Talia regarded the boy staring up at her with bright, clear eyes through a wary gaze.
“What are you doing here?”
“I secretly slipped out of the castle because I wanted to see you, Sister.”
The little boy answered cheerfully, almost brazenly so.
Talia frowned.
Her younger half-brother Asros, who had only just turned six, was an existence she found utterly unbearable.
Though they shared the same parents, the difference between their positions was as vast as heaven and earth. This innocent-faced little boy was the legitimate son born between the Emperor and Empress after their official marriage, while she herself was nothing more than the filthy seed of an affair.
As Talia watched Asros receive blessings beneath the congratulations of countless people during his baptism, she had been consumed by a jealousy sharp enough to pierce her chest.
She had hated that tiny lump of flesh who could not even properly open his eyes.
Senevier, quick to perceive those emotions, never again allowed her now-useless eldest daughter to approach her precious son.
As a result, Talia had only ever seen her brother during official ceremonies. This was the first time since the baptism that she had stood so close to him.
Frowning, she glanced around.
“Did you come here alone? If Mother finds out—”
“I didn’t come alone. Berens came with me.”
The boy answered crisply before turning and pointing toward one side of the corridor.
Only then did Talia notice the man in black standing where the shadows pooled thickly.
A ghost-faced man who had once stood at her side.
Now he remained beside Asros, watching her with wary eyes as though prepared to intervene the instant she attempted the slightest harm against the child.
Something bitter rose inside her throat.
Those black eyes seemed to say that she could never become someone important to anyone.
Suppressing the twisted bitterness churning inside her, Talia asked stiffly,
“What did you come looking for me for?”
“I heard that you’ll soon be leaving on a long journey. So...”
“I’m leaving on a long journey?”
Talia sharply cut him off in a shrill voice.
Startled by her harsh reaction, the boy hesitated awkwardly before carefully continuing.
“Her Majesty said that you would also be accompanying this pilgrimage...”
Talia stared blankly down at her brother’s face.
Then suddenly, she burst into rough laughter.
Asros flinched and instinctively took a step backward. Did she look mad even to the eyes of this innocent child?
Still clutching her stomach as she laughed, Talia bent down toward her younger brother and asked in an intentionally gentle voice,
“And what else did Mother say?”
Asros hesitated for a long time.
Only now did he seem to realize that he was making his sister deeply upset.
But the boy was not the type to shrink away from others and swallow his thoughts.
“She said you might soon be getting married. That a man called Count Serian sent a proposal...”
The boy, who had been speaking calmly, suddenly stiffened and fell silent.
Apparently her expression had become truly horrifying.
The man who had silently observed from a short distance stepped between her and Asros. Was he afraid she might lose herself to rage and strangle the child?
Pretending not to notice the man watching her cautiously, Talia stared only at her brother’s innocent face.
“So you came to congratulate me? The troublesome disgrace of the imperial family is finally getting married and leaving the palace, so you wished to bid me a joyful farewell?”
Perhaps sensing the sharp thorns hidden beneath her soft voice, the boy’s shoulders trembled slightly.
He protested with a wounded expression.
“If you get married, Sister, it’ll become even harder to see you than it already is... I wanted to talk with you before that happened. We share the same mother, after all.”
Something faintly longing flickered in the boy’s voice.
“I’ve always hoped that we could become close, like First Sister and Brother are with each other. But if you marry and leave, maybe we’ll never get the chance. That’s why I came here.”
Talia looked down at those large eyes filled with hopeful anticipation without the slightest emotion.
Because of this boy, she herself had become utterly worthless.
The Empress and Emperor, and the lovely, brilliant prince born between them.
She was nothing more than an ugly stain that ruined that perfect picture.
The brighter Asros shone, the darker the shadows surrounding her became.
It was miserable to realize how fiercely she envied this child.
Truthfully, even standing face-to-face with him felt unbearable.
Talia turned a merciless sneer toward the boy whose eyes still glimmered with foolish hope.
“Are you expecting me to devote myself entirely to serving you the way the First Imperial Princess bends over backward trying to make her twin brother Emperor?”
“I didn’t mean it like that—!”
“Even without you stepping forward, Mother has probably already planned exactly how she intends to use me for your sake. My marriage was undoubtedly arranged because it benefits you somehow. So, little brother, stop entertaining pointless fantasies.”
Asros clearly had little experience facing such naked hostility.
Just by looking at his helpless expression, it was obvious how thoroughly protected this child had been throughout his life.
This boy had probably never once spent a night trembling in fear.
Perhaps today’s encounter would become the first wound of his life.
A sharp smile curved Talia’s lips.
“I have absolutely no intention of becoming your kind and devoted sister. Because I hate you just as much ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ as I hate our beloved twin siblings.”
Shock flooded the boy’s wide eyes with tears.
Looking directly at that pitiful face, Talia added mercilessly,
“If you understand now, would you please disappear?”
Asros bit down hard on his lip as though swallowing back tears, then immediately turned and hurried down the empty corridor.
The man in black silently followed after him and vanished without a sound.
Talia shut the door and returned to the window.
The sky, which had still been blue only moments earlier, had already begun fading into pale violet.
The laborers who had busily carried luggage around the estate had gradually left to rest, and the knights had likely returned to their quarters long ago, because not a single one remained in sight.
Talia absentmindedly raised her index finger toward her lips before freezing at the sharp sting of pain.
Dark red blood was flowing from the split skin around her damaged nail.
The moment she saw it, the poison slowly leaking from her heart surged all the way up her throat.
Desperately swallowing down a scream that felt ready to burst free at any moment, she grabbed the cloak hanging on one side of the room and draped it over her thin shirko.
Then, without bringing even a single maidservant with her, she left the detached palace alone.
