Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 47

In the end, Sion did not open his mouth, and the trial came to an anticlimactic end.

Cedric left in anger, telling Sion to just wait and see, while Sion, with a numb expression, looked at Kaeloc before disappearing together with Razen.

When everyone had left and the square fell silent, Agnes appeared.

“I will take Aubrianna with me.”

Kaeloc nodded reluctantly. Since Theo was also at the Bellone family’s villa, he judged that it would be better for Aubrianna to stay there for the time being.

“I….”

Aubrianna, who had been about to say she wanted to stay with Kaeloc, saw Agnes extending her hand with a gentle expression.

“Theo is waiting.”

Ah.

‘I’m finally going to see my baby.’

Now that she had confirmed that Kaeloc was unchanged, once she met Theo again, Aubrianna felt she would truly be able to wake up from that nightmare-like dream.

Just as she was about to take Agnes’s hand with a bright expression—

“Wait a moment!”

Kaeloc called out to her again.

Seeing Aubrianna’s brightened face seeming almost pleased to part from him, unease crept into Kaeloc’s heart.

“I’ll send for you soon.”

After getting rid of the things that endangered them.

Aubrianna nodded.

“Kaeloc. Why don’t you come visit instead?”

Agnes was already acting as if she had adopted Aubrianna.

With his memories restored, Kaeloc knew better than anyone how well Agnes would take care of Aubrianna. But having her taken away, even if it was Agnes, did not sit well with him.

“Kaeloc. You’ll come, right?”

But if she looked at him like that, as if enticing him and pleading, what was he supposed to do?

“Of course.”

Agnes, who had been holding Aubrianna’s hand, spoke urgently, “Kaeloc. I think we should get going now. This child has quite a high fever right now.”

Her hand wasn’t just warm, it was hot.

What? Kaeloc’s expression twisted instantly.

“Ah, this….”

When Aubrianna whispered into Agnes’s ear, Agnes, who had no children, flushed red.

“I see. Then we should hurry back.”

As they made preparations to leave in a rush, Kaeloc asked, worried, “Where does it hurt?”

“Well….”

Aubrianna glanced at Agnes’s guards and Kaeloc’s attendants standing nearby, then whispered as if embarrassed.

“I have breast engorgement.”

“Breast engorgement?”

Kaeloc recalled what she had said in the cabin.

“I can’t just leave the milk like this. My breasts will hurt later, so I’m trying to express some.”

As the image of Aubrianna squeezing her breast with her small hand in the bath came to mind, Kaeloc ground his molars.

“…So that’s what it’s called.”

“It’ll get better quickly if Theo nurses.”

His throat suddenly felt dry. As he imagined the woman’s white breasts and the milky droplets forming at her nipples, Kaeloc clenched his jaw.

At this rate, he felt like he might drag Aubrianna into any empty room and force himself on her, so he decided to send her away quickly.

“Go and feed him right away.”

But he still didn’t want to let her go so easily. Kaeloc cupped Aubrianna’s cheek and bit down on her lips, hotter than usual.

‘There are so many people here!’

Startled by the sudden kiss, Aubrianna pushed against his chest, but Kaeloc didn’t budge.

Inside Aubrianna’s mouth was as hot and intoxicating as her body. Kaeloc shoved his tongue in greedily, clinging and swallowing.

That fervent indulgence continued until Aubrianna’s body went limp.

***

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

Clink.

Kaeloc, who had been holding a spoon heated by the hot soup in his mouth, set the utensil down with a dull sound.

The formal dinner at the ducal castle was certainly excellent, but if he could taste Aubrianna’s hot lips once more, he felt like he could skip several meals.

‘Has the engorgement eased?’

Theo had a good appetite, so it probably resolved quickly.

Tch. Even if he was his son, he was enviable. That brat was always doted on by Aubrianna simply because he was a baby.

Meanwhile, Eloise observed Kaeloc carefully.

‘They said he lost his memory. It seems that’s really true.’

The Duke Kaeloc who once displayed perfect etiquette unlike Cedric was nowhere to be seen, and the way he set his utensils carelessly and ate with smacking sounds was exactly like a hunter.

“So. How is it? Does the food suit your taste?”

Even at the cautious question, Kaeloc merely nodded indifferently.

After the appetizer ended, Harrick set down the plate and explained the main dish.

“It is a steak prepared from the tender meat of a young rabbit.”

Rabbit meat.

Kaeloc fell back into his memories. As he recalled wandering the snowfields in a blizzard at night trying to catch a rabbit, a smile appeared.

‘I was so worked up, wanting to do it with Aubrianna, that I tried desperately to catch one somehow.’

But that night truly felt like his first time with a woman.

As the hot and intoxicating moment came back to him, heat gathered in his lower body.

And when Aubrianna, who always insisted on one position, raised her body herself and licked his spent member with her tongue, it was really….

“Mm.”

“Why? Does the food not suit your taste?”

At his groan-like sigh, Eloise asked with a gentleness she had never shown before.

‘Why is she acting like this now?’

From the first time they met, Eloise had disliked him. Even before he left for the battle last autumn, they’d maintained a distant relationship….

He propped his chin on one hand and looked at his stepmother, Eloise.

‘She hated me so much that the moment I went missing, she pushed that idiot into the position of head of the house.’

He glanced at Cedric, who was sitting across from him. As if intimidated by something, Cedric avoided his gaze and focused on his food.

The thought that even a drop of Tennant blood ran in that bastard’s veins displeased him.

“Cedric? Since I’ve lost my memory, I was wondering. Is it alright if I call you Cedric?”

Startled, Cedric nodded with a blank expression. “Y-Yes. Of course.”

Then he immediately lowered his head again and resumed eating.

“Kaeloc?”

Eloise called him as she elegantly wiped her lips with a napkin.

“After your return, Cedric and I discussed your current situation and your memory loss.”

He smiled and nodded. “Yes. Of course you would.”

“Of course, it would be right for you to return to your position, but being the head of the house comes with a great deal of work and responsibility, doesn’t it?”

As Kaeloc rubbed his chin and appeared to listen, Eloise continued while turning the dessert plate.

“So we thought that for the time being, it might be best for Cedric to remain as acting head of the house and assist with your duties.”

Hmm. Pretending to consider it, Kaeloc looked around.

There was Harrick, the butler, and Dorian, the duchess’s attendant, but Cedric alone did not have a personal attendant.

An attendant’s role was not only to serve and care for their master but also to convey orders to others or carry them out. But Cedric found attendants who assigned him various tasks nothing but a nuisance.

‘Besides, whenever something happened, he would run straight to Aunt and tattle about my movements.’

Cedric glanced up briefly, then quickly looked away.

Kaeloc was smiling at him, the corners of his lips pulled up as he stared at him.

“Well, do as you please. I don’t really know anything anyway.”

Eloise’s face brightened. “Right? After all, you’ll only be able to handle things properly once your memory returns.”

He had never seen the duchess in such a submissive posture.

Kaeloc let out a small laugh and nodded. “Well, anything Mother wishes…. Ah! Is it alright if I call you Mother?”

“O-Of course. Naturally.”

Eloise felt pleased with herself. That obnoxious boy was calling her Mother.

‘It might be better to win Kaeloc’s favor like this and have him serve me as his mother.’

She cast a dissatisfied glance at Cedric, who couldn’t even lift his head out of fear of Kaeloc.

‘That idiot still trembles before Kaeloc, yet he’s harsh enough to whip prostitutes weaker than him.’

Realizing how foolish it was to have trusted someone like him with the family, Eloise clenched her fist tightly.

‘Or if Kaeloc’s memory doesn’t return, perhaps I should ask to become the head of the house myself.’

If the duke transferred authority, wouldn’t it be possible?

No precedent came to mind, but if she did it first, she could become the precedent.

‘Under the pretext of helping a duke who’s lost his memory. Then there’d be no need for Cedric at all.’

Eloise poured herself another half glass of wine she normally wouldn’t even touch.

‘Slowly. There’s no need to rush. His memory won’t suddenly return, and there’s plenty of time. And if Aileen comes back and takes my side, that would be even better.’

Her plan seemed quite solid, and Eloise relaxed.

Watching her out of the corner of his eye, Cedric muttered inwardly,

‘Is Aunt really believing this bastard’s lies?’

He might be dull and had grown up being called an idiot, but there was one thing he was good at.

It was reading exactly how others saw him.

And the way Kaeloc was looking at him right now was exactly the same look he’d always given him since childhood, looking down on him as worthless.

A pure contempt with not a hint of curiosity or any other emotion mixed in.

‘This bastard remembers everything.’

Kaeloc had already regained his memory and was pretending.

Cedric frowned and bit down on his lip. If his memory was back, then sooner or later, he would find out what Cedric had done in Aubrianna’s room, and the aftermath terrified him.

‘I was too drunk that time.’

If not, he would have sneaked in at night and done it without it becoming known….

As Cedric anxiously racked his brain over how to protect himself, Kaeloc opened his mouth.

“Since you’re helping me, may I ask one more favor?”