Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 23

Hardin was crying.

Aubrianna wanted to comfort him, but her mouth was gagged, so she couldn’t.

‘Hardin probably couldn’t help it either.’

Sion must have strictly ordered that she not be untied.

Perhaps knowing she could hear him, the child kept talking through his sobs.

“I stole the dagger. I should’ve told you… It’s all my fault.”

Not wanting Hardin to feel any worse, she shook her head vigorously.

“But Sir Sion, Sir Sion….”

As she listened to his tearful voice, Aubrianna shook her head again, but soon stopped, unsure if Hardin could even see her.

Since her body wasn’t tilting, it seemed they were still on flat ground.

Aubrianna focused her hearing. Each time the cart wheels rattled, she could hear the irregular clatter of small stones bouncing.

They were passing over a gravel path.

‘Gravel. We haven’t gone far from the cabin yet.’

On the first day the weather cleared, Kay swept the snow far out in front of the cabin, then brought a large amount of gravel from somewhere and spread it.

“Why are you doing this?”

“So we can hear intruders coming.”

Back then, she thought it was just in case large animals like bears wandered by now that the weather had warmed.

Aubrianna took a deep breath.

‘I need to stay clear-headed while I’m being taken.’

For now, she wouldn’t be in danger. Even if Sion accused her of being the duke’s kidnapper, everything would be resolved once Kaeloc appeared.

What mattered more was something else.

‘I still haven’t told Kaeloc the truth.’

She hadn’t expected the search party to arrive so early. On top of that, Kay, who said he would come within two days, hadn’t appeared.

If Kaeloc showed up like this and learned the truth, everything she had done to seduce him and make him fall for her could collapse.

‘I didn’t lie, but I didn’t tell the truth either.’

Even if Kaeloc got angry, she would have nothing to say.

‘If only we had some time to talk things through calmly….’

Aubrianna felt at a loss, but there was nothing she could do except chew at the gag with her teeth.

Just then.

Clunk. The cart came to a stop.

“Who’s there!”

Voices rang out in alarm. Soon, dull thudding sounds of blows followed, along with the sound of something breaking.

“Mmph?”

The cart had a cover to keep the cargo from getting wet in snow or rain, but Aubrianna didn’t know that.

Hardin peered outside through a gap. None of the escorting knights guarding the cart were in sight.

‘The Carnu tribe?’

His heart began to pound. Hardin quickly removed Aubrianna’s hood and untied the gag.

“Hardin? What’s going on?”

Aubrianna asked in a frightened voice. Hardin was just as terrified. His hands trembled as he untied the rope binding her wrists.

“For now, stay with the baby. It looks like the Carnu tribe has appeared.”

The Carnu tribe in spring, when winter was ending? It was strange, but only Carnu warriors could throw the duke’s knights into such confusion.

“I’ll go down, keep watch, and send a signal. Come down then.”

If the attackers were truly the Carnu tribe, the supply cart would be the first to be looted.

Aubrianna looked at Hardin, who was only a little bigger than half her size.

No matter that he was a boy, he was still a child. Thinking it was right for her, the adult, to go instead, Aubrianna urgently called out to him.

“Hardin! You take the baby. I’ll go out.”

“There’s no time to argue like this!”

Hardin snapped, then practically shoved the baby into her arms before heading toward the edge of the cart.

“Hardin!”

The boy leapt out of the cart, pressed his body low, and turned his head as he scanned the surroundings.

“Now!”

Aubrianna, clutching Theo, who had woken but wasn’t fussing, stepped down from the cart.

The area around the cart was silent.

“Where is everyone?”

Neither the knights nor the Carnu tribe were in sight.

“For now, hide. If you stay here, there’s no telling what might happen to you.”

Hardin pressed his lips together and spread his small arms as if trying to shield Aubrianna. In this situation, both the Carnu tribe and the Tennant knights were nothing more than brutes to him.

After briefly checking the sky and the direction of the wind, Hardin pointed with his right arm toward a hill where a single small tree stood.

“Run that way. The snow clouds have already passed there, so there shouldn’t be a blizzard.”

“What about you? Come with me, Hardin.”

“I can run faster on my own. So go first.”

He spoke indifferently, as if she would only slow him down, but Aubrianna realized it was meant to reassure her. In any case, carrying the baby meant she couldn’t move quickly with Hardin.

“Then… I’ll go ahead. You have to follow me.”

“Yes.”

“Then.”

At that moment, as she turned to leave, Hardin grabbed her firmly.

“Don’t forget. If you run into a blizzard, keep your back to it as you move!”

He whispered quietly but firmly, as if making sure she would remember.

“If you get lost in the snowfield, walk with the blizzard at your back. Got it? Then eventually you’ll get out of the storm.”

It was something Hardin had told her in secret when she spoke about wandering the snowfield in the underground prison.

Aubrianna bit her lip, as if holding back a surge of emotion, and nodded.

“Okay.”

She spotted several large men gathered together in the distance and widened her eyes.

“They’re getting closer.”

“Go. Hurry, Aubrianna. Please be careful with the baby.”

“Okay. You stay safe too.”

She began to run in the direction Hardin had pointed. The baby in her arms, thinking she was playing, began to giggle.

“Shh! Theo. You need to be quiet right now.”

Worried the laughter might carry, she wrapped the baby tightly in her cloak and ran blindly, searching for a path hidden under the snow.

“Huff… huff….”

Barely making it up the hill and down the other side, Aubrianna dropped to the ground.

‘This should be enough so they won’t spot us.’

Hardin told her to keep going, but she couldn’t just leave him behind.

She would go with Hardin.

“Please, Hardin.”

She caught her breath for a moment, then cautiously lifted her head to check the cart below the hill.

“Huh?”

No one was there. Not Hardin, not the large men.

Did they capture Hardin? But if they were the search party, Hardin would be safe.

They wouldn’t punish him for letting her escape, would they?

“But where did everyone go?”

The cold from the snow-covered ground seeped into her, but thanks to the cloak Kaeloc had made for her, she was barely enduring it. Still, she couldn’t lie there forever.

“Abubu. Abu.”

She parted the cloak and looked down at Theo. He lay quietly in her arms, blowing raspberries with his lips.

In the North, there was a saying that when a baby blew raspberries like that, flicking their lips and spraying spit, it meant snow or rain would come.

‘If it starts snowing now….’

She was afraid that she and the baby would get lost again like this.

‘Please.’

She quickly wrapped the baby in her cloak again and got to her feet. Whether people could see her or not, she had to move. If a blizzard struck, she and the baby, with nowhere to take shelter, would be in danger.

‘Where should I go?’

She looked in the direction Hardin had pointed. It was a vast, endless plain without a single tree in sight. Even though she wore the silver cloak, if she walked out there, she would be spotted immediately.

And what if she ran into wolves?

There were no people in this snowfield, but there were all kinds of animals. Near the cabin there hadn’t been any because Kay hunted, but just a little further out, foxes and wolves were said to roam frequently.

And now it was spring. Bears that had woken from hibernation would eat anything in their hunger.

‘I have to move.’

Aubrianna’s feet shuffled, tracing a fan shape in the snow, before she finally decided to head in the direction Hardin had indicated.

Whether she encountered a bear or a wolf, she didn’t have a choice to begin with.

She had to meet Kaeloc before she was caught by the search party.

‘That’s the only way Theo and I will survive this life.’

***

“Aaagh!”

“Razen! Hold on tight!”

Razen’s face turned bright red. He was gripping the man’s neck with an arm as thick as an average man’s thigh, but even the slightest lapse made it feel like he might be thrown off.

“No! How am I supposed to hold onto the duke tightly like this?”

Sion, his face also flushed red, adjusted his grip on his sword with both hands and lowered his stance. Even with Razen clinging to his shoulder, the man moved lightly and attacked Sion.

From the sharp swordsmanship, blood was already streaming from Sion’s forearm and near his neck. Razen, on the verge of tears, shouted into the man’s ear.

“Your Grace. Please come to your senses!”

But the man only twisted his body this way and that, trying to shake Razen off.

His blue eyes, glaring at Sion with his lips pressed tight, were filled with killing intent.

The moment Sion subtly shifted his right foot, the man’s cold gaze caught it instantly, and he switched the hand holding the sword.

‘If I let my guard down even a little, I’ll die.’

He couldn’t afford to show even the slightest opening.

Sion swallowed dryly and spoke to Kaeloc, “Your Grace. It’s me, Sion. Don’t you recognize me?”

From beneath the shaggy hair, sharp eyes swept over Sion. It sent a chill down his spine, but Sion forced himself to keep talking.

“Please lower your sword for a moment and speak with me….”

“Where is the woman?”

At last, Kaeloc spoke.

“….”

Sion glanced briefly at Razen.

“You should’ve said that from the start. Aubrianna is with me….”

The moment Sion said Aubrianna’s name, Kaeloc’s eyes widened, then a strange light flickered within them.

“…So it was you. That bastard.”

“What?”