36.
The woman’s eyes flashed with rage as she spat out every word through clenched teeth.
“Does my voice sound like a joke to you, too?”
Under the fierce pressure radiating from her, he instinctively took a step back.
Trembling within her slight, slender frame, the Imperial Princess shrieked, her voice rising to a frantic pitch.
“How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone? Is my word that laughable to you?”
“I was simply worried that Your Highness might collapse, so I brought some food.”
Caught off guard by the barrage, Edrick protested with an aggrieved expression.
The Imperial Princess scoffed at him, openly and shamelessly, to his face.
“Why would a pathetic thing like you worry about me?”
“I am Your Highness’s Imperial Guard. It is my duty to serve and protect you…!”
The woman suddenly burst into laughter.
His face flushed a deep red. Never in his life had he been mocked so blatantly, and he had no idea how to react.
Looking down at him with disdain, the woman continued, her voice cold and measured.
“You must think I’m a total fool. Do you really believe I don’t know that the Roem Knights are nothing more than the Crown Prince’s pet dogs?”
His expression hardened.
She looked at the basket in his hands with contempt and added, “How am I supposed to know what’s inside that? Why would you want me to suffer such a foul fate?”
“I am a Knight!”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Edrick raised his voice. Humiliated in a way he had never been before, heat rose to the tips of his ears.
“Your Highness’s words are an insult not just to me, but to the entire Imperial Knights! We swore before the gods to protect the Imperial Family. There is no way we would ever cause you harm…!”
“You think I’d believe that?”
He stood speechless, staring at the Imperial Princess’s face, which remained as cold as a shard of ice.
Wiping away the smile that had lingered on her lips, she snapped, “If you want to fawn over someone, go to my half-brothers. I have no need for it.”
With that, she ended the conversation by slamming the door shut with a resounding bang.
He tightened his grip on the basket. If he didn’t, he felt he might tear the door open and scream at her to stop being so stubborn.
Glaring at the carriage door with simmering eyes, Edrick eventually turned away.
He had done what he could. He had no desire to persuade a woman who publicly insulted and antagonized him at every turn.
Edrick tossed the basket onto a shelf set up in front of the common barracks and walked toward the mess area.
The knights were already gathered in the field, eating their meal.
Edrick squeezed in among his peers, piled his plate high, and began to shovel the food into his mouth. All the while, he muttered to himself that it was none of his business whether that nasty woman starved or not.
* * *
Talia, who had been tossing and turning in the darkness, carefully sat up.
As she pulled back the window curtain, she could see a few lanterns held by the sentries glowing faintly in the dark. Everything else was buried in pitch-black shadow.
Looking up at the sky where even the moon had yet to rise, Talia cautiously stepped out of the carriage.
Having survived for days on only a few pieces of bread and honey-soaked fruit, her limbs felt heavy and weak. A thought crossed her mind that perhaps it would have been better to eat the food that foolish knight had brought.
He didn’t seem intelligent enough to scheme; perhaps she had been overly cautious.
Recalling the knight’s naive face, Talia quickly pushed the thought from her mind.
Had she not learned that the people who approached with harmless faces were the very ones one should never trust? He might have been waiting to catch her off guard before committing some horrible act.
Keeping a watchful, wary eye on the sentries near the fence, she stepped forward with caution.
Her eyes, now adjusted to the dark, vaguely made out the triangular shapes of the tent roofs, the long line of supply wagons, and the silhouettes of horses.
Taking care not to trip over any stones, she moved carefully between the tents. She felt the wind blowing from the hill, snaking through the folds of her dress.
The deep, raw scent of grass mingled with the smell of charred firewood tickled her nose. Talia relied on her senses to creep through the darkness.
Eventually, she found the quarters of her own attendants. After squinting for a long time to confirm she had found the right place, Talia groped her way up onto the nearest supply wagon. She curled into a ball between the piled-up luggage and stared fixedly at the entrance of the tent. She was determined to see if the spy her mother had planted would make a move tonight.
She clutched her knees, watching the darkness without blinking.
Occasionally, she could hear soldiers snoring or grinding their teeth. The sound of horses snorting and the chirping of crickets reached her ears. She hadn’t realized the night was so noisy.
She tried to calm her nerves, which were pulled taut to the point of pain, counting the passing seconds in agony.
How long had she been holding her breath like that? The pitch-black sky began to brighten into a deep navy blue. It seemed this night would pass quietly after all.
She moved her stiff body, stretching out her joints. Her bones seemed to click and pop with every movement.
As she massaged her aching limbs and stifled a groan, she saw a dark shadow emerge from inside the tent.
She narrowed her eyes.
Because of the darkness, she couldn’t make out a face, but it was clearly a slender woman.
Talia managed to get her creaking body up and followed the shadow.
After walking for a while alongside the long line of carriages, Aila’s carriage came into view. Talia rubbed her damp, sweat-slicked palms against her dress.
How wonderful it would be if the woman slipped into that carriage. If she could do what needed to be done in her stead.
She watched the woman’s back with desperate hope. But the woman bypassed Aila’s carriage and moved toward the end of the long campsite. As Talia shifted her gaze to that spot, her expression hardened. The flag of the Siorcan Family, embroidered with the emblem of the black stallion, was fluttering in front of a tent.
She scrambled toward it in a panic. But in the moment she had looked away, the woman had already vanished.
Searching frantically between the tents, Talia looked at the entrance of the barracks, hardly daring to believe it.
‘Did she… go in there?’
Her heart sank.
If Aila and Varkas were to be wed, Gareth’s position would only grow more secure.
The Siorcan Family held powerful influence not only in the East but in the North as well. If Aila became the Grand Duchess Siorcan, Gareth would effectively have the noble coalition behind him. There was every possibility that they had decided to eliminate Varkas to prevent such a scenario.
Thinking that far, Talia rushed into Varkas’s tent as if chased by something. She was incapable of rational thought.
Talia hurriedly searched the dark interior of the tent and pulled back the partition in the center.
The bed was empty. Since he was a man who started his daily routine before the dawn broke, he was likely inspecting the camp or checking on Torque’s condition.
That thought crossed her mind, but the anxiety did not easily subside.
She groped around the empty bed, checking for any trace of blood. Then, hearing heavy footsteps, she jerked her head up. She saw a man with a large frame standing tall in front of the tent.
Thinking it was Varkas, Talia hurried toward him, only to stop short, startled. Gareth, dressed in light attire, was looking at her with wide, surprised eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
He raised his brows sharply and raked his eyes over her from head to toe.