Ch#107
107
Watching her movements through the glass window, Varkas stepped out of the hallway and headed down the stairs. As he exited through the back door, his view was obscured by a dense tangle of shrubs.
Moving with hurried steps, Varkas passed through the thicket and came to a dead stop when he spotted Thalia sitting beneath a red barberry bush.
The moment he saw her sitting on the bare ground wearing nothing but a thin gown, his throat stung as if he had swallowed shards of glass.
He swallowed the sharp words rising within him and strode toward her.
“What are you doing in a place like this?”
The woman, who had been staring blankly at the flowerbed, lifted her head. Her unfocused eyes wandered through the air. Varkas furrowed his brow.
“Did you burn sleep-grass again?”
“……I didn’t. I’m just a little tired.”
Thalia replied in a languid voice before dropping her gaze back to the flowerbed.
Following her line of sight, Varkas’s face hardened when he spotted a limp bird lying among the long blades of grass.
Its belly had been torn open, perhaps by a stray cat, revealing entrails swarming with ants and maggots.
In the past, she was a woman who would have had a fit at the mere sight of a bug. A woman who hated filth to the point of obsession and loved beautiful things so much it invited criticism for her extravagance had, at some point, begun to fixate on the hideous. That eerie transformation grated on him.
He pulled her to her feet with a somewhat rough touch.
“If you’re tired, you should rest in your room. Why are you acting like this?”
“……I felt suffocated, so I came out for some air. It was strangely hot inside the room.”
Thalia murmured as if making an excuse.
Varkas, his brow creased, pressed the back of his hand to her forehead.
He felt no fever. If anything, her skin felt cool, likely from being exposed to the cold wind in such thin clothing.
Exhaling a small sigh, Varkas took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.
“Let’s head inside. Your body is cold.”
“You know……”
He wrapped an arm around her and was about to lead her toward the back door when her strained voice caught his ankles.
He looked down at her again. Her shadowed blue eyes filled his vision. Biting her lip as if hesitating over something, she forced the words out.
“A long time ago……”
“So this is where you were!”
At that moment, a boisterous voice cut off her trailing sentence.
Varkas turned his head toward the sound. Daren Dru Sheakan, accompanied by half a dozen subordinates, was crossing the garden, trampling the wildflowers along the narrow path.
“I have an urgent report. I went to the inn and met with informants from the capital, and the movements in the Imperial Palace are unusual. It seems the Empress has begun expanding her influence in earnest……”
The man, who had been pouring out words in haste, belatedly noticed Thalia and fell silent.
Varkas checked Thalia’s complexion. Her face, which had looked as vulnerable as a lost child, was now frozen cold.
She took a step back and murmured in a low, hollow voice.
“I’ll go up to my room. You go ahead with your business.”
“I will escort you to your chambers.”
“I can go alone.”
“Haven’t I told you repeatedly not to wander without an escort?”
At his rebuking tone, a faint look of discontent appeared on her delicate face.
She scanned the knights standing behind Daren and pointed to the smallest man among them.
“Then have that man escort me.”
The designated soldier hunched his shoulders with a flustered expression.
Ever since the incident where his wife had lunged at Lucas, threatening to rip his tongue out, the family’s warriors had treated her as a person of interest. The chosen man also looked reluctant, hesitating and glancing at Varkas for approval.
Varkas barked coldly.
“What are you doing just standing there? Escort her at once.”
As soon as the order fell, the soldier rushed over.
Varkas reluctantly released his arm from around her. Thalia moved away from him without hesitation.
After watching her retreating figure for a moment, Varkas turned back to Daren. As if he had been waiting, the man pulled a bundle of parchment from his tunic and held it out.
“These are documents recording the events that have occurred in the capital since Your Excellency left the Imperial Palace.”
He read through the documents carefully. The report stated that cracks were forming among the conservative nobles and that the Empress had openly begun gathering supporters for the Second Prince.
Varkas narrowed his eyes.
‘That’s unlike her.’
The Emperor was still hale and hearty. Barring any unforeseen events, Virus Roem Guirta’s reign would continue for at least another ten years. So why was the Empress not waiting until the Second Prince reached adulthood?
Her difficult-to-understand maneuvers stirred a strong sense of vigilance. Just as she had used her daughter to provoke Gares, was she now intending to incite discord by putting forward her young son? If she was inducing Gares to lose control, then there might be a much greater danger lurking behind this marriage proposal.
Reading further that the engagement between the heir of the Heimdal family and the First Princess was being discussed in earnest, Varkas crumpled the parchment in annoyance.
Strengthening ties with the North was not a bad thing in itself. However, entrusting Aila’s safety to them was a premature judgment.
The Northerners were a people with a peculiar obsession with their bloodline. Were they not the ones who had not hesitated to practice consanguineous marriage for generations to preserve the platinum hair and red eyes characteristic of the ancient giants? There was no way they would submissively accept a black-haired princess as their mistress. They surely had other motives.
Varkas, stroking his lips with a pensive expression, soon left the garden.
Guided by the head butler into his office, a young page brought him writing materials. He sat at his desk and drafted several documents. They were orders to thoroughly investigate the size of the army mobilized by the Heimdal family and the flow of their funds.
After sealing them and handing them to a messenger, he wrote two additional telegrams to be sent to the capital. One was for the Marquis Oristein, and the other was for Gares.
Writing in the most diplomatic tone possible to warn of the dangers of the North, Varkas signed the documents and pressed his seal.
Daren, who had been watching from the side, asked in an awkward tone.
“Do you intend to stop the First Princess’s marriage?”
Varkas looked at him with an inquisitive gaze.
“Is there a problem?”
“Well…… won’t it look a bit strange if Your Excellency steps forward to dissuade them?”
Daren scratched the back of his head.
“The public might think Duke Shearkan still harbors lingering feelings for the First Princess.”
Varkas let out a dry laugh.
“You worry about the most trivial things.”
The gossip spread by the idlers of the Imperial Palace had little impact on the East. He had already made sure the new Duchess left a strong impression on his vassals. At the moment, it was more dangerous to give the conservative nobles the impression that the relationship between himself and the Crown Prince had completely soured.
He rolled up the parchment and applied the sealing wax.
“Pick the fastest rider and send them to the capital.”
The man, wearing a strange expression for a moment, took the parchment and went outside.
Varkas leaned back against his chair and turned his head toward the window.
Before he knew it, the sky was pouring down thin streaks of rain.
Suddenly, the afterimage of Thalia standing forlornly in the garden flashed through his mind. What had she been trying to say then?
When he recalled her desolate eyes staring at the dead bird, an uncomfortable sensation rose in his chest. Overwhelmed by an unidentified anxiety, Varkas tapped on his desk before immediately leaving the office.
The hall was bustling, perhaps in preparation for a welcoming ceremony. He bypassed the bowing servants and headed up the stairs.
Opening the bedroom door, he saw a small figure huddled on the large bed.
He stepped to the side of the bed. A faint flush had risen over her porcelain cheeks, which curved in elegant lines. After moping around like a sick chick all day, it seemed she had finally come down with a fever.
Exhaling a long breath, Varkas picked up a clean towel from the shelf. Just as he was about to wipe her face with it, a strange smell brushed the tip of his nose.
He stopped all movement. A dark red stain was spreading at the corner of her mouth. After staring at it blankly, he gently shook her body as she lay on her side. Her nape, wet with cold sweat, slumped powerlessly to the side.
Only then did the red stain spreading across the pillow enter his sight. Varkas, blinking slowly, carefully supported her head.
A thick scent of blood stung his nose. The red liquid gathered at her lips flowed down her deathly pale neck.
