Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 38

“Call Kaeloc.”

Even with both hands bound, Aubrianna spoke to Sion while trying to remain calm.

The underground prison beneath the ducal castle.

Aubrianna’s gaze wavered as she looked at the familiar yet uncomfortable scene of the prison.

‘I never thought I’d come back here again….’

Biting her lip hard, Aubrianna fixed her gaze on the man in front of her.

“Call Kaeloc….”

Sion, who had stopped walking, turned his body and strode toward her.

Smack!

Her head snapped to the side from the sudden blow to her cheek.

“If you recklessly put the duke’s name in your mouth one more time, I’ll make sure you never see the light again in this prison.”

It seemed her lip had split, and blood pooled inside her mouth.

“Haha.”

She let out a laugh.

‘Even after crossing death and returning, it seems fate doesn’t change much.’

In her previous life, Sion had struck her as well.

“How dare you take the young master into the dangerous snowfield and lead him to his death!”

With his face twisted as if grieving Theo’s death, he had beaten her.

And yet it had been Sion himself who helped her and the baby go to the snowfield.

When Aubrianna, who seemed like she might cry, instead laughed, Sion frowned as if he had seen something disgusting.

“You relied on the duke and acted arrogantly, and now you’ve finally gone completely insane.”

Aubrianna’s red eyes glared sharply at the man as she opened her lips. “Aren’t you the one who’s insane? If Kaeloc finds out I’m here, he won’t let this slide.”

Drip.

A thin red line of blood ran from the corner of her lips.

Looking over her swollen cheek and the blood at her mouth, Sion crossed his arms and spoke leisurely, “I only received a report from someone in the knight order that you abducted the duke who lost his memory, and I lawfully arrested you as a suspect.”

Then he turned his body sharply and opened the barred iron door.

“Get in!”

When Aubrianna continued to stand still, one of the soldiers behind her untied the rope binding her hands and pushed her back with the club he was holding.

Clang.

The door shut behind her. She slowly rubbed her throbbing wrists and looked around.

Inside the narrow cell, the stone walls were damp with moss and mold clinging to them. The smell of rotting straw and the cold dampness tightened her throat. The conditions were even worse than she remembered.

“The duke will probably be running around looking for you without knowing anything.”

Sion sneered from outside the iron bars.

“But before that, your trial will proceed, and people will accuse you of being a witch who bewitched the duke.”

That was what Sion was aiming for.

“Are you planning to reveal Kaeloc’s amnesia to all the people of the North?”

With Cedric, whom the duchess put forward, as the acting head of the house, the loss of memory was an extremely disadvantageous weakness for Kaeloc.

There was no way Sion, his aide, didn’t know that.

Scrape.

The man, having received a club from a soldier, dragged it across the iron bars.

Though rusted and worn, the thick, sturdy iron bars contributed to the notoriety of the underground prison, from which no one had escaped for hundreds of years.

Bang. Bang.

As he struck the bars irritably, the dull yet sharp sound echoed loudly against the stone walls.

At that, the whispering voices that had been murmuring like rats fell silent all at once.

“In the first place, you being by the duke’s side was the weakness.”

“What nonsense.”

Aubrianna shot back, her fists clenched tightly. A mere maid who could be discarded at any time being called a weakness. It made no sense from the start.

The man paused, then slowly tilted his face closer to the bars.

“…What is it?”

Sion’s black eyes, staring at Aubrianna, gleamed coldly with curiosity.

“Since when did you start talking back like this?”

“….”

Sion quietly observed the woman who kept her lips tightly shut.

Her looks were outstanding, but in the end, she was just a maid. He’d heard that she could read and even handle books written in archaic language with ease.

Among the servants, there were rumors that she might be an illegitimate child of a noble, but what did that matter?

‘In the end, she’s just an orphan who doesn’t know her place.’

With a faint sneer at the corner of his lips, Sion raised one finger in warning. “Don’t be mistaken into thinking the duke who lost his memory will stay on your side forever. Aubrianna.”

***

It hadn’t been long since the sun set, but the street in front of the bustling district was crowded with people coming and going.

Inside the carriage that had stopped in front of the inn, Kaeloc took a moment to steady his breathing.

Razen, who had been watching him closely, fidgeted on the coachman’s seat, then climbed down and grabbed the door.

“W-We’ve arrived. Shall I open the door?”

“Do me one favor.”

“Pardon? Y-Yes, if there’s anything you need me to do….”

“Go check if Aubrianna is inside.”

“…Pardon?”

Startled, Razen accidentally touched the carriage door handle, and it creaked open.

“I said go upstairs and check if Aubrianna is there.”

“M-Me?”

“Why? Can’t you do it?”

Seeing those still-glinting blue eyes through the slightly open door, Razen made a tearful face and said he would go, then turned around.

‘No, who wouldn’t do it when he’s glaring like that?’

Like a beast being dragged to the slaughterhouse, Razen forced his unmoving legs to move and entered the inn.

The plan was that if Kaeloc checked the empty room, Razen would stand beside him and say that it seemed Aubrianna had run away.

After that, while Kaeloc searched for Aubrianna, his task was to take the young master and return to the ducal castle.

As Razen headed toward the stairs, he whispered to an attendant who had approached at some point.

“Where is Sir Sion? Did he come by?”

The soldier disguised as an attendant nodded. “Yes. He completed the mission successfully.”

Still seeming like a rookie, the young soldier asked again with a face full of tension and excitement, “What about His Grace? If His Grace doesn’t immediately look for the woman, we were told to bring him to the ducal castle.”

Swallowing hard, Razen squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.

“Wait a moment. It seems like he’s already sensed that something’s wrong.”

“…Pardon?”

“You go and tell Sir Sion that His Grace has caught on. I’ll buy some time here.”

As the soldier disappeared, Razen climbed the stairs, wondering what he should say to the duke, but no good idea came to mind.

The plan had been hastily put together from the start, so there was no contingency prepared for unexpected situations.

As Razen reached the top of the stairs and the room drew near, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

‘Can’t I just go and say Aubrianna seems to have run away?’

Realizing belatedly that if things didn’t go according to plan, he could just make them go according to plan, Razen, who had been worried, let out a laugh.

“I’m something else. Haha.”

It seemed he had been bewitched by Kaeloc’s eyes that shone like a beast’s. He turned his body and went back down the stairs.

‘I should look a bit urgent, right?’

He quickened his pace slightly, passed through the inn’s reception room, opened the door, and went outside.

“Your Grace! Well… huh!”

The carriage that had clearly been standing on the street was gone without a trace.

“No, uh, where did he go?”

Flustered, Razen grabbed passersby and began asking.

“Have you seen the carriage that was here?”

“How would I know?”

A man shook off Razen’s hand as if annoyed.

“Ha, seriously.”

Having lost both the duke and the young master, Razen scratched his head and looked around, but he had no idea where they had gone.

***

“Please keep it a secret that I came here.”

He glanced at the coachman behind him.

“That coachman is from our family, so he’ll keep the secret,” Agnes said as she opened the door and made space for Kaeloc to enter.

“It seems something happened very quickly.”

Leading him to the reception room, Agnes called for a maid. “Take the baby and put him to sleep.”

Kaeloc handed over the still-sleeping baby to the approaching maid and followed Agnes into the reception room.

“So, what is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure either.”

Sitting in the chair by the fireplace that Agnes indicated, Kaeloc unconsciously sat in an elegant posture and naturally accepted the drink handed to him by a servant.

“I think Aubrianna is gone.”

“Gone?”

“Her room was dark.”

“Not just asleep?”

“She’s not the type of woman to fall asleep before Theo and I return.”

Kaeloc recalled the Aubrianna he had seen so far. She took care of Theo excessively.

She said she would spend time alone, but until he and the baby left, she held the baby in her arms and didn’t let go.

He remembered how Razen had looked suspiciously flustered when he told him to go check on Aubrianna in the room.

Watching Razen go up hesitantly, he waited for the room light to turn on, but it never did.

He immediately ordered the coachman to head back to the countess’s villa.

‘If Aubrianna is asleep in the room, that would be a relief, but something feels off.’

That strange sensation was still wrapping around him.

“So what will you do?”

A maid brought a shawl that looked warm and draped it over Agnes’s shoulders.

“I need someone I can use. Someone I can trust.”

He couldn’t trust the duke’s aide or adjutant.

Agnes looked at him with sharp eyes. “And you can trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Agnes looked puzzled, but a faint smile appeared on her lips as if pleased.

“You say you can’t trust even the subordinates you’ve been using, and yet you trust me? Should I be happy about this?”

Kaeloc leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and took a sip of his drink.

The only light in the reception room, with the lantern extinguished, came from the firewood burning in the fireplace.

Looking at that light reminded him of the cabin in the snowfield. The red glow surged as if consuming the contours of his masculine face.

“Because Aubrianna said you’re someone who can be trusted.”