TFM 62

Chapter 62

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An ant must have crawled inside her eyelid while she was sleeping.

Tormented by an unpleasant, stinging sensation at the back of her eye, Talia fixed her gaze on her half-sister.

As always, she was looking down at her with an air of flawless elegance.

Facing that haughty expression, her already stinging eyes felt as if they were burning.

Talia clutched the blanket tightly like a shield and shot her a sharp glare.

“Did you come to gawk? If you have something to say, just say it and get out.”

“......How are you feeling?”

“How do I feel?”

At her sarcastic retort, the pale green eyes slowly scanned her from head to toe.

“You don’t look well.”

Talia’s lips tightened into a firm line.

Her fingertips began to tremble. If her legs had been in working order, she would have grabbed the woman by the hair and thrown her out the door on the spot.

Suppressing the rage welling up inside her, she managed to squeeze out a calm voice.

“Now that you’ve seen me, would you mind leaving? You’re making me feel even worse.”

Ayla’s lips pressed tightly together.

The longer the silence dragged on, the more her nerves frayed. As the pain she had barely managed to subdue began to creep up through her bones, Talia raised her voice.

“Can’t you hear me telling you to leave?”

“I told you I have something I want to talk about.”

Ayla blurted out, sounding somewhat anxious.

Talia glared at her through narrowed eyes.

“Then just spit it out and get out. Just seeing your face makes my stomach churn. And I’m supposed to put up with you and wait for you? Don’t make me laugh. Either tell me what you want right now, or get out of my sight!”

As if startled by the fierce hostility pouring out of her, Ayla’s face visibly stiffened.

She shot her a cold glance and said,

“Fine. I’ll tell you what I’m here for. I came because I’m curious about what you plan to do next.”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

Talia asked back dismissively.

Her headache was getting worse by the minute. It felt as though the ants gnawing behind her eyes had now burrowed deep into her skull. The stinging pain spread all the way to the back of her head.

While all her attention was focused there, Ayla kept babbling on.

“Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Am I a mind reader? How could I know something you haven’t said?”

“You………!”

Ayla’s voice rose slightly.

Talia turned her head and frowned at her half-sister’s face, contorted with humiliation.

Ayla took a moment to catch her breath, as if struggling to maintain her composure, then continued in a much calmer voice.

“I want to ask if you really intend to marry that man.”

Talia offered no reply, merely staring intently at her face.

It seemed that now it was Ayla, not Talia, who could no longer bear the silence.

She continued anxiously.

“You hate Varkas, don’t you? After tormenting him like that since we were children, you’re not seriously planning to become his wife now, are you?”

At the look in her eyes, as if seeking her approval, a hollow laugh escaped her, like air escaping from a deflating balloon.

Ayla’s lips tightened into a stiff line.

Seeing that agonized expression, the laughter that had been escaping intermittently grew increasingly raucous.

Forgetting the splitting headache and the tingling pain shooting up her legs, Talia clutched her stomach and roared with laughter.

“So, you ran here because you were scared, huh?”

Ayla’s face had turned as white as chalk.

Gazing at her face as if admiring it, Talia continued softly.

“I suppose you were so worried I’d steal your fiancé that it felt like your insides were burning up?”

“….”

“But what can I do? When you act like that, it just makes me want to take him away from you by any means necessary.”

Ayla’s lovely face twisted into an even more ferocious expression. Even her eyes, which had once resembled fresh evergreen trees, filled with venom.

Talia was overcome by a strange sense of elation.

This was the older sister who had always looked down on her with an impeccable expression. And now, that very sister was finally revealing her raw emotions.

“He’s only agreeing to marry you out of a sense of duty.”

She shouted in an impatient voice.

“He’s just feeling guilty about the state you’re in! But it’s not his fault you’re injured. So why should Varkas have to make such a sacrifice?”

Talia wiped the smile from her lips.

The pleasant feeling vanished in an instant, replaced by a freezing rage. Her fingers itched to tear out the tongue that was chattering away as if it were Varkas’s spokesperson.

Talia swallowed the curse words creeping up her throat and forced out a feigned, gentle voice.

“I thought you were a smarter person than this. But you’re dumber than I expected.”

Ayla’s lips froze tight.

Talia continued slowly.

“That’s not what you should be saying to me right now. You need to ask me politely and earnestly.”

“….”

“Please, don’t marry Varkas Raedgo Shiokan.”

Ayla’s eyes twitched violently.

As she stared at that face, contorted with humiliation, with a look of malice in her eyes, Ayla, who had been moistening her lips, managed to force the words out.

“If I ask you, will you refuse to marry him?”

“I don’t know.”

Talia replied half-heartedly.

“Doesn’t that depend on how desperate the person asking appears to be?"

Ayla bit her lip and stared at the floor. It seemed she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

After a suffocating silence, Ayla finally looked up at her with a desperate expression. Immediately afterward, a pitiful voice poured out from between her beautifully shaped pink lips.

“I’m begging you, please refuse to marry Varkas. If you don’t agree, His Majesty won’t push the matter either. So please………."

As if she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence, her voice shattered and faded away.

Talia looked up at that pitiful face and swallowed a bitter sneer.

Right now, this woman must think she’s given up something truly great.

Namely, her pride as a princess.

Since she, a noble princess, had bowed down to a worthless bastard, she must believe she deserved a reward.

Talia lowered her gaze to her legs, hidden beneath the blanket.

It was only after things had come to this that she could even be considered as his bride.

Yet this woman believed she could win him back simply by offering up a handful of her own petty pride.

To this woman, Talia Roem Guirta’s legs were worth less than her own pride.

Talia blurted out suddenly.

“Fine.”

The color returned to Ayla’s face.

Talia, who had been quietly observing her face, calmly added.

“But there’s a condition.”

“A condition?”

A look of wariness flashed across Ayla’s face.

Talia turned her head to look at the shelf. On a tray holding fruit, bread, and butter, there were a few pieces of silverware.

Talia picked up a small knife used for cutting butter and tossed it in front of her half-sister.

The silver blade slid to her feet. Looking down at Ayla, who was staring blankly at it, Talia spoke softly.

"Use that to stab your leg."

“…?”

Ayla looked at her with an expression as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

Meeting those dazed eyes head-on, she spoke each word with emphasis.

“Use that to scar your leg. Like this……………….”

Talia slowly pulled back the blanket. Her wide eyes fixed on the hideously swollen scar.

Right before her eyes, as if to show off, Talia ran her fingertips up the long, gruesome mark that started at her shin.

“From here…… all the way to here, you’re going to cut a long gash with that knife. Then, I’ll do as you say.”

Ayla glanced back and forth between the knife lying on the floor and her own leg, wrapped in the velvet dress. Her eyelids twitched violently.

Soon, a cold sneer escaped her bloodless lips.

“From the very beginning, you never had the slightest intention of listening to me.”

Talia said nothing in reply.

Immediately afterward, the mask of the princess was superimposed over Ayla’s face.

As if to say she had never shown a trace of servility, Ayla held her head high and took a step toward the door. Thud, thud—the steady footsteps came to an abrupt halt at the entrance to the bedroom.

Ayla gripped the doorknob and turned to face her. Her swamp-like eyes emitted a chilling glow.

“You will surely come to regret what happened today, Talia Roem Guirta.”

Spitting out the words like a curse, Ayla walked out the door and added coldly.

“Definitely.”