Chapter 27 :

His eyes, gleaming with expectation, clung stickily to her chest before slowly moving downward.

They stared for a long while, as though tracing the outline revealed through the thin fabric, then crawled back up and fixed on her eyes.

Thalia felt every muscle in her body hardening.

She knew she had to run away immediately, but her legs would not move.

The man moistened his lower lip and crept closer.

“If Your Highness would only permit me, I could...”

His rough, callused hand touched the hair draped over her shoulder.

She watched in terror as her hair wound around his fingers, which were like pieces of wood.

She could not breathe properly.

She ought to have shouted at him, asking how he dared touch her, but no sound came from her parted lips.

Perhaps taking her stillness as permission, the man carefully stroked her golden hair strand by strand, then this time reached toward her face.

His palm, rough as sandpaper, painfully brushed against her delicate skin.

As she shrank her neck in fear, a large hand wrapped in a gauntlet suddenly shot out from the darkness and seized the man’s wrist.

Thalia flinched and stepped back as though waking from hypnosis.

When she raised her head, she saw silver-blue eyes shining fiercely.

In that instant, her heart dropped with a thud.

Instinctively, she pressed herself against the wall.

Varkas, who had been looking down at her with an expressionless face, slowly turned his gaze toward the monk.

Whatever he saw in those eyes, the monk, who had been frozen like stone, began trembling all over as though he had faced a ghost.

“I-I was only... Her Highness...”

“Quiet.”

The deep, heavy voice cut off the man’s excuse.

The monk’s face, which had turned completely white, twisted terribly in pain.

At a glance, it seemed Varkas was holding him lightly, but in truth, he seemed to be putting enough force into his grip to break the bone.

Varkas slowly spoke into the face of the man, who was pouring cold sweat.

“I am sure neither of us wants to make this a bigger problem. Return to your place quietly.”

The monk, who had been groaning in pain, nodded fiercely.

Varkas released his arm and added,

“Until we leave this place, you would do well not to appear before my eyes.”

“I-I will remember that.”

The man sobbed while clutching his swollen blue wrist.

Varkas jerked his chin as though telling him to get lost.

The man fled in a hurry without delay.

After staring at that unsightly retreating figure for a moment, Varkas turned his head back toward her.

Without realizing it, Thalia lowered her eyes.

Even though she had done nothing wrong, for some reason, her mouth went dry and heat rose at the back of her neck.

As she anxiously watched his expression, a voice so calm it was chilling rang out.

“Follow me. I will escort you to your lodging.”

Thalia, whose body had been tense and stiff, let her arms drop at the strange sense of weakness that came over her.

In that instant, a peculiar resentment and sorrow surged up together.

I nearly had something horrible happen to me.

I was terrified enough to die.

So why are you so detached?

Thalia bit her lip with a resentful expression, then brushed past him.

She did not want to show him weakness, even if it killed her.

How long had she been striding across the garden with her head held high on purpose?

Beyond the long corridor, she saw the lodging for female believers.

Keeping her gaze straight ahead, she shouted curtly,

“We’re here now, so stop following me!”

Knights were standing guard around the building.

Something like what had just happened would not happen again.

She hurried her steps as though fleeing.

But before she could take more than a few steps, she found herself trapped between him and the outer wall of the building.

Thalia looked up at him with wide eyes.

“What... What is this, all of a sudden...”

“If you have been badly burned once while playing with fire...”

His voice sounded as though it scraped the inside of his throat.

Perhaps feeling it himself, he stopped speaking for a moment.

Soon, his voice came again, much calmer.

“Shouldn’t it be time for you to be more careful?”

She felt the blood drain from her face.

Varkas studied that face with sharp eyes, as though dissecting it, then twisted his lips.

“Or do you truly want to throw your body around carelessly?”

Thalia struck out without even thinking.

But this time as well, before her hand could reach his face, her wrist was caught.

Varkas slowly added,

“If that is the case, please restrain yourself for the time being. Until this journey ends, I would prefer not to deal with troublesome problems.”

She tightly closed her trembling lips.

He released her arm and slowly turned away.

“I trust you understand.”

At that moment, if she had had a knife in her hand, she would have driven it into his back without hesitation.

Thalia glared murderously at his soundlessly retreating back, like a fish swimming through water.

Then, feeling her vision blur, she hurriedly turned her head.

Even though she knew he would never look back, she was afraid he might catch sight of her tears.

Thalia roughly rubbed her eyelids with her sleeve and ran into the lodging as though fleeing.

***

The next morning, the ceremony proceeded as though nothing had happened.

Thalia sat by the window of the bedroom assigned to her and looked down at the twins heading toward the altar, and at Varkas following behind as though guarding them.

If everything had gone as it should have, she too would have been among them.

But she had excused herself, claiming she was unwell.

She had refused, with a ridiculous excuse, a ceremony that members of the imperial family were obligated to undergo.

Normally, the ceremony should have been postponed, but at the Crown Prince’s firm insistence, the event proceeded as scheduled.

Perhaps the monastery was pleased with this situation.

They likely had no desire to bestow God’s blessing on a bastard anyway.

...Maybe I should have just participated.

Thalia, who had been giggling, erased the laughter from her face when she saw Ayla and Varkas standing side by side before the altar.

If she had joined them there, she did not know what she might have done.

Perhaps she might have rushed at them, trying to kill one of the two.

I don’t even know which of them I hate more anymore.

Thalia habitually brought her finger to her lips, then lowered her arm again because she did not want to ruin the nail that had barely grown back.

She could not keep watching any longer.

She drew the curtains and threw herself onto the bed.

As she curled up in the dim darkness, the memories of last night circled in her mind.

The gaze filled with lust.

The hand reaching toward her.

And Varkas’s cold eyes...

“If you have been badly burned once while playing with fire... shouldn’t it be time for you to be more careful?”

Thalia pulled the blanket over herself all the way to the top of her head.

Varkas believed that she had seduced that man.

Perhaps it was not so different.

She was always cornering herself with foolish actions...

And rescuing her when she was in danger had been his role.

Now that he had finally escaped that tiresome duty, it was only natural he would be sick of something similar happening again.

He must be truly fed up with me now.

She buried her face in the pillow and giggled.

She remembered the moment he had walked out of her life.

Perhaps it was because something so similar had happened yesterday.

Thalia silently stared at the ray of light seeping through the curtains, then slowly closed her eyes.

The memories she had buried unfolded chaotically in her mind.