The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 215

Side Story 6

* * *

Rustle.

That evening, Deon returned to his room and, while changing his clothes, found a single candy left in his pocket.

He thought he had used them all up in the maze garden, but it seemed one had been hiding in the corner.

Deon’s red eyes stared silently at the candy in his palm.

Then, for some reason, he slowly began to unwrap the candy.

Finally, the round candy, wrapped in shimmering pink paper, was revealed.

Deon stared at it again for a moment before putting it in his mouth.

Perhaps it was something he did without thinking.

Just as impulsive as guiding Roxana through the maze that afternoon and giving Ashil a positive answer to his question for the first time.

Soon, an unfamiliar sweetness filled his mouth.

Deon’s face remained expressionless, as always, not like a child.

Ashil and Roxana were equally innocent and equally defenseless, foolish siblings.

For some reason, he felt that their personalities were somewhat similar to this candy.

It was hard to explain exactly what aspects were similar, though.

Perhaps… yes.

Like round glass beads, they were glossy and clear, seemingly able to project deep inside, and so weak that they would shatter mercilessly if bitten.

And yet, they even gave off a sweet scent that attracted people.

Deon held the candy in his mouth, rolling it around with his tongue precariously as if he were about to bite down and swallow it, but instead, he just slowly let it melt.

Then, instead of throwing the wrapper away in the trash, he slipped it between the pages of a book next to him.

And he stuck it deep in the bookshelf, out of sight of anyone.

He didn’t even know the reason himself.

From that day on, Deon didn’t throw away the candies that Ashil gave him whenever they happened to meet.

Whether she knew it or not, Roxana no longer glared at Deon whenever she saw him.

Roxana would look at Deon with a somewhat subtle gaze, but Ashil didn’t seem to notice the reason.

Roxana no longer nagged Ashil not to give Deon any more candy.

Ashil, who felt embarrassed by his sister’s jealousy but secretly found it endearing, seemed somewhat disappointed.

However, such peaceful days, which seemed as if they would continue forever, did not last long.

The incident in the maze garden reached Lant’s ears, and soon Deon began to receive additional individual training.

The fact that Deon had entered and exited the adult-level maze garden without a single injury became an opportunity for Lant to take a proper look at him.

From then on, Deon and Ashil met even less often.

The content of the training that Deon began to receive was so harsh, ruthless, and cruel that it was hard to believe it was being given to a ten-year-old child.

Perhaps the childlike innocence and warm emotions that had clearly existed, even if only in a small way, gradually dulled and faded in an environment where no one would discover them.

To the point where he himself forgot the faint and unfamiliar ripples of emotion from that distant time, which were like a mirage.

Like the shiny candy wrapper tucked into a book that would never be opened again and would lie dormant on the bookshelf.

And so, meaningless time flowed by, and finally, one day when Deon turned fourteen.

“Deon, what about you? What do you think of that half-wit?”

Lant asked Deon, referring to Ashil, who was on the verge of being declared disposable.

Deon looked down at Ashil, who had been kicked to the floor by Lant’s boot a moment ago.

The red liquid dripping from his eyes looked just like tears of blood.

Ashil was already in despair and almost out of his mind.

It was no wonder, since his plea to be saved, which he had uttered with all his might for the first and last time, had been so mercilessly trampled on by his father, Lant.

Lant roughly rubbed the blood from Ashil off his shoe on the floor and stared intently at Deon.

His cold red eyes, which seemed to contain not even a trace of human warmth, urged him to answer.

Lant seemed as if he was willing to change his mind depending on Deon’s answer.

Of course, that too could have been a delusion.

Conversely, perhaps Deon was being tested for his insight by Lant.

It didn’t seem likely that Lant would kill Deon right away for giving the wrong answer here.

But whichever was the truth, it didn’t matter to Deon.

Finally, Deon slowly parted his lips.

“I don’t think he is a person fit for Agriche.”

Apart from his current situation and position, it was what Deon had always thought whenever he saw Ashil.

So it didn’t mean that Ashil should be killed, or that he was no longer worth keeping around.

Of course, it seemed that Lant didn’t hear it that differently.

“Then, what is the possibility of him developing into a human being worthy of Agriche?”

“The lowest.”

Again, he simply said what he thought of Lant’s question.

Then Lant smiled with satisfaction.

“My opinion is the same as yours. A guy who has no chance of becoming Agriche-like is not worth keeping alive.”

But Deon suddenly questioned that statement.

Is a person who is not Agriche-like not worth living?

Then, are all the servants working in this Agriche mansion, the many wives of Lant staying in the East Wing, or the countless people outside this mansion all human beings who are not worth living?

But soon Lant gave an order, and his thoughts were cut off.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t given you an order to kill a real person yet. Kill him without making too many flaws.”

That was the end of it.

Deon approached the boy, who was looking up at him with eyes swallowed by pitch-black despair.

It was the first time in years that he had made eye contact with Ashil so closely since he was younger.

But the faint emotion he had felt when he saw Ashil a long time ago could not dare to penetrate the walls of Deon, which had become more solid in the meantime.

Ashil was declared disposable, and Deon killed him on Lant’s orders.

That was all there was to the story.

* * *

“Hey, did you hear about what happened on the day Ashil was disposed of?”

“What happened?”

Some time later, Deon was walking down the hallway to go to the monster breeding ground for training when he heard the servants whispering from afar.

“The servant who was attending in the Chamber of Judgment told me that the master cherishes Deon a lot. So, before declaring the disposal, he asked for his opinion on whether to keep Ashil alive or not.”

“Oh my, was he even going to let Ashil live depending on Deon’s judgment?”

“But apparently, Deon said very firmly that Ashil is not a person fit for Agriche, so he is not worth keeping alive….”

“Oh my gosh. I heard that Deon was the one who directly executed Ashil on the master’s orders.”

Their story had some facts, but some parts were distorted.

But since it didn’t matter who was talking about what, Deon didn’t bother to call the light-mouthed [gossipy] servants and correct the truth.

Tap!

At that time, a small footstep was heard, as if someone was running across the hallway.

Deon’s indifferent red eyes slid in the direction of the sound for a moment.

Judging from the sound of the child’s footsteps, it was clear that it was one of his half-siblings.

They might have heard the story the servants had just told, but that too was irrelevant to Deon.

Soon, Deon turned his gaze forward again and moved toward his destination.

His face was still as cold and dry as a deep shade where not a single ray of light could reach.

* * *

On the way back from training, Roxana, who had shaken off the servant who was with her, hid behind the bushes behind the building and took rough breaths.

While covering her mouth with her hand to avoid making a sound, her body trembled involuntarily.

She couldn’t believe the story that the other servants had been talking about a moment ago.

Her mind went blank as if she had been hit hard on the back of the head by a rough hand.

From the beginning, Roxana had not expected anything from that human being, Lant Agriche, who was their father.

But Deon Agriche was different.

There was a time when she thought that she might be able to get a little closer to him.

From the moment she first suspected that Deon might have been the one who helped her in the maze garden a few years ago.

Maybe he’s not as bad a kid as I thought, maybe he’s just a little clumsy, but actually a kind kid….

Thinking that way, she approached Deon with Ashil and deliberately talked to him, and reluctantly listened to Ashil coming back to her room and talking about Deon with a smile every day he had overlapping training with him….

Although it was only a few times, Deon nodded slightly instead of ignoring Roxana and Ashil when they greeted him, and there were times when he no longer treated the candy Ashil gave him as trash and threw it away.

But….

But you killed Ashil?

Did you say such a thing to him, that he is not fit for Agriche, so he is not worth living?

That smile, that touch, that kindness that Ashil showed you.

Did that really mean nothing to you?

Ashil liked you until the moment he died. He thought of you as a younger brother.

And I, just a little bit….

“Ugh….”

Thud, thud.

In the end, tears that she couldn’t swallow fell onto her crouching knees and the floor.

After Ashil died, Sierra was sick for a long time.

She was so shocked that she was afraid that even she would die.

Fortunately, Sierra got back on her feet, but Roxana couldn’t show her weakness in front of her, who still often shed tears thinking about Ashil.

Ever since Ashil was declared disposable and died, she had felt like she was being watched everywhere, so she was always tense, as if walking on thin ice.

So, in the end, there was nowhere she could relax and feel safe, so she had never cried for Ashil until now.

There was also the reason why she couldn’t quite believe in his death.

So today was the first time Roxana cried so hard that it was hard to even breathe while thinking about him.

And surely today will be the last.

She could not forgive Lant Agriche, who had given the order to kill his own son without a second thought.

She also hated Maria, who was still hanging around Sierra and spouting insensitive nonsense, saying that it was the children’s business, so there was no problem between them.

She couldn’t stand seeing Deon with the same indifferent face as usual, as if nothing had happened.

But this too would be a meaningless emotion to all of them.

To them, she would be as insignificant as Ashil.

Roxana rubbed her face, which was wet with tears, with her hands.

Then she gritted her teeth and got up from her seat.

In the end, she had been mistaken all along.

Deon Agriche was originally that kind of person, but she had made a foolish mistake on her own.

From now on, she should never get close to anyone in this Agriche again.

Then, at least, she wouldn’t have to feel such ridiculous betrayal and cry like this.

Roxana ran without looking back at the place where she had been hiding.

As if the tear stains left there were not hers.

After that, Roxana never again made eye contact with Deon and talked to him like when they were young.

From the age of twelve, a year later, she began to attend the Grand Banquet together, but each time she thoroughly ignored Deon Agriche as if he were a non-existent person.

Of course, very occasionally, she couldn’t completely hide her murderous intent toward him.

But again, she couldn’t even tolerate making eye contact with Deon for even a very brief moment.

Until the monthly evaluation at the age of fifteen, when she encountered the illusion of Ashil crying while looking at her….

The two people’s time passed each other in parallel lines without ever intersecting again.

But the relationship between Roxana Agriche and Deon Agriche was terribly tenacious.

On a fateful day in the future, after more time had passed, the two would eventually tie each other’s necks with a thorny, rusty black thread.

Until that bloody bondage, which began with Ashil, was broken again by Ashil.

This is the story of the Agriche children in the distant past when they were not yet adults.

It was a humble cross-section of such a faded era.