Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 24

Taking advantage of the moment Sion’s sword dipped slightly at the sudden remark, Kaeloc bent his knees, then sprang up, his body swelling with force. With a shout, Razen was flung away.

At the same time, Kaeloc closed the distance to Sion in an instant.

“Ugh, Your Grace!”

In the blink of an eye, Sion’s sword was knocked away and embedded into the hard ground. His shoulder was shoved, and as he fell onto his back, Kaeloc pressed his knee firmly into Sion’s abdomen and pointed a blade at his throat as he spoke coldly.

“Was it you? The bastard who beat the woman and made her bear a bastard child!”

“What are you talking about? Who beat a woman…?”

“That’s right! Sir Sion would never beat a woman!”

Razen rushed forward, but fearing Kaeloc might slit Sion’s throat, he couldn’t get closer and hovered anxiously nearby.

“Sir Sion might get hit by a woman, but he’d never hit one….”

“Razen! What nonsense are you saying!”

As Sion and Razen bickered even with a sword at Sion’s throat, Kaeloc tightened his grip.

Trickle.

A fresh wound opened on Sion’s neck.

“Do I look like I’m joking right now?”

“No! Not at all! I’m sorry!”

Razen dropped to his knees in shock.

“Your Grace! I was wrong. So please, Sir Sion….”

The large man hunched his massive frame, begging for forgiveness.

“Your Grace. Please calm down and let’s talk…. I mean, let’s settle this with words. With words.”

Sion slowly raised his empty hand while lying on the ground. Seeing the sign of surrender, Kaeloc slowly withdrew the blade.

He wanted to tear these men apart, but if he did, he would never learn where Aubrianna and the baby were.

Still pressing his knee into Sion’s abdomen, he gestured to Razen. “Bring rope.”

A moment later, Kaeloc stood with his arms crossed, looking down coldly at the two of them lying on the ground, tightly bound.

“First, tell me who you are.”

It was clear they were people who had come looking for Aubrianna. If neither of these two men was the baby’s father, then they were merely errand runners.

Sion exchanged a glance with Razen.

“Have you perhaps lost your memory?”

Kaeloc kicked Sion with his foot. “That’s not an answer to my question.”

Razen puffed out his cheeks. “I don’t know if you’ve lost your memory, but your personality’s the same.”

In the end, Razen was kicked in the rear as well.

“We are vassals of House Tennant, which governs the North. I am Sioniel Valian, the eldest son of the Valian branch of the Belone family.”

As Sion launched into a long-winded explanation, Razen blinked at him, then hurriedly spoke at Sion’s signal.

“I-I am Razen of House Karven.”

Kaeloc crossed his arms. “Good. Then where is Aubrianna, the woman you took?”

“We put her on the supply cart.”

“The supply cart?”

Kaeloc turned his head and looked around. Aside from dozens of knights sprawled on the ground groaning and the warhorses wandering leisurely, trained not to flee far, there was no cart in sight.

“Are you lying to me?”

As Kaeloc raised his sword again, Razen shouted, “We definitely put her on the supply cart! Think about it! Would we come all the way from the duke’s castle to here without any supplies? If anything, saying we didn’t would be the lie!”

As he shouted indignantly, Kaeloc seemed to think for a moment before asking, “Then where did the supply cart go?”

“How would I know—agh!”

Sion kicked Razen as if telling him to be quiet.

“Your Grace. First, please listen to me. Do you remember your name?”

“Name?”

Kaeloc crossed his arms and looked down at the men rolling on the ground. Once he confirmed Aubrianna wasn’t in their hands, his agitation subsided instead.

“Does it matter whether I remember my name?”

“Don’t you find it strange that we keep calling you ‘Your Grace’?”

“Then you must be mad.”

Deciding there was no point in listening further, Kaeloc turned away.

‘She must’ve run away.’

He himself had repeatedly told her that if several intruders appeared, she shouldn’t look back and should just run.

He clenched his fists tightly.

‘I should’ve come sooner. What’s a few clothes worth….’

By the time he reached the first village beyond the snowfield, it was already well past noon.

After selling the hides and dried meat he’d brought for a good price and receiving the money, it had already grown dim.

He was about to head straight back when he noticed a dressmaker’s shop at the entrance to the village.

“Give me a few dresses for a woman, along with nightclothes and undergarments.”

“Did you bring her measurements?”

“Her waist is slim, and her bust is about this….”

The shop owner snorted at the hand gesture, warned that there would be no refunds after the clothes were completed, and told him to come back in two days.

“We run a lodging upstairs. Since you’ve come from far away, why don’t you stay there for the night?”

Seeing Kaeloc’s shabby appearance, the owner must have judged he wasn’t from around here and suggested he stay the night.

“If I stay there, will it be done faster?”

Worried about Aubrianna being alone, he couldn’t afford to linger long.

“Of course. Money makes everything possible.”

Kaeloc took a few more coins from his pocket and set them on the table.

“Please do it as quickly as possible.”

Late the next evening, the clothes were finished. Kaeloc spent another night at the lodging, barely sleeping, and as soon as dawn broke, he set out.

He hurried back to the cabin like that, but….

“How dare they.”

The bed where they had slept was shattered to pieces, and the cradle where the baby had lain was rolling about in the yard.

Crunch.

Even now, the vivid scene before his eyes made him grind his teeth so hard his jaw bulged.

“How dare they touch what’s mine.”

He wouldn’t forgive anyone. His blue eyes, consumed by fury, turned a piercing shade.

Ignoring the men shouting “Your Grace!” from far behind, he strode forward.

If it was a cart, it would have wheels, and in a snow-covered field, it was difficult to erase wheel tracks.

He lowered his sharp gaze to the ground.

After walking for a while, he found two clearly pressed wheel tracks, confirming the men’s words were true.

The line of the wheels led toward a flat path. He moved to follow it quickly, then stopped and slowly circled the area.

Then Kaeloc’s upright gaze shifted toward a slightly steep hill.

Without hesitation, he began to climb it.

Even as he ascended, his keen eyes didn’t miss his surroundings.

‘Someone erased the tracks, but there are traces of someone walking this way.’

They were erased cleverly enough that you wouldn’t notice unless you looked closely.

‘Either someone helped Aubrianna, or they used a trick to take her away from me.’

The missing cart was a decoy.

As he climbed the hill, he recalled the men he’d knocked down.

‘They carried fine cloth and high-quality swords. House Tennant….’

It’s suspicious why they called me Your Grace. Since they can’t match me, it seems they’re using a shallow trick.

‘They knew Aubrianna’s name. Then the baby’s father really must be a high-ranking noble….’

I thought she’d been abandoned, but if he came looking for Aubrianna and the baby, does that mean he still has lingering feelings?

Kaeloc felt his insides burn.

In any case, she hadn’t wanted it, so she must have run away.

‘If I find her like this, let’s leave this kingdom altogether and go far away.’

We’ll go somewhere no one knows and start over.

With that resolve, Kaeloc reached the top of the hill and stopped.

The black cloak draped over his shoulders billowed wide as it caught the wind. Standing tall atop the hill and looking down over the endless snowfield, Kaeloc looked like a ruthless, solemn ruler governing that place.

His blue eyes, sharp as a hawk’s, soon caught something moving faintly in the distance.

“Found you.”

Crunch.

The sound of footsteps pressing into the white snow spread faintly.

Life in the solitary cabin had been peaceful. The fire in the fireplace burned gently, giving off the scent of wood, and inside the cabin it was warm like a different season from the biting wind outside.

He leaned back in a chair, simply letting the sound of the flames crackling reach his ears.

Even alone, he wasn’t lonely. The stillness filled the gaps in his heart, and this small space cut off from the world had become a place of rest instead.

Snow falling beyond the window piled up slowly, and just watching that white silence made his heart settle calmly.

He let go of all desires and conflicts, tasting the peace of a moment where the world couldn’t find him.

But then Aubrianna suddenly appeared and woke him like a morning lark.

As if the cabin he believed to be entirely his own space had been invaded in an instant, he felt suffocated with discomfort.

That unfamiliar presence sliced through the comfortable air like a sharp blade, and he unconsciously clenched his teeth.

Yet the more he tried to avert his gaze, the clearer her presence became.

Her face reflected in the firelight, every tremor within it, strangely gripped his heart.

He hated it. Being shaken. Being disrupted.

And yet he wanted it desperately.

That discomfort soon turned into thirst, and the gesture of rejection became desire, and he realized he couldn’t deceive himself.

Now she was his small white rabbit.