“Let go of me!”
Thalia kicked him in the shin.
But her brother was not someone who would fall for the same trick twice.
Gareth quickly moved his leg to avoid her attack, twisted her arm roughly in his grip, and giggled frivolously right in her face.
“I had my suspicions, but... to think the trouble of the imperial family had been harboring improper feelings for the noble lord of the East!”
Thalia looked up at him with terrified eyes.
It felt as though all the blood in her body had frozen.
She hurriedly composed her disheveled expression.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Who would...”
“Exactly. It really is no different from nonsense. A bastard, not knowing her place, daring to covet the heir of Grand Duke Siarkan!”
Perhaps delighted that he had discovered the weakness of the half-sister he had always considered an eyesore, Gareth was now laughing so hard his whole body shook.
He grabbed her chin with one hand and exhaled his foul breath, thick with the smell of alcohol, into her face.
“Blood never lies, after all. Then again, where would the vulgar whore’s nature of lusting after another woman’s man go?”
Thalia glared at him with blazing eyes.
Gareth looked down at that venomous face with a grin, then shoved her away as he released her.
Then he added leeringly,
“Wake up from that absurd dream. Varkas is not someone the likes of you can dare to covet...”
“You’re forgetting one thing, Brother. You see, it isn’t only the blood of a vulgar whore that flows in me. The blood of the man who fooled around with a fresh young woman while leaving his heavily pregnant wife behind flows in me too.”
In that instant, the smile on the Crown Prince’s face vanished as though washed away.
Looking straight up at that chillingly distorted face, Thalia slowly continued,
“Come to think of it, that shameless man’s blood flows inside you too, doesn’t it?”
She could see the large, muscular body tightening with tension.
She knew she had to stop here, but she could not end things while leaving him holding only her weakness.
Thalia smiled foully into his face, just as he had done to her.
“Since Brother dug up one of my secrets, shall I dig up one of yours too?”
A faint unease appeared in Gareth’s eyes.
Looking at it mockingly, Thalia whispered softly into his ear.
“There’s a quiet rumor going around among the maids. They say the exalted Crown Prince only seeks women with deep wheat-colored hair and eyes as blue as the sea every night.”
The blood drained from Gareth’s bronze face.
Thalia smiled maliciously at that deathly pale face.
“I think I know who the woman you met in your dreams was on the night you first became a man and soiled your bed... Shall I try guessing?”
His entire body convulsed as though he had been electrocuted.
She thought that if she did not stop here, she might truly be killed this time.
But as always, she listened to the voice of the devil urging her on.
“You don’t need to tremble so much. I’m a good little sister, so I’ll keep Brother’s secret to the end. The fact that His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince seems to have inherited His Majesty the Emperor’s blood very, very strongly.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than a heavy impact knocked her head to the side.
Thalia lay on the ground and clutched her face, which burned as though it had caught fire.
Her vision shook as though she had suffered a concussion.
Just as she tried to rise while holding her dizzy head, Gareth climbed over her and wrapped both hands around her throat.
It felt as though her eyes might pop out at any moment.
Thalia resisted desperately.
She scratched down his forearms with her sharp nails and kicked at his stone-like body wildly, but her body, weakened to the limit, was utterly powerless.
Thalia writhed like a fish thrown onto land, then soon let her limbs fall limp.
At that moment, the hands squeezing her throat as though they would break her bones suddenly lost their strength.
Thalia twisted her body convulsively and gasped for breath.
Through her vision blurred with tears, she saw Varkas holding Gareth’s arm.
Varkas, who had been looking down at her with a face like a mask, shifted his gaze to Gareth.
He was still glaring at his half-sister as though he would kill her.
His face looked as though he was going mad from resentment and anger.
The sight of him acting like the victim was so ridiculous that laughter burst out between her faint coughs.
Gareth’s face turned bright red as he raised his fist.
“You damned bitch...!”
But his hand never reached her.
Varkas, who was gripping that thick, muscular arm as easily as twisting a child’s wrist, glared at her with sharp eyes.
He seemed sick of her, disgusted that she could not resist provoking her brother even after barely surviving.
“Escort Her Highness the Princess to her quarters.”
He gave the order to the guard knight who had run over with a pale face.
The knight immediately supported her.
Thalia coldly shook off his hand and staggered to her feet.
Then, as though nothing had happened, she calmly brushed the dirt from her skirt.
Gareth, who was glaring at that sight with burning eyes, shouted at Varkas.
“Let go of me right now!”
“Stop this at once!”
Ayla, who had been watching the scene from a short distance away, raised her voice.
As though it was the first time she had witnessed her younger brother’s violent behavior so closely, Ayla’s face had turned white.
She hurried to her younger brother’s side and spoke in a stiff voice.
“What on earth are you doing? You are the Crown Prince of this Empire! Why would you commit such violence...!”
“Don’t you interfere!”
Gareth growled like a beast.
Ayla flinched and stepped back.
She seemed quite shocked that the younger brother who had always acted like a docile puppy toward her had bared his teeth.
Thalia spoke mockingly to that half-sister.
“That’s right. Sister, don’t interfere in our business.”
Ayla glared at her, her emerald eyes flashing sharply.
Then she saw Thalia’s wretched appearance and froze with a flinch.
Thalia touched her swollen cheek with one hand and smiled strangely.
“It was only a light quarrel between siblings. Isn’t that right, Brother?”
When she tilted her head as though seeking agreement, the sound of teeth grinding came from between clenched jaws.
She walked up to Gareth, who was breathing heavily.
The knight blocked her path as though trying to stop her, but she ignored him and looked straight up into her half-brother’s dark green eyes.
“Actually, we’re close enough to share secrets, aren’t we?”
His face was now so red it looked as though it might burst at any moment.
He looked as though he wanted to chew her alive on the spot.
But perhaps he did not want to risk having his filthy secret exposed in front of his sister, because he released the tension from his body and spoke in a tightly locked voice.
“...Take your hands off me.”
Varkas looked silently into Gareth’s face, then released him.
He must have been gripping him with considerable force, because a clear handprint had been left on his brown-tanned skin.
Gareth held and rubbed the mark, then glared back and forth between Varkas and Thalia with eyes full of hostility before turning sharply and heading toward the campsite.
As she watched his defeated-soldier-like figure and giggled, she felt a cold gaze.
Thalia erased the laughter from her face and raised her head straight.
As always, an expressionless face that was difficult to read was looking down at her in silence.
However, Thalia could clearly read disgust and anger in his icy eyes.
He grabbed her arm with his gauntleted hand and jerked his chin at the knight.
“Escort Her Highness the First Princess to her quarters.”
Then, after giving a single bow of his head to Ayla, who was standing stiffly, he led Thalia through the trees as though escorting a criminal away.
She twisted her face venomously.
No matter what anyone said, she was a princess of the Empire.
As a vassal of the imperial family, he had no right to drag the Emperor’s daughter around like a mutt.
Thalia roughly yanked the arm he was holding.
“You insolent bastard! Let go of me right now...!”
In that instant, her body rose into the air.
Thalia screamed.
Varkas slung her over one shoulder like a piece of luggage and crossed between the tents, ignoring the shocked gazes around them.
Thalia’s face flushed red as she struggled like a poisoned beast.
But even when she pounded his back and shoulders with her fists and kicked fiercely, Varkas did not move an inch.
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