## Chapter 160: THE FORGOTTEN FIELDS (NOVEL)
Talia pushed the half-empty bowl aside and got out of bed.
Approaching the window, she spotted the silhouette of about ten knights wearing golden armor forming a line in the castle courtyard. They belonged to the Knights of Rom. Given that it was not a single knight but an entire elite squad, it did not seem as though they had come merely as messengers from the imperial court.
"Did they come looking for me?"
Talia asked herself with a distant gaze and then shook her head quickly. Not even the emperor could take the Duchess of the East by force. In reality, there was no reason to do that. The conflict with the North had probably already begun in earnest.
She also felt the imminence of war. Likewise, she was aware of the situation in which Varkas found himself under pressure from all sides because of it. If a war of independence broke out in the North, the eastern region would suffer great military and economic damage. Therefore, the nobles of the East also felt the need to quell the northern rebellion as soon as possible. Especially the lords of the regions bordering the North were mired in a great sense of crisis.
It was highly likely that the nobles of the conservative party were watching Varkas's movements with suspicious eyes. Had his political position not become compromised due to his marriage to her? All circumstances urged him to abandon her. Why then was this man clinging to her?
In her confused mind, the image of the man holding her silently under the moonlight appeared. Also the scene of him sitting her on his knees and calmly caressing her belly. Those moments in which she had felt love were on the verge of igniting a new spark in her heart, of which nothing but ashes remained.
"It cannot be."
Talia murmured as she was overcome by a deep sense of alarm. If time passed this way, it was evident that she would cling to a vain hope once again. She might forget her current pain and dream of happiness. And she would fall over and over again into the abyss of despair.
I don't want to. I don't want to suffer any more than this.
—Your Highness, do you feel tired? Shall I call the healer?
While she leaned her troubled head against the cold window, the maid asked her a cautious question. Talia looked at them head-on with a thoughtful expression and then scanned the room slowly. At that moment, her eyes landed on the sedative placed at the head of the bed.
Talia stared at it intently and uttered an impulsive sentence:
—I am thirsty. Bring me some wine.
The two maids exchanged glances at her request. Then, one of them left silently. Talia ordered the other to stoke the fire in the fireplace and, taking advantage of the oversight of the girl whose back was turned to her, she took the medicine bottle and hid it under her sleeve.
A moment later, the maid returned with a pitcher full of wine. Talia opened the cap of the medicine bottle beneath the bedspread and, with her other hand, seized the wine pitcher as if snatching it away.
The maid looked at her with bewilderment. She ignored the gesture, opened the lid of the pitcher, and tilted her head over it. She pretended to taste the wine with the tip of her finger and then poured the sedative she kept hidden in her sleeve. Fortunately, her long hair and her draped sleeves completely covered her action. She hid the empty bottle beneath the bedspread and then looked at the two of them with a severe expression.
—You two drink first.
The maids gazed at her with surprise. Talia manifested her anger:
—Why? Have you put something strange in here?
The faces of the two girls turned pale, then they poured the wine in small amounts into the cup and drank from it, alternating sip by sip. It seemed they had grown accustomed to her bad temper and suspected nothing.
Talia insisted that they drink more, accusing them of having feigned drinking. In the end, the maids were forced to empty an entire cup of the strong wine.
After observing them carefully, Talia suddenly told them that she had changed her mind, pushed the pitcher aside, drank a cup of water, and lay back in bed. She did not know why she was doing that. She remained motionless beneath the bedspread following a vague impulse.
After a while, when the room began to grow darker, she raised her head slightly. She saw the two maids sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. Given that the medicine had been prepared with a high concentration recently due to her body's adaptation to the sleep herb, both seemed to have lost consciousness completely.
She got out of bed and checked their breathing; then, she felt pity for them and covered their bodies with the blankets. Afterward, she looked inside the servants' anteroom, connected to the bedroom through the small side door. Fortunately, the healer had gone to the preparation room and the place was empty.
She entered without hesitation and searched the small chest next to the small bed. Shortly after, she found an undyed grayish-brown wool jacket and some leather shoes. She took off her nightgown, put on the jacket, which fit her a bit loosely, and put on the coarse shoes. Then, she carefully braided her long hair into a single braid, looked for a worn-out coat, and placed it over herself. With a tattered handkerchief over her head and the hood pulled down deeply, she looked exactly like an ordinary woman of the town.
Talia examined her appearance from every angle, then went out into the hallway through the small side door next to the anteroom. The hallway was deserted, perhaps because most of the servants were gathered in the kitchen to tend to the guests who had arrived suddenly.
She used the corridor that the servants usually used and headed toward her room, which had been abandoned for a long time. Fortunately, the bedroom was empty.
Talia approached the dresser next to the bed, unlocked it, and searched for items she could take with her. She found nothing more than a few pieces of jewelry, as most of her valuable belongings were kept separately in an iron safe.
After finding some gold rings and pearl hairpins with difficulty, she put them in her pocket and pulled out a jewelry box she had brought from the imperial palace. Upon opening the lid, she saw the moonstone that resembled Varkas's eyes, her handkerchief that he had bought for her, and a gold button engraved with the emblem of the Knights of Rom.
She was about to put it inside a leather bag naturally, but she stopped and froze in her place. Why was she taking such things at the very instant she was abandoning everything and leaving?
Talia contemplated the remnants of her miserable attachment with straying eyes, then returned them to the jewelry box and firmly closed the latch. Immediately after, she pushed it deep into the closet and stood up.
The sun had already set completely by then. She walked cautiously in the dark hallway. As she went down the narrow stairs leading to the back door, she spotted some servants busy carrying water for the bath. It seemed that a fire had been lit under everyone's feet to attend to the guests who arrived without prior notice. Thanks to this, Talia was able to leave the building without attracting the attention of the workers.
"... What do I do now?"
She walked along a narrow path where no one traveled and looked at the cloudy sky with a feeling of despair. Even for her, who was a naive person, she knew how cruel the world was. If she wandered without the company of a single guard, perhaps she would not survive more than a few days before being assaulted or becoming food for beasts. Even if luck accompanied her and she reached a populated place, she would not be able to earn a living because she did not know how to do anything. Perhaps she would die of hunger after begging in the streets. It was not difficult for her to imagine her tragic end.
"But..."
He would not have to see the scene of her falling apart.
Talia advanced at a slow and limping pace. If she continued advancing southward from Kalmore, she would reach the convent of Belamine. It had a reputation for being a refuge for the helpless, so perhaps they would generously accept a woman without an identity. If God took pity on me and I arrived there safely by a miracle, I would decide to live for a while longer. But if that did not happen…
Talia stopped thinking at that point. She no longer wanted to think about anything.
She walked automatically with her legs for a long time, until she finally saw the high walls of the castle and the iron-studded gate from among the trees. Fortunately, there were no visible guards. She approached the gate, trying to look as natural as possible. As she pulled the doorknob slightly, she saw cargo wagons following one another along the road. It seemed they had summoned traveling merchants in a hurry.
She looked at the merchant who was conversing with the guard soldier a short distance away and then crossed the gate cautiously.
At that instant, someone grabbed her shoulder firmly.
Talia turned her head in panic and found a soldier wearing a coat embroidered with the emblem of the Shierkhan family, so she hurried to pull down her hood. She felt the man looking at her with suspicion.
—Who are you? You don't look like a castle servant…
