The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 42

Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – 42

* * *

As I reached the bottom of the staircase, Deon, who seemed to be waiting, came into view.

“I only regret hitting that face of his once.”

I said, glancing at him.

“What would you have done if Cassis hadn’t saved Mother?”

Deon looked down at me with his usual impassive eyes and replied without a hint of shame.

“Nothing.”

You son of a bitch.

I met his gaze, suppressing my rising anger. I refused to show Deon any vulnerability.

“I told you.”

Deon smiled, a chilling smile that sent shivers down my spine.

“I like seeing you cry.”

As expected, the Agrische were all insane. And Deon was among the most dangerous.

“Too bad.”

I coldly brushed past him, keeping the hot rage inside me contained.

“Because that’s the one thing you’ll never see, not even in the moment before you die.”

I felt his gaze following me, but I ignored it, as usual.

For some reason, the situation felt particularly repulsive.

I walked down the quiet hallway and turned my head to the side.

Reflected in the glass of the window, which mirrored the night sky, was my face, wearing an expression as chillingly cold as Deon’s had been.

Right… This contempt and disgust weren’t directed solely at others.

“Yes, as Mother wished, I have now become a true Agrische.”

“Because I am a proud Agrische and a daughter who resembles my respected father more than anyone else.”

It seemed I had become those words I had repeated so many times in my life.

The me reflected in the window had become more Agrische-like than anyone else.

“How disgusting.”

I muttered the words softly, to no one but myself, and turned away from the reflection.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cassis was trapped in the hallucination room.

Intermittent sobs, like the ones I’d heard earlier, pierced his ears.

With his eyes closed, a scene, dream or illusion, floated into his vision.

A woman hugging someone and crying finally turned to look at him.

The clear resentment and reproach on her tear-streaked face made him gasp.

The scene shifted, and this time a man appeared, looking down at him with colder eyes than ever.

Yes… This was a memory buried deep within him.

The day he first learned regret. The foolish him had to swallow the bitter cup of despair.

A stern, unwavering voice pressed down on him.

Then, the voice began to fade.

Cassis broke free from the crumbling dream like a sandcastle and opened his eyes.

* * *

“You should sleep a little more.”

A slender, clear voice, gentle as a breeze, overlapped the lingering echo of the man’s voice.

A warm sensation touched my forehead. It seemed to be the touch of someone nearby.

A familiar face appeared in his hazy vision.

Even dazed, Cassis turned his head, trying to escape the comforting warmth.

“Don’t.”

But the soft touch firmly stopped him.

“It’s just an illusion anyway.”

Cassis paused at the quiet whisper.

“This is the hallucination room. So, the fact that I’m here means none of this is real.”

Again, a gentle touch reached him.

Roxana pulled Cassis’s shoulder and laid him down more comfortably.

Hearing her words, it somehow felt like this was indeed an extension of the hallucination, not reality.

“I think I feel a little sorry for you right now. I thought I had forgotten this feeling a long time ago.”

After saying that, silence fell.

Roxana’s words were strange. What could she possibly be sorry to him for?

Rather, because of what he had done, Roxana might be in trouble. Of course, Cassis wouldn’t apologize for that.

But Roxana remained silent, and Cassis found the silence wasn’t so bad.

Strangely, it wasn’t uncomfortable. A gentle air flowed through the room like a wave.

“Thank you for saving Mother.”

Her voice broke the silence.

“You could have ignored it, but you didn’t.”

Then, something lightly brushed against his forehead, a soft breath.

“If you were just a little less of a good person than you are now, my heart would be much more at ease.”

The hand stroking Cassis’s head eventually covered his eyes.

“Rest.”

It was a strange night.

Even though they should have discussed the day’s events, they acted as if none of it mattered.

“When you open your eyes again, you’ll be back in reality.”

At that moment, they seemed to have forgotten their situations. Even though that was impossible.

Cassis’s lips parted slightly, but he said nothing and joined in the silence.

That night was long, as if it would never end.

6. Escape, and Another Bondage

Most of the blame for this incident fell on Jeremy.

He opened the door to the monster breeding ground [a place where monsters are raised] to catch Cassis, but he was the one who let him escape in the first place, so he had no excuse.

Thanks to the butterfly I’d secretly planted in Cassis’s room, I knew the whole story in detail.

It was concluded that Cassis’s escape was unavoidable to escape Jeremy’s attack.

Of course, my influence played a big part.

Lant Agrische was particularly lenient with me for hatching the poison butterflies.

That didn’t mean Cassis wouldn’t be punished, so I locked him in the hallucination room.

The hallucination room was modified for torture, and anyone who entered was likely to go insane within a day.

So no one took Cassis’s punishment lightly.

I engraved a reverse spell on my body so it wouldn’t affect Cassis and entered the hallucination room to be with him during his punishment.

People seemed to think I entered to enjoy seeing Cassis in pain or to give him another humiliating punishment while he hallucinated.

That was common sense for the Agrische.

I didn’t bother to correct their misunderstanding.

Jeremy was locked in the punishment room where Charlotte had been imprisoned.

Compared to Jeremy, Charlotte’s crime was lighter, so she was released earlier than planned.

Locking Jeremy in the punishment room wasn’t part of the plan, but opening the monster breeding ground was too much.

If I had made a mistake, my plans could have been ruined.

So I didn’t help Jeremy this time.

Perhaps because he thought he had angered me, he entered the punishment room looking dejected.

Deon headed to the Carantul habitat [a place where Carantul monsters live] this morning by Lant’s order.

I demanded Lant Agrische punish Deon for trying to exercise his authority over my property in front of him, and I held on as much as I could.

The only witnesses who could prove his innocence were dead, so there was nothing to worry about.

But Deon’s departure to replenish the monsters in the breeding ground couldn’t be called a punishment.

He had just returned from his mission and had free time, and no one was as reliable as Deon to lead the monster capture group, so he was sent with the pretext of self-reflection.

It was Lant Agrische’s shallow trick, but perhaps because of the hatched poison butterflies, it was his attempt to soothe me.

I was satisfied with getting Deon out of my sight.

However, Deon, whom I encountered before leaving for the monster habitat, had an aloof look as if he knew everything but pretended not to know, which made me feel even dirtier.

Anyway, a quiet atmosphere returned to the mansion for the first time in a while.