The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 231

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 231

Side Story 22

* * *

I fell silent, looking at Deon Agriche, who had just entered the room.

The cool, red eyes I had always seen stared straight at me as I sat in the chair.

“…What is it?”

Deon approached where I was sitting and parted his tightly closed lips.

“Your subordinates standing outside, and you too, have a strange atmosphere about you today.”

A low voice with unusual weight echoed in the quiet room.

“Even though Fedelian came, the mansion is strangely quiet. Is it related?”

I felt a chill and stared at the man who was slowly approaching.

He was someone I had heard about from Emily and Jeremy, but had tried not to think about.

Deon Agriche also looked a bit older than the others. But his voice was exactly the same as I remembered.

I had already heard from others that he had gone to Hyperion on my orders.

I didn’t respond to Deon’s words and quietly lowered my gaze.

His one hand, revealed from under his sleeve, was indeed a prosthetic.

Of course, I didn’t remember the incident at the time, and there was a limit to imagining what happened back then, even when listening to explanations from others.

Perhaps, as I had already suspected several times, this too had been conveyed to me in a slightly different form from the actual events, with the addition of other people’s opinions.

But at least the fact that his hand was cut off because of me seemed certain.

For a moment, it felt like bubbling foam was rising in my quiet heart.

The twenty-year-old me might have accepted Deon Agriche, but the current me did not.

But that didn’t mean that the only feelings I had for this man now were hatred and resentment.

Seeing Deon’s face like this, my heart ached again, as it always had.

But I didn’t want to lash out with sharp, venomous words to hurt and wound him, as I had done in the past.

I looked up at Deon, who was standing in front of me, with a slightly furrowed brow.

I felt very uncomfortable, and I didn’t know where to express it, so I felt strangely frustrated.

“Deon Agriche.”

I tapped the armrest of the chair with my fingertips for no reason, then blurted out somewhat impulsively.

“Kneel.”

At that moment, Deon’s straight eyebrows twitched.

His usually cold eyes stared at me silently.

If it were the Deon I knew, he would laugh at me and ask if I had gone crazy, or he would coldly ignore me and leave the room.

But after a moment, the body that had been towering before me obediently lowered as I had said.

The moment one of Deon’s knees touched the floor, I stopped tapping the armrest.

Deon looked up at me, kneeling lower than me. I stared at him without moving for a while.

“Get up.”

Then, when I commanded again, Deon’s eye level became higher than mine again.

“Kneel again.”

The look in his eyes towards me became colder.

After standing still for a few seconds, looking down at me, Deon opened his heavily closed lips.

“Are you having fun with a new game?”

But even as he muttered coldly, he bent his knees and sat down in front of me once more.

Only then did I allow Deon to achieve the purpose he had come here for.

“Report.”

His eyes, like an abyss, deeply captured me within them.

It was just like Deon Agriche, but even though he was taking such a submissive posture, he felt untamed.

The look in his eyes that reached me also felt like it was trying to dissect me completely.

“In detail, or just the main points?”

The low, murmured voice strangely touched my nerves.

I raised my hand to prop up my chin and glared coldly at Deon.

“Figure it out yourself.”

After a brief silence, his mouth opened again.

“As you wish.”

Subsequently, the gist of what happened at the White Hyperion was organized by Deon and flowed into my ears.

“As you said, Hyacinth was the only one I could see in person at Hyperion. As expected, the first deal was successful, so check the written summary for the details.”

Deon continued his report without taking his eyes off me.

“The second deal failed. But unlike last time, his attitude wasn’t clear. Considering that Orca Hyperion hasn’t shown any other movements for a while, it’s safe to assume that his condition has worsened, as you predicted.”

I narrowed my eyes as I listened to Deon’s added words.

“Hyacinth Hyperion didn’t show any particular reaction, but Pandora Hyperion seemed to want to negotiate separately. The letter sent by messenger contained a request to speak with you personally. So it would be better to proceed with the second deal with Pandora Hyperion as originally planned.”

“The letter you received?”

“I told them to bring it up later with the documents summarizing the relevant information, so take a look at it later.”

There were a few additional areas to check, but I could still understand the gist of it.

The first deal with Hyperion must be related to monsters, and the second must be related to Orca Hyperion being poisoned and barely clinging to life.

I should ask Jeremy more about this.

According to what I’ve learned, this issue wasn’t something that needed to be dealt with urgently, and since my condition would return to normal in ten days at the most, I didn’t feel the need to inform Deon of the situation.

“Is that all you have to report?”

“Is there anything else you want to hear?”

“If you’re done, get out of here.”

But despite my command, Deon remained silent without moving.

I looked at Deon, who was still lowered in front of me, sending a keen gaze.

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to leave?”

“Are there no other instructions?”

“Not for now, so just leave.”

For a moment, a sharp glint seemed to flash in Deon’s eyes.

Deon got up from his seat and walked towards the door.

“Where is Jeremy Agriche?”

Before the door closed, I heard Deon coldly asking Emily, who was outside.

I rubbed my forehead with my hand, slightly annoyed.

Why are they all so quick-witted for no reason?

Ah, whatever. It’s just a ten-day symptom anyway.

Besides, looking at the current situation, it seems that the people who have noticed my condition so far are my people who can be trusted to some extent, so there don’t seem to be any major problems.

Thinking that, I paused the next moment.

‘My people…….’

The words that came to mind unconsciously felt unfamiliar, and I kept repeating them.

I leaned back deeply in the chair and looked out the dark window.

I had nothing to do, so I had free time.

Jeremy said he would take care of all the work that I, as the leader, had to do, and now that I was an adult, I didn’t need to receive any education.

Since several years of memories had disappeared entirely, I should be more anxious and afraid than normal… Strangely, my heart was at peace.

Ah, but thinking about how Orca was made that way because of poison, how is it that Cassis Fedelian is so fine even after kissing me?

From the time I decided to engrave the Poison Butterfly and started pouring poison into my body, the content of my education at Agriche also changed a bit.

Lant Agriche initially disliked me greatly increasing my intake of poison for the Poison Butterfly engraving, which had only a 30% success rate.

Considering what he was trying to use me for, it was natural that he didn’t like my body being soaked in poison.

So I persuaded him by saying that if I failed to hatch the Poison Butterfly, I would stop taking poison from then on, and if I did, the poison would fade over time and my body would return to its original state.

I don’t know if Lant really believed those words and allowed me to raise the Poison Butterfly, but even if he didn’t, he would have thought that my body, which was consumed by poison, would be useful in its own way.

I had never told anyone before, but the individual education I received separately under Lant’s orders was mostly disgusting.

So I thought that I would never sincerely enjoy kissing or touching other people until I died.

‘But… that person was different.’

I closed my eyes, looking out the window.

Cassis Fedelian’s smiling face that I saw during the day and his wounded face that I witnessed before the banquet alternated in front of my eyes.

I felt like something was scratching at a corner of my heart with a fingernail.

Unfamiliar anxiety and excitement intertwined, causing my feet on the ground to twitch.

So, in the end, that night, I went to find Cassis Fedelian.

* * *

His room was located in a secluded part of the East Wing building.

The floor and distance were quite far from the rooms used by the other Fedelians, so I could meet Cassis Fedelian without encountering anyone.

I burst into the room without knocking.

“Roxana?”

Cassis Fedelian was a little surprised, as if he didn’t expect me to come to him so soon, and got up from his chair.

Looking at the papers scattered on the table and the envelopes torn by the paper knife, it seemed that this person was also working without resting even after coming to Agriche.

“Cassis Fedelian, do what you did with me earlier again.”

I took off the cloak I was wearing and threw it on the floor carelessly, then walked over and pushed him back into his seat.

“Not the strange thing you did outside before the banquet.”

I made my intentions clear in case Cassis Fedelian misunderstood.

“Don’t ever do that. It’s not because I trust you that I came here. Instead…….”

I moved closer to him and cupped his face, which was lower than mine, with my hands.

“Kiss me again.”

At that moment, a wave of intense emotion flooded the man’s eyes that were reflecting me.

After sending a straight gaze to me in silence for a while, Cassis Fedelian slowly parted his lips.

“…Gladly. As much as you want.”

The sunken, turbid voice scratched my eardrums. The subtle heat spreading within it felt tangible, and my mouth went dry.

From the moment I opened the door and took Cassis Fedelian into my eyes, I felt an extreme thirst strangely in the back of my throat.