Free Web Novel“You truly never seem to understand that there are lines which must never be crossed.”
Varkas spoke in his characteristically flat voice.
But his beautiful face had hardened savagely, every trace of patience scraped raw.
Talia twisted her arm, trying to wrench herself free from his grip. But the trained knight’s powerful hand felt like a shackle.
Standing firmly in front of Gareth and Aila like a loyal shield, Varkas dragged Talia even closer and spat the words directly into her face.
“How far do you intend to fall before you’re satisfied? Even after displaying the very bottom of yourself, it still isn’t enough?”
“The bottom?”
Talia lifted her chin high and let out a sharp sneer.
“You lofty young master of House Siorcan, do you really think you know even the slightest thing about the depths of human ugliness? Don’t flatter yourself.”
She pressed herself close against him and smiled strangely.
Unlike the other men who lost themselves from nothing more than her gaze or scent, Varkas showed not even the slightest disturbance.
His eyes only looked utterly exhausted by her.
Talia suddenly felt the urge to drive the carefully sharpened nails she maintained every single ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) night straight into those icy eyes.
“From where you stand, I probably do look terribly low. But I still have a very long way to go before I reach the worst possible end.”
She stared directly into his eyes as she spoke.
There was a deep abyss lurking within them.
This man will push me into it soon enough.
Then before I fall, at the very least I’ll leave long claw marks across all of your futures.
That would only be fair.
Her dark blue eyes gleamed viciously with poison.
And as Varkas looked down at that malicious face, something dangerous surfaced within his own gaze as well.
They glared at one another as though they meant to kill each other.
Then a pitiful voice rose softly from behind him.
“Varkas.”
The man who had been staring at Talia as though he wanted to pierce straight through her immediately turned toward his fiancée.
Aila wore such a fragile expression that it could have broken the hearts of everyone watching.
Carefully tugging at Varkas’s cloak with her fingertips, she pleaded softly,
“I... want to change my clothes. Will you take me away from here?”
“...As you wish.”
Varkas wrapped one arm around Aila’s shoulders and turned away at once.
It was as though he had completely erased Talia’s existence from his mind.
Not once did his gaze return over his shoulder while he escorted his fiancée out of the banquet hall.
Talia felt the madness controlling her drain away all at once.
The emptiness it left behind was immediately filled with despair, pain, and jealousy.
But even while it felt as though her intestines were rotting apart inside her body, she still forced herself to appear composed.
As though she had won some great victory, Talia painted a proud smile across her face and walked toward the terrace where the food and alcohol had been laid out.
People scattered out of her way in droves, avoiding her like something foul.
Without caring in the slightest, she elegantly picked up a fresh wineglass.
But before she could even finish two sips, Count Serian — who had been watching the confrontation from afar — hurried over and snatched the glass away from her.
“You should leave the banquet immediately.”
“Why?”
Talia reached calmly toward a plate of pomegranates.
“Didn’t Her Highness the First Imperial Princess tell me to enjoy the banquet to my heart’s content? I haven’t enjoyed it nearly enough yet.”
“I admire Your Highness’s nerve, but there is currently a dangerous beast glaring at you from behind as though he might pounce at any moment.”
The count gestured subtly toward the Crown Prince.
As he said, Gareth looked ready to start a bloodbath on the spot.
Thick veins bulged violently across his sun-darkened neck, and the muscles along his tightly clenched jaw twitched faintly.
He was clearly suppressing his explosive temper by sheer force alone.
Ordinarily, Talia would have provoked her brother even further just to drive him into committing some horrifying act.
But she no longer had the strength for that.
Finally abandoning her bravado, Talia laid a hand atop Count Serian’s arm.
At a pace swift enough to escape yet slow enough not to look like fleeing, she left the banquet hall.
* * *
A carriage was already waiting in front of the garden.
The imperial guard knight opened the door as though he had been expecting her, and Talia stepped onto the carriage platform.
But just as she was about to sink into the soft seat, someone shoved her violently.
Talia collapsed onto the floor and looked upward.
Having brushed aside her guard knight, Gareth thrust himself into the carriage with murderous eyes.
“We’ve endured your existence for as long as we possibly could.”
Growling, he wrapped a rough calloused hand around her throat.
Unable to lay hands on the Crown Prince, the guard knight could only shout in panic, demanding to know what he thought he was doing.
Ignoring the knight’s frantic cries, Gareth tightened both hands around her neck even harder.
Instinctively, Talia kicked wildly and dug her nails into the back of her brother’s hand where the tendons bulged beneath the skin.
But rage had driven him beyond feeling pain.
Leaning close to her ear, Gareth spat the words viciously.
“We endured it. And endured it. And endured it again.”
The Crown Prince’s vivid green eyes blazed like flames.
“So you don’t need to provoke us any further, little sister. We already hate you more than enough...” freёwebnovel.com
At last Gareth released her throat and rose to his feet.
Talia clutched her neck with both hands and dragged in desperate breaths.
She kept coughing violently, making it difficult to breathe properly.
Her face flushed red as she gasped harshly for air when the Crown Prince’s sinister voice pierced through her ears.
“Remember this well. Your mother rampaging through the palace, and a filthy bastard like you running wild in the imperial palace... all of this is temporary.”
Then, almost kindly, he shut the carriage door himself before walking away.
As Talia staggered upright, she noticed that two of the nails she had carefully grown and polished had snapped off.
She frowned.
Sticky blood clung to the broken tips.
She gently stroked them with satisfaction before muttering in a hoarse voice,
“...I’ll have to grow them again.”
Next time, she would sharpen them even more.
Sharp enough to pierce all the way to the bone.
A faint laugh escaped her lips like air leaking from something deflated.
She did not even know why she was laughing. freewёbnoνel.com
The useless guard knight flung open the carriage door in panic to check whether she was unharmed, only to stare down at her with a devastated expression.
In his eyes, she probably looked insane.
Perhaps he was right.
I must have gone mad a very long time ago.
Lying sprawled across the dark carriage floor, she giggled to herself for a long while.
The entire imperial palace was in uproar.
In only a few days, the First Imperial Princess and the Crown Prince would depart on their pilgrimage.
It was a rite that every descendant of Darian — the great emperor who had unified the nations — was required to undergo upon reaching adulthood.
Women usually departed before marriage, while men embarked on the journey after turning twenty.
But because the Crown Prince insisted that two people born on the same day should naturally receive the blessings of the gods together, preparations were made for both of them to travel simultaneously.
And to escort the two figures who held the highest status in the empire beneath the Emperor and Empress themselves, an elite division of the imperial knights had been deployed.
Naturally, the one placed in command of the entire expedition was Varkas, commander of the imperial guard.
Because of that, Talia was often able to watch him moving busily through the castle courtyard from the windows of her detached palace.
Today as well, he stood beneath the dreary rain inspecting weapons, horses, and various travel supplies.
Leaning against the windowsill, Talia stared at him without blinking once.
As though checking the passage of time, Varkas lifted his head to look toward the sky.
The sight of silver rain softly washing over his face filled her vision completely.
The day she fell in love with him had been raining just like this.
Talia remembered that day.
