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Chapter : 256
Feeling her heart plunge, she gripped the window frame tightly.
Barkas slowly rode into the training grounds and gracefully dismounted from his horse. His face, which looked as cold as frost even beneath the intense late-summer sunlight, slowly lifted.
She instinctively hid behind the curtains. At the same time as her entire body seemed to boil with heat, a strange sensation swept over her, as though her spine had frozen solid.
Leaning her back against the wall, she tried to steady her unsteady breathing. However, unable to resist the urge to look at him, she peeked outside the window again.
By then, Barkas had already crossed about half of the training grounds.
When he passed through the inner gate and stepped into the garden, she could clearly see his face, whose features had become even more defined over the past few months.
Forgetting even to breathe, she stared intently at him as he spoke with the retainers who had come out to welcome him.
His hair was slightly longer than when he had left the castle, revealing his delicate yet deep-set eyes.
How long had she been staring so intently at those eyes, which looked almost silver beneath the sunlight, when she heard a knock at the door?
“Your Highness, His Grace the Grand Duke has returned. Would you like to go out and welcome him?”
It was the head maid’s voice.
Talia flinched as though she had been suddenly ambushed.
When she gave no answer, another knock sounded on the door.
“Your Highness, are you all right? May I come inside for a moment…?”
“Don’t come in!”
Talia suddenly shouted.
“I’m not feeling well, so I need to rest in my room. Tell His Grace the Grand Duke that as well!”
After remaining silent for a moment, the head maid let out a quiet sigh and replied.
“Understood. Then I shall take my leave.”
Soon, the sound of the head maid’s footsteps faded into the distance.
Talia let out a long sigh of relief before noticing Khan staring up at her.
She gave an awkward smile.
Even though there was no way Khan could understand her situation, she felt a strange sense of embarrassment at having shown such an agitated appearance in front of him.
Pretending that nothing was wrong, she picked Khan up and approached the window.
“Your daddy is back. Can you see him over there?”
Leaning against the window frame, Talia pointed toward Barkas with her fingertip.
“That man right there.”
Following the direction of her finger, the wolf turned his head and gazed silently down at Barkas.
Khan, who usually showed no interest in anything except her, seemed intrigued. She was so pleased by his reaction that the corners of her lips naturally lifted.
Talia kissed the wolf between his sharply pointed ears and whispered in a voice filled with laughter.
“Isn’t he incredibly handsome? He’s even more wonderful up close.”
The wolf’s ears twitched. Then he suddenly raised his head and stared at her.
His expression seemed to demand that they go outside immediately, which left her feeling troubled.
“But we can’t go near him right now.”
The wolf’s ears stood straight up.
Talia gazed quietly into his large eyes, which seemed to be asking why, and murmured bitterly.
“Before that man left, I treated him very badly. He probably doesn’t want to see me.”
Talia shut herself inside her room, using her poor health as an excuse, and refused to come out.
He looked at Talia with a complicated expression as she sat motionless, her gaze fixed on the bookshelf for hours.
She looked terribly anxious and restless. Seeing her like that made his chest feel unbearably heavy.
At this point in time, he firmly believed that his wife did not want to see him, so he was keeping his distance.
He was afraid that approaching her carelessly might disturb the little stability she had gradually regained.
However, Talia interpreted his behavior as proof of his disgust toward her.
Would things have been different if he had approached her first?
He couldn’t stop thinking that perhaps many things might have changed if he had tried just a little harder to understand this ridiculously timid and honest woman.
Looking at her with troubled eyes, he soon began pacing restlessly around the room.
The thought that his actions might be able to change the relationship between ‘himself’ and her made him terribly anxious.
But he couldn’t tell whether he truly wanted that.
Did he really want Talia to be with ‘him’?
He stopped in front of the mirror and looked at his reflection.
As he faced the beast’s face, which he still couldn’t quite get used to, a strange pain washed over him.
“Are you that frustrated?”
Noticing his drooping ears, Talia closed her book and got up from the bed.
“Then would you like to go outside for a little while? Barkas should be attending the meeting around this time anyway.”
She immediately picked him up and left the bedroom.
The corridors were quieter than usual, probably because everyone was busy preparing the evening banquet to welcome the head of the family.
She dismissed the maids following her with a slight gesture, then descended the stairs and headed toward the secluded rear garden.
“Now, go ahead and play as much as you want.”
Sitting down on a bench, Talia placed him on the ground.
Pretending not to understand her words, he easily jumped onto the bench and pressed himself tightly against her side.
He didn’t want to be away from Talia even for a moment.
Someday, I’ll have to give her back to ‘him,’ but for now, Talia belongs only to me.
“Do you like me that much?”
She giggled and wrapped her soft, pale arms around him.
As he buried himself in her embrace, feeling her intoxicating fragrance fill his lungs until his mind seemed ready to melt, he caught sight of a long shadow at the edge of his vision.
He slightly turned his head and looked toward his past self, who was standing at the end of the walkway.
It was a truly strange experience.
Facing himself through the eyes of a third person.
He felt the fine hairs beneath his skin stand on end as he silently stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar face.
His past self looked horrifyingly inhuman.
The cold eyes that seemed untouched even by the late-summer heat, the expressionless lips that looked as though they had never smiled even once, and the lifeless, empty eyes…
He couldn’t understand what there was about that cold-blooded man that could possibly make her admire him.
The man looked like a black-and-white ghost that had intruded into a brightly colored landscape painting.
“What’s wrong?”
Perhaps noticing his tension, she lifted him onto her shoulder.
He fell into conflict.
If he simply did something to attract her attention, he could make Talia notice that man.
But would that really help change her fate?
Even if a miracle happened and their relationship improved, that man would leave for the North again.
And she would be left alone in this castle once more.
Perhaps she would end up getting hurt even more deeply.
In the end, he decided to do nothing.
He licked the tip of her chin as though nothing had happened, and a cheerful laugh escaped her lips.
He looked up at her with satisfaction before stealing another glance at the man.
The man, who had been standing as motionless as a statue, finally turned around.
His silver hair, breaking into shimmering strands beneath the sunlight, became tousled in the breeze.
The shadow of the pale man, who seemed to have lost all color, stretched out darkly and damply across the ground.
As night deepened, the castle, which had been bustling with the banquet, became as quiet as a graveyard.
He carefully watched her as she slept soundly after taking a strong sleeping pill.
Then, cautiously climbing down from the bed, he approached the door.
When he stretched his body upright, his paw reached the doorknob.
Thanks to the considerable growth of his body over the past two months or so, he could easily push up the locking mechanism.
After removing the latch, he carefully slipped out into the corridor.
A faint creaking sound came from the hinges, but fortunately, she remained deeply asleep without moving at all.
He closed the door with his head and then cautiously made his way toward the stairs.
Fortunately, there were only a few soldiers on guard.
He managed to avoid their notice without much difficulty and finally arrived in front of the study he had used in the past.
