Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 16

If one were to name the most famous place in the ducal castle where the Tennant family had lived for generations, it would undoubtedly be the duchess’s drawing room.

When one opened the massive mahogany doors and stepped inside, curtains adorned with beautiful patterns hung down.

Since the northern region had long, harsh winters, there wasn’t a wall or window without curtains drawn over it.

However, the curtains in the duchess’s drawing room were hung more like works of art than for blocking out the biting winter wind.

The display shelves lining the walls were made of silver snowwood, said to grow only where the Carnu tribe lived, and atop them were rare vases and old books. Decorative pieces made of jewels gifted from neighboring kingdoms were also displayed.

At the center of the drawing room stood an enormous aquarium, where two sylphs, said to live only beneath glaciers, swam together in harmony.

“The weather is nice today, at least, Your Grace.”

Taking a sip of tea brewed from blood berries, known for their resilience even in the snow, Aileen said brightly.

Outside the window where the curtains had been drawn back, as Lady Aileen Lott had said, sunlight filled the sky for the first time in a while.

“So, have you made your decision?”

“Pardon?”

At Eloise’s blunt question, Aileen smiled sweetly as if she didn’t understand and asked back.

“If you don’t understand what I mean, then I don’t see why I should be meeting you here.”

At Eloise’s cold words, Aileen’s expression stiffened for a moment.

“No matter that you are my goddaughter.”

The teacup she set down elegantly didn’t make even the faintest sound.

Emerald green eyes flickered as she stared at the duchess before her.

Those gray-blue eyes, revealing both greed and coldness, looked straight at her.

“If you haven’t made up your mind, it would be better to refrain from visiting like this.”

“Your Grace….”

Aileen’s fair cheeks flushed red.

In the end, leaving the duchess’s drawing room without gaining anything, Aileen slapped away the hand of the maid Kelly who tried to drape a cloak over her.

“I’m already pissed off, so don’t touch me!”

She hadn’t wanted to come here either. But Count Lott had been anxious that the marriage with the ducal house might fall through and had been pressuring Aileen since morning, forcing her to visit.

“Does it even make sense to marry that idiot Cedric instead of Kaeloc?”

“It doesn’t, miss.”

Kelly tried to warn Aileen, who was walking quickly, that she shouldn’t walk like that, but she clamped her mouth shut. There was no way Aileen would listen to her anyway.

“But, miss. There are many ears here….”

“What? So you’re telling me to shut up?”

At the crude words unbecoming of a noble lady, Kelly’s face turned pale. If this were the count’s residence, it would be one thing, but this was the ducal castle.

“My, my.”

At that moment, someone stepped out into the hallway and blocked Aileen’s path.

“With such a foul mouth, isn’t it no wonder Kaeloc doesn’t even glance your way, young lady?”

The man who appeared with a grin spoke, his light gray eyes leering at her lustrous golden hair tinged with red.

“Did I say anything wrong? Everyone in the north knows that Young Master Cedric is an idiot.”

“Miss!”

Kelly cried out in shock at Aileen’s blunt reply, but Cedric only burst into loud laughter.

“This is exactly why I like you.”

“You like me? I heard rumors that last month you caused a scene in a maid’s room late at night.”

Aileen snorted, shivering as if the mere thought of a libertine who frequented the maid’s quarters liking her made her skin crawl.

“I will meet a man who loves only me. Not a philanderer who fancies lowly maids and street prostitutes.”

With her chin lifted, Aileen walked off, and behind her, Kelly hurried after her, flustered, saying they should go together. Watching them, Cedric let out a short laugh, then frowned.

“When did that rumor about the maid’s room spread?”

He had been on his way to the drawing room after being summoned by the duchess. Worried he might get scolded again, he hesitated and shuffled his way in. The first thing he saw was the Duchess of Tennant, sitting upright like a painting.

Just looking at her, a chill seemed to drip from her, and Cedric felt a jolt of fear.

“A-aunt.”

He placed one hand on his stomach, raised the other awkwardly behind his back, and bowed deeply in greeting. At the clumsy bow, Eloise clicked her tongue and frowned.

“Why is your greeting still like that when it’s something you should have learned from birth? I ought to thrash your etiquette tutor.”

Even a greeting, which most noble children mastered perfectly by the age of five, Cedric still performed awkwardly and unnaturally despite being over twenty.

“Hehe, which etiquette tutor are you talking about?”

Cedric lifted his head and approached with an awkward smile.

“I must have such deep respect for you, Aunt, that my greeting comes out unnatural. Please don’t worry too much. When I greet others like this, they all like it.”

‘They like it….’

Hearing him speak so cheerfully about something he’d been mocked for, Eloise was dumbfounded. Her fingers bulged as she gripped her teacup tightly.

Following Kaeloc’s disappearance, it had been over a month since the illegitimate child born to that thorn-in-the-eye maid also vanished in the snowfields. By now, they would have been taken in by the goddess’s grace.

The noble Tennant family, which protected the Kingdom of Trilan and ruled the north, now stood with no successor.

‘Is it really right to have this fool, this half-wit, carry on the ducal house under the name of Coville?’

She pondered it, but the conclusion remained the same.

The longer she delayed, the more other marquess or count families would try any means to present a successor, so while she was still the Duchess of Tennant, the duke had to come from her natal family, the Coville house.

“Cedric, Cedric, Cedric.”

As Eloise called his name repeatedly and held out her hand, Cedric dropped to his knees and sat before her, lifting his head.

“Yes, Aunt. Please speak.”

Eloise slowly raised her hand and stroked the coarse, pale platinum hair instead of the lustrous silver hair characteristic of the Coville marquess family.

Someone who carried even a single drop of Tennant blood. That was the qualification for acting head insisted upon by the noble council that governed the north.

The name of the Tennant family, which had protected the north from the barbaric Carnu tribe for generations, was too heavy and sacred to discard, so no one dared to touch it.

Eloise gently cupped Cedric’s cheek.

Cedric Coville was the first son of Viscount Theobald Coville, her cousin. And by the goddess’s blessing, Theobald’s wife and Cedric’s mother, Claudia, was the granddaughter of a Tennant lady born decades ago.

One drop.

With just a single drop of blood, this idiot was put forward as acting head to lead the Tennant family instead of her, who had failed to produce an heir.

If Cedric, who had become the acting head, were to be confirmed as the official head through a vote, the noble council would likely register Cedric as her adopted son.

‘At this point, an already grown son.’

Eloise tightened her grip and seized Cedric’s chin firmly.

“Ah, ah. Aunt, that hurts. It hurts.”

“You must do well, Cedric.”

“O-of course.”

Kaeloc had been like a sly fox from the moment she first met him as a child, making it impossible to read his thoughts, but Cedric was so stupid that it was hard to grasp what was going on in his head for a different reason.

‘Why is it that the only ones who come to me as children are those who never listen to me?’

If the previous duke hadn’t died so early from illness, she wouldn’t have had to worry about any of this.

When she let go of his chin, Cedric, with a servile-looking face, asked her, “But may I stand up now? My knees hurt….”

Those born as noble children of the north were obligated to learn swordsmanship and cultivate martial strength to protect the region.

That applied not only to the duke but even to rural baron families in the north, yet this idiot seemed to have never even held a sword in his life, whining after kneeling for barely five minutes.

Just how had Theobald raised this child?

The nephew she had only seen a few times in childhood because they lived far apart had grown into a weak-bodied and dull man.

‘Even so, his sexual appetite is exceptional, so they say he appears in the red-light district every day.’

Recalling the information her attendant had brought her, Eloise pressed her forehead.

She had thought as long as he was robust in some way, it would be fine, but this wasn’t the kind of robustness she wanted.

“What matters to you now is legitimacy, Cedric Coville.”

At the duchess’s gesture, Cedric, now seated on the sofa, crossed his legs and lounged carelessly as he nodded.

“That’s why you must secure Aileen, who is known as Kaeloc’s fiancée.”

Cedric’s role was to stand in for the missing Kaeloc. The things Kaeloc should have done if he were present. For example, strengthening ties with the royal family through marriage with Aileen, or producing an heir.

‘And once he has one or two children, we’ll send him to the border to fight the Carnu tribe.’

If he kills the barbarians, good. If he dies fighting them, even better.

With that thought, Eloise smiled and coaxed Cedric again.

“Aileen is the only daughter of the Lott family, so she’s been raised delicately. If you push yourself on her like others do, she won’t like it. Do you understand?”

“I don’t like women who treat me like a fool either.”