The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 247

Side Story 38

* * *

“I saw your sister up close for the first time in a while.”

Back in Agrice, Roxana greeted the boy in her room with a friendly hello.

“I guess siblings are siblings after all. Her eyes sparkle just as beautifully as yours. I thought I could only see that in you.”

The head in the glass box was in her bedroom, not the collection room.

Roxana placed it on the bed, sat on the floor, and spoke to the boy inside the box.

“But I guess that sparkle isn’t just visible to me.”

Lant was currently out of the mansion, so there was no need to report the events at Hyperion immediately.

Well, I could just gloss over Sylvia’s part, so it wouldn’t matter whether Lant returned late or early.

“Because she’s your sister, I couldn’t ignore her. But I hope you’re happy that I was able to help, even if just a little?”

Perhaps because she always wished for it in her heart, Roxana felt as if a gentle smile momentarily appeared on the boy’s lips as he listened to her whisper.

A spring breeze-like smile also touched Roxana’s face.

After finishing her affectionate reunion with the boy, Roxana took a shower and brought out a box placed in a corner of the room and opened it.

Inside were several well-worn books and some items, including witchcraft supplies.

They were Griselda’s belongings.

Among them were books containing examples similar to the strange dreams Roxana had once mentioned in passing.

Roxana still had strange dreams from time to time.

Bizarre dreams featuring mysterious worlds.

Sometimes, when she woke up from a dream, she would be confused about who she was.

Perhaps it was because she took too many sleeping pills and various sedatives every night before going to bed.

In the books left by Griselda, there was content similar to what Roxana was experiencing.

It was the story of a man who dreamed of becoming a butterfly. However, an impressive passage questioned whether he was dreaming of becoming a butterfly, or whether the butterfly was dreaming of becoming him, a human.

Roxana felt as if she had become that butterfly.

How wonderful would it be if this reality were just a sequence of letters on insignificant paper, just like in her dreams?

Thinking that, Roxana hugged the glass box tightly.

Griselda’s books also contained other interesting stories.

It said that the world was not made up of one but several divided worlds, which mirrored each other, so that the same human existed in each world.

So, the hypothesis that the woman in Roxana’s dream was Roxana Agrice from that world seemed interesting.

Roxana aimlessly skimmed through Griselda’s spellbooks, then hugged the glass box and fell asleep.

That night, the book she saw in her dream contained a story starring Sylvia Fedelian.

Whether that was simply Roxana’s imagination or some inexplicable phenomenon in this world was unknown.

* * *

Sylvia Fedelian seemed to have a knack for attracting incidents and accidents.

If Lant wanted Sylvia Fedelian’s misfortune, wouldn’t it be unnecessary to step in and interfere?

Noel Vertium, Orca Hyperion, and Ryzak Gastor, all of whom Lant was wary of, seemed to have a twisted interest in her.

Sylvia Fedelian was attractive enough in Roxana’s eyes, so it wasn’t strange.

But perhaps they all had some hidden personality flaws, as the way they looked at the woman they were interested in was bizarre.

Roxana knew this because she had directly faced their admiring gazes while contacting them on Lant’s orders.

That was why, even though she could have seduced them if she had set her mind to it, she changed direction and deliberately chose to stay out of their interest.

Roxana’s instincts warned her that getting involved with them beyond a certain point was dangerous and unsettling.

“Um, Luna, I have a doll I really want to show you. Would you like to go to Vertium with me?”

“Oh my, I was also interested in the dolls of Vertium, so it’s so kind of you to invite me. The leader of Vertium is so considerate.”

Roxana smiled sweetly as she looked at Noel Vertium, who had fallen for her appearance and started hitting on her after their first meeting at Yggdrasil.

“The people of Agrice also enjoy playing with dolls. One of my mothers is very knowledgeable in that area, so I have enjoyed playing with dolls since I was young. So I was interested in Vertium’s doll art. Are the dolls that the leader wants to show me similar to our Agrice dolls?”

“Ah, the doll I want to show you is…”

“Before that, I would like to tell you how we make and play with dolls in Agrice. First, we wash the slave we like cleanly, and then cut the tendons with a pre-sterilized knife. Then we break all the joints…”

As Roxana chirpily told him in a voice as clear as a lark about Agrice-style doll play in detail, Noel couldn’t continue speaking, his face filled with shock.

“It also helps the doll’s flexibility to carve out a few pieces of the knee and elbow bones in the process. The current trend in Agrice is to extract the eyeballs and insert jewels according to preference, or to pierce the torn muscles with piercings. The important thing here is to work on them while they are still alive. That way, you can create a durable doll. Once you get into this, you can’t do other ordinary doll play because it’s boring.”

“T, t, that’s scary…”

“I’m also looking forward to the doll that the leader of Vertium wants to show me. Ah, are you perhaps offering to give it to me as a gift? Then I think I can play with it with great pleasure… I want to have peridots [green gemstones] that resemble your beautiful eyes embedded all over that doll’s body.”

After smiling sweetly and telling him such disgusting stories for a while, weak-stomached Noel ran away with a face as if he had seen a ghost whenever he saw Roxana afterward.

“Roxana! What on earth did you say to Noel Vertium that made him, who couldn’t take his eyes off you until recently, now turn pale and avoid you!”

“I don’t know either, Father. I just heard that the leader of Vertium likes playing with dolls, so I just shared some stories on a common topic… Noel Vertium seemed to be a shy person, so perhaps he’s just avoiding me because he’s embarrassed.”

Lant was flushed, but Roxana calmly soothed him as if there was nothing wrong.

Since she had always been good at keeping Sylvia away from the three men and preventing them from interfering, Lant did not scold Roxana harshly for not achieving the expected results.

* * *

‘But I thought Ryzak Gastor was within the bounds of a normal person.’

Roxana looked at the man in front of her and decided that she should withdraw that thought.

“It’s been a while, Ryzak.”

“Yes, it’s been a while, Miss Agrice.”

Ryzak, whom she met at Yggdrasil after a long time, had changed a lot in the past six months.

It was as if he had crossed a line for the first time and stepped into the darkness from which he could never return…

That was definitely a feeling that was not unfamiliar to Roxana.

“Come to think of it, I heard that your father recently passed away. My condolences.”

As Roxana, who had been staring at him, spoke, a chilly glint flashed in Ryzak’s sunken eyes.

“…Thank you. But I don’t think that’s a greeting I should be hearing.”

He left those cryptic words and walked past Roxana.

The next day, Roxana saw Ryzak and Jeremy fighting.

The conversation was surprising and interesting.

“Jeremy Agrice! If you put her in danger one more time, I won’t forgive you. I will cut off your head with my own hands then.”

“It wasn’t what I wanted! I’m trying to protect Sylvia too! This is all because of my damn father…”

“How long are you going to live blaming others like that!”

The two of them seemed to have been wrestling and brawling with their bare hands just a moment ago.

It was raining outside, so the hallway where they were was also dark. So Roxana’s hiding figure was not noticeable.

Ryzak grabbed Jeremy’s collar roughly, who was pinned to the floor, and shouted.

“If you really have the will to enforce your own will, and there is someone who is hindering you, then just get rid of your father! Just like I did…!”

Rumble, crash!

The outside flashed with thunder.

A flash of lightning also exploded in Roxana’s head as she eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Yes, I’m different from a coward like you… Jeremy Agrice, you don’t deserve to have Sylvia in your heart.”

Ryzak, who muttered as if he were talking to himself, staggered away first.

Jeremy, who had been panting roughly for a while, also kicked the wall and disappeared.

But Roxana couldn’t move for a while even after the situation was over.

The pouring rain spread in her ears like exploding thunder.

It was as if she had received a revelation, and her eyes were bright.

She realized for the first time.

That there had been other options in front of her for a long time, but they had been obscured by a thick fog.