Chapter 28 :

It must have been a few months before her sixteenth birthday.

Anxious over the fact that she would soon become an adult, she had been pestering him even more than usual, demanding that he choose clothes and accessories for her.

It was a pitiful attempt to draw his attention.

Normally, Varkas would have ignored such demands, but perhaps exhausted by her persistent nagging, he obediently offered his opinion.

Perhaps the thought that he would be free of her in a few months had made him more generous.

That made him hateful enough that she wanted to kill him.

Even so, she was desperate enough to do anything if it meant keeping Varkas tied to her.

Because the end that had once seemed as though it would never come was drawing near.

“What do you think of this as the dress I’ll wear for my coming-of-age ceremony?”

She put on a splendid silk dress brought from the south and deliberately thrust her upper body out before him.

Varkas merely cast her a dry gaze, as he always did.

At that calm gaze, her face grew hotter and hotter.

He was now moving from nineteen toward twenty, and the body that had just cast off the traces of boyhood had ripened firmly and begun to display masculinity.

If not for his eyes, as emotionless as a dead man’s, he would have looked like an angel descended from the heavens.

Thalia deliberately raised her voice to hide the foolish trembling of her heart.

“I asked you what you think!”

“...It looks like a child stole an adult’s clothes and put them on.”

At last, his tightly closed lips opened.

She raised the corners of her eyes sharply.

The man added one more sentence as though annoyed.

“It suits you terribly.”

She glared at him with her face flushed red.

But since she was the one who had asked for that blunt man’s opinion, she could not exactly refute him.

After shooting him a venomous glare, Thalia stomped behind the screen.

Then she rummaged wildly through the mountain of clothes.

She was determined to make that corpse-like man blush.

After a long while, she chose an even bolder outfit.

It was a provocative dress with a neckline cut dangerously deep.

Thalia hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was a little too much, then soon made up her mind and quickly put the dress on.

When she looked into the mirror, a breathtakingly beautiful girl was reflected there.

She examined herself from every angle with a pleased gaze.

Her body, once as thin as a birch tree, had begun to change little by little around the age of fourteen.

Her flat chest had formed small buds and begun swelling to the size of apples, and flesh had slowly begun filling out her previously plain hips.

Thalia was quite proud of her changes.

The thought that she was drawing closer to the perfect beauty Senevier possessed made her feel endlessly elated.

Once Varkas learned what she possessed, he would think differently as well.

Because she would soon become the most beautiful woman in the world.

Filled with hope, she burst out from behind the screen.

“What about this one?”

Varkas, who had been looking out the window with a bored expression, turned his head toward her.

At last, something that could be called emotion appeared on his face.

However, it was not a particularly positive emotion.

Varkas looked her over with a crease between his brows, then spoke somewhat sharply.

“The very first dress.”

He drew in a deep breath and added bluntly,

“Choose that one.”

His voice was dry, without the slightest trace of the admiration or agitation she had hoped for.

But Thalia felt as though her heart might burst simply because he remembered the very first dress among the dozens of outfits she had shown him.

She deliberately put on a strange, sensual smile.

“What’s this? You pretended to be indifferent... but it seems you were watching closely after all.”

He gave no answer.

Whatever it was, he merely seemed to want this tedious display to end as quickly as possible.

His arrogant attitude irritated her for a moment, but Thalia decided to overlook it generously.

Had she not resolved to show him little by little that she had changed, even if it would be difficult to change his attitude immediately?

Thalia hummed as she picked up the first dress she had worn.

It was a delicate and elegant velvet surcoat densely embroidered with fairywork.

This dress would never leave her wardrobe from now on.

Because it was the one that had caught Varkas’s eye.

She quickly changed clothes and came out, then spun around ostentatiously in front of him.

“This one, right?”

He quietly stared at her.

As though it was not strange at all that a woman who had been throwing tantrums all day was suddenly grinning like a drunk.

Perhaps to him, there was no real difference whether she raged like a monster or giggled like a madwoman.

But Thalia wanted to believe that his attitude toward her had changed.

After all, his once indifferent gaze had at some point begun lingering near her face for long stretches of time.

That was not all.

The way he spoke to her seemed softer than before as well.

Thalia, who had keenly noticed those subtle changes, felt a threadlike hope stirring in her heart.

Could it be that Varkas was also sad to part from her?

They had been together for such a long time, so perhaps he had grown attached to her, even if it was only through resentment.

Thalia clung pitifully to that futile hope.

“If I dance in this dress, won’t I look just like a fairy queen?”

At her question, a fine crack appeared between his brows.

Was he sick of her endless questions?

No.

Perhaps he was thinking of an answer to her question.

She decided to think of it in the better way.

“Don’t just stand there blankly. Practice with me.”

Before Varkas could answer, Thalia grabbed his arm and pulled.

A man who would not have budged in the past was dragged along as though reluctantly giving in.

See?

Thalia grew triumphant.

Something really has changed.

She tugged harder at the man, who remained stiff as though he had no intention of actively cooperating, and spun herself around.

Then her foot caught on a chest on the floor, and she lost her balance.

Thalia instinctively grabbed his arm.

Varkas spat out something unintelligible and hurriedly wrapped an arm around her waist.

But because the room was such a mess, there was nowhere proper to step.

The clothes piled in disorder tangled around his ankle as well, and the two of them collapsed together onto the carpet.

Thalia let out a small curse.

“I told you the room should have been cleaned right away!”

Varkas, who had suffered this misfortune while trying to protect her, raised one eyebrow.

He was only a guard knight, not a servant.

She could not force him to do trivial tasks like cleaning and organizing.

Even though she knew that perfectly well, Thalia snapped at him for no reason.

“If my bottom bruises, I won’t let you off. You useless guard knight!”

As she grumbled and tried to rise, she felt a stinging pain in her scalp.

Thalia glared at him in disbelief.

“Did you just pull my hair?”

A short sigh slipped from his lips.

“It seems your hair is caught on my sleeve button.”

Then he slightly pulled forward the arm that had been wrapped behind her back.

When a sharp pain flared in her scalp, Thalia screamed and hit his chest.

“That hurts, you idiot!”

He stopped moving and quietly looked down at her eyes, which had grown misty with tears.

Though she flinched inwardly, Thalia deliberately glared at him.

After letting out another low sigh, Varkas wrapped his arm around her back again.

Then he began moving his hand carefully, as though trying to untangle the caught hair.

Thalia sat between his knees and anxiously shifted her eyes.

Only belatedly did she realize how improper their distance and posture were.

The faint scent of soap and mint coming from his body made her heart pound so violently it felt as though it might explode at any moment.

It seemed as though Varkas might hear that sound too.