The Forgotten Field - Chapter 54

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 54
“What does it matter if Barcas’s lips turn purple or green!”
As I hurled his clothes to the ground and raised my voice, another sigh escaped him.
My eyes burned with heat. He smiles for Aila, yet before me he does nothing but sigh. I couldn’t even bear to look at him.
“Even if I freeze to death here, I’ll make sure it causes you no trouble, so why don’t you go to that grand birthday banquet for your noble twin siblings! Go fawn over those two all you like!”
“Even if you spend the night here, Your Highness will not freeze to death. At worst, you might catch the flu.”
“Then I might as well die from the flu!”
I shouted furiously, and he brushed back the hair clinging to his eyes with rather rough movements.
At his irritated gesture, Talia shrank back. Yet the voice flowing from his lips remained as flat and emotionless as always.
“What must I do for you to stop playing the tragic heroine?”
At his cutting remark, Talia’s eyes narrowed again.
He always maintained such courteous behavior toward Aila, yet toward me he constantly sneered. I found him utterly detestable.
With eyes blazing, I yanked the pearl ornament from my tightly braided hair and, without hesitation, hurled it across the rippling lake with a sharp flick.
“Retrieve that. Then I’ll stop.”
Barcas’s eyes narrowed.
I expected him to either explode in cold fury or turn away without mercy. In that case, I planned to collapse here after enduring the night.
Let him feel the pangs of conscience when he sees my corpse.
But as always, Barcas refused to follow my expectations.
Before my eyes, he deliberately began unbuttoning his uniform jacket one by one.
I widened my eyes momentarily, then let out a scoff. He was merely bluffing, thinking I would stop him. There was no way he’d actually jump into the water.
Feigning composure, I watched as he removed his Knight Order uniform and laid it beneath a tree, then pulled off his boots that reached his calves.
So he’s going to see this through?
Barcas unfastened even the sword belt at his waist and approached the water’s edge in a translucent shirt and light cotton trousers. Then he gazed silently at the lake as rain fell in fine drizzle.
Surely he expected me to yield and came on strong. That must be it.
As I mocked him inwardly, he plunged into the water without warning.
I leaped to my feet.
The ashen surface swallowed his body in an instant. With a blank expression, I rushed forward and peered into the dark water.
“Barcas?”
The lake remained still.
From the age of sixteen, the eighteen-year-old boy had grown terrifyingly tall and handsome, yet no trace of him could be found anywhere. I raised my voice.
“Barcas!”
In the fine rain, only my voice echoed and rang out.
I began to panic.
“Stop joking around!”
A gust of wind swept across the surface at that moment.
The lake rippled briefly, but still no sign of him appeared.
Suddenly, my breath caught in my throat.
Without hesitation, I plunged into the water. After only a few steps, the water rose to my waist.
I thrashed the surface with both hands and cried out.
“Barcas! Barcas! Where are you!”
Beneath my feet, the slick mud and branches squelched with each step.
I ventured deeper into the water. Before I realized it, the surface had risen to my chest.
I thrashed wildly through the ice-cold depths, my rough sobs tearing from my throat.
“I, I was wrong! So please, just come out now!”
Losing all reason, I wailed desperately, and the water’s surface rippled violently before an elongated figure emerged from below.
I stared at him with frozen eyes.
Barcas shook his head, water streaming down, and turned to face me. Beneath his soaked lashes, his blue eyes glimmered faintly.
“Here.”
Barcas gripped my shoulder lightly with one hand and extended something toward me.
I gazed down at it blankly.
“Is this sufficient?”
In his palm lay the pearl ornament I had thrown.
A hollow laugh escaped my lips unbidden.
I covered my forehead with one hand, my shoulders shaking with bitter laughter. Then, as if possessed, I twisted my face in fury and snatched the pearl ornament away, hurling it far into the distance.
Even as I carelessly discarded what he had so painstakingly retrieved, he showed no reaction whatsoever.
Watching that composed face, I could no longer contain my rage and lashed out.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? To frighten me!”
He took the slap to his cheek in silence.
For some reason, that very composure inflamed my fury further.
I began pounding him with my fists.
“You held out until I said I was wrong! You wretched creature! I hate you so much!”
“That’s enough.”
Barcas suddenly seized both my wrists and lowered his voice.
I looked up at him with tears brimming in my eyes, my expression one of profound injustice, and a long sigh of exasperation escaped his lips.
“You’ve fulfilled today’s quota. Now stop this tantrum and come out of here.”
“No. I won’t listen to anything you say! I’ll drown here, so you just leave!”
As I shrieked defiantly, he dragged me onto the shore.
Throughout it all, I continued to pummel his back. Barcas watched me with an incredulous expression, shook his head slowly, and picked up the coat he had removed. Then he wrapped it snugly around my body and bound my arms firmly with the sleeves so I could no longer strike him.
When my attempts to break free proved futile, I kicked at his shin.
“Are you insane, binding the Princess? You thug!”
“You’re one to talk.”
Barcas exhaled a long breath and hoisted me onto his shoulder like a sack of grain.
I shrieked like an enraged duck.
“I am of the Imperial Family, you fool! Since when do Knights treat a Princess this way!”
Barcas silently gathered his sword and belongings, then strode purposefully into the rain.
I thrashed about like a wild beast, spewing every curse I knew, but soon exhausted myself and went limp.
He only set me down after we arrived at the Separate Palace. I glared at him indignantly, but my strength gave out and I collapsed.
That evening, I developed the severe flu I had threatened.
Barcas brought a chair to my bedside and sat quietly reading as my fever raged.
I cannot express how infuriating that serene expression was.
Irritated, I had provoked him, saying he must be delighted whenever I fell ill, and he had turned a page of his book before responding that it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Talia, glaring at him with feverish eyes, buried her face in the blanket with the somewhat hollow thought that “occasionally” was hardly the right word.
In her heart, she was grateful that he had remained by her side instead of attending Aila’s birthday banquet. For that reason, she could forgive his somewhat petulant demeanor with generosity.
She stifled her laughter and forced herself to sleep.
Despite the torment of the fever, laughter inexplicably continued to escape her lips.
Whenever I was with Barcas, it was always like this. Anguished and suffocating and furious all at once, yet my chest swelled with an overwhelming tenderness I could not control. Sometimes he felt like someone impossibly close to me.
Could it be that we were something like friends?
Within such brazen delusion, our shared moments accumulated layer upon layer.
Though it must have been a burden for him, for her those days were like precious gems.
Because of his presence, I could endure each day of that desolate loneliness.
But now memories of the past were no longer solace—they had become unbreakable shackles that bound her relentlessly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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