TFM 112

Chapter 112

***

Talia instinctively scanned Varkas’s expression.

A dry wind swept across his cold face, which betrayed not a single trace of emotion.

After gazing up at the sun, shrouded in a thin veil of clouds as if gauging the time, Varkas cast a calm glance at his aide.

“Tell the Wolfram Cavalry to hurry and prepare to depart.”

“Understood.”

As Daren withdrew, Varkas turned away without hesitation.

Talia licked her lips, unsure of what to say.

Should she comfort him?

But Varkas truly seemed unfazed. Perhaps that was only natural. He had been sent to the capital when he was barely five years old. It was unlikely he had ever felt any affection for his father.

“It seems I must depart today, whether I like it or not. How are you feeling?”

Varkas, having stepped into the hall, suddenly asked the question.

Talia replied in a tense tone.

“I’ve had a few days of rest, so I’m fine now.”

“You haven’t fully recovered yet.”

Suddenly, his voice hardened.

“Traveling such a long distance while still unwell must be a heavy burden. Please let me know immediately if your condition worsens.”

After gauging his reaction for a moment, Talia nodded weakly.

He climbed the stairs at a pace that was neither slow nor fast. Through the window in the hallway, she could see an overcast sky. It occurred to her that it might rain during the funeral.

***

The return journey went smoothly.

After riding diligently across the open fields, they arrived at Raedgo Castle two days ahead of schedule.

As soon as the gatekeeper spotted them in the distance and blew his trumpet loudly, the drawbridge was lowered. The Wolfram Cavalry passed through the castle gates without delay.

“Welcome!”

As they entered the courtyard, the servants who had been waiting there immediately surrounded Varkas.

Talia, who was watching the scene from the window, smoothed out her clothes and stepped outside.

The maids lined up at the entrance to the hall came down the stairs to greet her.

“Thank you for your hard work on this long journey.”

The head maid spoke on behalf of the group. Talia responded with a mere nod of her chin and stepped closer to Varkas.

Varkas, who had been receiving a report from the butler, gave her a careful once-over.

“It seems I must see my father at once. Will Your Highness accompany me?”

Talia hesitated for a moment. To be honest, she didn’t want to face that eccentric old man ever again. But she didn’t want to leave Varkas alone either—even though she knew he felt no sorrow.

“…I’ll go with you.”

Perhaps taken aback by her unexpected reply, Varkas, who had been silently gazing down at her for a moment, nodded toward his younger brother standing at a distance.

“You come too.”

Lucas, who had been standing motionless with a somber expression, mechanically obeyed his brother’s order. Talia consciously averted her gaze from Lucas as she followed Varkas.

As she dragged her stiff legs and barely made it inside the castle, the scent of myrrh, frankincense, and sandalwood stung her nose. These were all incense burned for patients on their deathbeds.

“Lucas!”

Just as they were climbing the stairs, a slender girl burst out of the Grand Duke’s bedchamber.

“Why did you take so long! How long have I been here all alone………!”

The girl crossed the hallway in a single bound and threw herself into Lucas’s arms. The boy, who had been stiff with tension, wrapped his arms around his sister’s shoulders and fought back tears.

Talia, who was watching the scene with an uncomfortable expression, glanced away and looked toward the bedroom, now shrouded in deep darkness.

Inside the room, filled with a haze of incense smoke, high priests and retainers stood in a line. Varkas strode into the room and addressed the priests.

“How is he doing?”

“………………Regrettably, it seems unlikely he will survive the night.”

The elderly priest, his face gaunt as if he had stayed up all night, spoke in a somber voice.

“Please prepare yourself.”

As if in response to the elderly priest’s words, the girl’s sobbing grew even louder. Talia, who had been standing awkwardly and shifting her gaze, quietly moved closer to Varkas’s side.

As she cast a cautious glance toward the bed draped in curtains, the figure of a gaunt old man caught her eye. He looked so frail that it was hard to believe this was the same man who had once spoken with such venom.

She stared blankly down at the man—who had been reduced to such a pitiful state in barely a month—for only a short while when someone roughly yanked her coat.

“What is this woman doing here!”

Raina Raedgo Shiokan’s tear-stained eyes flashed with fury.

“You’re the one who cursed our father to hell, aren’t you? How dare you show your face here! Get out! I said get out right now!”

The screaming girl roughly dragged her toward the doorway.

Varkas firmly pushed his sister away and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Seeing this, the girl’s expression grew even more furious.

“You’re just the same, Brother! To be bewitched by a witch like that………!

“Stop it, Raina!”

Lucas hurriedly pulled his sister against his chest and covered her mouth.

Raina Raedgo Shiokan, who had been huffing and puffing with a pained expression, soon buried her face in her brother’s embrace and began to wail uncontrollably.

Just then, a rough voice, like metal scraping against metal, rang out.

“What’s all this commotion?”

Talia flinched and turned her head.

The man who had lifted his wrinkled eyelids was glaring at them with eyes that seemed clouded with anger. The girl, who had been sobbing uncontrollably, dashed toward the bed.

“Father! Are you awake?”

After gazing at his daughter’s face for a moment, the old man rolled his eyes and carefully scanned the room. Then, spotting Talia standing in one corner of the room, he narrowed his eyes.

She stepped back behind Varkas. She sensed that the old man, too, would not want her there.

But the old man was surprisingly quiet. After staring at her for a while with a dark gaze, the man finally turned his eyes toward his eldest son. A strange gleam flashed across his ashen, sallow face.

“……I’ve been waiting for you, Varkas.”

A dry cough cut off the rest of his words.

The old man, breathing heavily, raised a hand as gaunt as a twig. In response to that silent gesture, Varkas leaned over the bed.

The old man’s cloudy eyes met Varkas’s indifferent face.

In that moment, the old man—who had never lost his toughness even on the threshold of death—crumbled.

“You……… must be resenting me.”

The words were less a question than a statement of fact.

Varkas neither agreed nor disagreed; he simply gazed down at his father in silence. A rough storm raged within the old man’s eyes. He roughly clutched the hem of Varkas’s robe with his bony fingers.

“Answer me just one thing. In your eyes… what do you see?”

At the sudden question, everyone in the room held their breath.

He continued desperately.

“You must surely see something… different with your own eyes, right? Tell me. You must know. What lies beyond death…”

It seemed as if blood might spurt out at any moment from his throat, where phlegm was bubbling.

The faces of those gathered around the bed turned deathly pale. The old man’s terror, standing on the threshold of death, seemed to overwhelm the entire room.

He pulled Varkas toward him with all his might and spat out a hoarse, metallic voice.

“Speak up! What on earth lies beyond this……………….”

Only then did Varkas’s tightly sealed lips part.

“Nothing.”

Not only the Grand Duke, but everyone who had been frozen in place, watching the standoff between the two men, held their breath. Talia, too, stared at him with a look of bewilderment.

Varkas, who had been quietly gazing down at his father’s ashen face, added softly.

“I see nothing with my own eyes. So please, calm down.”

A slight tremor flickered at the corner of the old man’s mouth.

The priest, who had belatedly come to his senses, hurried to the bedside and tried to calm the Grand Duke.

“Your Highness, you must cast aside your fear. The Messenger of God will guide you to the realm of rest.”

The dying man, who had been staring intently at his heir, soon lost all his strength and slumped limply.

Varkas watched the scene with a calm gaze, then rose to his feet.

Talia cautiously grasped the hem of his sleeve. For some reason, she felt she simply had to do so.

He looked down at her with his glassy blue eyes, then turned his gaze back to the bed.

Soon after, the priest began reciting a prayer in a solemn voice. Yet the fear lodged in the old man’s eyes showed no sign of abating.

The man, who had been gasping roughly and uttering occasional incoherent words, finally passed away as the sun set.