The Forgotten Field - Chapter 88

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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 88
When he raised his voice abruptly, displeasure flickered across the faces of the Handmaidens standing on either side. Yet Barcas himself didn’t bat an eye.
Barcas traced his fingers along her temples and gently caressed her reddened earlobes. Talia looked up at him with a bewildered expression.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Your ears have flushed red, Your Highness.”
His rough fingertips swept gently across her ear. Talia felt a tingling sensation flow down the nape of her neck and hunched her shoulders. Barcas, who had been studying her eyes intently, spoke in a reproachful tone.
“Are you receiving proper treatment? Or are you relying only on sleeping draughts again…?”
“Are you my Nursemaid now?”
Talia pushed him away somewhat roughly. Unlike herself, who had been captivated by the sight of him dressed so elaborately, his manner of treating her like a gravely ill patient suddenly filled her with a sense of despair.
“I’m managing just fine on my own, so stop worrying. I’ve been doing well all this time, haven’t I?”
When she pointed out that he hadn’t shown his face for days, his eyes narrowed.
Just as he was about to say something, a sinister voice echoed from deeper within the chamber.
“How much longer do you intend to keep me waiting, Barcas?”
Talia turned her head to gaze at the large bed positioned in the center of the room. A skeletal arm extended from the wooden bed draped with sheer curtains. He issued his command with arrogant indifference, flicking his fingers.
“Bring your wife here.”
Talia’s eyes narrowed. Even if he were a Grand Duke, no one could summon the Empire’s Princess with a mere gesture.
However, she was well aware that there was nothing to gain from defying the leader of the Eastern Territories’ power brokers in their own gathering.
She surveyed the men surrounding the bed, then carefully stepped into the chamber. Barcas naturally wrapped an arm around her waist to support her. Realizing that he was steadying her, Talia bit her lip.
Did this man perhaps see her as a child who needed his care? He had touched her body without hesitation before, but it seemed to have become far more frequent since the Wyvern attack.
“This way, Your Highness.”
Talia approached the large bed while leaning against him. A stern-faced man who appeared to be a Legal Representative and another man dressed in priestly robes quietly stepped aside.
Talia examined Grand Duke Sierkan with a tense expression. The man bore little resemblance to Barcas, yet was subtly similar. His sickly frame reeked of death, but his face, as if carved roughly by a chisel, overflowed with authority, and his eyes—cold as molten steel—were brimming with arrogance.
He swept his piercing gaze over her slowly and exhaled a low, heavy voice.
“…Disturbingly alike. Did that woman create you as some homunculus of herself?”
His words amounted to questioning her bloodline. Talia cast aside all thoughts of maintaining courtesy.
“If I weren’t descended from Darian, people like you would have exposed that fact long ago.”
She shot back sharply, her chin raised high.
“Or are you confessing your own incompetence—that you can’t even handle a single noble daughter of the Taren Family?”
Startled by her counterattack, rough intakes of breath sounded throughout the chamber. The Grand Duke’s face also stiffened rigidly. He glared at her face with piercing eyes, as if boring holes through it.
“You have no fear. Do you not know that I am the most powerful man in this Empire, commanding the finest cavalry?”
Talia’s face hardened. The pressure emanating from the Grand Duke made her knees momentarily buckle. Yet she feigned bravado.
“So what? Are you planning to trample me with that cavalry?”
“Do you think I cannot?”
The man spat out his words mockingly.
“Do you truly believe that the authority you lacked in the Imperial Palace could be guaranteed here in the Eastern Territories?”
The Grand Duke’s eyes gleamed with hostility and a sinister light. He pressed on relentlessly.
“If I decide right now to sever your neck, who could stop me? Would the Emperor truly risk the Empire’s division for you? Rather than wage war against the Eastern Territories, he would simply close his eyes and pretend ignorance. Your Empress might be somewhat troublesome, but that would never result in me standing trial. Your authority as Princess is worth so little.”
Talia felt cold sweat drenching her spine. Intense hostility surged toward this man who so casually exposed the truth she had long denied.
Like a cornered beast, she retreated while glaring at the Grand Duke with venomous eyes.
“Then kill me if you dare! My Empress won’t simply be ‘somewhat troublesome’—she’ll use my death as a pretext to crush the Conservative Faction. Would she really let such an opportunity slip away? Absolutely not.”
Talia let out a loud, derisive snort.
“Do you know what that means? It means the pitiful remnant of your life that remains will become absolutely, utterly exhausting. You think you’ll find peace after death? You murdered a defenseless woman based on mere hearsay, so you’ll be cast into the fires of hell.”
The Grand Duke’s face turned ashen at her excessive curses. Without giving him a moment to breathe, Talia poured forth her words.
“Did you think your suffering would end there? You’ll endure especially torturous times even in hell. Because I won’t leave you alone for a single moment! I’ll torment you relentlessly, day and night, to exact my vengeance even in the depths of hell. I possess a rather exceptional talent in that regard. If you don’t believe me, ask Barcas!”
As she shot a look at Barcas, silently demanding his support, he gazed down at her with a peculiar expression.
When he immediately refused to take her side, Talia’s face twisted with a sense of betrayal. No one could be trusted after all. This place was nothing but a den of enemies.
Talia, who had been surveying the sword-bearing men with wary eyes, abruptly turned to flee. Just as she was about to escape, Barcas seized her forearm. She leaped in alarm.
“Let go!”
Fearing he might hand her over entirely to the Grand Duke, she thrashed and struggled. With a heavy sigh, Barcas pulled her against his chest.
Talia’s breath caught. Held immobile by Barcas, she watched as he addressed the Grand Duke with icy coldness.
“I must clarify one matter. Should Your Excellency attempt to harm Talia Laedgo Sierkan, I will stand against you.”
Talia looked up at him in astonishment. He finished his words slowly.
“Will you truly lose your heir forever over such a trivial quarrel?”
The Grand Duke’s mouth fell open in stunned disbelief, then twisted into a menacing grimace. He looked as though he might breathe fire at any moment.
Yet what erupted from his lips was not a harsh roar, but violent coughing. The gaunt man convulsed, gasping for breath before releasing a dry, bitter laugh.
“This is infuriating.”
“….”
“So you presume to be so arrogant because I have no alternative but you.”
“If an alternative exists, you are free to present it.”
Barcas spoke in a chillingly gentle tone.
“I intend to do everything in my power to assert my rights. If you wish the Eastern Territories to tear themselves apart in conflict, then so be it.”
The wrinkles at the corners of the Grand Duke’s mouth twitched spasmodically. The man, who had been glaring at his eldest son with smoldering eyes, finally leaned his head back against the headboard as though exhausted. He then extended one hand toward the Legal Representative.
“Give me the power of attorney.”
The frozen Legal Representative trembled as he produced the parchment document with shaking hands.
The Grand Duke grasped a quill and signed his name in rough strokes. He then removed the ring from his finger. The Legal Representative immediately poured wax onto the end of the document. The Grand Duke pressed his seal into it and thrust the parchment toward Barcas.
“With this, all my rights are transferred to Barcas Laedgo Sierkan.”
Barcas accepted the power of attorney with an expressionless face. As though the matter were concluded, the man lowered his eyelids and waved his hand dismissively.
“Now get out.”

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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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