Chapter 180

Chapter 180

To think three words were enough to send the Blue Heir soaring between heaven and hell… Of course, such a feat was only possible for Roxana Agrece. When the moment finally came that Cassis could no longer hold himself back, he engulfed her lips ravenously.

The feeling of her kiss along with the sound of her voice still fresh in his ears was as euphoric as the day she had told him that he was hers. Even if this sudden confession was a lie, he would have felt just as much joy as he would have felt bitterness. However, he could tell that she had spoken in earnest.

And now she’s the one saying she wants me by her side until death do us part?! And that she’ll even kill me herself if I ever try to leave?! He had never heard sweeter words in all the world. Perhaps Deon had been right. Even if she were to brutally rip out his heart, he would still cling to her until his last breath.

“Roxana, I...” As their lips continued to work toward leaving the other breathless, he gripped her waist with such force, he came rather close to crushing her. “I-I... I love you more!” Saying it once wasn’t enough for him either, so he began to whisper the words over and over again between kisses. “I… Love… You… So… Much!”

She happily received the downpour of his affection as they rained down like kisses onto her heart. To her, at that moment, there existed no such word as “excessive.” Even the thought of not holding on to one another with all their might was unbearable.

They were all alone in their own blissful paradise.

* * *

A turbulent air spread like a fog overhead, and an unknown group appeared to float like leaves gliding along a stream within it. Beyond the southwestern border and across an expanse of fields, the group finally arrived at a demon monster habitat far away from the neutral territory.

The scattered monsters almost immediately turned to attack the invaders, who had merely intended to pass through as they were only interested in completing the mission bestowed upon them by their master. Nevertheless, the newcomers were also prepared to remove any obstacle that might hinder their progress. Sharp blades that were in the place of where hands should have been sliced into the shrinking space between the demons and their unyielding prey with lethal swiftness.

Blood splattered across the field as the monsters had their flesh slashed to bits. At the end of the skirmish, the group merely stepped over the slain creatures to continue on their way. Before long, silence returned to the plain as though the slaughter had never occurred. The only signal of the carnage was the unsettling roar of the wind sweeping over the countless carcasses.

* * *

Cassis stood up before night fell. As he loosened his arms around her waist, her body only shifted slightly. He noticed her bare shoulder and immediately reached forward to retie her hood properly in fear she might catch a cold.

Roxana remained fast asleep all the while he looked after her. It had become natural for her to be so fatigued, especially since she had overexerted herself yet again. Despite the fact that they were well beyond the Yggdrasil magic circles, she had not fully recovered after receiving his healing energy.

A tinge of guilt laced his conscience, but he also felt he had been left no choice in the matter. In fact, part of him wished to hold Roxana at fault for allowing such melodious words to flow so freely from her mouth. He had found it impossible to restrain himself after hearing such nectar.

The silver-haired man gazed at his beloved’s breathtaking face as she continued to slumber next to him. He had told her more than once that she could do whatever she wanted, so if there was anything she even wished for him to do, he knew he would act to fulfill whatever her wish was at any cost.

What he had told her half-brother the last time they had butted heads had neither been a bluff nor a lie. He was ready and willing to plummet into the abysses of hell with her if necessary. As long as it was what his Roxana truly wanted.

Cassis suddenly sneered slightly. It was becoming apparent that he never had any right to criticize Deon Agrece regardless of how pompous the older man always was. In reality, the two may not have been all that different. He even imagined that if he hadn’t been born a Pedelian, he would have likely become just as dark a figure as her older brother.

As he continued to stare at Roxana, he slowly reached out to caress her hair. His movements seemed as full of complications as the thoughts tormenting his normally steady mind. He then lifted the strands he had entangled between his fingers, then kissed them. Almost right away, he proceeded to plant kisses on her pearl-like neck and shoulders as well.

“Mmm...” Her eyes fluttered open slowly from the gentle interruption to her sleep. “Oh my... I must have fallen asleep again.”

“How are you feeling now?”

The beautiful blond looked up at him as though he should be the last person to ask her that question. However, after a careful self-inspection, she realized that her condition had indeed improved. She supposed that he must have continued to heal her while she slept. “I feel much better now, but we should head back before it gets too late.” She knew Jeremy would start to worry, so she didn’t wish to stay away from the castle for too much longer.

“Just rest a bit more if you need to. I can carry you to your room while you sleep.”

His gentle hands caressed her drowsy face as he made the offer. Although the idea was tempting, she chose to stand up on her own.

“That won’t be necessary. Let’s head back together. I really do feel much better now thanks to you.”

Of course, she didn’t actually know where they were. It was only clear by how readily he could use his powers that they were quite far away from Yggdrasil. That alone made her less inclined to allow him to carry her all the way back to the castle. She had no doubt that he wouldn’t have simply shrugged and still scooped her up had she voiced her concern.

They took a moment to tidy up the space they had unwittingly disheveled before setting out toward the neutral territory’s border. Yggdrasil was rather quiet that night. It was almost as if nothing had happened earlier that same afternoon. Nevertheless, Jeremy had been pacing frantically while waiting for his sister’s return.

Roxana silently commended herself for having the good foresight to return as soon as her condition had improved. As soon as she saw her younger brother, she proceeded to calm him down. It seemed that all he had needed was to see her, as he returned to his room far more relaxed after she stepped through her door. Although the walk back to the castle had been no light stroll, the blond found it difficult to fall asleep again that night. Instead, she stared out of her window toward the dark night sky with her eyes half-open until dawn. All the while, she hadn’t sensed Deon’s presence anywhere near her. Something filled her with certainty that from that day forward, he would no longer insert himself into any of her future plans.

Flutter!

She closed her eyes completely for some time before opening them again to draw her curtains shut.

* * *

Deon watched as the dawn sunlight slowly made its way over the horizon. Unlike the quiet view, a storm was brewing inside of him. Seeing Roxana the previous afternoon had left an all too clear imprint of her figure on his mind. Her accursed crimson butterflies also seemed to mock him by covering everything that stood between them.

The sharp, emotionless look she had given him still managed to make its way through them to pierce deep into his heart.

“Deon, I don’t need you anymore.”

In that moment, she had denied him even more cruelly than when she had torn his heart in two in the rose garden. And that was when he felt something inside himself had been viciously trampled into nothing but dust. Violent emotions started to swarm inside him once again. He was at his limit in terms of keeping his urges at bay.

“You’re nothing but a monster Lante created. And for that, I both detest and despise you from the bottom of my heart.”

“Shut up,” Deon muttered as his stepmother Sierra’s voice continued to echo in his head like a curse. However, her echoing voice refused to leave. Instead, it continued to haunt him by making its existence known whenever he found himself in total silence.

“Deon Agrece. I’ll say this for the last time. Roxana doesn’t want you.”

The words felt like they were branded onto him. The desire to kill—regardless of who his victim might turn out to be—raged inside him. But he had no means of relieving such emotions. And the reason he had become like an animal stuck in a trap was because of his younger half-sister.

It was as Cassis Pedelian had said—everything that she had ever asked of him was to either break or destroy something, but never to protect. In fact, throughout his life, no one had ever made such a request of Deon Agrece. The dawn light slowly revealed itself beyond the night’s curtain.

The moment Roxana pushed him away, he felt as though the last piece of the earth that had supported him all that time had finally crumbled beneath his feet. At this rate, he would die just as she and Sierra had always wished. As her obedient dog, he would perish miserably and in vain. He’d be ignored and condemned until the bitter end.

That was indeed their greatest wish.

Roxana’s especially.

He slowly raised his hand to rub his neck. The only way to survive was to escape, but it was as though something was covering his eyes and making it impossible to find a way out. As if an abundance of light was seeping into his view, yet it was still completely dark where he stood.

Still, his crimson eyes forever cast in shadow searched furiously out beyond the darkness until he finally found the solution to the one problem that had been chaining him down by the ankles.