Chapter 63
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Once the unwelcome guest had left, Thalia urged the healer to fill the room with hazy smoke.
As she breathed in the acrid air that shimmered like a heat haze, her boiling senses slowly began to settle.
A deep sense of relief washed over her.
If she waited just a little longer, the pale fog would encroach all the way into her head.
Then she would not have to think about anything. She simply wanted to sleep as if dead.
She lay sprawled on the bed and closed her eyes. But no matter how long she waited, one thread of consciousness remained unbroken, keeping her tethered to reality.
Trying somehow to fall asleep, she brought her face close to the brazier and inhaled the harsh smoke even more deeply, but only a coughing fit burst out.
As she coughed violently, her body shaking, even the faint drowsiness that had been rising to her eyes fled.
Overcome by a sense of defeat, Thalia looked out the window. Before she knew it, the sky had been dyed a deep blood-red.
After staring for some time at that dizzying sunset light that sent chills down her spine, Thalia climbed out of bed as if drawn by something and tried standing on both legs.
Perhaps the medicine was working properly, because she did not feel any particular pain.
She tried taking a few experimental steps.
Her left leg moved a beat late, and her foot dragged along the floor. But the sharp pain she had felt whenever bending her joints was quiet. At this level, it seemed she could walk well enough.
She slipped her bony feet into slippers, then took a hooded robe from the wardrobe.
After loosely draping it over herself, she left the bedroom with a wavering gait.
By now, the nanny would be rolling around in her room.
The healer would have finished her work and returned to her own quarters, and the maids would also be resting in their own rooms.
Just as she had thought, while she passed through the long corridor and descended the stairs, she did not encounter anyone else.
Thalia passed through the wide hall and left the detached palace through the side door used by the servants.
A cool breeze gently brushed her face.
Breathing in the cold air mixed with the smell of grass and flowers, Thalia slowly moved her feet.
After wandering aimlessly for some time, she suddenly realized that she had come near the training ground.
A faint question rose inside her muffled head.
Why did I come here?
As Thalia looked around the open ground surrounded by red light with blank eyes, she sensed someone’s presence and instinctively hid behind the bushes.
Perhaps they were sparring, for she caught a glimpse of several knights swinging swords on one side of the training ground.
She stared blankly at them for a while, then moved her feet again.
After walking for a long time in a wavering manner without knowing where she was going, her once-clear vision began to ripple like waves. It seemed the effect of the herbs was finally taking hold.
Dragging her limp legs almost as if pulling them behind her, Thalia continued walking at a pace as slow as an earthworm.
Then suddenly, seeing that her shadow stretching long at her feet had been swallowed by a deep shade, she lifted her head. At some point, she had entered a dim building.
Where is this now?
As her brow furrowed in confusion, a door at the end of a long corridor caught her gaze.
She staggered toward it and carefully knocked.
A moment later, a low voice came from beyond.
“What is it?”
Thalia slowly blinked her eyelids.
Only after hearing that voice did she remember why she had come here.
She spoke in a slurred voice.
“I came because I have something I want to say to you.”
A cold silence flowed.
Thinking that perhaps her voice had been too small, Thalia cleared her throat and opened her mouth again.
At that moment, heavy footsteps sounded, and the door abruptly opened.
Thalia lifted her head.
Perhaps he had been resting after finishing the day’s duties, for Varkas was only loosely dressed in dark cotton trousers and a single thin linen shirt.
As she looked him over with dazed eyes, a cold voice fell upon the crown of her head.
“Did you come all the way here dressed like that?”
Thalia lowered her eyes and examined her outfit.
Between the parted robe, she could see the summer nightgown the nanny had dressed her in.
What is wrong with this?
As she frowned, a large piece of clothing was draped over her shoulders.
Thalia looked up at him with a bewildered expression.
After wrapping her body without a gap in his coat, Varkas looked around the corridor, where darkness had begun to settle thickly.
“Your escort?”
“Escort?”
His eyes sharpened.
Varkas lightly gripped her chin and lifted it upward. Then he bent his back toward her and stared closely into her eyes.
“How much sleep herb did you burn?”
Thalia put strength into the corners of her eyes to properly see his face, which kept distorting.
Varkas was wearing a strange expression she had never seen before.
No. Perhaps the strange thing was her own head.
When the whole world looked distorted, there was no reason this man would look normal.
She somewhat roughly removed the hand holding her face and moved her lips.
“I told you, I came because I have something to say.”
She saw his eyes narrow. It seemed something displeased him.
After sending her a cool gaze, Varkas straightened his body and looked up through the window at the sky beginning to darken. Then he turned his gaze over his shoulder and looked around his room.
At his appearance, as if he were pondering something, she grew increasingly anxious.
Did I perhaps use a language spoken by elves or dwarves? Why is he not answering?
“Can’t you hear me? I said I have something I want to say…”
Then, suddenly, her body tilted to one side.
Thalia hurriedly grabbed the doorframe. It seemed her leg had cramped from walking all the way here from the detached palace. She could feel the muscle in her left thigh faintly twitch.
To keep herself from collapsing to the floor, she pressed both hands against the wall and put her weight on the other leg.
At that moment, her body floated into the air.
Startled, she looked up, and a face tinged with fatigue filled her vision.
Holding her in both arms, he stepped into the wide bedroom lit by candles.
Thalia lowered her gaze again and looked over the familiar yet unfamiliar scenery.
She had come here several times to meet him, but this was the first time she had entered his room.
Suddenly, a hollow laugh slipped out. It seemed that only after her legs had ended up like this had she gained the right to step into his sanctuary.
“Tell me what you have to say after the medicine wears off.”
Varkas said as if sighing, after placing her down on his bed.
Thalia tightly clutched the hem of his clothes as he tried to move away from her. Beyond the thin fabric, she faintly felt his flawlessly trained, firm upper body tense.
Had he perhaps realized what she was trying to say?
She struggled to correct her constantly slipping focus and held onto the hem of his clothes like a lifeline.
“No. I’ll say it now. If I come to my senses, I definitely won’t be able to say it…”
“……”
“You said that if I agreed, you would take me as your wife, didn’t you?”
He did not answer and only stared persistently into her eyes.
Thalia barely moved her tongue, which wanted to loosen like strands of noodles.
“Do that. Abandon Ayla Roem Ghirta and take me as your wife.”
A heavy silence settled.
With the sunset at his back, an unreadable light passed over his face.
Could he be flustered?
She thought that perhaps, since those words had been spoken on the assumption that she would reject him, he was now feeling at a loss because of her answer.
But from his mouth came a voice chillingly calm.
“I will do so.”
Thalia traced his face with blurred eyes. At his dry expression, where no emotion could be found, a hollow laugh escaped her.
Because of this man, Ayla had to come find the half-sister she so despised and bend her pride.
She herself was tormented by the impulse to ruin everything.
Yet why was this man so calm?
At that cool face, which even seemed touched by weariness, something cracked inside her.
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