Chapter 88
When she raised her voice sharply, displeasure flickered across the faces of the maids waiting on either side.
But Varkas himself did not even blink.
Varkas slid his fingers along her temple and lightly stroked her burning earlobe.
Thalia looked up at him with a flustered face.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Even your ears are red.”
His slightly rough fingertips gently traced the curve of her ear.
Thalia felt a tingling sensation run down the nape of her neck and hunched her shoulders.
Varkas silently looked into her eyes, then spoke as if scolding her.
“Are you properly receiving treatment? If you are only using sleep herb again…”
“Are you my nanny?”
Thalia pushed him away rather roughly.
Unlike herself, who had been spellbound by the sight of him dressed splendidly, his attitude of treating her like a seriously ill patient made her feel freshly miserable.
“I’m living just fine on my own, so stop caring. You’ve done that well enough until now.”
When she pointed out that he had not shown his face even once over the past few days, his eyes narrowed.
Just as he was about to say something, an ominous voice came from inside the room.
“How long do you intend to keep me waiting, Varkas?”
Thalia turned her head and looked at the large bed placed in the middle of the room.
A bony arm stretched out from the wooden bed draped with a thin canopy.
He arrogantly crooked a finger and gave an order.
“Bring your wife here.”
Thalia narrowed her eyes.
Even if he was the Grand Duke, he had no right to beckon an Imperial Princess with a finger.
However, she knew there was nothing to gain by talking back to their leader in a place where the powerful figures of the East had gathered.
She looked over the men surrounding the bed, then carefully stepped into the room.
Varkas naturally wrapped an arm around her waist.
When Thalia realized he was supporting her, she bit her lip.
Did this man see her as a child who needed to be cared for?
Even before, he had touched her body without hesitation, but after the wyvern attack, it seemed especially worse.
“This way, please.”
Thalia, almost held by him, approached the large bed.
A solemn-looking man who seemed to be a legal representative and a man in priestly robes quietly stepped aside.
Thalia examined the Grand Duke of Siarkan with a tense face.
The man seemed not to resemble Varkas at all, yet somehow he did.
His body, clearly marked by illness, reeked strongly of death, but authority overflowed from his face, as if it had been roughly carved with a chisel, and arrogance filled his cold eyes, which looked as though they had been made by melting steel.
He slowly looked her over with sharp eyes and released a low, heavy voice.
“…You resemble her to an unpleasant degree. Did that woman create a homunculus of herself?”
Those words were no different from questioning her bloodline.
Thalia threw far away the thought of being polite.
“If I were not of Darian’s bloodline, people like you would have uncovered that fact long ago.”
She lifted her chin high and sharply struck back.
“Or are you confessing your own incompetence, that you couldn’t even handle one noble lady of the Taren family?”
As if shocked by her counterattack, rough gasps sounded from all around the room.
The Grand Duke’s face also stiffened.
He glared at her as if digging into her face with eyes like awls.
“You are fearless. Do you not know that I am a man of power who commands the strongest cavalry army in this Empire?”
Thalia’s face stiffened.
For an instant, the pressure exuded by the Grand Duke made the backs of her knees go numb.
Nevertheless, she deliberately bluffed.
“So what are you going to do? Trample me with that cavalry army?”
“Do you think I cannot?”
The man spat mockingly.
“Do you believe your authority, worthless even in the Imperial Palace, can be guaranteed in this East?”
The Grand Duke’s eyes gleamed chillingly with hostility.
He pressed on like rapid fire.
“If I decide right now to cut off your neck, who could stop me? Would the Emperor really risk the danger of splitting the Empire for your sake? Rather than go to war with the East, he would close his eyes and pretend not to know. Your mother would be somewhat troublesome, but even so, I would never stand in a courtroom. Your authority as a Princess is that insignificant.”
Thalia felt cold sweat soak her back.
Intense hostility surged toward the man who had casually laid bare a fact she had continued to deny while pretending not to know.
Even as she retreated like a cornered beast, she glared at the Grand Duke with venomous eyes.
“Then try killing me! My mother won’t stop at being somewhat troublesome. She could use my death as an excuse to pressure the conservative nobles, so do you think she would just let that chance pass? There’s no way she would.”
Thalia snorted loudly.
“Do you know what that means? It means the tiny bit of life you have left will become very, very exhausting. Do you think you’ll be comfortable after you die? You killed a powerless woman just because you heard a few words, so you will fall into the fires of hell.”
At the excessive curse, the Grand Duke’s face went white and stiff.
Into that face, Thalia poured out words without leaving room to breathe.
“Do you think your suffering will end there? You will have an especially painful time even in hell. Because I won’t leave you alone for even a moment! Even in hell, I will torment you day and night to repay my grudge. I have a very special talent in that field. If you don’t believe me, ask Varkas!”
When she glared at Varkas, meaning for him to add a word, he looked down at her with a very strange expression.
When he did not immediately take her side, Thalia’s face twisted with a sense of betrayal.
As expected, she could trust no one.
This place was nothing but a den of enemies.
Thalia looked around warily at the men with swords at their waists, then turned her body.
Just as she was about to run away, Varkas caught her arm.
Thalia jumped in fright.
“Let go!”
As she flailed her arms and legs, wondering if he meant to offer her up to the Grand Duke, Varkas let out a heavy sigh and pulled her against his chest.
Thalia stopped breathing.
Varkas held her in place so she could not move and spoke coldly to the Grand Duke.
“There is one thing I must correct. If Your Grace tries to harm Thalia Roem Siarkan, I will stand in your way.”
Thalia looked up at him with a surprised expression.
He slowly finished his words.
“Do you intend to lose your heir forever over a pointless argument?”
The Grand Duke, who had been staring with his mouth open in disbelief, twisted his face viciously.
He looked as if he might breathe fire from his mouth at any moment.
However, what burst from his mouth was not a rough shout but a violent coughing fit.
The man, whose bony body shook as he coughed, gasped for breath and let out a dry laugh.
“This is unbelievable.”
“……”
“Are you acting so arrogant because I have no other option besides you?”
“If there is another option, you may put him forward.”
Varkas spoke in a voice chillingly gentle.
“I intend to do my utmost to assert my rights. If you wish for the East to split and fight, then do so.”
The wrinkles around the Grand Duke’s mouth trembled faintly.
The man glared at his eldest son with burning eyes, then soon leaned his head against the headboard as if exhausted.
Then he held out one hand toward the legal representative.
“Give me the power of attorney.”
The frozen representative held out the parchment document with trembling hands.
The Grand Duke took the quill and left his signature in rough handwriting, then removed the ring from his finger.
The legal representative immediately poured sealing wax at the end of the document.
The Grand Duke pressed his seal into it and handed the parchment to Varkas as if throwing it.
“With this, all my rights are transferred to Varkas Raedgo Siarkan.”
Varkas accepted the power of attorney with an expressionless face.
As if the matter was finished, the man lowered his eyelids and roughly waved his hand.
“Now get out.”
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