The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 198

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 198

18. The End and the Beginning of the Story

Some time had passed since the incident.

Yggdrasil had become desolate, as if it had never been bustling with people.

This was because no one wanted to linger in the place where such a terrible event had occurred.

However, those who had suffered injuries that made it difficult to move were unable to return to their respective families and were forced to remain there.

Healers hastily brought in from elsewhere treated the injured.

With the exception of a few who chose to stay to care for the other injured, everyone else left Yggdrasil, shuddering and without looking back at the blood-stained ground.

Noel Vertium was one of the injured who remained at Yggdrasil.

In particular, he was among those who had suffered such severe injuries that they could not even move, so he was naturally unable to leave Yggdrasil.

The problem was that there were many who harbored extreme animosity towards him, the main culprit behind the massacre caused by the dolls.

So, after the incident, Noel became the one facing the greatest danger.

One of the reasons people were quickly evacuated from Yggdrasil was that there were too many who were enraged and rose up against Noel Vertium.

Fortunately, the pursuit team that had chased after the dolls that escaped from Yggdrasil completed their mission without any fatalities.

Some were injured, but the extent was minor.

If there had been more deaths or serious injuries, people might have started a riot and dragged Noel out to kill him.

Nix, the ultimate target of Noel Vertium’s actions, was also confirmed dead.

When the pursuit team found him, he was already dead, buried among the monsters.

Moreover, his body was severely damaged.

In particular, his face was so badly mangled that it was difficult to recognize him.

However, Nix’s trail ended completely at that spot, and no other dolls were found despite searching the vicinity, so it was concluded that it was indeed Nix.

This was also confirmed by Noel, Nix’s master, who had been intermittently conscious and had woken up just in time, and Roxana, his sister when he was alive, who knew Nix’s physical characteristics well.

People speculated that he had been attacked by a sudden swarm of monsters while fleeing Yggdrasil.

That was about five days ago.

* * *

“The preparations are complete.”

“Okay. I’ll be there soon.”

After the servant left, Pandora looked up at the building behind her one last time.

Her face was not very bright.

Pandora was now about to leave Yggdrasil.

Unlike the other members of her family who had already returned to Hyperion, she was still at Yggdrasil.

The reason was Orca.

He had been unconscious since fainting on the day of the incident.

His whole body was burning with a high fever, but the breath coming from his mouth was as cold as ice, and he sometimes muttered nonsense as if he were hallucinating from the fever.

Healers examined Orca, but they all shook their heads, saying they could not determine the cause.

They suspected poison, but they weren’t sure, tilting their heads with doubtful expressions.

As far as they knew, there was no poison in the world that caused symptoms like Orca’s.

They concluded that it might just be a side effect of summoning a monster within Yggdrasil and then being forcibly reverse-summoned.

Pandora had intended to ask Roxana, who had been with Orca at the time, if she knew anything, so she went to find her.

However, her attempts were thwarted by Jeremy.

Hyacinth, the head of Hyperion, had also completely lost interest in Orca, so Pandora could not intervene further.

Then, just last night, Orca barely regained consciousness.

Pandora, concerned about Orca, her cousin whether she liked him or not, rushed to him.

“That woman… where is she? I won’t let her…”

However, as soon as he regained consciousness, he rolled his eyes and burned with animosity towards Roxana.

His pronunciation was a mess because he had injured his tongue, but Orca repeated the same words several times, so she was soon able to understand their meaning.

Seeing him, Pandora felt miserable.

“Is that all you have to say? Do you even know what situation you’re in right now?”

It was a complex emotion accompanied by disappointment and anger towards Orca, and an unavoidable sense of frustration.

Perhaps because of his habit of forgetting everything else around him once he started focusing on something, he didn’t seem to know what situation he was in.

“Roxana Agriche… immediately…”

Orca still only called for Roxana.

Seeing that, she thought that Orca’s condition was indeed Roxana’s fault, but on the other hand, it seemed that he was just angry that she didn’t do as he wanted.

But either way, wasn’t it Orca who had approached her with bad intentions in the first place?

In such a tense situation where Yggdrasil had become a scene of chaos, it was suspicious to secretly visit Roxana with a monster.

Moreover, when they found the two of them, Roxana’s body was covered with plant sap that appeared to be from Orca’s monster.

So, frankly, Orca’s condition was his own fault.

She was worried because his symptoms seemed serious, but seeing him look for Roxana Agriche as soon as he opened his eyes, he didn’t seem to be on the verge of death.

Pandora looked at Orca with eyes that had become somewhat colder than before and said.

“Rumors have spread within Yggdrasil that you tried to force a woman from another family during the commotion and got caught. If you’ve regained your senses, you should clarify that first. If there’s a misunderstanding, say so.”

The biggest problem Orca faced now was that he had been stripped of his position as heir.

So, the best thing to do was to clear his name of the shameful stigma and put out the immediate fire, hoping that Hyacinth’s mind would change later.

So, if there was a misunderstanding, he should clear it up, and if it wasn’t a misunderstanding but the truth….

“That bitch… I’ll kill… her.”

“You really….”

However, Orca still only muttered to himself, as if Pandora’s words were not reaching his ears.

Then he lost consciousness again and fainted.

Pandora covered her head, feeling complicated, not knowing how things had come to this.

A few days ago, Hyacinth announced that he would no longer have an heir and that the position would remain vacant until he stepped down from his position as head.

Hearing those words, the people of Hyperion could not help but realize that the rumors about Orca quietly circulating within Yggdrasil were somewhat true.

Originally, Orca was more often outside the family, so he had few friends even within Hyperion.

Moreover, this time, he had turned his back on them in a dangerous situation despite being able to control monsters, and he had been branded as having been abandoned by Hyacinth, the head of the family, due to an unsavory incident.

So, there was no way that anyone in Hyperion would look kindly on Orca.

Pandora alone took care of Orca because she had grown fond of him over time, but she too had lost affection for him because of this incident.

And today, Pandora was planning to take Orca back to Hyperion.

After that, Orca expressed his animosity towards Roxana every time he opened his eyes in a daze, but it was impossible for him to do anything in a state where he couldn’t even get out of bed.

“Where’s Orca?”

“He’s unconscious again.”

Pandora looked at the carriage Orca was riding in.

Her face was even darker than before.

“Are you returning to Hyperion now?”

Then, suddenly, she heard a man’s voice from behind.

Realizing who the owner of the voice was, Pandora shuddered.

“Head of the Black Knights,” she said, acknowledging Jeremy’s presence.

Turning around, she saw Jeremy, one of the people who was still at Yggdrasil.

“Orca Hyperion too?”

“…Yes.”

He approached in a swaggering manner, loitered near the carriage for a moment, and then kicked the door that Orca was presumed to have boarded.

‘…Is he here to pick a fight?’ Pandora wondered.

However, Jeremy did not do anything else there and turned his gaze to Pandora.

“Well, I don’t have any other business. I just happened to see you passing by, so I came to say goodbye and wish you a safe trip.”

“I see. Thank you….”

“And if the person inside wakes up, please tell him to be careful of being backstabbed until the day he dies.”

“….”

Jeremy smiled at the silent Pandora.

Of course, that smile was not genuine.

Pandora also forced her stiff lips to lift as she looked at him.

After a moment of hesitation, Pandora’s lips parted slightly.

“Um, Miss Agriche….”

“You don’t need to be curious about my sister,” Jeremy interrupted.

It seemed that he was lumping Pandora together with Orca.

It was true that the relationship between Hyperion and Agriche had not been good during the social gathering, and there was also Orca’s incident at the end, so she could understand Jeremy’s attitude of loathing Hyperion.

However, Pandora felt a little wronged. She had really behaved herself during the social gathering.

She had threatened Roxana in Fedelian, but she thought she had resolved that with the person involved.

Of course, even without that, she still had a record of illegally invading Agriche last winter, searching the monster breeding ground, and even attacking Jeremy.

“The relationship between Agriche and Hyperion is somewhat strained now….”

Pandora continued with a slightly uncomfortable feeling, feeling a bit of conscience.

“But I believe there will definitely be an opportunity to recover in the future.”

In a way, it was just wishful thinking.

Jeremy immediately looked at Pandora with eyes that treated her words as nonsense.

He was still holding back the urge to open the carriage door, grab Orca by the hair, drag him out, and beat him to a pulp.

If it hadn’t been for Roxana’s words, he would have killed Orca Hyperion with his own hands.

And he was praising himself for suppressing that impulse so well.

In fact, Jeremy knew that Pandora was friendly to Roxana.

The matter between Orca and Roxana was not further publicized here with the tacit consent of the two families, but he also knew that Pandora was even more anxious and apologetic.

To be honest, Jeremy didn’t like the fact that a woman who suddenly appeared was acting friendly and approaching Roxana.

Well, still….

When the doll incident broke out a few days ago and it was difficult to even take care of herself, he didn’t have a bad impression of her trying to help Roxana out of concern.

Of course, it was annoying that she kept denying the fat bird incident.

“Ah, well. If you’re talking about 500 years from now, you never know.”

Jeremy said that because he suddenly became annoyed with dealing with Pandora, and turned around without offering any further greetings.

Pandora looked at Jeremy’s receding figure with a somewhat regretful feeling.

The social gathering was already over, and she had no reason to stay here any longer.

Originally, Pandora used to live in monster habitats like Orca, so she would rarely attend such gatherings in the future.

Moreover, judging from the current atmosphere, it was impossible to know when such an event would be held again.

Even though it was a social gathering that she had never really welcomed, she felt a sense of unease in her heart when it ended like this.

Pandora gathered her chaotic thoughts and got into the carriage.

Soon, the small procession to which Pandora and Orca belonged moved away from Yggdrasil.

For some reason, Pandora….

Had a vague feeling that they would never set foot on this land together again like this.