As the uninvited guest left, I recruited a healer and filled the room with smoke.
As I inhaled the acrid air that shimmered like a haze, my senses slowly began to subside.
A deep sense of relief came over me.
If I wait a little longer, the fog will encroach on my head.
Then I don't have to think about anything. I just wanted to sleep like I had died.
I hung down on the bed and closed my eyes. However, no matter how much I waited, a single thread of consciousness could not be broken, and I clung to reality.
I put my face close to the stove and inhaled the acrid smoke more deeply in an attempt to fall asleep, but all I could do was cough.
As I shook my body and squealed violently, even the slight drowsiness that was gathering around my eyes escaped.
I looked out the window in embarrassment. Before I knew it, the sky was dyed a dark color of blood.
Wondering how long I would spend staring at the spine-chilling sunset light, I slipped out of bed and stood on the floor on my own two legs, as if drawn by something.
I didn't feel any pain if the medicine was working properly.
I took a few steps as a test.
My left leg moved a beat late, and my foot dragged on the floor. However, the pain I felt every time I bent my joints was quiet. This seemed to be enough to walk.
I slipped my bony feet into my slippers and pulled out a hooded robe from the closet.
I put it on roughly over my body and left the bedroom a sobbing.
By now, the nanny should be lounging around in her room.
The healer would have returned to his quarters at the end of the day, and the maids would be relaxing in their rooms.
As I had thought, I walked down the long corridor and down the stairs, but I didn't run into anyone else.
I passed through a wide hall and exited the palace through a side door used by servants.
A cool breeze gently brushed across my face.
Breathing in the cold air mixed with the smell of grass and flowers, I walked slowly.
After wandering around aimlessly like that, I suddenly realized that I was near the barracks.
A faint question appeared in my mind.
Why did I come here?
Looking around the red-lit clearing with blank eyes, I felt a sense of presence and instinctively hid behind the bushes.
As if it were a sparring, I caught a glimpse of a few knights brandishing their swords on one side of the parade ground.
I looked at them from a distance and walked again.
I walked for a long time, not knowing where I was going, and my clear vision began to undulate. It seemed that the herbs were finally working.
I dragged my limbs as I drooped, walking as slowly as an earthworm.
Suddenly, I saw my shadow hanging down at my feet, swallowed up by the thick shadow, and I looked up. Before I knew it, I was inside a dimly lit building.
Where else is this place?
As I gathered my brows in confusion, a door at the end of the long corridor caught my attention.
I staggered to the front and knocked on the door cautiously.
After a while, a soft bass came over.
"What's going on?"
My eyelids jerked slowly.
Only when I heard that voice could I remember why I was here.
I spat out a muffled voice.
"I came here because I have something I want to tell you."
There was a chilly silence.
I cleared my throat and opened my mouth again, wondering if my voice was too low.
At that moment, I heard heavy footsteps, and suddenly the door opened.
I lifted my head.
Perhaps taking a break at the end of the day, Barcas was wearing only dark cotton trousers and a thin linen shirt loosely draped.
As I scanned the image with blank eyes, a cold voice fell on the top of my head.
"Did you come all the way here dressed like that?"
I lowered my eyes to examine my outfit.
Through the gaping robes, I could see the summer pajamas that the nanny had put on me.
What is this?
I frowned, but a large hem was wrapped around my shoulder.
I looked up at him, bewildered.
Wrapped tightly around my body with his coat, Barcas looked around the hallway as darkness began to fall.
"What about the escort?"
"Escort?"
Then...
His eyes became sharp.
Barcas squeezed my chin lightly and lifted it up. Then he bent his back toward me and stared into my eyes.
"How many sleeping weeds did you burn?"
I tightened my eyes to see his face that kept getting shriveled.
Barcas had a strange expression on his face that I had never seen before.
Do you know? Maybe it's my head that is strange.
The whole world looks distorted, so how can this man look normal?
I pursed my lips as I pulled his hand away from my face rather roughly.
"I said I came here because I had something to say."
I could see his eyes narrowing. He didn't seem to like something.
Barcas gave me a chilling look, straightened himself up, and looked up out the window at the darkening sky. Then I looked over my shoulder and looked around my room.
He seemed to be thinking about something, and I became more and more nervous.
Did I speak the language of elves or dwarves? Why is there no reply?
No.
"Can't you hear me? I have something I want to say..."
Suddenly, my body tilted to one side.
I hurriedly grabbed the doorpost.
Apparently, I had cramps in my legs from walking from the palace to this place. I felt a faint twitching in my left thigh muscle.
I pressed my hands against the wall and put pressure on the other leg to keep myself from falling to the floor.
At that moment, my body floated above the air.
I looked up in surprise and saw a tired face fill my vision.
He took me in his arms and stepped into the large candlelit bedroom.
I lowered my gaze again and scanned the familiar and unfamiliar scenery.
I had come here many times to see him, but this was the first time I had ever been inside his room.
Suddenly, a laugh came out. It seemed that my legs were so worthy of my sanctuary.
"Talk about it after the medicine is gone."
Barcas sighed, setting me down on his bed.
I gripped the hem of his robe as he tried to back away from me. I could feel a faint tension in my tightly trained upper body through the thin hem of my clothes.
Maybe he realized what I was trying to say.
I tried to correct the divergent focus, clutching the hem of his robe like a rope.
"No, we're going to talk now. If I were sane, I wouldn't be able to say it..."
"..."
"You said you would take me as your wife if I agreed?"
He didn't answer, just looked into my eyes relentlessly.
I barely moved my tongue, which was about to loosen up like a noodle melody.
"Do it, abandon Ayla Roem Gurta and take me as your wife."
A heavy silence fell.
An unknown light shone over his face as he stood with his back to the sunset.
Maybe they are embarrassed.
Since he must have said it on the premise that he would be rejected, I thought that he might have felt embarrassed by my answer.
However, his voice was eerily calm.
"I will do that."
I groped his face with my hazy eyes. A hollow smile leaked out of his dry expression, which showed no emotion.
Because of this man, Ayla had to visit her half-sister, whom she despised so much, and give up her pride.
I am suffering from the urge to mess everything up.
But why is this man so calm?
In a chill that I even felt boredom, something cracked inside me.
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