Translator: Nox

Chapter 17

17

Talia cast a wary gaze at the boy who was staring up at her with clear, bright eyes.

“What brings you here?”

“I snuck out of the castle to see you, Sister.”

The boy spoke with a cheerfulness that felt almost audacious.

Talia knit her brows. Her younger brother, Asros, who had just turned six, was a thorn in her side.

Though they shared the same parents, their circumstances were as different as heaven and earth. This innocent-faced boy was the legitimate son born between the Emperor and Empress, a couple officially wed, while she was nothing more than the seed of a tawdry affair.

Watching Asros receive his baptism amidst the blessings of many, Talia had been consumed by a piercing jealousy. She couldn’t help but loathe the tiny clump of flesh that couldn’t even open its eyes properly.

Senevia, keenly reading those emotions, never allowed her eldest daughter—who was no longer of much use—to approach her precious son.

Consequently, Talia only saw her brother’s face at official events. This was the first time she had faced the child this closely since the day of his baptism.

She frowned and scanned their surroundings.

“Did you come all this way alone? If Mother finds out…”

“I didn’t come alone. I came with Berens.”

The boy spoke firmly and turned to point toward one side of the hallway. Only then did Talia spot a man dressed in black, standing where the shadows fell deep.

He was a man with a ghost-like face who had once stood by her side. Now, he stood by Asros, his eyes wary as if he would take immediate action should she attempt to cause even the slightest harm.

Bitterness welled up inside her. The man’s dark eyes seemed to say that she could never be important to anyone.

Hiding her twisted inner thoughts, Talia asked in a stiff tone.

“What business do you have with me?”

“I heard you’ll be leaving on a long journey soon, Sister. So…”

“I’m leaving on a long journey?”

Talia cut her brother off, her voice shrill.

The boy hesitated for a moment, seemingly startled by her sharp reaction, before carefully continuing.

“Mother said that you would be coming along on this pilgrimage…”

Talia, who had been blankly looking down at her brother’s face, suddenly burst into a harsh laugh. The boy winced and took a step back. Even to the eyes of this innocent child, did she look like she had lost her mind?

Holding her stomach as she laughed, Talia leaned down toward her young brother and asked in a feigned gentle tone.

“What else did Mother say?”

Asros hesitated for a long time. He seemed to have finally realized that he was making his sister feel very unpleasant.

However, the boy was not the type to swallow what he wanted to say just because he was intimidated by someone.

“She said you might be getting married soon. That a man named Count Serian sent a proposal…”

The boy, who had been speaking calmly, flinched and fell silent.

It seemed she was making a truly ghastly expression. The man, who had been watching silently from a short distance away, stepped between her and Asros. Was he worried she might lose her reason in a fit of rage and strangle the young thing?

Talia ignored the man guarding against her and stared intently at her brother’s naive face.

“So, did you come here to congratulate me? To share a joyful farewell now that your sister, the imperial nuisance, is finally getting married and leaving the palace?”

The boy’s shoulders quivered, perhaps sensing the sharp thorns hidden within her soft voice.

He protested with an aggrieved expression.

“If you get married, Sister, it will be even harder to see you than it is now… I wanted to talk to you before that. We’re siblings with the same mother, after all.”

A faint trace of longing lingered in the boy’s voice.

“I’ve always thought it would be nice if we could be close, like our eldest sister and brother. But if you get married, that chance might never come. That’s why I came.”

Talia looked down at the large, expectant eyes without a hint of emotion.

Because of this boy, she had been reduced to a completely worthless existence.

The Empress, the Emperor, and the lovely, intelligent Prince born between them.

She was nothing more than an ugly smudge they wanted to erase from that perfect picture. The more Asros shone, the deeper the darkness surrounding her became.

It was miserable to know she envied this young thing to death. In truth, she hated even facing him like this.

Talia threw a cold sneer at the boy whose eyes sparkled with futile hope.

“Are you hoping I’ll throw myself into serving you, just as the First Imperial Princess exerts every effort to make her twin brother the Emperor?”

“That’s not what I meant—!”

“Even if you don’t step forward, our mother has likely already planned exactly how to use me for your sake. My marriage was surely arranged because it benefits you. So, little brother, drop your useless expectations.”

Asros seemed to have little resistance to such blatant hostility. One look at his bewildered expression was enough to see how thoroughly he had been raised under protection.

This child had likely never experienced staying awake through the night in fear. It occurred to her that today’s meeting might be his very first wound.

Talia allowed a sharp smile to play on her lips.

“I have not the slightest intention of being your kind and devoted sister. Because I hate you just as much as I hate our twin siblings.”

The boy’s large eyes welled up with tears from the shock. Talia added mercilessly to that pitiful face.

“If you understand, then why don’t you disappear?”

Asros bit his lip as if trying to swallow his sobs and turned without delay to leave the empty corridor. The man in black also vanished silently after the boy.

Talia locked the door and walked back to the window. The sky, which had been tinged with blue just moments ago, was already turning a pale violet.

The workers who had been busy moving luggage left the manor one by one to rest, and not a single knight was to be seen, as they had likely returned to their quarters long ago.

Talia habitually brought her index finger to her lips, only to pause at a stinging pain. Dark red blood was seeping from the torn skin around her nail. At the sight of it, the venom that had been leaking from her heart rose to her throat.

Desperately swallowing a scream that felt ready to burst out at any moment, she grabbed the cloak hanging in the corner of the room and threw it over her thin surcoat. Then, without taking a single maid with her, she slipped out of the Separate Palace.