Chapter 155
Tiuran swallowed dryly.
Surely he had not gone without a single moment of sleep since the day the Grand Duchess lost consciousness until now?
As Tiuran poured water into the basin and stole glances at him from the corner of her eye, she soon denied her own thought.
If he were an ordinary human, there was no way he could remain that composed after going so long without sleep.
Since she and Marisen had been taking turns nursing her, their timing simply had not matched.
“The towel.”
While she was briefly lost in thought, the Grand Duke reached out his hand toward her.
Tiuran hurriedly took out a clean towel, soaked it thoroughly in ice-cold water, and placed it in the man’s sculpted hand.
The man who took it immediately cooled his wife’s forehead with great care.
It was a touch as if he were handling glasswork.
In truth, the woman lying limp like a corpse looked as if she might shatter at any moment.
Perhaps that anxiety was why the man could not take his eyes off the Grand Duchess for even a moment.
After hesitating briefly, Tiuran murmured in a voice that seemed to crawl into the floor.
“Her Highness is slowly recovering. She will no longer be in a dangerous situation, so perhaps now you could entrust her care to us...”
“It seems Daren has started whining even to the servants.”
At the cold voice, Tiuran shut her mouth.
The man turned the towel over and carefully wiped the sweat-dampened nape of the woman’s neck with the cold side, then added calmly,
“If he asks, tell him the Grand Duke said this.”
After a short pause, the Grand Duke slowly finished his words.
“Those who are so incompetent that they cannot endure even a few days of my absence—why are they wasting food in my household?”
Even though the words were not directed at her, Tiuran felt a chill run down her spine.
Without even giving her a glance, the man gestured with his chin.
“You are in the way. Leave now.”
“...Then I will be waiting in the next room. Please call me anytime if you need anything.”
Tiuran carefully backed away from the bed.
Even during that time, the man’s gaze remained fixed on his sleeping wife’s face.
The dim late-afternoon light flowing in through the window faintly illuminated his face.
As if he had never shown that frost-like danger, he looked terribly solitary and lonely.
Tiuran secretly watched that face, wrapped in deep exhaustion, for a short while, then quietly opened the door and left.
***
Thalia felt the wounds of her body slowly healing.
The pain in her belly, which had throbbed as if threatening her not to forget what she had lost, had also faded, and the blood that had flowed from time to time soon stopped.
The pain in her waist and pelvis remained, but it could not compare to the agony she had felt while pregnant.
The sensation in her legs, which had always tingled, had also improved compared to before, and now that her heavy body had grown lighter, moving around had become easier too.
But for some reason, that fact tormented her even more.
It was difficult to accept her body, which was trying to return to its previous state as if she had never carried a child.
Her mind was still fixed on that night, but her body was moving toward life on its own.
The sheer absurdity of that fact sometimes made a hollow laugh slip out.
She had no idea why those around her were so anxious about her health.
This was a body that clung stubbornly to life even after every kind of hardship.
Even after her legs had been crushed, even after losing the child of her own flesh and blood, delivered through pain that felt as if her insides were being torn apart, her life kept dragging on.
Even if left completely alone, her body would surely continue to stubbornly survive this reality, which was no better than hell.
So please, just leave me alone.
“Eat.”
Thalia glared with terrible hatred at the man offering her a bowl of watery porridge.
The first time he urged her to eat, she had simply remained unresponsive.
When the man still did not give up, she eventually overturned the bowl.
Then he immediately had new food prepared and tried to feed her using the old method between them.
But in the act of forcefully feeding her through his mouth, none of the same heat as before could be found.
Only a faint sense of dutiful mission could be sensed, like a mother bird tirelessly bringing food to its young.
Absurdly, Thalia felt a sharp pain at that fact.
His change seemed to inform her of her position as a woman who had utterly failed, and it felt as if her heart were being torn apart.
That bitter pain drove her even more insane.
She could not bear that she still had a heart left that could ache because of this man.
Thalia squeezed out her remaining strength and pushed him away.
Then she picked up the spoon with her own hand.
As if chewing and swallowing down the desire to simply die and disappear, she ate the food and drank the medicine.
This time as well, Thalia gave up on futile resistance and picked up the spoon.
And to escape the gaze monitoring her like a jailer, she diligently swallowed the food.
When she barely finished the meal, he handed her medicine next.
After forcing even that down her throat, she leaned her exhausted body against the cushion.
Then, as if it were only natural, Varkas lay down beside her.
It was to hold her back through the night when she sometimes crawled out of bed and headed toward the grave.
As Thalia quietly endured those shackle-like hands wrapping tightly around her body, she suddenly demanded,
“...Burn sleeping herb for me.”
The man, who had been pulling a thick cotton blanket over her shoulders, looked at her with unreadable eyes.
When he did not move, Thalia wet her dry lips, which were parching, and added,
“I can’t sleep deeply. I need medicine.”
After looking down at her silently for a long while, the man with the calm face finally rose.
She watched his slowly moving back, then turned her gaze toward the window where the sunset had begun.
The sky, which had been a vivid orange, gradually turned a deep blood-red.
But before long, even that was slowly swallowed by thick darkness.
Thalia closed her eyes as she breathed in the scent of the harsh smoke.
At some point, the man who had returned to the bed drew her against his chest and carefully wrapped his hand around her head.
Once her senses dulled, that touch no longer felt as painful as before.
Thalia willingly immersed herself in the mire of sleep.
But the peaceful moment did not last long.
Perhaps she had developed resistance to the medicine, because she opened her eyes when the windowpane was dyed a deep navy blue.
It was when the tip of the sun, which had not yet crossed over the hill, was reddening the edge of the castle wall.
Thalia unsteadily raised her upper body and looked out the window at the end of the day drawing nearer.
How long had she been staring at the distant sky?
Suddenly, she realized what had awakened her consciousness.
A thin crying sound was mixed into the faint scream of the wind.
She let out an empty laugh.
It was the hallucination she had been hearing endlessly for the past few days.
She should have grown used to it by now, so why did her heart feel as if it were rotting away every single time?
Thalia’s shoulders trembled faintly, and she soon covered her ears.
But the crying sound ringing inside her head only grew stronger.
It was as if the dead baby were blaming her.
Was he wailing like that every night because he resented her for not giving birth to him whole?
Thinking that made her feel as if she would go mad.
Thalia rose to run outside.
Then she realized someone was holding her waist and flinched, turning her head.
She saw the man lying there with one side of his face buried in the pillow.
She stared blankly down at that face, which was strangely clear even through her dizzy vision, as if her senses had broken.
His appearance as he slept so deeply that she wondered whether he might be dead felt unfamiliar.
Was he not the man who always rose alertly even when she moved only slightly?
Although the strength of the arm binding her remained the same, the man’s consciousness seemed to have been completely cut off.
...Is it because of the sleeping herb?
She blinked blankly.
He was a man who, even when sleeping herb was sometimes burned in the bedroom, showed no reaction beyond becoming slightly sluggish.
Perhaps he had grown exhausted from watching over her.
As Thalia carefully studied the sight of him, somehow still sharp even in a defenseless state, she reached out toward that gaunt face as if drawn by something.
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