Ch#152
152
However, there were only a few mourners. Since the Grand Duchess had not yet regained consciousness, few people paid any mind to the clump of flesh that was far too small to even be called a person.
In a swirl of complex emotions, he took another sip of wine.
After the chaos erupted, his older brother, who had been holed up in their bedchamber, only opened the door and stepped outside to check on the dead child once the Grand Duchess’s bleeding had finally stopped.
Lucas, who had rushed over to assess the situation after hearing the news late, shuddered as he recalled the face Barkas had worn then.
With hollow eyes that looked as if all emotion had evaporated, the man had stared at the small, swaddled mass of flesh for a long time. It was only after a maid burst into tears, her face pale with terror, that he gave the instruction to bury the child properly with due ceremony and turned away.
His demeanor had been chillingly calm, but Lucas felt a shiver run down his spine.
It was because he had caught a glimpse of a somber shadow on his brother’s face—the kind of look one might find on a decapitated corpse.
With a face as lifeless as if every drop of blood had been drained from his body, the man had gone right back into the bedchamber and bolted the door. And for the past three days, he had silently guarded the side of his wife, who remained in critical condition.
A mountain of tasks required the Grand Duke’s approval, but no one dared knock on that door. There was no one who could bring themselves to thrust official documents at a man who had not only lost his first child so senselessly but was also on the verge of losing his wife.
However, with the threat of war drawing closer by the hour, they couldn’t afford to just sit and wait indefinitely.
‘If Brother doesn’t come out of that room by tomorrow… I’ll have to force my way in.’
Tasked with this grueling role, Lucas let out a heavy sigh and downed more of the strong liquor.
Just then, a clear voice called out from below the castle walls.
“What are you doing up there?”
Turning his head, Lucas frowned as he spotted Laina leading a dapple-gray stallion through the castle gates.
Deeply hooded, likely returning from another secret excursion without her guards, Laina stopped at the foot of the stairs leading to the ramparts and looked up at him with disdain.
“Is moping around up there the only thing you have to do?”
“And what about you?”
Lucas replied indifferently, wetting his lips with wine.
“Where are you coming from, riding a horse in this weather?”
“I went out on purpose because I didn’t want to be inside the castle. I’m sick of seeing every servant in the place looking like death warmed over, as if some great tragedy has occurred.”
Lucas stiffened at his sister’s callous words.
He knew Laina harbored hostility toward the Grand Duchess. But he hadn’t expected her to display such a cruel attitude toward such a tragic event.
Lucas spoke in a rebuking tone.
“The Grand Duchess is bedridden and hasn’t even regained consciousness yet. Couldn’t you show at least a little sympathy?”
“Did that woman ever show any sympathy to our father or me? So why should I?”
Hurt by his accusatory tone, Laina’s large reddish-brown eyes welled with a faint shimmer of tears.
Glaring to hide it, Laina snapped sharply.
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Lucas. Aren’t you the one secretly rejoicing most that things turned out this way?”
Lucas looked bewildered.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb. As of now, you’re the sole heir to the Grand Ducal family. And maybe you’ll stay the heir for good.”
A crooked smile touched his sister’s lips.
“With her frame, she was never fit to bear a healthy child in the first place. Unless Brother takes a new bride, you or your children will inherit the Sheikan house someday.”
He looked down at his sister as if she were a stranger.
She had always been headstrong and willful, but he didn’t think she was someone with such a cold-blooded heart.
Had their father’s death been that much of a shock?
He scrutinized his sister’s face with narrowed eyes.
Perhaps since his own training had begun in earnest immediately after their father’s death, Laina had felt a sense of isolation, as if she’d been left behind. The sorrow of being pushed out of everyone’s attention had driven her to harbor such malice.
For a moment, he was deeply conflicted.
Part of him wanted to indulge his sister’s whining, but he feared it would only lead her further astray.
They were no longer thoughtless children who would be forgiven no matter what they said.
“I have no desire to become the Grand Duke, nor do I have the capability.”
Hoping his sister would come to her senses, he added coldly on purpose.
“I’m truly disappointed in you, Laina. I don’t like that woman either… but I still feel pity for her. Isn’t that just human nature? I really didn’t know you were such a heartless person.”
“I’m the one who’s disappointed, Lucas. I didn’t know you were such a fool.”
Laina shot back with a venomous expression.
“Do you think I’m the only one thinking this? The vassals are whispering behind your back too. They say if that woman fails to produce an heir in the end, there’s no choice but to bring in a new mistress or pin their hopes on you.”
Lucas fell silent, lost for words.
Glaring at him mockingly, Laina yanked on the reins and whipped around.
“Now that I think of it, Daren was looking for you at the training grounds.”
She called out over her shoulder as if it had just occurred to her.
“The Noble Alliance Council is meeting soon, and he said he wants you to represent the Sheikan family in Brother’s stead.”
“…”
“You should go. It won’t hurt to make an impression on the Alliance members in advance.”
With those pointed words, Laina walked leisurely toward the stables.
Watching her back with a dazed expression, Lucas felt the rain, which had been tapering off, begin to thicken again and pulled up his hood.
Looking down through the battlements, his eyes fell upon the graveyard being pelted by the rain. The mourning maids had already departed.
He stared down at the bunch of pale lilies placed on the small grave before turning away with a bitter sigh. His mouth tasted like ash.
A dull pain pierced through her hazy consciousness.
Talia barely managed to pry open her eyelids, which felt as if they were glued shut with paste.
Her vision was blurred as if she were submerged in water, but the room, bathed in a bluish light, slowly came into focus.
For a brief moment, she thought she had been having a long, agonizing dream. It was only when she felt her sunken belly beneath her palm that she realized she was in a nightmare called reality.
“Talia.”
As she blankly stroked her aching stomach, a large hand gently cradled her head.
Only after a long while did she realize someone was quietly holding her from behind.
Talia turned her head instinctively and blinked slowly as she discovered the man she had desperately longed for during half her life.
She saw those beautiful eyes that had always made her heart ache just by looking at them.
But Talia couldn’t feel any emotion. It was as if she were dead while still alive.
Perhaps she really had become a corpse.
“Talia.”
A clear voice echoed by her head, as if to deny her thoughts.
It was a strange, strange voice.
It was like a child who had just learned to speak, repeating the same word mindlessly.
“…Do you recognize me?”
When she showed no reaction, the man tilted his head to look into her eyes. His gray hair, which had grown significantly over the past few months, tickled her eyes.
Talia stared vacantly at his sharp face, shadowed with a bleak gloom, before slowly lowering her eyelids.
“I’m cold…”
The man didn’t miss her voice, which drifted out like escaping air, and wrapped her body tightly in a thick duvet.
But she couldn’t feel even a hint of warmth. It felt exactly like being buried under a pile of cold earth.
Talia wondered why she knew that feeling. Then, it suddenly occurred to her that she had been buried under stones and earth once before.
A strange thought struck her—that perhaps she had been there all along, from then until now.
Was it not so? There was no way that her marrying Barkas, becoming his wife, getting pregnant, and losing that child so senselessly could have happened in reality. She had merely been lost in a hollow daydream while rotting away, trapped under the earth.
Talia could feel a single tear rolling down her cheek. Yet, her heart remained uncannily still.
It felt as though her mind and body were completely severed. Reality and dreams, past and present, were so tangled together that she could no longer think clearly about anything.
Feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her, she closed her eyes tightly.
She felt that if she fell asleep this time, she might wake up beneath the cold earth the next.
Perhaps that would be for the better.
