Chapter 17
----------------------------------------------------------------- Translator: Diva Chapter: 17 Chapter Title: The Half-Brother's Visit -----------------------------------------------------------------
Talia cast a wary glance at the boy gazing up at her with sparkling eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
"I snuck out of the palace to see you, big sis."
The boy spoke with such carefree cheer that it felt utterly reckless.
Talia frowned. Her little brother Asros, who had just turned six, was like a thorn in her side.
Though they shared the same parents, their situations were worlds apart. This innocent-faced boy was the legitimate son born to the Emperor and Empress after their proper marriage, while she was nothing but the filthy seed of an affair.
Watching Asros receive his baptism amid the blessings of so many, Talia had been overwhelmed by a jealousy that stabbed at her heart. She could never have imagined hating a tiny, barely睁-eyed bundle of flesh so much.
Senevia, who keenly read those feelings of hers, never allowed the now-useless eldest daughter anywhere near her precious son.
Because of that, Talia could only see her brother's face at official events. This was the first time she'd faced him this closely since the baptism.
She furrowed her brow and glanced around.
"Did you come all the way here by yourself? If Mother finds out..."
"I didn't come alone. I came with Berens."
The boy spoke firmly, then turned and pointed down one side of the corridor. Only then did Talia spot the black-clad man standing in the heavily shadowed spot.
He was the ghost-faced man who had once guarded her side. Now at Asros's side, he watched her with wary eyes, as if ready to act the instant she tried anything harmful.
Bitter bile rose in her throat. The man's black eyes seemed to say that she could never be important to anyone.
Hiding her twisted inner turmoil, Talia asked in a stiff tone.
"What did you come to see me for?"
"I heard you're leaving on a long trip soon. So..."
"I'm leaving on a long trip?"
Talia cut her brother off in a shrill voice.
Startled by her sharp reaction, the boy hesitated for a moment before continuing cautiously.
"Mother said you're going on the pilgrimage trip too..."
Talia stared blankly down at her brother's face, then suddenly burst into harsh laughter. The boy flinched and took a step back. Did she look like she was losing her mind, even in the eyes of this innocent child?
Clutching her stomach as she laughed, Talia bent down toward her little brother and asked in a deliberately gentle tone.
"What else did Mother say?"
Asros hesitated for a long while. He seemed to finally realize that he was greatly upsetting her.
But the boy wasn't the type to cower and swallow what he wanted to say.
"She said you might get married soon. That a man named Count Serian sent a marriage proposal..."
The boy, who had been speaking calmly, flinched and shut his mouth.
She must have made a truly horrific expression. The man who had been silently watching from a short distance stepped between Asros and her, as if worried she might lose her reason in rage and strangle the child.
Ignoring the man on guard against her, Talia stared intently only at her brother's innocent face.
"So you came to congratulate me? Your big sis, the palace's headache, is finally getting married and leaving the imperial palace, so you wanted to exchange joyful farewells?"
Feeling the sharp thorns hidden in her soft voice, the boy's shoulders trembled with a flinch.
He protested with an aggrieved look.
"If you get married and leave, it'll be even harder to meet than now... I wanted to talk before that. We're siblings who share the same mother, after all."
A faint longing colored the boy's voice.
"I've always thought it would be nice if we could be as close as the eldest princess and prince. But if you get married, we might never get the chance. That's why I came."
Talia gazed down at his large eyes brimming with expectation, feeling nothing.
Because of this boy, she had been reduced to a completely worthless existence.
The Empress and Emperor, and the lovely, clever prince born between them.
She was nothing more than an ugly stain they wanted to erase from that perfect picture. The brighter Asros shone, the thicker the darkness surrounding her grew.
It was pathetic how desperately she envied this child. In truth, she hated even facing him like this.
Talia hurled a ruthless sneer at the boy whose eyes sparkled with foolish hope.
"Like how the 1st Princess bends over backward to make her twin brother emperor, do you want me to throw my whole body into serving you?"
"That's not what I meant...!"
"You don't even need to step up—our mother has already planned every way she'll use me for your sake. My marriage was surely arranged because it benefits you. So, little brother, drop those pointless expectations."
Asros seemed to have no resistance to the blatant hostility directed at him. Just looking at his lost expression showed how thoroughly protected this child had been raised.
He had probably never spent a night trembling in fear. She wondered if today's encounter might become his first wound.
Talia curved a sharp smile on her lips.
"I have not the slightest intention of being your kind, devoted big sister. Because I hate you just as much as I do our twin siblings."
Shock made the boy's large eyes well up with tears. To that pitiful face, Talia added mercilessly.
"Got it? Now get lost."
Asros bit his lip hard to hold back his sobs and turned without hesitation, hurrying down the empty corridor. The black-clad man followed silently after the boy.
Talia locked the door and walked back to the window. The sky, which had been blue just moments ago, was now faintly tinged with purple.
The workers who had been busily moving luggage had left one by one for rest, and not a single knight was in sight—they must have all returned to their barracks long ago.
Out of habit, Talia brought her index finger to her lips and flinched at the sharp pain. Dark red blood trickled out from between her torn nail. Seeing it made the venom slowly seeping from her heart rise all the way to her throat.
Desperately swallowing the scream that felt ready to burst out at any moment, she snatched the cloak hanging in one corner of the room and draped it over her thin silk slip. Then, without taking even one maid, she slipped out of the Detached Palace.