Chapter 93
“He is touring the territory with the manager here. He has only just taken office, so how could there be only one or two things to inspect?”
The nanny answered halfheartedly as she arranged the food on the table.
“Now, stop pretending to be distracted and come sit here. Young lady, you must hurry and eat, then prepare to leave.”
Thalia swallowed a heavy sigh and pulled out a chair in front of the table.
She still had no appetite, but she did not want to argue with the nanny, who seemed to be in a good mood for once.
“I’m only going to eat a tiny bit.”
“Of course you are.”
The nanny, smiling broadly, cut the food into bite-sized pieces and placed them on a plate.
Thalia took a piece of bread cut to the size of a fingernail and broke it down even smaller, checking whether any foreign matter had gotten mixed in.
Once she was certain the food was safe, she forced the crumbled bread down her throat with sticky jam.
She tried to end the meal roughly at that point, but the nanny handed her meat cooked in some mysterious brown sauce and steamed eggs as well.
She could not bring herself to eat the gamey-smelling meat, so she barely managed to eat one egg and rose from her seat.
At that moment, she sensed another presence outside the tent.
“Your Highness, I have come to check your physical condition.”
It was the healer Senevier had assigned to her.
Thalia answered in an indifferent voice.
“Come in.”
Once permission was given, a middle-aged woman with neat features entered.
She asked kindly,
“How is the pain?”
“It’s not that bad today.”
Thalia answered bluntly as she sat on the bed.
The woman naturally bent before her and unwrapped the bandages around her legs.
When the reddish scars were revealed, the nanny immediately turned her head away.
Thalia tried hard to pretend she did not notice and looked down at her legs with blank eyes.
The healer smeared something like sticky cream over the scars, then wrapped the bandages again.
“Your skin may become irritated, so I will wrap them a little loosely today.”
“It’s fine, so wrap them tightly. Make sure they absolutely won’t come undone.”
“Do you intend to make the scars worse than they already are?”
The healer scolded her in a flat tone.
Thalia glared at her with sharp eyes, then soon bit her lip and shook her head.
The woman, wearing a faint smile around her mouth, wrapped the bandages loosely and added soothingly,
“I tied the knot firmly so it won’t come undone, so don’t worry.”
Instead of answering, Thalia felt the bandages.
They certainly did not seem likely to come undone unless she grabbed and tore them off herself.
As she let out a small sigh of relief, the woman took a small incense burner from the bag she had tucked under her arm.
“I will burn medicinal herbs for you in advance before you depart. It will make enduring the carriage journey easier.”
Then she inserted an incense stick made from tightly bundled dried herbs into a porcelain jar.
Thalia caught her hand and stopped her.
“No need.”
The healer widened her eyes in surprise.
“Will you be all right? The pain will worsen if you are inside a shaking carriage.”
“I’ll just endure it anyway. Varkas…”
She was about to say that Varkas disliked her burning herbs, but closed her mouth.
She did not want anyone to discover that she cared about him.
Even though there was no one now who would laugh at or mock her feelings, it was still like that.
Thalia snapped as if brushing it off.
“If I said it’s fine, then just accept that it’s fine.”
After sending her a worried look for a moment, the healer pushed the incense burner back into her bag.
Thalia rose, lightly washed her face, and changed clothes with the nanny’s help.
When she finished grooming and stepped outside, her vision filled with uneven rows of yellowish-brown tents and people busily moving between them.
At the unfamiliar sight, Thalia hunched her shoulders.
Children running barefoot through the grass, women crouched before large ovens baking bread and meat, men riding horses with their upper bodies exposed…
Everything was utterly strange.
“You’re finally awake.”
As she blankly looked around, a familiar voice came from somewhere.
Thalia turned her head and frowned when she found a slender boy with golden-brown eyes.
Varkas’s strange younger brother was sitting on a large chest, glaring at her.
“Are all royals as lazy as you? Everyone was waiting until their necks stretched for you to finish getting ready.”
Thalia lifted the corners of her eyes.
At that, a hint of intimidation briefly crossed the face of the boy who had been acting arrogantly.
“No, it’s just that the sun is already high in the sky and you still hadn’t shown even the tip of your nose…”
“What happened to respect?”
Thalia snapped coldly.
The boy shrugged and answered shamelessly.
“I don’t even use honorifics with my father.”
“Are you proud of being an ill-bred brat?”
The boy’s eyes crumpled at once.
“Who’s ill-bred? I’m just a little free-spirited!”
Thalia felt he was not worth dealing with and turned away.
He quickly followed after her.
“Is your personality always that awful? No, how did you end up like that?”
“……”
“According to the rumors, you frequently beat maids and drove them out, and even put poison in the First Princess’s wine glass. Is all of that true?”
Thalia, who had been walking slowly, stopped in place.
As if afraid of being hit, the boy took one step back.
She glared silently at him, then slowly raised the corners of her mouth.
“That’s right. All of it is true.”
The boy’s yellowish-brown eyes widened.
Looking straight into those eyes, Thalia continued softly.
“When I was bored, I beat maids, and I have put drugs in my elder half-sister’s wine glass.”
The boy’s pupils shook violently.
He seemed unable to tell whether she was serious or bluffing.
Thalia stepped close to him and thrust her face threateningly toward him.
“Do you think that’s all? I even sharpened a knife every night to tear that pretty face of hers to pieces.”
She could see the fine hairs standing up on his smooth, glossy cheeks.
Into his ears, which had flushed red as if blood was rushing fast, Thalia whispered coldly.
“So you’d better be careful too. I have no sense of restraint.”
When she straightened herself, she saw his face filled with shock.
Thalia snorted openly at him, then limped toward the carriage.
***
After spending one night in the pastureland near Raedgo Castle, they moved east and looked around a fairly large village before turning north.
As they traveled along the dirt roads connecting village to village, large and small camps appeared here and there.
It seemed that many of the Khan people still maintained a nomadic lifestyle.
To raise hundreds of animals, a life of moving from pasture to pasture with each season must have been unavoidable.
On the other hand, the settlers living in villages lived lives similar to imperial citizens.
They lived in houses built of stone and earth, cultivated fields, and some opened workshops to make handicrafts or traded foodstuffs at the market.
The wool market, in particular, was greatly active, and high-quality fabrics and felt made from sheep’s wool seemed to be one of the East’s main sources of income.
Large markets opened in the major cities, and hundreds of merchants gathered from all over the Empire to purchase expensive fabrics.
Naturally, enormous amounts of gold flowed into the trade exchange.
Varkas’s main task was to grasp the operating conditions of this exchange.
“The market is growing greatly every year. Not only various fabrics, but also foodstuffs and crafts are being actively traded.”
The administrator standing beside Varkas continued explaining in a calm tone.
“The details recorded here are the tax records collected this season. In addition, we have organized every detail of rental income, tolls, and even the profit status of the horse market directly operated by the Grand Duke’s house.”
Varkas quickly skimmed the thick ledger.
Thalia, who had been staring blankly at him, could not endure the boredom and turned her gaze toward the window.
The sight of a city packed tightly with well-maintained roads and stone buildings filled her vision.
The East was truly a strange place.
Those who lived in tents on open grasslands and those who lived imperial-style lives inside high walls…
It was as if two different worlds had been chaotically mixed together.
“Since this seems likely to take some time, would you like to step outside and look around the trading floor?”
Thalia, who had been blankly looking out the window, flinched and turned her head.
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