“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.