Ch#116
116
Lucas observed the Empress intently.
Senevia Taren Guirta sat at the head of the long banquet table, engaged in nonchalant conversation with the Eastern nobles. The nobles, who by all rights should have been wary of her, were listening to her every word as if possessed.
Lucas let out a hollow laugh at the absurd sight before shifting his gaze to the woman seated to the Empress’s left.
While the Empress held the room captive with her dazzling charm, Thalia Roem Shearkan sat in icy silence, doing nothing but nursing her wine glass. The stark contrast made him feel deeply uneasy.
‘Why does that woman always look like she’s at a funeral?’
At a glance, the two were similar enough to be mistaken for twins.
If Thalia had chosen to smile and enchant people like the Empress did, perhaps no one in this castle would have been able to resist her.
Yet, the woman was always like a hedgehog with its quills raised, busy pushing away anyone who dared approach.
She seemed to have put in quite an effort to play the part of the Grand Duchess for a while, but in the last few days, she hadn’t even made a pretense of socializing. Even the nobles who had shown her goodwill had grown weary and turned their backs.
‘Has her health taken a turn for the worse again?’
The sudden thought made Lucas narrow his eyes. Thalia Roem Shearkan looked paler than usual, staring vacantly at the candle flames on the table.
She certainly looked ill.
Just as he was beginning to feel a strange sense of agitation, Varkas strode into the banquet hall.
Lucas unconsciously tensed his body. Varkas’s mere presence seemed to instantly freeze the festive air that had been lingering in the hall.
He wasn’t the only one who felt it; everyone around the table watched the confrontation between the Empress and Varkas with tense faces.
“It’s so hard to see your face these days, I’m starting to feel a bit neglected.”
Senevia was the first to break the heavy silence.
Taking a sip of her wine to moisten her lips, she put on a look of feigned disappointment.
“It’s all well and good to catch up with old comrades you haven’t seen in a while, but do pay some attention to me and my daughter as well.”
“I can only offer my apologies if I have caused you any displeasure.”
Varkas reached the head of the table, replied calmly, and took his seat.
“Quite a lot has happened at the Imperial Palace in the meantime. I was delayed while discussing various matters. I ask for your forgiveness.”
At those pointed words, a chillingly smooth smile spread across the Empress’s lips.
Lucas marveled inwardly at her composure.
The Empress was currently in the heart of enemy territory. Furthermore, half of the envoys who had escorted her here were knights belonging to the Roem Knights. In short, she was surrounded by her political enemies. How could she remain so serene?
The Empress, her eyes curving into crescents, spoke softly.
“I hope you had a meaningful conversation.”
An uncomfortable silence weighed down on the banquet hall once more.
The Empress seemed well aware that Varkas was moving busily to thwart her plans. Varkas, for his part, didn’t even bother to hide it.
Lucas glanced at Thalia. She sat with a hardened expression, gripping her wine glass tightly and biting her lip. It was clear she had already heard that her husband was exerting all his efforts to rescue his former fiancée.
Lucas brought his glass to his lips, staring at his brother’s inscrutable face.
After their father’s stone coffin was interred in the mausoleum, he had been officially appointed as the aide to the Grand Duke of Shearkan. Thanks to that, he had gained a keen understanding of the political currents in both the East and the Imperial Palace over the past few weeks.
Currently, cracks were beginning to form between the Eastern and conservative nobles. And the Northerners were trying to wedge themselves into those gaps.
The problem was that their ambition didn’t stop at simply expanding their political influence.
The Balto people had recently been increasing their military power, growing their forces at an alarming rate.
That wasn’t all. Evidence had been captured suggesting they were secretly gathering war funds through various merchant groups.
If their goal was Balto’s independence, in the worst-case scenario, Aila Roem Guirta could be reduced to a hostage used to pressure the Imperial Family. The First Princess’s new marriage proposal had every potential to become the spark that would ignite the empire’s division.
Because of this, Varkas was neglecting the affairs of the Grand Duchy to focus all his energy on persuading the Crown Prince and the conservative nobles.
‘None of this would have been an issue if Brother had just married Aila Roem Guirta from the start.’
Lucas grumbled to himself.
If Varkas had kept his loyalty to the Crown Prince instead of giving in to the Emperor’s pressure, he wouldn’t have to be running around like this now.
Raedgo Castle would have been a more cheerful place than it was now, too.
Perhaps Raina would have handled their father’s death much better as well.
Aila Roem Guirta was famous for being a lady of gentle character, so she would have looked after the girl well.
And Thalia wouldn’t have had to suffer for no reason in a foreign land.
‘No, it doesn’t matter if that woman suffers or not.’
Lucas hastily checked his thoughts.
The only things he needed to care about were the Shearkan family and Raina. The Empress and her daughter were nothing but a headache threatening the East.
Steadying his wavering mind, Lucas quietly slipped out of the banquet hall. He felt as if his head would explode if he kept watching his cold brother, the fox-like Empress, and his ghost-pale sister-in-law.
He crossed the hall, tugging at the collar of his stifling doublet.
He already missed the days when he could ride across the fields without a single worry. He even felt a pang of sympathy for his brother, who had been plagued by such agonizing matters his entire life.
Rubbing his stiff neck, he looked down at the rear garden through a hallway window.
‘Should I go see Turgan?’
As he massaged his tense muscles while thinking of his horse, which had been neglected for nearly two weeks, the shadows of two people standing in a corner of the garden caught his eye.
Though servants wandering the backyard was a common sight, Lucas stopped in his tracks and watched them closely.
A woman with a somewhat familiar face was talking with a serious expression to a young man who appeared to be an envoy. It took a moment for Lucas to remember that the woman was Thalia Roem Guirta’s personal healer.
‘Do they already know each other?’
He tilted his head.
Judging by his attire, the man seemed to be an attendant of the Empress.
Since the healer was also said to be from the Taren family, it wasn’t particularly strange for her to meet someone she knew among the Empress’s entourage. Even so, a strange sense of dissonance nagged at the back of his mind.
“What are you doing in a place like this?”
A deep voice spoke from behind him just as he was staring intently at the pair’s lip movements.
Lucas turned his head. Tyrone, loosely clad in a tunka made of black satin, was sauntering down the long corridor. It seemed he had followed him after he slipped out of the banquet hall.
Lucas opened his mouth to explain what he had just seen. Then, realizing it was a scene with no particular reason to be suspicious, he closed it again.
When he looked back at the window, the two had already vanished. Scanning the garden with a lingering sense of unease, Lucas shook his head as if it were nothing.
“It’s nothing.”
The Imperial delegation stayed for exactly one week before departing.
Thalia, who had been watching the receding procession from the windowsill, soon drew the curtains.
Right up until the moment she left, Senevia had repeatedly urged her to follow her will. Thalia never gave an answer, but the Empress seemed certain that she wouldn’t be able to disobey her commands.
No. Perhaps she wasn’t perfectly certain. She had left after thoroughly fueling her faithful devotee’s resolve.
“You must spend the night together tonight.”
The Nanny spoke in a firm tone, pulling a piece of translucent fabric—the gift the Empress had given—out of a chest.
“Now that the funeral rites are over, there’s no reason to delay any longer.”
