Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 44
“Stop.”
At Sion’s words, Razen, who had been about to give orders, halted.
“There’s no need to deliberately ruin the mood when things are just getting lively.”
This winter, people had trembled in fear and anxiety due to the duke’s disappearance, and had spent their days depressed and exhausted because of Cedric’s tyranny.
Now, the long and brutal season had finally ended, and spring had arrived.
The people had just found an entertaining spectacle to vent the resentment they had built up.
As Aubrianna walked through the murmuring crowd, the soldiers stopped her at a marked circular spot.
On the opposite side, atop the steps. Cedric sat in a large chair, raising his chin arrogantly like a king.
At that, Sion slowly stepped forward.
“On behalf of the anonymous accuser, I, Sioniel of House Valian, aide to the duke and proxy of this trial, will read the indictment.”
Aubrianna, trembling beneath the hood, listened to the charges she was said to have committed.
“…Therefore, we request that the criminal Aubrianna be sentenced to exile from the North.”
After finishing his lengthy statement, Sion turned and looked at Cedric.
The people in the square focused their attention on Cedric, the acting head.
Cedric, tapping the chair while wearing the family ring engraved with the Tennant crest, looked around with greasy, gleaming eyes.
As the countless gazes of the crowd turned toward him, Cedric puffed himself up, slowly rising to his feet and stepping forward onto the platform.
As his thin figure came fully into view, the crowd began murmuring again.
Cedric looked less like a man wearing clothes and more like a display stand in a jeweler’s shop.
The coat embroidered with gold thread had jewels embedded along every edge, and each time he moved, they clinked as the gems struck against one another.
When he raised his hand, adorned not only with the family ring but also several large gemstone rings, the crowd fell silent and watched him.
A surge of exhilaration filled his chest.
Even during his academy days, and even within his own family, he had never received such attention.
Everyone was waiting for him to speak, and the moment he opened his mouth, the fate of that fragile woman would change.
‘So this is power.’
His chin lifted higher and higher. He raised both hands and looked over the crowd, then clasped them behind his back and took another step forward.
“Hmm.”
Clearing his throat, Cedric spoke with affected authority.
“Before speaking of the crime committed by the accused, remove her hood.”
Sion frowned.
‘All he needs to do is declare the exile. Why….’
It displeased him, but Cedric’s announcement was necessary to finalize the sentence.
Worried that provoking him might make him spout something foolish like slavery, Sion quickly signaled to the soldiers.
Swish!
As her long hair fell loose and Aubrianna’s face was revealed, gasps rose like a wave through the crowd.
Women covered their children’s eyes, while men craned their necks to get a better look.
Aubrianna slowly opened her eyes. As her pale red irises shone clearly, another kind of gasp escaped from the people.
“My goodness, I’ve never seen eyes like that.”
“She really must be a witch.”
“What? What color are they?”
“They’re an ominous color! Red eyes, of all things!”
The murmuring grew louder, and soon children began to cry. People started pushing each other to get a better look at her face.
“Sir Sion!”
Razen called out urgently, but Sion’s gaze remained fixed on Cedric.
Since he had done as requested, his eyes pressured him to quickly declare the sentence.
But Cedric descended the steps, shoved past Sion, and approached Aubrianna, muttering.
“Oh. As expected….”
She didn’t need to hear the rest to know what he meant. His sticky gaze swept down her white skin, her breasts that had grown even fuller from being unable to nurse, and her slender waist as if appraising her.
‘At this level, even if she’s already given birth to a couple of children, she’d still be worth taking.’
Aubrianna resisted the urge to scoff at the man’s lecherous face as he swallowed his saliva.
Before, she wouldn’t even have been able to lift her head and would have trembled in fear, but now this man, who looked like nothing more than a lump of pale dough, no longer frightened her.
‘Besides, if the sentence handed down to me is exile, that means my life will be spared.’
Thinking she had escaped death gave her courage.
At that moment, Cedric turned his body again and spoke to the crowd.
In that instant, Aubrianna doubted her own ears. The people gathered in the square were also shocked and began murmuring even louder.
“This woman has committed a crime worthy of exile, but since she has given birth to a healthy son who will carry on the Tennant ducal line, I will recognize that merit and revoke the exile, appointing her as my courtesan.”
Courtesan!
Sion shut his eyes tightly.
‘That stupid bastard!’
If he weren’t the acting head, Sion felt angry enough to split his body in two with the sword at his waist.
‘It’s not easy to overturn a situation that was already settled like this….’
The Kingdom of Trilan was tolerant of relationships before marriage.
If one had enough money, keeping a mistress wasn’t considered shameful. They would give their mistress generous wealth, and if she later left to marry someone, they would even let her go generously.
Though the circumstances varied, on the surface it was a relationship where both parties exchanged what they needed without coercion.
But the courtesan was different. It was a rank that existed in the days of slavery, a title for those who had no freedom over their own bodies and existed solely for a noble’s sexual use. Fathers passed them down to their sons, brothers shared them among themselves. It was a blasphemous and depraved existence.
That was what a courtesan meant.
“Lord Cedric. I told you. Slavery is now prohibited by the laws of the kingdom.”
Sion spoke through clenched teeth, but Cedric responded with an indifferent expression.
“Who said anything about slavery? She’s my personal courtesan.”
Since he didn’t even have a wife, who would say anything about him keeping a courtesan?
Besides, after beating a few prostitutes too harshly, only older women had been coming into his room lately, which killed his interest.
At the thought of whipping that pale white skin, Cedric’s eyes gleamed with lust.
Just as Sion clenched his fist tightly and opened his mouth to persuade Cedric again.
“How dare you!”
A loud voice rang out from somewhere.
In an instant, a strong wind seemed to blow, and like a field of wheat parting, the people split apart, a path opening through them.
At the center stood a tall man.
“Kaeloc.”
At Aubrianna’s murmur, Razen’s mouth fell open as he shouted.
“Y-Your Grace!”
Step. Step.
With each step he took, people’s gazes were naturally drawn to him. His broad shoulders and solid build exuded innate confidence and authority, and every movement carried an elegant strength.
Seeing the reverent gazes of the crowd, Cedric’s expression twisted with jealousy.
Cedric glared at Sion and muttered lowly, “What is this? Why is that bastard awake and walking around? You said you’d drug him and keep him asleep.”
Sion had told Cedric that after the trial, he would take Kaeloc, who had lost his memory, away from the ducal castle for a while under the pretense of treating his condition, and that Cedric could govern both the castle and the territory as he pleased.
“This isn’t what we agreed on.”
Unlike before, when he ignored him with a blank face, Kaeloc now glared at him with a threatening look, and Cedric, frightened, ended up stepping back.
‘Sleep? Medicine?’
Only then did Aubrianna understand why Kaeloc hadn’t come to find her.
Regardless, as the people realized that the man who had just appeared was the duke, they began to cheer wildly.
Waaah!
“The duke has arrived!”
“Your Grace! We’re relieved you’re safe!”
“May the goddess’s blessing be upon the duke!”
The duke they had seen since childhood was generous and fair, and he had kept them safe from the Carnu tribe’s attacks.
When news spread that Kaeloc had gone missing, they had trembled all winter, fearing the Carnu tribe would invade. On top of that, they had all suffered in silence under Cedric’s tyranny as acting head.
Some people began to glance back and forth between Kaeloc and Cedric, whispering and even laughing.
Standing in the same place, the difference between Kaeloc, tall and handsome, and Cedric, extravagantly dressed like a clown, was like heaven and earth.
Aubrianna was crying before she knew it. Through her tears, the man’s figure drew closer, wavering in her vision.
The Kaeloc she met again at the ducal castle was no longer the hunter Kay she knew.
The man in a black uniform with gold ornaments on the shoulders had not a single flaw.
The moment she saw his cold, deep blue eyes beneath hair as black as if it absorbed even the spring sunlight, her breath caught.
She believed Kaeloc would save her, but since being imprisoned, her memories had been tangled together. She was afraid he might ignore her again like before.
“Untie her.”
At Kaeloc’s single command, Aubrianna’s bound hands were freed. She closed her wet eyes. The words she had wanted most in her previous life.
“Untie her.”
They were the words she had wanted to hear most from Kaeloc when she was imprisoned.
Overcome with regret, she murmured his name.
“Kaeloc.”
In an instant, the duke stepped in front of her and wiped her wet cheek. Aubrianna looked up at him with tearful eyes.
Under that same intense gaze, the fear that had consumed her heart began to scatter.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
Aubrianna’s throat tightened, and her voice wouldn’t come out properly.
“Sniff.”
She thought she would die trapped in prison like this. In her previous life, she lost the baby and had no lingering attachment because Kaeloc turned away from her, but this time was different.
“I-I don’t want to die.”
Because this was a life she had regained, she wanted to be happy this time. She wanted to watch Theo grow up and smile brightly by Kaeloc’s side as he treated her kindly.
She had been terrified that those hopes would vanish like bubbles….
As if asking what she was saying, Kaeloc cupped her cheeks.
“Do you think I’d let that happen?”
Like a savior, the man stood firmly in front of Aubrianna and pulled her into his arms. His large hands gripped her back like claws.
As if he would never let her go, no, as if he would never let her escape from him.
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my heart <3 ugh what are sion's motives