The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 70

The castle was ablaze.

The white, frozen walls were swallowed by massive flames.

The silence of the night was shattered by the sound of sharp metal clashing against bodies.

Screams and shouts echoed among the entangled figures, raining down like fallen stars overhead.

*Whirr!*

The homeland, from which she had never escaped on her own since being born into this world, was collapsing and burning before her eyes.

Roxana quietly watched the scene.

Perhaps because she had taken a large dose of tranquilizers and painkillers, her vision was not clear.

Conversely, her hearing had become more sensitive, picking up the retreat signals from the invaders.

Gradually, the surrounding noise began to subside.

The butterflies she had sent out from the mansion also began to return one by one.

“Good work.”

The butterflies, which had successfully played their part in confusing people with illusions, fluttered their wings as if showing affection to Roxana.

What she wanted was the downfall of Agrihe, not the massacre of its people.

That was why she had mostly disbanded Agrihe’s army and evacuated the servants to the annex.

Her body, strained from using too much power after a long time, caused black blood to flow backward and spill out.

She had already vomited blood several times since she first summoned the butterflies, making her vision slightly blurry.

However, Roxana did not close her eyes.

She had a duty to watch the scene before her until the very end.

*Did Lant Agrihe die?*

Judging by the fact that they had begun to retreat from Pedelian, it seemed clear that they had achieved their goal, but….

Agrihe was burning, and Agrihe’s people had now lost their home.

So, is it over now?

Is it really all over?

Roxana wiped the blood from her mouth again and took a step forward.

With each step she took, the dry grass beneath her feet withered and died, turning black.

Her weakened body could no longer withstand even this much power.

The potent poison emanating from Roxana’s body was violently surging, as if it would devour all life around her.

It had been quite some time since she could no longer summon the Carnage Butterflies.

Once the Carnage Butterflies tasted human blood, they would run wild at the slightest lapse in her vigilance.

The real reason she failed the mission with Deon last year was because the out-of-control Poison Butterflies had massacred everyone in the area.

With such power, it would have been simpler to use the Poison Butterflies to kill Lant Agrihe like slaughtering livestock, but….

Not using that method was a pointless stubbornness.

Officially, Agrihe had acknowledged all its past wrongdoings, been punished for its crimes, and met its demise.

Pedelian played the role of the righteous judge in that.

“Sana, Sister…!”

A voice calling her came from afar. Roxana unconsciously turned her head toward the sound. Then, Jeremy’s figure running toward her came into view.

Immediately after the massive illusion blocking their view disappeared, Jeremy quickly followed the butterflies and succeeded in finding Roxana.

Thanks to Roxana’s butterflies, the number of casualties was small compared to the scale of the damage.

But for that very reason, Jeremy couldn’t help but worry about Roxana’s condition.

Of course, Roxana never showed him her weak side. But hadn’t Jeremy been by her side for a year or two?

Besides, Jeremy was always keenly aware of anything related to Roxana.

Therefore, there was no way he couldn’t know that Roxana’s body was not what it used to be.

Jeremy was relieved to see Roxana.

Even though her clothes were stained with blood, she was still standing there, looking relatively unharmed.

“Sister, you were here. Are you hurt anywhere?”

She was heading somewhere when she turned around at Jeremy’s call.

“But what are you doing here alone? There’s nothing over there….”

The next moment, Jeremy had no choice but to stop in his tracks when he saw Roxana’s face.

“What….”

Roxana looked at him with eyes that seemed the same as usual but were clearly different. Jeremy’s face stiffened.

A strange feeling suddenly swept over him. It was similar to some kind of ominous premonition.

“Sister, where were you going alone?”

But at that moment, Jeremy didn’t know how to express the feeling he had.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

So he just stirred up his uneasy feelings inside and moved his lips.

“Like it’s the last time….”

The moment he muttered that, a chilling sensation ran down his spine.

Roxana was still silently staring at Jeremy.

The face she was making told Jeremy that what he had just said was the correct answer.

“Sister….”

Jeremy finally realized that Roxana was trying to abandon Agrihe. And that this was what she had always wanted.

No… Had he really not known?

Had he, who had been by Roxana’s side for almost 10 years, really not noticed what her wish was, even a little bit?

It just seemed like Jeremy didn’t care.

No matter what Roxana did in the future, he would unconditionally follow her.

But….

The moment he saw Roxana’s eyes, he had no choice but to realize it.

“Sister… are you going to abandon me too?”

That she had no intention of taking him with her.

In the burning Agrihe, the two faced each other.

Jeremy was looking at Roxana with a face as if he had been stabbed in the back.

Roxana quietly took in the sight, and then smiled faintly.

“I shouldn’t have taken your hand back then.”

At first, she only intended to use him.

If so, she should have remained cold until the end, as she had decided.

No matter how sweetly she whispered and shared warmth with affectionate touches, she should not have forgotten that it was all a fabricated lie.

But at some point, she couldn’t do that.

“I shouldn’t have kept you by my side.”

Not all the moments they had spent together were true, but not all of them were false either.

Even in this desolate place where there was nowhere to turn, a sweet rain occasionally fell, wetting the parched land, and in a moment of carelessness, she unknowingly gave her heart away.

“Jeremy.”

That’s why she didn’t want to take him with her.

“I’m not taking anything from Agrihe.”

It would be better for both of them to part ways here now.

“So, this is it.”

Jeremy stood there blankly, listening to her words. His motionless body, as if he had lost power, was heartbreaking, but he couldn’t approach or comfort her.

“Goodbye.”

Roxana turned her back on the only person she considered family, except for her mother and dead brother.

Jeremy did not follow her.

“Sister…!”

Her steps were almost held back by the call from behind, but she strode forward even more firmly as if that had never happened.

“I know that you have never smiled sincerely until now.”

Jeremy’s voice that followed was clearly the familiar one she had always heard, but somehow it felt a little different from before.

“If I… if I make Agrihe a place where you can smile, will you come back?”

Roxana looked back at him one last time.

Through her fluttering hair, she saw Jeremy, who looked smaller than before.

The still unextinguished flames flickered, casting a dark shadow on Jeremy’s face.

So she couldn’t tell what kind of expression he was making.

But she thought that was okay.

Roxana smiled at her poor brother for the last time. Warmly, benevolently, and affectionately, as he liked.

Then she turned back again.

She couldn’t promise anything, so she didn’t say anything.

Thus, she stepped on the ruined land of Agrihe and moved away from the one who was still standing behind her, watching her.

Will there be anything that revives even in the ruined land in the future?

Even in the land where winter was deep, it was natural for spring to come again, but this place was so cold and chilly to Roxana even in the warm spring, that she couldn’t imagine such a thing.

She just wanted to leave this place now.

Without any thoughts, just freely and lightly.

She had only lived here for nineteen years at most, but she felt like she had been bound by too many things during that time.

The feeling of escaping from the swamp where she had been deeply immersed since birth was very strange.

An ambiguous emotion that was neither complete liberation nor complete emptiness remained sticky in her heart like half-melted snow.

*Whirr.*

Her vision blurred in the rapidly running white wind.

Roxana’s body staggered for a moment, as if pushed by it.

She shouldn’t be like this here, her consciousness began to fade.

But someone caught her collapsing body.

Roxana didn’t even have time to check who it was before closing her eyes.

Before her vision completely went out, she seemed to have glimpsed a clear golden light sparkling like a signpost in the snowstorm.