Chapter 96
“If there is anything you require, please let me know.”
As she was scrutinizing the room with a fastidious gaze, the castle lord standing by the door addressed them. Barkas, who had taken off his coat and hung it beside the fireplace, made a request in his usual indifferent tone.
“I would appreciate it if you brought water for washing and some heated wine.”
“At once, Your Excellency.”
Once the man withdrew, Talia sank down heavily onto a chair padded with velvet cushions.
After touring several cities and villages since early morning, she was completely exhausted. Pretending to straighten the damp hem of her skirt, she stealthily rubbed her aching knees.
Barkas, who had been watching her from the corner of his eye, quietly spoke.
“I will call a healer for you, so I think it would be best for you to rest for the day.”
Talia frowned.
“What about you?”
“I intend to have a meeting with the castle lord. It may run late, so please go to sleep first.”
“As if that’s anything new.”
Talia snapped back somewhat sharply.
They had shared a room for the past few days, but not once had she seen him lie down.
Barkas always worked until dawn, and at times, he even spent the whole night with the local lords. It was enough to make the tension she felt every time they entered the same room seem pointless.
Talia glared at him with her lips pressed tightly shut, then soon flopped down onto the bed.
“I’ll rest on my own, so you just go do your work.”
Barkas quietly looked at her, let out a small sigh, then opened the door and left.
Not long after, the castle servants entered the room carrying trays with wine and fruit, along with a wooden bathtub filled with hot water.
Talia called for her nanny, washed herself lightly, and ate a few pieces of fruit preserved in honey along with the wine.
Then, just as she was about to ask the healer to burn some sleep herbs, a somewhat raucous burst of laughter sounded from outside the door. It seemed the knights had started a drinking party.
Talia wore an unimpressed expression, then suddenly stiffened. Amid the boisterous noise, a high-pitched laugh had mixed in.
She hurriedly shook her nanny awake, who had been nodding off in front of the fireplace.
“Nanny, does the castle lord here have daughters?”
“How would I know that?”
Her nanny answered, sounding rather dumbfounded.
Talia snapped irritably.
“I’m asking if you heard anything while coming and going!”
“I don’t know either. I was called here right after we arrived.”
Her nanny let out a heavy sigh.
“More importantly, may I return to my room now? I need some rest too.”
Talia, who had been about to send her downstairs, bit her lip.
Seeing the fatigue on her face made her tiny, almost nonexistent conscience sting.
Her nanny must have been exhausted enough from the unfamiliar journey, and on top of that, she had even had to help Talia bathe. She had to be terribly tired.
Talia slowly nodded.
“Fine. Go on.”
Her nanny immediately left. In that moment, Talia peered out into the corridor.
As the noise from outside became clearer, anxiety churned in her stomach. Even though she knew perfectly well that Barkas was not the type to do anything foolish.
Talia bit at her lip with an uneasy expression before eventually putting on her coat and stepping outside.
She passed through the corridor where the shadows of firelight flickered, then descended the stairs. There, she saw a group of men and women paired off, flirting and chatting idly.
She narrowed her eyes and swept her gaze over the men’s faces. Since all of them looked familiar, they seemed to be cavalry warriors of the Sierkan Family.
One of them pulled a young woman who appeared to be a maid by the waist and brought his lips to her ear. The maid blushed and giggled.
Talia looked at the scene in disgust, then turned her steps deeper into the hall.
Around a long table laid out with wine and food sat Barkas’s aides. They, too, were being served drinks by women who were barely dressed.
From the look of it, the castle lord had summoned a large number of prostitutes under the pretext of entertaining his guests.
Talia swept her fierce gaze around the room and quickened her steps across the wide hall. The only thought in her head was that she had to drag Barkas out of this filthy place at once.
“Your Highness!”
As she was roaming through the banquet hall, dragging her throbbing legs, a familiar voice came from nearby.
Talia whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes when she spotted a familiar face among the crowd. It was the eastern knight named Tairon.
The man approached her and scratched the back of his head, giving an awkward laugh.
“I heard Your Highness would be retiring early, so what brings you here…”
“It was so noisy that I came out to see.”
Talia, who had been looking around for Barkas, gave him a sarcastic smile.
“I suppose I interrupted your good time?”
“Hahaha.”
The man dodged the question with an exaggerated laugh.
Talia sent him a cold look, then turned her gaze back toward the bustling banquet hall.
“More importantly, where is Barkas?”
“His Excellency is in the study on the third floor. Sir Darken requested a private audience with him.”
Talia, who had been thoroughly scanning the hall, snapped her head back toward him.
“Just the two of them?”
Perhaps only then realizing why she had been searching the hall like she was combing through it, an amused smile appeared on the man’s lips.
“Yes. They even dismissed all the maids, so please do not worry.”
In that instant, her cheeks grew hot, as if he had read every last thought in her heart.
Talia raised her voice.
“Who said I was worried?”
Then she abruptly turned around, but the man immediately followed after her.
“You should not walk around alone. I will escort you back to your room.”
“I don’t need you to.”
“You do.”
The man spoke firmly.
“If anything were to happen to Her Highness the Grand Duchess, the responsibility would fall entirely on us. Now, let us go.”
Then, without giving her a chance to refuse, he grasped her elbow.
Talia reflexively shook off his hand.
“I said I don’t need you.”
As if startled by her violent reaction, deep creases formed on the man’s forehead.
Leaving him behind, Talia hurried away along the path she had come from, almost as if fleeing.
When she climbed back up the dimly lit stairs, her thighs and calves began to cramp.
It seemed she had overworked her legs far too much throughout the day. Though it was somewhat late, she thought she should call the healer and ask them to cast recovery magic.
Lightly pounding her twitching thigh with her fist, she passed through the long corridor. Then she heard a strange moan and stopped in her tracks. When she turned her head toward the direction of the sound, she saw an oddly shaped shadow flickering at the end of the corridor.
Only a few seconds later did she realize it was a man and woman pressed tightly together as though they were one body. The food she had barely managed to force into her stomach felt like it was about to come back up.
She swallowed down nausea and took a step back.
Just then, her eyes met those of the boy who had been stickily kissing a voluptuous maid.
Talia swallowed a scream.
The person fooling around in the corridor was none other than Barkas’s younger brother.
Staggering, Talia hurriedly turned around. But she lost her balance and ended up collapsing onto the floor.
A heavy shock sent intense pain surging from her knees to her pelvis and waist. Tears sprang to her eyes as she let out a muted scream.
“Sister-in-law!”
Seeing her like that, Lucas shoved the maid away and rushed over in a single bound.
Talia fiercely slapped away the hand that tried to support her.
“Don’t touch me!”
Lucas flinched and stepped back.
Talia glared at him with an icy gaze, then struggled to raise herself up.
As she leaned one hand against the wall and took a difficult step forward, Lucas, who had been frozen in place, muttered with an aggrieved expression.
“Is it because of what you just saw? I wasn’t the one who suggested that earlier. She seduced me, saying she’d give me a good experience, so I just accepted it.”
His rambling words made her feel as if her ears were rotting.
Talia looked at him with disgust in her eyes.
“Did I say anything? Why are you babbling about something I didn’t even ask and dirtying someone else’s ears?”
Lucas’s face flushed bright red.
He clenched his jaw and glared fiercely.
“Why are you making such a big deal out of a little kissing? You probably do even worse things with my brother every night anyway…”
Talia’s hand flew like a whip.
As if he had expected the attack, Lucas instantly caught her wrist.
“Ha! Did you think I’d just keep taking it forever? Hit me one more time, and I won’t hold back any—!”
The boy, who had lowered his voice threateningly, suddenly shut his mouth. He seemed to have noticed her face, which had turned red as if it were on fire.
He blinked blankly, then muttered as though he could not believe it.
“Don’t tell me… the two of you still haven’t done anything… Ugh!”
Lucas bent over sharply after being kicked in the shin.
Talia slammed her fists down against his back at random.
Lucas, helplessly taking the blows, shoved her against the wall.
“Damn it! With a temper like that, no wonder my brother still hasn’t laid a finger on you!”
As if his anger had reached the top of his head, he growled savagely.
Talia’s shoulders flinched as though she had been stabbed with a knife.
The boy looked down at her face with blazing eyes and cruelly added,
“Or maybe my brother still hasn’t forgotten his former fiancée. Maybe what he did with that woman was so good that he just can’t bring himself to with you…”
She did not want to hear another word.
Talia drove the nails she had started growing again a few days ago into his flapping lips.
With a cry of pain, Lucas grabbed her arm.
As though quite flustered by the way she lunged at him like a madwoman, his slender body toppled backward.
Talia climbed onto his stomach, forced open that filthy mouth of his, no better than a latrine, and seized his slippery tongue with her fingers. His sun-tanned face flushed so red it looked ready to burst.
