The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 253

Special Extra 4. IF Roxana Fedelian x Cassis Agrice

: How to Survive as the Heroine’s Older Sister

‘Damn it, that rotten Lant Agrice!’

Roxana spat blood-tinged saliva onto the filthy floor. As she twisted her body, the restraints binding her limbs clattered against the chains.

The Agrice dungeon was filled with a chilling aura. The stale stench of blood and filth in the confined space made her stomach churn.

But what was truly disgusting was the person who had dragged her here and imprisoned her.

Lant Agrice, the head of the Black Agrice family.

In this trashy novel of ruin, , which Roxana had transmigrated into, he was a worthless villain beyond redemption.

In the prologue of the novel, he was the despicable bastard who kidnapped and killed the heroine Sylvia’s sister, casting a dark shadow over the heroine’s life.

In that damned novel, Sylvia, unaware that her only sister had already been kidnapped and killed, desperately searched for her missing sister, only to encounter insane male leads and engage in a ruinous romance of abduction and confinement.

‘How dare he do that to my precious sister whom I raised with such care……’

Recalling the novel’s plot made her blood boil.

Because the heroine of the novel, Sylvia Fedelian, was Roxana’s only sister.

And Roxana was the older sister of Sylvia who was brutally killed by the villainous Agrice family in the early part of the novel.

Roxana remembered this fact while being kidnapped by Lant Agrice.

It seemed that the impact to her head during the ambush had triggered the memories of her past life that she had forgotten…….

‘It would have been better if it had been sooner.’

Roxana had grown up as a successor of Fedelian and her martial prowess was not weak, but Lant Agrice’s methods were more despicable and dirty than she had imagined.

Still, one fortunate thing was that Agrice had many low-quality scoundrels who did not immediately kill those they kidnapped.

Especially since Roxana was a member of Fedelian, who was in a hostile relationship with Lant Agrice, he would surely torment her as long as possible before taking her life.

‘Conversely, that means there’s also a chance to escape.’

So, she had to find a way to survive.

She would never die in vain in a place like this, plunging Sylvia’s life into the mud.

Creak.

Just then, the sound of the dungeon door opening echoed from afar.

“What, is the toy still not awake?”

“She came covered in blood, how could she be wide awake already?”

Soon after, two people entered the iron bars where Roxana was. The voices of a boy and a girl, still with a youthful feel, echoed alternately.

Roxana pretended to be unconscious, so she couldn’t confirm who they were. But even if she had opened her eyes, she wouldn’t have been able to see the faces of the approaching people. Currently, she had temporarily lost her sight due to Lant Agrice’s trickery, whether it was poison or magic.

“But, Jeremy, is this really okay? If Father finds out we sneaked in here……”

“Idiot. If you’re scared, you can get lost.”

“Tch, shut up! Who’s scared?”

Roxana, who was listening to the conversation between the two, almost flinched.

Jeremy?

Isn’t that the name of the villainous sub-male lead who falls in love with the heroine Sylvia in the future and eventually contributes to the destruction of Agrice?

“Wow, look at the state of her. Did she rip off Father’s money or something? Who is she and where does she live to be brought here all beaten up like this?”

A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed Roxana’s chin, lifting it up.

“Hmm, still, she’s the most decent-looking toy I’ve seen so far.”

She felt uncomfortable with the way he scrutinized her face as if he was appraising an object.

Meanwhile, the girl who had come down to the dungeon with Jeremy seemed to be in a bad mood for a different reason than Roxana, and growled in a thorny voice.

“If you’re thinking of monopolizing her, dream on. I marked this toy first!”

“Ha, what the hell did you eat wrong?”

Annoyed by that, Jeremy turned around, exuding an ominous aura.

“Hey, Charlotte, what’s with you daring to claim ownership of a toy in front of me…… Ugh, damn it!”

But as soon as he turned towards Charlotte, he discovered the person standing by the door and jumped in surprise.

“What! You, how long have you been standing there!”

Charlotte also turned her head following Jeremy and was horrified.

“Cassis, Oppa [Older brother]!”

A boy was standing in the dark doorway where the light barely reached.

Roxana was also a little surprised because she hadn’t felt the presence of the newly appeared person at all.

“Why are you so flustered?”

The boy with black hair and golden eyes crossed his arms and leaned against the iron bars, looking at Jeremy and Charlotte as if observing them, then tilted his head.

“Don’t tell me sneaking into this dungeon like rats was a secret?”

Unlike the previous two people whose voices Roxana had vaguely heard when she was first captured by Lant, this was an unfamiliar voice to Roxana. But that calm voice, devoid of emotion, was strangely clear in Roxana’s ears.

“I thought the gatekeeper who should have been in the basement was crawling up to the upper floors covered in blood and grabbing passersby, so I thought you guys sent him to invite someone else to see the toy together.”

His following words contained a slight sneer.

“If you can’t even silence a gatekeeper properly, you shouldn’t have done something so bold, don’t you think?”

Jeremy realized that the gatekeeper he had subdued with force before entering the dungeon had fearlessly blabbered with his light mouth and spat out curses.

“Damn it, no wonder a guy who usually has no interest in toys came all the way here.”

“It’s all because of you, Oppa! I told you to just quit!”

“You shut up!”

Jeremy and Charlotte began to argue fiercely. Roxana quietly listened and assessed the situation.

Judging from the title that the girl Charlotte used, the boy named Cassis seemed to be Lant Agrice’s son as well…….

Seeing as she didn’t remember his name from the novel, she wondered if he wasn’t a very important figure.

But considering that, the tense air that had started to emanate from Jeremy and Charlotte from the moment he appeared was still piercing her skin very sharply.

“Hey, so are you going to snitch to Father or what?”

A precarious atmosphere, as if a fuse was about to be lit, was swirling.

“Why would I bother?”

However, Cassis dismissed Jeremy’s suspicions with an almost languid attitude.

“I just came to check which idiots are handling things so sloppily.”

Jeremy flared up, but his next words were faster than Jeremy’s actions.

“More importantly, is it okay for you to be so relaxed? You left that gatekeeper upstairs as he was.”

“What?!”

“I don’t know if someone else has found him collapsed in the hallway by now.”

“Damn it! You should have said that sooner!”

Jeremy and Charlotte heard that and hurriedly ran out of the iron bars.

It seemed they intended to properly silence the injured gatekeeper again before someone else discovered him and this matter reached Lant’s ears.

In the process, they left Cassis alone in the dungeon. Perhaps because they were still young, their handling of things was certainly not meticulous and their thinking seemed simple. At least, there seemed to be a gap for Roxana to exploit and use with Jeremy Agrice.

Roxana recalled the conversation she had heard earlier and waited for the unidentified boy who was still in the prison to leave. She didn’t know the details, but for a while, access to the dungeon where Roxana was seemed to be strictly prohibited, so she would have some time to recover her body.

The boy, who had been standing quietly in front of the door, seemingly staring at Roxana for a while, finally stepped away from his spot.

But he wasn’t going out, he was approaching the side where Roxana was.

Soon after, an unfamiliar touch reached her.

But instead of grabbing Roxana’s chin and lifting it up roughly like Jeremy, Cassis quietly brushed away her hair and captured her face in his eyes.

“I thought Fedelians were all stubbornly rigid and frustrating.”

A low voice settled over the flickering light.

Before she could feel displeasure at the sudden insult to her family, her heart beat rapidly at the words that followed.

“But there was someone who knew how to use their brains in their own way.”

Instinctively, Roxana realized that the boy in front of her had seen through the fact that her consciousness had fully returned.

And that he had also noticed that she had secretly taken the small knife that had made a faint rattling sound from Jeremy Agrice’s waist when he had approached earlier and hid it in her sleeve.

“Then I’ll see you again soon. Roxana Fedelian.”

But he didn’t do anything to Roxana and left the dungeon as he was.

Roxana belatedly opened her eyes, but as expected, all she could see in her blurry vision was nothing.

＊＊＊

Jeremy Agrice visited Roxana again a few days later.

“What, you’re awake today? Well, it’s been a week, so it’s only natural.”

Black hair and blue eyes.

The face with sharp eyes and a seemingly prickly personality was exactly Jeremy Agrice as described in the novel. Of course, since it was before the original story began, he was younger than she had imagined and had a more youthful appearance.

She didn’t know what had happened in the meantime, but his face had a red scar that hadn’t faded yet.

“Hey, you’re a Fedelian, right? This is so absurd.”

Jeremy looked at Roxana with somewhat dissatisfied eyes, then entered the prison and untied her chains.

“Where are you trying to take me?”

“Just follow me quietly. Damn it, I don’t really want to either, but this is something Father approved, so I can’t help it.”

Apparently, Jeremy hadn’t noticed yet that Roxana had stolen the knife from him last time. To make Jeremy lower his guard, Roxana deliberately staggered a little as she was dragged out of the prison, pretending to be weak.

Then Jeremy turned to her and frowned.

“What’s with this toy management? I clearly warned them not to touch my stuff until I came.”

His tone was rough, but the hand pulling the chain had already become much looser.

……But who is he calling ‘my stuff’ right now?

“Hey, did you get beaten by the guards while I was gone? Which bastard hit you? Was he bald, did he have a hooked nose? I’ll take care of him later, so don’t be scared and tell me.”

The more Jeremy spoke, the stranger Roxana felt.

“Damn it, why did Father have to do this today…… I can’t even smuggle this into my room right now.”

Eyes mixed with greed, annoyance, and slight anxiety glanced at Roxana repeatedly.

“If you go outside now, don’t cause trouble and behave yourself. Don’t attract the interest of other guys and stay as quiet as a dead mouse.”

Jeremy walked as slowly as possible, as if he really didn’t want to take Roxana outside.

At the same time, he constantly instilled words that were a mix of threats and advice into her.

“You know you’re a Fedelian, so it’s much better to be in my hands than in the hands of other crazy bastards, right? Damn it, at least I don’t have hobbies like drugging or collecting organs.”

Even though he was also a rotten Agrice, he seemed to despise the dirty tastes of his other brothers. It seemed he had deliberately come down to the dungeon himself to tell Roxana this story.

Roxana looked at Jeremy’s face with cold eyes, then opened her mouth after a while.

“Yeah. I don’t know well, but if I had to choose one person in Agrice, you seem to be the best.”

The corner of Jeremy’s mouth twitched at the moment Roxana’s gaze reached him.

“Shut up, what do you know to be talking so presumptuously?”

He deliberately glared at Roxana fiercely as if to scare her, but his eyes had already lost their sharpness.

“Well, it’s certain that I’m the best in Agrice, though.”

Perhaps it was because he was destined to fall in love with Sylvia.

Jeremy seemed to like Roxana more than she had thought. Of course, that was only as a ‘toy,’ but it wasn’t a bad sign for Roxana.

Perhaps Roxana’s face also resembled Sylvia’s, so it might be somewhat in line with Jeremy’s taste. After thinking that, Roxana felt a little nauseous and made a face for a moment.

In any case, Jeremy Agrice, as seen in , had a serious lack of affection. So, if she did well, she might be able to use him to escape from this place.

“What, why are you so late? Did you make a toy in the dungeon?”

“Shut up, you bastards.”

Soon after, Roxana and Jeremy arrived at a maze-like outdoor space.

“Is this it? The one Father brought from Fedelian.”

There were boys and girls gathered there who seemed to be about the same age as Jeremy.

One of them suddenly threw a dagger at Roxana, which she reflexively twisted her head to avoid.

“Oh, this will be fun to play with?”

“Do you want to die? Who are you throwing trash at?”

“Why are you like this, did I throw it at you?”

Listening to the sounds of them talking among themselves along with the growling Jeremy, they all seemed to be children of Agrice.

“It’s a really pretty toy. It’s the first time I’ve seen something so rare.”

The girl with brown hair and red eyes who was closest to her also observed Roxana with an interested gaze.

“But there’s no need to fight a battle where the outcome is obvious. I’ll pass.”

However, she stepped back with a smiling face and stood with her arms crossed as if watching.

“If there’s anyone else who wants to drop out, drop out now.”

Jeremy said with a glint in his eyes.

After exchanging glances, a few of the younger-looking boys and girls stepped back.

Then the game began.

The participants were Agrice’s siblings.

The prize was a rare toy from Fedelian.

‘Crazy bastards. Just like Lant Agriche, through and through,’ Roxana thought.

Roxana swallowed a curse, struggling to catch her breath.

“He’s over there!”

“How can he be so fast? Did they only teach him how to run away in Fedelian?”

The place they threw Roxana into was a maze filled with traps.

The Agriche siblings released Roxana as if she were prey in a hunting ground, betting on who would find her first and bring her to the goal.

Roxana assessed the situation.

Currently, she had the dagger she stole from Jeremy, and two of the restraints she had tampered with were damaged, only appearing intact.

“Found you, you little rat… Cough!”

Just as she was wondering whether to take out her hidden weapon, someone found Roxana.

Roxana moved swiftly, using the chained arm to choke the person who appeared before her.

After a brief struggle, the limbs of the person pinned beneath Roxana went limp. Before others could rush in hearing the commotion, Roxana searched the unconscious person’s body.

—Kieeeh!

“Ugh!”

Unfortunately, before Roxana could find anything useful, a black figure leaped out from the side and pounced on her.

Clang!

To make matters worse, the restraint she hadn’t yet destroyed activated while she was desperately blocking the monster’s attack.

In this urgent situation, the movements of her limbs slowed. Fortunately, she avoided the poison needle, but the wound on her side, which hadn’t yet healed, reopened, and blood seeped out.

“What, were you here?”

It was at that moment that Jeremy appeared.

“I couldn’t find you, damn it!”

He temporarily fended off the monster confronting Roxana, giving her some breathing room.

“It’s a toy! I found it!”

At that moment, a boy emerged from the bushes, aiming for an easy win, and grabbed Roxana’s arm.

“Damn it, don’t mess with me!”

Seeing this, Jeremy, radiating a murderous aura, rushed over and violently grabbed the boy’s hair as if to tear it out, throwing him away. The noisy sounds of Jeremy, the nameless boy, and the monster intertwined and echoed through the maze.

Roxana used the opportunity to get up and leave.

The reopened wound throbbed, and curses involuntarily formed in her mouth. Her body wasn’t in good condition to begin with due to being kidnapped by Lant, and today’s events seemed to have worsened her injuries. It was fortunate that her eyesight had almost returned, but when she lifted her skirt to check the wound, the bleeding was worse than she thought.

However, she heard footsteps chasing after her again, forcing her to move without even having time to stop the bleeding.

It seemed like trying to escape today would be a stroke of luck….

Perhaps, as Jeremy said, it would be best to seize an opportunity and get caught by him. Considering the situation, the Agriche siblings didn’t seem to have any intention of killing Roxana until they had played with her enough.

Especially Jeremy seemed to like her very much. Of course, whether that would be beneficial or detrimental to Roxana was not yet clear.

Peeng!

At that moment, a trap hidden in the bushes caught Roxana’s foot.

With the sound of something activating, the ground beneath her feet suddenly gave way. Below were swarms of black poisonous insects. With amazing reflexes, she immediately reached out to grab something, but only her fingertips scraped against the dirt.

It was at that moment that a strong force gripped her arm.

Instantly, her body was pulled upwards. When she came to her senses, Roxana had already been captured by someone.

The dense leaves in front of her flashed by, leaving afterimages.

The person holding Roxana wasn’t Jeremy, as he climbed onto the trees and moved quickly, stepping on the branches.

At least, the physique felt different from the body in contact. Jeremy, who was fifteen years old and still had a slender figure, could not have held Roxana so easily with one hand and run through the trees like a stuntman without his breathing faltering.

Roxana felt a sense of crisis and reflexively took out Jeremy’s hidden knife. The well-sharpened blade was aimed at the person holding her.

“You shouldn’t do that.”

The unfamiliar voice pierced Roxana’s ear as she momentarily debated whether to stab the vital point.

“If you want to live and return to Fedelian.”

It was definitely the voice she had heard in the underground prison.

Roxana quickly raised her head to check the face of the person holding her.

Hair as black as night, as if it wouldn’t let a single ray of light through.

And golden eyes that shone clearly even under the deep shadows created by the leaves.

The beautiful face, poised between a boy and a young man, was etched into her eyes as if to be imprinted.

Their eyes met for a brief moment.

The strength slowly drained from Roxana’s hand holding the knife.

As if they had almost reached their destination, Cassis jumped down.

“What, where did you suddenly come from!”

The people who found him shouted in confusion.

Cassis unilaterally informed them.

“As per the rules, I will take the toy offered as today’s prize. Does anyone have any complaints?”

Jeremy seemed to have followed Roxana right behind, arriving where they were in no time. He saw Cassis with Roxana and went berserk.

“You bastard, you weren’t even around earlier, why are you butting in again? Since when have you been interested in this kind of thing!”

He was furious at being interrupted by him here, just like in the underground prison. However, Cassis, while facing Jeremy’s murderous intent head-on, simply reacted without any emotion, as if he were looking at a wildcat swinging a cotton swab.

“After going in and out of the punishment room that many times, shouldn’t you know when to bark and when not to? Jeremy Agriche.”

“What?!”

“You were the ones who started this ridiculous game on your own in the first place, and even if that weren’t the case, I don’t understand why you’re making such a fuss when I said I’d take what I like.”

The surroundings had become so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Within that silence, only Jeremy’s panting and Cassis’s calm voice, still without any emotional inflection, echoed clearly.

“Surely you’re not so clueless that you can’t even grasp that much.”

Roxana suddenly noticed something strange.

He wasn’t acting violently or cruelly like the other Agriches, but strangely, everyone in this place was watching Cassis carefully.

“I can’t accept it! You didn’t even participate from the beginning!”

Jeremy, who seemed incredibly frustrated, gnashed his teeth and shouted with a murderous look in his eyes.

The other half-siblings gasped. Gazes as if looking at someone who had lost their mind flew towards Jeremy in an instant.

In fact, Cassis, along with Deon, who was away from the mansion under Lant’s orders, was among the most cautious figures to watch out for in Agriche.

He was so talented that he alternated between 1st and 2nd place with Deon in every monthly evaluation. As such, he was also the object of Lant’s great affection.

However, those two, the most outstanding of Lant’s children, were strangely incompatible. So whenever they faced each other, they would often clash fiercely, and every time, Agriche would be devastated.

It was only thanks to the sanctions of Lant and the instructors that things didn’t get worse; if the two of them had fought properly without looking back, the fight would never have ended until one of them died.

So everyone had a strong aversion to Deon and Cassis.

In particular, Jeremy hated Cassis, saying things like, ‘He pretends to be normal, but when he loses it, he’s the craziest bastard,’ and ‘He’s just as crazy as that Deon bastard.’

But now Cassis clearly seemed interested in the toy from Fedelian….

‘I’m screwed.’

‘Damn it, if I had known Cassis was eyeing the toy, I wouldn’t have participated today!’

All the Agriche siblings who had responded to the game involving Roxana regretted it.

But for some reason, Jeremy, who had eaten something wrong today, was blinded by Roxana and ended up crossing the line with his words.

“Then let her choose directly! Then I’ll acknowledge it too!”

Roxana frowned at the suddenly strange situation.

“Hey, do you want to be with that bastard? Tell me with your own mouth.”

‘What kind of *makjang* [Korean slang for over-the-top, absurd situation] is this……’

It was a stupid thing to say no matter who heard it, but Jeremy seemed to think that the method he had come up with was really a brilliant idea. He even urged her with his eyes, as if he firmly believed what Roxana had said when escaping from the underground prison earlier.

In fact, as Jeremy said, it might have been better to deal with him among these people. At least she had memories from the book and knew what Jeremy’s personality was like and what his weaknesses were.

On the other hand, she had no information about Cassis and the others, so going into their hands would definitely be a big risk.

But…….

“See! She can’t answer. She likes me more than someone like you!”

Jeremy became arrogant when Roxana remained silent. Her silence didn’t mean she was choosing him, but he seemed to be seriously mistaken about something.

But at that moment, Cassis’s lips curved as he looked at Jeremy. The languid smile that appeared without a sound suited his beautiful face very well. But those who saw it all felt a sense of dread.

In the very next moment, Cassis moved. He was still holding Roxana in one arm.

Suddenly, her body shook, and Roxana inadvertently grabbed the shoulder of the body in contact with her.

Then, at the sound of a rupture from behind, her eyes widened. Roxana’s eyes were fixed on Cassis’s back, so she couldn’t see what was happening. However, she could roughly guess the situation from the horrified expressions of the people in her moving field of vision and the rough noises that echoed one after another from behind.

“This… Cough, you bastard…”

Before long, Jeremy’s groan was heard from under her feet.

“You always make things so troublesome.”

Thud!

But soon even that subsided.

“Having perseverance isn’t bad, but you should know when to stop being reckless to be seen as cute.”

Cassis, who had been reciting as if evaluating with a bored voice, raised his head.

“So, who was it that said they had more complaints?”

Everyone who was still in place froze at the gaze that slowly swept around.

It was obvious, but no one dared to step forward after seeing Jeremy’s state.

“If you’re hoping for something, too bad, but I don’t have a hobby of sharing what’s mine.”

Cassis, who ruthlessly informed his half-siblings, who might be drooling inwardly, that there was no chance, turned around with Roxana in his arms.

“If there’s nothing more to say, I’ll take this toy with me.”

＊＊＊

That day, Roxana became a toy owned by Cassis Agriche.

Cassis took Roxana to an empty room and even called a doctor to treat her.

Roxana was utterly confused by this situation. The name Cassis definitely didn’t appear in the book Roxana had read.

‘But what is this presence?’

After the doctor left, Roxana suddenly asked Cassis, who was sitting in a chair and watching her as if observing her.

“What did you mean by what you said earlier?”

The voice she had heard in the maze was still clear in her ears.

“You shouldn’t do that.”

“If you want to live and return to Fedelian.”

It was as if he was assuming Roxana’s escape.

But that was something an Agriche couldn’t say. Especially if the other party was from Fedelian.

“Are you saying you’ll help me get out of here?”

“Yes.”

Cassis affirmed Roxana’s question so easily that she felt drained.

Of course, Roxana couldn’t believe his words.

Her sharp eyes stared as if to dig into the man’s heart.

“Why?”

“Because I was bored.”

Cassis, who was sitting with his chin propped up as if he really meant those words, drew a strange smile on the corner of his lips as he looked at Roxana.

“And somehow, I don’t want you to die.”

Roxana wasn’t naive enough to believe those words and open her heart so easily. But strangely, she didn’t think the man in front of her was lying, so it was strange.

Above all, for some reason, it seemed that he was favorable to Roxana. He hadn’t told Lant Agriche about what had happened in the underground prison, and considering his attitude towards her today…….

Roxana’s tightly closed lips, which had been keenly watching Cassis, finally reopened.

“I’ll kill you if you mess with me.”

It wasn’t that she had completely accepted the current situation, but it seemed that she had decided to postpone it, and a quiet voice containing a kind of warning and determination crossed the room without wavering.

Cassis just laughed as if he had heard something interesting. It was a very small smile, but it was the most sincere smile she had seen today.

Thus began a strange symbiotic relationship in enemy territory.

The new story of two people who had never been involved together in the novel was now just beginning its first chapter.

〈Special Side Story Complete〉