The man's large hand slowly stroked her stomach over the soft fabric.
It was a touch that seemed to be handling something that belonged to him.
"You use the same aromatic oil as your mother. Lady Senevier's hair smelled like this too. Once one becomes intoxicated by this scent, as though addicted, one has no choice but to keep... keep searching for it."
The man's hand fumbled upward toward her chest.
Thalia instinctively twisted her body to escape his arms.
But the man did not budge at all.
Holding her tightly from behind, he brought his damp, hot lips below her earlobe.
It felt as though a caterpillar had clung to her skin and was sucking out its fluids.
Thalia, who had been stiff and trembling, soon began struggling as though having a seizure.
The man knocked her down and roughly pressed her onto the soft carpet.
She flailed her arms and legs like someone drowning.
The table toppled over, and the puzzle tower they had spent hours building came crashing down.
She crawled over it and struggled desperately to escape the beast pinning her down, but he seized her ankle and dragged her down.
Thalia looked up at him with terrified eyes.
The primal fear that someone could overpower her so easily surged over her.
"Stay still... Just stay still for a moment."
The man caught both her wrists in one hand and cupped her jaw with the other.
She struggled desperately to turn her head, but she could not move at all.
He pressed her cheeks, forcing her mouth open, then shoved his thick tongue inside.
Nausea tightened her throat painfully.
It felt as though a giant slug had crawled into her mouth.
She did not even have the courage to bite down on that horrible thing.
With tears welling up, she made pained, choking sounds.
He rubbed his huge, muscular body against her and breathed harshly in excitement.
"Ah... Lady Senevier... How I missed you..."
The man's hand crawled into the hem of her skirt.
At the sensation of his hard palm groping her bare skin, her entire body began to tremble.
A fear like death surged over her.
She felt long, hard fingers invading deep between her thighs.
At the stinging pain inside her body, Thalia opened and closed her mouth like a fish pulled onto land.
The man pressed his glue-like sticky lips against the corner of her mouth and muttered in a hoarse voice.
"You do not need to tremble like that. The pain will only last a moment. Soon, Your Highness will also cry out in pleasure..."
At that moment, the weight crushing her body vanished as though it had been a lie.
Thalia instinctively crawled into a corner and curled up.
For a while, she could not properly understand what had happened.
Only after a few seconds did she realize that Varkas, dressed in the formal uniform of the Roem Knights, was gripping the man's head with one hand and mercilessly crushing his face.
The sight was so unreal that, for a moment, her mind went blank.
Half of the man's once-smooth face was soaked in blood, scraped raw against the rough surface of the wall, and groans of pain were leaking from his grotesquely opened mouth.
"L-let go... Let's t-talk..."
Varkas roughly grabbed the struggling man by the hair and slammed his head against the wall without mercy.
With heavy thuds, the man's face was horribly crushed.
Thalia barely swallowed a scream.
"Thalia."
He quietly opened his mouth while keeping his gaze fixed on the bloodied face.
"Go to your room."
His voice was so calm it was hard to believe it had come from someone who had committed such a violent act.
Because of that, Thalia did not realize those words were directed at her.
Only after meeting his blue eyes, which seemed clouded with gray storm clouds, did she realize he was speaking to her.
"Thalia Roem Ghirta."
His voice was strangely quiet.
Varkas, who had dared to speak the princess's name so casually, slowly added,
"Did you not hear me tell you to go to your room?"
Thalia only looked up at him blankly, curled up in the corner.
Soon, an explosive shout burst from his mouth.
"Now!"
At that moment, a sensation like sparks flying through her entire body spread through her.
Like a horse struck by a whip, she hurriedly fled the study.
When she ran into the bedroom and crawled under the thick blanket, a sharp, aching pain spread through her entire body.
She roughly scrubbed at her stinging skin.
It felt as though the slippery tongue and hard palm were still crawling over her skin.
Trying to erase that sensation, she rubbed frantically over her neck, chest, and thighs, then began striking her own body with her fists.
It was horrible.
That man was horrible.
The body that man had groped was horrible.
And the fact that Varkas had seen her like that was horrible.
All of it was horrible.
She beat her thighs hard enough to bruise, then buried her face in the pillow and let out a beast-like cry.
How long had she been like that?
She sensed another presence besides her own.
She quickly raised her head.
Varkas was standing tall by the door.
As always, he looked elegant, without the slightest disarray.
"You will never see that man again."
He spoke calmly.
Thalia, who had been blinking blankly, asked in a trembling voice,
"...Did you kill him?"
At that, Varkas's brow twisted faintly.
After a brief silence, he opened his mouth again.
"He will be permanently exiled. For the rest of his life, he will be unable to set foot in the capital, or in any major city..."
At that moment, the thin thread of her reason snapped completely.
Thalia grabbed a pillow and hurled it at his face.
"Why! Why did you let him live! You should have killed him! You should have killed him horribly! You should have cut off those filthy hands that touched my body...! And that filthy tongue that violated me...!"
Thalia, who had been screaming wildly like a madwoman, suddenly clutched her throat and began trembling.
A suffocating sensation swept over her, as though someone were choking her.
"If you let him live, he'll come again... He'll come to trample me again. He'll try to defile me. H-he said it. That as though he were addicted, he would keep... keep having no choice but to search for me..."
Sobs abruptly burst from her tightly constricted throat.
Thalia covered her tear-twisted face with both hands and gasped harshly.
Then, as though possessed by something, she began throwing all kinds of objects at him.
"Useless bastard! I don't need someone like you! Get out! Get out! I said disappear from my sight...!"
Thalia, who had been hurling books and dolls at random, suddenly stopped breathing.
The candlestick she had grabbed without thinking flew toward his head.
The heavy lump of metal scraped roughly down Varkas's forehead and temple, then rolled noisily across the floor.
Thalia stared in shock as dark-red fresh blood stained his pale cheek and neck red.
A strange sound, like a sigh of ah... ah..., flowed from her throat.
Varkas, who had been looking down at her with cold eyes, slowly turned around.
In that instant, cold spread through her entire body as though ice water had been poured over her.
Thalia scrambled down from the bed to grab him.
But Varkas had already left the room.
Thalia stared blankly at the darkened corridor, then soon collapsed as though crumbling.
She wanted to sink into the ground just like that.
Varkas had saved her.
Yet she had made him the target of her anger.
It would have been strange if he had not felt repulsed.
It was only natural that he was sick of her.
She buried her horribly crumpled face in the carpet and shed hot tears.
After that day, Varkas did not appear before her again.
Only several months later did Thalia see him at the appointment ceremony for the commander of the Imperial Knights.
From afar, she watched him kneel on one knee before the Emperor and recite the oath of loyalty in a calm voice.
Her father drew the imperial treasured sword and placed it on his shoulder.
Then, in a solemn voice, he proclaimed that the position of captain of the imperial guard had been bestowed upon him.
It was far too weighty a position for a young man who had barely reached twenty, yet no one questioned his qualifications.
Varkas slowly turned and descended the stairs.
Over that composed face, sunlight pouring through the window fell like a rainstorm.
She engraved everything about that moment into her vision.
Varkas, his back held straight, crossed through the crowd.
That cold profile brushed past her indifferently.
To his back, striding away to a place beyond her reach, she quietly murmured,
Goodbye.
After saying that, she unconsciously added,
Don't go.
Tears threatened to spill, and Thalia furrowed her brow.
Soon, his figure disappeared completely from her sight.
The boy her mother had gifted her seven years ago left her side like that.
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