The woman I had been watching like a hawk for the past few days was seen walking silently out between the tents.
Thalia, who had been watching her with narrowed eyes, soon carefully followed after her.
The woman seemed to have mastered how to move naturally without drawing people’s attention.
Her steps were so quiet and nimble that if one were not used to the distinctive movements of those trained by the Taren family, one would have lost sight of her in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the woman crossed the campsite and slipped between the long line of baggage wagons.
After waiting for a moment, Thalia crept up behind a large baggage wagon and peered into the narrow gap between the wagons.
But the woman had already vanished without a trace.
Thalia, looking around with a flustered expression, squeezed her way between the large baggage wagons.
Just then, something caught at her feet with a soft tap.
Thalia bent down and frowned when she found a small glass bottle lying beneath a wheel.
Just as she picked it up and tried to examine it closely, she felt a few drops of slippery liquid gathered at the mouth of the bottle wet her fingers.
Startled, she threw the bottle away.
When she brought her hand close to her face and sniffed it, a strong floral scent and a fishy stench like that of an animal’s bodily fluids pierced the tip of her nose.
The smell was so nauseating that it made her dizzy, and she retched involuntarily.
She grimaced and wiped the strange liquid off with her handkerchief.
But that strange smell would not go away easily.
‘The worst.’
After throwing the soiled handkerchief onto the ground, she straightened her bent body, only to see a pitch-black shadow cast over her head.
Thalia snapped her head up, screamed, and collapsed onto the ground.
Varkas was looking down at her with a cold face.
“What are you doing in a place like this?”
Thalia, who had been staring up at him blankly, sprang to her feet.
Since when had he been watching me?
Even though she had not yet done anything, her heart pounded.
Thalia tried to appear calm as she spat out in a sharp voice.
“You scared me! What are you doing sneaking around without making a sound like a rat!”
“You still have not answered my question.”
Letting her venomous words go in one ear and out the other, Varkas uncrossed the arms he had folded in front of his chest and took one step closer.
Thalia, who had flinched back, soon raised the corners of her eyes.
“Why should I answer your question? What does it have to do with you where I am or what I’m doing!”
Then, just as she tried to leave as if fleeing, Varkas moved his long legs and blocked her path.
Practically trapped between the baggage wagon and his slender body, Thalia looked up at him with anxious eyes.
“W-why are you doing this?”
“As if I could know what filthy sight I might have to witness again if I let you wander around alone.”
At his sharp tone, Thalia shrank her shoulders.
Varkas, who had been staring down at her, let out a faint sigh and gestured with his chin.
“I will escort you to your quarters, so lead the way.”
“I-I don’t need you to. I can go alone—”
“Is there any reason I should not escort you?”
Thalia unconsciously clenched the handle of the knife she had placed in her pocket.
It was a foolish action.
Hadn’t she openly announced that she was hiding something?
Seeing his eyes narrow, Thalia roughly shoved his chest with both hands.
“Who cares! Move aside!”
She pushed him away with all her strength, but he did not budge.
He looked slender, but he was a man with a body as solid as cast iron.
Hiding her fear, Thalia deliberately lifted her chin proudly.
“Didn’t you hear me tell you to move?”
Varkas, who had been quietly looking down at her, slowly stepped back.
Thalia did not miss that opening and quickly squeezed through the narrow gap between him and the wagon.
Then, just as she was about to hurry away, a strong hand seized her arm and firmly turned her around.
Before she could even gasp, his hand slipped into the pocket of her gown and pulled out the knife with its finely sharpened edge.
Thalia looked up at him with a deathly pale face.
Varkas lightly swept his finger along the blade with an elegant motion, then looked down at her with expressionless eyes that revealed no emotion.
She could simply make an excuse and say she had only been carrying it for self-defense.
But when she met those sharp eyes, as if they were peering through every corner of her mind, her reason shattered and scattered to pieces.
Like a child whose one and only toy had been taken away, she lunged at him fiercely.
“Give it back!”
He raised the hand holding the knife high.
Standing on tiptoe, Thalia wildly tugged at his uniform and stretched her arm out as far as she could.
“Give it back! I said give it back!”
Varkas, looking down with a hardened face at her as she thrashed around after losing all reason, threw the knife away.
Thalia hurriedly bent down to pick it up.
But before she could grasp the knife, a foot wrapped in a golden sabaton kicked it far away.
Thalia stared blankly as the knife slid beneath the wagon, then lowered herself as if she were about to crawl under it.
But before her body could touch the ground, a long, firm arm wrapped around her waist and forcibly pulled her upright.
Thalia twisted her face viciously and glared at him as if she wanted to kill him.
But Varkas’s face looked no less irritated than hers.
“I will not ask what you intended to do with that.”
Bringing his face close to hers, Varkas spoke as if chewing and spitting out each word.
His sunken voice was like a razor-sharp blade.
“From now on, there will always be surveillance attached to your side. So discard every useless, foolish plan stuffed inside that little head of yours.”
Who are you to speak to me like that?
Who are you to take away what’s mine?
Who are you?
When you’re going to become another woman’s man.
When you’re going to leave forever.
After making me want to kill that woman, why won’t you let me do anything?
Incoherent words clogged her throat tightly.
She wanted to spit curses at him, but if she opened her mouth, she felt as if she would sob and scream like a ten-year-old girl, so she clenched her jaw shut.
Varkas, who had been quietly looking down at her, straightened himself and gestured with his chin as if telling her to lead the way.
Thalia glared at him with eyes full of hatred, then quickly walked out from between the wagons.
As if his words about keeping her under strict surveillance were not empty, Varkas followed behind her like a shadow.
The presence she had once missed unbearably now felt so awful that it made her shudder.
He had never been there when she had wanted him by her side, yet now, the moment she made the greatest decision of her life, he appeared and tried to interfere.
‘To protect Ayla…’
No.
Perhaps he was doing this to protect Gareth.
He would not fully understand why she had a knife in her pocket.
He would not be able to guess why she paid no attention to the half-brother who beat her whenever he had the chance, yet gnashed her teeth only at the half-sister who silently endured her.
She turned her head and looked at the campsite where darkness had begun to settle.
Ayla must be having a pleasant time by now.
Surrounded by people who loved her, she was probably savoring the happy future soon to come.
When Thalia thought of that rosy face, her already-ruined insides boiled over.
That detestable woman.
The fact that, despite having everything, she looked at Thalia with sorrowful eyes whenever she saw her, and the fact that she wore an unhappy expression—all of it was terrible.
I really do want to kill her after all.
Thinking that, she tore at her scabbed lips, when Varkas, who had been quietly following behind her, suddenly snatched her up and roughly pushed her backward.
Thalia looked up at him with startled eyes.
For a moment, her heart sank, wondering if this man had somehow looked inside her mind.
But he was not looking at her.
Following his gaze as he stared at the sky with a grave face, Thalia turned her head and drew in a harsh breath.
Something the size of a house was plummeting down at a terrifying speed.
Before she could even realize what it was, a loud boom rang out, and a thick cloud of dust rose up.
“It’s a monster!”
Starting with someone’s shout, screams that seemed to tear through the air burst out from every direction.
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