How long had she remained like that?
Eventually, she sensed another presence besides her own.
Talia jerked her head up.
Varkas stood silently near the doorway.
As always, he looked perfectly composed and elegant, without the slightest disorder.
“You will never see that man again.”
He spoke flatly.
Talia blinked blankly before asking in a trembling voice,
“......Did you kill him?”
A faint crease formed between Varkas’s brows.
After a brief silence, he spoke again.
“He will be permanently exiled. For the rest of his life, he will never be able to set foot in the capital or any major city—”
At that moment, the final thread of her reason snapped completely.
Talia snatched up a pillow and hurled it directly at him.
“Why?! Why did you let him live?! You should’ve killed him! You should’ve slaughtered him horribly! You should’ve cut off those filthy hands that touched me......! That disgusting tongue that violated me......!”
Talia screamed wildly like a madwoman before suddenly clutching at her throat as her shoulders began trembling violently.
A suffocating pressure seized her, as though invisible hands were choking the life out of her.
“If you let him live, he’ll come back...... he’ll come back and trample me again. He’ll try to dirty me again. H-He said it himself. That he couldn’t stop searching for me...... over and over...... like some addiction.......”
A violent sob tore suddenly from her constricted throat.
Talia covered her tear-distorted face with both hands, gasping harshly for breath. Then, like someone possessed, she began throwing anything she could grab at him.
“Useless bastard! I don’t need someone like you! Get out! Get out of here! Get out of my sight—!”
As she wildly hurled books and dolls across the room, Talia suddenly froze.
The candlestick she had snatched without thinking flew straight toward him.
The heavy metal object scraped violently across Varkas’s forehead and temple before crashing loudly onto the floor.
Talia stared in shock as dark crimson blood trickled down his pale cheek and neck.
Ah......
Ah......
A strange, broken sound escaped her throat.
Varkas looked down at her with cold eyes before slowly turning away.
At that moment, an icy chill spread through her entire body, as though freezing water had been poured over her head.
Talia hurriedly jumped off the bed to stop him.
But Varkas had already left the room.
Talia stared blankly at the darkened hallway beyond the doorway before collapsing weakly to the floor.
She wanted to sink straight into the earth and disappear.
Varkas had saved her.
And she had turned him into the target of her rage.
How could he not feel disgust toward her?
How could he not grow sick of her?
Burying her horribly twisted face against the carpet, Talia wept bitterly.
After that day, Varkas no longer appeared before her.
Only several months later did Talia see him again, during the ceremony appointing him commander of the Imperial Knights.
From afar, she watched him kneel on one knee before the Emperor and recite the oath of loyalty in a calm voice.
Her father drew the imperial sword and rested it upon Varkas’s shoulder before solemnly declaring him the new head of the Imperial Guard.
It was an enormous burden for someone barely twenty years old.
And yet not a single person questioned whether he was worthy of the position.
Varkas slowly turned and descended the stairs.
Sunlight pouring through the stained glass windows cascaded over his composed face like a storm of gold.
Talia engraved every detail of that moment into her memory.
Varkas walked straight through the crowd with his back perfectly upright.
That cold profile passed by her without even a glance.
Staring at the back growing farther and farther beyond the reach of her hands, she quietly whispered,
Goodbye.
Then, without realizing it, she added softly,
Don’t go.
A sudden rush of tears threatened to spill over, and Talia frowned deeply.
Soon, his figure disappeared entirely from sight.
The boy her mother had gifted her seven years ago left her side like that.