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Brought ‌‌‌to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our ‌‌‌official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 31
The man's large ‌‍‌hand moved slowly across her belly, stroking the soft fabric. It was a ‌‌‌‌touch that felt as though he were caressing something that belonged to him. ‌‌‌‌
"You wear the same fragrance as your mother. I caught this same ‌scent from Senebier's hair. Once you become intoxicated by this fragrance, you find yourself addicted, unable to stop searching for it... unable to stop..." ‌‌
The man's hand crept ‌‌‌‌upward toward her chest.
Talia Roem Guerta instinctively twisted her body to escape his embrace. But the man remained unmoved.
He held her tightly from behind, bringing his damp, hot lips to the soft skin below her earlobe. It ‌‌felt as though a caterpillar had ‌‌‌attached itself to her ‌‌skin ‌‌and was sucking out her essence.
Talia Roem Guerta, ‌‌‌who had been rigid and trembling, soon began to convulse violently.
The man knocked her down, pressing her roughly onto the soft carpet.
She thrashed about like someone drowning, her limbs flailing. A table toppled over, and the puzzle tower she had spent hours building came crashing down. She crawled desperately over the ruins, struggling to escape the beast pinning her down, but he seized her ankle and dragged her back.
Talia Roem Guerta looked up at him with ‌eyes wide with terror. A primal fear washed over her at the realization that someone could so easily render her powerless.
"Stay still... just stay still for a moment."
The man gripped both her wrists with one hand while cradling her jaw with the other.
She struggled with all her might to turn her head, but she could not move. He forced her mouth open by pressing her cheek and thrust his thick tongue inside.
Her ‌‌‌throat constricted painfully with revulsion. It felt as though a giant slug were crawling into her mouth.
She did not have the courage to bite down on that horrible thing. Tears streamed down her face as ‌‌she made painful, choking sounds. His muscular, massive body ‌‌‌writhed against her as his breathing grew ragged and labored.
"Ah... Senebier... how I have longed for you..."
His hand crept beneath her skirt. The rough sensation of his calloused palm against her bare skin sent tremors through her ‌‌entire body.
A terror akin to death ‌flooded through her. She felt long, firm fingers invading the deep space between her thighs.
A sharp, burning pain erupted from within her body, and Talia Roem Guerta ‌‌gasped like a fish pulled ‌‌from water. The man pressed his sticky, adhesive lips against hers and muttered in a hoarse voice.
"There is no need to struggle so. The pain will be brief. Soon, ‌‌‌Your Highness will cry out in pleasure..."
Then, suddenly, the ‌‌‌weight crushing ‌‌down on her vanished as if it had never been.
Talia Roem Guerta instinctively crawled into a corner and huddled there. For a moment, she could not properly comprehend what had happened.
Only after several seconds passed did she realize that ‌‌‌Barcas, dressed in the uniform of the Roem Knights, was gripping the man's head with one hand ‌‌and savagely crushing his face.
The sight was so surreal that her mind went blank. Half of the ‌‌man's once-handsome face was scraped raw against the rough wall surface and soaked in blood, while agonized groans poured from his grotesquely gaping mouth.
"Wait... let's talk about this..."
Barcas seized the ‌‌man's head and slammed it mercilessly against the wall. With each dull, heavy thud, the man's face was crushed more horribly. Talia Roem Guerta barely managed to suppress a scream.
"Talia."
He opened his mouth quietly, his gaze fixed on the blood-soaked face.
"Go to your room." ‌‌
It was a calm voice that seemed impossible to have come from someone who ‌‌‌‌had just committed such brutal violence. Because of this, Talia ‌‌‌Roem Guerta did not realize the words were directed at her. Only when she met his ‌‌‌‌blue eyes, clouded as if by ash-gray mist, did she understand that he was speaking to her.
"Talia Roem Guerta."
His voice was eerily quiet. Barcas, who had dared to speak the princess's name so carelessly, added slowly.
"Did you not hear me tell you to go to your room?"
Talia Roem Guerta remained huddled ‌‌‌in the corner, staring up at him blankly. Then, an explosive roar erupted from his mouth.
"Now!"
In ‌‌‌‌that instant, a sensation like sparks of fire spread through ‌‌her entire body.
She fled the Library like a ‌‌whipped horse, rushing into the Bedroom and burrowing beneath the thick blankets, where a sharp, aching pain suddenly bloomed throughout her body.
She rubbed her stinging skin roughly. The slick tongue and hard palm still seemed to be crawling across her skin. In an attempt to erase that sensation, she scraped at her neck, chest, and thighs before beginning to strike her own body with her fists.
It was horrific. That man, the body he had touched, the fact that Barcas had witnessed it all—everything was horrific.
She struck her thighs with such force that bruises formed, then buried her face in her pillow and let out a ‌bestial cry.
How long had she been sitting there when she sensed another ‌‌‌presence in the room? She jerked her head up sharply.
Barcas stood in the doorway, impeccably composed as always, not a single detail out of place.
"You will never see that man again."
He spoke flatly. Talia, who had been staring blankly, let out a trembling question.
"...Did you kill him?"
At that, Barcas's brow furrowed slightly.
After a brief silence, he spoke ‌‌‌‌again.
"He will face permanent exile. For the rest ‌‌of his life, he will ‌never set foot in the Capital City or any ‌‌major metropolis..."
In that instant, the fragile thread of reason snapped entirely. Talia seized a pillow and hurled it directly at him.
"Why! Why did you ‌‌‌let him live! ‌‌‌‌You should have killed him! Killed him brutally! Cut off those filthy hands that touched my body...! That filthy tongue that violated me...!"
Screaming like a madwoman, Talia suddenly clutched at her throat, her shoulders trembling violently. A sensation of suffocation—as though invisible hands were strangling her—overwhelmed her.
"If you let him live, he'll come back...he'll come back to trample me again. He'll defile me. He said so himself. Like an addiction, he said he couldn't help but keep seeking me out...keep coming back..."
A sob erupted from her constricted throat.
Talia wrapped her contorted face in her hands, breathing in ragged gasps. Then, as though possessed, she began hurling everything within reach at ‌him.
"Useless! I don't need you! Get out! Get out! Disappear from my sight...!"
As Talia flung books and dolls indiscriminately, she suddenly froze. A candlestick she'd seized without thinking had flown toward his head.
The heavy metal object scraped roughly across Barcas's forehead and temple, clattering loudly to the floor.
Talia watched in shock as dark crimson blood stained his pale cheeks and neck.
Strange, sighing sounds—ah...ah...—escaped her throat. Barcas, regarding her with cold eyes, slowly turned away.
In ‌‌‌‌that moment, a chill spread through her entire body as though she'd been drenched in ice water.
Talia scrambled from the bed to reach for him. But Barcas had already left the room.
She stood frozen in the darkened Corridor, then sank to the ground as though her legs had given way. She wanted to sink into the earth itself and disappear.
Barcas had saved me. And I had made him my target for rage. It was strange that I didn't feel revulsion. It was natural to feel disgust. She buried her ruined face in the carpet and wept hot ‌‌‌tears.
After that day, Barcas did not appear before her. Only months later, at the Imperial Guard commander's appointment ceremony, did she see him again.
She watched from a distance as he knelt on one knee before the Emperor and recited his ‌‌‌‌oath ‌‌‌of loyalty in a steady voice.
Her father drew the Imperial ‌‌sword and placed it upon his shoulder. Then, in a solemn voice, he proclaimed that Barcas had been appointed to the position of commander of the Royal Guard Corps.
For a young man barely twenty years old, it was an ‌‌‌‌extraordinarily heavy burden, yet no one questioned his qualifications. ‌‌‌Barcas turned slowly and descended the steps. Sunlight poured down through the windows like a ‌‌‌downpour, flooding his composed face.
She burned every detail of that moment into her memory.
With his back straight, Barcas crossed through the crowd. His cool profile passed by me without a glance.
I whispered quietly to his retreating figure, growing ever farther from my reach.
Goodbye.
After ‌‌‌‌uttering those words, I added softly:
Don't go.
Tears threatened to ‌‌spill; Talia furrowed ‌‌‌‌her brow. Soon his figure disappeared entirely from view.
Seven years ago, the boy my mother had given me left my side like this.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, ‌please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------