With an affectionate smile on her lips, the woman gently urged him on.
“There’s no need to worry. It’s safe here.”
Her voice sounded as though she were soothing a frightened animal.
He slowly stepped into the garden. After following her for a while, a marble pavilion (gazebo) appeared among the neatly trimmed shrubs.
On the long bench beneath it, two small children sat pressed close together, staring at him with large eyes.
The woman wrapped both arms around the children’s shoulders and said proudly.
“Say hello. These are my children. I suppose that makes them your younger relatives.”
Varkas approached the pavilion and silently looked down at the young brother and sister. Both had dark-colored hair and large eyes, but the impressions they gave were completely different.
The boy looked furious about something, while the girl with her hair tied into two pigtails looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.
He examined the girl’s tearful face with a puzzled gaze. Then the child’s plump cheeks twitched, and she suddenly let out a shrill wail.
“Aila.”
The woman hurriedly lifted her daughter into her arms and patted her small back.
As he stared blankly at the sight, something sticky struck his body with a wet splat.
He turned his head. The boy, his face darkened with rage, was grabbing pieces of soggy cake from the table and hurling them wildly.
“I hate you! Get out!”
“Gareth! What do you think you’re doing!”
At the woman’s shout, the maids waiting on one side of the garden rushed over, surrounded the boy, and began trying to calm him.
Covered in sticky lumps of sugar, he waited for the chaos to settle.
At last, when the girl’s crying subsided, the woman handed the young Imperial Princess to a maid and approached him.
“I’m truly sorry, Varkas.”
Then she took out a handkerchief and wiped the sugar syrup and cream from his face. Her dark eyes glistened with tears directly before his nose.
“What am I going to do? I’ll make sure Gareth is properly scolded.”
“......I’m all right.”
The woman seemed excessively apologetic, so he parted the lips he had kept firmly closed.
Her eyes widened in surprise, then curved into narrow crescents.
He found her reaction strange. What was she so pleased about?
“You’ve finally started speaking. I was worried you might never be able to speak for the rest of your life.”
He frowned. He had merely kept his mouth shut because he had felt no need to speak. He had not imagined she thought he had become mute.
“Now, follow me. I’ll give you some new clothes.”
With a guileless smile that made it difficult to believe she was the Empress of the Empire, the woman took his hand and pulled him along.
With every step he took after her, he saw his once-small shadow gradually lengthen. His formerly light footsteps also grew heavier little by little.
Before he knew it, he was standing in front of the door to a spacious bedroom, dressed in a surcoat embroidered with the crest of the Imperial Knights.
After straightening his clothes, he lightly knocked on the door with the back of his hand. A familiar voice soon came from inside.
“Come in.”
When he pulled the handle, the cozy bedroom decorated with aged wooden furniture and carpets unfolded before his eyes.
His gaze, sweeping around the room as he walked, stopped by the window.
The woman who had been sitting before the terrace and staring blankly into the garden turned toward him, a sickly smile appearing on her lips.
“Thank you for coming.”
At that moment, he smelled death.
“I heard you tried to take your own life.”
At the accusatory words he spat out, the smile vanished from the woman’s face. He added harshly while looking directly at that bloodless face.
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“Why I did it...... I don’t know either.”
The woman murmured with a vacant expression.
“Everyone says I did...... but honestly, I don’t remember anything. When I came to my senses, I was lying on the bed.”
Her empty eyes turned back toward the window.
“Why did I do it? Did I hope that person would regret it after seeing me dying? Or did I want him to realize my worth only after it was too late?”
The woman, murmuring as though speaking about someone else, let out a hollow laugh.
“The maids surrounded me and wailed their hearts out...... yet even then, I was searching only for his face. How foolish, isn’t it?”
He gave no reply.
Reading condemnation in his silence, the woman’s face crumpled as though collapsing.
“You could never understand me. When I first rescued you from that place, I felt so terribly sorry for you. I wanted to heal you somehow, after you had become unable to feel anything.”
“.......”
“But now...... I envy you so much.”