The Way To Protect The Female Lead’S Older Brother [EN]: Chapter 74

Cassis quietly gazed at me.

His eyes seemed to say, ‘Are you only asking that now?’ and at the same time, ‘Why are you asking such a thing now?’

“…To put it simply.”

Cassis answered briefly.

“As you wished.”

I smiled slightly at his words.

“Yes, he’s dead.”

The burning Agrit’s castle flickered like a mirage beyond the swaying bonfire.

Gradually, the memories of that day returned.

Perhaps after leaving me in the office, Deon went to where Lant was.

Then, I wondered who killed Lant and what his end was like.

But at the same time, I felt that such things were not important at all. It was a truly contradictory feeling that had been prevalent within me since earlier.

“Isidore confirmed that your mother left the mansion,” Cassis added, still looking at me. At his words, I slowly lowered my gaze.

“Yes.”

“Anything else?”

This time, Cassis asked me.

“Aren’t you curious?”

I silently stared at him.

With the flames between us, we exchanged glances for a while without a word.

After a short or perhaps long time, Cassis’s tightly closed lips finally parted.

“Everything turned out as you wished.”

Then he quietly watched me, waiting for my reaction.

So, I did as he wanted.

“Yes.”

I had nothing more to say.

Crack, crack…

Small sparks flew from the firewood in the bonfire.

“You don’t seem very happy.”

“What about you?”

Even to my own ears, a rather dry voice flowed from my mouth.

“Are you happy to have your revenge? Are you relieved that Agrit has fallen?”

A chilling wind brushed past the back of my neck. The air touching my cheeks felt colder than before, perhaps because the temperature had dropped as the sun set.

I felt my body temperature dropping as well, but I didn’t even adjust my collar like someone who couldn’t feel the cold.

Cassis was the same.

“Well.”

Cassis, who had closed his eyes for a long time, said in a slower tone than before.

“I just feel like I’ve finished one thing I had to do. I don’t have any more excitement than I expected.”

Listening to him, I thought I felt the same way.

“Me too.”

“You’re similar to me?”

But at that moment, a cold smile appeared on Cassis’s face.

The deep golden eyes, as if they had swallowed the flames of the bonfire, stared at me as if to pierce through me.

“You don’t seem to know what your face looks like right now.”

Suddenly, Cassis got up from his seat.

Even though he hadn’t moved more than a few steps, the distance between us quickly narrowed.

Clatter!

The bowl kicked by his foot rolled across the floor. But Cassis didn’t seem to care at all.

Looking up at him in this seated position, Cassis looked even bigger.

Perhaps because he was standing in front of me with the bonfire behind him, his body was cast in a deep shadow, making his presence even more prominent.

Cassis, who had approached me uncomfortably close, lowered his body.

His face, which I faced up close, was as cold as ice. The eyes staring at me also held a kind of chill I had never seen before.

“You, were you planning to die that day?”

At the low whisper that fell coldly, I quietly looked at the person in front of me.

The shadowed, dark golden eyes seemed to swallow me whole.

“What are you talking about? Why would I?”

Hiding the small ripples rising within me, I calmly asked him back. Cassis’s eyes, staring at me head-on, felt like they were digging through me.

“If I hadn’t brought you here, what were you going to do?”

“I would have left.”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere. Anywhere but Agrit.”

“Do you know what kind of face you had when I found you that day?”

The eyes facing me sank even lower.

“At that time, you looked like someone trying to leave to find a place to die.”

At that moment, the memories that had been sinking in the distant abyss were pulled to the surface.

“What…….”

“Sister, where were you going alone?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? As if this is the last time…….”

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

The mournful face I saw then, the pitiful eyes that chased after me, were like thorns stuck in me, making my insides ache.

I closed my eyes to erase the scene of that day, which unfolded vividly like a hallucination.

“I wasn’t planning to do what you just said…….”

After a while, a fact that I had never told anyone before was uttered from my mouth.

“You should know. I won’t live long anyway.”

My remaining life is not long.

It was as Cassis had told me three years ago.

I can’t exactly estimate how much longer I can live, but roughly, it won’t be even a year at most.

It was a natural result since I had overworked my body so much while living.

When I thought about what I had worked so hard for, it was both futile and unfair.

No matter what I did, I was destined to have a short life, just like in the novel.

But even that feeling was only at first.

When I thought about it carefully, I didn’t have the desire to struggle and try to extend this life any longer.

I haven’t even lived for 20 years yet, but seeing that I don’t have much regret or sadness left, I must have consumed my life much more and faster than I thought.

I felt like I had done enough.

Perhaps wherever I die, my remains will not remain anywhere in the world.

Because before I die, the poisonous butterfly will eat up every last drop of my blood without sparing it.

“So, you’re just going to wait for the day you die without any greed or regret?”

Cassis’s eyes shone coldly. A cold gaze accompanied by silence stayed on my face.

Then, at some point, Cassis raised the corners of his lips and gave a faint smile.

“Well, if it’s a life you were going to throw away anyway, I guess it’s okay for me to take it.”

I didn’t immediately realize what the following words meant.

“Give me your remaining time.”

I couldn’t feel even an inch of hesitation or hesitation on the face I was facing. So, it took me longer than I thought to recognize his words.

“If you don’t care where your future destination is anyway, stay by my side. Until you die.”

At that moment, my mind became dazed. But Cassis didn’t even give me a chance to react and continued.