Talia could no longer suppress her boiling anger and snatched up a pillow, throwing it at him.
“Then say what you want to say! Stop making my blood dry up!”
The feather-filled sack struck the back of his head with a dull thump. Varkas, who had been opening bottles from the shelf and checking them one by one, cast a cold glance over his shoulder.
Talia shrank her neck and pressed herself tightly against the headboard. She tensed, waiting for whatever retaliation might come, but after letting out a quiet sigh, Varkas knelt beside the bed.
“Give me your hand.”
Talia only blinked blankly.
He pulled her hand toward him and held it up to the light. The skin of her palm was swollen and red.
Clicking his tongue, Varkas poured a sticky liquid over her hand. The burning sensation made Talia reflexively pull her arm away, but with her wrist firmly caught in his grip, she could not move at all.
She glared at him irritably.
“What are you doing?!”
“It works well on bruises.”
Replying curtly, Varkas spread the medicine evenly over her palm.
The strange sensation made Talia curl her toes. Every time his long, elegant fingers rubbed the swollen skin, a tingling feeling spread through her. Feeling heat rising to her ears, she twisted her arm.
“I-it's fine now.”
“Stay still.”
His voice, lower than usual, ran down her spine.
She looked at him uneasily before lowering her eyes again. He slowly traced the faint lines carved into her palm.
Is this really treatment?
The way his fingers persistently followed every line of her hand felt oddly unsettling.
“You've bruised your wrist.”
Suddenly, his voice dropped another note.
Talia swallowed with difficulty through her constricted throat.
She had no idea why her insides had suddenly shrunk in fear.
Sneaking glances at him, she finally put more strength into her arm and pulled free from his grasp.
“That's enough, so get out of my room.”
Turning her back on him, she lay down—
Only to find herself spun around again.
Startled, Talia looked up at him.
Bending over her, Varkas asked in a tone that sounded almost like an interrogation.
“Why did you come to the banquet today?”
She twisted her face.
So that was why he was so angry.
Sending him a poisonous glare, she asked mockingly,
“Why? Am I not allowed to go to a banquet?”
“......”
“You said it yourself. You said I'm the highest-ranking person in this castle. Then why do you want me locked up like a prisoner?”
“......You were the one who avoided appearing in front of people.”
“And do you really not know why I avoid it?”
Suddenly, the resentment she had buried deep inside rose to the surface.
Shoving his shoulder roughly, Talia wrapped both arms around her knees and glared at him accusingly.
“It's because I've become this miserable thing!”
A dark shadow crossed his eyes.
Like a moneylender demanding repayment, she barked at him.
“But even if I find myself shameful, you mustn't. Even if I choose to hide myself, you shouldn't try to hide me too!”
The tendons stood out in his throat.
His face was one of someone desperately gathering his patience.
That expression, the one that showed him swallowing everything down and enduring her, twisted her insides even more.
Talia grabbed the remaining pillow and swung it at him. Varkas slightly narrowed one eye. Smacking him repeatedly with the pillow, she hurled accusations.
“You ask why I went to the banquet? I went because I wanted to hear what they were saying about me behind my back! I need to know what they're saying about my treatment if I'm going to find a way to survive! That's why instead of dressing up in gowns, I wrapped myself up in robes like a rat and crawled in there!”
He caught the flying pillow and shoved her back onto the bed.