Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 1

Kay rubbed his beard with a calloused palm and looked around the small cabin with a baffled, troubled expression.

“What the hell is this….”

In the fireplace, dry firewood was piled up to twice the usual amount, roaring as it burned, and steam was rising from the large bathtub that was only taken out occasionally.

Outside, everything was pure white from the blizzard. It was cold enough to freeze to death, yet inside the cabin was hot and filled with moisture, making it feel like he’d come to another country.

His gaze dropped to the floor. He saw a slippery wooden floor soaked enough to form a black puddle.

‘If I step on that wrong, I’ll be straight into the goddess’s arms.’

Brushing off the snow piled on his shoulders and head, he asked, “What are you doing right now?”

He’d just come back after scouring the storage shed at a woman’s request that she wanted to eat a different soup.

The man shook his feet to knock off the snow clinging beneath his shoes and walked slowly toward the hearth.

Setting a jar of dried spices down with a thud on the small table that doubled as a dining table and cooking counter, he discovered a pot wrapped all around with vigorously boiling water.

Startled, he hurried to check the water jars and then leaned against the wall with a hollow look.

“Damn it. You used up all the drinking water.”

Grinding his teeth, the man muttered in a voice full of anger.

“How could you….”

It was water he’d diligently hauled from the spring that could only be accessed on days without snow, and only when the weather was good.

With more mouths to feed, he’d been using it sparingly, but it’d been depleted overnight.

From inside the tub, a small brown head tilted.

“I had to wash the baby, so I used some.”

Her voice came out hoarse and rough after suffering through a full week of a cold.

“Some?”

He glanced at the jar. At that level, it’d barely be enough to make soup tomorrow.

Despite his incredulous tone, the woman seemed unconcerned as she poured water over the squirming, soft flesh and rubbed it in.

Her long, light brown hair was tied up high, catching the firelight and gleaming gold.

A few wet strands clinging to her pale, slender neck were a deep chestnut brown, like the scattered branches around the cabin.

“Up we go.”

When the woman’s thin arms lifted the visibly plump baby up from the water and set it down again, a tinkling laugh spilled from between the baby’s lips, its chubby cheeks pushed out.

“Look. The baby really loves playing in the water.”

The woman’s voice, excited even just to hear, was far more pleasant than last week, when she could barely speak at all.

“You’ll catch another cold.”

No matter how warm and steamy the cabin was, outside was still the dead of winter. At the man’s curt words, the woman replied brightly.

“The water’s warm. Oh, could you add another dipper of hot water from over there?”

He picked up the dipper, scooped up the vigorously boiling water, and went to the fireplace.

As he slowly poured it into the tub, he couldn’t understand why he was obediently following the woman’s instructions.

“Kyaa, kyaa.”

As the small hands splashed the water, sparkling droplets splashed up onto his cheek.

“You little punk!”

So this little thing was the culprit who soaked the floor.

The moment the man raised his eyebrows, the woman stretched out her arms.

“Here, hold the baby for a bit.”

“What?”

“It’s heavy since I’ve been holding it the whole time.”

A baby’s round bottom, like freshly baked bread, was shoved right in front of him.

Flustered, Kay looked back and forth between the woman’s dry arms, trembling with a shiver, and the baby squirming its fleshy legs.

“Hurry.”

At the woman’s urging, the man stared at his own hands.

After roughly wiping the stains and cobwebs from rummaging through the dusty storage shed on a towel, he tried to grab the baby by the nape.

“No!”

When the woman shouted urgently, Kay flinched and pulled his hand back.

“You can’t do it like that! A baby’s neck is extremely weak.”

The man stared blankly at the baby’s white skin, with not a scrap of cloth on it and nowhere obvious to hold, then asked, “Then how do I hold it?”

“Bring your hands under its armpits. Under my hands, right now.”

He slowly moved his hands and held the baby’s belly. It looked plump, but in his grip it was small enough to fit in one hand.

When the baby squirmed again, he startled and, without thinking, tightened his grip.

“No! You have to hold it gently.”

The woman shouted again.

“No! Then what am I supposed to do? This little thing’s so slippery!”

When he finally snapped and shouted back, the baby started whining.

Damn it!

Kay hurled curses inside his head and loosened his grip just enough so the baby wouldn’t slip.

“Take it to the bed and lay it down like that.”

Once she made sure the baby was safe, the woman ordered him with a weary face, and the man moved with his brows deeply furrowed, carefully, and with a slightly ridiculous awkwardness.

He stretched his arms straight out, hunched in an ungainly stance, and managed to lay the baby on the bed. Then he clenched his fist and let out a sigh.

And then the baby kicked and flailed again, and its leg smacked him right on the chin.

The small foot on that chubby leg stung pretty badly, and Kay had to rub his tingling chin.

“Good job.”

At the woman’s praise, the man tossed a towel over the baby’s body and straightened up.

With irritated strides, he went in front of the fireplace and pulled out a few logs.

Thinking the sweat beading on his forehead wasn’t because that tiny existence had him running around like an idiot, but because of this damned heat filling the cabin.

He kept looking out the window where the blizzard still raged, then checked how much firewood was left.

“Only half left.”

Still, luckily, he wasn’t worried since he’d stacked quite a lot of firewood under the eaves outside the cabin.

“What is?”

At the woman’s low, husky voice, Kay turned his head over his shoulder. The woman scooped water in her hands and lifted it over her shoulders.

Drip, drip.

The droplets rolled down her white skin like pearls.

Crackle.

The burning wood settled as he pulled logs out.

In that instant, the flames surged up and lit the room bright.

The man’s eyes gleamed a vivid blue as they swept over her white and red naked body.

The woman scooped water again and let it run down over her chest. Her whole body shimmered as if wrapped in golden pearls.

The man went speechless and pressed his lips together.

“What is half left?”

The woman spread both arms wide and rested them on the rim of the tub, asking casually as if she didn’t know anything.

‘Does this woman have no shame?’

Come to think of it, she’d been like that from the start.

From the moment he opened his eyes and came to, this woman had been bossing him around with a haughty tone, ordering him about with her finger.

“Give me a warm wet towel so I can wipe the baby.”

“I’m sweaty, so I feel sticky. Don’t you have other sheets?”

“That tunic you’re wearing looks comfortable. Take it off.”

Thanks to that, he had to go to bed in the middle of winter wearing only his pants.

Of course, he normally preferred sleeping naked, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that beside an unfamiliar woman.

And when she casually exposed her breasts, saying she had to feed the baby, he almost fainted in shock.

Even if he’d lost his memory, he clearly understood that a woman pulling out her breasts anywhere was outside common sense.

Whether he snapped his head away or not, every time the baby got hungry, the woman exposed those beautiful breasts whenever, wherever.

But right now, it wasn’t time to feed the baby.

So she was doing this on purpose.

Her eyes, tinged with water so they looked pink, gleamed provocatively.

Did she notice that even while he acted like he wasn’t looking, he stole glances at her breasts?

Was she testing him right now?

But even though he thought he should turn his eyes away, he couldn’t pull his gaze off.

The man swallowed dryly, held his breath, and stared at her naked body.

The ripples wavering above her small navel tickled the woman’s body like waves. The lower chest where the shape of her ribs showed through was thinner than the baby’s body he’d held, and above that, her breasts were strangely full, and the nipples that jutted out were purple.

Whoooosh.

The wind dragged a long blizzard around the cabin, circling it and screaming roughly.

With a relaxed face, the woman leaned her head back. Under her small, perfect chin, the ruby necklace, the only piece of jewelry she wore, glittered.

Below her navel, the woman’s lower body swayed left and right with the ripples.

Between her long, pale legs, it was dim from the barrel’s shadow.

The woman’s voice sounded far away.

The man finally tore his eyes from the swaying ripples, swallowed, and asked back,

“…What?”

The woman smiled softly and drew her legs up to her chest.

“I’m telling you to come in too.”

Maybe because she warmed herself in the hot water, the woman’s cheeks and lips were red and vivid like ripe pomegranate seeds. Between them, a small tongue crept out and smoothly licked her lips.

“The water’s still warm.”

The man swallowed a groan and turned his head.

There wasn’t even soap here, but the woman’s body scent, fragrant like a flower, followed him and lingered at the tip of his nose.

‘There’s no way I’m getting into the same tub with that woman, even if I die.’

Of course not.

She was a woman whose identity he didn’t know, but one thing was certain.

That woman was a married woman with a child.