Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 29

Day broke.

After Aubrianna nursed the baby and straightened her clothes, Kaeloc took out some dried meat from his pocket and handed it to her.

“If we had a bit more time, I’d catch a rabbit or something….”

“It’s alright. More than that, we need to find Sir Sion quickly.”

There was no need to waste any more time in the snowfield.

The cabin they had lived in was already in ruins, and they had nowhere to stay.

Now they had to return to the ducal castle as soon as possible so Kaeloc could reclaim his position.

First, they headed toward the first village beyond the snowfield, the same place Kaeloc had gone to sell hides.

“One room, please.”

She wondered why they were entering a dressmaker’s shop, but it seemed the upper floor served as a lodging house.

The owner handed Kaeloc a key with an indifferent expression and glanced at her.

“Your wife isn’t wearing her new clothes.”

“Ah.”

Kaeloc looked briefly embarrassed, then took coins from his pocket and poured them out.

“By tomorrow, please make the clothes and nightwear you made before again.”

“Clothes?”

The owner looked Aubrianna over, puzzled, then took out a dress that had been on display.

“This should be about the right size. Try it on.”

“Then make two more in that size.”

Kaeloc looked worriedly at Aubrianna’s pale face.

“My wife isn’t well, so please prepare some bathwater as well.”

“Spring has come, but the goddess still plays tricks now and then.”

The owner swept up the coins on the counter with a pleased expression and gestured for them to go upstairs.

Step, step.

As they climbed the stairs, Aubrianna’s pace slowed as she followed Kaeloc, who was walking ahead carrying the baby.

“Here.”

A large hand reached out to her. She took it.

“Your hand is so warm.”

“Your hand is cold.”

Kaeloc muttered lowly. Spending the night out in the snowfield. It had been too foolish.

At least the baby was wrapped in a warm fur cloak and was fine, but Aubrianna, who was more fragile, didn’t look well.

“Soak in hot water and rest here for a few days.”

“We don’t have time….”

“No. You come first for me.”

If it came to it, he felt like throwing away being a duke and everything else.

“Even now, I’m holding myself back from taking you and the baby and running away.”

At the man’s grumbling voice, even Aubrianna, who had no energy, let out a small laugh.

“But we can’t do that.”

A duke carried a heavy responsibility. And Aubrianna had seen it in her previous life, the northern people falling into despair when Kaeloc couldn’t reclaim his position.

That must not happen.

‘Is that why I was sent back to life? To prevent such a tragedy?’

She felt as if she had reached an answer in her dizzy mind.

‘Is that why the goddess chose me?’

“What are you talking about? A goddess?”

She must have spoken aloud without realizing it.

“Here, we’re at the room.”

Click. Watching Kaeloc place the key and turn it, Aubrianna’s eyes slowly closed.

“Aubrianna!”

And everything turned to darkness.

***

“Explain quickly what’s wrong.”

Holding the baby in his arms, Kaeloc pressed the old man in a commanding tone.

“If it’s because there isn’t enough money. Here! Take it!”

He shook his pocket, and the heavy clink of coins rang out. Kaeloc threw them onto the table and shouted. The old man’s thin shoulders flinched.

“Hurry and treat her!”

The pitiful old man was neither a doctor nor someone who knew how to handle medicine. To begin with, this small border village at the far end of the North didn’t even have a midwife to receive newborn babies, let alone a doctor.

He could only distinguish things like colds and infectious diseases through the experience of a long life, so with a bewildered expression, the old man took the woman’s wrist and checked her pulse. Since it was neither slow nor fast, he tilted his head, thinking she had simply fallen asleep.

“It seems she doesn’t have a fever, and there’s no sign of redness, so it doesn’t look like a serious illness.”

“Then why did she collapse?”

“If she’s been tired or stayed up for several days, that’s probably the cause.”

Because he spoke with near certainty, Kaeloc’s expression eased slightly as he adjusted the struggling baby in his arms.

“If you let her sleep like this, then when she wakes up, have her eat something. She should be fine.”

The old man straightened his frail body, then looked at Kaeloc before turning his gaze to the baby in his arms.

“If you support the baby’s bottom rather than holding him like that, he’ll be more comfortable.”

“Is that so?”

As Kaeloc seated Theo on his large arm, the baby’s struggling lessened, and as if in a good mood, he let out a cheerful laugh.

The old man smiled back, revealing his sparse teeth. “He’s a very handsome son. He takes after his father exactly.”

After that, he picked up three of the coins that had rolled out from the pouch Kaeloc had thrown and turned away.

Until the creaking sound of the old man walking down the corridor faded, Kaeloc stared blankly at the baby.

“I look like you?”

Kaeloc’s brow furrowed deeply.

It felt strange that this little thing with the grand name Theophilus was his son.

My blood is running through the body of this tiny creature drooling all over himself?

This little one’s hair was a deep blond. He recalled his own black hair and Aubrianna’s light brown hair and shook his head.

‘He doesn’t look like me at all….’

He turned his gaze and looked at Aubrianna. The woman’s small face was so pale it was almost indistinguishable from the color of the sheet.

‘Was it too cold in the snowfield yesterday?’

Thinking about it, she had been chased by those men and spent a freezing night outside, so it was only natural her body would be weakened.

“Weak. Too weak.”

He liked her slender body and delicate skin, but he wished she were a bit healthier.

He grabbed the woman’s wrist, which lay limp on the bed.

‘It feels like it could fit in one hand.’

He thought he’d fed her well in the cabin, but when he thought about it, all she had eaten was thin soup, dry bread, and rabbit meat.

Hmm.

Holding the baby, who was now sucking on the button on his chest, he turned sharply and headed downstairs.

They needed fresh, high-quality food.

“I’m sorry, sir. We haven’t been doing business lately because we don’t have ingredients.”

The only restaurant in the village said they had no food left.

Kaeloc looked at the woman with hollow eyes and sunken cheeks, hardly fitting the image of a restaurant owner, then took out his money pouch and shook it.

“It’s not like I don’t have money, so at least bring out some bread and milk.”

He showed the baby, who was now sucking on the button, and said, “The baby’s mother is sick, so she can’t even feed him.”

For a moment, it seemed like sympathy filled the owner’s eyes, but she soon shook her head.

“Our village hasn’t been attacked by the Carnu tribe recently, but the entire surrounding area has been raided, so the supplies coming in have been drastically reduced. If we serve you food, we won’t have enough for ourselves….”

Only then did Kaeloc notice two young children playing in a corner of the restaurant.

In the end, Kaeloc gave up and left the restaurant, his steps heavy. Even if it was a border village, to have nothing at all like this….

As he returned to the lodging, he ran into the dressmaker who had introduced him to the old man.

“The baby looks very hungry.”

“The mother still hasn’t regained consciousness.”

The owner looked troubled for a moment, then led him behind the dress shop to his home.

“Thanks to the money you gave earlier, we were able to buy a bit more food this time.”

The owner’s wife, who had just baked bread for dinner, said it was rare to see a newborn around here these days and kindly asked if she could make a clear soup for the baby.

When Kaeloc handed over his money pouch in gratitude, the dressmaker took out a few coins and returned the rest.

“When I came into the village, I didn’t see any guards. What do you do if the Carnu tribe attacks?”

“They already came once in the autumn. Back then, all the guards ran away. Fortunately, since this place has so little, they haven’t come again, but we’re getting more worried as time passes. Even if we gather food in autumn, if the storage gets looted like this, how are we supposed to live?”

“Can’t you hire guards again?”

“You must not know because you’ve lived somewhere remote, but the taxes we have to pay the lord have doubled recently. There are already people who can’t afford it and end up fleeing overnight.”

Lowering his voice as if it were a secret, the dressmaker gathered dried leaves and lit them. His wife handed over a tray with a few pieces of bread and some sour jam made from bloodberries.

“I’d like to offer you warm milk too, but the Carnu tribe took all the goats we were raising….”

“This is more than enough. Thank you.”

Declining the tobacco the owner offered, Kaeloc watched the baby eagerly gulp down the clear soup, then turned his gaze out the window.

‘To double the taxes in a village already ruined by raids….’

Even without any memories, Kaeloc could immediately tell it was wrong.

“Who is governing the North right now?” Kaeloc asked, pretending not to know.

“They say it’s someone called Cedric Coville, a relative, since the duke went missing.”

The owner muttered as he flicked ash from his tobacco, clearly displeased.

“Still, when the previous duke was around, there were no Carnu raids, so we could at least get by. This is a disaster.”

Even the dressmaker’s face, as he spoke of taking turns with the villagers to stand guard, was layered with exhaustion.

Kaeloc tapped his fingers lightly on the table. Countless thoughts gathered in his blue eyes, and his gaze drifted into the distance.