Chapter 75
“The exterior may look a little crude, but the interior is decorated splendidly enough to compare with any castle in the central region. You will not find it inconvenient to live there.”
The man, who had been observing her complexion, spoke as if soothing her.
Thalia only gave him a doubtful look.
Had this country bumpkin ever even set foot in the Imperial Palace or the castles where great nobles lived?
Perhaps sensing the dismissive air from her, a vein faintly rose on the man’s forehead.
He emphasized each word as he added,
“Raedgo Castle was built by dwarves during the Era of the Kingdoms. It boasts a scale and convenience no less than the Imperial Palace…”
“I know. It’s the fortress you Khan people built after dragging in the dwarves who lived in the northeastern region as slaves.”
At the words she spat out sharply, the man’s mouth snapped shut.
Intending to make this frivolous-looking man unable to speak to her carelessly, Thalia continued coldly.
“If you’re done saying things I never asked about, could you go away now?”
“Well, really.”
The man, looking dumbfounded, shook his head.
“Your Highness, do you perhaps know the meaning of the word ‘sociability’?”
“And do you know what ‘unnecessary interference’ means?”
Thalia sharpened her voice.
“Or the meaning of the word ‘rudeness’?”
As if realizing there was nothing to gain by speaking further, the man swung the reins and fled from his place.
After sending a snort at his retreating back, Thalia soon closed the window.
Most people who approached while pretending to be kind for no reason had some other scheme hidden inside.
Moreover, that easterner was only pretending to smile with his mouth, while his eyes were dissecting and evaluating her piece by piece.
He probably intended to probe what kind of person the woman who would become the future Grand Duchess was.
Thalia let out a snort, drew the curtain over the window, and buried herself deep in the seat.
She could not let her guard down for even a moment.
The Siarkan clan surely did not look kindly on her.
The former Empress Bernadette and the Grand Duke of Siarkan were cousins, and they had been quite close.
The Khan clan must surely feel strong resentment that instead of Ayla, their blood relative, the daughter of the current Empress with whom they were politically opposed had become the future Grand Duchess.
Thalia held her throbbing head.
Perhaps she would receive treatment more unpleasant than she could imagine.
Had she not suffered all kinds of filth even in the Imperial Palace, where Senevier had stood firm?
Raedgo Castle would be worse if anything, never less.
Thalia scratched at her lips, where blood scabs had stuck from how much she had chewed them.
Her throat, dried from the fever, stung.
She took a water bottle from the drawer installed on one side of the carriage and wet her parched mouth, when a loud trumpet sounded from outside.
Thalia looked through the curtain again.
Before she knew it, the carriage had reached the fortress.
As if they were going through an identity check, the carriage slowed briefly, then soon passed through the enormous castle gate.
As Thalia peered outside the window, she unconsciously let out an exclamation.
The words of the easterner named Tyrone had not been an exaggeration.
Unlike its crude exterior, the inside of the castle was full of precisely calculated beauty.
She looked one by one at the surprisingly clean roads, the spires rising tall as if to pierce the sky, and the elaborate buildings.
It seemed as though every structure had been carefully carved by a single master craftsman.
The fortress, formed from a combination of gray stone and black marble, rose at different heights in exquisite sculptural beauty, and between building and building, arched stone bridges connected like arteries.
As she looked at them with admiring eyes, the fountain situated in the middle of the square entered her sight.
Thalia widened her eyes.
A fountain far larger and more splendid than the one installed in the Imperial Palace was powerfully spraying clear streams of water.
This fortress was surely supplied with abundant water sources.
The streams overflowing from the fountain flowed along grooves carved into the roadside and into the waterways.
She was overwhelmed by the scenery inside the castle, tightly woven with stone, marble, steel, and water, and kept moving her eyes without rest.
At that moment, the cavalry marching in a line stopped before a structure that appeared to be the main castle.
Thalia turned her gaze forward.
In front of a beautiful fortress born from the union of the Roem Empire’s delicate architectural style and the easterners’ unique aesthetic sense, people in splendid attire were lined up.
Varkas, who had stopped his horse before them, dismounted and shouted something in the eastern language.
Then the people waiting on the stairs rushed down and surrounded him.
Are they Varkas’s relatives?
As she observed them with curious eyes, Varkas pushed aside the people making a commotion and walked straight toward her carriage.
Thalia hurriedly drew the curtain over the window.
Just as she was about to lie down on the seat and pretend to be asleep, the carriage door suddenly flew open without warning, and Varkas stepped inside.
Thalia looked up at him with a tense face.
As he had always done since leaving the Roem Knights, Varkas was wearing armor made of black iron with an eastern-style coat loosely draped over it.
His large body, deeply imbued with the smell of dry grass leaves, filled her vision in an instant.
“How is your body?”
Varkas removed his gauntlet and placed his hand on her forehead.
Perhaps sensing her fever, a faint crease appeared between his smooth brows.
“Your fever still hasn’t gone down.”
“…I’m fine. It’s not like this is the first or second day.”
Thalia lowered her eyes with an uncomfortable expression.
Perhaps she had grown somewhat used to it by now, because she startled less whenever he touched her, but she still could not help feeling awkward and uncomfortable.
As she needlessly tore at the hem of her skirt, he removed the coat draped over his shoulders and wrapped it around her body.
Then, as if it were only natural, he slid his arm beneath the backs of her knees and tried to lift her.
Thalia immediately twisted to the side and hugged her knees.
“Don’t! Are you trying to humiliate me even in front of your family?”
Varkas’s eyes narrowed.
He tilted his head slightly as if he could not understand.
“Why would a husband caring for his wife be humiliating?”
Thalia looked at him, at a loss for words.
She had long known that this man was an embodiment of duty.
But she had not known he would try to fulfill his responsibility even in a marriage formed under the Emperor’s pressure.
She shot him a fierce glare.
“Did Ayla teach you that? That a husband must take care of his wife?”
At her sharp voice, his brows drew together.
After hesitating briefly as if thinking about something, Varkas said dryly,
“Did we not swear that before the altar? That I would care for my wife as I do my own body.”
“That’s funny. You don’t even care for your own body.”
“……”
“And I have no intention of playing the role of an ‘obedient wife’ just because of what the priest babbled. So you should stop pretending to be a devoted husband too.”
After snapping sharply, she staggered to her feet and tried to go outside, but Varkas, who had approached from behind, snatched her up into his arms.
Thalia glared at him with a surging expression.
But before she could snap at him, Varkas opened his mouth first.
“Do I look foolish enough to expect anything ‘obedient’ from you?”
“What is that supposed to mean…!”
“It means I expect nothing from you, so do as you wish.”
He said dryly and adjusted her struggling body in one arm.
“I, too, intend to do as I wish.”
Then he pulled the hood attached to the cloak over her head and stepped lightly down from the carriage.
At the strong sunlight stabbing her eyes, Thalia frowned.
When her vision, which had been dyed white for a moment, became clear, unfamiliar faces looking at her with expressions mixed with wariness and curiosity entered her sight.
Thalia blushed with shame.
Far from displaying dignity befitting a Princess, humiliation flooded in at the fact that she was being carried helplessly like a powerless child.
“So this woman is the one who pushed out the First Princess and took Brother’s wife’s seat?”
As she unconsciously hid her face against his shoulder, a clear, androgynous voice sounded.
Thalia looked back.
A boy with shaggy black hair and large golden-brown eyes was looking at her with his hands clasped behind his head.
Was he about fifteen?
His youthful face, not yet free of softness, came right up before her.
The boy stared closely at her with curious eyes while she only had her eyes peeking out.
“Her eyes are just like lapis lazuli.”
Then, without warning, he reached toward her head and tried to pull off the hood.
As she froze in surprise at such rude behavior she had never experienced before, Varkas caught the boy’s wrist.
“Lucas.”
A startlingly cold voice rang above her head.
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