17.
Talia shot a wary look at the boy, who stared up at her with clear, bright eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“I snuck out of the castle to see you, sister.”
The boy spoke with a lightness that felt brazen.
Talia frowned. Her young brother Asros, who had just turned six, was a constant thorn in her side. Though they shared the same parents, their circumstances were worlds apart. This boy with the innocent face was the legitimate child of the Emperor and Empress, while she was nothing but the fruit of a scandalous affair.
Watching Asros be baptized amidst a deluge of blessings, Talia had been consumed by a jealousy that felt like a serrated blade against her heart. She could not help but loathe the tiny, writhing lump of flesh that couldn’t even keep its eyes open.
The Empress, having keenly read such sentiments, had never allowed her eldest daughter—now of little use—to approach her precious son.
That was why Talia had only seen her brother’s face at official functions. This was the first time she had faced him this closely since the day of his baptism.
She knitted her brows and scanned her surroundings.
“Did you come all this way by yourself? If Mother finds out…”
“I didn’t come alone. I came with Berens.”
The boy spoke firmly, then turned to point toward one side of the corridor. Only then did Talia spot the man in black standing in a place heavily cast in shadow.
He was a man with a ghostly face who had once protected her. Now, he stood by Asros’s side, sending her a wary look that warned he would take immediate action should she attempt to cause the boy the slightest harm.
Bitter bile rose in her throat. The man’s dark eyes seemed to confirm that she could never be a person of consequence to anyone.
Concealing her twisted inner turmoil, Talia asked in a stiff tone.
“Why have you come to find me?”
“I heard that you will soon be going on a long journey, sister. So…”
“I am going on a long journey?”
Talia cut off her brother’s words with a shrill voice.
Startled by the sharp reaction, the boy faltered for a moment before cautiously continuing.
“Mother said that you would be joining this pilgrimage…”
Talia, who had been staring blankly down at her brother’s face, suddenly burst into harsh laughter. The boy flinched and took a step back. Even in the eyes of this innocent child, did she look like she had lost her mind?
Holding her stomach as she laughed, Talia leaned down toward her brother and asked in a deliberately soft tone.
“What else did Mother say?”
Asros hesitated for a long while. He seemed to have finally realized that he was putting his sister in a foul mood. However, the boy was not the type to cower and swallow his words just because someone was offended.
“She said you might be getting married soon. That a man named Count Cerian has submitted a marriage proposal…”
The boy, who had been speaking calmly, flinched and shut his mouth.
It seemed she had made a truly horrific expression. The man who had been watching silently from a distance stepped between Asros and her. Was he worried that she might lose her reason in her rage and strangle this young thing?
Talia ignored the man guarding against her and stared intently at her brother’s naive face.
“So, did you come to congratulate me? Since the Imperial family’s headache of a daughter is finally getting married and leaving the Imperial Palace, did you come to share a joyful farewell?”
Perhaps sensing the sharp thorns hidden in her soft voice, the boy’s shoulders trembled. He protested with a wronged expression.
“If you get married, sister, it will be harder to see you than it is now… so I wanted to talk to you before that happened. We are siblings who share the same mother.”
A faint longing took root in the boy’s voice.
“I always thought it would be nice if we could be close, like the First Imperial Princess and our older brother. But if you get married, sister, there might never be another chance. That’s why I came.”
Talia looked down at his large, expectant eyes without the slightest flicker of emotion.
Because of this boy, she had been relegated to a completely worthless existence. The Empress, the Emperor, and the lovely, brilliant prince born between them—she was nothing more than an unsightly stain they wished to erase from their perfect picture. The more Asros shone, the deeper the darkness surrounding her became.
It was miserable to realize she envied this child to the point of death. In truth, she hated even facing him.
Talia leveled a merciless sneer at the boy, whose eyes were shining with unwarranted hope.
“Just as the First Imperial Princess goes to great lengths to make her twin brother the Emperor, do you want me to throw my whole body into serving you?”
“That’s not what I meant—!”
“Even if you don’t ask, Mother has likely already planned how to use me for your sake. My marriage, too, must have been finalized because it benefits you. So, little brother, discard your useless expectations.”
Asros did not seem to have any defense against the blatant hostility directed at him. Just seeing his distraught expression told her how thoroughly protected this child had grown up. Perhaps he had never experienced the terror of spending the night in fear. She thought that perhaps today’s meeting might become his very first wound.
Talia wore a sharp smile on her lips.
“I have no intention, not even an ounce, of being your kind and devoted sister. I dislike you just as much as I dislike our other siblings.”
The boy’s large eyes welled up with tears from the shock. Talia added, merciless toward that pathetic face,
“Now that you understand, won’t you disappear?”
Asros, who bit his lip as if trying to swallow his tears, turned without delay and hurried out of the empty corridor. The man in black followed the boy and vanished without a sound.
Talia locked the door and walked back to the window. The sky, which had been tinted blue until just a moment ago, was fading into a pale purple. The laborers who had been busily moving luggage had left the manor to rest, and the knights were nowhere to be found, as if they had long since returned to their quarters.
Talia, who had habitually brought her index finger to her lips, paused at the stinging pain. Dark red blood was seeping out from under her torn nail. Seeing it, the venom that had been slowly leaking from her heart surged up to her throat.
Desperately swallowing a scream that felt like it would burst out at any moment, she grabbed a cloak hanging on one side of the room and draped it over her thin surcoat. Then, without even one maid in tow, she slipped out of the Annex Palace.