Chapter 166
He silently looked down at the unmoving tip of his pen for a while.
Ink spreading from the nib was making an unsightly stain on the surface of the letter.
He crumpled it halfheartedly and set it aside, while the man continued worriedly.
“But there seemed to be bad rumors going around about Her Highness the Grand Duchess because of that wolf. It also seemed there was frequent friction with the vassals of the grand ducal house.”
Varkas, who had opened a drawer and taken out a new sheet of paper, frowned.
“Friction?”
“Ah, it was not conflict at such a serious level. It is just that the wolf is so aggressive... the soldiers seemed to feel fear.”
He scratched the back of his head and answered vaguely.
Varkas’s eyes sharpened.
“Did that magical beast harm anyone nearby?”
“No, it did not. I watched closely while I stayed in Kalmor, but it only bared its teeth and frightened people nearby.”
The man hurriedly denied it.
“It has an extraordinary protective instinct and possessiveness toward its master. Fundamentally, it seems to hate anyone approaching Her Highness the Grand Duchess. If one does not get closer to Her Highness than necessary, it is calm. It follows Her Highness very well, and it is extremely clever, so it did not look like it would recklessly attack people.”
The man, who had poured out the words as if defending it, paused to catch his breath, then added in a small voice,
“However, since it is so large... the problem is that people around it feel their lives are threatened just by its growling.”
Varkas looked thoughtfully down at the letters piled on one side of the desk.
He, too, had somewhat guessed that problems were arising because of the direwolf.
Reports containing roundabout complaints about the direwolf had begun arriving from the subordinates he had assigned for her safety.
And his reply to them had always been the same.
If it shows signs of becoming a threat to her or directly harms those nearby, use force to subdue it.
But if it causes no actual harm, leave it alone.
The fact that the wolf’s head was still attached meant that, at least until now, it had not attacked anyone.
Then he had no intention of taking any action for the moment.
He could endure as many complaints from priests or vassals as they wanted about her raising a magical beast.
If she was happy, what did it matter if she raised not a magical beast but the spawn of a devil?
As long as Thalia became all right...
At that moment, the sight of her sobbing in the rain flashed through his mind like a burn mark.
He hurriedly shook off the afterimage flickering over his retina and issued a dismissal in a rather cold tone.
“If you are done chatting, leave now. You must pass through the gorge before the sun sets, must you not?”
“No, Your Grace was the one who asked...”
The man, who had been grumbling in dissatisfaction, let out a resigned sigh and turned toward the entrance.
Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, he stopped and held something out toward Varkas.
“I almost forgot. I came to deliver this.”
He narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the parchment scroll held in the knight’s hand.
“What is it?”
“It is a telegram sent by His Highness the Crown Prince.”
He accepted the scroll with an expressionless face.
The telegram contained a rather direct proposal, written in the secretary’s distinctive neat handwriting, saying that he wished for Varkas to participate in the attack on Blodar.
Varkas read through it with an indifferent face, then stopped his gaze on the phrase written at the end of the document.
Remember the oath you made.
After staring fixedly at it, he placed the letter over the candle flame.
Then he gestured with his chin toward Edrick Lubon, who looked startled.
“If your business is done, go now.”
The man opened his lips as if to say something, but silently left the tent.
Varkas loosened the collar of his uniform, which was tightening around him like a noose.
The letters on the parchment slowly curling over the candlelight writhed like tiny insects.
After looking at them for a long while, he placed the dried-out tip of the quill back into the inkwell.
There would be no need to wage a siege against Amasek.
If the Emperor proposed talks, the eastern alliance would open the gates wide and welcome the imperial army.
Still, to appease the whining Gareth, he would have to show at least the sincerity of moving the army.
At the end of the letter to be sent to the vassals, Varkas wrote that he planned to return before the end of summer that year and sealed it with wax.
By the time this reached Raedgo Castle, the direction of the war would be decided.
He intended to make it so, one way or another.
***
Pale light poured down over the world faded gray.
Toward him, standing alone at the entrance of the white garden, a ghostly pale woman held out a white hand with visible veins.
“Why are you standing there like that? Come here.”
He looked up at the black-haired woman standing with the sunlight behind her.
No.
Perhaps her hair was not black.
He had never once seen this woman’s true color.
Even within the world stained in black and white, he could only clearly recognize that she was a figure with especially distinct light and shadow.
The woman urged him gently with an affectionate smile on her lips.
“There is no need to worry. This place is safe.”
It was a tone as if soothing a timid animal.
He slowly entered the garden.
Then, among the neatly trimmed shrubs, a marble pavilion appeared.
On the long bench placed beneath it, two small children were sitting close together and staring at him with large eyes.
The woman wrapped both hands around the children’s shoulders and spoke proudly.
“Say hello. These are my children. They are like younger cousins to you.”
He approached the pavilion and quietly looked down at the young siblings.
Both had dark-colored hair and large eyes, but the impressions they gave off were strikingly different.
The boy looked furious about something, and the girl with two pigtails looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
He examined the girl’s tearful face with a puzzled gaze.
Then the child, whose plump cheeks were twitching, suddenly burst into a high-pitched cry.
“Ayla.”
The woman hurriedly lifted her daughter into her arms and patted her small back.
As he looked up at that sight quietly, something sticky struck his body with a splat.
He turned his head.
A boy whose face had turned dark was hurling mushy pieces of cake placed on the table at random.
“I hate you! Get out!”
“Gareth! What are you doing?”
At the woman’s shout, the maids waiting on one side of the garden rushed over in a crowd and surrounded the boy, trying to soothe him.
He stood covered in sticky lumps of sugar and waited for the chaotic situation to settle.
At last, when the girl’s crying subsided, the woman handed the young Princess to a maid and approached him.
“I am truly sorry, Varkas.”
Then she took out a handkerchief and wiped the sugar syrup and cream from his face.
Dark eyes shone with tears right before his nose.
“What should I do about this? I will scold Gareth properly.”
“...I am fine.”
Because the woman seemed excessively sorry, he opened his tightly closed lips.
Then the woman’s eyes widened in surprise, and soon curved gently.
That reaction puzzled him.
What was she so happy about?
“You have finally begun to speak. I was worried you might never be able to speak for the rest of your life.”
He furrowed his brow.
He had simply kept his mouth shut because he had not felt the need to speak.
He had never imagined she thought he had become mute.
“Now, follow me. I will give you new clothes.”
The woman took his hand and led him with a simple smile on her lips, to the point that it was hard to believe she was the Empress of the Empire.
With each step he took while following her, he saw his once-small shadow gradually lengthen.
His once-light footsteps also grew heavier little by little.
Before he knew it, he was standing in front of a wide bedroom door wearing a surcoat embroidered with the emblem of the Imperial Knights.
After straightening his attire, he lightly knocked on the door with the back of his hand.
Soon, a familiar voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
When he pulled the doorknob, the scenery of a cozy bedroom decorated with old wooden furniture and carpets unfolded before his eyes.
As he moved his steps and looked around the room, his gaze stopped at the window.
The woman sitting in front of the terrace, blankly looking out at the garden, turned to him and wore a pale smile on her lips.
“Thank you for coming.”
At that moment, he smelled death.
“I heard you tried to take your own life.”
At the words he spat out as if accusing her, the smile disappeared from the woman’s face.
He added harshly to that bloodless face.
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“Why did I... I don’t know either.”
The woman murmured with a vacant face.
“Everyone says I did, but... to be honest, I have no memory of it. When I came to my senses, I was lying on the bed.”
Her empty eyes returned to the window.
“Why on earth did I do that? Was I hoping that he would regret it as he watched me dying? Or did I hope that he would belatedly realize how precious I was?”
The woman, murmuring as if talking about someone else, let out a hollow laugh.
“The maids were surrounding me and sobbing loudly... but even then, I was only searching for his face. Isn’t that so foolish?”
He gave no answer.
Reading criticism in his silence, the woman’s face distorted as if collapsing.
“You will never be able to understand me. When I first rescued you from that place, I pitied you so much. I wanted to heal you somehow, since you had become unable to feel anything.”
“......”
“But now... I envy you so much.”
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