Ch#67
67
He moved across the wing, practically carrying her in his arms.
Thalia parted her lips, which were stinging from how much she had been biting them.
Do you really intend to marry me like this? Truly?
She tried to ask, but her mouth pulled shut again.
He was right. Perhaps they had already come too far to turn back.
She lowered her gaze and looked around at the guests filling the nave.
Countless faces blurred into her tear-streaked vision. The Empress’s confidants, high-ranking officials, and nobles from various prestigious families… Influential figures she recognized were watching them in a heavy silence.
She felt she understood now why Varkas hadn’t simply abandoned her and walked out of the hall.
No matter how great the heir to a Grand Duke might be, he could not ruin a wedding hosted by the Emperor in front of so many nobles.
“The ceremony will begin shortly. Would the bride and groom please move to the waiting area?”
As they reached the transept, a waiting priest spoke to them cautiously.
Varkas immediately followed the priest toward the seating area beside the altar.
Thalia followed him with staggering steps, her eyes darting around incessantly.
Beyond her blurred vision, which felt as if it were shrouded in fog, she caught glimpses of faces that looked as if they were watching an exciting play. Those cold, ashen faces all seemed to be mocking her in unison.
“Do your legs hurt?”
Noticing her body had stiffened, Varkas reached out and cupped her chin with one hand as he asked.
Thalia stared at him with a dazed expression. Varkas lightly rubbed her wet eyes with his thumb. His touch was so gentle it made her wonder if this was all a hallucination brought on by the sleeping draft.
He gazed intently into her eyes and whispered in a low voice.
“Just bear with it a little longer. I’ll make sure you can rest as soon as the ceremony is over.”
The tone, which sounded as if he were coaxing a child, made her throat tighten.
This man is only doing this because he’s afraid I’ll cause a scene in front of all these people.
He’s just placating me so I don’t throw a tantrum.
She repeated this to herself, desperately trying to calm her racing heart, when a voice she never expected to hear in this place echoed in her ears.
“I can hardly watch. To look at you two, one would think this was a marriage of love.”
Her shoulders flinching and stiffening, Thalia slowly turned her head. Gares, dressed in a red doublet, was walking across the pews accompanied by half a dozen imperial guards.
In an instant, the blood in her body seemed to freeze.
“Why the long face for the brother who came to congratulate you?”
Gares stopped in front of her, his lips twisting into a sneer.
Thalia looked up at him with eyes full of terror.
Was it cathartic for him to see his half-sister—who had always been a thorn in his side—so pale she couldn’t even speak?
A strange smile flickered across Gares’s rugged face.
He leaned toward her and whispered chillingly.
“You’ve traded a leg for the title of Grand Duchess. You should be smiling brightly.”
Thalia glared at him with a hardened face.
Normally, she would have left nail marks on that slick, smug face of his. But at that moment, she couldn’t even part her lips. Her already muddled mind seemed to have stopped functioning entirely at his unexpected appearance.
She could only tremble, her eyelids fluttering like someone facing a nightmare, when her head was suddenly pulled away.
“Your Highness.”
Varkas, who had pulled her head to bury her face against his chest, spoke as if giving a warning.
“If you have come as a guest, please show the appropriate courtesy. Would you truly cause a disturbance on the wedding day of an old friend?”
A heavy silence weighed down on them.
Thalia swallowed hard, her forehead pressed against his formal attire.
She couldn’t understand why Varkas was trying to protect her from Gares.
Originally, it should have been the other way around. Wasn’t it his role to protect Gares and Aila from the wicked illegitimate child?
“There’s no need to be so defensive. As long as you keep your promise, I will keep mine.”
Gares’s cold voice drifted from behind them.
She wanted to turn her head to check his expression, but she couldn’t move because of the hand pressing down on her head.
Varkas tightened his grip on her waist and muttered coldly.
“If you intend to watch the ceremony, please take your seat.”
The sound of teeth grinding reached her ears before Gares’s presence finally receded. Only then did Varkas relax his hold.
Thalia twisted her head to watch Gares’s back as he walked toward the VIP seating.
As he took his seat, an elderly man sitting right next to him spoke to him. It wasn’t difficult to recognize him as the Marquis Oristein.
Had the two of them discussed something beforehand?
Thalia narrowed her eyes, then widened them as she suddenly realized that many of the guests filling the seats were conservative nobles who supported the Crown Prince.
Just what was going on?
She was looking around the chapel with a bewildered expression when a firm hand pulled her head back again.
“You don’t need to think about anything.”
Icy eyes locked onto her gaze.
“These are faces you will never have to see again after today. Do not waste your attention on them.”
He spoke with force, as if branding the words into her mind, and walked toward the altar without a moment’s hesitation.
Thalia bit her cracked lip as she was led along by him.
Varkas didn’t seem particularly surprised by the current situation. Seeing his calm reaction, her tangled thoughts began to straighten out bit by bit.
Perhaps Gares wanted to show everyone that his relationship with the Si’eikan family hadn’t soured because of this marriage.
And Varkas must have agreed to that.
From the beginning, this wedding was nothing more than a play staged by the Emperor’s demands, Varkas’s sense of responsibility, and her own desire for revenge. He was still on the side of Aila and Gares.
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor and Her Imperial Majesty the Empress are arriving!”
A moment later, a booming voice echoed from above the stairs leading to the high seats.
Thalia pulled her gaze away from Varkas and looked up.
The Emperor and Empress walked gracefully toward the thrones located on the second floor.
They looked like the true protagonists of this stage.
Thalia gazed at the Emperor, who radiated solemn dignity, for a moment before turning her eyes to Senebier standing beside him.
As always, she was radiant, emitting a brilliance that was almost blinding.
Exquisite features in perfect harmony with deep golden hair that looked like molten pure gold, and a voluptuous body that traced perfect curves…
The beauty she had once believed she could obtain pierced her retinas like needles.
“We shall now begin the ceremony.”
Once the Emperor and Empress were seated on their respective thrones, the High Priest ascended the altar and announced in a solemn voice.
Thalia was led forward by Varkas to stand before the priest.
Behind the solemn, wrinkled face, she could see the black sky heavy with rain. With the dark clouds at his back, the priest began to recite scriptures written in an ancient tongue.
The whole thing felt like a ridiculous comedy.
Senebier with her vague smile, the Emperor who looked somewhat uncomfortable, the priest droning on with formal words of blessing, and the guests watching their false ritual with sneers on their faces.
“Varkas Raedgo Si’eikan, do you swear to take Thalia Roem Guirta as your spouse and remain with her for the rest of your life?”
Having finished reading the long scriptures, the priest finally asked the final question.
Thalia moistened her parched lips, her gaze fixed on the floor.
After a few seconds of silence, he spoke.
“I do.”
It was an answer so dry it felt almost insincere.
The priest turned to her with the same question.
“Thalia Roem Guirta, do you swear to take Varkas Raedgo Si’eikan as your husband and remain with her for the rest of your life?”
Thalia looked up at the priest’s face with glassy eyes.
She wanted to respond as nonchalantly as Varkas had, but only the sound of her wheezing breath escaped, as if someone were strangling her.
As her silence stretched on, the hand around her waist tightened.
Thalia turned her head to look at him.
His blue eyes quietly urged her for an answer. As if he had no intention of dragging this moment out, his firm gaze pushed her to finally squeeze out a single word.
“…I do.”
“By the power vested in me by God and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, I hereby declare the two of you husband and wife.”
The priest, having made the proclamation in a flat tone, added one last sentence to mark the end of the ritual.
“Now, let the two of you seal your union with a kiss.”
