“What do you care whether someone else’s lips turn purple or green!”
When she raised her voice and threw his clothes to the ground, another sigh sounded.
Her eyes grew hot. He smiled at Ayla, but in front of her, he only sighed every day. She could not stand the sight of him.
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t cause you any trouble even if I freeze to death here, so you go to the birthday banquet of those noble twins! Go and flatter those two all you want!”
“Even if you spend the night here, Your Highness will not freeze to death. At most, you will catch the flu.”
“Then I’ll just catch the flu and die!”
When she shouted, he brushed back the hair clinging to the corners of his eyes rather roughly.
Thalia flinched at the movement tinged with irritation. However, the voice that flowed from his mouth was, as always, utterly even.
“What must I do for you to stop playing the tragic heroine?”
At his biting tone, Thalia lifted the corners of her eyes again.
She found him so hateful for always treating Ayla politely while snapping sarcastic remarks at her at every turn.
Thalia, who had been glaring at him with blazing eyes, pulled a pearl ornament from her tightly braided hair. Then, without hesitation, she flung it over the rippling lake.
“Bring that back. Then I’ll stop.”
Varkas’s eyes narrowed.
Thalia thought he would either explode in anger with a cold face or turn around without mercy. Then she intended to endure here all night until she collapsed.
Let him feel some pangs of conscience while looking at her corpse.
But as always, Varkas did not act according to her thoughts.
As if making sure she could see, he unfastened the buttons of his uniform jacket one by one in front of her.
Thalia, who had opened her eyes wide, soon snorted. He was only bluffing because he thought she would stop him. There was no way he would actually jump into the water.
Pretending to be composed, she watched him take off his knight order uniform and place it beneath the tree, then remove his boots that rose to his calves.
So he wanted to see this through to the end?
Varkas, who finally even removed the sword belt around his waist, approached the water’s edge wearing only a nearly translucent shirt and light cotton trousers. Then he silently gazed at the lake, where rain was drizzling down.
As expected, he must have been coming on strong because he expected her to give up her stubbornness.
Just as she was sneering inwardly, he suddenly jumped into the water with a splash.
Thalia sprang to her feet.
The ash-gray surface of the water swallowed his body in an instant. Thalia, wearing a blank expression, hurriedly ran over and looked into the dark water.
“Varkas?”
The lake was only still.
There was no trace anywhere of the eighteen-year-old boy who had grown frighteningly tall starting at sixteen. She raised her voice.
“Varkas!”
In the drizzling rain, only her voice rang out loudly.
Thalia now began to scream.
“D-Don’t play around!”
Just then, a gust of wind swept over the surface of the water.
The lake rippled for an instant, but there was still no trace of him.
Suddenly, her breath caught in her throat.
Without thinking of anything else, Thalia jumped into the water. She had taken only a few steps, yet the water had already risen to her waist.
She vigorously stirred the surface with both hands and raised her voice.
“Varkas! Varkas! Where are you!”
Beneath her feet, she felt the slippery sensation of mud and branches.
She tried taking a few more steps into the deeper part. Before she knew it, the water had risen above her chest.
She thrashed through the ice-cold water and let out rough sobs.
“I-I was wrong! So come out now!”
As she lost her reason and cried out at the top of her lungs, the surface of the water nearby rippled greatly, and a long shape rose from within the water.
Thalia stared at him with frozen eyes.
Varkas shook his head, scattering the water that poured down from him, then turned his head toward her. Beneath his eyelashes soaked heavily with water, his blue eyes glowed faintly.
“Here.”
Lightly gripping her shoulder with one hand, Varkas held something out in front of her.
Thalia blankly looked down at it.
“Is this enough now?”
On his palm lay the pearl ornament she had thrown away.
A hollow laugh escaped her mouth on its own.
Thalia covered her forehead with one hand and let out small, empty laughs. Then, the next moment, as if possessed by something, her face twisted, and she snatched the pearl ornament away before throwing it far off.
Even after seeing her throw away without hesitation the thing he had worked hard to retrieve, he showed no reaction at all.
Thalia, glaring at that calm face, could not suppress her anger and swung her hand.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? To scare me!”
Even after being slapped on the cheek, he remained quiet.
For some reason, that composure made her even more ferocious.
Thalia began hitting him wildly with her fists.
“You were holding out until the words ‘I was wrong’ came out of my mouth, weren’t you! You wicked bastard! I hate someone like you so much!”
“Enough already.”
Varkas suddenly grabbed both her wrists and lowered his voice.
She looked up at him with eyes brimming with tears. At her expression, which looked as if she was dying of injustice, an incredulous sigh escaped his mouth.
“You have filled your quota for today. Now stop throwing a tantrum and come out.”
“No. I’ll never listen to anything you say! I’m going to drown here, so you go out by yourself!”
As she screamed angrily, he dragged her onto dry land.
Even in the meantime, Thalia kept punching his back. Varkas, who looked at her with an expression of disbelief, shook his head and picked up the coat he had taken off. Then he wrapped it around her body without a gap and tightly tied the sleeves around her arms so she could no longer punch him.
Thalia, who had been struggling to break free of the restraint, kicked him in the shin when her arms would not budge.
“Are you in your right mind, tying up a Princess? You thug!”
“Look who’s talking.”
With a long exhale, Varkas slung her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
Thalia screamed like an angry duck.
“I’m royalty, you idiot! What kind of knight treats a Princess like this!”
Varkas silently gathered his sword and clothes, then trudged through the rain.
Thalia, who had been violently struggling like a wild animal and spewing every kind of insult, soon went limp.
Only after arriving at the detached palace did he put her down. Thalia, who had been glaring at him while huffing and puffing, soon collapsed from exhaustion.
And that evening, just as she had declared, she caught a terrible flu.
Varkas brought a chair beside her as she burned with fever, sat down, and quietly read a book.
She did not know how hateful that peaceful appearance seemed.
Thoroughly provoked, she picked a fight, saying, “You’d like it if I were sick every day, wouldn’t you?” and he responded while turning a page, “Occasionally, it would not be bad.”
Thalia, glaring at him with feverish eyes, buried her face in the blanket while thinking somewhat foolishly that occasionally was at least something.
Deep down, she was happy that instead of attending Ayla’s birthday banquet, he had stayed by her side. So she could generously forgive a slightly spiteful attitude or two.
Hiding the laughter that kept slipping out, she forced herself to sleep.
Even though she was suffering terribly because of the fever, strangely, laughter kept escaping.
It was always like that when she was with Varkas. She felt distressed, frustrated, and angry, yet at the same time, her heart swelled unbearably. At times, he even felt like someone very close to her.
Could it be that we are actually something like friends?
In that brazen misunderstanding, the years that belonged only to the two of them piled up layer by layer.
For him, it must have been a painful time, but for her, those days were like jewels.
Because his presence existed, she was able to endure each unbearably lonely day.
But now, the memories of the past were no longer comfort. They had become shackles she could not sever, binding her in place.
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!