Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 64

“What did our lord say?”

Razen asked while watching Sion’s expression. Throughout the entire ride away from Count Bellone’s villa, Sion had worn a grim expression.

“He told me to go to the castle and wait.”

“He didn’t say anything else?”

Sion shook his head and urged his horse faster, and Razen followed after him, calling for him to wait.

“How does his memory seem? Has he remembered anything?”

At Razen’s words, Sion furrowed his brow.

Something about it was a little strange.

***

Sion, who had been anxiously waiting for Kaeloc in the drawing room, heard the steady sound of approaching footsteps.

He heard them stop precisely at the doorway, then start again as they entered the drawing room, and raised his head.

For something that could have been dismissed as a mere habit, his right hand naturally smoothed his left sleeve.

“Your Grace.”

“How dare you show your face here?”

The flawless language of a noble.

“Looks like your ribs have healed.”

The man’s eyes blazed as he approached with a mocking sneer.

“Your Grace. Have your memories returned?”

“No.”

Kaeloc answered flatly and casually turned his head away, but Sion noticed.

‘Since when?’

Looking at Sion’s face, Kaeloc let out a short sigh.

They had been together since their academy days, so he wasn’t easy to fool.

‘Not that he was ever easy to deceive in the first place.’

Kaeloc leisurely sat on the sofa and gestured to the attendant waiting nearby.

It was the bearing of someone in power, something that could never be learned from a day or two of instruction.

Once the tea was set down, Kaeloc lifted the cup with practiced elegance and raised one corner of his mouth.

“Thanks to the medicine you gave me, my memories came back.”

“All of them?”

“Yeah. Everything from before I lost my memory and after.”

“Then! Do you also remember what happened when you disappeared?”

Kaeloc took a sip of tea.

“I’ve been looking into it discreetly.”

“Why didn’t you have me do it?”

“Why would I?”

Sion’s face crumpled. “What do you mean by that? You know how loyal I am to you, don’t you?”

His voice, filled with resentment, even trembled faintly. He had no idea how hard he had struggled to protect the crumbling castle while Kaeloc was gone.

But Kaeloc’s expression remained ice-cold.

“Sion.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

When Kaeloc quietly called his name, Sion answered with emotion in his voice.

The Duke was finally back in full. Cedric Coville, who had been squandering the castle’s wealth, could be driven out, and the people could live in peace again.

“Do you really think you’re a loyal aide to me?”

“Of course. I would even give my life to carry out your orders.”

“Then why didn’t you obey my order regarding Aubrianna?”

The sharp words cut through the drawing room.

“…That, I….”

“There was only one thing I asked of you when I left for battle.”

Kaeloc slowly rotated his teacup.

He looked relaxed, but he wasn’t at all. He hadn’t settled deeply into the chair, and he was only pretending to drink the tea.

If anything, Kaeloc resembled a swordsman waiting for an opening. There was a honed chill about him, as though the moment he saw the slightest weakness in his opponent, he would draw his sword and aim straight for their heart.

“Do you remember, Sion?”

“….”

“Or has it been so long that you’ve forgotten?”

“…No.”

She was full-term. Just before Kaeloc left for battle, Aubrianna had stood there with her swollen belly, merely looking at him with a face that seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

If she hadn’t been full-term, he would have dragged her along to battle with him, but he couldn’t take a pregnant woman who was due to give birth within a day or two somewhere dangerous.

So he asked Sion.

“Protect Aubrianna and the baby until I return.”

Kaeloc repeated the order he had given Sion.

“I don’t know if you even remember it. Because Aubrianna came to me through that vicious snowstorm in the snowfields, carrying a newborn baby.”

Grind. His jaw flexed as he ground his molars together. Ever since his memories returned, one question refused to leave him.

He couldn’t understand why Aubrianna had been forced to wander the deadly snowfields with a baby.

“Why? Hm?”

Crash!

Unable to contain his anger any longer, Kaeloc grabbed the cup and hurled it.

The cup painted with tiny flowers was something Countess Bellone especially treasured, but after striking Sion in the head and spinning through the air, it shattered across the drawing room floor.

“According to Aubrianna, it seemed someone was putting poison in her food.”

Sion flinched inwardly.

So she hadn’t told him about Cedric’s disgraceful atrocity?

“They must’ve added it little by little, just enough that she wouldn’t die immediately. That way, they could make it look like she died of illness without arousing suspicion.”

Sion pressed his lips tightly together.

“Who was it? The duchess? Or Lady Lott, who was always displeased with Aubrianna?”

“….”

“You must know. There’s nothing that happens in the castle without you knowing about it.”

Even under Kaeloc’s interrogation, Sion remained silent.

As if amused by him, Kaeloc’s lips twitched.

“Or was it you?”

Only then did Sion raise his head and look at his lord.

“Absolutely not, Your Grace.”

“Then the suspects have been narrowed down to two.”

Kaeloc gestured again to the attendant standing far away by the door.

Soon, another beautiful teacup was brought over.

“For now, I’ll believe you. So, what did you come here for today?”

This time, Kaeloc leaned back leisurely as he spoke.

Only his gaze remained razor-sharp.

***

After Aubrianna went upstairs, Kaeloc sat across from Agnes and brushed a hand over his forehead.

“Since when?”

“As expected, I can’t fool you, Lady Agnes.”

Kaeloc replied playfully, curling his lips, then told her that his memories returned on the day of Aubrianna’s trial.

“It seems word hasn’t reached you yet, but Her Majesty will probably attend the party being held soon.”

“What?”

Queen Marcella was coming to the north?

Surprise appeared on Agnes’s face.

“Wasn’t she someone who absolutely loathed the north?”

“Yes. She was.”

Marcella’s grandfather was a businessman from Alandor who came to the north thirty years ago to meet the Carnu tribe, only to be brutally murdered.

Marcella, who was young at the time, was deeply traumatized. She disliked the Carnu tribe to the point of hatred, and above all, because the north had failed to prevent her grandfather’s death, she hated the entire region as well.

The north wasn’t exactly pleased with her either. Relations with the Carnu tribe deteriorated after Marcella’s grandfather died, and once Marcella became queen, she declared war on the Carnu tribe and cut off all interaction with them, forcing the north to endure Carnu raids every autumn.

On top of that, whenever she felt the north wasn’t obeying, she would subtly restrict the supplies procured from Alandor, causing them difficulties.

“Why on earth would that queen come here?”

“Who knows.”

Agnes still looked bewildered.

Queen Marcella and Agnes didn’t get along particularly well. Compared to Agnes, who had been the queen of high society, Marcella, born and raised in the commercial city of Alandor, wasn’t as skilled in noble etiquette as Agnes.

According to a rumor Agnes once heard, Marcella first entered the royal palace only after her marriage and was constantly compared to Agnes, which caused her to develop resentment toward her.

“So that’s why you stayed away from the capital for so long.”

“I didn’t want conflict.”

The king was her cousin, and because he had no sisters, he had always doted on Agnes since they were young.

“His Majesty was always good to me. I didn’t want to put him in a difficult position.”

They could have had a close relationship like sisters, but Queen Marcella was extremely guarded and sensitive, and she always made things difficult for Agnes.

“Then Cecilia died, and I heard that you needed someone to look after you.”

That was how Agnes came to the north. She married into a northern family and never returned to live in the capital.