The Forgotten Field

Talia fidgeted awkwardly with her hands before forcing out a rough voice.

“If you... if you break even a single strand of my hair, I won’t let you off.”

He gave no response.

But his movements seemed to grow even more careful.

The way his fingers brushed against her hair almost felt like a caress, and Talia swallowed dryly.

Between the open collar of his shirt, she could see his thick throat and collarbones protruding elegantly like the wings of a bird. She could vividly feel the supple strength of his forearms shifting with every movement, and she was painfully aware of the long legs wrapped in wool trousers positioned right beside her thighs.

Talia lowered her head deeply to hide her burning face.

“H-how much longer?”

Could it really take this long to untangle a few strands of hair caught on a button?

Or had her nerves stretched this moment into something unreal and endless?

Sweat began dampening her palms.

She wiped her hands against the pile of clothes scattered across the floor. Then she froze after noticing the flush spreading all the way to the inside of her wrists.

Surely her entire body had not turned red?

How hideous must she look right now?

Her voice rose sharply with irritation.

“It’s fine already, just cut it off!”

Unlike his usual swift, efficient self, Varkas hesitated for a long moment before lowering one hand toward his waist.

The moment she saw him draw a dagger, her body stiffened.

He wrapped an arm behind her once more, and unconsciously Talia clenched a fistful of his clothes.

“S-still, don’t cut too much... my hair...”

Before she could even finish speaking, a soft snap rang out, and the faint pressure tugging at her scalp vanished.

Talia immediately twisted around in alarm, terrified ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) he might have hacked off a whole chunk of her hair.

Fortunately, no severed lock of hair was anywhere to be seen.

Instead, a gleaming golden button lay rolling on the floor.

She picked it up and examined it carefully.

The emblem of the Roem Imperial Knights had been engraved into the finely crafted metal.

Talia slowly turned her head back toward him.

Varkas had already risen to his feet and was sliding the dagger back into place at his waist.

“How long are you planning to sit there?”

While straightening his disheveled clothing, Varkas spoke in his usual blunt tone.

Talia awkwardly climbed to her feet.

For some reason, everything suddenly felt unbearably awkward.

Feigning a cough, she held the button out toward him.

“Here.”

“No need. Throw it away.”

Varkas answered absentmindedly before glancing out the window.

At some point, the sky had become drenched in crimson sunset light.

Turning back, he slowly swept his gaze around the disastrous state of the room before exhaling in exhaustion.

“May I take my leave now?”

Talia nodded without complaint.

After giving a brief bow of his head, he immediately left the room.

Talia quietly listened to his retreating footsteps before suddenly darting toward her bed and pulling out a jewelry box.

Then she carefully placed his button deep inside the very back of it.

That night, a strange excitement kept her from sleeping.

Unidentifiable emotions made her chest ache sweetly.

Again and again, she replayed his words, his actions, the look in his eyes.

Maybe.

No. There’s no way.

But maybe.

Disordered thoughts crowded her mind until it felt ready to burst apart.

And yet, somehow, she could not stop smiling.

Wrapped in happiness, she tossed and turned the entire night.

But it did not take long for the absurd fantasies of adolescence to shatter into pieces.

A few days later, news arrived of Varkas and Aila’s engagement.

It felt like awakening from a daydream.

No, worse than that.

Like soaring all the way into the clouds before being hurled violently back to the ground in an instant.

Talia immediately stormed out of the detached palace and headed for the training grounds.

At noon he would surely come to fulfill his duties as her guard knight, but she could not bear waiting until then.

Crossing nearly half the imperial palace in one breath, Talia burst recklessly into the wide training yard filled with knights.

She could feel wary stares landing on her from every direction, but at that moment she did not care in the slightest.

Her frantic eyes searched desperately for pale ash-blond hair.

Then she realized the people filling the grounds were not official knights but trainee squires, and she turned sharply away. If he was not here, then he was most likely in his office handling administrative work.

She headed toward the military office building beside the training grounds.

As expected, Varkas was there.

Though it did not seem he had been working.

Talia froze just as she reached for the doorknob after hearing the faint sound of someone crying.

Through the narrow gap in the partially open door, she saw Varkas standing with the window behind him while a woman buried her face against his chest and sobbed.

The sight was so unimaginable that Talia stood frozen in place.

Then the unknown woman lifted her head and gazed up at him desperately.

“You don’t love that woman, do you?”

Her voice sounded pitiful enough to make Talia nauseous.

As though begging for scraps, the woman clung to him desperately.

“You’re only marrying her for political reasons, aren’t you? Please... tell me that’s true.”

Suddenly Talia’s throat tightened painfully.

The mere existence of a woman who could plead with him like that felt like being struck across the head.

Anxiously, she searched his face.

At last, his tightly shut lips parted.

“I fail to see what meaning my answer would have for you.”

His voice was so dry and emotionless it sent chills crawling down her spine.

Without realizing it, Talia shrank back.

Staring down at the woman with the expressionless face of a lifeless wax doll, Varkas tilted his head slightly as though genuinely unable to understand.

“Whether it is for political reasons or not, what changes? I promised to take Her Highness the First Imperial Princess as my wife, and I intend to honor that promise.”

The woman’s slender back stiffened visibly.

Her heart was probably being torn apart.

But the man did not stop there.

“I do not know what you expected from me, but I made it clear from the very beginning that I had no intention of returning your feelings.”

The color drained from the woman’s neck.

Apparently finding even that sight unworthy of pity, Varkas released a weary sigh and continued.

“I would prefer not to have these uncomfortable meetings again in the future. Now that the engagement has officially been decided, I would like to avoid unnecessary scandal.”

The woman staggered backward before collapsing weakly to the floor. freёwebnovel.com

For a brief moment, irritation flickered across Varkas’s face.

The complete absence of sympathy on that numb face sent cold shivers down Talia’s spine.

That expression. Those eyes.

Everything about it was horrifyingly familiar.

Talia hurried away from there.

If she had arrived only a little earlier, then the one collapsed on the floor sobbing would not have been that woman.

It would have been herself.

Just imagining it made her entire body go cold. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

If Varkas ever looked at her with those eyes while she begged him for love, she might have died on the spot.

No.

She certainly would have.

And because of that, Talia became truly afraid of him.

She was terrified of the man who could drive her to death with only a few words.

Naturally, the way she treated Varkas afterward became even more defensive than before.

He no longer felt like the object of a hopeless crush.

He felt closer to a natural enemy.

If she failed to restrain these feelings perfectly, then from now on she would spend her life trapped in unbearable pain.