Chapter 9 :

Chapter 9

As soon as Thalia opened her eyes, she dressed herself with more care than ever before.

She silently endured the hands of the maids as they scrubbed her with stiff, harsh brushes until her skin turned red, and she even tolerated the relentless brushing that made her scalp sting.

After finishing her grooming, she took out and put on the velvet dress her maternal grandfather, who had always looked at her with displeasure, had given her for the first time on the day she left the Taren family.

When she looked into the mirror, she saw the reflection of a little girl with a face as pretty as an angel.

She thought this might be exactly what Senevier would look like if she were turned back into a nine-year-old.

Through the mirror, she stared intently into the dark-blue eyes that were the exact same color as her mother’s, then left the room with a determined expression.

But the boy, who always trained at the same time, was nowhere to be found today.

After shaking off the attendant and wandering around the castle courtyard for a long while, Thalia let her shoulders droop in disappointment.

When she thought that she might never meet him again like this, her vision went dark.

She herself did not know why she was so obsessed with a stranger with whom she had only spoken once.

No.

In truth, she did know.

On that day when the rain had poured down so heavily, he could have simply ignored a muddy child and passed by, but he had not done so.

He had entered the pit despite dirtying his clothes and shoes and pulled her out.

He had held her rain-chilled body in his warm arms and looked into her eyes for a long time.

He had carefully wrapped up the dying, shabby bird and taken it to his residence.

That alone was enough for him to become her hope.

Thalia walked without stopping along the outer edge of the building that rose so high it seemed to touch the sky.

The imperial palace was like the belly of a gigantic monster.

It was so vast and complicated that even though she had lived here for several months, places she had never seen before kept appearing endlessly.

She wandered for a long while through a garden thick with flowers and trees, then crossed a wide open ground and moved toward the back of the main palace.

Her legs, which had moved without rest from early morning until noon, throbbed and complained of pain.

Perhaps blisters had formed, because every time she took a step, the soles of her feet burned as though they had touched fire.

She wiped away the beads of sweat running down her forehead and looked up at the blue sky through the dense leaves.

How long had she been like that?

Just as she straightened herself, thinking she should now return to the detached palace, she saw the slender back of a boy between the straight birch trees.

Thalia’s eyes brightened with joy.

Even though he was quite far away, she recognized him at once.

His agile and elegant movements as he walked quietly, with his back straight like flowing water, were something no one would dare imitate.

Thalia immediately began chasing after him.

But no matter how much she quickened her pace, the distance between them did not shrink.

She realized that the boy was in quite a hurry.

Where was he going in such haste?

She thought of calling out loudly, but she was so out of breath that her voice would not come out.

In the end, she lost sight of him.

Thalia sat down with a hollow expression, leaning her back against the trunk of a tree.

Needle-like sunlight poured sharply down over her sweat-soaked face.

How long had she been blankly looking up through the dense leaves with narrowed, dazzled eyes?

A faint sound of laughter mixed into the wind.

It was a sound like a small bird chirping.

Thalia rose from her seat and slowly moved toward the place the sound had come from.

After passing through the densely grown birch trees and thick leafy bushes, a beautiful flower bed overflowing with lavender, marigolds, and white millet flowers, a pure-white marble pavilion, and a small fountain came into view.

It was a lovely garden, like a palace of fairies.

Thalia looked around as if enchanted by the breathtaking scenery, where golden particles seemed to be floating in the air.

Then she discovered the boy kneeling on one knee in front of a marble chair.

He was not alone.

Sitting opposite him was a lovely girl who appeared to be around her age.

She was a cute little girl with dark brown hair like silk and rosy cheeks.

As the girl chattered nonstop about something, a faint smile appeared on the boy’s lips.

When Thalia saw that, her chest prickled as though she had been stabbed by something sharp.

It felt as though a treasure that belonged only to her had been stolen.

Thalia knew that feeling was irrational.

At a glance, the two of them seemed to have known each other for a long time.

By contrast, she was only a stranger.

So Thalia decided to approach them and introduce herself politely.

She wanted, somehow, to join the warm air surrounding the two of them.

More than anything, she wanted the boy’s blue eyes and faint smile to turn toward her.

As though pushed forward by that intense impulse, she walked out from behind the bushes and approached the fountain spraying water.

Then the boy’s beautiful silver-blue eyes and a pair of clear green eyes flew toward her.

Thalia, who had never interacted with children her own age, felt her mouth go dry for an instant.

But she was an imperial princess.

She thought there was no way they would dare refuse when she was offering to become their friend.

She deliberately lifted her chin and greeted them confidently.

“Hello.”

The boy only stared at her without moving at all.

Could it be that he does not recognize me?

When they had first met, she had been covered completely in muddy water, so she thought he might find her unfamiliar now that she was dressed like a princess.

So she was about to bring up the time he had helped her several months ago, but the girl, who had been sitting there with a dazed face, suddenly let out a shrill scream.

“No! No! Not this place!”

It was a desperate voice, as though she had come face to face with a terrible nightmare.

The girl, who had been looking at Thalia with terrified eyes, threw herself toward the boy.

“Please, Varkas! Drive that child out of here! Make sure she can’t even set foot in this place! Make sure I never have to see her again!”

Her thin arms wrapped around the boy’s neck.

The boy embraced the back of the girl, who was crying out in anguish, as though protecting her, then cast a cold gaze over her violently trembling narrow shoulders.

Thalia stepped backward.

He threatened her in a low voice.

“Get out of here immediately!”

Thalia stared blankly at his cold face, then soon turned and began to run.

It felt as though ice water had been poured over her from the crown of her head.

She could not think at all, as though her brain had gone numb.

How long had she run and run like that?

By the time she reached the area near the main castle, something roughly grabbed her by the hair.

Because of that, her head was jerked backward and her body tilted sharply.

And before she could even understand what had happened, a heavy impact struck her body.

She rolled over the grass, clutching her throbbing stomach.

“How dare someone like you set foot in a place like that!”

A young voice filled with rage rang thunderously above her head.

Thalia looked up with a bewildered face.

A boy she had never seen before was glaring at her.

Dark black hair and flame-like green eyes...

She could tell that his face resembled the girl she had just seen very much, but she had no way of knowing when he had started chasing her or why he was so furious.

She was simply frozen in shock at suffering such treatment for the first time in her life when the boy kicked her in the abdomen once more.

“Die!”

At the impact that turned her vision white, she curled herself up as tightly as she could and let out a shallow cough.

The boy continued kicking her one after another, as though kicking a small ball.

“Die! Die! Just die!”

His scream-like shout pierced her eardrums like a long nail.

The boy’s curses and violence did not stop until the servants who witnessed the scene rushed over in shock.

Thalia crawled across the ground like an insect to avoid the vicious kicks.

Even after beating her like that, the boy still seemed unable to calm his rage, and while two attendants held his arms, he roared like a beast.

“Disappear from this world! You filthy bastard!”