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.
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.