Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 21

“You called, sir?”

Hardin hesitated as he pushed aside the heavy fur and stepped into Sion’s tent.

“I called you because I have something to say.”

“Yes, Sir Sion.”

Hardin bowed his head and waited for Sion to speak.

This man, the duke’s aide and a high-ranking noble, always stared as if seeing straight through him, making him shrink back without realizing it.

“Since you’re a child of the Carnu tribe, go find the way.”

“Pardon?”

Startled, Hardin lifted his head, unable to believe what he’d just heard, and noticed Razen standing beside Sion.

He shot Razen a resentful glare, but the man simply pretended not to notice.

“Find a spring.”

“…A spring?”

“Yes. A spring where clean water, safe for people to drink, flows.”

Hardin had never done anything like that before, and it left him at a loss.

What kind of test is this? What happens if I can’t find it?

“W-what if I can’t find it?”

Sion’s black eyes bore into Hardin like shackles tightening around him.

“You’ll be flogged and driven out of the castle.”

It was like a bolt from the blue. Hardin’s small face stiffened.

“But if you find it, I’ll let you join the knight order.”

The knight order!

The Tennant family’s knight order was famed even in the royal palace of Trilan for its bravery. Even though people from all over the country flocked to join, only a handful were ever chosen.

“You’ll start as a trainee, but if you show potential, I’ll make sure you have the opportunity to become a knight.”

It was an incredible privilege. For someone like him, a mixed-blood of the Carnu tribe, to become a knight.

Hardin’s heart began to race.

As the boy clenched his fists and left the tent with a flushed face, Razen turned to Sion.

“Why did you give him that order?”

“People instinctively settle where there’s water. If it’s the duke, he’ll definitely be somewhere with clean water.”

That might be true, but telling such a small child to find a spring in this vast snowfield. If he lost his way and wandered deeper into the snowfield, his life would be in danger.

Ignoring Razen’s displeased expression, Sion continued, “As you said, if he’s a child of the Carnu tribe, he’ll find the spring. The Carnu have lived on snow and ice for generations, so they have an instinct for finding clean, unpolluted water beneath it.”

Even with that added reassurance, Razen still looked dissatisfied, and Sion let out a faint chuckle.

“Besides, he’s good at finding his way. It’ll be good for him too. Once he becomes part of the Tennant’s knight order, no one will be able to lay a hand on him.”

***

Filled with hope at the promise of joining the knight order, he’d set off enthusiastically, but the endless stretch of snowfield left him at a loss.

The search party had moved for half a day after the snow stopped.

Snow had piled up around them again, and in the distance, Mount Winterholden looked pale, as if a blizzard was swirling around it.

The snow clouds had shifted, but not very far.

Hardin frowned as he looked around at the darkening surroundings.

‘If I keep going like this, I’m going to get lost.’

His night vision was good, and he knew the camp’s location, so he was confident he could make it back even in complete darkness.

But how am I supposed to find a spring?

Dejected, with his legs aching and his throat dry, Hardin plopped down.

“Can you find a spring for me?”

They say rabbits in the snowfield have never seen people and don’t fear them, and it seemed true, as a rabbit wandered nearby and perked up its ears.

“If you find it for me, I’ll give you this.”

Hardin spoke as he took out the cookies and dried fruit Razen had packed for him before he set out and began to eat.

As if to say it was enough, the rabbit turned its body, hopped a few steps, then stopped.

Then it hopped again and stopped once more.

“Are you telling me to follow you?”

He asked just in case, and the rabbit repeated the same action again.

“Uh….”

As if bewitched, Hardin got to his feet and diligently chased after the rabbit.

He kept walking, following it without pause.

“Where on earth are you going?”

With its small feet, it moved along steadily. When Hardin grew tired and stopped, it stopped as well.

“You really are taking me to a spring, right?”

Hardin kept turning back to check the path he had come.

How long had he walked?

Panting as he climbed yet another hill, one of countless hills he’d already crossed, Hardin slowly began to get irritated.

“Hey! Are you even going the right way? If there really isn’t a spring, I’m going to catch you and eat you!”

At Hardin’s threat, the rabbit stopped walking, stared at him with eyes like black beads, then turned its head away with a haughty flick.

“You little—!”

At that moment, the rabbit suddenly began to run at a speed incomparable to before.

“Hey! W-wait! Wait up!”

He had come this far, so losing the rabbit now would be a problem.

Under the ashen sky, across the snowfield filled with nothing but white, a single white rabbit and a small boy dashed forward.

As Hardin climbed another low hill, he spotted something different from the white around him, a glimmer of silver fur.

“A fox?”

Drip, drip.

Just then, he heard the faint sound of water flowing.

“Did you really bring me to a spring?”

The rabbit, which had been staring straight at Hardin, hopped again as if in confirmation and disappeared behind a rock.

“Hey! Wait for me.”

Rustle. The fox seemed to notice his presence and froze in surprise.

But his throat was parched, and Hardin paid it no mind as he approached the spring. Then the silver fox raised its body and called his name.

“Hardin?”

“….”

He thought it was a fox, but it was a strange woman. Hardin frowned.

He swore he had never seen her before.

“Do you know me?”

Hardin was far too thirsty, so without waiting for her answer, he bent down and gulped the water from the spring.

The cold, refreshing water washed away the fatigue from all the running he’d done.

Aubrianna looked down at Hardin with a deeply moved expression.

‘My goodness, it really was Hardin who found Kaeloc.’

When she met him in prison, Hardin had once told her that.

After drinking his fill, the child wiped his mouth and stood up.

“But who are you?”

At the child’s question, Aubrianna closed her mouth.

‘Right. This child doesn’t know me yet.’

Still, seeing a familiar face made Aubrianna feel good. She smiled brightly and introduced herself.

“I’m Aubrianna.”

The child stared at her blankly, then his cheeks flushed.

“But… how do you know my name…?”

Aubrianna examined Hardin’s face. He looked tired and worn out, as if he had come a very long way.

“First, do you want to come to my place? There’s warm soup and bread.”

Grrrrrr.

Right on cue, a rumbling sound came from the child’s stomach. As Aubrianna began to walk, Hardin’s feet followed on their own.

“Do you live around here?”

Hardin looked around. A woman living alone in this empty snowfield….

“Yeah. Just for a while….”

Maybe because it was a place where she had been with Kaeloc alone, she felt a pang of regret at the thought of leaving.

‘It seems I really thought of it as home.’

She pointed to the roof of the cabin, now familiar to her eyes.

“That’s it. That’s where I live.”

Following behind Aubrianna, Hardin kept glancing at the firewood stacked high under the eaves and the dried hides set in the corner.

‘So she doesn’t live alone. But to think people live this deep in the snowfield….’

The snowfield was a place where winter lasted far too long.

Even if you scattered seeds into the ground because spring had come, winter would return before there was even time for fruit to grow, and snow would pile up again.

‘Seeing those animal hides, do they live by hunting?’

Looking at the cabin’s walls, carefully finished so the wind couldn’t get in, Hardin stepped inside with slight tension.

“Excuse me.”

Aubrianna let out a quiet laugh at well-mannered Hardin.

“It’s just me right now, so make yourself comfortable.”

“Just you?”

“Yeah. Kay went to sell hides.”

Hardin nodded and sat in front of the fireplace as the woman led him there.

“Just a moment.”

Sitting in front of the warm fire made Hardin’s body grow drowsy, and he let out a long yawn.

To the boy, Aubrianna handed over a plate with soup and bread and said, “It should be decent enough to eat.”

“It’s fine. I eat anything well.”

After Hardin swept the plate clean in no time, Aubrianna gave him another plate and poured into a cup the rich milk she had squeezed from a wild female capra that looked similar to the goat Kay had caught around ten days ago.

“But aren’t you scared, staying here alone?”

No sooner had Hardin finished speaking than a small sound came from the corner of the cabin.

“Abububa.”

“Looks like he woke up.”

Beaming, Aubrianna walked over to the baby.

“We have a guest, so you should say hello, right?”

Hardin looked at the chubby baby approaching him.

“Oh.”

“He’s my son. His name is Theo.”

Aubrianna looked on, overcome with emotion, as Theo reached out his hand, trying to grab Hardin.

“You look like my baby, Hardin.”

“A baby?”

The boy, wrinkling the tip of his nose as he thought for a moment, asked,

“He is a boy, right?”

Hardin hated being called pretty, so his voice was full of worry that she might say he looked like a girl, and Aubrianna was able to smile for a moment.

The only person who had made her smile in that hellish underground prison.

Without realizing it, Aubrianna’s eyes began to grow wet.

After setting the baby down, Aubrianna stood in front of Hardin, fidgeting.

“By any chance… would it be okay if I hugged you for a moment?”

The child looked at her with a bewildered face.

The woman living as a hunter’s wife in the remote snowfield was very pretty, and she smelled nice too.

‘She doesn’t seem like a bad person.’

Thinking she was just glad to meet someone after being alone without her husband, Hardin gave a slight nod.

Then Aubrianna held him tightly.

The same build as back then, hair just as soft. Slightly rough, but still childlike breathing.

Aubrianna wiped away her tears so Hardin wouldn’t be startled and smiled.

“Sorry. Seeing you made me so happy.”

But after only briefly savoring the joy of that happy reunion, Hardin froze in place with his face burning red.

“Hardin?”

Thinking he might have caught a cold, she was about to place a hand on his forehead when Hardin stepped back.