Chapter 127
The fingers stroking her hair slid down along the nape of her neck.
Thalia tilted her head back without realizing it.
The tongue that had so often spat out painful words whenever it had the chance now gently swept through every part of her mouth.
Their breaths gradually grew rough, and her vision grew distant.
She could feel their touching bodies heating up to an unbearable degree, but she could not stop at all.
Following Varkas’s lead, she moved her tongue slowly and thickly.
She did not know how long they stayed like that.
Around the time her lips began to sting, he lifted his head.
Thalia looked up into his eyes while breathing shortly.
Unlike his body, which was throbbing hot, there was no trace of desire on the silent face looking down at her.
That incomprehensible gap made her anxious.
After calming her ragged breathing, Thalia quietly turned her body.
“I’ll… go now.”
Just as she was about to get down from the bed, he wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Stay a little longer.”
At the sweet low voice pouring into her ear, it felt as though her bones were melting.
The man, pressed perfectly against her from behind, placed his lips on the nape of her neck.
Thalia stiffened with tension.
The reason she had come here was to obtain an heir for the grand ducal house.
Even entrusting her body to him in the darkness was nothing more than a procedure to accept him without pain.
Those lies, which were close to self-hypnosis, were about to collapse helplessly with a single gentle touch.
She desperately gathered her will.
“There’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“There’s no reason for you not to stay either.”
He spoke while stroking her hair.
“I’m a patient, aren’t I? Stay beside me only until I fall asleep.”
At the voice tinged with slight languor, Thalia bit her lip.
Why do you want me to stay beside you?
She wanted to ask that, but she was afraid a disappointing answer would return.
After hesitating, Thalia eventually said something else.
“…Then hurry and sleep.”
She felt his lips move faintly.
Did he just smile?
No, that could not be.
Were those not lips whose corners never moved except when he was sneering or letting out a cold laugh?
Suppressing the urge to look back, she stared hard at the glass window splashed with raindrops.
Just then, lightning flashed, and a growling sound rang out.
“Are you afraid of thunder?”
He suddenly asked.
Only then did Thalia realize that her body was trembling.
She had never once felt fear toward storms or lightning, but she did not bother denying it.
She did not want him to discover that she was shaken by the emotions he stirred up.
After a while, she heard his even breathing.
The dull sound of his heartbeat also gradually slowed.
Is he asleep?
But he might not be.
For a long time, she dragged things out by guessing something she could confirm simply by turning her body, until sleep surged over her like a tidal wave.
She slowly sank into the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness.
Then, at some point, she was sucked into dense darkness as if sinking beneath it.
The warmth that had pleasantly wrapped around her body vanished in an instant, and the darkness became an iron hammer, crushing her entire body.
She struggled to move toward a bright place, but only the pitiful sound of shattered bones rattling echoed out.
At that moment, a growling breath mixed into it.
She saw two eyes flashing in the darkness.
A monster with red eyes slowly crawled toward her to devour her.
She could faintly see the form of a hideous beast wrapped in scales.
The monster opened its mouth and chewed on her ruined lower body.
Not even a scream came out.
Thalia watched with terrified eyes as the monster sunk in darkness tore her body apart and ate it.
But something was strange.
The monster’s form gradually shrank and transformed into a somehow familiar shape.
A woman with a strange smile on her lips embraced Thalia’s blood-soaked upper body with a pale shining hand.
Then she opened her blood-wet lips and tore a piece of flesh from Thalia’s neck.
At last, Thalia recognized the monster’s face.
It was Mother.
Senevier slowly ate away at what little remained of her body.
In an instant, Thalia was left with only her head and shed tears.
A beautiful hand lifted the severed head.
Poor thing.
Senevier whispered as if she truly pitied her and kissed her wet cheek.
“Thalia!”
At that moment, someone shook her body violently.
Thalia opened her eyes wide, sucking in air desperately like someone just dragged up from underwater.
The scene of the dark bedroom entered her panic-stricken vision.
For a moment, she could not clearly recognize where she was.
As she trembled like an aspen tree, someone stroked her hair.
“Shh, shh… It’s all right.”
Thalia turned her head.
She saw a beautiful face clouded with concern.
He cupped her cheeks with both hands and swept his thumbs over her wet eyes.
“Calm down. It was just a dream.”
Thalia moved her eyes, chasing the afterimage of Senevier stuck to her retinas, then let her shoulders fall.
But her trembling did not easily subside.
He held her tightly in both arms and stroked her back at a steady rhythm.
Her heart, which had been thrashing violently as if it would burst out of her mouth at any moment, gradually found its rhythm again.
She murmured in a tearful voice.
“Have you ever had nightmares too?”
The hand patting her back paused for a moment.
“A very long time ago.”
“What kind of dream was it?”
“Well…”
Noticing that his voice had sunk a little, she was about to lift her head, but his hand pressed down on the back of her head.
“It was so long ago that I do not remember well.”
But you clearly remember that it was a nightmare.
Surely, it must have been a very painful dream.
“Sleep more. If another nightmare seems about to come, I will wake you.”
He whispered as he pulled the blanket up over her shoulders.
Thalia naturally burrowed into his arms.
The thought occurred to her that she had never intended to sleep here in the first place, but she erased it immediately.
Right now, she could not possibly escape from these arms.
She pressed her cheek against his bare chest and closed her eyes.
***
The next day, she learned exactly how he had ended up injured.
A large box containing well-groomed silver fur had been placed in front of her door.
The servant who had personally carried it explained proudly.
“It is the belly hide of the Drakar that His Grace personally subjugated. It is a top-grade material that does not burn even in flames and perfectly blocks the cutting winds of midwinter. He instructed that an outer coat be made from it for Her Highness, the Grand Duchess.”
The nanny, with her mouth open, stroked the fur with trembling hands.
The silk-like white fur gave off a faint blue glow in the sunlight.
“My goodness, it is so beautiful.”
The maids who had come to help her get ready also let out exclamations of admiration.
It was understandable.
Among dragon subspecies magical beasts, the Drakar belonged to the highest class.
Its only weakness was the abdomen covered with soft fur.
Because of that, even first-rate hunters had to risk their lives to obtain clean fur without any damage.
Perhaps even Mother had never seen top-grade material of this level.
However, Thalia’s face as she looked down at that precious treasure was frozen like ice.
That was because anger surged all the way to the top of her head when she thought of him recklessly fighting just to obtain something like this.
She sent the servants a cold gaze.
“Where is His Grace right now?”
“Well… he should be handling official duties in his office.”
The servant, noticing that she was in a bad mood, answered with a dispirited face.
Thalia left the room without delay.
She intended to snap that she had no need for such a gift and that he must never do anything so useless again.
But when she descended the stairs, a scene that seemed to mock that anger unfolded before her eyes.
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