Chapter 71
Her mouth dried out under that dry gaze.
Thalia tore at her chapped lips with her fingertips and lowered her eyes.
She did not know what she should say.
As she kept her mouth tightly shut as if she had become mute and only moved her eyes around, a flat voice sounded.
“Your nanny is in the room next door. Call her if you need her.”
Thalia raised her head again and looked at him.
Varkas calmly continued speaking as he slid his arm into the sleeve of his shirt.
“We plan to leave for the East in a week. I will call in workers, so if there is anything you wish to take with you, pack it in advance.”
“S-so soon?”
When she mumbled with a flustered expression, Varkas, who had been buttoning his shirt, turned his gaze back to her.
His eyes, covered in a thick fog, carefully measured her face.
“Is there any reason you must stay longer in the Imperial Palace?”
Thalia looked up at him with a speechless expression, then slowly shook her head.
Varkas silently watched her, then approached the side of the bed with disciplined steps. Her heart shrank tightly at the face that had suddenly come closer.
Without realizing it, Thalia fixed her gaze on his lips. Between the narrow gap that had slightly parted, she could see his red tongue.
That had entered inside her.
Was that reality, or a dream?
As she blankly thought that, her chin was lifted, and transparent blue eyes came close before her nose.
“Do you often experience sudden severe pain like yesterday?”
Her tightly shrunken heart now cracked with a rotting sound.
Thalia roughly struck his hand away. Irritation surged up at him treating her like a seriously ill patient.
“I don’t know. How would I know?”
“If there is a problem, additional treatment…”
“What could you possibly do to treat something even the mages of the Taren family couldn’t fix?”
Unable to suppress her anxiety, she raised her voice, and his lips closed firmly. Those red lips, drawing a sharp line, once again caught her gaze.
The important thing right now was the fact that last night, that mouth had arbitrarily stirred her up. So why was he worrying about something like her legs?
Thalia moved her dry lips.
“More importantly… yesterday…”
Why did you do that to me? It was really just to make me take the medicine, right?
She was about to ask that, but closed her mouth again.
Perhaps their lips touching had lasted only an instant. Her ruined mind might have distorted the memory on its own.
She swallowed dryly and glanced at his expression.
As if he was not even curious about the words she had failed to finish, Varkas straightened his body and spoke in a flat voice.
“I have had a healer stand by in the room right next door. If your body feels uncomfortable, call immediately.”
That is all?
Do you have nothing else to say to me?
As the questions circled inside her mouth and only rolled at the tip of her tongue, his calm voice continued.
“Until the day of departure, I will be staying at the Imperial Palace.”
Thalia looked up at him with an expression as if she had been struck in the head.
Cool fingers settled on her forehead.
Her skin prickled as if a blade had touched it.
When she unconsciously shrank her neck, Varkas, who had been brushing the tangled hair away from her face, withdrew his hand again.
A dark shadow fell over his face as he stood with the window at his back.
“For the time being, you will not have to face me. So please stay at ease.”
Thalia urgently opened her mouth.
She felt as though she had to say something, but her throat went numb, and no sound came out.
He slowly turned, picked up the coat hanging on the wall, and lifted it.
Thalia merely stared blankly at his back as he crossed the room.
Varkas, who had grasped the door handle, looked back at her over his shoulder. As if he were about to say something, his lips parted slightly. But in the end, he said nothing and left.
Thalia stared blankly at the door that closed with a click, then lowered her feet beneath the bed. A tingling sensation climbed up through her bones. Ignoring the pain that seemed to boil fiercely, she approached the doorway and turned the handle.
Perhaps Varkas had already gone down the stairs, for only silence lingered in the corridor.
With a hollow face, she closed the door again and went beside the bed.
The only trace of him left in the room was one neatly folded ceremonial outfit.
She unfolded the clothes that had been folded neatly on the shelf and buried her face in the smooth fabric.
Instead of the smell of mint, a strong scent of roses seeped into her nose.
Perhaps because he had held her all day, the richly embroidered satin was deeply imbued only with the scent of aromatic oil that the maids had smeared all over her. Finding even that better than nothing, she put it on and lay down on the cold bed.
She recalled the broad embrace that had wrapped tightly around her as she writhed in pain.
Since he had to care for a patient all night, it must have been the worst night for him. What man in the world would welcome such an exhausting and troublesome first night?
Thalia tightly bit her faintly trembling lips.
From the start, this was a marriage she had accepted to satisfy her childish desire for revenge. Since she had made him sick of her from the very first night, she ought to be pleased.
Trying hard to calm the bitterness inside her, she looked up at the white-shining glass window. Beyond the transparent film, sunlight was brightly dawning.
Suddenly, she thought that this was the first morning she was greeting as Thalia Roem Siarkan.
Thalia murmured with a helpless face.
How will my life flow from now on…
***
Before she knew it, the day to leave for the East had come right before her.
Unable to withstand the maids’ urging from early morning, Thalia began grooming herself and looked out the window with weary eyes.
In the wide courtyard, more than twenty baggage wagons stood in a row. On top of them, silk wrapped in linen, craftwork made by dwarves, dresses woven by the fairy folk, and chests containing rare jewels were stacked in layers.
Half were gifts sent by the Imperial Palace, and the other half were things she had obsessively gathered over the long years.
Thalia looked down indifferently at the treasures she had once been fanatically attached to, then soon closed the curtain.
Only one season ago, she had been frantic to obtain rare dresses and jewelry. She had wanted Varkas to see her shining more brilliantly than anyone else and regret his engagement to Ayla.
But now jewels or clothes no longer mattered.
After all, she could not become as elegant as Ayla, nor as beautiful as Senevier.
Even if she dressed herself up to the utmost with this body, she would only look miserable and pitiful.
Thalia sat on the bed and rubbed her throbbing knees.
Perhaps the effect of the painkillers she had taken at dawn had already worn off, for the quiet pain was beginning to raise its head again.
She inserted a new incense stick into the brazier, whose embers had gone out at some point. Just as she was about to light it, a knock sounded behind her.
“Your Highness, Sir Siarkan has arrived.”
At that moment, her senses, which had been hazy as if submerged in water, vividly awakened.
Thalia hurriedly set down the incense stick and rose from her seat.
When she approached the door and pulled the handle, she saw maids lined up along the wall.
Thalia looked over them.
“…Nanny?”
“She boarded the carriage first.”
Thalia, who had been anxiously wondering what she would do if the nanny said she would return to the Imperial Palace, let out a sigh of relief.
“Wait a moment. I’ll be out soon.”
As she turned to get her outerwear, an elderly maid urgently opened her mouth.
“Sir Siarkan told us to give this to you.”
Thalia looked down with furrowed eyes at the long, trailing garment the maid held out.
It was a loose hooded cloak that covered the entire body. It seemed he had brought it to hide her limping gait.
Her ears grew hot with humiliation, but Thalia put it on without complaint.
The long hem covered all the way down to her toes. She probably looked as though she had wrapped herself in a curtain.
She touched the smooth surface of the fabric, then jerked her chin toward the maids.
“Let’s go now.”
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