Ch#211
A cold, mocking smile brushed the corners of Varkas’s lips as he looked down at the woman while resting his chin on his hand.
A bitter taste filled his mouth as he recalled his wife’s ultimatum—that she would leave with this woman if he dared to send her back to the Imperial Palace.
“A-anyway, Her Excellency the Grand Duchess no longer needs me. So…”
As the silence stretched on, the woman began to babble with a tense face.
Varkas cut her off by rising from his seat. With a flinch, the woman shut her mouth and watched him warily.
Turning his eyes away from that irritating sight, Varkas gave instructions to the maids.
“Take this woman to the kitchen immediately.”
“Y-Your Excellency, my request…”
“Once she begins to eat of her own accord, I will send you back to the Imperial Palace.”
A look of immediate delight spread across the woman’s swarthy face. He added, as if dousing that expression in cold water:
“However, if she rejects even the food you prepare, you will be thrown out of this castle with nothing but the clothes on your back.”
The color that had rushed to her face drained away in an instant, leaving her ghastly pale.
He brushed past the woman, who looked as if she wanted to protest, and stepped out of the drawing room. He crossed the hall and was about to head back up the stairs when an urgent voice called out from behind him.
“Your Excellency!”
Turning his head, Varkas frowned as he saw Rgen entering the annex.
The man crossed the hall in a single bound and asked after his wife’s well-being.
“How is Her Excellency the Grand Duchess? Is she still…”
“What is your business here?”
Varkas cut him off mid-sentence, his face etched with fatigue.
The knight, glancing up toward the top of the stairs, got straight to the point.
“The meeting has concluded. Here is the list of candidates for the new lords to be appointed to the Northeast region, including Tarlin. If you approve, we will proceed with the appointment process immediately.”
Rgen spoke as he held out a bundle of parchment from under his arm. As Varkas took it and scanned it quickly, the man added cautiously:
“Also, Lord Daren has sent a messenger. It seems he wanted to check the situation and see when Your Excellency might be able to return.”
Varkas took his eyes off the document and looked down at the man.
Rgen swallowed hard and asked, “What should I tell the messenger?”
“Tell him I will return after the season of rest has passed.”
Varkas replied in a flat tone as he folded the parchment and tucked it inside his tunic.
Rgen looked startled. It seemed he hadn’t expected Varkas to plan on staying in Kalmor for such a long period.
Without giving the man a chance to question him, Varkas turned around and headed up the stairs.
Stepping back into the bedroom, he saw his wife fast asleep, succumbed to the effects of the medicine. After staring at her for a long time as she breathed softly with her long lashes cast down, Varkas walked over to the table and pulled out a chair.
A hazy sky stretched outside the window. He thought it might snow tonight.
Talia finally regained consciousness toward dusk. He immediately summoned a maid and had food brought in.
A short while later, the table was laden with egg soup, cakes made with various preserved fruits, and steamed quail. After examining them closely, Varkas gestured to the maids.
“That will be all. You may leave.”
“Then, please call for us whenever you need anything.”
Once the two girls left, he placed a moderate amount of food onto a tray and approached the bedside.
“Eat.”
When he set the tray on the bed, the woman, who had been staring blankly out the window, finally turned her head toward him.
Her eyes were steeped in deep loathing. Ignoring it, he forced a spoon into her hand, and a weary voice reached his ears.
“Just how long do you intend to repeat this meaningless farce?”
“That is what I would like to ask you.”
Varkas replied nonchalantly as he perched on the edge of the bed.
“How long do you intend to keep up this tedious struggle?”
Eyes as dark and deep as the abyss glared at him.
Varkas paid her no mind and held out the bowl of egg porridge.
Talia’s eyes flickered for a moment as she reflexively looked down at it. She seemed to notice it was different from the food usually served.
Scrutinizing the contents of the bowl with narrowed eyes, she shifted her gaze back to him and asked, “Who made this?”
“Your nanny prepared it,” Varkas replied calmly.
“I thought that if it was something she made, Your Excellency might actually eat it, so I had her prepare it.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Talia hurled the bowl.
With the sharp sound of shattering glass, the thick liquid splattered messily across the carpet.
“You forced her to make it anyway. Did you think I’d happily eat it just because you dangled that in front of me?”
The woman’s thin shoulders trembled as her lips twisted. She seemed to be trying to mock him, but the moisture pooling in her eyes only made her look pitiable.
She continued to sneer in a cracked voice.
“That woman means nothing to me anymore. I’m as sick of her as I am of you, and I cast her aside long ago! So please, just get out, all of you!”
“If Your Excellency does not eat that food, at the very least, that woman will disappear from your life forever.”
The heaving woman froze.
“What does that mean?”
“Is she not the Empress’s person? If she is of no use to Your Excellency, I have no reason to keep her in my castle.”
“Does that mean… you’re sending Nanny back to the capital?”
Varkas’s lips twisted coldly.
“Why would I go to such trouble? If the Empress sends someone herself to fetch her, I won’t stop them, but I have absolutely no intention of wasting my soldiers for that woman’s sake.”
A faint trace of fear flickered across her strangely beautiful face. It was the first emotional disturbance she had shown since losing that wolf.
Seeing the woman—who had always looked as empty as a hollow shell except when erupting in rage—so restless made his insides twist for some reason. Struggling not to let that emotion show, he added dryly:
“If she’s lucky, she might find some menial labor somewhere in Kalmor. Though, of course, the probability of her dying in the streets is much higher.”
“…Are you threatening me right now?”
“Threatening? Whatever for?”
Varkas leaned toward her, the corners of his mouth curling up.
“Didn’t you say that woman means nothing to you? How then could the news of her being cast out be a threat?”
She bit her bruised lip.
Varkas watched her with a frigid gaze before standing up and walking toward the door.
Just as he was about to step out, a trembling voice came from behind him.
“I’ll eat.”
When he turned back, still gripping the doorknob, he saw a pale face stained with defeat.
She spoke as if spitting the words through her teeth.
“I’ll eat, so just leave me alone.”
After standing motionless for a while, Varkas walked back to the table.
As he transferred small portions of the prepared food into a spare bowl and set it by the bed, she picked up the porridge bowl with hands that shook from suppressed anger. Then, with an expression as if she were swallowing filth, she began to force the food down bit by bit.
When the portion he had served finally disappeared, she lifted her pale face, drenched in cold sweat, and glared at him.
“Are you satisfied now?”
He silently cleared away the empty bowl.
Talia, glaring at him with trembling eyes, snapped through gritted teeth.
“ I did as you wanted! Now get out of this room.”
“You might try to force yourself to throw it up, so I will stay for a few more hours before I go.”
That answer seemed to completely snap the last thread of her sanity. She began to grab whatever objects were near the bed and hurl them at him.
“Get out! I said get out! I did everything you wanted! So why are you still hovering around me?!”
Tilting his head back slightly to dodge a flying goblet, Varkas moved to the bedside in an instant and caught her wrists. He was worried she might faint from her own agitation while struggling so violently.
He sat on a chair, firmly pinning the nearly convulsing woman in his arms.
Talia began to wail, struggling even more frantically.
“No…! Don’t touch me…! Just being near you makes my skin crawl!”
