Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 2

Kay’s shoulders were stiff after lying in the grass all day to hunt wild animals.

Rolling his hardened shoulders in a wide circle, he slowly draped his arms over the edge of the tub and let out a satisfied sigh.

“Feels good, right?”

The woman smiled brightly and leisurely swept her pale reddish eyes over the man.

His shaggy hair and roughly tangled beard. His broad shoulders and long, lean torso, and likewise his sturdy lower body shifting in the water just like hers. After taking all of it in, the woman lifted the corners of her lips as if pleased.

Feeling oddly embarrassed, Kay turned his head and scratched his chin.

It was an unexpected situation. Sharing the same bathtub naked with a strange woman.

“Aren’t you cold?”

At the woman’s question, he suddenly felt terribly cold. If this kept up, it felt like he’d catch a cold.

‘Anyway, once she finishes bathing, all this warm water has to be thrown out.’

It was water he’d gone through great trouble to haul, so it felt too wasteful to just let it go.

At the woman’s continued urging to come in, he deliberately stripped off his clothes.

He took off his fur coat soaked with snow, then removed the plain black jacket with shoulder tabs. Even as he unfastened his belt and pulled off his pants, there wasn’t a trace of embarrassment on the woman’s face.

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

Splash.

When the man quickly sat down in the tub with his face reddened, the water level rose up to the woman’s breasts.

“It’s narrower than I thought.”

The space that felt wide when she was alone with the baby instantly became cramped once the man got in. As he shifted to get comfortable, his knee, made of solid bone and muscle, brushed against the woman.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

As if she were the only one not feeling awkward, the woman calmly picked up the wet cloth and wiped her neck and shoulders.

“I don’t even remember how long it’s been since I last washed like this.”

It had been two weeks since the woman was found collapsed in front of the cabin door. It hadn’t even been a full week since she got back on her feet.

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

It’d been a long time since the man last took a proper bath too, so he relaxed, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

“My goodness. My breasts are this swollen…. It’s really been a long time.”

At the woman’s exaggerated remark, the man cracked one eye open and froze in shock.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Ah! It’s time for the baby to eat, so my breasts are swollen.”

The woman grasped near her nipple with a hand that didn’t even cover half of her breast. Then she pressed down firmly with the wet cloth.

“The baby’s asleep, so I’m going to feed it a little later. If I leave them swollen like this, my breasts will hurt later, so I’m letting some milk out.”

Watching her hands knead her breast, the man pressed a large hand to his forehead and partially covered his eyes.

“Th, that… do women usually lose all sense of shame after they get married?”

At his words, the woman paused mid-motion.

“Married?”

She lifted the corners of her lips with a mischievous expression and asked,

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

Aubrianna looked at the man. Did he really see her as a married woman? Did he see all of her actions as immoral and licentious?

Kay’s eyes wavered for a moment. There was nothing he truly knew about her.

“Then….”

Splash.

Aubrianna wetted the cloth while looking at him with innocent eyes that hid a hint of slyness. Then she handed the cloth to the man and turned her back.

“What are you….”

“Could you wipe my back?”

As he was about to speak, he awkwardly took the cloth and just stared.

Because the woman urged him, “Hurry,” he squeezed his eyes shut and stretched his hand out anywhere.

“Lower than that.”

Lower…. The man opened his eyes to slits and looked at the woman’s back.

On the skin that was so thin it was pitiable, her wing bones stuck out sharply, and her skin was so transparent you could see the blue veins clearly.

“How’s my back?”

“How is it?”

“…I was lying down for a whole week. Are there any soft spots? Any wounds? Any scars?”

Kay, not understanding what she meant, glared at her back with bewildered eyes.

Wounds? Scars?

But the small back he saw just looked thin and smooth.

“There’s nothing.”

In the end, he answered bluntly, only pretending to rub a bit before taking his hand off the soft, pliant back.

“But you’re too thin. You should eat more….”

Kay trailed off and noticed shoulders that were trembling slightly.

“Why….”

Flustered, Kay started to call her, then bit his lip tight and quietly waited for her to stop crying.

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

“…I’m sorry.”

Still, she couldn’t hide her reddened eyes. Different from the flushed cheeks from the heat of the bathwater, these were traces of tears that couldn’t overcome sorrow.

Kay turned his gaze away, stared hard at the puddle of water the baby left behind, and opened his mouth.

“If your husband abused you….”

“No. No.”

The woman hurriedly waved her hands. Then, as if thinking for a moment, she snatched the wet cloth from his hand.

“I’ll wipe you too.”

“What? Wait….”

Before Kay could stop her, the woman lifted her body.

When he saw her slim waist and pale white lower belly through the droplets falling with a patter, the man couldn’t even close his eyes and sucked in a breath.

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

With a blank face, Kay looked up at the woman.

The woman, leaning naturally with her knee against his thigh, smiled faintly and traced curves as she rubbed over the smooth, raised muscles that ran from his neck to his shoulder.

“I’m not married.”

Even though his mind was completely stolen by the wet breasts right in front of him, his ears perked up at her words.

“Then the baby’s father is….”

The woman paused for a moment and tightly gripped the wet cloth.

“He’s marrying another woman soon.”

A bastard.

She had given birth to a bastard. But Kay didn’t know why his chest ached.

“…That’s rough.”

“It’s fine. Either way, I’m alive.”

As she said that, the woman pushed her chest out more. Now his nose was buried in a mound of the woman’s flesh.

“H-hey.”

When the man called, the woman gave him a soft eye smile, looked down at him, and asked, “How is it?”

How is it?

It’s intoxicating.

Soft and squishy…. He didn’t even know if he knew a sensation like this. Steeling himself, the man slowly raised his hand and pushed her chest away.

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

There wasn’t strength in the hand that lightly pushed her, but the woman still obediently backed away.

“Why?”

The woman tilted her head.

“Is this not your taste?”

With her small hand, she lifted the swollen breasts that looked too heavy for her.

“They’re like this right now, but they’re not usually that big.”

“Hey!”

The man shouted sharply as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. Covering his burning red face with his hand, he started to blurt out words quickly.

“Like I told you last time, I lost my memory. I might have a wife and children. Besides, you’re a complete stranger. I don’t even know your name….”

“Aubrianna. My name is Aubrianna Morel.”

The woman stared at the man as she lightly gripped the edge of the tub in a precarious posture.

Was the faint glitter of thin anticipation reflected in her reddish eyes just the man’s imagination?

Kay repeated the woman’s name under his breath, the name he learned after two weeks. Since the moment he opened his eyes, she’d been boldly ordering him around, so he’d even forgotten to ask her name.

“Aubrianna.”

He rolled the name around to see if it was one he knew, but it didn’t ring a bell.

He shook his head. It felt even more unfamiliar because it wasn’t a common woman’s name like Zena or Lien.

Blinking slowly a few times, Kay asked Aubrianna, “It’s an unusual name. Are you not from here?”

In that moment, the woman let out a short laugh and came closer.

“That’s right. I’m not from here. When I was little, I came into exile with my mother.”

“Exile?”

If someone fled into exile, it meant the country fell or war broke out, a desperate situation.

Only then did Kay properly look Aubrianna over.

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

Red eyes weren’t common in the Kingdom of Trilan to begin with, so only then did her foreign-looking face make sense.

But sometimes, her red pupils flared up like flames.

“…The Kingdom of Blanc?”

“So losing your memory doesn’t make you a fool.”

The woman curved her eyes narrowly and giggled. In that laughter, there was a thin thread of relief mixed in.

“From what I remember, the border with the Kingdom of Blanc has been closed for a long time.”

The man’s eyes traced hazy memories.

“About ten years ago?”

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

“Did it reopen?

“The border still isn’t open.”

Aubrianna scooped water with her hand.

Trickle.

A small stream slipped between her fingers and flowed back into the tub.

“Do you remember anything else? About yourself?”

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

After groping through time, the man shook his head with a pained expression.

“No. I don’t know anything.”