Chapter 160
Thalia pushed aside the half-empty bowl and rose from the bed.
When she approached the window, she saw about a dozen knights in golden armor lined up in the castle courtyard.
They were the Roem Knights.
Judging by the fact that they had dispatched an entire elite unit rather than one or two knights, it did not seem they had simply come to deliver a message from the Imperial Family.
Could they have come to take me away?
Thalia thought that blankly, then soon shook her head.
Even the Emperor could not forcibly take away the Grand Duchess of the East.
In truth, there was no reason to go that far.
The conflict with the north had probably become serious.
She, too, sensed that war was not far off.
She also knew that because of it, Varkas was being pressured from all sides.
If a war for independence broke out in the north, it was obvious that the East would also suffer significant damage both militarily and economically.
Because of that, the eastern nobles must also feel the need to suppress the northern rebellion early.
The lords of regions bordering the north in particular would be gripped by a great sense of crisis.
There was also a high possibility that the conservative nobles were watching Varkas’s movements with cold eyes.
Had his political position not already narrowed because of his marriage to her?
Every situation was urging him to abandon her.
And yet, why was that man still holding on to me?
Suddenly, she remembered the image of the man quietly embracing her under the moonlight.
She remembered the touch of his hand as he placed her on his lap and stroked her belly, and the sight of him procuring rare fruits and preparing them for her himself.
The moments that had seemed like love tried to kindle embers once more inside her chest, where only ash remained.
“No.”
Thalia murmured, seized by a strong sense of crisis.
If time passed like this, she would surely harbor futile hope again.
And then she would fall into the pit of despair over and over.
No.
I don’t want to hurt like that anymore.
“Your Highness, are you feeling unwell? Shall I call a healer?”
As she leaned her dizzy head against the cold window, a maid asked with a worried face.
Thalia shook her head.
“No, I’m fine. I’m just...”
At that moment, her eyes fell on the sleeping medicine placed on the shelf.
Thalia added somewhat impulsively,
“I think I’m a little thirsty. Bring me a bottle of wine.”
“Ah... Please wait a moment. I will bring it right away.”
The maid, who had been searching the shelf with a flustered face at the sudden request, realized there was only herbal tea and cold water, then hurriedly left the room.
Thalia ordered the remaining maid to build up the fire in the stove, then snatched the medicine bottle while the girl turned away and hid it under her sleeve.
A short while later, the maid who had left the room returned with a pitcher filled with wine.
Thalia opened the medicine bottle inside the blanket, then with her other hand snatched up the pitcher of wine as if grabbing it.
The maid gave her a bewildered look.
Pretending not to notice, Thalia opened the lid of the pitcher and leaned her head over it.
Then, while pretending to dip her fingertip into the wine and taste it, she poured in the sleeping medicine hidden inside her long, trailing sleeve.
Fortunately, her long hair spread like a veil and the hem of her sleeve seemed to have perfectly concealed her actions.
She hid the empty medicine bottle inside the blanket, then looked up at the maid with a deliberately suspicious gaze.
“You two drink it first.”
When the maids merely blinked in confusion, Thalia pressed them in a spiteful tone.
“Why? Did you put something strange in here?”
The startled girls eventually poured the wine and drank it.
Perhaps both of them had grown used to her unreasonable fault-finding, because they did not seem to suspect in the slightest that she had some other scheme.
Thalia insisted that they had only pretended to drink and forced them to drink more.
In the end, the maids had to empty one glass each of the strong wine.
After carefully watching them, Thalia suddenly said she had changed her mind, pushed the pitcher aside, and flopped down on the bed.
She did not know what she was thinking as she did this.
How long had she held her breath under the blanket, following only a vague impulse?
When she slowly raised her head, she saw the maids sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall.
Since she had recently developed resistance to sleeping herb and the medicine had been prepared at a stronger concentration, both seemed to have almost fainted.
Thalia climbed out of bed and carefully checked the two women’s condition, then generously covered their bodies with blankets.
Then she looked into the waiting room used by the maids through the small side door next to the bedroom.
Fortunately, it was empty, perhaps because the healer had gone to the dispensary.
She entered without hesitation and rummaged through the chest beside the small bed.
Before long, she found an undyed grayish-brown wool tunic and a pair of leather shoes.
She took off her nightgown, put on the slightly loose tunic, and wore the stiff shoes.
Then she carefully braided her hair into one plait and found a shabby coat to put on.
When she wrapped a dirty headscarf around her head and pulled the hood down deeply, she looked exactly like a commoner woman.
After examining herself from different angles, Thalia soon left for the corridor through the small side door next to the waiting room.
Because most of the servants seemed to have gone up to the kitchen to receive the guests who had arrived suddenly, the corridor was quiet.
She used the passage mainly used by maids and headed to her own room, which had been left empty for a long time.
Fortunately, the bedroom was empty.
Thalia approached the drawer cabinet beside the bed, unlocked it, and searched thoroughly for anything worth taking.
Since expensive ornaments were kept separately in a safe, she could find only a few jewels.
After barely finding a gold ring and a few pearl hairpins, Thalia shoved them into her pocket and took out the jewelry box she had brought from the Imperial Palace.
When she opened the lid, she saw the moonstone that resembled Varkas’s eyes, the handkerchief he had bought for her, and the gold button engraved with the emblem of the Roem Knights.
She started pushing them into the leather pouch as if it were only natural, then stopped and froze.
Why was she packing these things at the very moment she was trying to abandon everything and leave?
Thalia silently looked down at the traces of her pathetic lingering attachment, then soon put them back into the jewelry box and locked it firmly.
Then she pushed it deep into the drawer cabinet and left the room.
At some point, the sun had noticeably tilted.
She carefully stepped into the corridor where darkness had spread.
When she went down the narrow staircase connected to the back gate, she saw servants busily carrying bathwater.
It seemed everyone was in a panic serving guests who had arrived without notice.
Thanks to that, Thalia was able to leave the building without drawing the workers’ attention.
“What should I do now?”
As she walked along a sparsely populated trail, she looked up at the cloudy sky with a helpless feeling.
No matter how ignorant of the world she was, she knew at least how harsh the world was.
If she wandered aimlessly without a single guard, she would not last even a few days before being robbed or becoming prey for a magical beast.
Even if, by great luck, she safely arrived at a human settlement, there was no way she, who knew how to do nothing, could earn a living.
She would probably end up begging on the street and starving to death.
She could easily imagine her miserable end.
“Still...”
At least she would not have to show him herself falling apart like that.
Thalia limped forward slowly.
If she kept moving south from Kalmor, she would reach Bellamen Monastery.
Since it was famous as a sanctuary for those with nowhere to go, it would probably generously accept one woman of unknown identity.
If God takes pity on me and I miraculously arrive there safely, then I’ll live a little longer.
But if I can’t...
Thalia stopped thinking there.
She did not want to think about anything anymore.
After walking for a long while, mechanically moving her legs, she finally saw the castle wall rising tall between the trees and a door reinforced with iron bands.
Fortunately, no guard was in sight.
She approached the door, taking care to look as natural as possible.
When she gently pulled the doorknob, she saw three or four baggage carts lined up along the road.
It seemed they had called traveling merchants in a hurry.
She glanced at a merchant talking with a guard not far away, then carefully passed through the door.
At that moment, someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder.
Thalia flinched and turned her head, then found a soldier wearing a surcoat embroidered with the emblem of House Siarkan and hurriedly pulled down her hood.
She felt the man examining her suspiciously.
“Who are you? You don’t look like a maid of the castle.”
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