Flinching, she lifted her head and met a face set like ice. Varkas looked down at his younger brother with a razor-sharp gaze, his voice low and heavy.
“You’ve grown into quite the ill-mannered boy.”
The youth’s face soured at once.
Varkas released the boy’s wrist with a dismissive flick and turned his gaze toward the middle-aged man standing beside the stairs.
“How, precisely, have you been instructing him in manners?”
“I have no excuse, Young Lord.”
The man, whose face bore a stubborn, weathered cast, bowed his head deeply in apology.
Seeing that, the boy raised his voice.
“If you have something to say, say it to me! Why take it out on an innocent man?”
Varkas’s ice-cold eyes snapped back to him instantly.
The boy, who had shouted so boldly just a heartbeat earlier, flinched and dropped his gaze.
“It’s not as if looking will wear her out. You could at least let us see her face.”
At his petulant muttering, Talia’s eyes flared. Her temper flared to hear herself spoken of like some rare beast on display.
“How dare you treat me like a spectacle…!”
Just as she opened her mouth to snap, long fingers cut off her vision.
Varkas drew her hood down tight over her eyes and continued up the stairs.
Talia was left utterly dumbfounded.
She could not fathom why he went to such lengths to keep her hidden. Did he mean to prevent any friction between her and his family?
She shoved the hood back and glared at him.
“What has gotten into you? You should at least introduce me!”
“You have been running a fever throughout the journey,” he countered calmly, his long strides carrying them across the vast marble hall. “Recover your strength first. I will introduce you as much as you like once you are well.”
“I am perfectly fine…!”
She tried to argue, but a dry cough tore up her throat.
Talia covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Parched from the fever, her throat burned as though scoured with rough sand.
He let out a low sigh.
“Do not waste your strength. Just sleep.”
With that, he pulled the hood back down over her head.
Talia, who had been glowering through a scowl, let her head drop in defeat.
As he said, days of fever had left her strength worn down to nothing. Down deep, she felt a quiet relief at putting off an uncomfortable confrontation. Yet, unable to admit that honestly, she muttered under her breath.
“You really are intolerable.”
He offered no reply, mounting the stairs in silence.
A man who looked to be the house steward hurried after them, guiding them to a sprawling bedchamber on the second floor of the main keep.
A moment later, a room unfolded before her eyes far more luxurious than her quarters in the Separate Palace.
Talia’s eyes widened. A chandelier laden with crystals hung from the soaring ceiling, and golden sconces stood placed at even intervals along the walls.
Around the room sat furnishings so magnificent they would not have seemed out of place before the Emperor; at a glance, they bore the unmistakable hallmark of dwarven craftsmanship.
Tapestries of strange patterns, shields bearing the Shearkan crest, cured furs, and white porcelain were arranged throughout the space.
While she was taking it all in, Varkas walked over to the immense bed in the center of the room and gently laid her down.
“This will be your room from now on.”
Talia caught his sleeve by reflex.
“And you?”
Varkas, who had reached for the bell pull beside the bed to summon the servants, paused and looked down at her.
Heat rushed to her cheeks in a flash.
Talia hastily added, “I don’t mean we should share a room….”
“Do not worry. I intend to use separate quarters,” he said, his voice flat.
Talia let her shoulders drop in relief. She had spent the entire journey terrified of the moment she would have to show him her legs.
He straightened and continued in an even tone.
“This chamber has belonged to the lady of House Shearkan for generations. It should be more than suitable for Your Highness.”
“If I take this room, where will the current Grand Duchess stay?”
“The seat of Grand Duchess of Shearkan has sat vacant for the past ten years.”
His blunt answer momentarily rendered her speechless. Bits of his family’s history that she had overheard during her life in the Imperial Palace flashed through her mind.
Varkas’s birth mother had died young of childbed fever after bearing him.
The second Grand Duchess had also perished in an unfortunate accident, and rumor held that the Grand Duke’s health had collapsed under the shock.
In such circumstances, taking a third Grand Duchess would have been out of the question.
She gave an awkward, dry little cough.
“Ah, right. Of course.”
“I will summon a healer. Take a draught for the fever and rest.”
As if bothered by the rasp in her throat, he poured a glass of water and handed it to her.
She had just taken a sip when she sensed someone at the door.
Turning her head, Talia saw a middle-aged woman of dignified bearing and moved to sit up.
Varkas pressed a hand to her shoulder to keep her still, then turned to face the newcomer. The woman, having cast a curious glance toward Talia, bowed low.
“It has been a long time, Young Lord.”
Her voice was gentle, belying her stern appearance.
She continued quietly, “His Grace the Grand Duke has commanded that I bring you to his chamber at once.”
“Tell him I will be there shortly.”
Varkas gave his measured reply, then looked down at Talia.
“I shall take my leave, then.”
“…Sh-should I not go with you?”
“Your Highness may pay your respects later on your own. I will explain everything, so do not trouble yourself.”
Before she could say another word, he turned and left the room.
Talia stared blankly at the closed door, then slipped out of bed and staggered to the window.
Through the clear panes, a sweeping view of Kalmor spread beneath her.
A city hemmed by fortress walls, clusters of villages sprawling beyond, rolling green meadows…. Pushing the sash open, she felt a bite of cold wind strike her face.
She looked out over the plains stretching to meet the pale blue sky, then turned her head as a faint, distant echo reached her ears.
A birch forest stood shimmering white at the edge of the hills. At that moment, a strange stir—she could not tell whether it was anticipation or dread—rose within her breast.
‘This is where I am to live.’
She drew in a deep breath.
The scent of the cold, dry wind that had lingered faintly on Varkas filled her lungs.
In that single breath, she knew she would come to love this land.
Lucas slumped deep in his chair, drumming his boots against the floor.
His sister Raina, a year younger than him, glared at him and raised her voice shrilly.
“If I get branded an ill-bred brat because of you, you’ll answer for it!”
“Well, you are an ill-bred brat.”
A goose-down pillow flew straight at his face.
Raina had spent hours painstakingly braiding her thick hair with the sole intent of making a good impression on her older brother, even digging out their late mother’s jewels and a silk tunka to drape over herself.
Yet far from sharing a word, she hadn't received so much as a single look from him.
Raina dumped the entirety of that bitter disappointment onto her brother, the easiest target at hand.
“Brother Varkas was raised like royalty in the capital! He is a noble among nobles, versed in all the courtly manners of the Imperial Palace! How could you use the slang of street urchins in front of someone like him!”
“Noble among nobles, my foot.”
He shot upright.
“Didn’t you see him? People waited days for his arrival, and he brushed past without so much as a decent greeting. Is that how they teach manners in the Imperial Palace?”
“That’s because you spoiled Brother’s temper first!”
“What did I do that was so wrong?”
Lucas leaped out of his chair, huffing.
“I only wanted to see that woman’s face! You were just as curious to see what kind of person she was.”
“I’m not the least bit curious about her face!”
Raina tore off the jade necklace dangling at her throat and threw it down, her reddish-brown eyes flashing.
“Why would I care to see the face of a vulgar woman who dragged Brother’s name through the mud? I’m sure she’s every bit as vile as her mother was!”
“…I thought you told me not to talk like someone without an education.”
“I said to watch yourself in front of Brother Varkas!”
Raina’s eyes flashed as she violently unraveled the hair that had been drawn back so tightly.
Having ridden horses every single day since she was six, Raina possessed sun-browned skin and long limbs, giving her the air of a dashing youth whenever she was not dressed up.
She stripped off her long, heavily embroidered coat and sat cross-legged on the bed.
“Listen to me carefully. You must never mistreat that woman in front of Brother. If you pick on her out in the open like that, our naive brother will only take pity on her! We’ll end up looking like the wicked siblings instead!”
“…Naive?”
Lucas muttered the word as if it were the most absurd thing he had ever heard.
Ignoring him, Raina pushed on with her tirade.
“That’s why we have to torment her as quietly as we can! If we needle her just enough, she’ll run crying to Brother and slander us. Then she’ll be the spiteful woman talking behind her sweet, innocent siblings’ backs, and we’ll be the poor, pitiable victims!”
END