Talia's face twisted viciously as she struck him across the cheek.
“You insufferable bastard! Are you only satisfied when you're ruining everything for me?”
In the darkness, his blue eyes glimmered faintly.
Yet the face looking down at her remained as cold and composed as ever.
That unwavering self-control was unbearable.
Talia raked her nails across his cheek.
Without so much as a flinch, Varkas caught her wrist and surveyed the chaotic camp.
His icy gaze passed over the deathly pale maids, the startled knights, and finally the woman clutching her burned cheek and sobbing.
A dry sigh escaped him.
“Take her to a healer.”
Indicating the woman with a slight tilt of his chin, Varkas turned away.
Talia twisted violently in his grasp and shrieked.
“Who gave you permission?! She's a criminal! She should be beheaded immediately!”
People drawn by the commotion had gathered nearby.
She vaguely saw them whispering among themselves.
But dignity was the last thing she could afford to care about.
Her voice rang through the entire camp.
“You damned bastard! What kind of knight are you?!”
Varkas did not even blink.
Crossing between the tents without a word, he carried her directly into a pavilion and laid her upon a wide bed.
Talia was so consumed by her boiling rage that she failed to realize she had been brought into his personal quarters.
“You never protected me properly. Not once! Never! Never! You always stood by and watched while I was torn apart! You weren't even planning to save me this time, were you? You wanted me dead. That's why you left me there. That's why you didn't come for me immediately. I know it! I know everything!”
Ignoring her furious shouting, he pinned her wrist against the mattress and forcibly opened her hand.
Blood and clear fluid seeped from the angry burn covering her palm.
Frowning, Varkas reached for a small glass bottle from a nearby shelf.
The moment Talia saw him pouring an unfamiliar liquid onto her hand, she screamed.
“No! Don't! Leave me alone!”
Silently, he treated the wound.
Then he wrapped a clean white bandage around it.
Throughout the process, Talia repeatedly struck his shoulder with her free hand.
Eventually all strength drained from her body.
Her limbs fell limp.
Varkas looked down at her exhausted form with dry, unreadable eyes before slowly straightening.
“I'll bring a sedative.”
Half her face buried in the pillow, Talia lifted her gaze toward him while breathing heavily.
Varkas walked calmly toward a shelf installed along one side of the tent and began examining several bottles.
As she watched his straight back, another image overlapped it.
Varkas running toward Aila.
A burning pain swept through her chest.
Talia's voice emerged warped and bitter.
“The fact that I'm still alive must disgust you.”
His hand froze.
For a moment he stood perfectly still.
Then he turned his head.
Slowly.
So slowly it felt unnatural.
His face was refined to the point that every trace of emotion seemed to have been distilled away.
Something inside her shattered.
Talia smiled faintly.
A bleak smile.