Chapter 36
----------------------------------------------------------------- Translator: Diva Chapter: 36 Chapter Title: Shadows of Suspicion -----------------------------------------------------------------
The woman glared at him with eyes blazing in fury, spitting out each word as if chewing on them.
"Does my warning sound like a joke to you too?"
Overwhelmed by her savage aura, he instinctively took another step back.
The princess, her slender frame trembling like a leaf, raised her voice in a sharp outburst.
"How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone before you get it? Is what I'm saying that funny?"
"I was simply worried Your Highness might collapse, so I brought some food."
Edric faltered under the torrent of words, protesting with an aggrieved expression.
The princess snorted derisively right in his face.
"Why would a lowly thing like you worry about me?"
"I am Your Highness's guard knight. It is my duty to serve and protect you...!"
The woman suddenly burst into laughter.
His face flushed red. He'd never been mocked so openly to his face before and had no idea how to react.
Gazing at him with mocking eyes, she drawled slowly.
"You must think I'm a complete fool... Do you really believe I don't know the Roem Knights are nothing but the Crown Prince's loyal hounds?"
His face stiffened rigidly.
She glanced down contemptuously at the basket in his hand and added coldly.
"What do you think is in there that you'd tell me to eat it? To make me suffer some filthy fate?"
"I am a knight!"
Unable to bear it any longer, Edric raised his voice. His ears burned with the first insult he'd ever endured in his life.
"Your Highness's words are an insult not just to me, but to the entire Imperial Knight Order! We swore before the gods to protect the imperial family. We would never do anything to harm Your Highness...!"
"You think I'd believe that?"
At a loss for words, he stared at her icy, sculpted face.
She wiped the smile from her lips and snapped coldly.
"If you want to fawn over someone, go do it with my half-siblings. I don't need it."
With that, she slammed the door shut with a loud bang, ending the conversation.
He gripped the basket tightly. If he didn't, he felt like he might fling the door open and yell at her to stop being so stubborn.
Edric glared at the carriage door with boiling eyes before finally turning away.
I did what I could. He had no intention of trying to persuade a woman who openly insulted and antagonized him.
Edric tossed the basket onto the shelf in front of the communal barracks and headed to the serving area.
The knights were already gathered on the field, eating their meals.
Slipping in among his comrades, Edric piled his plate high and devoured the food ravenously. Whether that stubborn woman starves or not is none of my business, he repeated to himself...
* * *
Talia, who had been tossing and turning restlessly in the darkness, cautiously sat up.
Pulling back the curtains from the window, she saw the faint glow of lanterns held by the knights on watch. Everything else was shrouded in pitch blackness.
Lifting her head to gaze at the black sky without even a moon, Talia carefully stepped out of the carriage.
Having survived on mere scraps of bread and a few honey-preserved fruits for days, her limbs felt weak and powerless. For a moment, she wondered if eating the food that foolish knight had brought might have been the better choice.
He hadn't seemed clever enough to plot any schemes, so maybe she'd been overly suspicious.
Recalling the knight's awkward face, Talia quickly banished the thought from her mind.
She had learned the hard way that people with innocent faces were the most dangerous—the ones never to trust. He could be lulling her into a false sense of security before committing some horrific act.
She eyed the knights standing guard near the barricade with wary suspicion, then crept forward cautiously.
Her eyes, adjusted to the dark, dimly made out triangular tent roofs, rows of supply wagons, and the shapes of horses.
Careful not to trip on rocks, she slipped between the tents. A wind from the hilltop whistled through her clothes.
The thick scent of grass mingled with the smell of half-burnt firewood tickled her nose. Relying on her senses, Talia crept through the darkness.
Eventually, she found her attendants' quarters. Squinting for a long while to confirm she'd come to the right place, she clambered awkwardly onto the nearest supply wagon. Curling up among the stacked bundles, she stared intently at the tent entrance. She intended to see if the spy her mother had planted would make a move tonight.
Hugging her knees, she watched the darkness unblinkingly.
Occasional snores and teeth-grinding from soldiers reached her ears, along with the whinnying of horses and chirping crickets. She hadn't realized night could be so noisy.
Struggling to calm her frayed nerves, which ached with tension, she painfully counted the minutes and seconds.
How long had she been holding her breath like that? The pitch-black sky gradually lightened to a deep indigo. It seemed tonight would pass quietly after all.
She carefully stretched her stiff limbs, joints popping like screams.
Rubbing her tingling arms and legs while stifling a groan, she spotted a dark shadow emerging from inside the tent.
She narrowed her eyes.
Too dark to see the face, but the slender build clearly belonged to a woman.
Talia barely managed to stand on her creaking legs and followed the shadow.
After walking along the long row of wagons for some time, Aila's carriage came into view. She wiped her clammy, sweat-slicked palms on her skirt.
How wonderful it would be if the woman slipped inside that carriage. If she did what Talia needed to do herself.
Staring intently at the woman's back with desperate hope. But the woman passed Aila's carriage without stopping and headed toward the end of the encampment. Talia shifted her gaze and froze, her face hardening. The Sheerkhan family banner, embroidered with the black horse emblem, fluttered in front of a tent.
She hurried there in a panic. But in that brief moment she'd looked away, the woman had vanished.
Frantically scanning between the tents, Talia stared at the barracks entrance in disbelief.
Could she have... gone inside?
Her heart plummeted.
If Aila and Barkas allied now, Gares's position would become even more unassailable.
The Sheerkhan family wielded immense influence not just in the east, but the north as well. If Aila became the Grand Duchess of Sheerkhan, Gares would have the noble alliance in his pocket. There was every reason to believe someone might try to eliminate Barkas to prevent that.
With that realization hitting her, Talia rushed into Barkas's tent like a hunted animal. Rational thought was impossible.
Desperately scanning the dimly lit interior, she yanked aside the central partition.
The bed was empty. He was the type to start his day before dawn, so he was probably patrolling the camp or checking on Torque.
The thought flashed through her mind, but her anxiety wouldn't subside.
She groped over the empty bed, checking for bloodstains, when heavy footsteps made her snap her head up. A massive figure stood at the tent entrance.
Thinking it was Barkas, Talia rushed toward him but halted abruptly. Gares, lightly dressed, stared at her in surprise.
"What are you doing here?"
He raised the corners of his eyes sharply, scanning her from head to toe.