“Bring me my coat.”
Her voice carried such unquestionable authority that the young maid, who had instinctively reached out to stop her, froze in place.
Talia coldly pressed her.
“Didn't you hear me tell you to bring my coat?”
Looking as though she were about to cry, the maid timidly returned carrying a thick overcoat.
Talia threw it over her loose linen dress and stepped outside.
The dim corridor stretched before her.
She limped forward.
A large shadow suddenly blocked her path.
“Where are you going?”
A young man clad in armor looked down at her with a solemn expression.
He was the guard who had begun standing outside her room like a jailer ever since the day she had secretly escaped the castle.
Fixing him with an icy stare, Talia mocked him.
“Did His Grace order you to keep me imprisoned inside my bedchamber?”
“His Grace ordered that I never take my eyes off Your Highness, the Grand Duchess, and that I protect you at all times.”
For a moment, Talia's expression darkened.
Then she arrogantly snapped back.
“Then follow those orders and escort me. Don't presume to stand in my way.”
She started toward the staircase.
The man stepped in front of her again.
“That depends entirely on where Your Highness intends to go.”
His gaze remained unwavering.
“You may go anywhere within the castle freely. However, if you intend to leave the grounds, you must first obtain His Grace's permission.”
Talia glared at him furiously.
The young soldier did not budge.
“I'll ask again.”
“Where do you intend to go?”
“I...”
She almost said that she intended to go to Varkas.
Then she closed her mouth.
She herself had been the one who pushed him away.
What could she possibly say if she chased after him now?
Was she going to selfishly demand that he remain silently by her side, even if it meant becoming even more politically isolated than he already was?
All her resolve drained away in an instant.
“I... want to go up onto the castle wall.”
The soldier frowned suspiciously before reluctantly stepping aside.
After all, he had just declared that she was free to go anywhere inside the castle.
He had no justification to stop her.
Talia descended the stairs without hesitation.
She could feel the maid and the guard quietly following behind her, but she never looked back.
As she crossed the vast inner courtyard, countless anxious eyes followed her, fearing that the Grand Duchess might suddenly flee beyond the castle walls again.
Ignoring them all, she climbed the rain-slick stone steps.
A gray grassland swallowed by a curtain of rain spread before her.
The soldiers' procession had long since disappeared.
She walked to the battlements and silently gazed across the windswept fields lashed by the storm.
Unable to bear the sight any longer, the maid cautiously spoke.
“Your Highness... at this rate you'll catch cold. Please come back inside...”
Talia quietly studied the girl's pale face, realizing she was standing in the rain only because of her.
Then she slowly turned toward the stairs.
At that moment—