Chapter 97
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97
He thrashed his head, his hand clamping down hard on her wrist.
Thalia held on tenaciously, digging her nails into his soft flesh. His face, which had been flushed a bright, angry red, suddenly drained of all color.
He flailed wildly, a strangled, guttural groan escaping his throat. Ignoring his struggles, Thalia tightened her grip as if she truly intended to crush the tongue out of his mouth.
Just then, a sharp scream pierced the air. Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor, and a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders.
Thalia let out a fierce, ragged shout.
“Let go! I’m going to rip his tongue out so he can never utter those disgusting words again!”
“M-my goodness! Someone, stop her!”
A shrill voice rang out, panicked and high-pitched.
Regardless of the commotion, Thalia gripped Lucas’s jaw and shoved her fingers even deeper. Just as she was about to sink her nails into the root of his tongue, a heavy pressure wrapped around her waist and her feet left the floor.
Thalia huffed, whipping her head around. Barkas stood there, having hoisted her up like a piece of luggage. He met her eyes with a gaze as cold as frost.
“What on earth is going on here?”
He looked back and forth between her and Lucas, his expression unreadable as he tried to make sense of the chaos.
Lucas, who had been slumped on the floor with a dazed, disbelieving expression, scrambled to his feet.
“T-that woman just tried to pull my tongue out! Look at this!” Pointing an accusing finger and shouting, Lucas stuck out his bloodied, injured tongue to show him.
The veins in Thalia’s neck bulged with fury.
“Bring it here! I’ll tear it out by the roots!”
The boy recoiled in horror, stumbling backward.
“See? You saw that, right? She’s a total lunatic! She’s out of her mind! Why did you marry a woman like that instead of the First Imperial Princess? You should file for an annulment right this instant—!”
“Lucas Raedgo Sieorkan.”
A low voice, heavy with a warning sigh, settled over the hallway.
Not only Lucas, but even Thalia, who had been consumed by her rage, froze.
Barkas took a slow breath before continuing. “What did you just say to my wife?”
“I just...” Lucas’s voice trailed off, his expression turning flustered.
Looking down at him with a chilling gaze, Barkas spoke with icy finality. “I suppose it’s something you cannot repeat in front of me.”
Lucas’s face turned ashen. His eyes darted around before he muttered resentfully, “I mean, even so, does anyone normally go this far...?”
As Thalia glared at him with murderous intent, Barkas’s sharp gaze shifted toward her. Her shoulders stiffened. He questioned her like an inquisitor presiding over a courtroom.
“Will Your Highness explain the circumstances?”
Thalia looked up at him, her eyes brimming with spite. As the insulting words his brother had spewed flashed through her mind, her entire body began to tremble.
He wanted her to repeat those words? To say them with her own mouth?
She spat the words through gritted teeth. “I’d rather die.”
Barkas’s eyes narrowed. Exhaling a long breath as if testing the limits of his patience, he added stiffly, “You must tell me the reason so that I can issue a proper punishment.”
Lucas’s face contorted. He looked indignant, as if he were the victim of some grand injustice. Thalia, staring at him as if she wanted to tear his face apart, began to writhe in Barkas’s grip.
“I don’t need your punishment. Let me go.”
“...”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said let go!”
Eventually, he set her down. Thalia stood straight on her aching legs and scanned the crowd gathered in the hallway. Faces flushed with alcohol stared back, observing the commotion like a common spectacle. A wave of profound disillusionment washed over her.
After shooting hostile glares in every direction, Thalia turned and headed for the bedroom. The distance of just a few steps felt like a thousand miles. She forced the door open, stormed inside, and threw herself onto the bed.
A moment later, Barkas followed.
Thalia buried her face in the pillow, ignoring him. If she didn’t, she felt she would pounce on him and interrogate him like a madwoman, just as she had done to Lucas.
Is your brother right?
Did you really go that far with Aila?
“Thalia Roem Sieorkan.”
One side of the bed sank under his weight, and a deep shadow fell over her. Thalia felt the tension travel down her spine.
A rough hand wrapped around her shoulder. Her body was forcibly flipped over, and her tear-blurred vision was filled with his face—sharp, cold, and as honed as a blade.
He questioned her sharply. “Explain exactly what happened.”
“What more is there to say?” Thalia snapped back fiercely. “You saw it all. I tried to rip your brother’s tongue out, and I failed because of you. What more explanation do you need?”
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“Because I wanted to.”
As if his patience had finally snapped at her childish defiance, Barkas’s eyes froze over. He grabbed her chin, murmuring overbearingly, “Just how long do you intend to act like a child?”
Thalia’s face contorted. Lucas Raedgo Sieorkan was the one who had crossed the line. So why was she the one receiving this reprimand?
Thalia slapped his hand away and hissed. “I was only paying back the insult I received. If you want to blame someone, blame your father for raising his son to be such a wretch.”
He pressed his fingers to his temple, looking like a man suffering from a debilitating headache. “Retaliation is handled through a representative. Not by lunging at someone yourself like a ten-year-old brat.”
“And who is going to be my representative? Are you going to take your brother’s head for me?” Thalia scoffed. “I don’t expect anything from you. If someone attacks me, I’ll retaliate with my own hands.”
The coldness in his eyes deepened. “Are you saying you’re going to get into another dogfight over some man?”
“I wouldn’t put it past me.” Thalia shot him a look of pure hostility. “If you don’t want to see that, keep your brother out of my sight. If that brat loiters around me one more time, I’ll truly put an end to him.”
The furrow between his brows deepened. Her fingertips itched at the sight of his expression—he looked as if he were dealing with a terrible nuisance.
Suppressing the urge to claw at him, Thalia crawled into the corner of the bed and pulled the covers over her head.
How much time passed? She felt Barkas get up. Before long, the sound of the door closing reached her ears, and a chilling silence occupied the room.
Thalia peeked her head out slightly, scanning the empty space. Once she was certain she was alone, the tears she had been holding back burst forth like a flood. Biting her lip to swallow her cries, she buried her face in the pillow and let out muffled, broken sobs.
Eventually, she drifted into a fitful sleep.
Opening her eyes in the dim darkness, Thalia flinched at the sound of a soft clinking noise. Barkas was back, arranging medicine bottles on the shelf. As she stared blankly at him, he cast a quiet gaze over his shoulder.
“You were groaning in your sleep, so I brought some painkillers. Take them and go back to sleep.”
His calm demeanor, as if he had never been angry at all, stirred a strange sense of frustration within her. Thalia pulled the blanket up to the bridge of her nose.
“I’m fine.”
A weary sigh escaped his lips. There was a hint of irritability in the way he brushed his bangs back. Was he also suppressing his anger?
Thalia carefully studied his face in the low light. Amidst his pale features, his lips—the only part of him with vivid color—were set in a cold line. As she stared at them, Lucas’s despicable voice echoed in her mind.
‘Could it be that our big brother hasn’t forgotten his former fiancée?’
Thalia bit her lip. In the next moment, before she could even process the thought, the words tumbled out.
“If you feed it to me mouth-to-mouth, I’ll take it.”
Barkas, who was setting a bottle down, paused. He turned slowly to look at her. Only after seeing his eyes widen slightly did she realize exactly what she had just said.