Forgotten Fields - Chapter 76




I raised my head, and a cold, frozen face came into view.

He looked down at his younger brother with sharp eyes and continued speaking softly.

"You grew up quite spoiled."

The boy's young face turned pale.

Barcas, who had let go of his hand as if shaking it off, turned his gaze to the middle-aged man standing next to the stairs.

"How did you teach etiquette?"

"I have no face."

The stubborn-looking man bowed his head as if he felt ashamed.

The boy who saw that sight suddenly raised his volce.

"If you have something to say, say it to me! Why are you saying that to a stranger?"

Barcas's icy eyes immediately turned to him.

The boy who had been shouting curiously averted his gaze.

"It's not like it's worn out, so she could at least show me her face."

I raised my eyebrows at the grumbling. I felt a burning sensation at the way I was treated as if I were some kind of rare animal.

"Who dares treat me like a spectacle...!"

Just as I was about to say something, a long finger blocked my vision.

Barcas pulled my hood tightly over my eyes and went up the stairs.

I looked dumbfounded.

I couldn't understand why he was trying to hide me so tightly. Was it because he wanted to block me from having any friction with his family?

I pulled back my hood and glared at him with a fierce gaze.

"What have you been trying to do? You should at least introduce me!"

"You must have suffered from a fever throughout your trip."

He answered in a calm tone as he walked across the wide marble-floored hall.

"First, take care of yourself. I'll be happy to introduce you to them once you feel better."

"I'm fine...!"

As I tried to refute his words, a cough rose up my throat.

I covered my mouth and shrugged my shoulders. My throat, parched from the heat, stung like sandpaper.

I let out a small sigh.

"Stop wasting your energy and just get some sleep."

Then he put the hood back on my head.

I, who had been glaring at him with a frown, soon lowered my head weakly.

As he said, I was exhausted from being sick for several days. Deep inside, I felt relieved that I could postpone the uncomfortable encounter. However, I could not honestly express my feelings and just kept muttering.

"You really annoy me."

He climbed the stairs without saying anything.

A man who appeared to be a butler followed him in a hurry and guided him to a large bedroom on the second floor of the main palace.

After a while, a scene unfolded before my eyes, inside a room decorated much more luxuriously than the bedroom in the villa.

I looked around with wide eyes. A chandelier studded with crystals hung from the high ceiling, and golden candelabras were placed in regular patterns throughout the room.

The walls were adorned with furniture that would have been worthy of being presented to an Emperor, and at first glance, it seemed as if it had been made by dwarves.

In addition, there were tapestries with unique patterns, shields with the emblem of the Sheerkhan family, animal furs, and white-colored pottery decorated here and there.

As I was examining them carefully, Barcas walked over to the large bed in the middle of the room and carefully put me down, saying.

"You can use this room from now on."

I absentmindedly grabbed his sleeve.

"You?"

Barcas, who had been ringing the bell hanging next to the bed to summon the attendant, paused and looked down at me.

In an instant, heat rose up my cheeks.

I added hastily.

"I'm not saying we should share a room."

"Don't worry. I plan to have a separate bedroom."

He said calmly.

I relaxed my shoulders in relief. I had been tense the whole time, expecting the moment to come when I would have to show him my legs.

He straightened up and continued speaking in a calm tone.

"This is the bedroom used by the mistress of the Sheerkhan family for generations. It will be more than adequate for Your Highness's stay."

"If I use this room, where will the current Grand Duchess stay?"

"For the past ten years, the position of Grand Duchess Sheerkhan has been vacant."

I was momentarily speechless at his indifferent response. The family history I had heard while living in the palace came to mind.

Barcas's biological mother died young from puerperal fever after giving birth to him.

I heard that the second Grand Duchess, who was welcomed after that, also passed away in an unexpected accident, and that the shock caused Grand Duke Sheerkhan's health to deteriorate.

It would have been difficult to welcome a new Grand Duchess in such a situation.

I gave a big, awkward cough.

"Oh, right. That's right."

"I'll call a healer for you. Take some fever reducer and get some sleep."

He handed me a glass of water, perhaps concerned by my cracked voice.

As I accepted it and took a sip, I heard a noise at the door.

I turned my gaze and found a middle-aged woman with a solemn expression, and I hurriedly raised my upper body.

Barcas, who had been pressing down on my shoulder, looked back at the woman over his shoulder. Then, the woman, who had been observing me with an observing gaze, bowed politely.

"It's been a while, Your Excellency."

It was a gentle voice that did not match her stiff appearance.

The woman continued speaking softly.

"His Highness the Grand Duke has ordered that the Lord be brought in to the room immediately."

"Tell him I'll be there soon."

Barcas responded calmly and looked down at me with calm eyes.

"Well then, I will take my leave now."

"...Shouldn't I go with you too?"

"Your Highness, you can pay your respects separately later. I will explain everything to my father, so don't worry."

And then he left the room without giving me a chance to stop him.

I stared blankly at the closed door, then got out of bed and walked unsteadily to the window.

Through the transparent glass window, the entire view of Kalmor came into view.

A city surrounded by castle walls, and beyond that, large and small villages, and green meadows... I pushed the window frame aside, and a cold, dry wind swept roughly across my face.

I looked out at the plains that met the blue sky, then heard a strange sound faintly echoing from somewhere and turned my head.

At the end of the hill, a white birch forest appeared. For a moment, a strange feeling came over me, whether excitement or fear.

'This is where I will live from now on.'

I took a deep breath.

The cold, dry smell of the wind that had faintly permeated Barcas' body filled my lungs.

At that moment, I knew I would love this land.

***

Lucas sat sprawled out on his chair, kicking the floor.

His younger sister, Raina, who was one year younger than he, glared at him and scolded him.

"If I get treated like an uneducated kid because of you, then you'll take responsibility!"

"You're a kid who hasn't learned anything."

A pillow stuffed with goose down flew over his face.

With the sole intention of looking good in front of her brother, Raina spent hours braiding her thick hair and even took out her late mother's jewelry and a silk tunka (traditional clothing of the Khan people) to dress up.

But, let alone trying to talk to him, she didn't even get a glance from her brother.

Raina put all the blame on her easygoing brother.

"Brother Barcas was educated like royalty in the capital! He is a noble among nobles who is well-versed in palace etiquette! What are you going to do if you use the language of commoners in front of him?"

"The noblest of nobles will freeze to death."

He suddenly raised his upper body.

"Didn't you see that earlier? He just walked away without even saying hello to the people who had been waiting for him for days? Is that the etiquette of the palace?"

"That's because you were the one who upset your brother first!"

"What did I do so wrong?"

Lucas jumped up from his seat and grumbled.

"I was just trying to check out her face! I was wondering what kind of person she was, too."

"I'm not interested in a woman's face at all!"

Raina's hazel eyes glared sharply at the jade jewelry hanging from her neck.

"What's the point of checking the face of that vulgar woman who tarnished our honor? She's just like my vulgar mother!"

"...Don't talk to me like you haven't learned anything from me."

"I'm telling you to be careful in front of your older brother!"

Raina's eyes sparkled as she roughly tossed her hair back.

With long arms and legs and tanned skin from riding a horse every day since the age of six, Raina looked like a tall, slender boy when she wasn't wearing makeup.

His younger sister took off her ornate, embroidered tunica and sat cross-legged on the bed.

"Listen carefully. You shouldn't treat that woman rudely in front of your brother. If you harass her so openly, our innocent brother will feel pity for her! On the contrary, we will become the bad, spoiled younger siblings!"

"...innocent?"

Lucas muttered incredulously.

Letting that go unnoticed, Raina continued her lengthy speech.

"That's why we have to do it as secretly as possible! If we stir it up even a little, she'll run to her brother and gossip about us. Then she'll be seen as a bad woman who slanders the kind and cute younger siblings, and we'll be the poor younger siblings!"


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