The Forgotten Field Novel - Chapter 57, 58
## Chapter 57: THE FORGOTTEN FIELDS (NOVEL)
Asros wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, then climbed the stone steps in a single breath and pulled the handle of the firmly shut door. Through the crack that opened, a deathly silent view of the Great Hall was revealed.
Not a single guard, nor even a single maid, was in sight. The gloomy, dismal space made Asros look around cautiously as he crept forward and climbed the stairs.
He had no idea why he was trying to silence his own footsteps.
He had felt it the last time he came as well: this palace was like a cemetery. The eerie atmosphere made him hold his breath involuntarily.
After casting a suspicious glance at the curtained windows, Asros climbed the stairs two at a time and quickly reached the third floor.
At last, the door to his sister’s bedroom came into view.
Stopping in front of the large mahogany door, he stabilized his breathing for a moment before knocking carefully.
But even after a good while, there was no “Who is it?” nor any response telling him to enter.
*Is she… asleep?*
Leaning his ear against the door, Asros knocked a bit louder this time. Then—thud—something inside made a noise.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open to look inside the room.
A hazy white smoke drifted in the messy bridal chamber.
Asros coughed from the thick, suffocating air, and suddenly his eyes widened. Before him stretched a scene as if a whirlwind had passed through.
Gawking in shock and blinking rapidly, he stepped into the debris as if drawn by something.
Fragments of broken glass were scattered across the room.
Judging by the strong smell of wine rising from the carpet, someone had thrown a bottle. Torn strips of cloth and feathers—likely from a shredded pillow—were scattered everywhere.
He scanned the disaster with stunned eyes and suddenly shuddered upon seeing the shattered full-length mirror.
On the fractured surface, his reflection stared back at him in dozens of broken pieces.
A chill ran down his spine as, by instinct, he took a step back.
Then—a creak—a sound was heard behind him.
Asros turned around, startled, and froze upon seeing Thalia lying limply on the carpet.
For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.
She wore only a thin nightgown, and her empty eyes stared up at the ceiling. Her face, stripped of all life, sent a cold shiver down his back.
With arms thin as branches, she reached out, scooped up a handful of feathers rolling on the floor, and scattered them into the air.
The pale feathers floated in the hazy air like dust.
Staring at the floating feathers with unfocused eyes, Thalia slowly shifted her gaze toward him.
Asros stepped back involuntarily.
Her cracked, blood-crusted lips moved, letting out a dry voice.
“…Did you come to watch the show?”
“I… I just… came to see how you were doing…”
Her desolate gaze fell upon the bunch of flowers he held awkwardly against his chest.
Asros felt his ears burn. For some reason, he felt as though he had done something terribly wrong.
Thalia slowly lowered her eyelids like someone completely exhausted.
“…Leave them there and go.”
Moving clumsily, Asros left the bouquet on the shelf next to the bed.
He no longer knew what he should do.
With helpless eyes fixed on his sister, Asros finally turned around and left the room.
Berens, who was waiting in the hallway, frowned upon seeing Asros’s pale face, as if suspecting he had been harmed.
Asros explained nothing; he simply grabbed Berens’s hand.
“Let’s go back to the main palace. Now.”
Then he ran down the hallway, silent as a tomb.
He didn’t even know what he was fleeing from. He only knew he wanted to escape this artificially cold and oppressive place as quickly as possible.
Glancing once over his shoulder toward the half-open bedroom door, Asros ran down the stairs, fleeing the annex like an animal escaping a trap.
It felt as if an ant were walking through his veins.
A throbbing pain shot up his shins, then his knees, his thighs, his pelvis, his waist, gnawing deeper and deeper.
It wasn’t as intense as before, but it was just as unbearable.
Thalia dug her nails into her knotty knee, scratching furiously. Then, as if the creature inside her were rebelling, the ant burrowed deeper, down to her very bones.
To extract the damned pest, Thalia peeled back her skin like a layer of dead callus.
Blood welled up from the torn flesh. Ignoring the stinging burn, she dug her nails into the exposed red tissue, just as her nanny entered the room at that moment and let out a sharp scream.
“I told you, please stop doing that!”
The nanny dropped the tray she was holding and grabbed Thalia’s hands.
Thalia looked at her with lifeless eyes, then raised her other hand toward the scars on her body.
“Why do you do this to yourself!”
The nanny secured her other wrist as well, sighing deeply.
“It is already a horrible scar, what are you going to do if it gets even worse?”
Thalia stared at her, her gaze lost.
This was the nanny who used to always tell her she was beautiful, who never tired of praising her. She had adored Thalia, saying she perfectly resembled the young Senevior.
Yet, even the nanny now looked at her as if she were hideous.
Releasing her wrist with a violent twist, Thalia pushed the nanny’s shoulder.
“Get out! I don’t want to see your face!”
The nanny looked at her sternly, then walked with firm steps toward the shelf. She took the bowl of oatmeal and the medicine vial from the tray and held them out to her.
“I will leave right after you take this, so do not worry.”
Thalia made a motion to throw the bowl.
But even the clumsiest nanny ended up learning to be cautious after suffering the same thing many times.
She stepped back quickly and shot Thalia a stern look.
“If you do not eat, I will not burn the sleeping herb for you.”
Thalia looked at her with resentment, but finally took the bowl. She no longer had the strength to argue.
She brought the pasty food to her mouth mechanically. It tasted like mud.
Holding back the urge to vomit, she forced down the oatmeal and the mysterious medicine. Then, the nanny placed a fresh bunch of herbs into the censer and lit it.
Thalia inhaled the pungent smoke deeply and collapsed onto the bed.
Her consciousness became blurry, and sleep overcame her. As her senses faded, she sighed with a faint sense of relief and directed her gaze toward the window. Beyond the clean glass, the evening sky was tinged with red.
When the sun set, the suffocating darkness would soon come for her. Even in her lethargic state, fear ran down her spine.
She feared the approaching night. The memories of waiting endlessly for someone to arrive in the dark oppressed her throat.
But she feared the morning even more.
She did not want to wake up in this miserable body and live another day.
Closing her eyes tightly, she whispered a desperate prayer.
*Please… let all the time that has been given to me fade away while I sleep. Allow me to be released from this torment forever.*
But as always, her wish was not granted.
Awakened by hands shaking her shoulders, Thalia looked at the sunlight streaming through the window and let out an empty sigh.
Another miserable day was beginning. She brought her hand to her throbbing forehead.
Then, an unfamiliar voice drifted near her ear.
“It is time to get up, Your Highness.”
Startled, Thalia turned her head sharply and sat up abruptly.
A tall woman of strong build was standing beside her bed, looking down at her with steel-colored eyes.
With sharp, disciplined movements, the woman made an elegant bow.
“Excuse my rudeness for entering without permission, Your Highness. I am Trania Meldren, Chief of the Ladies-in-Waiting of the Empress’s Palace. By order of Her Majesty, I will attend to you today.”
Thalia’s face contorted with confusion as she slowly scanned the room.
At some point, the bedroom had been thoroughly cleaned. To one side stood a group of a dozen maids wearing dresses stamped with the seal of the Empress’s Palace.
Thalia tensed upon seeing the towering piles of garments they carried in their arms.
A bad feeling oppressed her throat.
“Attend to me? Why…?”
“Today, Your Highness will have an audience with His Imperial Majesty.”
—
## Chapter 58: THE FORGOTTEN FIELDS (NOVEL)
Talia straightened her back completely, as if she had been struck by lightning. The woman turned around elegantly and continued speaking.
“Her Majesty the Empress has ordered that Your Highness be prepared to meet the Emperor in a manner worthy of the sovereign of the Empire. Please cooperate.”
She made a small gesture. Four maids who were at the front took a step toward the bed, their arms loaded with garments.
Talia pulled her body away sharply.
“All of you get out. I have no intention of meeting that kind of man.”
“Please refrain from using irreverent language.”
The woman’s voice, which had been polite, suddenly turned cold as frost.
“It does not matter that you are a princess; it cannot be tolerated that you speak so disrespectfully of His Majesty the Emperor. I will overlook it just this once. Please be mindful from now on.”
Talia was startled for a moment, then sharpened her gaze.
“And if you don’t overlook it, what will you do? Go running to cry before the great Emperor to accuse me?”
“I could do so, if necessary,” the woman replied coldly.
Talia let out a dry laugh.
“Oh, really? Then go straight to the main palace and tell him this: that the ill-mannered Second Princess shouted that she never wants to see that precious face of his again in her life!”
At that moment, a burning pain exploded on the back of her hand.
Dazed, Talia looked at the woman. She had struck her with a thin rod she held, and her gaze was like a sheet of ice.
“The authority you enjoy as a princess comes from His Majesty. Such shameful remarks cannot be ignored.”
“You… you dare to… strike me…?”
Talia was trembling, unable to finish her words.
The woman looked at her with disinterest and then turned toward the door.
“His Majesty has strictly ordered that we deliver Your Highness before the Emperor by whatever means necessary. Are you asking us to use harsher methods?”
With a threatening tone, the woman threw the door open.
Talia froze upon seeing the soldiers from the Empress’s palace lined up in the hallway.
As if enjoying the sight of Talia’s pale face, the woman spoke softly.
“There is no need for this to become unpleasant. If Your Highness cooperates, it will be over quickly.”
If she didn’t, they would use force; that was the message.
Talia clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. The humiliation made her eyes sting.
At that moment, if Senevier had been in front of her, she felt she would have been capable of driving a dagger straight into her chest.
Trampling the last shred of her dignity like that… Never, never would she forgive it.
“Now, wash Your Highness well.”
At the chief maid’s order, two maids leaned over the bed.
Talia slapped their hands away.
“Don’t touch me!”
Startled, the maids stepped back as if dodging sparks, fear reflected on their faces, fearing she might take reprisals one day.
Seeing their hesitation, Talia raised her voice even higher.
“My nanny will assist me in the bath. All of you leave my room.”
The woman contemplated her with reflective eyes and then sighed with resignation.
“Very well. But I will take care of dressing you. I cannot yield on that.”
The chief maid left with her assistants.
Moments later, the nanny entered hurriedly. She was a woman who had always hurt her with careless words; however, the moment Talia saw her face, she felt on the verge of tears from sheer relief.
Talia buried her face against the nanny’s shoulder as she approached to hold her.
Oblivious to Talia’s internal turmoil, the nanny chattered happily:
“You heard what the chief maid said, right? His Majesty asked for you! I am sure he was worried sick when he heard you were injured!”
Talia ignored most of the chattering, making an effort to support weight on her feet. A sharp pain shot up her bones.
Rage surged inside her.
*Is this what he called making her walk smoothly?* Her deformed leg could barely support its own weight.
Grinding her teeth, she dragged her throbbing leg and moved behind the screen.
She climbed with difficulty into the marble bathtub, and the nanny poured warm water over her.
Submerged in the warm water, Talia looked at her leg. The reddish scars were swollen like bloated worms.
When she touched them lightly, the nanny slapped her on the back.
A wave of sadness washed over her, but Talia withdrew her hand without protesting, fearing the nanny might get irritated and leave indignantly.
“Now, tilt your head back. Let me rinse your hair.”
Talia leaned back against the tub while the nanny poured warm water from a large pitcher.
When the last remnants of foam were rinsed away, Talia stepped out of the bathtub, swaying. The nanny dried her with a large towel and then dressed her in clean underwear and a petticoat.
“Very well, the chief maid will do the rest.”
Once the nanny left with a satisfied look, the chief maid returned with her maids.
Talia endured their evaluating stares in silence. The woman circled around her like a judge, then clapped her hands.
“Braid the hair upward and dress Your Highness in the prepared gown. I will select the accessories myself.”
Dozens of hands began to move around her.
Talia endured it like torture while they handled her like a doll. Three or four maids dressed and undressed her repeatedly, while others began to braid her long hair—which reached down to her waist—into several sections, gathering them upward.
After supervising the entire procedure with a stern expression, the chief maid finally nodded.
“This will do.”
The maids stepped back immediately.
Talia looked lines of fatigue at the chief maid as she placed a pearlescent silk cloak over her shoulders and turned toward the exit.
“It is time to go.”
After a moment of hesitation, Talia stepped out. She wanted to walk naturally, but her numb leg refused to obey.
With each uneven step, she felt the eyes of the guards placed upon her. She wanted to crush those eyes looking at her, every last one of them.
Repressing her humiliation, she left the side palace and saw a carriage waiting in the garden. A man in armor was standing beside it; someone unknown.
Had the previous knight resigned? The face of the man who had annoyed her throughout the journey crossed her mind.
But she soon decided it didn’t matter. The imperial guards rotated every season anyway. It was about time for a replacement.
Talia climbed into the carriage with a bored expression. The chief maid followed her and spoke sternly.
“His Majesty will speak of something important today. Please refrain from any behavior that does not conform to etiquette.”
“What important matter?”
“I do not know.”
“Then how do you know it is important and not a triviality?”
The woman pressed her lips together. Her patience was running out.
Talia turned away from her and looked out the window. The carriage had already left the garden of the side palace and was crossing the vast imperial grounds.
Watching the landscape pass by at full speed, she massaged her knee, which had begun to ache again. Even with the thick cushions beneath her, the slight vibrations of the carriage felt as if they were shaking her bones. Sweat accumulated and rolled down her face as she struggled to swallow the pain.
Finally, the rattling carriage came to a halt.
Stumbling as she got out, Talia narrowed her eyes at the plaza illuminated by the bright sun. There were more people than usual gathered before the main palace. As she looked on desolately, the chief maid urged her.
“His Majesty is waiting. Please hurry.”
Talia bit her lip and moved forward.
The people who recognized her were startled and murmured. Ignoring it, she tried to pass between those blocking the entrance, when one of the guards stopped her.
“You cannot pass through here. My apologies, but you must use the side…”
The guard abruptly saw her face and caught his breath.
Talia looked at him coldly.
“How dare you block my path?”
“M-my apologies, Your Highness.”
The guard stepped aside in a hurry.
Talia passed right by the onlookers who bowed awkwardly and entered the building.
Trying to hide her unnatural gait had left her drenched in sweat. And she wasn’t even sure if it was working.
She looked sideways to gauge the reactions; then she saw it. A huge birdcage placed to one side of the hall.
Talia opened her eyes wide.
“…What is that?”
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