Translator: Nox

Chapter 13

13

The maid picked up the spoon with a trembling hand, but unable to bring it to the bowl, she squeezed her eyes shut.

She seemed to vaguely believe that if she just held out like this, she might escape. Perhaps she was hoping someone would appear and stop this.

Talia abruptly grabbed the knife lying on the table. Then, she gave an order to the man in a cold voice.

“Pin her fingers to the plate. Since she ignores my sincerity like this, I’ll have to cut off a finger as an example.”

The man immediately seized the woman’s hand and spread it over the silver plate. Talia gripped the tip of the woman’s index finger and raised the meat knife high.

At that, the maid cried out in horror.

“I’ll eat! I’ll eat it! I’ll eat everything!”

The woman desperately dipped her spoon into the bowl. She began to ravenously scoop up the broth containing the bird’s carcass.

As if believing she could endure it if she didn’t taste it properly, the woman swallowed the chunks without even chewing. However, before she could finish five spoonfuls, she vomited everything she had eaten.

Even seeing that sight, Talia urged her on.

“Eat it all, without leaving a drop. I expect to see the bottom of that bowl.”

The maid’s terror-stricken gaze, punctuated by retching gasps, flew toward her. It was no longer a look reserved for something contemptible. It was the look of someone seeing something horrific and terrifying.

Talia gave a silent command with her eyes not to stop. The maid sobbed bitterly, repeating a cycle of eating and vomiting, eating and vomiting again.

Unable to bring herself to put the rotting bird in her mouth, she shoved the broth in and threw it up several times… Her face, smeared with blood, tears, and vomit, turned ashen, and soon her eyes rolled back. The woman’s body collapsed onto the carpet with a thud.

Talia looked down calmly at the maid, who was convulsing with foam at her mouth, then gave an arrogant chin flick toward the stiffened servants.

“Clean all of this up.”

She threw the dirty plate at their feet and added, “And bring me fresh food. This time, make sure it’s proper.”

After that day, the servants’ cruel harassment stopped as if it had been a lie.

The maids treated her with the caution one would use for a dangerous object, and some servants showed signs of extreme fear. They no longer sent her contemptuous looks or whispered cruel words for her to hear. Whenever Talia appeared, everyone was busy bowing their heads, their mouths shut tight like clams.

And so, rumors of the second imperial princess’s wicked nature spread through the Imperial Palace. Those who heard how cruelly she had tortured an innocent maid who had served the imperial family for over a decade clicked their tongues at the young girl’s malice.

Priests lamented that a viper’s hatchling had crawled into the imperial family, and loyal subjects of the empire expressed concern that the tyrannical princess might tarnish the prestige of the throne.

However, there was someone who was satisfied with Talia’s atrocities.

It was a day just before the onset of winter. The Empress, wearing a dress as deep blue as her own eyes, visited the Separate Palace.

Talia, who had been descending the stairs with a hardened face to greet her, inadvertently stopped in her tracks. The moment she saw Senevia, she was unbelievably choked up with longing.

This was the mother who had turned her back so coldly. Watching that slender back move away after ruthlessly shaking off her hand, Talia had firmly vowed never to love that person again.

But as Senevia crossed the wide hall and kissed her on the cheek, that resolution crumbled like a sandcastle before a wave.

“Hello, Talia. You look truly lovely today.”

Senevia smelled of roses, lilacs, and the sweet scent one might find in ripe fruit. It was miserable to realize she had missed this dizzying fragrance to death.

Senevia looked down at her daughter’s dark face, which showed no sign of softening, and gave a coaxing smile.

“You must be quite upset because I haven’t visited in a long time. Forgive me. It took some time to prepare a special gift for you, you see?”

Talia looked uneasy.

“A gift…?”

“I heard how effectively you tamed those insolent servants. Since you have pleased this mother’s heart, you must receive a reward.”

She spoke in a singing, canary-like voice and turned gracefully. Only then did the figure of a boy slowly crossing the hall come into view.

Talia caught her breath. Whether he had been officially knighted in the past few months, Barkas was approaching, dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Guard.

The sunlight piercing through the window shattered upon his ashen-blond hair, scattering light everywhere. The sight felt like glass shards stabbing her retinas.

Senevia stepped beside the boy and spread one hand as if showing off a trophy.

“This is the handsome knight who will protect you from now on.”

The boy stopped before her and showed his respects.

His eyes, which once shone with the promise of a crown, were now flickering coldly, containing only dagger-like anger and a faint sense of humiliation. Anyone but a fool could tell he had not come here of his own volition.

The boy looked down at her with eyes that seemed to be viewing an inanimate object and spoke.

“I am Barkas Raedgo Siyeokan.”

It was a voice so dry it sent a chill down her spine.

“I have been assigned to serve by Your Highness’s side until you hold your coming-of-age ceremony.”

His tone suggested he hoped that day would arrive as quickly as possible so he could escape this humiliating duty.

Talia looked up at his cold, mask-like face with a desolate gaze. His icy stare, dry tone, and stiff attitude were turning her back into something trivial and contemptible once again.

She tried her best not to shrink back, but there was no way to stop her neck from burning hot with shame.

In that moment, Talia realized clearly.

This beautiful boy would be her pain, not her hope.

And a very terrible one at that.

---

When the rain that had been drizzling for days finally stopped, intense sunlight began to pour down, as if heralding the season of fire.

Aila, crossing the bustling courtyard in search of her fiancé, wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and narrowed her eyes against the glare.

The wide open space usually used for military drills was packed with dozens of wagons, harness merchants, brawny packhorses specially bred for pulling carts, and soldiers carrying various equipment needed for travel.

After frowning momentarily at the scene that resembled a marketplace, Aila’s eyes lit up when she spotted Barkas checking the condition of a warhorse near the outer castle wall.

Instead of the white combat uniform symbolizing the Roem Knights, he wore a black tunic with intricate embroidery and a breastplate made of black iron. He looked more like an Eastern nobleman than a knight belonging to the imperial family.

Aila smiled proudly as she watched him. Once this mission was over, Barkas would leave the Imperial Guard and undergo the succession process to become Duke Siyeokan.

And she would be by his side, studying to become the mistress of the Grand Duchy. It was a future that had been ordained from the moment he had followed her mother into the Empress’s Palace gardens.

Yet, Aila sometimes found herself overwhelmed by doubt as to whether such a day would truly come.

Barkas was always polite and sometimes even took a kind attitude, but Aila knew there was an unbridgeable distance between them. Having suffered as much as that distance, Aila could hardly believe the fact that he would become her husband in a few months.