196
The moment his order fell, the soldiers surrounded her.
The sound of her limping footsteps gradually faded into the distance. Varkas listened until the dull thud of the closing door reached him, and only then did he collapse back onto the bed.
It felt as though every sinew, bone, and nerve in his body had been torn to shreds.
Raising his sweat-drenched face, he stared blankly up at the gathering dusk on the ceiling before bringing the back of his hand over his eyes.
Even after regaining consciousness, he was unable to leave his bed for two full days. With the poison gnawing at his nerves, he could not keep his feet for ten minutes.
Only on the third day, having mustered enough strength to move without obvious strain, did Varkas present himself at the council hall, immaculate and composed as though nothing had happened.
“I have caused you all concern.”
Walking to the head of the long table with his customary measured stride, he offered a stiff greeting.
The vassals, frozen in astonishment as if they had never expected him to appear, scrambled to their feet.
“Your Excellency, is it truly wise to attend to governance so soon? You should still be resting…”
“As you can see, I am well,” Varkas dismissed them flatly, settling into his chair with a brief nod. “Be seated. There must be a mountain of business awaiting attention.”
Watched by eyes full of restless anxiety, the men sat down one by one. Varkas cast his gaze over the map unrolled across the table.
Red lines crisscrossed several regions that might harbor hideouts. They seemed to have spent his days of unconsciousness desperately scouring the land for the Zram.
“Has there been any progress in the search?”
“We uncovered a few caves used as armories, but gained little of substance,” answered Edgar, squad leader of the Wolfram Cavalry, his tone sour. “They had already moved their primary equipment. Nothing remained except worn gambesons and notched falxes. Not a single trace was left that could lead us to them.”
“Those who aided them also vanished into thin air during the chaos,” a middle-aged knight seated midway down the left side interjected heavily. “We seized and interrogated every pagan who failed to flee in time, but nothing useful came of it. It seems the lower ranks were completely ignorant of their superiors’ ties to the marauders.”
The knight let out a thick sigh.
“The thread we finally had in hand has snapped entirely.”
“It has not snapped completely.”
At the steady resonance of that voice, every eye in the room turned toward one corner.
Modrian, the military advisor, was looking straight at Varkas, his stare heavy with intent.
“Is there not still one person remaining who may have colluded with the marauders? And one very close at hand, no less.”
The air in the council chamber froze in an instant.
At the old knight’s blunt thrust, the vassals gulped and turned their heads toward Varkas as one. His expression remained disinterested, as though he had long anticipated this strike.
“I am quite curious to know whom you mean.”
“Is it not the person Your Excellency knows better than anyone?”
Modrian answered placidly, resting his elbows on the table and releasing a slow breath.
“Intruders breached the castle the moment the Grand Duchess attempted to poison Your Excellency. They were intimately familiar with the layout of Raedgo Castle and the positioning of our guards. That cannot be mere coincidence. Plainly, the Grand Duchess was in league with them—”
“You appear to have forgotten that the person you speak of is my wife and an Imperial Princess,” Varkas cut the old knight off, his voice dry. “Do you hold her standing so cheap that you would level charges of high treason on mere conjecture, without a shred of material proof?”
“How can you claim there is no proof? The Grand Duchess confessed with her own mouth to lacing Your Excellency’s cup! Strictly speaking, she was caught red-handed! What further proof could be required?” the cavalry commander protested, his voice rising in agitation.
Varkas turned a glacial stare upon him.
“She stated only that she added medicine; she never called it poison.”
“That is mere semantics—”
“I will not repeat myself. My wife never confessed to attempted poisoning.”
Sensing the lethal edge tucked beneath his words, the man shrank back and shut his mouth. Varkas slowly swept his eyes across the assembled councilors before adding impassively:
“She merely prepared wine with a restorative for her husband on the eve of his departure. There is every likelihood that another party substituted it. Therefore, the confession you cling to carries no weight as conclusive evidence.”
“That is absurd…!”
The man’s lips parted in disbelief. Modrian, who had been watching their exchange, fixed Varkas with an increasingly doubtful eye.
“If the Grand Duchess is innocent, why did she offer no defense? Throughout the entire interrogation, she never spoke a word to clear herself.”
“Do you imagine any of you would have listened had she tried?”
The corner of Varkas’s mouth twisted into a caustic sneer.
“My wife is not so pitiful as to plead her case before men who have already convicted her in their hearts and are eager to drag her to the scaffold.”
Unprepared for him to shield the Grand Duchess so brazenly, the vassals looked on with deepening bewilderment. A few even stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
It was only natural. To their eyes, he must appear a fool blinded by a woman.
Perhaps they were not entirely wrong. Even to himself, blindly defending the woman who had brought him to death’s door felt utterly grotesque.
“Then will you grant permission to investigate the Grand Duchess’s retinue?”
Modrian, who had sat brooding in silence, broke the heavy lull.
“If Her Grace is truly innocent, there can be no reason to refuse.”
“Have you not already confined my wife and run your interrogations and inquiries?” Varkas countered sharply. “What more do you propose to do?”
“I intend to thoroughly scrutinize those in Her Grace’s service. Above all, anyone who knew she meant to serve Your Excellency a ‘special wine’ that night,” Modrian explained evenly. “If, as Your Excellency claims, the Grand Duchess did not conspire with the enemy, the culprit must lurk among those around her.”
Rather than disclosing that he had already begun such an inquiry himself, Varkas gave a dispassionate nod.
He knew that shifting their suspicion away from her was the wisest move for now.
“Only, do not cause an uproar. If an accomplice still walks this castle, any reckless movement will only give them cause to flee.”
Deeming the caution reasonable, the old knight readily conceded and brought up the next item of business.
Having successfully blunt the edge of their suspicions against her, Varkas eased his fist, which he had clenched until his fingers went numb.
A faint tremor still ran through his frame, far from healed.
The thought crossed his mind that the damage might prove permanent. Agor’s Deadly Poison was a virulent substance that dissolved viscera and paralyzed the entire nervous system. It was miraculous enough that he could move like this after barely ten days.
For the first time in his life, he found himself grateful for his monstrous resilience. Had he never opened his eyes… The image of Talia, dragged into his chambers looking hollowed and broken, burned behind his lids like a brand. When the vision of his enraged kin hauling her to the gallows flashed in its wake, cold sweat broke out along his spine.
Hurriedly shaking off the grim fancy, Varkas stood.
“It seems we have addressed the urgent matters. I shall withdraw.”
With a hand, he signaled the vassals to remain seated as they began to rise, then strode out of the council hall.
END