Chapter 76
When she flinched and raised her head, a coldly hardened face entered her sight.
Varkas looked down at his younger brother with sharp eyes and spoke quietly.
“You have grown quite ill-mannered.”
The boy’s youthful face turned sulky.
Varkas released his hand as if shaking it off, then turned his gaze to a middle-aged man standing beside the stairs.
“How exactly was he taught manners?”
“I have no excuse.”
The man with a stubborn impression bowed his head apologetically.
Seeing that, the boy shouted angrily.
“If you have something to say, say it to me! Why are you scolding someone unrelated?”
Varkas’s ice-cold eyes immediately returned to him.
The boy, who had shouted bravely, flinched and lowered his eyes.
“It’s not like it wears away. You could at least let me look at her face.”
At his grumbling words, Thalia lifted the corners of her eyes.
His tone, as if he regarded her as some rare animal, made heat surge up inside her.
“How dare you treat me like some spectacle…!”
Just as she was about to snap at him, long fingers blocked her vision.
Varkas pulled the hood low to cover her eyes and went up the stairs just like that.
Thalia wore a dumbfounded expression.
She could not understand why he was trying so hard to keep her wrapped up.
Was he trying to block her from clashing with his household?
She pushed back the hood and sent him a fierce gaze.
“What have you been doing since earlier? You should at least introduce me!”
“You suffered from fever throughout the journey.”
He answered in a calm tone while crossing the wide marble-floored hall.
“First, recover your body. I will introduce you as much as you like after you are well.”
“I’m well…”
As she tried to argue against him, a dry cough scratched up her throat.
Thalia covered her mouth and shook her shoulders.
Her throat, dried from the fever, stung as if scraped by sandpaper.
He let out a small sigh.
“Don’t waste your strength needlessly. Just sleep.”
Then he put the hood back over her head.
Thalia glared at him with a frown, then soon let her head droop weakly.
As he said, she was in a state where her strength had been drained from being sick for several days.
Deep down, she felt relieved that the uncomfortable meeting had been postponed.
But unable to honestly reveal such feelings, she grumbled for no reason.
“You’re really annoying.”
He said nothing and silently climbed the stairs.
A man who seemed to be the butler hurriedly followed and guided him to a large bedroom located on the second floor of the main castle.
A moment later, the scene of a spacious room decorated far more splendidly than the bedroom in the detached palace unfolded before her eyes.
Thalia looked around with widened eyes.
From the high ceiling hung a chandelier densely studded with crystals, and throughout the room, golden candle stands were arranged in a regular pattern.
Along the walls stood furniture ornate enough to be offered to the Emperor, and at a glance, it seemed to have been made by dwarves.
In addition, tapestries with unique patterns, shields engraved with the crest of the Siar family, beast furs, and white porcelain were decorated here and there.
As she carefully examined them, Varkas, who had walked to the large bed in the middle of the room, set her down carefully and said,
“You will use this room from now on.”
Thalia unconsciously grabbed his sleeve.
“What about you?”
Varkas, who had been shaking the bell attached beside the bed to summon attendants, paused and looked down at her.
At that moment, heat rose over her cheeks.
Thalia hurriedly added,
“I don’t mean that we should use the same room…”
“Do not worry. I intend to use a separate bedroom.”
He said calmly.
Thalia relaxed her shoulders in relief.
She had been anxious all along that a moment might come when she would have to show him her legs.
He straightened his body and continued in a composed tone.
“This is the bedroom used for generations by the lady of House Siarkan. It should not be lacking for Your Highness to stay in.”
“If I use this room, where does the current Grand Duchess stay?”
“For the past ten years, the position of Grand Duchess of Siarkan has been vacant.”
At his indifferent answer, she was momentarily at a loss for words.
The family history of his that she had heard here and there while living in the Imperial Palace belatedly passed through her mind.
Varkas’s birth mother had ended her short life from puerperal fever after giving birth to him.
She had heard that the second Grand Duchess he later took as wife had also passed away in an unexpected accident, and from the shock, the Grand Duke of Siarkan’s health had worsened as well.
In such a situation, it would have been difficult to welcome a new Grand Duchess.
She let out an awkward dry cough.
“Ah, right. That’s how it was.”
“I will call a healer for you. Take some fever medicine and sleep for a while.”
Perhaps bothered by her cracked voice, he poured a glass of water and handed it to her.
As she accepted it and took a sip, she sensed someone at the door.
Turning her gaze, Thalia found a middle-aged woman with a solemn impression and raised her upper body.
Varkas pressed down on her shoulder and turned his head to look at the woman.
Then the woman, who had been sending Thalia an assessing gaze, bowed politely.
“It has been a long time, Young Master.”
It was a gentle voice that did not match her stern-looking impression.
The woman continued softly.
“His Grace the Grand Duke has instructed me to bring the Young Master to his room at once.”
“Tell him I will come soon.”
Varkas answered calmly, then looked down at her with composed eyes.
“Then, I will take my leave.”
“S-shouldn’t I go with you?”
“Your Highness can visit separately later. I will explain things well, so do not worry.”
Then, before she could stop him, he left the room.
Thalia stared blankly at the closed door, then got down from the bed and staggered toward the window.
Beyond the transparent glass window, she could see the whole view of Kalmor at a glance.
A city surrounded by castle walls, large and small villages spreading beyond it, and blue grasslands…
When she slid the window aside, a chilly wind roughly swept over her face.
She looked at the plain touching the blue sky, then turned her head when she heard a strange sound faintly ringing from somewhere.
At the end of the hill, she saw a birch forest shining white.
For an instant, a strange feeling that she could not tell was excitement or fear flooded in.
This is the place where I will live from now on.
She inhaled deeply.
The smell of the cold, dry wind that had faintly soaked into Varkas’s body filled her lungs.
At that moment, she knew she would come to love this land.
***
Lucas sat sprawled on a chair and kicked the floor.
His younger sister, Raina, one year younger than him, glared at him and snapped sharply.
“If I get treated like an uneducated brat because of you, you are taking responsibility!”
“You are an uneducated brat.”
A pillow stuffed full of goose feathers flew at his face.
With the single-minded determination to look good in front of her elder brother, Raina had spent hours carefully braiding her thick hair, and had even taken out their late mother’s jewelry and silk tunka, an eastern traditional outfit, to adorn herself.
Yet she had not even gotten to speak to him, let alone receive a single glance from her elder brother.
Raina poured all the responsibility for that onto her easy target, her brother only one year older.
“Brother Varkas was educated like royalty in the capital! He is a noble among nobles, skilled even in Imperial Palace etiquette! What are you doing using the way commoner children speak in front of someone like that!”
“A noble among nobles, my foot.”
He sprang upright.
“Didn’t you see earlier? He just left without properly greeting the people who had waited days and days for him to come. Is that Imperial Palace etiquette?”
“That’s because you offended Brother first!”
“What did I do so wrong!”
Lucas jumped up from the chair and fumed.
“I was just trying to check that woman’s face! You were curious about what kind of person she was too.”
“I am not curious at all about that woman’s face!”
Raina threw down the jade ornaments hanging all around her neck and sharply raised her reddish-brown eyes.
“What good is checking the face of that vulgar woman who damaged Brother’s honor? She must be exactly the same kind of person as her vulgar mother anyway!”
“…You told me not to talk like an uneducated person.”
“I meant you should be careful in front of Brother Varkas!”
Raina roughly loosened the hair that had been pulled up tightly and made her eyes flash.
Because she had ridden horses every single day since she was six, Raina had tanned brown skin and long limbs, and when she was not dressed up, she looked just like a tall, handsome boy.
His younger sister even threw off the long, flowing coat embroidered with splendid patterns, then sat cross-legged on the bed.
“Listen carefully. In front of Brother, you must never treat that woman carelessly. If we torment her openly like that, our innocent Brother will feel pity for her! And conversely, we will become wicked younger siblings!”
“…Innocent?”
Lucas muttered as if dumbfounded.
Ignoring those words, Raina continued her lengthy speech.
“So we have to torment her as secretly as possible! If we prod her just a little, that woman will immediately run to Brother and speak ill of us. Then she becomes a wicked woman who slanders her kind and adorable younger siblings, and we become pitiful younger siblings!”
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