Chapter 57
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57
Athros wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve as he bounded up the stone steps. He reached for the heavy door handle and pulled. Through the narrow opening, the Great Hall was revealed, draped in a deathly silence.
Peering into the dim expanse, where not a single guard or maid was in sight, Athros crept forward and began to climb the stairs. He didn’t even know why he was treading so softly, muffling his own footsteps.
He had felt it during his last visit, too—this castle was like a graveyard. The eerie atmosphere instinctively made him hold his breath.
Glancing at the curtained windows, Athros took the stairs two at a time, reaching the third floor in an instant. Finally, his sister’s bedroom door came into view.
Standing before the massive mahogany door, Athros caught his breath for a moment before knocking cautiously. However, even after a long wait, there was no voice asking who it was, nor an invitation to enter.
Is she asleep?
Athros pressed his ear to the wood, then knocked a bit harder. A dull thud echoed from within. After a moment’s hesitation, he turned the handle and peered inside.
A thin, gray haze of smoke drifted through the cluttered bedroom. Athros coughed at the stale air, his eyes suddenly widening. The scene before him looked as if a storm had torn through the room. His mouth hung open as he blinked, drawn into the chaos as if by some invisible force.
Shards of broken glass were scattered across the floor. The heavy, cloying scent of wine clung to the carpet, suggesting a bottle had been hurled across the room. Strewn over the mess were long strips of torn fabric and white feathers that had escaped from a shredded pillow.
As he scanned the wreckage with hollow eyes, Athros spotted the shattered full-length mirror and flinched. His own reflection stared back at him, splintered into dozens of jagged fragments by the web of cracks on the glass.
A chill ran down his spine. He began to back away, only to hear a faint rustling sound behind him. Athros spun around with a start and froze.
Thalia was sprawled haphazardly on the carpet.
For a moment, the air left his lungs. Clad in nothing but a thin nightgown, she was staring up at the ceiling with vacant eyes. Her face looked as though all life had been drained from it, sending a shiver through him. She moved an arm as thin and pale as a birch branch, clutching a handful of feathers from the floor and scattering them into the air.
The white down drifted like dust through the hazy light. The woman, watching them fall with unfocused eyes, slowly shifted her gaze toward him.
Athros instinctively took a step back.
Thalia parted her lips, which were crusted with dried blood, and spoke in a dry, raspy voice.
“...Did you come to gawk?”
“I—I just... I came to see how you were...”
Her desolate eyes fixed on the large bouquet of flowers cradled in his arms. Athros felt his ears burn. For some reason, he felt as though he were committing a crime against her.
Thalia lowered her eyelids like someone exhausted by life itself.
“...Leave them there and get out.”
Hesitating, Athros set the bouquet down on a shelf next to the bed. He didn’t know what else to do. After staring at his sister with a look of utter helplessness, he finally turned and left the room.
Waiting in the hallway, Berens frowned when he saw Athros’s pale face. He looked as if he suspected the boy had been mistreated. Without offering an explanation, Athros grabbed Berens’s hand and pulled.
“Let’s go back to the Main Palace. Now.”
He sprinted down the tomb-quiet corridor. He didn’t even know what he was running from; he simply wanted to leave this cold, dismal place as quickly as possible. Athros glanced back once at the half-open bedroom door over his shoulder, then bolted down the stairs. Like a beast escaping a trap, he fled the Annex Palace in a single breath.
* * *
It felt as if ants were crawling through her veins.
A stinging pain pricked at her nerves, traveling up her shins to gnaw at her knees, thighs, hips, and waist. It wasn’t as intense as the agony from before, but it was just as maddening.
Thalia dug her nails in, relentlessly scratching at her lumpy knees. As if in protest, the vermin crawling beneath her skin began to burrow into the bone. To drag the loathsome things out, Thalia peeled away the skin, which felt as tough and lifeless as a callus.
Blood began to stream from the open wound. Ignoring the stinging heat, she continued to gouge at the raw, red flesh with her fingernails. Just then, the Nanny entered the room and let out a shrill scream.
“I told you, please don’t do that!”
Setting the tray down with a clatter, the Nanny snatched Thalia’s hand away. Thalia looked at her with listless eyes, then placed her other hand over the wound.
“Why are you being like this, truly!” The Nanny grabbed her other hand as well, letting out a heavy sigh. “The scars are already unsightly enough. What will you do if they get even worse?”
Thalia stared at her with hollow eyes. This was the same Nanny who used to praise her beauty until her throat was dry—the woman who had been so devoted, claiming Thalia was the living image of Senevia’s own youth.
Even to such a woman, Thalia’s current state was hideous.
Wrenching her wrists free with a violent twist, Thalia shoved the Nanny’s shoulder.
“Get out! I can’t stand the sight of you!”
The Nanny glared at her with sharp eyes before stomping over to the shelf. She picked up the bowl of porridge and the medicine bottle from the tray and thrust them forward.
“Just eat this, and I’ll leave even if you try to stop me. Don’t worry.”
Thalia reached out to hurl the bowl away, but even the dullest nanny develops a sense of intuition after dealing with the same cycle of despair. Quickly stepping back, the Nanny fixed her with a stern look.
“If you don’t eat, I won’t light the sleeping incense for you.”
Thalia glared at her with eyes full of resentment, but eventually took the bowl. She no longer had the energy to argue. She picked up the spoon and mechanically shoved the mushy food into her mouth. It tasted like mud.
Suppressing her nausea, she forced down the porridge and swallowed the bitter medicine. Only then did the Nanny push a fresh bundle of herbs into the incense burner and light it.
Thalia slumped onto the bed, inhaling deep lungfuls of the acrid smoke. As her consciousness grew hazy, a heavy drowsiness washed over her. Sighing in relief at her fading senses, she turned her gaze toward the window. Beyond the glass, the evening sky was stained crimson.
Once the sun set, a thick darkness would swallow her. Even in her dazed state, a sense of dread crept in. She was afraid of the night; the memory of waiting endlessly for someone in the dark seemed to choke the life out of her.
But she feared the morning even more. She didn’t want to live another day in this wretched body. She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered a desperate prayer.
Please, let all the time allotted to me flow away at once while I sleep. Let me be liberated from this agony forever.
But as always, her wish went ungranted.
Woken by a hand shaking her shoulder, Thalia looked up at the window where sunlight was pouring in and let out a hollow sigh. It seemed another grueling day was beginning after all. She clutched her throbbing forehead.
Just then, an unfamiliar voice reached her ears.
“It is time for you to rise, Your Highness.”
Startled, Thalia turned her head and saw a dark silhouette standing tall beside the bed. She bolted upright. A woman of immense height and sturdy build was looking down at her with eyes the color of steel.
The woman offered a graceful, disciplined bow.
“Please forgive the insolence of entering your bedroom without permission, Your Highness. I am Trania Meldren, the Head Maid of the Empress’s palace. I have come to attend to Your Highness for the day, by order of Her Majesty the Empress.”
Confused, Thalia’s eyes slowly scanned the room. The bedroom had been cleaned at some point, and about a dozen maids dressed in gowns bearing the seal of the Empress’s palace stood waiting in the corner.
Seeing the armfuls of clothing they held, Thalia’s body went stiff. A sense of foreboding tightened around her throat.
“Attend to me? Why...?”
“Today, Your Highness, you are to have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor.”