“What does it matter to you if my lips turn purple or green!”
She hurled his coat to the ground and raised her voice, only to hear him sigh once more.
Her eyes stung with hot tears. He smiled for Ayla, yet he did nothing but sigh whenever he was with her. She could not stand the sight of him.
“Even if I freeze to death here, I’ll make sure it doesn’t cause you any trouble, so just go to your precious twins’ birthday banquet! Go and fawn over them all you want!”
“Even if you stay out here all night, Your Highness will not freeze to death. At most, you’ll catch a bad cold.”
“Then I’ll just die of the cold!”
As she shrieked at him, he brushed back the damp hair clinging to his eyes with a rough sweep of his hand.
Talia flinched at the gesture, which plainly betrayed his irritation. When he spoke, however, his voice remained as level as ever.
“What exactly do I have to do for you to stop playing the tragic heroine?”
His biting tone made Talia’s eyes flare with fresh fury.
He was always so courteous to Ayla, yet he never missed a chance to cut her down with sarcasm. It was maddening.
Glaring at him with smoldering eyes, Talia reached up and wrenched a pearl pin from her intricately braided hair. Without a moment’s hesitation, she cast it into the shimmering lake.
“Go fetch it back. Then I’ll stop.”
Varkas’s eyes narrowed.
Talia expected his expression to turn cold as he exploded in anger, or perhaps turn his back on her and walk away without a second thought. If he did, she fully intended to stay right here until she collapsed.
Let him feel the crushing weight of guilt when he found her dead body.
Yet, as always, Varkas did not act according to her expectations.
Right before her eyes, he began unfastening the buttons of his uniform coat, one by one.
Talia’s eyes widened, but she soon snorted. He was merely bluffing, assuming she would stop him. There was no way he would actually leap into the water.
Feigning composure, she watched as he peeled off his knight’s tunic, laid it beneath a tree, and pulled off his calf-high boots.
So, he wanted to see this through?
Varkas even unbuckled the sword belt at his waist, standing at the water’s edge in light trousers and a thin linen shirt that was nearly translucent. For a brief moment, he stood there in silence, gazing out across the drizzling lake.
Just as she thought—he was playing stubborn, waiting for her to cave first.
Yet even as she scoffed inwardly, he plunged into the water with a sharp splash.
Talia bolted upright.
The gray surface of the lake swallowed him whole in an instant. Her face went blank before she scrambled to the edge, peering frantically into the murky depths.
“Varkas?”
The water remained still.
There was no trace of the eighteen-year-old youth who had grown so intimidatingly tall since turning sixteen. She raised her voice.
“Varkas!”
Amidst the steady drizzle, only her own voice echoed back across the water.
Talia began to scream in earnest.
“S-stop playing around!”
Just then, a gust of wind swept across the surface.
The water rippled, but there was still no sign of him.
Her breath caught tight in her throat.
Without a second thought, Talia threw herself into the lake. After only a few strides, the water reached her waist.
She beat her arms against the surface, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Varkas! Varkas! Where are you!”
She felt the slide of slick mud and submerged branches beneath her feet.
She took several more strides toward the deep water. Before she knew it, the chill had risen past her chest.
Clawing frantically at the ice-cold water, she let out ragged sobs.
“I-I was wrong! Please, just come out!”
As she wailed in total panic, the water nearby surged violently, and a tall silhouette broke through the surface.
Talia stared at him with frozen eyes.
Varkas tossed his head back to clear the streaming water and turned toward her. His blue eyes glinted faintly beneath drenched lashes.
“Here.”
Grasping her shoulder lightly with one hand, he held out his other.
Talia stared down at it vacantly.
“Are we done now?”
Resting on his palm was the pearl pin she had thrown.
A hollow laugh slipped from her lips unbidden.
Talia pressed a hand to her forehead, letting out soft, fitful giggles. Then, in the very next breath, her expression twisted as if she were possessed; she snatched the pearl pin from his palm and hurled it far out into the lake once more.
Even after watching her discard the very thing he had gone to such lengths to recover, he showed no reaction at all.
Confronted by that unflinching face, Talia snapped and lashed out with her hand.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Just to frighten me!”
Even with the slap ringing across his cheek, he remained silent.
For some reason, that composure only drove her wilder.
Talia began to hammer against him with her fists.
“You were just waiting until I said I was sorry! You hateful bastard! I loathe you!”
“That is enough.”
Varkas caught both her wrists in an instant, his voice dropping low.
She looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears. At the sight of her bitter grievance, an exasperated breath left his chest.
“You have had your fill for today. Now stop this fit and get out.”
“No! I’ll never listen to you! I’m going to stay right here and drown, so just go!”
Ignoring her shrieks of rage, he dragged her out onto the bank.
Even as he hauled her ashore, Talia kept beating against his back. Shaking his head in disbelief, Varkas retrieved his discarded coat. He wrapped it tightly around her frame, knotting the sleeves firmly so she could no longer swing her fists.
Talia struggled to wrench herself free, but with her arms pinned, she kicked him hard in the shin instead.
“Are you mad, binding an imperial princess? You brute!”
“Look who is talking.”
Exhaling a long breath, Varkas hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
Talia sputtered with fury, screeching like an enraged bird.
“I am royalty, you idiot! What kind of knight dares treat a princess this way!”
Gathering his sword and uniform in silence, Varkas trudged on through the rain.
Talia, who had writhed like a wild animal and spat every curse she knew, eventually fell limp.
He did not set her down until they reached the Separate Palace. Talia glared at him, gasping for breath, before collapsing in sheer exhaustion.
And that evening, just as he had predicted, a terrible fever took hold of her.
Varkas drew up a chair and sat beside her while she burned, quietly turning the pages of a book.
She could hardly describe how infuriating that peaceful figure was.
Driven by spite, she picked a quarrel, saying, “I bet you wish I fell sick every day,” to which he replied without looking up from his page, “Occasionally, it is not so bad.”
Staring at him with feverish eyes, Talia buried her face into the covers, foolishly thinking that ‘occasionally’ was far better than nothing at all.
Deep down, she was glad he had stayed by her side rather than attending Ayla’s birthday banquet. For that alone, she could generously overlook his coldness.
She forced her eyes shut to sleep, trying to stifle the smile that kept tugging at her mouth.
Though the fever racked her body, a strange impulse to laugh kept bubbling up.
It was always like that with Varkas. It was agonizing, suffocating, and infuriating, yet at the same time, her heart would swell beyond all measure. There were moments when he felt like the closest person in the world to her.
Perhaps we are something like friends?
Sustained by such shameless delusions, the years they spent alone together piled up.
Though it might have been an ordeal for him, those days were precious as jewels to her.
It was because he was there that she had managed to endure each day of that crushing loneliness.
Now, however, those memories brought no comfort; they had become an unbreakable shackle, binding her fast.
END