HEAD 16

~Chapter 16~

Blake Uffus found his old diary in his childhood room.

He read through 35 pages full of bad handwriting, curses, and anger.
It took a lot of patience.

‘What did I even write? This handwriting is crazy.’

Even now his handwriting was bad, but at seven years old, it was much worse.

But Blake kept reading because he was curious about Lily.

Finally, he found a hint on page 35.

“At this tea party, that annoying girl stuck to me. I know her because her parents purposely spilled cake on my father and insulted him for fun.”

Annoying girl?

From that page, Blake saw the girl showing up more often in his diary.

A few pages later:

“Today was the women’s club’s antique auction. I had to go because it was hosted by a cousin of the Emperor. I met that annoying girl again.”

The words for her got less harsh.
Maybe his heart was softening.

A few pages after that:

“Empire War Memorial Day. She tried to say hi to me but stopped when her parents saw. Unless the party is too big for adults to control, it’s hard to secretly play with her.”

From here, young Blake’s anger calmed down a bit in the diary.

When he added the butler’s words, it made sense.

Blake must have started to enjoy going to the capital.

‘He had someone to meet there…’

Old memories in Blake’s mind slowly woke up.

He remembered a scene from a few days ago.

—Are you dumb? If you talk to a wheat stalk, it won’t answer.

In a yellow wheat field, there were a boy and a girl.

He finally remembered why they were in the field.

They’d crawled under tables to escape the party,
then ended up in the nearby wheat field.

—Well… still…

—And only clowns talk to grass.

Under the bright sun, the orange reeds swayed.

Now Blake could see the girl’s face clearly.

It was Lily Hedwick.

He was sure.

“…”

Blake was shocked and dropped the diary.

‘Really… I met her as a child?’

He picked up the diary and sat by the window.

Outside, he saw Lily and the baby horse playing in the snow.

‘They get along so well. Maybe it’s because they’re the same age on the inside…’

Dominic’s bloodline was better than the royal family’s.

So the baby horse should go to Blake or his family.

‘But since the foal loves Lily, maybe it’s fine to give her to Lily. I don’t have kids anyway.’

“Mr. Blake!”

From far away, Lily waved at him.

He opened the window to hear better, and she threw a snowball at him.

Of course, because Lily was weak, the snowball fell to the ground.

“…What are you doing?”

Blake looked at her sadly and closed the window.

He wasn’t in the mood to play.
He was feeling complicated.

‘It’s too late to ask her anything. I’m older now, so I remember, but she was too young. She probably doesn’t remember at all.’

So he thought,

‘Even if I went to her and said, “We promised to marry when we were kids,” it would just be awkward.’

“What am I even doing here?”

Blake read the diary to the end but didn’t remember anything else.

“I snuck some jerky from the dukedom and gave it to her. Even though it’s made the same way for 500 years, the city girl liked it. Funny.”

Flip. Next page.

“How many more months until I can meet her again?”

Flip, flip, flip.

Just faint memories remained and then disappeared.

Blake finally ran out of patience.

‘Enough. This is pointless.’

He’d only found one diary anyway.

‘I don’t even care why we stopped meeting.’

Just like a fox ignoring the sour grapes.

Suddenly, Blake heard footsteps coming toward his old room.

He had sharp ears from years of war.

‘Sebastian, again.’

That kid always came early for the festival and followed Blake everywhere.

Blake looked tired and annoyed.

‘He must have heard I’m here.’

He decided to jump out the window and avoid Sebastian.

No matter how high it was, he landed in the snow like a beast.

“Oh? Coco the Second, look, who is that? Is he a shaman?”

The black baby horse following Lily stared at Blake.

“…”
“…”

Blake stubbornly stared back at the foal.

The mother horse at least thought of him as owner, but the baby didn’t seem to care.

“What are you two doing? Are you in love or something?” Lily joked.

“Why would you even think that?”

“You’re staring at each other so hard. Coco the Second, don’t look at people like that.”

“Didn’t you say you’d sometimes call her Dominic the Second too?”

Lily winked playfully.

“You said you’d rather jump in a river than trust me, but you keep changing your words.”

The winter castle’s festival was getting very close.

The castle was busy since morning.

Lily woke up with a strange feeling in the cold sunlight.

Normally, her maid Giana would have come to wake her up by now,
shining with pride about being the perfect maid.

‘But nothing’s happening. What’s wrong?’

Lily went out into the cold gray hall.

The staff were busy moving around,
but they didn’t see her and their faces were tense.

Everyone was holding things like arrow quivers and harpoons.

“Mr. Blake.”

Lily found Blake on the first floor as she walked down the round stairs.

“Where are you going?”

He was not himself.

Instead of a loose shirt, he was dressed in full armor.

His matte black armor had a wolf brooch and thick leather straps,
with a winter cloak down to his thighs.

It looked too heavy for anyone else,
but fit Blake perfectly.

“Some people who should have arrived haven’t come back.”

He answered coldly.

It was the guest list Il Dexter, Lily’s friend, had brought.

Many people from outside the castle hadn’t arrived yet.

Blake was worried about his people.

“Oh my… What happened?”

“Looks like there are more monsters. I think they got attacked, so we have to search the mountain.”

Lily remembered a saying about the Uffus dukedom:
No matter how much you prepare, half the people climbing the snowy mountain freeze to death.

Some things just can’t be helped—the “snowy mountain” is this very winter mountain.

Blake took a big sword from someone.
There were already small sword handles shining on his thigh.

Even Lily, who knew nothing about weapons, saw it was serious.

“Are you okay, Mr. Blake? But you—”

You hate loud noises because of your war trauma.

Blake understood her unspoken worry and smiled a little.

His smile was wild and free, just like always. It made Lily feel a little safer.

“Can’t you see what I’m carrying?”

“Lady Lily, His Grace is a genius with weapons. If you put anything in his hand, he can kill ten enemies at once.”

Il Dexter, the assistant, was getting ready to go, too.

He was a shaman, so he was helpful in the snow,
but clearly hated being on the battle team.

“If I die now, I won’t even get promoted… Please, worry about me, not His Grace.”

“Il, be careful. All of you, please be careful.”

Blake climbed on his horse, Dominic—the one Lily called “Coco.”

“Dominic.”

The horse answered with a soft sound.

She no longer looked weak after giving birth. She looked strong and proud.

“What should I do while you’re gone?” Lily asked, worried.

Blake looked scary, but deep inside he felt soft because Lily cared.

He shook his head to clear those thoughts.

“Don’t leave the castle. Stay close to the others. And don’t let food smells get out.”

“I’ll remember. Don’t get hurt.”

“I didn’t expect you to worry about me.”

“Coco the Second is waiting for her mom. If anything happens, at least send Coco back. Okay?”

They both smiled a little at the joke.

Suddenly, Blake really wanted to pat Lily’s hair with his big, leather-gloved hand.

But he let the feeling go and took the reins.

His horse jumped over the door and ran through the snow.
The others followed behind.