Chapter 24
A small snort from Cynthia broke the brief silence.
She gestured for her brother to move out of the way and spoke in a cheerful voice.
“You say you want to be on good terms. I don’t think you’re welcome between us.”
She clicked her tongue nervously at Barath, who didn’t budge.
She didn’t understand why he was so furry and wary when she wasn’t going to eat the little girl.
Cynthia returned her brother’s frosty glare with a glare of her own, and motioned for the precious Grand Duchess behind him to follow.
“It’s good to see you too, Selene. Why don’t you join us for dinner tonight?”
The answer came from Barath.
“Not possible.”
Cynthia waited for Selene’s response, looking straight into her brother eyes, which were now almost killing her, and the wait was not long.
The little girl answered as if to say that she would do as her husband said.
“Yes. I’m sorry, but I have a commitment with him tonight, but if you don’t mind, how about tomorrow?”
Barath rolled his eyes at that cute little answer, and Cynthia laughed at him.
She accepted the offer, not bothering to hide her pouty smile.
Looking straight into her brother’s still wary eyes, she spoke to her.
“Good idea.”
Cynthia turned around with a smug look on her face, as if she had achieved her goal.
The fact that she was frowning like that and not saying a word to tell his wife to be quiet, this is what she wanted.
He recalled the contents of her reports over the years, and wondered even more about the changes to come.
***
The market and town attached to the outer castle were not always there.
Originally, Velias Castle was built to keep the monsters from descending from the ten-thousand-year snow mountains that lined the north side of the castle. As they came down less and less frequently, and then stopped coming down at all, people began to gather and live near the castle.
The successive princes of Velias left them alone.
When they asked for help, they sent knights, and when their crops failed, they gave them alms.
It didn’t take long for word to get out that the ruler of Velis cared for his people, and people from all corners of the empire flocked to the city in need of food and shelter.
The then Grand Duke of Velias began to develop the mines to feed the many migrants.
The north was largely untouched by the other nobles, and the land was littered with mines of the crystalline ore that forms when a dragon’s carcass is left to languish.
The mining, processing, and distribution industries became a source of immense wealth, and the jobs that came with it grew exponentially.
Fast forward 200 years.
The population of the cold, mountainous fiefdom, with its vast expanses of land and a single castle, has now reached 30 million.
With a black market in the early snowy mountains, hunters with a reputation to uphold have flocked to make a career of escorting, and the monster hides they kill and dispose of have become a speciality.
With a thriving array of industries, Velias became a principality less than a year after Chyntia Velias made her late debut at the Imperial Palace at the age of 27.
Still a vassal of the Empire, it was never fully independent, but it was now free of the annual tribute obligation. The cap on the number of soldiers and knights it could raise was also removed.
Why Barath believes the saying that a witch of a thousand colours can consume an empire.
It was because of his sister.
He was nine. She was twenty-three.
Barath had just become Grand Duke and sought revenge on his enemies, and Chyntia sought revenge on the Emperor for sending her father to war.
Neither sought nor needed the other.
Nineteen years passed.
Barath turned to the woman he had hidden behind him only after Chyntia’s figure had completely disappeared.
When their eyes met, she smiled wryly, and it was as if she were stroking something inside him.
Why bother offending her with a comment about his sister on top of this smiling face, He thought, he’ll just have to stay with her and give her a proper slap in the face.
Selene watched his sister’s back as she walked away and stood still, waiting for him.
Their relationship was tense.
Their tone was cold but not hostile, and their breathing was steady as they stood facing each other for what seemed like an eternity.
Selene, who had grown up in an orphanage before coming to this world, envied them for the contradictions they portrayed.
When she was younger, it was easy to imagine a family, but now that she was older, it wasn’t so easy.
She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a brother or sister. And Barath and Chyntia seemed to have a much more complicated relationship than a typical brother and sister.
Her mind racing, Selene could only stare at the hand holding Barath’s behind his back.
***
Selen took Barath’s hand and led the way to their original destination, the Outer Market.
It was nice to walk side by side, but she also liked the feeling of walking slightly ahead of him, leading him.
It was strangely satisfying to look up and see him, so large she could barely contain him at a glance, following her hand wherever it led.
As they approached the gates, she could feel the hustle and bustle of the marketplace behind them.
She asked him, a little excitedly.
“Why don’t we get some snacks and eat at the fountain?”
Selene remembered the fountain she and Anna had gone to. It had been so nice to see all the lovers and children lazing around it.
When she didn’t hear an answer from him until they reached the gates, she looked back.
Barath was nodding to the back of her head, but stopped when our eyes met.
She laughed at his uncharacteristically innocent and untidy appearance.
He looked like a man who had probably never been to a market before, let alone snacked at a fountain. Understanding his reaction as an expression of embarrassment, Selene went to stand beside him.
If he was indeed new to the market, she didn’t want him to be led by her hand and miss out on all the interesting things.
Selene smiled pleasantly and came to stand beside him, taking his arm in a fairly casual way.
That alone made Barath wonder how they had become so close already.
When He first asked her to escort her, she hadn’t even touched his arm until he asked her repeatedly.
As he followed Selene out of the gates, the sounds of the bustling marketplace that had echoed through the city walls just moments before were cut off as if they had been a lie.
Silence descended, like a coin dropped and the sound would be louder than the clinking of plates.
He knew it would happen.
He knew that if she traveled with him, she would probably have this unpleasant experience every time.
He’d been through it so long and so much that he could shrug it off, but she… had to go through it.
And when his thoughts started to roll towards locking her in her room, he reminded her.
If she ever asks to leave again, he’ll be damned if he’ll be able to keep his tongue out of his mouth.
He was definitely thinking this morning that he’d have to keep her in the inner castle until Chyntia left, but look at her.
She’s already out here with those pretty little droopy eyes.
Might as well push her out of here. If the inner circle is too small to contain her, they can give her a little more room to move.
He’ll have to have them all moved to the town center over there. He built a nice little shopping center, why isn’t she here already?
His thoughts were interrupted.
Selene waved the arm she was holding, signalling for him to look at her.
He lowered his gaze, feeling like he had to see something he never wanted to see.
She shook her head for a moment, then looked up at Barath with an expression of nonchalance, locking eyes with him.
“Snacks, what do you like?”
It was as if she was oblivious to the strange atmosphere around her.
He looked around slowly.
People who would have been free to walk the streets shrank back to the side of the road, and those in his line of sight quickly lowered their heads and averted their eyes, as if they were afraid of being seen.
She quickly tugged on his arm again, forcing him to look at her.
“Do you like apples?”
Her question reminded him of the time they had sat in front of the fireplace one day, eating apples together.
The tiny woman had frowned up the bridge of her nose and tried to take a big bite, but the apple was barely peeled.
He could only nod slowly.
The apple had just grown on him.
The discomfort that had been hanging over his mind drifted away as Selene took his arm and they started walking around the market.
After all, she still hadn’t let go of him, and the look in her eyes hadn’t changed.
Selene was puzzled by the strange silence that descended upon us as they left the city gates.
She glanced up at Barath, who had a bored look on his face, as if he was taking it all in stride.
She looked around slowly.
Everyone there, including you, was simply terrified of this man who would be their fence in a moment of need.
She wasn’t angry; it was more like loneliness.
She felt like she’d seen a tiny glimpse of what his lonely world looked like.
Wanting to be a part of this lonely world, she shook the arm she was holding, signalling for him to look at her.
“Snack, what do you like?”
Selene and Barath sat by the fountain, each holding an apple in their hands.
Barath was about to take a bite when Selene stopped him with a flick of her arm and snatched the apple from his hand.
Then she pulled out a small handkerchief from some unknown source and began to rub the apple.
She was intent on it as if it was a big deal.
He couldn’t help but giggle as he watched her make a big deal out of it.
He didn’t know where that little giggle came from, but after a few times, her eyes widened and she looked at Barath.
She looked at him like she didn’t know why he was smiling and handed him a shiny apple.
He couldn’t stop that little chuckle, and soon she was smiling back, unsure of what was going on.
After taking the apple, he used his other hand to rub her forehead a few times, as if drying her face.
He looked at the apples and chuckled, shaking his shoulders again and again.
Selene was now eagerly polishing her share of apples. Do apples taste better when they’re polished?
He stopped laughing as he looked at Selene with affection in his eyes, and with a deep sigh, he thought.
‘Happy.’
Watching her inspect the glistening apple with even more glistening eyes, Barath took a huge bite out of the apple in his hand.
Once again, her apple was peeled.
She chewed on the peel, licking her lips like a rabbit, and glanced at him to see what he was thinking, then locked eyes with him with a look of determination.
He swallowed the apple, wondering what she was going to say.
The pretty girl winked at him unexpectedly, and the small piece of apple in his mouth went into his airway.
“Uhuk.”
