The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 241

“What an interesting dream.”

Yesterday, her half-sister Grizelda had laughed with interest upon hearing her story.

“I vaguely remember seeing in some ancient text in the Agrische library that perhaps a world is just a story someone created.”

Grizelda’s words left quite an impression on Roxana.

“There was such a book in the library?”

“Yes.”

Grizelda, after coughing heavily a few times, her lungs clearly struggling, wiped her mouth with her sleeve and continued.

“It was the claim of some ancient scholar. A man who supposedly discovered a crack in reality and peeked into another world through that gap. I just read it for fun and forgot about it, but hearing your story suddenly reminded me.”

Roxana wanted to hear more, but Grizelda’s cough grew more severe, so she stopped her.

“Never mind, stop talking now. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything, so why don’t you just pretend to faint before the servants come to the workshop?”

“Cough… Should I?”

At Roxana’s words, Grizelda smiled like a child playing a mischievous prank and collapsed on the desk.

Her mouth and sleeves were soaked with blood.

Grizelda had been outstanding in her magical abilities since she was young.

Even though there were many magicians in Agrische who were treated like slaves, she stood out among them.

Naturally, Lant took an interest in her, and Grizelda’s abilities were focused solely on that area.

Because of this, she spent every day locked in her workshop since she was young, and her grades in fields other than magic were as low as Roxana’s.

Today, Grizelda seemed to have a lot of work to do by Lant’s order.

Roxana arranged a few magical items scattered on the desk to fall naturally to the floor, making Grizelda’s feigned fainting look more plausible.

“But if…”

Grizelda looked at Roxana, gasping for breath, her face pale.

“Roxana, if this is really a story someone created, like in your dream or that book… I wish someone would rewrite our story.”

As if she thought it was a ridiculous thing to say, a faint smile touched her blood-stained lips.

Roxana wiped the blood from Grizelda’s mouth, her expression unreadable.

“I didn’t expect you to say that. I honestly thought you would laugh at me.”

“I thought I would live longer than you, but now I’m shocked because it seems like that’s not the case.”

Grizelda, who was playfully laughing, was gaunt, with only bones left, unlike how she looked two months ago.

Roxana had vaguely heard that Lant had started a new job with Grizelda recently. It was said to be an experiment related to Vertium’s puppetry [a magical technique involving controlling people like puppets]…

Roxana was not involved, so she didn’t know the details, but she could tell that it was something that put a great strain on Grizelda’s body.

Grizelda coughed up blood again, despite Roxana’s wiping.

“Well… it’s free to imagine. Everyone wants to live differently from how they are now, right?”

Grizelda shook her head, refusing the outstretched hand.

She didn’t used to be like this, but perhaps her heart had weakened as her body became ill, and she kept muttering in a weak voice.

“I should have lived more freely. I should have exaggerated when Father gave me too much work, and I should have only done enough on the tests to avoid being completely discarded… Instead, I should have done more fun things…”

Although they weren’t very close, Grizelda was one of the few people in Agrische for whom Roxana didn’t have to force a smile.

So, even though she was in a difficult situation herself, she was a little concerned about Grizelda. That was why she came to see her, making excuses.

“It would be fun to play with you then.”

“Who said you could? I’ll have to think about it based on what you do then.”

“What, how heartless.”

Grizelda grumbled to herself, and after a while, she really lost consciousness and collapsed.

So Roxana had to call a doctor and a servant to take care of her before leaving the room.

A pale shadow fell over Roxana’s eyes as she recalled the past.

After a while, she buried her face deeper into the boy’s chest next to her and forced herself to sleep.

* * *

The next evening, Roxana, intrigued by Grizelda’s words, visited the Agrische library, which she didn’t usually go to.

But as expected, she couldn’t easily find a book without knowing the title.

When she came back outside without any gain, it was much later than she had thought.

The hallway, dimly lit by candlesticks, was darker than before.

Tap, tap.

Roxana’s footsteps echoed softly in the quiet space.

Perhaps because it was a path she didn’t usually take, the heavy silence felt eerier.

It was even more so when she started hearing someone else’s footsteps on the landing.

“Miss Roxana?”

But soon, what appeared in her sight was Fontaine’s servant, the one who had given Roxana flowers before.

Roxana’s shoulders, which had been slightly stiff, relaxed.

“Why are you out here alone at this late hour?”

“I had some business to take care of. I’m on my way back to my room now.”

“I see. I was finishing my daily work and helping with some other tasks before going to my quarters.”

*I didn’t ask.*

That’s what she thought, but she didn’t bother to show her true feelings.

On the other hand, the servant seemed very happy to meet Roxana.

The man, blushing shyly, said to Roxana.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll escort you to your room…”

Bang!

It was at that moment that the servant’s face was suddenly slammed into the wall.

Blood splattered before Roxana’s eyes, and she heard the sound of bones breaking.

“That bastard, I knew he’s been distracted lately.”

A grimly subdued, thick voice sent a chill down her spine.

“Hey, Roxana. Did you seduce my servant too?”

Fontaine, who had silently appeared on the landing, grabbed the servant’s head with his rough hand and slammed it into the wall a few more times.

Bang, bang!

Roxana, frozen in shock, gasped as the loud noise echoed through the hallway.

“Did you two make a secret appointment to meet at this hour? You looked like you were having fun flirting together.”

Finally, the servant trembled and slumped.

As Fontaine turned his body, the straw-like body in his hand was dragged along.

“Why, did you whine and cry in front of him like you did in front of me? Huh?”

With each word Fontaine spat out, the strong smell of alcohol filled the air.

Already drunk, his bloodshot eyes, fixed on Roxana, showed no reason.

“How dare you, without my permission…”

A sense of instinctive crisis rang an alarm in her head.

The moment Fontaine roughly threw the limp servant’s body aside, Roxana hurriedly turned and ran.

“Where are you going when I’m not finished talking…! Get over here!”

She heard him chasing after her.

Fortunately, he seemed to be slower because he was drunk and staggering, but the man’s shout, scratching at her ears, felt like he would grab her hair at any moment.

Roxana fled in a panic.

Then, as she turned the corner of the hallway, she bumped into someone.

“Help…!”

Knowing that there were hardly any people in the mansion who could stop Fontaine, she grabbed the person in front of her and hurriedly opened her mouth to ask for help.

But the next moment, her words were swallowed as she met the cold red eyes at close range.

The person standing there, exuding a chill, was none other than Deon.

Roxana involuntarily took a step back.

She didn’t want to receive help from this man, even if no one else would.

But anyway, he wouldn’t help her no matter how much Roxana begged and pleaded.

As expected, Deon looked down at her with eyes colder than a winter snowstorm. Then, he parted his tightly closed lips and uttered a heartless word.

“Move.”

Roxana ran past him again.

Perhaps it would have been better to hide temporarily in another room nearby.

But she didn’t think of that at the time.

The anxiety and fear that a rough hand reaching out from behind would grab the back of her neck immediately overwhelmed her unless she returned to her room and locked the door.

But finally, when she arrived at her room and was about to close the door, a brutal force forced its way through the gap.