Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 63

“Well. Nothing in particular comes to mind today.”

“What a shame. I was hoping you’d remember some memories just between the two of us….”

Aileen pouted, then soon stood up with a cheerful laugh.

“Why don’t we go to the greenhouse…?”

Just as Aileen started speaking, Tarion returned and whispered something into Agnes’s ear.

Agnes looked startled. She composed her expression for a moment, then looked at Kaeloc.

“Kaeloc.”

Kaeloc, who had been entertaining Theo, raised his head.

“Sion is here.”

Ah.

Aubrianna’s hand paused. The man’s gaze turned cold as he keenly noticed it.

“I’ve been waiting to see what he’d do, but he came in the end.”

He slowly stood and handed Theo to Aubrianna.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Then he lowered his head and whispered gently into her ear, “I’ll beat that bastard half to death.”

Kaeloc disappeared inside the building, and Agnes went out for another walk with the squirming Theo.

As soon as no one was around, Aileen’s face instantly turned vicious.

“So, is being a mistress fun?”

It was almost funny how she immediately dropped the polite speech. Aubrianna smiled faintly.

“It’s not bad.”

Just look at that. Aileen’s face immediately twisted with displeasure.

“You’ve been hiding it well.”

“So have you, Lady Lott.”

“Ha! You acted so pitiful and pathetic, but you’re unbelievably sly.”

“I think the same of you.”

You!

“Hmph! You couldn’t be more vulgar.”

In the end, Aubrianna couldn’t find anything to say to that. After all, Lady Lott wasn’t a vulgar person.

“I’m sorry to say this, but I absolutely have to marry His Grace.”

At the declaration, Aubrianna shook her head. “I’m sorry, but that’s His Grace’s choice.”

But Aubrianna also had to marry Kaeloc. She still didn’t know who was after her and Theo’s lives.

Aubrianna stared quietly at her.

“Do you love His Grace?”

She wanted to ask. As Count Lott’s daughter, Aileen would surely have other good opportunities, so Aubrianna wondered if she truly wanted a husband in the cold northern lands who spent several months fighting every autumn.

“I knew you were an idiot, but….”

At last, harsh words burst from Aileen’s mouth.

“I didn’t know your head was this full of flowers.”

At those words, delicate petals torn loose by a strong gust of wind scattered through the air.

Aileen picked up a petal and crushed it between her fingers with a giggle.

“I don’t have any choices right now. It’s either His Grace or that perverted bastard Cedric.”

Her green eyes rolled excessively.

“Besides, Kaeloc is quite a desirable man. Isn’t he?”

Aileen slowly stood.

“Love? You had an illegitimate child who can’t even be entered into the family register just because of that pathetic little emotion?”

“That’s….”

It was hard to say, It wasn’t what I wanted. Had Theo’s conception really happened solely because Kaeloc intended it?

“You got pregnant while I was going back and forth over whether I’d be engaged to His Grace or not. All while going on about that pitiful love of yours.”

“That’s not true.”

She tried to deny it, but her voice was already trembling.

“I’ll tell you exactly what kind of position that child is going to end up in.”

Aileen arrogantly began counting on her fingers.

“First, I don’t know about at home, but when he goes outside, that child will have to call Kaeloc ‘Your Grace’ instead of Father.”

That was the rule among nobles.

“Second, let’s say he grows up and enters the academy. Since his father is a duke, he’ll be able to enroll, but because his name isn’t registered under the family, he’ll go through school in an awkward position where he’s noble and yet not noble.”

A gaze thick with disgust landed on Aubrianna.

“Who would want to be friends with him? In the end, without even a single friend….”

That was when it happened.

“You’re worrying too much.”

A cold voice came from behind them. At some point, Kaeloc had approached with Theo in his arms.

So absorbed in her own words that she hadn’t heard him coming, Aileen startled, her face flushing as she trembled.

“About someone else’s son, no less. Don’t you think?”

Kaeloc came closer to Aubrianna and gently stroked her cheek as he whispered, “That won’t happen to our Theo.”

He wiped away the tears running down her cheeks and even the ones gathered at the corners of her eyes.

“So stop crying.”

Flustered, Aileen called out to Kaeloc. “Your Grace. I was only trying to explain things to Miss Morel because she doesn’t know anything….”

“You should apologize first.”

“What?”

She was telling her to apologize to a mere maid?

Aileen’s pride was wounded, and she clenched her fists tightly.

“Listening to what Lady Lott just said reminded me of one of the promises I made to Aubrianna.”

At the sudden remark, Aubrianna’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What….”

“The child you give birth to will be the sole heir.”

At Kaeloc’s words, Aubrianna’s face went pale.

‘Did his memory just come back?’

Meanwhile, Aileen, who had gone pale for a different reason, stammered, “Y-Your Grace. Did your memories perhaps…?”

“Thanks to Lady Lott.”

Kaeloc gave a slight nod.

“Now then. You insulted the future heir of House Tennant and disparaged the young master’s biological mother, so it would be best to apologize, wouldn’t it?”

When he urged her once again, Aileen parted her trembling lips.

“I-I’m sorry.”

Agnes, who returned belatedly, looked around at the tense atmosphere with a puzzled expression.

“What happened?”

“I’ll go up to my room first.”

After hurting others as much as she could, Aileen turned away with the expression of someone who had been hurt herself. Agnes looked between the two of them.

“She insulted Aubrianna. And Theo too.”

After seeing Aubrianna’s reddened eyes, Agnes’s face turned cold.

“She dared do that in my house?”

Kaeloc’s reaction was one thing, but Agnes’s was surprising. She had seemed close with Aileen only moments ago, yet her attitude changed in an instant, leaving Aubrianna more bewildered instead.

“I thought she wasn’t as bad a young lady as I expected, so I was trying to treat her well. But to think she insulted you and Theo. How insolent.”

Something warm and soft stirred in one corner of her chest.

‘She really meant it when she said she wanted to adopt me.’

As though a speck of dust had blown into her eye, Aubrianna discreetly wiped away her tears with her hand.

The fact that someone was taking her side made the tip of her tongue tingle, and for no reason, her throat felt dry.

Feeling embarrassed, Aubrianna stroked the back of her neck, then looked at Kaeloc.

“Did your memories really come back?”

“Things are only coming back one by one.”

“Th-Then what else have you remembered?”

Flustered, Aubrianna placed a hand on the man’s arm and looked up at him with a slightly serious expression.

“Calm down. It’s not all back yet. Things just come to me out of nowhere sometimes.”

“But you remembered something you said to me.”

“Yeah. While I was listening to what Lady Lott was saying, it suddenly came back to me.”

Her emotions swung wildly even within a single day. Aubrianna pressed a palm against her anxious chest and furrowed her brow.

Only now had things between them finally become peaceful, yet the past might come back to trip them up.

Their arguments, the time she tried to leave, and even the time she cursed him for imprisoning her. Every single thing.

‘Or maybe because it’s all in the past, Kaeloc won’t care about it anymore.’

But emotions remained. What if Kaeloc locked her in a room again?

Perhaps her anxiety showed on her face, because Kaeloc’s expression stiffened as well.

“Aubrianna.”

“I’m tired.”

Kaeloc had worn her out during the day, and she hadn’t slept well the previous night either.

“I’m going up to my room.”

When Renee held out her hands, Kaeloc seemed to think for a moment, then obediently handed the baby over.

“I’ll see you at dinner.”

After returning to her room, Aubrianna realized she hadn’t asked why Sion had come to visit.

‘He probably came because he wants to mend things with Kaeloc again.’

In her previous life, Aubrianna suspected that Sion might have been the one who sent the assassins who tried to harm her and Theo.

But Sion was extremely loyal to Kaeloc.

‘No matter how much he hated and despised me, surely he wouldn’t have tried to kill me.’

She was one thing, but Theo was Kaeloc’s blood.

Besides, when she returned after losing Theo, Sion had whipped her for losing the blood of the ducal family.

That left Duchess Eloise and Lady Lott.

Thinking back on the malice Aileen showed yesterday and today, it seemed like enough reason for her to have sent assassins.

‘I need to watch her more closely.’

She couldn’t let her guard down for even a moment. She never knew when someone might target her and Theo.