Ch#112
112
Thalia reflexively checked Varkas’s expression.
A dry wind seemed to lash across his cool face, where not a single fragment of emotion could be found.
Varkas looked up at the sun, which was shrouded in a thin film of clouds as if gauging the time, and then cast a calm gaze toward his adjutant.
“Tell the Wolfram cavalry to prepare for departure immediately.”
“Understood.”
As Daren withdrew, Varkas turned around without hesitation.
Thalia moistened her lips, unsure of what to say.
Should she comfort him?
But Varkas truly seemed fine. Perhaps it was a natural reaction. He had been sent to the capital when he was only five years old. There was no way he could have any affection for his father.
“It seems we must depart today out of necessity. How is your condition?”
Varkas asked abruptly as they stepped into the hall.
Thalia replied in a tense tone.
“I’ve rested well for several days, so I’m perfectly fine now.”
“You haven’t fully recovered yet.”
Suddenly, his voice grew firm.
“Traveling a long distance with an unwell body will be a great burden. If your condition worsens, tell me immediately.”
Thalia, who had been cautiously watching his reaction, nodded weakly.
He climbed the stairs at a pace that was neither slow nor fast. Through the windows in the hallway, the overcast sky was visible. She thought that it might rain during the funeral.
The return journey was smooth.
After riding diligently across the open fields, they were able to arrive at Raedgo Castle two days earlier than scheduled.
When the gatekeeper spotted them from afar and blew a trumpet loudly, the drawbridge was lowered. The Wolfram cavalry passed through the castle gates without delay.
“Welcome back!”
As they entered the open courtyard, the waiting servants swarmed around Varkas all at once.
Watching the scene through the window, Thalia straightened her clothes and stepped outside.
The maids lined up at the entrance of the hall descended the stairs to greet her.
“You must be exhausted after traveling such a long way.”
The head maid offered the greeting on behalf of the group. Thalia replied with a single nod of her chin and stepped to Varkas’s side.
Varkas, who was receiving a report from the butler, scanned her from head to toe.
“I believe I must see my father immediately. Will Your Highness accompany me?”
Thalia hesitated for a moment. Honestly, she never wanted to face that eccentric old man again. However, she didn’t want to leave Varkas alone either. This was true even though she knew he felt no sorrow.
“……I’ll go with you.”
Whether it was an unexpected answer, Varkas looked down at her silently for a moment before nodding toward his younger brother standing in the distance.
“You come too.”
Lucas, who had been standing still with a dark face, mechanically followed his brother’s instruction. Thalia consciously ignored Lucas and followed Varkas.
As she moved her stiff legs and finally entered the main castle, the scents of myrrh, frankincense, and sandalwood stung her nose. They were all incenses burned for patients on the verge of death.
“Lucas!”
Just as they were climbing the stairs, a slender girl rushed out of the Grand Duke’s bedchamber.
“Why are you only coming now! Do you know how much I’ve been alone………!”
The girl dashed across the hallway in an instant and threw herself into Lucas’s arms. The boy, who had been standing stiffly, wrapped his arms around his sister’s shoulders, his eyes welling with tears.
Watching the scene with an uncomfortable expression, Thalia glanced away to inspect the bedchamber where deep shadows had fallen.
Inside the room filled with hazy smoke, high-ranking priests and vassals were lined up. Varkas stepped boldly inside and tossed a question toward a priest.
“What is his condition?”
“……Regrettably, it seems unlikely he will last through the day.”
The old priest, his face gaunt as if he had stayed up all night, spoke in a somber voice.
“Please prepare your heart.”
As if she had heard the old priest’s words, the girl’s sobbing grew even louder. Thalia, standing awkwardly and shifting her eyes, quietly pressed herself closer to Varkas’s side.
As she cast a cautious look toward the bed draped in curtains, the sight of a skeletal old man caught her eye. He looked so frail that it was hard to believe he was the same man who had lashed out with such a poisonous tongue.
How long had she been staring down at the man who had become a wretched sight in barely a month? Someone roughly yanked at her coat.
“Why is this woman here!”
Raina Raedgo Si-eokan’s tear-stained eyes were flashing with malice.
“I heard you cursed our father to rot in hell! With what face do you stand here! Get out! Get out right now!”
The screaming girl pulled her violently toward the doorway.
Varkas firmly pulled his sister away and wrapped one arm around Thalia’s shoulders. Seeing this, the girl’s face grew even more fierce.
“You’re just the same, Brother! Being bewitched by a witch like that……!”
“Stop it, Raina!”
Lucas hurriedly pulled his sister to his chest and covered her mouth.
Raina Raedgo Si-eokan, who had been huffing with a sorrowful face, soon buried her face in her brother’s chest and began to wail at the top of her lungs.
Then, a harsh voice like metal scraping rang out.
“What is all this commotion?”
Thalia snapped her head around.
The man, having lifted his wrinkled eyelids, was glaring at them with eyes that looked as if they were covered in frost. The sobbing girl rushed to the bed.
“Father! Are you conscious?”
After staring at his daughter’s face for a moment, the old man rolled his eyes and slowly scanned the room. Then, he spotted Thalia standing on one side of the room and narrowed his eyes.
She stepped back behind Varkas’s back. She thought that the old man wouldn’t want her to be here either.
However, the old man was unexpectedly quiet. After staring at her for a while with a dark gaze, the man finally turned his eyes toward his eldest son. A strange light flickered on his face, which had turned a dusky grey.
“……I have been waiting for you to come, Varkas.”
A dry cough choked off the rest of his words.
The old man, gasping for breath, raised a hand as gaunt as a tree branch. Following that silent demand, Varkas leaned over the bed.
The old man’s cloudy pupils met Varkas’s cool face.
At that moment, the old man, who had not lost his harshness even at the threshold of death, crumbled.
“You…… must resent me.”
The words were more of an assertion than a question.
Varkas neither agreed nor denied, simply looking down at his father quietly. A violent turbulence rose in the old man’s eyes. He gripped Varkas’s clothes violently with his skeletal fingers.
“Answer me just one thing. In your eyes…… what do you see?”
At the sudden question, everyone present held their breath.
He desperately continued.
“In your eyes, surely something…… something different must be visible, right? Tell me. You must surely know. What lies beyond death…….”
It felt as if blood would spray out of his throat, where phlegm was rattling, at any moment.
The faces of those surrounding the bed turned deathly pale. It seemed as if the terror of the old man standing at death’s door overwhelmed the room.
He pulled Varkas closer with all his might and spat out a rasping sound.
“Tell me now! What on earth is behind this…….”
Only then did Varkas’s firmly closed lips open.
“Nothing.”
Not only the Grand Duke but everyone who had been watching the confrontation frozen in place stopped breathing. Thalia also gazed at him with eyes full of bewilderment.
Varkas, who had been quietly looking down at his father’s pale face, added softly.
“I see nothing in my eyes. So, please be at peace.”
A tremor ran through the corner of the old man’s mouth.
The priest, belatedly coming to his senses, hurriedly approached the bedside and comforted the Grand Duke.
“Your Grace, please cast aside your fear. The messenger of God will lead you to the world of rest.”
The old man, who had been staring obsessively at his heir, soon lost all his strength and went limp.
Varkas, looking down at that sight with calm eyes, straightened his body.
Thalia cautiously grabbed his sleeve. She felt as if she had to do so for some reason.
He looked down at her with blue eyes like glass beads before turning his gaze back to the bed.
Soon after, the priest began to recite a prayer in a solemn voice. However, the fear in the old man’s eyes did not easily subside.
The man, who had been gasping roughly while occasionally muttering nonsense, finally entered eternal rest only when dusk fell.
