TFM 110

Chapter 110

***

"Since this was caused by a healer from the Shiokan family, I suppose this is the least we can do."

Lucas’s expression darkened. Thinking of Tiuran, who was currently confined to a solitary cell, a pang of sadness welled up inside him.

“What kind of punishment do you think Tiuran will receive?”

“Well, since Her Highness has awakened safely, I suppose it will be limited to imprisonment.”

Daren replied in a nonchalant tone.

“That woman has been incredibly lucky. If Her Highness the Grand Duchess’s condition had been more serious, she would have been sent to the gallows.”

Lucas frowned, feeling uneasy.

Tiuran had been a retainer who had served the Shiokan family loyally for over a decade. He felt a slight pang of resentment toward Daren, who spoke of her death as if it were nothing.

“This happened because she was too frail. Do we really have to punish her that harshly?”

“Young Master Lucas.”

A warning note crept into Daren’s voice.

Daren tossed a leather pouch filled with silver coins to the peddler as if discarding it, then dragged Lucas to a secluded corner of the hall.

“I am well aware that you harbor resentment toward Her Highness the Grand Duchess. But please stop openly displaying your hostility.”

“I’m not really…”

“Aren’t you more concerned about the status of a mere healer than Her Highness the Grand Duchess’s health?”

He said reproachfully.

“She is His Imperial Majesty’s daughter and the mistress of this eastern region. By the letter of the law, merely causing her harm would warrant the death penalty. The fact that the healer’s punishment was limited to house arrest is an act of great leniency.”

Lucas stared intently at Daren’s face.

“Are you acknowledging the Second Princess as the mistress of this region?”

“What does it matter whether I acknowledge her or not? That’s already the reality.”

Daren shrugged his broad shoulders as he spoke.

“We can’t very well call off the marriage arranged by His Imperial Majesty at this point, can we? Whether we like it or not, we have no choice but to accept it. Right now, strengthening unity in the East is the more important issue.”

Lucas met Daren’s serious gaze with a heavy heart.

While touring various regions of the East with Varkas, he, too, had come to realize something.

The local leaders in each region were so preoccupied with consolidating their own power that they neglected public order, and as a result, marauders were running rampant throughout the East.

There were capable administrators as well, but even they seemed to adopt an attitude of subtle caution rather than offering unconditional loyalty to the new Grand Duke.

Just as Tyron had warned, order in the East was silently crumbling. Perhaps he should count himself lucky that a powerful new leader like Varkas had emerged.

Having reached this unwelcome conclusion, Lucas lowered his defiant gaze with a heavy heart.

“I know that.”

Still, he didn’t want to be treated like a docile child, so he added sharply,

“I just need to behave myself while my brother is cracking down on the Eastern nobles.”

“Please, just do that.”

Daren growled like a bear.

Lucas didn’t back down, flashing a sarcastic smile.

“I’m already doing that. Haven’t you seen how you’re scurrying around like a sewer rat to avoid running into that woman? I’ve even bowing low in front of my older brother.”

Apparently not entirely convinced, Daren raised his thick eyebrows.

With his arms crossed over his chest, he hunched his back and shot him a threatening glare.

“That’s not enough. Please show proper respect to the Grand Duke and Duchess even in official settings. If the young master continues to use such rude language, discipline in the Eastern Region will………………”

“I get it. I get it. So just stop nagging me.”

Lucas, fed up, hurried up the stairs.

Over the railing, he could see Daren glaring at him menacingly.

He snorted derisively at Daren, as if to taunt him, and sprinted down the hallway. Then, spotting a group of maids, he came to a sudden halt.

The Grand Duchess’s attendants were carefully carrying trays laden with dozens of dishes.

‘She’s acting just like a queen.’

Lucas, who had been curling his lips in a sneer, suddenly frowned.

He couldn’t figure out why he harbored such hostility toward that woman. Come to think of it, hadn’t he been the one to cross the line first?

He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Lucas was well aware that he had been despicable.

Yet whenever he recalled the moment he’d argued with her, irrational anger welled up before any sense of guilt. Perhaps it was because of the way she’d looked at him.

‘…It was as if she were looking at a bug.’

The moment he met her gaze—as if she were looking at the most repulsive thing in the world—he was overcome by a hideous impulse he’d never felt before in his life.

He wanted to crush that arrogant woman. He wanted to make her cry her eyes out.

Such a base desire boiled up in his blood, and he couldn’t control himself.

As Lucas reflected on that intense impulse, he felt a wave of nausea wash over him and turned away. A terrible realization flashed through his mind: it seemed that Varkas’s warning wasn’t the only reason he was avoiding her.

He felt as though getting close to her would force him to confront something filthy within himself—something he never wanted to face.

As if to shake off that unsettling premonition, he hurried out of the dimly lit hallway.

***

“Just one more bite.”

Talia stared at the man holding out his spoon as if he were a two-headed monster.

Could it be that an evil nightmare demon had taken over Varkas’s body and was impersonating him?

Whether or not he was aware that she was observing him with such suspicion, the man urged her on in his characteristic flat tone.

“What are you doing if you’re not going to eat?”

“………………Fine. I’m done eating.”

“Just one more spoonful.”

“I said no.”

As she sharply turned her head to avoid the spoon hovering near her lips like an annoying fly, he cupped her chin with his other hand.

With her head forcibly turned, Talia glared at him, her face flushed.

But Varkas didn’t bat an eye.

“If you just eat this, I’ll let you have the fruit Your Highness loves for dessert.”

“That’s ridiculous! I don’t want to eat any of this or that…!”

The spoon slid between her parted lips as she tried to protest.

Talia’s eyes widened in disbelief.

As if urging her to swallow quickly, he pressed the spoon down against the tip of her tongue.

In the end, she gulped down the mushy mess. The dreadful sensation of the slimy porridge sliding down her throat made her face contort in disgust.

She shot him a fierce glare.

Regardless, Varkas rose from his seat with a relaxed expression and cleared away the bowl.

His actions were so natural that a different suspicion began to surface.

He was a man who had spent his entire life being waited on by others. How could a man who had never bowed his head to anyone other than royalty be so skilled at serving meals?

“Have you ever fed someone else before?”

Talia narrowed her eyes and suddenly pressed him.

Varkas, who had been arranging the bowls of food on a tray, cast an indifferent glance over his shoulder.

A matter-of-fact reply followed shortly after.

“Yes.”

Talia froze in shock, but the next moment, her eyes flashed with fury. It felt as if all the food she’d forced down her throat was about to come rushing back up.

She forced a smile onto her contorted face.

“That’s too bad. To have abandoned a fiancee who was so devoted to you, only to end up as a nurse by the side of a woman like me…………….”

“Her Royal Highness the First Princess was not someone who required this much attention.”

Varkas, who had set the tray by the doorway, remarked indifferently.

“It wasn’t a person I fed—it was a horse. When Torq was a foal, he required even more care than Your Highness.”

Talia looked utterly dumbfounded.

She couldn’t decide whether she should feel relieved by his words or get angry.