Chapter 77

Sep 05, 2023

“I suspected as much. It seems you’re immune to my poison.”

Finally pulling away from Cassis’ lips, it almost seemed as though Roxana was pushing him away. But the very next moment she thrust herself so close to him that she ended up straddling his lap.

“Then is this what you had in mind?” Roxana leaned in closer so that their foreheads were nearly touching. Her hair was like a curtain of gold fluttering before Cassis.

“Because if so, then I’m all for it,” she whispered in her sugary tone as her eyes smiled playfully. She then moved her hand down the length of his chest before continuing. “I actually find you to be quite the catch.”

A ray of sun stole in through a gap in the curtains and lit up Roxana’s golden locks and eyelashes. There was an irresistible force in her scarlet gaze. A power that drew Cassis in quietly. He stared back at her with his hooded eyes so still that they were reminiscent of an abyss. Then without saying a word, he raised his hand to her face and touched her eyebrow.

Roxana lowered her gaze upon feeling the warmth of his touch. He continued to touch her very gently. Caressing her cheeks, then rounding her ears until she almost giggled. All the while, his eyes never once left her face. Next, his hand slipped around the nape of her neck in order to pull her in even closer to him. Then finally, their lips were locked again.

Without meaning to, Roxana quivered, but she couldn’t tell in the midst of the kiss if Cassis had taken notice. He instead took her lower lip into his mouth and sucked softly on the flesh. Then just as Roxana had done to him earlier, he used that to tug her lip down and open her mouth.

However, what followed was nothing at all like what had happened earlier. Instead of the heat of a passionate tongue searching for her own, she felt something pure, clear, and bright entering her system. She trembled despite herself. As Cassis stroked her neck gently, she felt something akin to the warmth of sunlight extend to the ends of her body.

A quiet, peaceful atmosphere seemed to be enveloping them. Roxana found it to be a very strange experience. It was one that filled her with a feeling of extreme tenderness, which was something she wouldn’t dare disrupt. With their lips locked talking was impossible, yet even so, it felt as if they were communicating rather intimately. After what seemed like an eternity to Roxana, she finally pulled away to figuratively come up for air.

“W- What were you just doing?” she asked.

“Healing you, of course. What else?”

She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment at Cassis’ flat, matter-of-fact tone. There hadn’t been even the slightest tremor in his eyes as he spoke. The feeling of tenderness was almost immediately replaced by annoyance as Roxana felt the need to voice her frustration. “That’s enough of that then! I don’t need that sort of help.”

She began to amble off of his lap, but Cassis refused to cooperate.

“Yes, you do.” His voice made it sound like a simple fact as he tightened his arm around her waist until she couldn’t budge. “You’re too fragile to deny yourself any treatment, let alone an emergency measure like this.”

As their bodies came together again, he pulled her toward him then pressed his lips to hers even more firmly than he had before. The pressure of this kiss took Roxana by surprise enough that her mouth opened in shock.

“Mmph.”

Their breaths seemed to become one as the tip of Cassis’ tongue busily searched for hers. He was holding her head in place when he finally found it. He then latched on and began to greedily suck it out of her mouth and back into his. The stroking up and down motion of his tongue against the sensitive membrane of her own caused her to moan.

All the while, the space inside the carriage raged loudly with the sound of wet lips ferociously smacking together as fluids passed back and forth between them. It was a soggy, hungry kissing battle that would have shocked and stunned just about every one of the Pedelian knights.

To say Roxana was downright confused would be to downplay her genuine shock at their heated exchange. She had always associated Cassis with gentleness, and hence had often daydreamed that only the gentlest of kisses could transpire between them. Even so, she had always been one to roll with the punches rather than roll over. Thus, she knit her eyebrows and decided to go on the offensive by wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing him even closer to her.

As their bodies entwined like mating snakes, Roxana thought she heard a small chuckle erupt from between their lips. In truth, even she was finding it hard to determine who was attempting to consume whom. Their almost desperate embrace only made it that much more difficult to tell, but soon the victor was clear. In spite of herself, Roxana glowered at Cassis in humiliation.

“Haa...”

Her face had become beet red from the lack of air, whereas Cassis barely even seemed ruffled.

“Did you not just moments ago say that you didn’t need my help?” Cassis stared at Roxana then placed his mouth over her lips again to lick and suck on the lower one. “But look at you now. You’re worn out after one little tussle.”

There was still passion and longing in his movements. Roxana stared at him in dismay. She wondered how they could have both engaged in the same activity, yet he came away seemingly unaffected in the slightest.

Are his lungs that much stronger than mine? No, that can’t be it.

Roxana hadn’t been her normal self for some time already. After all, she had been unconscious for three days, and whether she liked it or not, Cassis was indeed there to treat her since she was still recovering. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t refer to it as a fair battle. One might even say that it had been dishonorable of Cassis to go all-out the way he had. Of course, it hadn’t actually been a duel or anything like that in reality. Unable to repress her competitive nature, Roxana failed to bite back a bit of sarcasm.

“Is that so? Then you’re proud of yourself for getting the better of a sick person?” Cassis retorted in his perpetually calm, thick-skinned tone. “All I did was follow your lead. Weren’t you the one who was trying to show me that you didn’t want to be treated like a patient?”

As she glanced at Cassis from the side of her eye, Roxana could not deny that what he said was indeed true. “So you were simply being obedient? Is that really your defense?”

“Well, no. I also just did what I wanted to do.”

Once again, Roxana found herself stumped by the young Pedelian. Cassis’ bald-faced honesty had genuinely caught her off guard. As tension began to ebb away from her body, she began to wonder what she had been working herself up for in the first place. Her original goal had been to break down his cool and calm veneer, yet there she was having to come to terms with the fact that her efforts had yielded the polar opposite result.

All the heat began to leave her as she was forced to accept this turn of events. Not to mention, Cassis had already stopped looking in her direction. He was already busy calling out through the window to direct his troops that they should resume the journey. Soon Roxana felt the carriage begin to roll along again while he remained steadfast at her side. Since his arm was still holding on to her waist tightly, she couldn’t help wondering if he was gearing up for yet another heated bout. However, he simply pulled her in closer so that she could lean against him more comfortably.

“Get some sleep. It won’t be long now.” His low, gentle voice swam in her ears as he covered her with the fur blanket. His movements and voice were suddenly completely innocent of the passion that had consumed them only moments ago during the kiss.

Roxana felt herself on the verge of laughter but stifled it as Cassis’ hand began to stroke her hair. Instead of even a giggle, she drowsily muttered under her breath to herself. “How am I supposed to sleep with him touching me like this?”

As if he had overheard her, Cassis began to laugh quietly. Even so, he did not let go of her, and instead switched to softly patting her back. The sound of his heart beating in his chest was loud against Roxana’s ear.

What a strange situation with an equally strange man.

* * *

When Roxana finally opened her eyes again, she was no longer inside of the carriage. She instead found herself in the middle of a soft bed and covered from head to toe in a white, cloud-like blanket. As the bright setting allowed her to focus her vision more readily, she began to survey her surroundings with her scarlet eyes. She had already assumed as much upon waking, but she was more certain after perusing her surroundings that she was indeed not being detained in any sort of jail cell.

It was in fact a very clean and cozy room that was rather tastefully decorated. Not only were the furniture and decorations to her liking, even the curtains and the beddings she was enveloped in at the moment were stylish in her opinion.

With her quick survey complete, Roxana sat up. She was finding it hard to believe that she had in fact slept through everything that had landed her in her current surroundings. She began to deliberate whether it was the result of her having thrown all caution to the wind, or the possibility that she had merely become too weak. Eventually, she resolved that it could very well be due to both.

She then noticed that someone had taken the liberty of changing her clothes as well. For a very brief moment, a cold look flashed across her eyes. Rather than dwell on the how or why, Roxana kicked off the covers and hopped out of the bed. Ignoring the pair of satin slippers waiting for her by the bedside, she stepped barefoot and noiselessly across the carpeted floor until she reached one of the room’s windows.

She slowly parted one end of the curtain to the side to reveal the brilliant light of the sun. The rays were so strong that she had to squint, but directly in front of her was the expanse of nature surrounding her current location. The weather felt noticeably warmer there than it had within the Agreces’ territory. Below her, there was a garden full of white blooms that were soaking up the golden rays from the sun like honey. Their mere presence enhanced the lovely scenery even more. Standing among the flowers were the brother and sister duo, Cassis and Sylvia Pedelian.

They appeared to be in deep conversation as they were paying the utmost attention to one another in a gentle and warm manner akin to the morning sun overhead. Before long, Sylvia took her leave while Cassis watched her disappear into a nearby building. Upon realizing that his gaze was about to turn toward the direction of her room, Roxana released the curtain and cast the fairly well-lit room into a sort of metaphorical darkness. As she wondered if Cassis had seen her spying on them, she walked toward the room door.

Click.

As she had expected, the room wasn’t locked. She stared down at the doorknob which had turned so easily in her hand before stepping into the hallway. It was then that she noticed a girl coming toward her. And not just any girl. Sylvia Pedelian.

To Roxana’s surprise, it seemed the young beauty’s destination upon leaving her brother’s side was the room Roxana had only chanced to peek out of. Holding a bouquet of flowers as bright and radiant as herself, Sylvia exclaimed in apparent astonishment, “Oh! You’re finally up!”

There was a brilliant, ear-to-ear smile on her face, which made her appear as radiant as the flowers in her grasp. It was a smile of welcome that Roxana felt warmed her like the sun.