Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 3

“Kay is the name you remember, right?”

Aubrianna placed her hand over the man’s arm resting on the edge of the tub.

‘Is she trying to comfort me?’

As the man watched the warm, small hand softly stroke his arm, he recalled the day he first regained consciousness in this place.

He had awakened on a muddy puddle where hot blood and melted snow mixed together.

His blood-soaked clothes were stiff, and his military boots were tightly laced.

A long sword hung from his waist, and three small daggers were tucked into his chest. His black jacket had no insignia or epaulettes, but the fabric was military-grade, and the stitching was high-quality.

A soldier or an assassin.

He raised his gloved hand and felt the back of his head. His fingertips brushed against a deep dent in his hardened skin.

He hadn’t been attacked head-on; it was a blow from behind.

He must have fallen before he could react and quickly lost consciousness.

He might have even stopped breathing for a moment. It was pure luck that whoever struck him didn’t stab him again to make sure he was dead.

When he lifted his head, he’d seen this cabin. When he’d looked back to figure out where he’d come from, the entire world was already buried in snow, making it impossible to tell.

And then he realized he remembered neither his name nor his family.

“It’s not my name. It’s just the letters engraved on my cuff button.”

Kay pointed to his empty wrist.

“I see.”

“I’m Kay. Who are you?”

That was the first thing he’d said when she opened her eyes.

Aubrianna lifted her trembling red eyes and looked at Kay.

Beneath the dark beard and unkempt hair, his blue eyes shone with sharp intelligence that even memory loss couldn’t dull.

She knew this man very well.

His real name was Kaeloc Tennant.

The young Duke of House Tennant, who governed the northern territories of the Kingdom of Trilan.

Now, he was living as a hunter named Kay, with no memory of who he was.

Would this man fall for my temptation?

A wave of fear rolled into Aubrianna’s impatient heart like gathering storm clouds.

***

She was living her second life now.

In her previous life, she had been a maid in the ducal castle and Kaeloc’s mistress.

Amid the curious whispers of those who gossiped that she was a maid who had seduced the duke with her beauty, she had become pregnant with his child.

But Kaeloc, a high-ranking noble, became engaged to a wealthy young lady from the noble Lott family, who was related to the royal family.

Aubrianna, who had foolishly held onto hope because he never held another woman in his arms, despaired when news of his engagement spread.

Then one day, she received word that Kaeloc had gone missing during the autumn battle against the Carnu tribe.

The ducal house and the entire northern region fell into chaos.

The commander who had led the army through thirty years of war against the Carnu tribe had vanished.

The borderlands were ravaged by the tribe’s invasion, and the whole Kingdom of Trilan trembled in fear.

Amid that turmoil, Aubrianna gave birth, but before she could even properly see her baby’s face, the former duchess took the child from her.

“If Kaeloc doesn’t return, I’ll register this baby into the family and raise him as the heir.”

Kaeloc’s stepmother, Eloise, had no interest in his disappearance or the devastated borderlands overrun by the Carnu tribe.

What the Dowager Duchess wanted was the honor and wealth of the Tennant family, now without its head.

With no heir and an uncertain future, the Dowager Duchess called the child “young duke” and took good care of him.

But before long, the baby was returned to Aubrianna.

Cedric Coville, the Dowager Duchess’s nephew, whose mother had been revealed to be of Tennant blood.

In an instant, Cedric Coville became the acting head of the Tennant family and began managing the duchy.

If Kaeloc didn’t return, the Coville marquessate—Eloise’s family—could very well become the next northern ducal house, succeeding the Tennants.

Amid the constant turmoil, Aubrianna, like a candle flickering before the wind, was confined to her room under the Dowager Duchess’s watch.

“Lien, this food tastes strange.”

The maid Lien, who had brought her meal, bowed her head low and disappeared, and the rough-looking man guarding the door sneered at her.

“Quiet that baby down. In times like these, you and the baby could vanish without anyone ever knowing.”

Fear seized her that she and her baby might die together if this continued.

“The Dowager Duchess must find that baby troublesome.”

One day, Kaeloc’s aide, Sion, came to her and spoke in a cold voice.

“I told you, didn’t I? A maid like you should never have been by the Duke’s side.”

She knew he’d always disapproved of her. But right now, there was no one else she could turn to for help.

“Sir Sion. Please help me. Please, at least save the baby.”

At her desperate plea, the man’s black eyes glared at her with contempt before he spoke like granting a favor.

“A week from now. Be ready.”

A week later, she left the hellish duchy and arrived at the snowy plains. She’d gone there determined to find Kaeloc herself.

And she lost her baby.

When she came to, she was imprisoned in the underground cell for the crime of murdering the duke’s son.

“No! I went to save the baby! Please, there was someone else there! Please, listen to me!”

The brutal beatings continued. They even used her foreign looks against her, accusing her of being a spy who colluded with the Carnu tribe and might have been involved in the duke’s disappearance. The torture was merciless.

“Sir Sion, you know! You know I don’t know where His Grace is!”

“That doesn’t matter. You were just a foolish woman.”

By the time she barely managed to survive each day, nearly driven insane, Kaeloc returned.

With all his memories lost.

“You’re saying she was my mistress?”

Ashamed of her emaciated body, she hid her face with her loosened hair and turned away from Kaeloc, who tilted his head in confusion.

“Forget it. She’s a shameless woman who committed vile acts and feels no remorse. She’s even accused of treason against the kingdom.”

What had Kaeloc said to Sion’s words?

She couldn’t remember.

As time passed, she became branded as the wicked woman who murdered her child and endangered the North’s safety.

“Have you repented?”

Someone asked from behind her as she lay on the cold stone floor of the prison.

Beyond the iron bars, cheerful music spread, and a fanfare rang out.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

In a faint voice on the brink of death, Aubrianna protested.

“I… I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Her only sin was that she loved Kaeloc yet tried to settle for a comfortable reality.

She had given her heart and dependence to something she couldn’t control.

She had spent her life waiting for a noble father she’d never seen and dreaming of one day entering a girls’ academy.

And even so, she’d always decided in advance that nothing within her reach was possible, wasting her years away.

Her breathing grew heavy, and it was hard to speak anymore.

“There is one thing I regret.”

She’d wanted her child, born of noble blood, to live a life unlike her own lowly one, so she’d never even called his name with affection.

“Theo.”

If there’s a next life, I’ll live wisely. I’ll live only for myself, without caring what anyone thinks.

She slowly closed her eyes, clutching her mother’s keepsake, the ruby necklace, tightly in her hand.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the snowfield.

Holding the still-living baby in her arms.

***

Aubrianna glanced at the baby. The child had fallen asleep after quietly playing on the bed, sucking on a towel so sweetly it was endearing.

The chubby red cheeks, full of life, were so lovely. She felt grateful just watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

‘Right now, the only person I can trust is this man.’

There was only one reason she had wandered the dangerous snowfields to find him.

‘Without him, we can’t return to the ducal castle, and even if we did, we’d be as good as dead.’

Kaeloc had never shown kindness or affection, but he’d certainly desired her body as his mistress.

Even when her belly had grown heavy with pregnancy, the man had wanted her.

Resolute once more, Aubrianna tightened her grip on the man’s arm and pulled him toward her.

The heavy, well-built arm, densely packed with muscle, slid along as if riding a rail and came to rest against her chest.

“Then what about this? You don’t remember this either?”

Her red eyes narrowed seductively. His innocent face, as if seeing a naked woman for the first time, looked endearing.

“What?”

When her other hand moved up his solid thigh, his large body flinched, twisting as water splashed up.

“Ugh.”

From the moment he’d seen her in the bath, his hardened length had already been throbbing, and when her small hand touched it, it swelled uncontrollably.

The man, who unconsciously grabbed the woman’s breast, looked into her eyes in confusion.

His whole body tensed, and his lips parted helplessly.

A faint tremor scattered with his breath.

“I might have a wife.”

“You might not.”

She smiled softly, her lips curling as she tempted him.

“Are you… a prostitute?”

For a man with his manhood fully swollen, that was all he could ask?

Once, that word would have enraged her. It was so insulting she would have wanted to hang herself from the terrace overlooking the garden, so cruel and vile.

Aubrianna smiled brightly and lifted her face close to his.

“And if I am? What would you do then, Kay?”

A warm, sweet scent, mingled with the faint smell of milk, spread from her body. The fragrance of flowers, likely her own natural scent, tickled his nose.

Would a prostitute smell like this? Kay couldn’t even tell if he was the kind of man who enjoyed sleeping with prostitutes, so he just stared at her face.

The woman’s hand tightened, moving slowly up and down.

The ripples in the water swayed, and a helpless groan escaped the man’s lips.

“Ahh.”

Then it happened.

Waaah.

The baby’s cry suddenly filled the cabin, waking hungry from sleep.

The small hand that had been gripping and twisting the tip of his hardened length stopped moving. Their panting breaths met, and their gazes locked.

In her burning red eyes, Kay saw his own face, twisted with unsatisfied desire, and he turned away.

The sound of the woman standing, wrapping her body in a towel, and heading toward the bed followed.

Soon, the sound of the baby suckling filled the air.

Suck, slurp.

Even though it was just the sound of a baby feeding, Kay couldn’t stop imagining the woman’s full breasts.

‘Damn it.’

He wrapped his hand around his erect member and began to move it slowly up and down, as the woman did.

Even that alone made his waist tremble, and goosebumps spread down his spine.

The thought that he might have a wife had long since disappeared.

Now his mind was filled only with the image of that woman’s naked body.

Her straight nose and lips red like petals. Her elegant jawline and slender neck. Her full, sweet breasts heavy with milk and her curved waist.

And beneath the rippling water, the faint glimpse of her vagina.

Was it a light shade of red like her eyes, or a deep rose color?

His hand sped up, and the water sloshed.

Splash, splash.

“Hhgh.”

The thick fluid spurted out, forming a white mass in the water for a moment before dissolving and fading away.

At the raw, unfamiliar sight, the man hastily rose to his feet, and the woman looked at him in confusion.

‘What the hell did I just do?’

Kay’s cheeks flushed red beyond control.