Talia violently twisted her wrist, trying to wrench it free from his grip.
The smooth, expressionless face that had resembled a mask contorted with terrifying brutality.
"I'm asking you where you were trying to go."
Yanking her toward him, Varkas growled the words directly into her face.
Talia glared back with undisguised hostility.
Her cramped leg screamed with sharp pain, yet she forced herself to maintain an expression of complete composure.
"What does it matter where I was going?"
At that instant, she realized she had finally exhausted every last shred of his patience.
A harsh sound, like a broken brass instrument, escaped the thick vein bulging in his neck.
"Do you have any idea..."
His powerful fingers dug painfully into her skin.
Gripping her shoulder tightly with his other hand, he emphasized every single word as though carving them into her mind.
"...how dangerous what you did today really was?"
"If some filthy vagrant or criminal had found you first..."
His grip tightened.
"...did you even imagine what they would have done to you?"
Talia fought with everything she had not to shrink away.
Crushing that effort beneath his heel, he continued mercilessly.
"Rape. Murder. Robbery..."
His voice remained frighteningly calm.
"The fact that none of those happened before I found you is nothing short of a miracle."
"Stop exaggerating. I was only wandering around for half a day..."
"Exaggerating?"
Something sharp rose °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° within his eyes.
The irregular silver flecks scattered through his irises looked like the fangs of some monstrous beast.
"Are you pretending not to know..."
His voice became utterly ruthless.
"...or are you truly such a fool that you can't even tell the way people look at you?"
Like a man determined to humiliate someone beyond recovery, he showed no mercy.
"Do you honestly think you could survive even a single day outside these castle walls?"
"Let go!"
"Let's say, by some unbelievable stroke of luck, you somehow made it through one night unharmed. Then what? What exactly were you planning to do after that? You can barely walk for a few hours before you're writhing in pain—"
"I said let go!"
A sharp crack rang through the room.
A searing burn exploded across her palm.
Only then did she realize...
...that she had slapped him across the face.
Talia stared blankly at the vivid handprint left on his cheek.
Then her face slowly twisted.
Rough, ragged breaths scraped their way up her throat.
"You said it yourself."
Her voice broke into fragments.
"This body can't even walk properly..."
She laughed bitterly.
"So what does it matter what happens to me?"
His grip tightened even harder.
Something violent flickered within his fractured gaze.
It was the first time she had ever seen him so furious.
Oddly enough...
...her fear gradually disappeared.