Chapter 62
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 62
Ants must have crawled behind her eyelids while she slept.
Plagued by a stinging, gritty sensation behind her eyes, Thalia fixed her gaze on her half-sister.
As always, the woman looked down at her, her elegant poise perfectly intact. Facing that noble countenance made Thalia’s eyes burn even hotter. She gripped her blanket like a shield and shot a sharp look upward.
“Did you come here to gawk? If you have something to say, say it and get out.”
“...How are you feeling?”
“How do I look?”
At Thalia’s sarcastic retort, a pair of pale green eyes slowly scanned her.
“You don’t look well.”
Thalia’s lips tightened into a hard line. Her fingertips trembled. Had her legs been whole, she would have lunged forward, grabbed the woman by the hair, and hurled her out the door. Swallowing her surging rage, she managed to force out a composed voice.
“Now that you’ve seen for yourself, why don’t you leave? Your presence is making me feel worse.”
Aila’s lips pressed firmly together.
As the silence stretched, Thalia’s nerves frayed. When the pain she had barely managed to soothe began to throb through her bones again, she raised her voice.
“Didn’t you hear me? I told you to leave.”
“I told you, I have something to say,” Aila said, her voice tinged with a hint of anxiety.
Thalia glared at her through narrowed eyes.
“Then say it and get lost. Just looking at your face makes my stomach turn. Do you really expect me to be patient and wait for you? Don’t make me laugh. State your business right now, or vanish from my sight!”
Aila’s face stiffened visibly, appalled by the fierce hostility being poured upon her. She cast a cold gaze back and spoke.
“Fine. I’ll tell you why I’m here. I want to know what you intend to do from now on.”
“Do about what?” Thalia asked dismissively.
Her headache was worsening. It felt as if the ants gnawing behind her eyes had burrowed into her brain. The stinging pain spread to the back of her head. While her focus was diverted by the agony, Aila continued to babble.
“Don’t play innocent. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Am I a mind reader? How am I supposed to know what you haven’t said?”
“You...!”
Aila’s voice rose. Thalia turned her head and frowned at her half-sister’s face, which was distorted by a sense of insult. Aila took a moment to catch her breath, struggling to maintain her composure, before continuing in a much calmer tone.
“I want to know if you truly intend to marry that man.”
Thalia offered no answer, merely staring blankly at her.
It seemed Aila was the one who found the silence unbearable. She continued anxiously.
“You hate Barkas. You’ve tormented him since you were children, and now you’re going to become his wife? Surely not.”
Seeing the look in Aila’s eyes—as if she were desperately seeking Thalia’s agreement—a hollow laugh escaped Thalia’s lips. Aila’s expression hardened.
Watching that miserable face, Thalia’s low chuckles erupted into a harsh, jagged roar of laughter. Forgetting the splitting headache and the lightning-strikes of pain in her legs, she clutched her stomach and laughed until she shook.
“So, you ran all the way here because you’re afraid?”
Aila’s complexion turned as white as plaster.
Thalia continued softly, savoring the sight. “You must feel like your insides are burning at the thought of me stealing your fiancé, don’t you?”
“...”
“But what can I do? Seeing you like this only makes me want to take him away by any means necessary.”
Aila’s lovely face contorted hideously. The eyes that usually reminded one of fresh evergreens were now filled with venom.
Thalia was swept up in a strange sense of exhilaration. This was the sister who had always looked down on her with a flawless, perfect face. That sister was finally revealing her raw, unfiltered emotions.
“He’s only saying he’ll marry you out of a sense of responsibility!” Aila cried out, her voice sharp and impatient. “He just feels guilty that you ended up in that state! But it’s not his fault you were injured. Why should Barkas have to make such a sacrifice?”
The smile vanished from Thalia’s lips.
Her amusement evaporated in an instant, replaced by a freezing rage. Her fingers itched with the urge to tear out the tongue that dared to speak as if it were Barkas’s spokesperson. Thalia chewed down the curses crawling up her throat and forced out a mockingly sweet voice.
“I thought you were smarter than this. But you’re stupider than I expected.”
Aila’s lips froze.
Thalia continued slowly. “Those aren’t the words you should be saying to me right now. You should be pleading with me, politely and earnestly.”
“...”
“Begging me, please, not to marry Barkas Raedgo Sieorkan.”
Aila’s eyes twitched. As Thalia watched that face, twisted with humiliation and malice, Aila moistened her lips and spoke with great difficulty.
“If I beg... will you refuse the marriage?”
“I wonder,” Thalia said airily. “Wouldn’t that depend on how desperate the person begging is?”
Aila bit her lip and looked down at the floor. It seemed she could hardly bring herself to speak. After a suffocating silence, Aila finally looked up with a gaze of grim determination. A pathetic voice spilled from her shapely pink lips.
“I’m begging you. Please refuse the marriage to Barkas. If you don’t agree to it, His Majesty won’t push for it either. So, please...”
Her voice shattered, as if she couldn’t bear to finish the sentence.
Thalia looked up at that sorrowful face and swallowed a bitter, cold sneer. Right now, this woman likely thought she had given up something immense: her pride as an Imperial Princess. She probably believed that because she, a noble princess, had bowed to a lowly illegitimate child, she deserved a reward.
Thalia lowered her gaze to her legs hidden beneath the blanket. It was only after she had been reduced to this state that she was even considered as a bride for him. Yet this woman believed she could win him back simply by surrendering a handful of her shallow pride.
To this woman, Thalia Roem Guirta’s legs weren’t even worth as much as her own dignity.
Thalia spoke abruptly. “Fine.”
Color returned to Aila’s face.
Watching her, Thalia added calmly, “On one condition.”
“A condition?” Wariness flickered across Aila’s face.
Thalia turned her head to look at the side table. On a tray holding fruit, bread, and butter, there were several pieces of silver cutlery. Thalia picked up a small knife used for spreading butter and threw it in front of her half-sister.
The silver blade slid to a stop at Aila’s feet. As Aila stared down at it blankly, Thalia spoke softly.
“Use that to carve your leg.”
“...What?”
Aila looked at her as if she couldn’t believe her ears. Meeting those dazed eyes directly, Thalia emphasized every single word.
“I’m telling you to scar your leg with that. Like this...”
Thalia slowly pulled back the blanket. Aila’s wide eyes landed on the hideously swollen scars. Right before those eyes, Thalia pointedly traced her fingertip along the long, grotesque mark that started from her shin.
“From here... to here. Make a long wound with the knife. If you do that, I’ll do as you say.”
Aila looked back and forth between the knife on the floor and her own legs, draped in a velvet dress. Her eyelids trembled violently. Eventually, a cold, mocking laugh escaped her bloodless lips.
“You never had any intention of listening to me from the very beginning.”
Thalia did not respond.
Soon, the mask of the Imperial Princess was refitted onto Aila’s face. As if she had never shown a moment of weakness, Aila held her head high and strode toward the door. Her steady, rhythmic footsteps stopped abruptly at the entrance of the bedroom.
Gripping the doorknob, Aila looked back. Her eyes, like a dark swamp, flashed with an eerie light.
“You will surely regret today, Thalia Roem Guirta.”
Having spat those words out like a curse, Aila added chillingly as she walked out the door, “I will make sure of it.”