Then, the indoor shoes that had been placed next to the bed before going to sleep were found in front of the door. Eventually, not only the objects around them changed, but also the buttons on their pajamas were being undone, one on the first day, two on the second day, and three on the third day….

At first, it was so trivial that they suspected their own forgetfulness.

However, as these anomalies repeated day after day, gradually becoming more pronounced, they couldn’t deny that it was deliberate.

The three men who experienced these strange occurrences couldn’t help but feel a chill down their spines.

No matter how many times they scolded the servants and changed rooms, these strange things followed them relentlessly.

The same was true even if they locked the door with multiple locks.

Rather, as if to mock them, the culprit even picked the lock and placed it in the pocket of their pajamas while they were sleeping.

The three men of Hyperion knew who was behind these events.

It was clearly the work of those black-hearted, crow-like Agriche bastards.

However, the incidents were too ambiguous to report, and there was no concrete evidence to accuse them, so they were left to seethe in frustration.

In particular, they were suffering from severe sleep deprivation and mental and physical exhaustion because they hadn’t been able to sleep properly for some time.

Consequently, they had little attention to spare for the Vertium doll [a controversial object] and the hearing, which were the main topics of conversation.

The previous night, the three of them had stayed up all night, feeling pressured that the Agriche might strike at any moment. Eventually, they succumbed to fatigue and dozed off.

Then, they woke up with a jolt and were horrified to find a small, white flower placed neatly on their chest, marking a chilling start to the morning.

One of them couldn’t take it anymore and went to the infirmary to rest, while the other two, driven by pride, pretended to be fine and attended the tea party in the garden to show that they wouldn’t give in to Agriche.

“Ugh…!”

Suddenly, one of them clutched his stomach and collapsed from his seat.

“Duran…!”

Naturally, the garden was thrown into chaos.

“What’s wrong?”

“He suddenly collapsed!”

“A doctor…!”

Amidst the flurry of activity as servants were summoned, someone approached with a worried expression.

“Oh my. Are you okay?”

Unfortunately, it was a member of the Agriche. One of the Hyperion trio, already pushed to his limit, lashed out and shoved away the outstretched hand.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Ah!”

The Agriche member, who had approached with concern, stumbled and fell onto the grass.

Everyone was shocked by the outburst. They were embarrassed by Hyperion’s violent behavior.

But the person who was pushed to the ground seemed the most surprised and embarrassed of all.

“I… I was just worried…”

“Don’t lie! You’re the ones who poisoned the tea to kill us!”

“What are you talking about?”

A sharper retort followed, filled with even more bewilderment than before.

But he wasn’t fooled.

It was clear that these wicked Agriche bastards had now resorted to poisoning.

Otherwise, why would Duran be in so much pain and collapse like this?

Others who overheard the word “poison” gasped in surprise.

Some hurriedly checked their teacups, while others tried to vomit what they had already drunk.

“How can you make such an unfair accusation…!”

“Isn’t it enough that you’ve been picking fights with us for no reason every day?”

The Agriche members present rose to their feet, their faces hardening with anger.

“Agriche poisoned the tea.”

At that moment, Jeremy, the head of the Agriche family, appeared with the servants and doctors who had been summoned from the infirmary.

“As the head of Agriche, I cannot lightly dismiss such an accusation,” he said, his face cold and stern.

* * *

At the same time, the servants of Yggdrasil were diligently performing their duties.

A servant responsible for laundry was carrying a freshly washed and dried tablecloth towards the building that housed the banquet hall.

He noticed someone approaching from a distance.

It was a man wearing dark brown clothes.

But his movements seemed strangely stiff, and the servant wondered if he was unwell.

Having only recently started working there, he wasn’t familiar with all the members of the Five Families and didn’t recognize the person in front of him.

“Is there anything you need?”

As he got closer, he noticed that the man’s face and part of his neck were stained dark brown.

His clothes also seemed to be stained with something, and it didn’t appear to be their original color.

Could it be from the brief rain at dawn, even though it had stopped now?

It looked like he had fallen into a puddle.

The servant reached out, intending to offer him a handkerchief.

Meanwhile, the other person also recognized the person in front of him.

However, he perceived the servant as an ‘obstacle’.

From the moment he received his master’s order, the only thought occupying ‘it’s’ mind was:

[Find Nicks. And bring him to me.]

And just like in the monster habitat he had passed through, another order echoed in his ears like tinnitus the moment he saw the servant.

[You may remove obstacles.]

‘It’ moved according to the command programmed into its mind.

“If you’re okay, I have a handkerchief, so you can wipe it off with this for now…”

The hand raised was not to receive the offered cloth, but to slit the throat of the man in front of him without hesitation.

Swish!

It was done in an instant.

Pitter-patter!

Red rain splattered on the green grass.

The severed head flew through the air before landing on the ground, spraying brackish blood.

The blood gushing from the body quickly formed a puddle around it.

At the same time, the white tablecloth fluttered to the ground, instantly soaked in red.

Creak.

‘It’, having removed the obstacle, moved on to carry out the first order.

His colleagues, arriving late, began to appear one by one behind him.

If a monster or an outsider had crossed the threshold of Yggdrasil, an alarm would have sounded. But no magic reacted to them, who were neither beast nor human.

It was just before a huge storm swept through Yggdrasil.