Talia looked up at him with a tense face.
Just as he always had since leaving the Roem Knights, Varkas wore black iron armor with an eastern-style coat draped loosely over it.
His large body, thick with the scent of dry grass, filled her vision in an instant.
“How are you feeling?”
Removing his gauntlet, Varkas placed his hand on her forehead. Perhaps sensing the heat, a faint crease formed between his smooth brows.
“Your fever still hasn’t gone down.”
“...I’m fine. It isn’t as if this is the first or second day.”
Talia lowered her eyes with an uncomfortable expression.
Perhaps she had grown somewhat used to it now. She no longer startled every time he touched her as often as before, but the awkward, uneasy feeling could not be helped.
As she pointlessly tore at the hem of her dress, he removed the coat draped over his shoulders and wrapped it around her body. Then, as if it were only natural, he slid one arm beneath the backs of her knees and tried to lift her.
Talia immediately twisted aside and hugged her knees.
“Don’t! Are you trying to humiliate me even in front of your family?”
Varkas’s eyes narrowed. As though unable to understand, he tilted his head slightly to one side.
“Why is it humiliating for a husband to care for his wife?”
Talia stared at him, rendered speechless.
She had known long ago that this man was made entirely of duty. But she had not expected him to try to fulfill his responsibilities even in a marriage forced by the Emperor’s pressure.
She glared at him fiercely.
“Did Aila teach you that? That a husband should take care of his wife?”
At her sharp voice, his brows drew together.
After a brief pause, as though thinking something over, Varkas spoke dryly.
“Did we not swear so before the altar? That I would care for my wife as I care for my own body.”
“How funny. You don’t even cherish your own body.”
“...”
“And I have no intention of playing the role of an ‘obedient wife’ just because the priest babbled about it. So you should stop pretending to be a devoted husband, too.”
After snapping at him sharply, she staggered to her feet and tried to go outside, but Varkas approached from behind and snatched her up into his arms.
Talia glared at him with a surge of anger. But before she could lash out, Varkas spoke first.
“Do I look foolish enough to expect anything ‘obedient’ from you?”
“What is that supposed to mean...!”
“It means I expect nothing from you, so do as you please.”
He spoke dryly, adjusting her struggling body in one arm.
“I intend to do as I please as well.”
Then he pulled the hood attached to the cloak over her head and stepped lightly down from the carriage.
At the harsh sunlight stabbing into her eyes, Talia frowned.
When her vision, which had turned white for an instant, became clear again, unfamiliar faces looking at her with expressions mixed with wariness and curiosity entered her sight.
Talia flushed with shame.
Instead of displaying dignity befitting an imperial princess, she was being carried helplessly like a powerless child. Humiliation washed over her.
“So this is the woman who pushed aside the First Imperial Princess and took my brother’s place as wife?”
Just as she instinctively hid her face against his shoulder, a clear, androgynous voice reached her ears.
Talia turned around.
A boy with shaggy black hair and large golden-brown eyes was staring at her with his hands clasped behind his head.
Was he fifteen years old, perhaps?
His youthful face, still soft with traces of childhood, came right up before her.
The boy stared curiously at Talia, who was only peeking out with her eyes.
“Your eyes look just like lapis lazuli.”
Then, without warning, he reached over her head and tried to pull off her hood.
Frozen in shock at the rudeness she had never experienced before, Talia stiffened.
Varkas caught the boy’s wrist.
“Lucas.”
A voice startlingly cold rang out above her head.