Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 2

Kay’s shoulders were stiff after spending the entire day lying in the grass, waiting to catch wild animals.

He rolled his sore shoulders and rested his arms on the edge of the bath, letting out a satisfied sigh.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?”

The woman smiled faintly and slowly scanned the man with her pale red eyes.

His shaggy hair and unevenly tangled beard. His broad shoulders and long, lean torso, and his strong lower body moving under the water, like hers. Taking it all in with her eyes, she lifted the corners of her lips in satisfaction.

Feeling embarrassed for no reason, Kay turned his head and scratched his chin.

He hadn’t expected this situation at all, sharing a bath, naked, with a strange woman.

“Aren’t you cold?”

At her words, his body suddenly felt freezing. If he stayed like this, he’d probably catch a cold.

‘Anyway, once she’s done bathing, this warm water will have to be thrown out.’

He’d gone through so much trouble to fetch that water, it felt like such a waste to just pour it away.

When the woman kept insisting he come in, he stripped without hesitation.

He took off his fur coat, damp with snow, and his plain black jacket with its shoulder straps. Even as he loosened his belt and pulled off his pants, there wasn’t the slightest trace of embarrassment on the woman’s face.

‘Damn it. Are all married women like that?’

Splash.

The man, his face flushed red, sat quickly in the tub, and the water rose up to the woman’s chest.

“It’s smaller than I thought.”

When she’d bathed with the baby, it had felt spacious, but now that the man was in, it was cramped at once. As he shifted to get comfortable, his solid knee, all bone and muscle, brushed lightly against her.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Maybe it was only him who felt awkward. The woman looked perfectly calm as she lifted a wet cloth and wiped her neck and shoulders.

“I don’t even remember the last time I washed.”

It had been two weeks since she’d been found collapsed in front of the cabin’s door. Not even a week had passed since she’d managed to stand again.

Of course, Kay could go without washing for a week, or even a month, but women were different.

It had also been a long time since he’d had a proper bath. He relaxed, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

“My goodness. To think my breasts have swollen this much… it’s been a long time.”

At the woman’s exaggerated remark, the man cracked one eye open in surprise.

“What, what are you doing?”

“Oh! It’s just that it’s time for the baby to feed, so my breasts are swollen.”

She pressed near her nipple with a hand that wasn’t even half the size of her breast, pressing a wet cloth against it firmly.

“The baby’s asleep, so I’ll feed him a bit later. If I leave them swollen like this, they’ll start to ache, so I’m letting a little milk out.”

Watching her massage her breast, the man covered his forehead with his large hand and averted his gaze.

“Do women just… stop feeling embarrassed after they get married?”

At his words, she paused.

“Married?”

She tilted her head with a mischievous smile.

“…Do I look like a married woman to you?”

Aubrianna looked at him. Did he really see her as a married woman? Did he think all of this was immoral or indecent?

Kay’s eyes wavered for a moment. He didn’t know a thing about her.

“Then….”

Splash.

Aubrianna dipped the cloth into the water, her innocent eyes hiding a hint of playfulness. She handed the cloth to him and turned her back.

“What are you….”

“Would you mind washing my back?”

He opened his mouth, took the cloth awkwardly, and stared blankly.

As the woman urged him to hurry, he squeezed his eyes shut and reached his hand out at random.

“Lower.”

Lower? The man squinted and looked at the woman’s back.

Her shoulder blades stuck out over her pitifully thin flesh, and her skin was so pale it was almost transparent, with blue veins clearly visible.

“How’s my back?”

“What do you mean, how?”

“…I was bedridden for a week. Are there any soft spots? Wounds? Scars?”

Kay stared at her back, confused by her words.

Wounds? Scars?

But the small back before his eyes looked only thin and smooth.

“There’s nothing.”

Speaking bluntly, he only pretended to rub before lifting his hand from her soft, supple back.

“You’re too thin. You need to eat more….”

Kay trailed off when he noticed her shoulders trembling slightly.

“Why….”

Startled, he was about to call out to her, but bit his lip and waited quietly for her to stop crying.

The woman, who had been covering her face with both hands, stopped crying and quickly splashed water on her face.

“…I’m sorry.”

Even so, she couldn’t hide her reddened eyes. The flushed cheeks from the bathwater’s heat were different from the traces of tears she couldn’t suppress.

Kay turned his gaze and silently stared at the puddle left by the baby before opening his mouth.

“If your husband’s been abusing you….”

“No. No, that’s not it.”

The woman hurriedly shook her head, then snatched the wet cloth from his hand as if making up her mind.

“I’ll wash you too.”

“What? Wait—”

Before Kay could stop her, the woman stood up.

As droplets fell, her narrow waist and white lower belly came into view, and the man inhaled sharply, unable to even blink.

The wet cloth touched his shoulder, and her white breasts, smelling faintly of milk, brushed the tip of his nose.

Kay looked up at her blankly.

Leaning naturally against his thigh with her knee, the woman smiled softly and rubbed along the smooth muscles that rose from his neck to his shoulders in a curve.

“I’m not married.”

Even with his attention stolen completely by the breasts before his eyes, his ears perked up at her words.

“Then the baby’s father….”

After a brief pause, the woman clenched the wet cloth tightly.

“He’s about to marry another woman.”

A bastard.

The woman had given birth to a bastard child. Kay didn’t know why, but his chest ached.

“…That’s unfortunate.”

“It’s fine. I’m still alive, after all.”

Saying that, the woman pushed her chest out even further. His nose was now buried in her soft mound of flesh.

“H-hey.”

When the man called to her, the woman looked down at him with a gentle smile and asked, “How is it?”

How is it?

It’s intoxicating.

Soft, yielding…. He wasn’t even sure he’d known this feeling before. Determined, the man slowly raised his hand and pushed her chest away.

“What are you trying to do with me right now?”

Though his hand on her shoulder lacked strength, the woman obediently leaned back.

“Why?”

She tilted her head.

“Is this not your type?”

She lifted her full breasts in both hands, small compared to their weight.

“They’re big now, but they’re not always like this.”

“Hey!”

The man shouted, shocked by her words, covering his flushed face with his hands and blurting out rapidly.

“I told you before, I’ve lost my memory. I might have a wife or children. And you’re a stranger. I don’t even know your name….”

“Aubrianna. My name is Aubrianna Morel.”

The woman lightly gripped the edge of the tub with a precarious motion and looked straight at the man.

Was that faint glimmer of expectation in her red eyes just his imagination?

Kay quietly repeated the woman’s name under his breath, a name he’d learned after two weeks. She’d been so bold and bossy from the moment he opened his eyes that he’d forgotten to even ask.

“Aubrianna.”

He rolled the name around on his tongue, wondering if it might be familiar, but it was a word he couldn’t remember.

He shook his head. It wasn’t a common name like Zena or Lien, which made it feel even more foreign.

Kay blinked slowly several times and asked Aubrianna, “That’s an unusual name. You’re not from here, are you?”

At that, the woman chuckled and came closer. “You’re right. I’m not from here. I came seeking asylum with my mother when I was little.”

“Asylum?”

If she’d come seeking asylum, that meant her country had fallen or was in the midst of war.

Only now did Kay truly study Aubrianna’s appearance.

Her brown hair was soft, and her eyes were a pale red.

In the Kingdom of Trilan, red eyes were rare, and only then did her exotic face make sense to him.

But at times, her red pupils would flare like flames.

“…From the Kingdom of Blanc?”

“Losing your memory doesn’t make you stupid, I see.”

The woman’s narrow eyes curved as she giggled softly, a faint trace of relief mingling in her laugh.

“From what I remember, the border with the Kingdom of Blanc was closed quite a while ago.”

The man’s eyes searched faint memories.

“About ten years ago, maybe?”

As always, when he tried to recall something, he pressed the throbbing spot at his temple with his fingers.

“Has it reopened?”

“The border’s still closed. There’s no road between us yet.”

Aubrianna scooped up water with her hand.

Drip.

A thin stream ran through her fingers and back into the tub.

“Do you remember anything else? About yourself?”

Aubrianna looked at the man’s face, where emotions she couldn’t name flickered. His gaze stopped in the air, and there was emptiness in his eyes.

Tracing his memories slowly, the man shook his head with a pained expression.

“No. I don’t know anything.”