Free Web NovelAfter that day, Talia wandered through the rear gardens whenever she found the chance.
But even after a large elm tree was planted where she had found the dying bird, and the once desolate garden became crowded with brilliant flowers, she never saw him again.
Talia felt as though she had lost a treasure she had stumbled upon by accident.
She should have ignored the nanny when she called for her......
The father who had supposedly intended to see her never appeared that evening, and her mother did not look for her either.
Surrounded by cold-faced maids, Talia ate a tasteless dinner and regretted it the entire time.
I should have followed him.
For some reason, she felt that if she had begged hard enough, he would have reluctantly taken her with him. Whenever she lay beneath her cold blankets at night, she longed even more desperately for those large, warm hands that had once wrapped around her.
Perhaps he had merely been a fantasy born from her loneliness.
Just as Talia began sinking into that suspicion, the boy appeared before her once again.
No.
More accurately, Talia was the one who found him.
By then, the seasons had changed. She had become nine instead of eight, and blazing summer heat poured down from the sky in place of rain.
As Talia walked down the long corridor leading toward the Emperor’s private chambers, a loud cry from outside drew her attention toward a massive arched window.
In the broad training grounds washed white beneath the summer sunlight, apprentice knights dressed in black surcoats swung wooden swords through the air.
Though there were nearly thirty trainees gathered there, Talia’s gaze flew naturally toward him like a moth rushing toward flame.
His faded flaxen blond hair glimmered faintly silver beneath the fierce summer sun.
It was the first time she had seen him without his hood, but she recognized him instantly.
It was the boy who had appeared before her in the early spring rain.
She leaned farther over the windowsill to see him more clearly.
The blue-eyed boy moved with a sharp precision that clearly distinguished him from the other trainees.
Each time his long, supple limbs moved with graceful strength, it almost sounded as though the wind itself was being sliced apart.
“Do you know...... who that person is?”
The elderly attendant escorting her to the Emperor cast a casual glance toward the window.
“They are apprentice knights training to enter the Imperial Guard. Every one of them is the child of a distinguished noble house.”
He seemed utterly uninterested in whom she was actually asking about.
The attendant shot her a disapproving look as she lingered by the window.
“His Majesty is waiting. Please proceed.”
Reluctantly tearing herself away from the window, Talia continued down the tomb-like corridor.
It had been months since she entered the imperial palace, yet she felt nothing at the thought of meeting her biological father.
Even in the past, when she had watched the Emperor from afar during his visits to House Taren, she had never truly thought of him as her father.
The stern-faced man had shown little interest in her, and Talia herself had simply hated him for stealing her mother’s affection.
Nothing changed after she was officially entered into the imperial genealogy.
Stepping into the vast, luxurious chamber, Talia stared warily at the broad-shouldered man standing against the light.
Silence stretched between them.
Eventually, the man seated behind the desk large enough to resemble a fortress wall spoke without lifting his eyes from the parchment documents before him.
“From now on, you will learn the etiquette of the imperial family.”
Then he stamped a seal onto one of the papers.
Talia waited for him to raise his head and look at her.
But even after a long time passed, his gaze never reached her.
She could not understand it.
Why did a man who supposedly loved Senevier so passionately refuse even to look at the daughter who resembled her so perfectly?
The man scribbled something across the desk with his quill before continuing indifferently.
“I have gathered several exceptional instructors for you. From now on, come to the main palace before noon and attend your lessons. You will need to do your utmost to catch up on the education you have neglected until now.”
It did not seem as though he expected an answer.
The man waved one hand dismissively, signaling for her to leave, and the reunion between father and daughter—one that had taken place for the first time in a year—ended just like that.
Talia dragged herself back down the corridor, searching outside the windows for the boy.
But the training had apparently already ended. Only dazzling summer sunlight drifted across the empty grounds.
After that day, every time she went # Nоvеlight # to her lessons, she secretly watched him training in the courtyard.
She liked watching sweat gather faintly upon his face that resembled carved plaster, and seeing pale color rise to his usually bloodless cheeks after intense exercise.
Sometimes she even spoke to him silently in her head.
‘Say...... what happened to that bird? Did it die in the end? Did you bury it somewhere? Or did you let it fly far away after it recovered?’
She wanted to stand close to him again and speak while looking directly into his eyes like they had done together beneath the rain.
She wanted to see whether the silver crown was still hidden inside them.
That longing had become nearly unbearable.
She had pushed aside her history lesson entirely and was staring absently toward the training grounds when a dark shadow suddenly fell across her from behind.
Talia flinched and turned around.
Her mother, who had not shown herself even once for the past half month, stood there between light and shadow.
It was a face she had once seen every single day.
And yet, for one terrifying moment, Talia felt as though her heart had stopped.
Dressed with painstaking perfection befitting the dignity of an Empress, Senevier looked like the embodiment of every beauty human beings could possibly imagine.
Even the elven mages who frequently visited House Taren could not compare to her appearance.
“What were you looking at so intently?”
Senevier asked while gazing down at her daughter.
Talia stared blankly for a moment before abruptly coming back to her senses and hurriedly stepping away from the window.
For some reason, she did not want to speak about the boy.
But Senevier immediately seemed to realize what had occupied the end of her daughter’s gaze.
Turning toward the window, the Empress looked down at the tall blond boy below and smiled meaningfully.
“That is the son of the Grand Duke of Siorcan.”
Talia looked up at her in shock.
She had guessed he belonged to a noble family, but she had never imagined he came from such an extraordinary house.
The Empress’s deep blue eyes gleamed knowingly, as though she could see straight through her daughter’s thoughts.
“Do you want that child?”
Talia’s face flushed bright red, and she could not answer.
But merely seeing her expression seemed enough for Senevier.
The woman laughed softly in amusement before bending down to kiss her daughter on the cheek.
“If you truly want him, I could give him to you as a gift.”
The whisper sounded eerie, like wind blowing through a dark forest in the dead of night.
Straightening again, Senevier smiled with lips red enough to look painted in blood.
“But nothing is free. If you want a reward, you must first satisfy your parents.”
Hearing the faint note of reproach hidden in her voice, Talia hurriedly snatched up the history book she had carelessly abandoned on the windowsill. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Then she turned and ran.
She could feel Senevier’s gaze clinging to the back of her head like a spiderweb.
She had missed her mother every single night.
So why was she running away from her now?
When she saw her mother again, she had intended to throw a tantrum about how much she hated studying. She had intended to demand why Senevier would not stay beside her, to unleash every ounce of resentment and loneliness she had bottled up all this time.
But Senevier, now the Empress of the Empire, no longer felt like her mother.
She felt like something unfamiliar and frightening, something Talia no longer dared to cling to.
That night, Talia tossed and turned late into the darkness without falling asleep.
Even back at House Taren, she had never truly been happy. But then, at least, she still had Senevier beside her.
Rather than a mother, Senevier had been more like a closest friend or comrade-in-arms. Even if the entire world pointed fingers at them, the two of them together could endure it.
But now Senevier stood at the pinnacle of the Empire as its Empress, while Talia had been left completely alone among unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place.
Talia felt loneliness burrow all the way into her bones.
She desperately wanted someone to remain by her side.
If only someone would embrace her with warm arms and look at her gently, she felt as though she could give them absolutely everything.
That was why she finally decided to meet the boy she had only watched from afar.
