Chapter 208
## CHAPTER 208
Lucas regained consciousness after three more days had passed.
Fortunately, his vocal cords had not suffered permanent damage, so there was no impediment to his voice; however, the aftereffects of the injury appeared in an unexpected place.
Lucas remembered absolutely nothing about how he had been injured.
Luckily for him, he had not lost his memory completely, but there seemed to be a large gap in the course of his life from the age of sixteen.
“Considering that the vertebrae of the neck were completely fractured, the fact that it is limited to this magnitude of side effects is a miracle,” the high priest said, exhaling a sigh of relief after thoroughly examining Lucas’s condition through the interview.
“In the worst-case scenario, he could have suffered complete paralysis or a deterioration of his mental capacities to such an extent that discernment would be impossible. But in the case of young master Lucas, it seems there are no aftereffects beyond a partial memory loss.”
Sighs of relief erupted from the mouths of those surrounding the bed.
However, Lucas himself did not seem convinced by the high priest’s words.
Lucas remained lying on his side on the bed with a gaunt body, furrowing his brow as he muttered in a low voice:
“My mind is disturbed as if someone had cut it into pieces, so what kind of miracle is this?” His voice had become lower and hoarser than before. And it gave the impression that this was not to his liking, as the frown deepened between his brows. “Even my voice has been left in this state.”
“I thought you were going to die like that,” said Lina, who was sitting at the side of the bed wiping her nose with her handkerchief after a prolonged cry. “How afraid I was that you wouldn’t be normal even if you woke up. Fortunately, the matter ended with you being only a little sillier than usual.”
Lucas pierced her with a squinted gaze:
“Do you consider this as a comfort right now?”
And even though he complained as if he could not believe what he was hearing, he gently patted the head of his sister, who could not contain her tears.
Varkas, who had been watching the scene standing by the door, advanced toward the bed and raised his question:
“How did you suffer the injury? Do you really not remember anything?”
Lucas looked at him with a bewildered expression. His eyes, which were usually a light hazel hue, had been dyed a dark brown.
“I……”
As Lucas tried to evoke his memories, he suddenly clutched his temples and let out a low groan.
Seeing that, Lina jumped up and tightly held Lucas’s head against her.
“There is no need to remember!” Then she fixed a severe gaze on Varkas and said with a sharp tone, “Lucas remained unconscious for nearly half a month and has barely just regained his senses. Is there any reason for him to be forced to evoke the memory of the moment he almost lost his life right now?”
Lucas tried to restrain her by pulling the edge of her clothing with a confused face, but Lina did not yield in her stance.
Varkas stepped back away from the bed with a low sigh while watching the situation with crossed arms.
“Take a prolonged rest until your body is completely restored. Baridon will handle the entirety of the duties assigned to you for the time being.”
The wrinkles reappeared between Lucas’s brows, and it gave the impression that he had forgotten even what duties he used to perform.
Varkas observed the face of his brother, who was beginning to sweat from the intensity of the headache, and left the room without hesitation.
The vassals who had learned the news that Lucas regained consciousness were gathered in the hallway.
Varkas passed coldly between them and went down the stairs. At that moment, the head maid hurriedly called out to stop him:
“Sir.”
Varkas turned just as he was about to place his foot on the last step.
The heavily-built woman approached with a face that clearly reflected tension, and opened her mouth cautiously:
“Since young master Lucas has awakened safely, will you now lift the confinement sanction weighing upon Her Grace the Duchess?”
Varkas furrowed his brow.
Because he had been dealing during the last few days with the insistence of the vassals, who considered the punishment imposed on the Duchess to be extremely light, his response emerged sharp automatically:
“Since when is the head maid in a position that allows her to meddle in the matters of the Duchess’s punishment?”
The head maid’s sturdy shoulders tensed at the imposing reprimand.
Varkas directed a cold look at her while her face grew pale, then turned his body and continued down the stairs. And when he was about to cross the hall to leave the castle, the head maid followed him again.
“I-I know very well that it is an audacity that exceeds my limits. But……” The head maid, who had dared to obstruct his path, opened her mouth hesitatingly with a tense expression.
Varkas looked at her with an expression in which annoyance was mixed.
As if she lacked the courage to hold his gaze, the woman kept her eyes fixed on the ground while releasing her words rapidly:
“I am informing you of this because I foresee that a matter of gravity will occur if Her Grace the Duchess is left in this state. Could you not reconsider the treatment she receives now?”
Varkas’s eyebrow raised at this unexpected request.
Everyone in this castle looked with displeasure upon Talia, who was considered the cause of the successive incidents.
And the head maid was no exception.
Even though she did not manifest an open hostility like the other courtiers, he knew she was not pleased with the Duchess.
He had kept her in her position solely because she did not neglect her duties as head maid.
In principle, there were not many who served Talia with a pleased heart, as she was used to deploying her thorns like a hedgehog to hurt everyone.
For that reason, he had taken care to place people distinguished by extreme patience and an absolute dissociation between their emotions and their duties by her side.
The head maid was one of those chosen.
And if a woman like her went to the extreme of intervening with such insistence, it meant that something out of the ordinary was happening.
Varkas’s features changed in an instant and he asked in a severe tone:
“What is the matter with her state?”
“Since she was transferred to the annex pavilion…… she has refused to ingest food.”
Varkas’s face contorted subtly upon hearing the response, which emerged with hesitation.
He clenched his fist tightly and looked beyond the garden, covered in frost.
His vassals were lined up near the castle gate waiting for the departure.
He was scheduled to head with them to the council room during the morning.
There were mountains of political matters awaiting resolution, including the issue of selecting new lords to administer the northeastern regions.
He no longer possessed the capacity to tolerate her crises of indignation any longer.
He spoke harshly:
“And is the Duchess undertaking a hunger strike something new?”
The head maid’s mouth tensed.
He ignored that as he took a step out of the castle and added:
“Leave her. She will soon grow weary by herself.”
And when he was about to go down the stairs, the echo of a pressing voice resonated behind his back:
“The matter is not at that level. I have informed you of this despite knowing my own insolence because the situation is alarming.”
Varkas’s steps stopped dead.
The woman approached him again and continued with a serious face:
“According to Her Grace the Duchess’s personal maids, it seems she does not touch a single drop of water, let alone food. Previously, she would occasionally ingest honey wine or dried fruits, but now she really consumes nothing. If she is left like this, I fear a misfortune will occur…….”
The woman interrupted her speech before concluding it.
He remained paralyzed in his place, contemplating the ground like prey that has fallen into a trap.
How much time passed in that state? Finally, he muttered a curse in a low voice and turned back:
“Inform the vassals that the council is postponed.”
Then he headed directly, bypassing the main castle, toward the building of the annex pavilion situated on the northern flank of the wall.
After leaving behind the secondary structures that surrounded the inner wall, the three-level building located in the back garden appeared before him.
Upon seeing the Duke present himself suddenly, the soldiers stationed for guard straightened their posture rapidly after having been leaning their bodies against the wall.
Varkas passed straight by them and entered the building. The young maids were sitting near the entrance arranging the food ingredients.
“Where is Her Grace the Duchess?”
When he raised the question to them, the maids who were cutting vegetables dynamically jumped up like horses lashed with a whip.
“W-We greet the Lord Duke,” added a maid while lowering her head rapidly and stumbling over her words. “H-Her Grace is located in the bedroom on the second floor.”
Varkas climbed the wooden stairs immediately. He spotted at the end of the narrow hallway the bedroom door crafted from red mahogany.
Varkas approached and pulled the handle.
With the sound of a creak, the layout of the room, dark and gloomy, appeared through the opening.
He walked directly toward the window and drew back the blackout curtains.
The winter sunlight that pierced the glass illuminated the bed clearly. And when Varkas shifted his gaze toward it, he caught his breath tightly, involuntarily.
During the last few days, the woman had become even more gaunt.
A face pale as if all vestige of life had abandoned it, a slender neck from which the veins stood out, and a weakened body peeking out from the folds of her untidy dress; Varkas examined all of that and let out a choked voice:
“What is it that you are trying to do now?”
The woman, who remained lying like a broken doll, raised her eyelids slowly. At that instant, a strange chill ran through the entirety of his body.
She looked at him for a moment with eyes desolate as a grave, then lowered her eyelids again. She turned her body to the opposite side and murmured with a voice that seemed to crumble:
“…… Leave me alone.”
Faced with that scene, the fury he had been suppressing during all this time exploded.
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward him with force:
“I asked you, what are you doing now?!”
The woman showed no reaction.
She limited herself to casting a gaze of absolute affliction at him, as if she did not understand the motive for his fury.
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