Chapter 129
“If I am not forgiven?”
His voice suddenly lowered.
Thalia felt the muscles in her shoulders tighten hard and bit her lower lip.
In the blue eyes that had drawn right up before her, her own figure, frozen with tension, was reflected.
He wound the hair he had been idly teasing around his finger and continued calmly.
“Will you come looking for me to scold me again, like today?”
The heat warming her cheeks spread all the way to her neck and earlobes.
There was no way there could be nerves in her hair, yet the back of her head tingled as if the nape of her neck had been bitten.
Hiding the traces of her agitation, Thalia deliberately put on an angry expression.
She hoped it would look as though her face had gone red because of anger.
“Yes. If you come back injured again, I won’t let you off. I’ll torment you to death.”
For an instant, the corner of his mouth rose faintly.
Thalia’s eyes widened.
But the smile that had appeared in passing vanished in an instant.
He leisurely rose from his seat and picked up the shirt he had taken off.
Then, slipping his arms into the linen sleeves, he answered in his usual indifferent tone.
“Since you have frightened me that much, I suppose I must be especially careful from now on.”
Thalia glared at him with annoyed eyes.
“You’re not taking me seriously, are you?”
“I took you seriously.”
Varkas, now wearing the shirt, answered halfheartedly as he buttoned it.
“You meant that this body is now Your Highness’s, so I should handle it carefully so it does not get scratched.”
“I didn’t say it like that!”
“You did say it like that.”
Thalia sprang up from her seat.
“I’m leaving.”
She glared at him angrily and limped toward the door, but he immediately caught her wrist.
Thalia tried to push him away, but flinched and drew back her hand when she felt the bandage through the thin shirt.
As she checked his complexion, worried that she might have hurt him, Varkas naturally led her to the bed.
“You still have not fed me my medicine.”
His gentle breath tickled her forehead.
Thalia glared at him with a bright red face.
Varkas wore a calm expression, as if he were demanding something perfectly natural.
Surely he had not developed the distorted perception that being fed medicine by mouth was normal, had he?
While she was having such a ridiculous worry, he opened the drawer and took out the medicine bottle.
“Here it is.”
Then, to keep her from escaping, he wrapped one arm around her waist and sat on the bed.
Thalia looked down in disbelief at the man, who had recently become strangely shameless.
He tilted his head.
“Do you dislike it?”
“…Who said I disliked it?”
Pretending she had no choice, she took the medicine bottle and opened the lid.
Inside the bottle, purple liquid had gathered.
She brought the bottle close to her face and smelled it.
Instead of the bitter scent of mandrake extract, she only detected the thick scent of honey and a faint fragrance of mint.
“Is this really proper medicine?”
“It is medicine. I was told it is a reagent that purifies the blood. They said it is also effective in detoxifying magical beast poison, so I accepted it.”
Even at his explanation, Thalia did not withdraw her doubtful gaze.
“That healer from earlier gave this to you, didn’t she? Can that woman really be trusted? If she prescribes the wrong medicine again…”
“I received that medicine from Daren.”
Varkas cut off her words.
“Still, if you are worried, you need not put it in your mouth.”
Then he tried to take the medicine bottle back from her hand.
Thalia hid the bottle behind her back without realizing it.
“Who said I wouldn’t do it? I was just worried…”
After blurting that out unconsciously, she watched his expression.
Fortunately, he did not seem to notice that what she was worried about was his body.
Varkas looked at her with a serious gaze, his brow furrowed, and spoke solemnly.
“From now on, medicine made by that healer will not touch Your Highness’s mouth, so do not worry. After that incident, she has already been dismissed from her main duties.”
“You should be careful too! She’s acting as the Grand Duke’s physician right now, so what do you mean, dismissed?”
When she snorted harshly, he let out a faint sigh.
“She was called in only as an exception this time. I was told there is no one in the East more knowledgeable about pharmacology than that woman. Since she has experience treating wounds where magic did not work several times, I decided to entrust her with managing my wound only until the poison leaves my body.”
At his calm answer, her insides twisted.
She recalled the healer’s appearance in her mind.
She was a young woman with large, clear eyes like a cow.
Even though Thalia knew very well that Varkas, who had not blinked once at the famous beauties of the imperial palace, would never cast his gaze on such a lowly woman, her anxiety would not fade.
Even though she knew that to him, most human beings were close to living, moving inorganic matter.
Ever since she was very young, Thalia had not been able to stand another woman loitering around him.
She had driven away every maid who cast heated gazes at him.
In the end, this time too, she had yielded to that disgusting jealousy.
“I don’t trust that woman. One mistake becomes two, and two mistakes become three. What exactly are you trusting when you entrust your body to her?”
Varkas stared intently at her face, then slowly nodded.
“If you feel that way, I will have her removed from the castle soon.”
Flustered by his obedient answer, Thalia hurriedly blurted out.
“Who told you to go that far? It’s obvious I’ll be the only one who ends up looking bad for no reason. They’ll say I’m a wicked villainess who mercilessly cast out a loyal vassal of the grand ducal house.”
He narrowed his brow and sent her a strange look.
Perhaps he was thinking something like, Since when did you care about your reputation?
Thalia sharpened the corners of her eyes.
“For now, I will permit treatment. However, every process must take place before my eyes. If I see you alone with that woman when I’m not there…”
Thalia, who had been spitting out words in rapid succession, suddenly closed her mouth.
She had realized that her words were laying bare her raw jealousy exactly as it was.
Glancing at his expression, Thalia quickly added.
“If something goes wrong with you, my position will also become precarious. This concerns my safety too.”
At the excuse she rattled off, a crease formed between Varkas’s brows.
Varkas, who had been sending her a persistent gaze as if trying to dissect the inside of her head, opened his mouth after a long while.
“If that will put you at ease, I will do as you wish.”
At the answer, strangely compliant, anxiety surged up instead.
She moved her eyes this way and that and bit her lower lip.
Why are you accepting every tantrum I throw?
Is it just because I’m the woman you married, and you are treating me well out of duty?
Or have you come to like me a little?
Is that why you want me to stay with you?
She chewed up the countless question marks and swallowed them down.
That was begging.
She would never fall that low.
I no longer expect anything from you.
As she struggled to hold on to that ragged lie, Varkas pulled her onto his lap.
Thalia curled herself up as much as possible so she would not touch his wound.
But he himself did not seem to care about his injury at all.
Varkas firmly wrapped his arms around her back and naturally took the medicine bottle away.
“Open your mouth.”
When she unconsciously obeyed his instruction, he brought the opening of the glass bottle to her lips and carefully tilted it.
Soon, a liquid sweet enough to melt her tongue flowed in little by little.
Varkas looked down at her with shadowed eyes and lowered his head.
A soft tongue scooped up the sweet liquid pooled in her mouth.
Varkas, who had been teasing her tender membranes with maddening little licks like a cat lapping milk, gradually began to explore her more deeply and persistently.
Thalia naturally wrapped her arms around the nape of his neck.
At the intense sensation of mucous membrane brushing against mucous membrane, it felt as though her brain were melting.
“Haa…”
Varkas, who had been sucking at less than a single mouthful of liquid for a long while, pulled his lips away.
While she caught her breath in that opening, the glass bottle pressed against her lower lip again.
Following the silent demand, she opened her mouth once more, and the honey-thick liquid seeped in.
Then, as if it were the natural next step, his tongue pushed in.
The kiss, begun under the pretext of medicine, only stopped when the sunset was swallowed by darkness.
“…When will the wound be completely healed?”
Thalia, who had been catching her breath while resting her head against his uninjured shoulder, asked without thinking.
His gaze, dark enough to look deep blue, touched her face.
A voice mixed with a metallic rasp gently brushed her forehead.
“Four days.”
Long, elegant fingers swept away the hair clinging to her face.
She felt his eyes, grown heavy like metal, cling to her sweat-damp neck.
He added.
“If the medicine works well, treatment will be finished in three days.”
She could not bring herself to meet those eyes directly and hid her gaze beneath her lashes.
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