Chapter 107
Varkas, who had been watching her movements through the glass window, left the corridor and went down the stairs. When he went outside through the back door, shrubs with densely tangled branches blocked his view.
Walking through them with hurried steps, Varkas found Thalia sitting beneath a red barberry tree and came to an abrupt stop.
The moment he saw her sitting on the ground in only a thin gown, his throat stung as if he had swallowed a shard of glass.
He swallowed the sharp words rising inside him and strode toward her.
“What are you doing in a place like this?”
The woman, who had been quietly staring at the flower bed, lifted her head. Her unfocused eyes groped through empty air. Varkas distorted his eyes.
“Did you perhaps burn sleeping herb?”
“...I didn’t burn any. I’m just a little tired.” Thalia replied in a languid voice and dropped her gaze back to the flower bed.
Following her gaze, Varkas discovered a bird lying limply among the long-grown blades of grass and hardened his face.
Perhaps it had been torn apart by a stray cat, for through the ripped skin of its belly, he could see its entrails swarming with ants and maggots.
In the past, she had been a woman who would have a fit at the mere sight of insects. A woman who hated dirty things almost to the point of mysophobia and liked beautiful things enough to be criticized as extravagant had, at some point, begun turning her eyes toward hideous things. That strange change bothered him.
He pulled her to her feet with a somewhat rough touch.
“If you are tired, you should rest in your room. Why are you doing this?”
“......I felt suffocated, so I just came out to get some air for a moment. The room was strangely hot.” Thalia muttered as if making an excuse.
Varkas, creasing the corners of his eyes, placed the back of his hand against her forehead.
He felt no heat. Perhaps because she had been exposed to the cold wind in thin clothing, her skin was actually cool.
Letting out a small sigh, Varkas took off his coat and draped it around her shoulders.
“Let us go in now. Your body is cold.”
“You know.......”
Just as he wrapped one arm around her and began stepping toward the back door, her hoarse voice caught at his ankle.
He lowered his gaze again. Shadowed blue eyes filled his sight. The woman, who had been worrying her lip as if hesitating over something, continued with difficulty.
“Back then......”
“You were here!”
At that moment, a booming voice cut off the rest of her words.
Varkas turned his head toward the direction of the sound. Daren Dru Siarkan, with five or six subordinates in tow, was crossing the garden while trampling the wildflowers around the narrow walking path.
“There is something I must report urgently. I went to the inn and met intelligence agents from the capital, and they said the movements in the Imperial Palace are unusual. It seems the Empress is beginning a full-fledged expansion of her influence......”
The man, who had been pouring out his words hastily, belatedly discovered Thalia and closed his mouth.
Varkas checked Thalia’s complexion. Her face, which had looked defenseless like that of a lost child, was frozen cold.
She took one step back and muttered in a low, sunken voice.
“I’ll go up to my room, so you take care of your own business.”
“I will escort you to your bedchamber.”
“I can go alone.”
“Have I not told you again and again that you must not go around without an escort?”
At the words he spat out as if reprimanding her, a faint look of displeasure appeared on her beautiful face.
She looked over the knights standing behind Daren, then pointed at the smallest man.
“Then assign that person as my escort.”
The soldier who had been pointed out shrank his shoulders with a flustered face.
Ever since the incident in which his wife had charged at Lucas, saying she would pull out his tongue, the warriors of the family had treated her as a person requiring caution. The man she had pointed out also seemed reluctant, hesitating as he watched Varkas’s expression.
Varkas snapped coldly.
“What are you doing standing there? Escort her at once.” As soon as his order fell, the soldier hurried over.
Varkas reluctantly loosened the arm wrapped around her. Thalia moved away from him without hesitation.
After watching her retreating figure for a moment, Varkas turned his head back toward Daren. As if he had been waiting for it, Daren took out a bundle of parchment from his arms and held it out.
“These are documents recording the events that occurred in the capital after Your Grace left the Imperial Palace.”
He slowly read through the documents. The report contained information that cracks were forming among the conservative nobles, and that the Empress had begun openly gathering supporters for the Second Prince.
Varkas creased the corners of his eyes.
‘That is unlike that woman.’
The Emperor was still strong. Unless some unexpected change occurred, Birus Roem Ghirta’s reign would continue for more than ten years. So why was the Empress not waiting until the Second Prince came of age?
At the difficult-to-understand move, a strong sense of wariness rose in him. Just as she had used her daughter to provoke Gareth, was she now intending to put forward her young son to incite discord?
If that woman was trying to induce Gareth to run out of control, then there might be a far greater danger lurking behind this marriage discussion.
As he read the part stating that the engagement between the heir of House Heimdal and the First Princess was being discussed in earnest, Varkas crumpled the parchment in irritation.
Strengthening ties with the North itself was not bad. However, entrusting Ayla’s safety to them was a hasty judgment.
The northerners were a people with an extraordinary obsession with their bloodline. Were they not people who had, over generations, not even hesitated to practice close-kin marriage in order to preserve the platinum-blond hair and red eyes that were characteristics of the ancient giant race? There was no way they would obediently accept a black-haired Princess as the mistress of their house. They must certainly have some other scheme.
Varkas, who had been touching the corners of his mouth with a thoughtful expression, soon left the garden.
After being guided by the chief butler into the office, a young attendant brought him writing tools. He sat at the desk and prepared several documents. They were orders to thoroughly investigate the scale of the army House Heimdal had gathered and the flow of funds.
After sealing them and handing them to a messenger, he additionally wrote two telegrams to send to the capital. One was to Marquis Oristein, and the other was to Gareth.
Varkas, who wrote sentences warning of the danger of the North in as indirect a tone as possible, signed the end of the documents and stamped them with his seal.
Daren, who had been watching from his side, asked in an awkward tone.
“Are you thinking of stopping the First Princess’s marriage?”
Varkas looked at him with puzzled eyes.
“Is there some problem?”
“Well... If Your Grace steps forward to dissuade it, would the situation not look a little strange?”
Daren scratched the back of his head.
“People may think that Grand Duke Siarkan still has lingering feelings for the First Princess.”
Varkas let out a dry laugh.
“You worry about the most pointless things.”
The gossip chattered about by the busybodies of the Imperial Palace would not have much influence on the East. He had already firmly impressed the new Grand Duchess upon his vassals. At present, it was more dangerous to give the conservative nobles the impression that his relationship with the Crown Prince had completely fallen apart.
He rolled up the parchment and stamped it with sealing wax.
“Choose the fastest person and send him to the capital.”
The man, who wore a strange expression for a moment, accepted the parchment and left.
Varkas leaned back against the chair and turned his head toward the window.
Before he knew it, the sky was pouring down a thin drizzle.
Suddenly, the afterimage of Thalia standing alone in the garden passed through his mind. What had she been about to say at that time?
When he recalled her desolate eyes as she stared at the dead bird, an uncomfortable sensation rose in his chest. Swept up in an unknown impatience, Varkas tapped the desk, then immediately left the office.
Perhaps they were preparing a welcoming ceremony, for the hall was filled with noise. He passed the servants bowing their heads and went up the stairs.
When he opened the bedroom door, a small figure curled up on the wide bed came into view.
He approached the bedside. A faint flush had risen over her white cheek, which drew an elegant curve. She had been drooping like a sick chick all day, and it seemed she had finally come down with a fever.
Varkas let out a long breath and picked up a clean towel from the shelf. Just as he was about to wipe her face with it, a strange smell brushed the tip of his nose.
He stopped all movement. A dark red stain had spread around her mouth. After staring at it blankly, he lightly shook her body as she lay on her side. Her nape, damp with cold sweat, fell limply to the side.
Only then did the red mark spread across the pillow enter his sight. Varkas slowly blinked and carefully supported her head.
A thick smell of blood pierced his nose. The red liquid gathered at the corner of her mouth flowed down her deathly pale neck.
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!