Chapter 52
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 52
Swept up in an inexplicable wave of emotion, Thalia watched the castle gates draw closer.
Soon, she would be liberated from this agonizing pain.
It wouldn’t be at the hands of some incompetent healer walking on eggshells around Gareth, but by the elite mages of the Empress’s Palace. They would surely restore her to her former, perfect self.
Licking her parched lips, she cautiously lowered her gaze to inspect her body.
Draped in a thin, cream-colored dress, her frame could not be called beautiful even by the most generous standards. The crude outlines of thick bandages wrapped from her thighs to her ankles were hideously visible through the fabric of her skirt. While magic had mended the burns on her palms, her fingernails remained stained a dark, bruised crimson.
The fact that she looked as though she had been fasting throughout the entire journey only added to her wretched appearance.
Suddenly, a wave of anxiety washed over her.
Will they all laugh at me when they see me like this?
The image of the maids giggling and whispering that she had gotten what she deserved flashed through her mind, sending a cold sweat down her spine.
Thalia quickly drew the curtains. If she heard even a single person snickering about how she had been struck by divine punishment, she didn’t think she could stay sane.
She pulled the thin linen blanket tangled on the floor over her head.
A moment later, she felt the carriage passing through the castle gates.
Peeking through a gap in the blanket, Thalia listened to the cacophony of sounds from outside. The clatter of hooves and the thunderous commands of the infantry echoed loudly, and the slow melody of the funeral march grew even more somber.
Amidst it all, the murmurs of the crowd filtered in. It sounded like thousands of winged insects buzzing all at once. Feeling her nerves fraying, Thalia pulled the blanket back over her head.
She stayed like that for some time until the carriage, which had been rolling slowly over the gravel, finally came to a halt. The surroundings grew even more frantic. It seemed as though every servant in the Imperial Palace had swarmed out to meet them.
She huddled in the corner of the carriage, waiting for the commotion to die down. Her plan was to stay holed up here until Gareth and Aila went to their audience with the Emperor according to protocol. She had no desire to show her pathetic state to their followers.
Thalia held her breath, rubbing her tingling legs.
Then, without warning, the door swung open, and a dark shadow invaded the carriage.
Thalia looked up, her eyes widening at the familiar silhouette standing against the sunlight. Her nanny climbed into the carriage with a heavy gait and pulled her into a fierce embrace with her plump arms.
“Oh, my poor lady. Look at the state of you.”
The nanny cupped Thalia’s face with her large hands, inspecting her from every angle as tears began to stream down her face like fat raindrops.
“How did you get so thin? Not only are you hurt, but your face has grown so gaunt…”
Thalia stared blankly at her for a moment before her face crumpled, and she threw her arms around the woman’s neck.
As she burrowed into the nanny’s ample chest like a young animal seeking its mother, the woman stroked her back. The touch, as if soothing a newborn, caused a surge of emotion, and Thalia burst into tears. She buried her face in the nanny’s curly, cinnamon-scented hair and sobbed uncontrollably.
“Nanny, it… it hurts so much. I feel like I’m going to die.”
“Don’t you worry. Lady Senevia will have you fixed right up.”
Wiping the tears from Thalia’s cheeks, the nanny pointed toward the carriage entrance. Thalia flinched as she spotted a strange man standing at the door.
The man, whose lower face was covered by a stark white cloth, scanned her slowly with dark gray eyes rimmed with gold.
His gaze felt as though he were appraising merchandise, and Thalia instinctively clung to her nanny. Patting her back gently, the nanny spoke in a soothing tone.
“As soon as Lady Senevia heard you were injured, she summoned the mages of House Taren. They will restore you to the way you were before.”
The nanny then firmly detached Thalia’s hands and stepped aside to let the mages enter.
Watching the shadows approach her, Thalia scrambled backward. Her habitual defensiveness reared its head.
“I—I can walk on my own, so stay back.”
“With those legs?”
The slender man leaning toward her tilted his head. Thalia flushed with humiliation.
“I’ll have no problem getting to the Empress’s Palace!”
The man’s eyes narrowed behind his veil. A strange sense of unease washed over her.
The man stroked his chin as if lost in thought, then suddenly lunged and grabbed her leg.
Thalia let out a scream as the world turned white with pain. He squeezed the wound so hard that fresh blood began to seep through the bandages.
“If we let you walk on those legs and the wounds burst, we’re the ones who have to suffer the consequences. Do not be needlessly stubborn.”
Thalia looked up at him with shocked, watery eyes.
Releasing her leg, the man nodded to another man waiting across from him.
“You carry her.”
The man immediately bent down and slid his arms under her back. Goosebumps erupted all over her body, as if a snake had touched her.
Thalia twisted her upper body and swung her arms to avoid his touch.
“Don’t touch me!”
The man, struck in the jaw, muttered something in a harsh, metallic voice. Recognizing it as the language of the elves, Thalia froze.
Through his hood, she saw abnormally long, pointed ears, skin like gray plaster, and wispy hair with a bluish tint. He wasn’t a half-blood or a quarter-blood—he was undeniably an Origin Elf.
Knowing full well how inhuman they could be, Thalia was seized by terror.
The two men, discussing something in their own tongue, pinned her arms down firmly. Thalia opened her mouth to scream.
In that instant, a cold, damp hand covered her eyes, and the strength drained from her entire body. It felt as if her bones and muscles had completely melted away.
“Making me waste mana for nothing,” the man grumbled softly as he pulled his hand away from her face. Thalia looked up at him, her pupils dilated.
She wanted to scream, to ask what he thought he was doing, but only wheezing breaths escaped her throat.
The man straightened up and gave an order to the one sitting opposite him.
“She won’t be able to move now. Come, move her to the treatment room.”
The man she had struck in the jaw obeyed the command instantly.
Hoisted up like a sack of grain, Thalia cast a pleading look toward her nanny for help. But as always, the woman was oblivious to her fear.
“Just bear with it a little longer, my lady. Everything will be fine.”
Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, the nanny hopped down from the carriage. The man carrying Thalia followed her out.
Thalia winced as the intense sunlight flooded her retinas.
After blinking a few times, she saw soldiers from the Empress’s Palace surrounding the carriage.
As she scanned them with trembling eyes, she spotted a personal guard looking restless beyond the wall of soldiers.
When he tried to push past the Empress’s soldiers to reach her, the Taren mage stopped him firmly.
“Your mission is over. We will look after the Princess, so step back.”
“But I am her personal guard. I must escort—”
“Since Her Highness has ended up in this state, your qualifications have already been effectively revoked, have they not?”
The knight fell silent, lost for words. Clicking his tongue, the mage gave him a light shove with one hand and then crossed the cluttered open space where the baggage wagons were lined up.
Thalia looked around in despair. Before long, she spotted faint flaxen hair among the knights waiting at the entrance of the Main Palace. Instinctively, she went to call his name, but she snapped back to her senses and bit her tongue.
Barkas would never step forward for her.
In truth, she didn’t even know why she felt the urge to ask him for help.
These were mages sent by Senevia. They wouldn’t do anything to harm her.
She tried to suppress her anxiety by repeating that to herself, but the man carrying her began walking toward him.
Thalia’s body tensed as Barkas’s face drew closer.