“Do you know why I’m going to marry you?”
Varkas stared down at her in silence. Talia spoke to that expressionless face, each word heavy with suppressed fury.
“To see you become miserable. That is why I am marrying you.”
· · ·
“I want you to hurt. Terribly.”
His eyes sank deeper into shadow.
She held her breath, waiting for his response. She prayed that indifferent mask would crumble, that he would flare up in rage or shove her away in disgust.
Tell me it is no use after all.
Tell me you could never take a woman like me to wife.
Even if it crushed her heart to dust, they might at least salvage what remained of their lives.
Yet, as always, he betrayed her hopes.
Letting out a brief sigh, as if he had heard nothing of consequence, Varkas peeled her hands from his clothes and drew himself upright.
“The wedding will take place as soon as possible.”
He walked over to the window and threw it wide.
The wind that brushed past him poured over her face.
Talia quietly watched him bathe in the amber glow of the sunset. His low, resonant voice reached her as if from a great distance.
“That will be best. For me, and for you.”
What did he mean by that?
Did he mean it was best to dispose of a tiresome chore without delay?
Talia searched his eyes for an answer, but weariness soon overwhelmed her, and she let her eyelids droop.
It did not matter. She would no longer tear herself apart trying to fathom his thoughts.
If he had accepted her out of mere duty, she had chosen his side only to return every wound she had ever received. She would not be foolish enough to harbor expectations.
She repeated the vow she had made a thousand times before.
Tonight would be the last. She would put an end to this cursed devotion.
Even so, she knew.
The love she butchered today would come crawling back tomorrow….
The Imperial Palace was abuzz with preparations for the Second Princess’s impending wedding.
Under the Empress’s direction, the maids of the Main Palace scurried about adorning the ceremonial hall, and servants dashed between the cellars and the kitchens, preparing the wine and feast to be laid out for the guests.
Yet beneath the frantic bustle, an unsettling weight hung over the palace.
Leaving the supply depot, Edric narrowed his eyes as he noticed a cluster of apprentices whispering in a secluded corner of the grounds. Vicious gossip drifted into earshot.
“In the end, mother and daughter both had their men stolen out from under them.”
Edric watched a boy snicker with glib malice. It was the son of Viscount Kenden, an insolent troublemaker who led a clique among the apprentice knights.
The boy continued as he set his training blade on the rack.
“They say the Second Princess is the spitting image of Her Majesty the Empress. With a face like that, who can blame Sir Shearkan for losing his head?”
“You think the Commander thinks with his prick like you?”
A broad-shouldered boy shook his head.
“That wedding wouldn’t be happening at all if it weren’t for His Majesty’s imperial decree. I just feel sorry for the First Princess.”
“Tch, you naive fool. What kind of house do you think the Shearkans are? You think they’d trade away their bride just because His Majesty snapped his fingers?”
The boy clicked his tongue.
“It happened because he was willing to take her! Besides, wasn’t Sir Shearkan her personal guard once? If you ask me, their eyes met long before this. People who went on the pilgrimage said things were strange between them back then….”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you know how much the Second Princess tormented the Commander when he was her guard? So what if she’s lovely? He saw that vile temper of hers firsthand. There’s no way in hell he’d fall for her.”
An apprentice sorting arrows for archery practice snorted loudly.
“Besides, she ended up a cripple after that disaster. Who’d willingly choose a broken woman when someone like the First Princess is right there? She must’ve spun some wicked scheme behind the scenes….”
“It seems your tongues get more exercise than your swords these days.”
Edric could bear no more. At his sudden, sharp rebuke, the apprentices leapt in fright and snapped to attention.
He swept a frigid glare over them.
“Are you aware that the words you just uttered amount to treason against the Imperial Family?”
The color drained from their faces in an instant.
Edric committed every one of their faces to memory before delivering his verdict.
“The Roem Knights were formed for the sole purpose of shielding the Imperial Family. If you harbor any dream of earning your spurs, learn to guard your tongues in the open first.”
“W-We apologize, Sir Ruben.”
The boys bowed their heads, their jaws locked tight in apprehension.
After studying them in stony silence, Edric turned on his heel and strode toward the knights’ quarters.
A heavy arm came down over his shoulder.
Edric glanced over and found Sir Theoric Hart standing beside him.
The senior knight grinned.
“You certainly know how to set them straight.”
“What brings you out to the training grounds at this hour, sir?”
Edric looked up at the bell tower, bewildered.
It was not yet noon. Was this not the hour when senior knights were bogged down with duties across the Main Palace?
At his questioning gaze, Sir Hart chuckled and tousled Edric’s hair with a calloused hand.
“I came to bring you some good news. Your probation has finally been lifted. Tomorrow morning, you report back to my direct squad.”
Edric froze, staring up at him. It was undeniably welcome news, yet a knot of complicated feelings tightened in his chest.
He asked hesitantly,
“Then… who will oversee Her Highness the Second Princess’s protection?”
His superior’s gaze narrowed slightly.
He drew his arm back from Edric’s shoulder and exhaled a heavy breath.
“The Roem Knights have been removed from the Second Princess’s detail entirely. Her Majesty the Empress raised an objection, insinuating that we deliberately neglected the Princess’s safety. She even went so far as to announce that she will not entrust the Second Prince to our care, either.”
Edric’s expression hardened. It was nothing short of dragging the honor of the Roem Knights through the mud.
Since the Empire’s founding, the Roem Knights had stood as the unyielding shield of the Imperial Family. Their very reason for being was being stripped away.
Edric hung his head in shame.
“Forgive me. Because I failed my duty, the order has suffered such disgrace….”
“It isn’t your fault. No one could have foreseen that catastrophe. There is no need to tear yourself apart.”
Theoric clapped him on the shoulder, offering what solace he could.
When Edric’s brow remained furrowed with guilt, Theoric rubbed the back of his neck as if wrestling with a decision, then steered his junior away from the training grounds. Edric followed, confused.
They walked in silence until they reached a deserted grove, where Theoric finally spoke.
“I know how serious you are about your duties. But this truly was beyond your control, so do not shoulder the blame.”
Edric frowned deeply.
“I was her sworn escort. Ultimately, the burden of failing to protect her rests squarely on me. How could I possibly—!”
“The ambush that day was engineered by the Empress.”
Edric froze, his eyes wide and vacant as he stared at his superior.
Theoric kept his eyes on the dirt, his voice dropping to a somber murmur.
“Did it never strike you as unnatural? That a pack of wyverns would fall upon an armed column out of nowhere…. Wyverns are territorial predators. They never provoke an army unless their nest is disturbed. And our encampment was situated well clear of their roosts.”
“I thought it peculiar, of course… but to conclude that Her Majesty was behind it….”
“Prior to the raid, reports indicated that the Second Princess’s attendants were making suspicious movements.”
Theoric’s tone went rigid.
“What is more, traces of high-tier sorcery were discovered near the site of the attack. Someone deliberately stirred that nest.”
Edric stood with his mouth slightly open.
As the reality of his superior’s words sank in, an icy chill crept down his spine.
“Yet the Second Princess was there with the procession. How could a mother orchestrate such an attack when her own flesh and blood stood in harm’s way…?”
“Which is precisely why she was never suspected.”
Edric stared at him, drained of color, entirely at a loss for words.
Theoric’s voice sank into grim resignation.
“The Empress leaves nothing to chance. We launched an inquiry in secret the moment it happened, but she left behind mere whispers of circumstantial evidence—nothing definitive. And when the primary casualty is her own child, who in the court would dare challenge her?”
Edric’s gaze drifted downward.
He remembered the Princess weeping beneath the rubble of stone.
He remembered how she had thrashed in agony while the surgeons worked on her mangled flesh.
To think her own mother had condemned her to such an ordeal.
A wave of nausea churned in his gut.
END