Chapter 199
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From the moment he rose from his sickbed, he did not allow himself a single day of rest, throwing himself into an exhausting schedule of official engagements.
He needed to show everyone that he was alive and well if he wanted to suppress the countless sinister rumors surrounding Talia.
As though nothing had happened, Varkas reorganized the subjugation force and immediately began traveling throughout the East, restoring public order while devoting all his efforts to cracking down on heretical gatherings and tracking the raiders.
After his original plan to quietly eliminate the Zram had fallen apart, he changed tactics and launched a full-scale crackdown instead.
Whether because the hardline approach had proven effective or not, the frequency of raider attacks visibly declined, and the gatherings of the Great Spirit Church that had been quietly spreading across the East gradually disappeared as well.
It would be more accurate to say the heretical faction had gone underground rather than been completely eradicated, but at least the immediate chaos had been brought under control.
"It seems the heretic hunters will be returning to the capital before long."
Beirof placed a report on his desk, speaking with the relief of someone finally able to breathe easy.
Varkas picked up the yellowed parchment and quickly skimmed through it. The document contained a detailed account of the Temple Guardians' movements over the past several weeks.
"It appears the Holy Knights concluded that the cultists fled into the Frozen Lands. They've apparently decided there's no need to continue the pursuit."
Varkas stroked his lips thoughtfully.
Not long after obtaining his approval to investigate, the Temple Guardians had swept through the Kalmor region before eventually moving west.
They had judged it highly likely that the cultists had hidden themselves somewhere within the Netheran Mountains, which divided the eastern and central regions.
After remaining there for quite some time and searching throughout eastern and western territories, the investigation force eventually headed north following the cultists' trail. In the end, however, it seemed they had failed to capture those who had escaped.
"Wouldn't it be about time to recall the unit we assigned to monitor them?"
Beirof broached the subject carefully.
Pressing a hand against his throbbing forehead, Varkas repeatedly clenched and unclenched his stiff fingers.
At a time when available manpower was already stretched thin, forcing the Wolfram Cavalry to trail behind the Temple Guardians was an obvious waste of resources.
After making inquiries through every possible channel, Roman Talis's identity had also been thoroughly verified. There was no longer any practical reason to continue the surveillance.
Logically, that was the correct conclusion.
Yet Varkas simply could not let down his guard.
It was an instinctive sensation, almost primal in nature—the intuitive sense of danger one felt upon encountering a predator that had trespassed into one's own territory...
After staring at the report for a long while, Varkas finally shook his head.
"Tell them not to ease their surveillance until those men have completely left the East."
"But, Your Grace. Is that really necessary...?"
"The East has more or less stabilized by now. Diverting manpower for a few more weeks won't cause any serious problems."
Firmly cutting off his aide's objection, Varkas rose from his seat.
He had finished dealing with the mountain of official business before him. It was time to move on to his afternoon schedule.
Already planning his next destination, he stepped out of his office.
At that moment, a sharp shout echoed from somewhere nearby.
Varkas stopped abruptly in the corridor and glanced out the window.
In the open yard connected to the rear garden, his half-sister was furiously yelling at someone.
The moment he realized the person she was confronting was his wife, his body stiffened.
Wrapped in a pitch-black robe that no one knew where she had found, Talia stared at Raina with the expression of someone who had nearly lost her mind.
Watching the scene with a hardened face, Varkas turned away.
He immediately rushed down the stairs and stepped out through the rear entrance. As soon as he did, Raina's shrill voice struck his ears.
"Just confess already! What scheme are you plotting this time? The entire castle was thrown into chaos because of you, and now you're trying to do it again...!"
"What's going on?"
The younger sister who had been fiercely interrogating his wife immediately fell silent.
Varkas crossed the yard in only a few strides and stopped before them.
"I asked what is going on."
After displaying a brief look of surprise, Raina quickly recovered herself and boldly pointed a finger at Talia.
"Just look at her! She was trying to sneak out of the castle again! She was obviously planning to lure the raiders back here!"
Varkas fixed his sister with an icy stare before slowly turning toward his wife.
She had grown noticeably thinner over the past few weeks.
The woman who looked as though she might crumble at any moment raised frightened eyes toward him.
"That's not it. Khan disappeared..."
Biting at the bruised, blackened fingernails on her hand, she continued anxiously.
"I haven't seen Khan since dawn. So... I was only trying to find him."
Standing motionless, Varkas looked down at her.
He drew a slow, deep breath.
A heavy, burning anger crawled up his spine until it reached the very top of his head.
He wasn't entirely certain what exactly he was so furious about.
Was it because she had wasted away so badly?
Or because she stood frozen before his much younger sister-in-law, unable to utter a proper word in her own defense?
Or perhaps because, looking as though she might collapse at any second, she had still tried to leave the castle in secret.
He swallowed back whatever was rising inside him before speaking in a cold voice.
"Did you think my order to remain confined meant nothing?"
She flinched and lowered her gaze.
Her fingers trembled violently where they clutched the robe.
For some reason, seeing her cower like that only made the turmoil inside him burn even hotter.
She had always been a woman who held her head high no matter the circumstances.
The woman who used to shout back even when she was clearly in the wrong was now trembling like a criminal, and the sight filled him with an indescribable sense of disgust.
As though trying to shake off that emotion, Varkas turned toward the soldiers standing awkwardly at the edge of the yard and barked,
"What exactly were you doing while the Grand Duchess walked out of her room?"
"We... we're terribly sorry, Your Grace."
The guards hurriedly bowed.
Staring at them with icy eyes, Varkas gestured sharply.
"Take her back to her room immediately. If something like this happens again, you'll answer with your heads."
The soldiers turned deathly pale and rushed over to surround Talia.
Just as they were about to escort her away, the woman, her lips bitten with anxiety, suddenly grabbed Varkas's forearm.
"I-I'm only going out for a little while. I really think Khan left the castle. I have to find him..."
His body went rigid as he looked down at her desperate face.
It felt as though flames spread outward from the place where her hand touched him.
As if denying that sensation, he ruthlessly pulled her hand away and urged the soldiers on.
"What are you waiting for? Take her away."
The hesitant soldiers approached her once more.
After staring at him for a long moment with vacant eyes, Talia finally turned away without another word.
He deliberately forced himself to look elsewhere.
Then his gaze landed on Raina, who was standing there with a smug grin spreading across her face.
For one fleeting moment, an overwhelmingly violent urge seized him—to snap the neck of the younger sister whose skin had been so handsomely bronzed by the sun.
"Raina Laedgo Siorcan."
Sensing the anger in his voice, the smile instantly vanished from her lips.
Varkas stepped right in front of her and spoke in a dark, ominous tone.
"It seems you think the position of Grand Duchess is something to be mocked."
Raina looked up at him, visibly frightened, before defiantly lifting her chin.
"What Grand Duchess? That woman's a monstrous witch! She poisoned your wine, and she brought the raiders into the castle! Then why are you protecting someone like her? Because of that woman...!"