Chapter 158

Jan 18, 2024

To be precise, Sylvia felt that longing whenever she happened to see Jeremy converse with the other adults about matters she could not understand. Especially since he was the same person who had dragged her into a childish argument about which of them had the better sibling—and since she saw him heading to formal clan leader meetings in a dignified manner when he was the same person who had laughed and joked with her at the banquet and tea party.

At such moments, she felt a great distance between them, as if he was much older and more mature than she was despite the fact that they were the same age. As those thoughts began to increase in number, she also felt an increasing need to avoid the events where she might see him altogether. She instead spent her time pondering how she could explain such feelings to anyone else. In fact, she rebuked herself for having such childish troubles.

“Well, you are both their only daughter and sister,” Luzark said.

“You think? But my mother doesn’t seem to pay me nearly any mind at all.”

“Then... perhaps that’s just a difference in your parents’ personalities.”

“Speaking of which, isn’t your mother Badrisha the first female master in Castro’s history? I think she’s an absolutely astonishing woman.”

Luzark’s face immediately softened after hearing the way she spoke of his mother.

“I could not agree with you more.”

“Would you say you take after her or your father more? I only had the pleasure of seeing her for the first time last winter, and after seeing her more often at this gathering, I must say you two bear an uncanny resemblance. Not only in your appearance, you know. Your personalities seem borderline identical.”

The Red Heir’s purple eyes suddenly became bitter and cold as the image of a certain individual flashed through his mind.

“Right... I am nothing like my father.”

Sylvia hesitated to continue after hearing the authoritative and absolute response. To his credit, Luzark managed to catch himself this time and tried to loosen his expression. She, in turn, decided it might be best to change the topic after seeing him stiffen in that brief moment. It seemed more and more apparent that there were likely elements of his circumstances that she shouldn’t dare to intrude on. He also made an effort to carry on as if his mood hadn’t been sensitive to her line of questioning.

However, as the two continued their conversation, his fists appeared to be suppressing a strange amount of force. Neither of them could have anticipated the incident that would befall the Red clan the next day.

* * *

“I do hope you enjoy the tea. I wasn’t sure what you’d prefer, so I asked the attendants to prepare my favorite.”

“Oh, yes. It smells quite lovely.”

As they had promised the night before, Pandora and Roxana now sat across from one another at the table in the Agrece’s personal room. As they both raised their teacups, the Fipellion seemed slightly uncomfortable.

In truth, the blond was as well. For one thing, she had not expected a request for a private meeting from the blue-haired woman. Especially since the two had hardly seen one another after the first banquet. As she had asked to meet in the first place, Pandora decided to break the awkward silence first. “Um... I’d first like to thank you for making time to meet with me.”

“No, no. Don’t even mention it.” Judging from her resolute expression, Roxana already seemed to know that the other woman had something she needed to tell her in private.

The Fipellion’s dark, onyx eyes stared down into the warm teacup before looking up again to address her host. “The reason I wished to meet with you alone was so I could apologize for what happened back at the Blue fortress.”

Roxana couldn’t help pausing for a brief moment after hearing Pandora’s confession, but then the blue-haired woman set her cup down on the table before continuing to speak in a more serious tone.

“It was wrong of me to treat you that way. Not only was it our first time ever meeting each other, but I said such awful things to you, and even had the nerve to threaten you...”

The Agrece continued to watch her guest speak in silence.

“On top of all that, I had entered the Blue fortress both uninvited and unwelcome, while you were there as an official guest of the Blue Heir. I honestly can’t explain what came over me back then, but I do know that I can’t apologize enough for my foolish and shameful behavior.”

Roxana suddenly felt slightly embarrassed as the elaborate apology continued.

“I behaved dishonorably toward both the Black clan and my own. So if I may, I would like to offer my sincerest apology to you once again.”

As she recalled, Pandora had been the one repeatedly trying to clean up after her younger cousin Orka after they had trespassed into the Blue fortress. The Agrece even recalled watching through her poison butterfly as the older Fipellion apologized on the White Heir’s behalf as he babbled away at dinner one night.

“I actually wanted to apologize to you before leaving Pedelian, but certain circumstances prevented me from doing so.”

Contrary to the blond’s initial impression of her, the blue-haired woman seemed to have a rather great sense of responsibility. She could care less whether the apology was simply an act in order to preserve the White clan’s reputation, or simply a result of her conscience nagging at her, Roxana was glad to receive it.

“Miss Fipellion...”

The dark-eyed woman couldn’t help but tense up as her host began to address her again. However, almost as abruptly as she had started to speak, the Agrece closed her lips for a moment in order to better organize her thoughts.

“You know... You weren’t the only one who acted foolishly that day.”

It was true that Pandora had been the first to summon her demon monsters, but Roxana had acted violently both before and after the futile show of force. Thus, she felt it would be best to put an end to the matter for good then and there.

“In truth, I went a bit overboard in killing your demon like that, so I would like to offer you an apology of my own.”

“No, no! You only did what anyone else would have done.”

The Fipellion did not fully relax as she feared the Agrece woman would still act coldly toward her despite expressing her own sense of remorse. She hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

“I also, um... have no intention of approaching the Blue Heir with the same motives as before… So if you had any concerns about that, there’s no need to worry at all.”

But I wasn’t the slightest bit worried about that from the start.

“To be honest, I still can’t believe I behaved the way I did back then. Of course, I’m sure that anything I say at this point will sound like a lousy excuse. But no matter. All I wished to say is that I don’t have any intention of getting in the way of you two ever again.”

“Very well, then I shall not worry about that any further, so neither should you.”

At last, the blue-haired woman’s face was clearly more relaxed than it had appeared moments prior, and she sipped her tea with more ease. It was evident that she wasn’t the type to hold grudges.

“You know... When I first saw you, I had the impression that you and your cousin looked a lot alike.” Roxana voiced her thoughts aloud as if she weren’t speaking to anyone in particular. “But I can see now that I was wrong.”

That much was true. Unlike Orka, Pandora was the transparent type, which was actually quite problematic. Then it occurred to her that she might even like the Fipellion more than she had initially supposed. Even so, the dark-eyed woman’s reaction to her observation was rather peculiar. Her onyx-colored eyes seemed to double in size as if she had just heard something truly unbelievable.

Overwhelmed by her guest’s expression, Roxana decided to speak up once more. “Oh, but I do hope that I haven’t offended you. In truth, I can’t say I know either of you all that well.”

“No, no, no!” Pandora vehemently cut her off before she could take back what she had said. “Offend me? Absolutely not! If anything, you have sharp eyes. Orka and I really are nothing alike.”

Perhaps I was wrong to assume they have a good relationship. On the contrary, the older Fipellion cousin appeared rather delighted to hear someone say how different she was from the White Demon Tamer. There was even a clear glimmer of affection in her dark eyes. It was so unexpected that Roxana felt the urge to lower her gaze slightly.

I had planned to use her should the need arise during the rest of my stay here, but perhaps I shouldn’t. Sure, she seems like a pushover, but there’s no reason for me to place her in a difficult situation.

After making up her mind to keep things on the up and up, Roxana continued to chat with the other woman. Such a natural and unimposing discourse had been the one thing neither had originally expected when they first agreed to the tea. As they were enjoying themselves, a sudden commotion sounded from outside of Roxana’s door.

“Here! Next to...”

“Hurry! Evacua—!”

“Where’s—?!”

At first, the murmurs on the other side of the door were barely audible, but before long they were replaced by an ear-splitting shriek. “...fire! Everyone, get out!”

“A fire? Where?!”

A startled Pandora hastily rose from her seat to go stand next to Roxana who had already gone to open the door. As soon as she opened the door, a cacophony of shouting and screaming met them. Like the two women, a number of other guests were running out into the corridors in order to investigate the mayhem and were busy searching for answers from the frantic passersby.

“What’s going on? What happened? Where’s the fire?”

“In the Castro quarters!”

Upon finally receiving a rushed response, even more panic began to spread as word got around while both the attendants and clan members raced about aimlessly.

“Isn’t that part of the castle directly next to this one?! Do you think the fire will spread all the way here?” Pandora was once again wide-eyed as she hurriedly followed behind Roxana voicing her own concerns.

The Agrece's scarlet eyes stared toward the end of the hallway. “I suppose that’s possible, but fires don’t suddenly erupt like this...”

“First things first, we should evacuate as well!”

And with that, the Fipellion grabbed hold of the blond’s arm and pulled her toward the nearest exit. Roxana allowed herself to get led away as it served as an opportunity to secretly expand her poison butterflies’ view of the castle grounds. From what she could see, the fire had evidently spread from the third floor of the Red clan’s section of the castle and was rapidly spreading toward the upper floors.

Her butterflies also managed to show her the people who were fleeing from the roaring flames as others were making their way to the scene. Evidently, a few Castros had failed to escape in time and were trapped inside one of the rooms where the fire had begun to spread. Despite their dire situation, a few were actually attempting to remove a number of items from the room.

“There are still people inside!”

“We need to hurry and put out the flames!”

“Someone come help over here!”

As the ladies finally made their way out of their section of the castle, they could see the flames and smoke far more clearly as the plumes and blaze appeared to be dueling one another to consume the Castro tower first. Now that she was standing mere meters away from the destruction, Roxana observed the scene with a peculiarly cold yet calm gaze.

“What’s the situation?! What of those who are still inside?” Luzark Castro had been away from his clan’s quarters at the time and immediately demanded information as he ran toward the chaos.

“Some of the clan members failed to escape!”

“A few Pedelians have just gone into the building to rescue them!”

A startled-looking Sylvia had also come to observe the fire with her equally worried-looking mother Jeanne.

“Was my brother one of them?!”

“Yes, Miss. He was one of the first to charge inside!”

Upon hearing that some of his clansmen were awaiting salvation, the Red Heir had stormed into the burning building. As more men arrived on the scene, several more followed suit as well. Roxana was unable to drown out the sounds of screams and hollering around her.

“E-Everything will be all right. I’m sure the Blue Heir and the others will be just fine.”

Pandora seemed to be making a sincere attempt to reassure her of Cassis’ safety, but her words failed to reach the Agrece woman. Instead, Roxana bit into her ruby lips and reconnected with her poison butterfly in hopes of monitoring his condition for herself.