Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 27

“Your mother passed away when you were young.”

The man, who had paused for a moment, nodded.

“When you were about seven or eight, Eloise Coville, the daughter of the Marquess of Coville and the current Duchess of Tennant, entered the ducal castle.”

With her natural beauty, she captivated the former duke and rose to the position of the new duchess.

“I don’t know much beyond that since you didn’t talk much about your childhood.”

“And? Tell me more.”

“In the year you turned ten, you entered the academy in Beska, the capital, and you were the top student until you graduated.”

“Good grief.”

Kaeloc gripped her waist tightly.

“You’re not telling me I bragged about that in front of you myself, are you?”

He felt like hitting the version of himself he couldn’t even remember.

“Thankfully, no. Most of the stories about your academy days were told by Sir Sion.”

They were mostly told in the sense that he was someone far beyond her station, but she chose not to say that part.

“Alright. Then what about my father?”

“The former duke participated in the autumn battle against the Carnu tribe about five years ago, and afterward he contracted the illness that was going around at the time and, regrettably….”

As if something suddenly occurred to him, Kaeloc asked, “Then how old am I now?”

“Twenty-five.”

“What? That’s it? I was just a complete brat.”

Kaeloc lifted his head sharply and frowned.

“And you? How old are you?”

“I just turned twenty-three.”

“And when did you enter the ducal castle?”

Aubrianna counted the years.

“Eighteen.”

“No way….”

Did that mean he started touching this small woman from then?

At the thought that he might have laid hands on her right after she had just come of age, Kaeloc’s heart began to pound.

“You had just inherited the title of duke then and were busy handling your duties.”

Phew.

Without realizing it, Kaeloc let out a long sigh.

“That’s a relief.”

“To be honest, at first I thought you hated me.”

So she took him in with her eyes as much as she wanted. She thought he would never look back at her anyway.

After she started working as a maid, especially after she flipped through the fairy tale book beside his bedroom, all she heard for a while was him telling her to get out.

“Me? Hate you? That makes no sense.”

At his firm denial, Aubrianna let out a small laugh. “You shouted at me to get out just for being in your bedroom.”

“….”

Good grief.

Kaeloc’s face flushed. He had just been relieved thinking he hadn’t touched a young girl….

Back then, I probably violated this girl hundreds of times in my dreams.

Embarrassed, Kaeloc turned his face away, and Aubrianna tilted her head.

“But later, you treated me well.”

“Ahem. That’s… good to hear.”

But there were still many things that bothered him.

“The pregnancy….”

Only then did Aubrianna’s expression change.

“That was my fault, wasn’t it?”

No matter what, an illegitimate child….

He felt like dropping to his knees in front of her and begging.

Then suddenly, something she had said in the cabin came to mind.

“He’s marrying another woman soon.”

Kaeloc’s face went pale.

“Aubrianna. By any chance….”

Aubrianna took the man’s hand resting on her stomach.

“Let’s talk about that later. For now, let’s talk about something else.”

At the woman’s calm voice, Kaeloc swallowed and asked in a slightly dazed tone, “R-right. What else I’m curious about is….”

Quickly changing the subject, Kaeloc brushed his lips lightly against the back of her neck as he asked.

“The search party will come anyway when spring arrives, so why did you come to the snowfield in the middle of winter, and with a baby at that?”

It was something he still couldn’t understand.

Aubrianna opened her mouth as she felt the man’s cold lips brushing against her.

“My life was in danger.”

His lips stopped moving.

“What?”

A threat to the life of the duke’s bloodline and his mother within the ducal castle?

It was a serious matter that could be considered treason.

“After you disappeared, the North lost its center and fell into chaos. The northern nobles’ council said they needed to appoint an interim head as soon as possible. The condition was someone who had even a single drop of Tennant blood.”

“Even a single drop?”

“Do you know that people who could read old texts were summoned to all sorts of families because of that?”

There were more than a few families hoping that even a single drop of blood would be mixed in somehow.

“But the duchess was clever. She started by checking the Tennant family tree.”

And so the duchess, formerly Eloise Coville, discovered a daughter of the Tennant family who had married into her own family.

“Cedric Coville, the duchess’s fifth cousin, became the interim head.”

She left out the part about him being foolish, dull, lecherous, and eventually breaking into her room.

What mattered now was helping Kaeloc reclaim his position as duke.

“He wasn’t a wise man. So he only listened to the duchess.”

The ducal castle dismissed the old retainers and accepted only those who flattered and offered bribes.

“Then he must have thought of something like this. If you never return and Theo and I are gone, then the Tennant bloodline would be left with only Cedric Coville.”

“What? How could something like that….”

As Kaeloc was about to grow agitated, Aubrianna cupped his cheek and soothed him.

Aubrianna still couldn’t define her feelings for Kaeloc.

There was a time when she couldn’t sleep because of his gaze. It was a time like a memory that couldn’t be erased no matter how much she tried.

But now….

‘I hated you.’

When she was dying unjustly in prison, she resented him. But now that she was alive again, Kaeloc was necessary for her and the baby to survive.

That was why she seduced him without hesitation. To survive. She kept telling herself that.

“I don’t know who did it. The baby and I were confined to a room, and the food given once a day started to taste strange.”

Shock and anger began to build in his blue eyes.

“Who would do something so vile….”

“So I begged Sir Sion. Rather than wait for death in that room, I said I would go to the snowfield to find you.”

“What?”

No matter how dire the situation, sending a woman who had just given birth and a newborn into such a place?

He couldn’t accept it no matter how he tried to understand.

“You’re saying Sion allowed that?”

“I told you. He doesn’t like me very much.”

“What kind of nonsense is that!”

Kaeloc shot to his feet.

Even though he wore only a white shirt and vest, the man didn’t look cold at all.

His clenched fists trembled, and a sharp tension flowed from his lips.

“No matter how much he dislikes you, you’re the duke’s mistress, and the baby is the duke’s bloodline…. A vassal who serves the duke dares to send the duke’s son to his death?”

This is bad.

She hadn’t intended to agitate him this much. If Kaeloc was to return to the ducal castle and reclaim his position, Sion’s help would be absolutely necessary.

“Please. I don’t want you to get angry at him.”

Fidgeting, Aubrianna came up with a quick idea.

“Like you said, even if I’m only your mistress, Sir Sion respected my opinion. Honestly, I had nowhere to go as an orphan, so rather than that, I wanted to confirm that you were safe.”

In the depths of those blue eyes, like a deep frozen lake, a sharp, piercing cold flickered as if to see through everything.

His subtly narrowed gaze turned fierce, as if he wouldn’t let a single word she just said slip by.

“You’re lying to me right now.”

A low voice laced with cold distrust murmured.

Aubrianna’s eyes widened in surprise.

“No, are you telling only half the truth again?”

She couldn’t tell where he’d detected the lie in her words.

“Aubrianna. I’ve said it again and again, I’ve lost my memory, not my mind.”

With his arms crossed, the man looking down at her was like a ruler who held everything beneath his feet.

For a moment, Aubrianna almost mistook it as him having regained his memories.

“W-who’s lying?”

She forced a smile, trying to smooth things over.

“Are you afraid of him?”

A faint twitch appeared at the corner of her lips, where a painted-on smile lingered.

“Afraid?”

No, she was afraid.

Who had sent the assassins that tried to kill her and the baby?

She had thought about it until the moment she died in her previous life.

The suspect was someone who knew she had left for the snowfield with the baby.

Sioniel Valian.

From the beginning, he had found her extremely displeasing. And when she became Kaeloc’s mistress, he even openly told him to distance himself from her.

Simply because she was a lowly maid and didn’t suit Kaeloc.

Of course, Kaeloc didn’t care. Rather, he even showed his affection in front of Sion on purpose, which only made Aubrianna receive more glares.

But there was no need for him to kill her. As Sion always insisted, she was lowly and could never marry Kaeloc.

If Kaeloc married a noble lady from a powerful family as Sion wanted, then naturally her existence would be erased from the ducal castle.

‘Naively, I thought that too.’

Noble men usually gave money when they parted with their mistresses. Generous ones even provided a house to live in for life.

Some might call it materialistic, but for Aubrianna, who was an orphan, it was necessary.

Since all the money she had earned working since childhood had been taken by the orphanage director, she was nothing more than a penniless orphan.

So when Kaeloc married Lady Lott, she planned to receive some money, buy a small house in Alandor, and enroll in Regatta Girls’ School.

‘But then….’