The man’s large hand slowly caressed her stomach over the soft fabric. The touch felt as though he were stroking something that already belonged to him.
“You use the same perfume as your mother. Lady Senevier’s hair carried this scent as well. Once someone becomes intoxicated by this fragrance, they can’t help but keep searching for it...... again and again...... as if addicted.”
The man’s hand crept upward toward her chest.
Talia instinctively twisted her body, trying to wrench herself free from his arms. But the man did not budge in the slightest.
Holding her tightly against him from behind, he pressed his damp, burning lips beneath her earlobe. It felt like a fat caterpillar clinging to her skin and sucking at it.
Talia’s rigid, trembling body soon began thrashing violently, like someone in the middle of a seizure.
The man shoved her down and brutally pinned her against the soft carpet.
She flailed her limbs like a drowning person. The table overturned, and the tower of puzzle pieces she had spent hours stacking came crashing apart. She crawled desperately across the scattered pieces, struggling to escape the beast crushing her beneath him, but he seized her ankle and dragged her violently back down.
Talia stared up at him with terror-stricken eyes. A primitive fear surged through her at the realization that someone could overpower her so effortlessly.
“Please stay still.”
The man grabbed both of her wrists with one hand while the other closed around her jaw.
She struggled desperately to turn her head away, but she could not move at all. He pressed against her cheek, forcing her mouth open before shoving his thick tongue inside.
Revulsion constricted her throat painfully. It felt as though some enormous slug had crawled into her mouth.
She did not even have the courage to bite down on the horrible thing. Tears spilled from her eyes as broken, choking sounds escaped her throat. The man rubbed his massive muscular body against hers, breathing harshly in excitement.
“Ah...... Lady Senevier....... How deeply I have missed you.......”
The man’s hand crawled beneath her skirt. Cold sweat spread across her body at the sensation of his rough palm groping bare skin.
A terror as dreadful as death swallowed her whole. She felt his long fingers forcing themselves deeper between her thighs.
At the unfamiliar, burning pain, Talia’s mouth opened soundlessly like a fish dragged onto land. The man pressed his sticky lips against the corner of her mouth and muttered hoarsely.
“There is no need to tremble so much. The pain will only last a moment. Soon, Your Highness will be crying out in pleasure as well—”
At that moment, the crushing weight pinning her down vanished as suddenly as a lie.
Talia instinctively scrambled backward into the corner and curled into herself. For several moments, she could not properly comprehend what had happened.
Only after a few seconds passed did she finally realize that Varkas, dressed in the uniform of the Roem Knights, was gripping the man’s head in one hand and mercilessly grinding his face against the wall.
The sight was so unreal that her mind went blank.
Half of the man’s once-neat face had been scraped raw against the rough stone surface, soaked in blood, while grotesque groans of agony poured from his twisted mouth.
“W-Wait...... let go...... we can t-talk.......”
Varkas grabbed the man by the hair and smashed his head against the wall without hesitation.
Thud. Thud.
With each heavy impact, the man’s face crumpled more horribly.
Talia barely managed to swallow her ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) scream.
“Talia.”
Without taking his eyes off the bloodied wreck of a face, Varkas spoke quietly.
“Go to your room.”
The voice was so calm it was impossible to believe it belonged to the man carrying out such brutal violence. Because of that, Talia did not immediately realize he was speaking to her.
Only after meeting those blue eyes clouded over like dark ash-gray storm clouds did she understand.
“Talia Roem Gwirta.”
His voice was unnervingly quiet.
Varkas, who dared to speak the Imperial Princess’s name so casually, slowly added,
“Can’t you hear me telling you to go to your room?”
Talia merely stared blankly at him from where she sat curled in the corner.
Then a furious roar exploded from his lips.
“Now!”
At that instant, it felt as though sparks burst across her entire body.
Talia fled the study in panic like a horse struck by a whip. The moment she threw herself into her bedroom and buried herself beneath the heavy blankets, a throbbing ache spread through her entire body.
She scrubbed harshly at her burning skin. It still felt as though that slick tongue and those rough palms were crawling over her flesh.
Trying desperately to erase the sensation, she rubbed violently at her neck, chest, and thighs before finally beginning to punch her own body.
It was horrible.
That man was horrible.
The body he had touched was horrible.
The fact that Varkas had seen her in that state was horrible.
She beat her thighs hard enough to bruise before burying her face into the pillow and letting out an animal-like cry.
How long had she remained like that?
Eventually, she sensed another presence besides her own.
Talia jerked her head up.
Varkas stood silently near the doorway.
As always, he looked perfectly composed and elegant, without the slightest disorder.
“You will never see that man again.”
He spoke flatly.
Talia blinked blankly before asking in a trembling voice,
“......Did you kill him?”
A faint crease formed between Varkas’s brows.
After a brief silence, he spoke again.
“He will be permanently exiled. For the rest of his life, he will never be able to set foot in the capital or any major city—”
At that moment, the final thread of her reason snapped completely.
Talia snatched up a pillow and hurled it directly at him.
“Why?! Why did you let him live?! You should’ve killed him! You should’ve slaughtered him horribly! You should’ve cut off those filthy hands that touched me......! That disgusting tongue that violated me......!”
Talia screamed wildly like a madwoman before suddenly clutching at her throat as her shoulders began trembling violently.
A suffocating pressure seized her, as though invisible hands were choking the life out of her.
“If you let him live, he’ll come back...... he’ll come back and trample me again. He’ll try to dirty me again. H-He said it himself. That he couldn’t stop searching for me...... over and over...... like some addiction.......”
A violent sob tore suddenly from her constricted throat.
Talia covered her tear-distorted face with both hands, gasping harshly for breath. Then, like someone possessed, she began throwing anything she could grab at him.
“Useless bastard! I don’t need someone like you! Get out! Get out of here! Get out of my sight—!”
As she wildly hurled books and dolls across the room, Talia suddenly froze.
The candlestick she had snatched without thinking flew straight toward him.
The heavy metal object scraped violently across Varkas’s forehead and temple before crashing loudly onto the floor.
Talia stared in shock as dark crimson blood trickled down his pale cheek and neck.
Ah......
Ah......
A strange, broken sound escaped her throat.
Varkas looked down at her with cold eyes before slowly turning away.
At that moment, an icy chill spread through her entire body, as though freezing water had been poured over her head.
Talia hurriedly jumped off the bed to stop him.
But Varkas had already left the room.
Talia stared blankly at the darkened hallway beyond the doorway before collapsing weakly to the floor.
She wanted to sink straight into the earth and disappear.
Varkas had saved her.
And she had turned him into the target of her rage.
How could he not feel disgust toward her?
How could he not grow sick of her?
Burying her horribly twisted face against the carpet, Talia wept bitterly.
After that day, Varkas no longer appeared before her.
Only several months later did Talia see him again, during the ceremony appointing him commander of the Imperial Knights.
From afar, she watched him kneel on one knee before the Emperor and recite the oath of loyalty in a calm voice.
Her father drew the imperial sword and rested it upon Varkas’s shoulder before solemnly declaring him the new head of the Imperial Guard.
It was an enormous burden for someone barely twenty years old.
And yet not a single person questioned whether he was worthy of the position.
Varkas slowly turned and descended the stairs.
Sunlight pouring through the stained glass windows cascaded over his composed face like a storm of gold.
Talia engraved every detail of that moment into her memory.
Varkas walked straight through the crowd with his back perfectly upright.
That cold profile passed by her without even a glance.
Staring at the back growing farther and farther beyond the reach of her hands, she quietly whispered,
Goodbye.
Then, without realizing it, she added softly,
Don’t go.
A sudden rush of tears threatened to spill over, and Talia frowned deeply.
Soon, his figure disappeared entirely from sight.
The boy her mother had gifted her seven years ago left her side like that.
