Ch#62
It felt as though ants had crawled under her eyelids while she slept.
Enduring the unpleasant, stinging sensation behind her eyeballs, Thalia fixed her gaze on her half-sister.
As usual, Aila was looking down at her, her appearance elegant and perfectly composed.
Facing that lofty countenance, Thalia felt as if her already stinging eyes were beginning to burn.
Thalia clutched her blanket like a shield and shot back a sharp glare.
“Did you come here to spectate? If you have something to say, say it quickly and get out.”
“……How are you feeling?”
“How do I look?”
At the sarcastic retort, a pair of pale green eyes slowly scanned her.
“You don’t look well.”
Thalia’s lips tightened into a hard line.
Her fingertips trembled. If her legs had been intact, she would have grabbed the woman by the hair and hurled her out the door this instant.
Suppressing the surge of fury, she managed to squeeze out a composed voice.
“If you’ve seen enough, why don’t you leave? Having you here is making me feel worse.”
Aila’s lips pressed firmly together.
As the silence stretched on, Thalia’s nerves grew frayed and sharp. When the pain she had barely managed to soothe began to creep up through her bones again, Thalia raised her voice.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said get out.”
“I told you, I have something I want to talk about,” Aila said, her voice tinged with a hint of impatience.
Thalia glared at her through narrowed eyes.
“Then say it and get lost. Just looking at your face makes my stomach turn. Do you really expect me to wait patiently for you? Don’t make me laugh. Either state your business right now or vanish from my sight!”
As if repulsed by the fierce hostility pouring toward her, Aila’s face stiffened visibly.
She cast a cold gaze and spoke.
“Fine. I’ll tell you why I’m here. I came because I was curious about what you plan to do from now on.”
“What I plan to do? About what?” Thalia asked dismissively.
Her headache was worsening. The ants that had been gnawing at the back of her eyes now felt as if they were boring into her brain. The stinging pain spread all the way to the back of her head.
While all her senses were focused on the pain, Aila continued to prattle on.
“Don’t play innocent. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Am I a mind reader? How am I supposed to know what you haven’t said?”
“You……!”
Aila’s voice rose slightly.
Thalia turned her head and frowned at the sight of her half-sister’s face, distorted with a sense of humiliation.
Aila took a moment to catch her breath, struggling to maintain her composure, before continuing in a much calmer voice.
“I want to ask if you truly intend to marry that man.”
Thalia offered no answer, merely staring blankly at her face.
It seemed that Aila was now the one who could no longer endure the silence.
She continued anxiously.
“You hate Varkas. You’ve tormented him since we were children; you aren’t seriously thinking of becoming his wife now, are you?”
Seeing the look in Aila’s eyes—as if she were seeking Thalia’s agreement—a hollow, huffing laugh escaped Thalia’s lips.
Aila’s mouth hardened into a stiff line.
Watching that wretched expression, Thalia’s intermittent laughter grew more jagged.
Forgetting the splitting headache and the tingling pain shooting up her legs, Thalia clutched her stomach and burst into a fit of laughter.
“So, you ran all the way here because you’re scared?”
Aila’s complexion was now as white as plaster.
Thalia continued softly, savoring the sight of that face.
“I suppose it felt like your insides were burning at the thought of me stealing your fiancé?”
“…….”
“But what should I do? Seeing you like this makes me want to take him from you by any means necessary.”
Aila’s lovely face distorted even more hideously. Her eyes, which usually brought to mind fresh evergreens, were now clouded with venom.
Thalia was swept up in a strange sense of exhilaration.
This was the sister who had always looked down on her with a flawless face. That very sister was finally revealing her raw emotions.
“He is only saying he will marry you out of a sense of duty!” she cried out irritably.
“He just feels guilty that your body ended up like that! But it’s not his fault you were injured. So why should Varkas have to make such a sacrifice?”
The smile Thalia had been wearing vanished.
The amusement died instantly, replaced by a freezing rage. Her fingers itched with the desire to rip out that tongue for wagging as if it were Varkas’s spokesperson.
Chewing back the curses crawling up her throat, Thalia forced out a deliberately sweet voice.
“I thought you were a bit smarter than this. But you’re more foolish than I expected.”
Aila’s lips froze.
Thalia continued slowly.
“Those aren’t the words you should be saying to me right now. You should be ‘begging’ me, politely and earnestly.”
“…….”
“Begging me please, not to marry Varkas Raedgo Sheikan.”
Aila’s eyes twitched.
Thalia watched that face, twisted in humiliation, with eyes full of malice. Aila moistened her lips and spoke with great difficulty.
“If I beg you…… will you refuse the marriage?”
“Well, now,” Thalia said airily.
“Wouldn’t that depend on how desperate the person begging is?”
Aila bit her lip and looked down at the floor. It seemed she could hardly force the words out.
After a long, suffocating silence, Aila finally looked up with a look of grim determination. Soon after, a piteous voice spilled from her well-shaped, pink lips.
“I’m begging you. Please refuse the marriage to Varkas. If you don’t agree, His Majesty won’t push for it either. So, please……”
As if she couldn’t bring herself to say the rest, her voice shattered and scattered.
Looking up at that tragic face, Thalia swallowed a bitter sneer.
Right now, this woman likely believed she had given up something magnificent.
Her pride as an Imperial Princess.
She probably thought that because she, a noble princess, had bowed to a lowly bastard, she deserved a reward.
Thalia lowered her gaze to her legs hidden beneath the blanket.
It was only after she had ended up in this state that she was even considered a candidate for his bride.
And yet, this woman believed she could win him back just by offering up a handful of her meager pride.
To this woman, Thalia Roem Guirta’s legs weren’t even worth as much as her own vanity.
Thalia spoke up abruptly.
“Fine.”
Color returned to Aila’s face.
Thalia, watching her calmly, added, “On one condition.”
“A condition?”
A look of wariness appeared on Aila’s face.
Thalia turned her head to look at the side table. On a tray holding fruit, bread, and butter, there were several pieces of silver cutlery.
Thalia picked up a small knife used for cutting butter and threw it in front of her half-sister.
The silver blade slid to a stop at Aila’s feet. Thalia spoke softly to Aila, who was staring down at it blankly.
“Use that to stab your leg.”
“……What?”
Aila looked at her with an expression that suggested she couldn’t believe her ears.
Meeting those vacant eyes directly, Thalia emphasized every single word.
“I’m telling you to scar your leg with that. Like this…….”
Thalia slowly pulled back the blanket. Aila’s wide eyes fixed upon the hideously swollen scars.
Right before those eyes, Thalia ran her fingertip along the long, gruesome mark that started from her shin, making sure she saw it.
“From here…… to here. Make a long wound with the knife. If you do, I’ll do as you say.”
Aila looked back and forth between the knife on the floor and her own legs wrapped in a velvet dress. Her eyelids trembled violently.
Eventually, a cold, mocking laugh escaped her bloodless lips.
“From the very beginning, you didn’t have the slightest intention of listening to me.”
Thalia did not respond.
Soon, the mask of the princess was refitted onto Aila’s face.
As if she had never shown a moment of servility, Aila held her head high and stepped toward the door. Her steady, rhythmic footsteps came to a sudden halt at the entrance of the bedroom.
Aila gripped the doorknob and looked back at her. Her swamp-like eyes flashed with a chilling light.
“You will surely regret today, Thalia Roem Guirta.”
Having spat those words out like a curse, Aila added frostily as she walked out.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
