Chapter 126
Thalia stared with a stiff expression at his back, which was swallowed by darkness in an instant, then hurriedly crossed the room.
She could vaguely see him turning around.
Thalia immediately reached out.
She felt the texture of a stiff bandage covering bare skin.
“Are you hurt?”
“It is only a light scratch from subjugating a magical beast.”
“A light scratch…? What kind of magical beast was it?”
How could a man with monstrous strength, enough to easily subdue even a wyvern, have been wounded?
When she looked up at the outline of his face with wide eyes, Varkas answered in a voice mixed with a sigh.
“A pair of male and female Drakars had nested in the north. They are rare magical beasts, so I tried not to damage their hides…”
When her hand touched his bare chest, he suddenly stopped speaking.
Thalia moved her fingertips along the bandage with the single-minded intention of checking the depth of the wound.
Thick cloth wrapped diagonally around his left shoulder and chest.
“How bad is it?”
“It is nothing serious.”
“Light a fire. I can’t see well.”
Varkas inhaled deeply and reached out to draw aside the curtain hanging over the window.
Dark ink-colored clouds covered the entire sky, but it was not pitch-black, so she could check his whole body without difficulty.
Varkas stood barefoot on the carpet, wearing only a loose pair of eastern-style wool trousers.
For a moment, she stiffened at the somehow savage sight of him, but then Thalia found the medicine bottle in his hand and raised her voice sharply.
“Why didn’t you call the healer? If you healed it with magic…”
“The claws of a Drakar are coated with poison that has magic resistance. Healing magic will not work at all until the poison detoxifies naturally.”
After answering bluntly, Varkas turned toward the shelf.
Thanks to that, Thalia was able to examine his back, revealed right in front of her, from close up.
Varkas’s body was like a structure from which every unnecessary element had been thoroughly removed.
Dense muscles occupied every space over a solid frame that formed perfect sculptural beauty, and taut tendons stood out over his marble-like skin like finely carved relief patterns.
Even the bandage wrapped around his body looked like an ornament meant to make his robust physique stand out.
“The toxin should leave in about a week, and healing magic can be cast then.”
Varkas calmly added as he set down the medicine bottle.
Thalia, who had been staring in a daze, suddenly came to her senses and awkwardly lowered her eyes.
“…Does it hurt?”
“Not in the slightest.”
At his overly dry reply, Thalia made a doubtful expression.
Indeed, there was no sign of pain in any of Varkas’s movements as he put on his shirt.
Even so, unable to relax, she asked again anxiously.
“You’re really all right?”
“There should be no problem with carrying out the act, so do not worry.”
Thalia looked up at him with an expression as if she had been slapped.
“Do you think I’m obsessed with doing that with you?”
“Did you not come here to sleep with me?”
The man sent her a puzzled look.
For a moment, she was speechless at his attitude, which seemed not to be sarcastic but simply to confirm the facts.
Because, just as he said, she had come to sleep with him.
Her face reddened, and she stammered.
“Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t come because I wanted you. I only came to have a child…”
“Do not worry. I have never once mistaken your intention.”
Varkas cut off her excuse in a calm tone.
Thalia tucked her lips inward.
She ought to have been relieved that he did not doubt her words.
Then why did her chest feel so stifled?
“Anyway, I have no intention of doing that with an injured person. So light the fireplace.”
“…Will you stay in this room?”
For an instant, surprise crossed Varkas’s face.
Thalia’s complexion darkened.
This man truly seemed to believe that she only treated him with that purpose in mind.
Even though she had tried hard to make it look that way, when it seemed Varkas had not noticed her feelings at all, she felt strange.
She fixed her gaze on the floor and stepped back.
“If you dislike me being here, then say so. I’ll go back to my room…”
“Please stay here.”
He firmly wrapped his hand around hers.
“Weren’t you the one who always said you did not want to be here? I always asked you to stay.”
Thalia looked up at him with confused eyes, then soon lowered her gaze to the hand captured by him.
After having relations with Varkas, she always felt vulnerable.
She became tense, not knowing when his hand would touch her leg, and nervous that perhaps her unsightly appearance might be revealed to his vision, which had grown used to the darkness.
Most of all, she was frightened by how unbearably large the desire for his touch and warmth was growing.
But…
She carefully traced his figure, surrounded by bluish light, with her eyes.
With his wet hair swept back and his forehead fully revealed, he somehow looked like a lonely boy.
That harmless-looking appearance broke down her wariness.
“Then I’ll stay only a little before I go. If I go back like this, Nanny will nag…”
At the clumsy excuse, faint wrinkles formed near his eyes.
Realizing that her words were no different from confessing that the nanny was pressuring her to become pregnant, Thalia awkwardly avoided his gaze.
Varkas, who had been looking down at her silently, spoke coldly.
“If that woman bothers you, I will send her back to the imperial palace.”
Thalia shouted as if having a fit.
“Just try it! I absolutely won’t let you get away with it!”
He sent her an indescribable look.
It was an expression that showed he could not understand why she did not cast out a woman who treated her so carelessly.
Thalia raised her voice as if defending her.
“She has taken care of me since I was a newborn. She is no different from my own mother to me.”
“…”
“If you send Nanny back to the imperial palace, I’ll go back with her.”
When she snapped firmly, his brow hardened.
The man, whose lips moved as if he wanted to say something, soon sighed and turned toward the fireplace.
“Do not just stand there. Sit.”
Then, instead of calling a servant, he began lighting the fire himself.
Relieved that the subject had changed, Thalia quietly approached his side.
“Leave that to the servants and just sit still and rest.”
“This much is fine.”
Before long, flames rose over the firewood.
Thalia, who had been pacing restlessly, immediately tugged at his clothes.
“Now hurry and sit.”
When she dragged him beside the bed and pressed down on his shoulders, Varkas sent her a strange look.
Perhaps he found it absurd that the woman who had always only pushed him away was clumsily trying to look after him.
After silently looking down at her for a while, the man soon sat on the sheet.
Thalia relaxed and turned toward the storage cabinet.
“You said there is poison, didn’t you? Shouldn’t you take something like a fever reducer? Or a painkiller…”
“It does not hurt, and I do not have a fever.”
She let his reply go in one ear and out the other as she rummaged through the drawers at random.
Before long, she found a medicine bottle containing mandrake extract.
Thalia opened the lid to check the contents, poured a suitable amount into a teacup, and held it out to him.
“Here, hurry and drink.”
Varkas only quietly looked down at the teacup.
Did he suspect she might feed him something strange?
As she glared at him with offended eyes, Varkas touched the line of her waist and said.
“I will drink it if Your Highness feeds it to me.”
Thalia blinked blankly.
Without changing his expression in the slightest, Varkas calmly waited for her answer.
At his composed appearance, her thoughts, which had stopped, finally began working again.
“D-drink it yourself!”
“I always fed you, did I not? It is time for you to repay your debt.”
Thalia looked back and forth between him and the medicine bottle with a face burning red.
Suddenly, she felt annoyed at how shamelessly he made such a demand without hesitation.
Thalia, who had been about to shout that he could forget it if he did not want to drink it, changed her mind and took a mouthful of the bitter extract.
Perhaps he had not expected her to truly comply, because his eyes widened slightly.
As if to show him, Thalia grabbed his face and pressed her lips to his lips, which held a faint scent of soap.
Then, as if it were only natural, his arms wrapped around her waist.
Thalia unconsciously grabbed his shoulder, then felt the thick bandage and startled, pulling her hand away.
In the meantime, his slick tongue softly swept between her lips.
Unable to resist the silent urging, she slowly poured the fluid into his mouth.
But she was not able to do it as skillfully as he had.
Feeling the overflowing liquid wet the corners of her mouth, she lifted her head, and Varkas cupped her cheek and licked her jaw.
Before she knew it, they were lying on the bed, tightly embracing each other.
Feeling his arousal-hardened body press against her stomach, Thalia hurriedly raised her upper body.
“No. I said we won’t do it until your wound heals.”
“I will do nothing more than this. Just stay still like this.”
Varkas gently stroked down her hair and murmured in a locked voice.
Thalia, who had been about to push him away, soon relaxed her body.
The noisy sound of rain and the crackling of firewood mixed with the dull sound of a heartbeat.
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!