The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 34

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 34

* * *

Seriously, everyone has such terrible taste.

I watched the back-and-forth before my eyes with boredom.

“Your toy is quite appealing; how about we trade for a day with mine?”

“Hmm, I don’t really want to.”

“Then let’s bet. We’ll pit our toys against each other, and the winner gets to do whatever they want.”

“Okay, that sounds kind of fun.”

My two half-brothers were chatting about their respective ‘toys’ in cages before starting a ridiculous bet.

At their gesture, a man waiting next to the cages moved.

Immediately after he touched some device, the iron door connecting the cage-shaped enclosures opened.

The first to move was the man in the right cage. With his hands and feet bound, he staggered across the doorway.

The man was breathing roughly, as if he had taken stimulants. His pupils were dilated, and his eyes glowed blue, making a coherent conversation impossible.

The people in the other cages were all abnormal in one way or another, just like this man.

The people of Agrische called all of them ‘toys’. And they really treated them like objects, not people.

That went for the people displayed in the cages, as well as the woman outside with the butchered face.

They were even trying to pit the people in the cages against each other on my chessboard, like dogs in a fighting ring.

“Who do you think will win?”

“Hmm, I’ll say the brown-haired one.”

“No, that one seems out of his mind from too many drugs. Look at him, staggering around.”

“Wouldn’t that mean he can barely feel any pain? Wouldn’t that be more advantageous?”

The people sitting around the table began betting among themselves on who would win.

Above, sunlight streamed dazzlingly through the glass, and beautiful flowers exuding a subtle fragrance pleased the eye.

The people in between seemed just as innocent and pure.

As if they didn’t find anything strange about all the bizarre things happening in this greenhouse.

The battle in the cages had become almost a free-for-all. The more blood splattered and pained groans echoed from within, the more the spectators enjoyed it.

I was once again glad that I had sent my mother out of the greenhouse. If the faint-hearted her had seen this sight, she would have collapsed in no time.

But they wouldn’t be able to confirm the outcome of the match.

“Something terrible has happened!”

Two men came rushing into the greenhouse, panting.

Their appearance was disheveled. Their faces were swollen as if they had been beaten, and there were marks on their clothes as if they had been kicked.

One seemed to have injured his right hand, and the other seemed to have hurt his ribs.

Maria, the host of the tea party, cast a sharp gaze at the intruders who had disturbed the pleasant time.

“What’s going on?”

“Lady Roxana’s toy has escaped!”

A buzz went through the room.

The gazes of the people in the greenhouse flew to me and landed.

“My toy unlocked himself and escaped from his room?”

Amidst the people watching me, I calmly asked.

“No. We went into the room to bring him to the tea party, but he shook us off and ran away in the meantime.”

“To bring my toy to the tea party?”

At that moment, the man who had rushed into the greenhouse seemed to realize his mistake and shut his mouth.

“On whose authority?”

I placed the teacup I was holding on the table and ran my hand along its rounded edge.

“I don’t remember giving permission. Are you telling me that you were trying to bring my toy here without my consent?”

A crack appeared in the teacup that my hand was touching. Clear liquid flowed out through the thin gaps that were gradually widening.

Crash!

Soon after, the completely shattered pieces of the teacup spread out like petals on the saucer.

The faces of the men who met my gaze turned pale.

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

“That, that….”

“We were told by Young Master Dion to do so… So we thought Lady Roxana had given her permission as well….”

But the excuse they offered was rather telling. [They were trying to imply they had Dion’s backing.]

Dion’s name, which had been brought up in this place, was not entirely out of the blue. But there was no falsehood in their faces.

Maria opened her lips as if to say something. But I was a little faster.

“You looked down on me.”

The men gasped as they heard my voice echoing quietly in the greenhouse.

They were trembling from the cold energy flowing out of me.

As the saying goes, the shrimp’s back breaks in a whale fight; in fact, those caught in the middle are bound to suffer innocently anywhere. [This is a proverb about the weak suffering in conflicts between the powerful.]

If they had sensed something was wrong and disobeyed the order to bring Cassis, they wouldn’t even be standing in front of me like this in the first place.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t dare to speak so fearlessly in front of me.”

But understanding them and forgiving them were separate matters.

Besides, what they had just said sounded like they were implicitly implying that they feared Dion’s name more than mine.

If so, perhaps the reason was that, unlike my other siblings, I had never treated or killed other servants in Agrische like insects.

Even if there was really some confusion in the middle and they had simply made a mistake, it was their fault for making such an error without properly checking.

“That’s not it! There was just a misunderstanding in the middle… We were wrong, Lady! Please forgive us!”

So, taking the toy out without my permission and even losing him was no small crime.

Knowing their mistake, they turned pale and begged for forgiveness.

They looked quite pitiful, but I had no intention of just letting it go.

“But why are you still standing so straight in front of me?”

The next moment, a man’s leg buckled with a final scream.

The blade that flew and lodged in the upper part of his knee was the knife that had been lying quietly on the table until just now.

“Ugh, ah….”

Still, he knew enough to swallow his groan.

I lowered the hand that had thrown the knife at the man a moment ago and coldly recited.

“If you’re really sorry, you should kneel down and apologize right away; both of you are all talk.”

If I hadn’t been Roxana Agrische, I might have generously forgiven them.

But I was not a saint with a pure heart; rather, my role in this world was closer to that of a wicked witch.

“Kneel. Before I cut off that head of yours that doesn’t know its place.”

The two trembled and prostrated themselves on the floor.

The glittering silver cutlery prepared for the tea party had now been transformed into weapons, tearing not bread but human flesh.

Red blood dripped onto the floor of the greenhouse, where clear sunlight was pouring down.

I didn’t like being branded as an object of fear to others. I couldn’t help but think that the personalities of people who felt joy in such things were truly bad.

But if this was necessary, I had no choice but to show it as many times as needed.

“What was Cassis’s last confirmed location?”

Perhaps because they had experienced fear once, the answer flowed out satisfactorily quickly.

“It’s the corridor heading southwest. Young Master Jeremy is chasing after him.”

Thinking it would be better not to delay any longer, I got up from my seat.

“Emily.”

“Yes, I’ll take care of it.”

Emily, hearing my call, took a step. Knowing what it meant to move my confidante Emily, the men begged me for forgiveness and cried out to be saved even more desperately than before.

Emily took off the glove she was wearing on her right hand and approached them.

I turned my gaze to Maria, leaving them behind.

“It seems the tea party is over.”

The others who had heard the conversation so far seemed to think so too.

“Shall I help you recover your toy?”

“I appreciate the offer, but there’s no need.”

Despite my refusal, Maria uncharacteristically hesitated and repeatedly urged me.

“I don’t know if there was some other misunderstanding in the middle, but since Dion’s name came up anyway, I can’t just stand by….”

Thump!

At that moment, an unknown roar echoed from outside.

The greenhouse, which had been filled with warm sunlight, suddenly darkened.

Following that, a black mass flew and collided with the glass wall across from us.

Thud! Screech!

“Kyaa!”

The people sitting around the table were startled and jumped up from their seats.

“What’s going on all of a sudden?”

“That’s a monster!”

What had collided with the greenhouse glass was a monster the size of a house.

It resembled a spider, except it had four legs and a stinger-tipped tail.

This monster was called a ‘Tarantula’ and was one of the monsters raised in Agrische’s menagerie.

“Madam!”

Just in time, a woman soaked in poison entered the greenhouse. Judging by her appearance, she seemed to be one of Maria’s maids who had been guarding the front of the greenhouse.

“What’s going on?”

Maria’s voice, asking the maid, was higher than before, perhaps because she was surprised by what was happening.

“The gate to pen number 5 has been opened! Please evacuate!”

Pen number 5 was a monster pen quite close to the greenhouse where I was now.

I couldn’t help but think that what was happening now was not unrelated to Cassis.

Ignoring the people who were trying to stop me, I headed for the door of the greenhouse.

I needed to see with my own eyes what was going on outside.

Crash!

Screech!

Right then, a sharp roar echoed, and broken glass shards and a monster poured into the greenhouse.