Roxana's Predicament

'___' : Thoughts

"___" : Speaking

[1400 Words]

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(3rd Person POV)

When that sentence entered the ears of two other people in the office, they had opposite reactions to it.

Jeremy Agriche was enraged.

The reason why he was enraged was because he was a sis-con. He wanted the attention and affection of his sister to be for only him.

Since his birth, he had never been given love from his mother or father. Love wasn't expected to be given to children in the Agriche household.

He may have grown up into his manipulative and sadistic counterpart of the novel if he had not been influenced by his sister, Roxana.

Roxana, in her goal of resisting her fate, thought that Jeremy was a good pawn to use.

The future Jeremy might have been difficult to handle but the young Jeremy was quite cute and naive in comparison.

He was more easily influenced and susceptible to love and affection.

The thing he had a lack of in his childhood...

The current Jeremy was a person who would easily follow his sister's orders.

Though, the disadvantage of Jeremy being too attached to his sister was that he was too protective of her and disliked anyone harming her or getting close to her.

There was an incident in which he tried to go against Roxana from giving her blood to the poison butterfly eggs.

That day Jeremy went to his room wounded from his fight with his sister.

He was okay with his sister doing whatever she wanted now but he didn't want her to be with another man and give her love to another male.

That's why he disliked other men coming near to her.

(A/N : Though, it is not stated in the manhwa properly but from many events in the manga between her and Jeremy, I am taking it as if he liked her romantically. He can die in a ditch. Do you want him to?)

Now, hearing this from his father he was extremely enraged.

He slammed his hands onto the table and shouted, "But father! Why do we have to bow in front of him? Why does Ana have to sacrifice herself for protecting us from him? Aren't we the Agriches who never bow in front of anyone? Even if he is really strong, can't we defeat him together?"

Lant Agriche looked at Jeremy who spoke so much in one go, he calmly replied, "Jeremy, you have to understand now. You are just trying to deny reality by making up some delusions in your mind. You saw the situation yesterday, Aston is too strong for us to handle.

"You could see neither you nor Roxana was able to react to his power. He has a mysterious power that we don't know. Maybe it is related to the secrecy around the powers of the Phoenix Family. The point is we can't beat him. Even if we manage to go neck to neck against him, he can easily call help from the royal capital and we won't stand any chance against them. Our reputation among the people of the empire is not good enough. Any flimsy reason will work on the people for the action of destroying the Agriches."

He continued, trying to explain to his foolish son, "The reason why I am suggesting this solution is because if this works it will be really advantageous and beneficial for us. If he starts to even consider the option of taking Roxana as his concubine, then the chances of him destroying the Agriches will be very low. And there is another reason which is we have no other option."

"We can't even give Cassis Pedelian back as I am sure that Aston Phoenix will use this as an excuse and rile up the Pedelians and have them as his allies. It will be dangerous for us to do that."

Now, Lant looked straight at Roxana who hadn't spoken a word since he said anything.

He imperturbably said with a tinge of threat in his tone, "Roxana, I expect a lot from you. I hope you don't let me and this family down. You have to fulfil any request of the crown prince or else we all are dead."

Roxana who had been standing quietly, replied smoothly, "Of course, father. I will fulfil your order to as best of my abilities."

On seeing the confidence of Roxana, Lant smiled satisfactorily and said, "Also, I have informed the crown prince that my daughter will be guiding him while he stays here. You have to deliver the food to him as well in his room."

(A/N : Room... ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ)

Without listening to any of their other arguments, he signalled both of them to leave his office.

When they were outside, Jeremy asked in a loud tone, "Sister, are you really gonna try to seduce that despicable crown prince?"

Roxana shut him up with a no-nonsense tone, "Jeremy, you heard father. The whole family is at stake here, I can't just think about myself here."

Jeremy, then asked with red cheeks and in a nervous tone, "B-But what if h-he asks you to do that t-thing with you? I don't want my sister to experience anything like that."

At first, Roxana didn't understand what Jeremy meant but after a few moments of critical thinking, she realised the meaning.

She didn't reply to that but if anyone concentrated on her face, they would see a tinge of redness on her cheeks. She was slightly embarrassed while thinking about that topic.

She said in a threatening tone to disguise herself being embarrassed, "Jeremy, you go back to your room. Don't disturb me from now for meaningless topics and there will be consequences if you come in my way again."

After that, she came to her room and sent her maid outside. When she ensured that there was no one inside the room, she let out a sigh of relief and dropped onto a chair. Her facade of being calm was razed as she had a panicked expression on her face.

When she heard what her father said in the office earlier, she was extremely surprised and panicked.

She had learnt seduction techniques in her childhood but there was never a situation where she had to use them. She could dominate the males by just giving a slight smile and they would get bewitched by her beauty.

And even without it, she was strong enough to take care of herself as well as the Agriche surname behind her helped her a lot by getting rid of the annoying pests who wanted to propose to her.

But now, her father has said she might have to use it on a person. The idea of doing those things with someone irks her slightly as she can't imagine that at all.

She knew that the crown prince was handsome and dashing. He is considered the best bachelor in the whole empire. There are tons of noble ladies who swoon over him and will do anything to be his wife or even his concubine.

She had heard about him but she didn't care much as her sole motive at that time was to resist her destiny which was death.

Now, after seeing his personality which was like an unprincipled devil, she could not even imagine what things he will make her do. And his chaotic behaviour was even more dangerous.

Also, lowering herself to be a concubine was impossible. She cared bout her dignity too much.

She had promised herself that she will do her best to not interact with the crown prince. But, now the total opposite is going to happen.

She calmed down the train of her thoughts and tried to think rationally.

After a few minutes, her plan was to be passive when interacting with Aston. She won't try to attempt seduction earnestly. She will try to just fulfil her normal duties and if the crown prince will try to force her into something unpleasant, she will fight him.

She doesn't care if she goes down fighting...

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(End of the Chapter)

Before anyone gives any comment, why is she trying to fight when she knows that she will die? Isn't that stupid considering that her final motive is to live and defy her fate? Well, you are correct she does want to live but if your dumb mind might have noticed, she has a lot of pride and determination.

She is kind of shy considering the sexual matters and she absolutely hates r*pists. It's not shown in the manhwa directly but it correlates with her personality. So, she won't get herself r*ped even if she has to give her life.

Anyway, if you liked the story, add it to your library. Drop some powerstones.

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