Ch#118
118
Varkas’s pupils dilated significantly, the silver-gray flecks scattered across his blue irises churning. However, that trace of agitation lasted only a fleeting moment.
Returning to an icy expression in an instant, Varkas stared at her with eyes shimmering a cold blue. Soon, a dry voice laced with a hollow laugh broke the silence.
“Do you even understand what that means, saying such a thing?”
“Who do you take me for, an idiot?”
Amidst a tension that made her knees tremble, Thalia feigned an arrogant face. She absolutely, positively did not want to appear as if she were begging.
“It means I intend to sleep with you.”
“…….”
“Why? Do I need to be more direct?”
As she tilted her chin up and sent him a challenging look, the sneer lingering on the man’s lips vanished.
He uncrossed his arms and slowly approached her.
“You’re going to sleep with me?”
The heavy bass voice plunging down at the crown of her head sent a chill down her spine.
Thalia forced strength into her neck, which wanted to shrink back instinctively. Varkas, looking down at her without a flicker of movement, grabbed her chin and pressed down firmly on her lower lip with his thumb.
“Is that why you came dressed like this?”
She felt the sticky pigment smear across her mouth. Thalia flushed red and fiercely slapped his hand away. A faint mock appeared on Varkas’s face.
“You recoil at just this much contact, yet what exactly do you plan to do?”
“That’s because you’re always touching me so suddenly…!”
Thalia, who had been protesting with a flustered face, clamped her mouth shut. She must not let herself be swept away by this man.
“Why so much talk? I’m saying I’ll do it!”
The corners of Varkas’s mouth twitched subtly.
“If you say you’ll do it, am I just supposed to follow blindly?”
The reaction was sharper than expected, causing heat to rise up her neck.
Swallowing her humiliation, she glared at him with fierce eyes.
“Yes.”
“…….”
“You must do as I demand.”
His wide, sharp eyes narrowed. It was a reaction of disbelief rather than offense.
Thalia forced strength into her stiff legs and stood up. Then, she stepped right up to his nose and tilted her head back provocatively.
“You are now the head of the Si’eikan family, and you have an obligation to leave an heir. This is something you ought to do as a married man.”
“I didn’t realize you’d become so thoroughly devoted to your responsibilities.”
A bitter sneer brushed his lips.
“So, what you’re saying is, you’ll sacrifice your body for me and my family—is that it?”
Thalia looked up at him with a frozen face.
She had thought he might show reluctance, but she hadn’t expected him to be so openly sarcastic. Was he not the man who had been confusingly soft toward her since they married? Perhaps, he simply loathed the idea of sleeping with her that much.
Thalia swallowed her humiliation and retorted coldly.
“How much longer do you think we can maintain this formal relationship? It will eventually be discovered that we aren’t a proper couple, and I’ll become an even greater laughingstock than I am now. If you don’t have an heir for a long time, your vassals won’t stay quiet either.”
Thalia, spitting the words out rapidly, let out a sharp laugh.
“Or, is that what you’re hoping for?”
Varkas’s handsome jawline tightened visibly.
Ignoring the hint of warning in his eyes, Thalia continued mockingly.
“If you hold out like this for a few years, people will be clamoring from all sides for you to dissolve the marriage and bring in a new Grand Duchess. Perhaps His Majesty the Emperor will even pretend to give in and grant a divorce. Could it be that you interfered with Aila’s marriage because you intended to remarry her then…?”
“That’s enough.”
A voice honed to a sharp edge grated harshly against her. Leaning in close to her, the man spat out threateningly.
“There is a limit to how much I will stand here and listen.”
Thalia knew she was stepping over a line she shouldn’t cross. But she couldn’t back down.
She fixed a gaze like an awl on his face and raised her voice.
“If that’s not it, then follow my demands! You don’t have free will anyway, do you? You’re nothing but a puppet moving according to duty.”
“And are you not the Empress’s puppet?”
Varkas said mockingly.
Thalia felt the blood drain from her face.
Varkas, looking down at her as she turned pale, added coldly.
“I don’t know what that woman provoked you with, but I have no intention of acting as your stud.”
With that, he straightened his posture and picked up the coat he had cast aside.
“Your Highness should use this room tonight.”
Thalia watched him walk toward the door with vacant eyes.
A chill crept over her as if she had been doused with cold water from the top of her head.
Trembling all over with humiliation, Thalia chased after him the next moment with limping steps.
As she pulled violently on the fabric covering his broad back, she felt the large body, built seamlessly with tough muscle, go rigid.
She pushed against him with all her might. But his fortress-like body didn’t budge. As she shoved him again in a burst of resentment, Varkas grabbed her shoulders.
A groan escaped her involuntarily at the strength of his grip. Hearing the sound, the man flinched and withdrew his hands. Thalia didn’t miss the opening and lunged at his iron-like chest. Finally, the body as solid as a castle wall tilted backward.
Thalia knocked him down and straddled his stomach. Her breath, ragged from the brief struggle, scratched her throat like sandpaper.
Exhaling hot breaths, her chest heaving, Thalia glared at him with eyes like fireballs.
“You must not disobey me.”
The man’s beautiful face distorted slightly. She spat the words at that face as if vomiting blood.
“You said you’d do everything I asked. You said you’d do everything in your power.”
The hand that had been about to push her away faltered and froze in midair.
Thalia gripped the front of his shirt as if wringing it and pulled hard.
The tremors shaking her body grew more intense. She tried her best not to plead, but her voice was increasingly laced with tears.
Thalia forced strength into her trembling jaw and cried out desperately.
“Keep your word!”
Following that ringing vibration, a storm-like silence descended.
Thalia couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes directly and lowered her forehead to his chest, which was rising and falling slowly.
A bead of sweat that had trickled down her temple lingered near her eye for a moment before dropping onto his shirt with a thud.
As she stared blankly at it, a firm finger touched the tip of her chin. Soon her head was lifted, and her dizzying field of vision was filled with a face wearing an inscrutable expression. Before she could grasp its meaning, her shoulders were pushed back.
“……I understand.”
Varkas, sitting up, let out a thick, raspy voice. Thalia faced him with trembling eyes. She could see his tense Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. After a long pause, he opened his mouth to supplement his answer.
“I will do as Your Highness wishes.”
Even though she had finally gotten the answer she wanted, the trembling only grew more violent. Thalia wrapped her arms around herself with fingers that were twitching. Then, a voice condensed with intensity pierced her ears again.
“But not tonight.”
She snapped her head up and glared.
Varkas continued somewhat urgently.
“It hasn’t even been a few weeks since you collapsed coughing up blood. After your health has sufficiently recovered….”
“My body is fine,” Thalia shouted roughly.
“I will do it with you at the time I decide. And that is today, right now.”
She felt his entire body go rigid. Was he feeling resentment at her acting like a tyrant?
It didn’t matter. If she backed down here, she would never be able to make a resolution like today’s again.
Once this madness-like impulse cooled, she would surely lock herself back inside her own fortress.
Therefore, it had to be this moment, when she had summoned every last ounce of her remaining courage.
“You cannot refuse.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Was it anger or disillusionment? No. It didn’t matter either way.
This… this was not something like love. It was neither passion nor desire. It was merely a struggle to survive. Therefore, there was no need to feel wretched.
