Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 245
Side Story 36
* * *
The boy’s head, which had been displayed for all Agrigent citizens to see, was taken down by Rant’s order when it began to decompose.
Still, Roxana would occasionally pause at that empty space.
The Fedelian toy that had captivated Agrigent that year quickly faded from public interest.
Everyone was secretly uncomfortable with the boy’s existence, so they consciously avoided mentioning anything related to him.
Seasons changed, and a year passed.
As more time passed, Roxana turned eighteen.
Having come of age, she possessed a beauty as captivating as a fully bloomed poisonous flower, enough to make anyone who saw her feel dizzy.
“Father, I may not know much about complex matters, but could I be of help with the issues you’re concerned about these days?”
“You?”
“Now that I’m an adult, it’s time for me to contribute to Agrigent. Please give me a chance to repay your grace, Father.”
From then on, she began to participate directly in the family’s official duties, just as her older half-siblings had done.
Surprisingly, she handled matters in a way that was even more ruthless than anyone else in Agrigent.
In other words, she didn’t care about the means to achieve her goals.
The target of her unscrupulous tactics wasn’t only outsiders. She would often scheme against her half-siblings, monopolizing the credit for herself.
However, her methods were so clever, and her success rate was consistently high, so it didn’t take long for Rant’s favor to snowball.
“Well done, Roxana! These days, you’re worth more than ten of those other guys combined.”
Whenever that happened, Roxana would always smile sweetly and say,
“It’s all thanks to Father’s unwavering trust and delegation.”
After successfully completing several more major tasks assigned by Rant, Roxana had become one of the children Rant cherished enough to count on one hand.
Some time later, on Rant’s birthday, he held an unprecedentedly grand banquet.
Rant, heavily drunk, looked at Roxana with a satisfied smile and asked,
“I’m in a very good mood today. I’ll give you a gift, so tell me anything you want.”
He was willing to be generous to his daughter, who had repeatedly delivered what he wanted with her striking beauty and extraordinary mind that seemed to steal people’s souls.
“Cassis Fedelian, give me his head.”
However, Roxana’s words, spoken with a deep smile, were something even Rant had not anticipated.
“That’s all I desire, Father.”
Among the other half-siblings and servants gathered in the banquet hall, a murmur gradually spread.
Cassis Fedelian was the boy from Fedelian that everyone had forgotten about.
But why would she want the head of a guy who had died about two years ago, whether he had become food for stray dogs or monsters?
“You want Cassis Fedelian’s head?”
Rant, with a face that seemed to have sobered up, was staring intently at Roxana in front of him.
“Yes, Father.”
His gaze was sharp, as if piercing through her heart, but the beautiful smile on Roxana’s face did not fade.
“I liked his clear golden eyes as much as I did back then. There’s an empty space in my collection room, so I’d like to put it in a pretty glass bottle and decorate it.”
While the murmuring did not subside, Rant, who had been staring at Roxana,
finally burst into a hearty laugh.
“Hahaha! I knew you were perceptive, but this is beyond my expectations. How long have you known that I didn’t dispose of that guy’s body?”
“With all due respect, I had been guessing on my own since the first time you ordered to stop displaying his head, Father.”
“Seeing how well you read my mind, it seems you resemble me more than I thought. Good. I’ll give you what you want as a gift.”
He readily called a servant and gave instructions.
Soon after, a servant with a black box in his hand approached Roxana.
Roxana accepted it with both hands.
“Thank you, Father. It’s a unique and precious gift.”
Rant waved his hand with satisfaction at her bowing figure.
Hugging the gift personally bestowed by Rant, Roxana walked gracefully on the red carpet.
The clear sound of her ornaments clashing with each step echoed in the banquet hall.
The layers of golden fabric sparkled in the light, sweeping the floor like shadows.
Roxana, adorned more beautifully than ever and smiling like a lovely flower, captivated the eyes of passersby even as she left the banquet hall and walked down the hallway.
Only Jeremy, who had been lazing around alone in his room instead of attending the banquet and had come out because he was getting hungry, frowned at the sight of Roxana.
“Tch. How unlucky.”
The older Roxana had become someone he didn’t even want to argue with, in a different sense from Deon.
In the end, Jeremy spat on the floor and turned away, avoiding Roxana.
Shortly after, Roxana arrived at her room, closed the door, and walked slowly on the carpet.
As she crossed the center of the room, her body began to stagger slightly.
Then, Roxana suddenly collapsed in the middle of the room as if she had lost strength in her legs.
She was still holding the black box Rant had given her.
Perhaps she had unknowingly been putting strength into the hand holding the box, as the knuckles of her fingers were prominent.
Roxana stared at the black box for a long time.
Then, when she finally slowly opened the lid and checked what was inside.
An uncontrollable thrill overflowed, making her body tremble.
“Cassis…….”
The boy’s face, seen again after two years, was reflected in her retina.
A smile, incomparably sweeter than when she was in front of Rant, bloomed on Roxana’s beautiful face.
But that expression gradually changed into a bizarre one, as if she were about to cry.
She moved her trembling hand and carefully took out the boy’s severed head, which had been enchanted to prevent decay.
“Do you see? We’re finally back in our room.”
How long had she waited for this moment?
Even if the boy hated her for not letting him go even in death, it didn’t matter.
“If you can’t be with me alive, it’s okay even after death.”
If she couldn’t have his life, she would have his death.
She would hold even his soulless corpse in her arms and dream a sweet dream built on false illusions.
“You can hate me. You can come to me every night and strangle me.”
Roxana held the boy’s head in her arms like the most precious treasure in the world and whispered as if singing a lullaby.
“So please, stay by my side forever and ever.”
Tears, which she didn’t know when had welled up, fell like jewels under her red eyes.
“Don’t leave me now.”
At this moment, reunited with the boy, she felt unbearably happy and unbearably desperate, as if she were about to die.
Roxana did not know what this terribly joyful and painful feeling was.
Even if her heart were torn into a thousand pieces, it would not be as agonizing as this.
Today, Roxana’s unfeeling person did not give her any answer.
So once again, she swore eternity alone.
Because that was the only thing Roxana could do.
* * *
It was something she had already experienced several times, but the world did not collapse just because someone died.
Even after a sleepless night spent in tears, the sun invariably rose the next morning.
Time flowed even more mercilessly, and Roxana turned nineteen.
Rant had been taking Roxana to Yggdrasil [a gathering place for the five families], where the five families gathered, since she came of age.
It was in the dead of winter, when particularly fierce blizzards raged, that she first met the Fedelian girl.
Roxana had come out of her room and was walking alone in the hallway.
It was during the evening banquet, but she had stayed in her room instead of going down to the banquet hall.
Then, as she briefly came outside to show her face, she heard a commotion from the front.
“Find out what’s going on.”
After sending away the servant who was with her, Roxana moved alone to the balcony in the hallway.
The white snowflakes were scattering again, after seeming to have calmed down since the afternoon.
It was at that moment that someone suddenly jumped onto the balcony where Roxana was.
“Ah!”
The moment her eyes met at close range, the person in Roxana’s sight widened her eyes and gasped.
Silver hair that looked as white as snow. Unfamiliar golden eyes with a sparkling radiance.
For a moment, time seemed to stop.
Roxana knew almost instinctively who the woman she was facing was.
“You, go that way!”
A sound like someone chasing after someone echoed from the not-so-distant hallway.
Anxiety and impatience crossed the woman’s face.
Was she thinking of jumping off the balcony and running away? But when she had checked a little while ago, there was someone who appeared to be a pursuer right below as well.
Before the person in front of her could move, Roxana walked forward first. Then, the person she faced flinched.
A soft voice, as if soothing a delicate animal, flowed from Roxana’s lips, “Shh.”
The thick cloak fluttered silently in the air.
Following that, Rant appeared before Roxana’s eyes.
“Roxana?”
Roxana asked him, who was looking around with a distorted face.
“The hallway was noisy, what’s going on?”
“A rat got into my room.”
“Yes?”
“Did anyone run away this way by any chance?”
Roxana widened her eyes as if surprised and stared at Rant’s back.
“I heard someone running that way a little while ago, perhaps…….”
Perhaps it wasn’t the direction he had sent the other subordinates, Rant spat out a curse and immediately ran towards the place Roxana pointed.