*** *** *** *** ***
After Roxana completely exited the corridor, Jeremy looked down at Charlotte with a cold gaze. She was staggering to her feet after pulling herself together. Jeremy’s foot flew toward such a Charlotte without hesitation and struck her.
Thud!
“Ack!”
Charlotte, kicked in the shoulder, sprawled back onto the floor.
“Really, Sister is too kind. Letting a cheeky thing like you off with just this much.”
Jeremy approached Charlotte and bent down. He grabbed her disheveled hair and forced her head up. Charlotte glared at Jeremy with defiant eyes. Seeing that, Jeremy clicked his tongue.
It was just like Roxana to subdue the opponent efficiently by targeting only the vital points without inflicting unnecessary injuries. Of course, unless the skill gap was overwhelmingly large, it was actually much harder to end a fight without major injuries.
Charlotte seemed even more humiliated each time by the stark difference in skill between her and Roxana, but to Jeremy, it felt like Roxana was being too lenient.
“Fuck. I’m already pissed off because of that damn bastard, and now you wanna make me even angrier?”
When Jeremy snapped at her with a sharp, chilling glare in his blue eyes, Charlotte finally flinched and lowered her gaze.
“What did I do so wrong…”
“You’re really asking to die. Isn’t picking a fight with Sister wrong enough for a punk like you?”
“You always take Sister Roxana’s side, don’t you? Even with this toy. You know how much I liked it!”
Charlotte shouted as if wronged, but Jeremy didn’t bat an eye and released her hair with a push, as if handling something insignificant, without any care or consideration.
“Hey, if you wanna vent, go do it to the guy in the basement. This is all because that bastard dared to show up in front of Sister without knowing his place and caught her eye.”
As he said that, irritation surged up again, and Jeremy spat out a curse. If he hadn’t said in front of Roxana last time that he’d let go of this toy, he’d beat that Blue Young Noble bastard to a pulp right now.
He’d said he’d yield the toy first because he wanted Roxana’s praise, but now that she seemed to be showing more interest in that guy than expected, it soured his mood.
“Yeah, thinking about it, it’s all that blue son of a bitch’s fault.”
Jeremy ground his teeth, feeling murderous intent toward Cassis Pedelian, who was still locked up underground.
“Blue son of a bitch?”
“That one’s Cassis Pedelian.”
At that very moment, a fierce flame ignited in Charlotte’s eyes. She seemed quite shocked to learn for the first time that the identity of this toy was a Pedelian.
Seeing the emotion that rose in Charlotte’s eyes right after, Jeremy decided to use her. Yeah, if I can’t touch it myself, I can just have someone else do it for me?
Of course, without Sister knowing.
“That’s a shame. That one was really just your type.”
At Jeremy’s mocking words, Charlotte bit her lip.
“But what can you do? There’s only one toy.”
He smirked crookedly as he read the boiling intense greed, anger, and jealousy on the face before him.
“You can’t even break it just because you can’t have it. Right?”
*** *** *** *** ***
“There’s a smell of blood.”
Turning away from Jeremy and Charlotte, Roxana headed to the underground prison. Cassis, who had been paying close attention ever since she entered, suddenly opened his mouth and recited sharply.
Hearing that, Roxana flinched. As he said, her hands and clothes were now stained with blood. It was from dealing with Charlotte in the corridor just moments ago.
But to smell it again. That’s not an ordinary sense of smell? Roxana looked up at Cassis, feeling a subtle mood.
“It’s nothing. You don’t need to worry about it.”
At her casually spat-out response, Cassis subtly furrowed his brows. But she couldn’t tell him honestly. If she said she got this bloody from fighting her sibling, he’d be more wary of her, right? Especially since the blood wasn’t hers but the opponent’s.
Making up another reason would be annoying too. Anyway, since Cassis couldn’t see properly right now, it should be fine to just let it pass. If she’d known, she would’ve stopped by her room to wash off the blood and change clothes before coming.
Thinking that, Roxana opened her mouth.
“I won’t be able to come for a while.”
At Roxana’s words, Cassis looked at the person in front of him without responding. The number of times the two had met like this in the underground prison was now quite a few.
In his slightly brighter vision than yesterday, the slender figure of the girl was reflected. Everything was still hazy, so only the outlines of her face and body were barely visible. So he couldn’t tell exactly what the source of this blood smell was.
“Not that long, just a few days.”
Was this girl, who revealed her name as Roxana, perhaps injured somewhere?
Cassis was neither in a position to worry about her nor in a relationship to do so. But thinking that the owner of this thick blood smell stimulating his sense of smell was this young girl in front of him, for some reason, it made him a bit on edge.
Perhaps because, even if her intentions were still suspicious, it was getting harder to deny the fact itself that the girl was secretly helping him while avoiding other people’s eyes.
Cassis directed his gaze as if examining the condition of the person in front of him. Not being able to directly grasp the situation because his eyes couldn’t see was quite inconvenient.
“So, take care until we meet again. I’m a bit worried because if I’m not here, there won’t be anyone to help you when you need it.”
Her calm and gentle voice, as always.
Cassis turned his cold gaze elsewhere, as if saying it didn’t matter. But inwardly, he thought that when they met next time, it would be nice if he could see the face of the person in front of him now.
*** *** *** *** ***
Two days later, I heard that Charlotte had knocked down the gatekeeper guarding the underground prison and forced her way inside. Not only that, but she had also attacked Cassis Pedelian and inflicted injuries on him.
“Hmm.”
As expected.
While leisurely drinking the poisoned tea, I indifferently pondered after receiving the news from Emily. On the day of the grand banquet, Charlotte had lunged at me over the issue of toy ownership and ultimately suffered a crushing defeat. Not only did she fail to obtain Cassis, but she was also subdued by force by me, so with Charlotte’s personality, there was no way she would stay put even out of sheer frustration. Moreover, Jeremy must have been egging her on from the side.
That day, from the moment Jeremy appeared downcast after leaving the banquet hall, I had somewhat anticipated the actions he would take afterward. In the midst of that, since Jeremy had sent me away first and tried to remain alone with Charlotte, it would have been more unusual if I hadn’t predicted what followed.
As expected, Charlotte couldn’t bear to leave the toy that hadn’t become hers completely untouched.
But in any case, her actions amounted to nothing more than venting her anger. When we first brought Cassis, our father, Land Agriche, had temporarily suspended his decision and ordered us not to touch him for a while.
So, no matter how blinded by rage Charlotte was, unless she wanted to openly defy father’s command and face disposal, there was no way she could kill Cassis.
Therefore, Charlotte had touched Cassis with the mindset of, since she couldn’t have the persimmon anyway, why not give it a jab. Of course, even with that, she would get severely reprimanded by father, but she clearly believed that the value of damaging the toy that would become mine was worth that much.
But for something like that, the extent of Cassis’s injuries was lighter than I had imagined. I had thought at least one limb might end up unusable. Perhaps Charlotte had held back more than I expected.
Feeling a bit disappointed, I lowered my gaze.
“Moreover, it seems Lady Charlotte accidentally ruptured the prisoner’s restraints and nearly suffered a counterattack. With that added on, she will likely receive aggravated punishment.”
“What?”
At Emily’s subsequent words, I halted the hand holding the teacup. This was a situation I hadn’t foreseen at all.
Rupture of the restraints.
Not just any restraints, but the ones famous for their exceptional durability meant for great magical beasts, and Charlotte had shattered them through a mere mistake while attacking Cassis?
“Interesting.”
No way. Cassis Pedelian must have orchestrated some kind of scheme. It’s true that Charlotte is somewhat reckless and hot-blooded, but to err in such a fortuitously coincidental moment and break the restraints, it’s simply implausible.
In my view, rather than that, it seemed Cassis had intentionally and slyly manipulated Charlotte. Of course, I might be overestimating him, but even so, he was the heir to the Pedelian family, who even bore the nickname ‘Blue Young Noble.’ Setting aside his title as the heroine’s brother.
I silently set the teacup down on the table. It seemed better to pay Cassis a visit after a little more time had passed.
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