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Chapter : 24
She hesitated for a few seconds before speaking.
“I have nothing to say.”
At her answer, Kaiden let out a laugh, half in disbelief.
His muttering carried a trace of anger.
“This is your last chance. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Yet Jenadea’s attitude didn’t change.
“…No.”
No matter how much someone knocked from outside, she didn’t budge, and Kaiden, perhaps tired, stopped pressing further. Instead, he changed the subject.
“Let’s go for a walk.”
“No, I…”
“You didn’t answer my question properly.”
When he offered a reason she couldn’t refuse, Jenadea helplessly nodded.
When the two were said to be going for a walk, Lora made sure Jenadea was thoroughly and completely bundled up.
“You have to dress warmly. Catching a cold in Niveus would be disastrous!”
It was a bit over the top, but with her whole body nearly covered in wool, even stepping outside felt more cool than cold.
Jenadea stepped outside first and quietly waited for Kaiden.
‘The sky over Niveus is so clear.’
The capital’s sky was clear and pure too, but it didn’t compare to Niveus. Not a single cloud in sight made her feel calm.
But that peace didn’t last long.
When Kaiden came into view, her mind became complicated.
He naturally offered to escort her.
Though she wanted to return to her room immediately, contrary to her thoughts, Jenadea walked as Kaiden led.
After walking for some time, they reached a sparsely populated backyard.
‘Why did we come here?’
Just as she wondered, tiny snowflakes began to fall from the sky.
Reflexively, Jenadea raised her hand toward them. The moment they touched her palm, they melted. The snow was more like rain than snow.
While she was momentarily distracted by the snow, Kaiden called her softly.
“Jenadea.”
“Ah, yes…!”
As she answered and turned her head, she was startled to see Kaiden pressing a knife against her neck.
When she tried to approach, Kaiden spoke calmly.
“I’ll ask again.”
“…….”
“Were you really trying to kill me?”
At Kaiden’s question, Jenadea moved her lips.
She tried to avoid answering, indicating she had nothing definite to say, but he persisted.
She barely spoke.
“I already answered.”
“Lies.”
Kaiden continued to insist.
With a resolute expression, Jenadea approached and grabbed his wrist.
She neither pleaded nor cried, but looked at Kaiden quietly.
Her eyes were filled with more anger than ever.
With a tense gaze, Jenadea continued in a rough, breathy voice.
“Do you think your life is a toy?”
The more she spoke, the more emotions surged, but she crushed them with reason.
“Never again threaten me with your life in front of me.”
As she spoke, the tiny snow gradually grew heavier, turning into a full snowfall.
“Never again.”
Soon, a blizzard swept through, and the two could barely see each other’s faces. Only her cold voice echoed loudly between them.
Kaiden couldn’t tell what expression she wore, or how she truly felt as she looked at him.
After a brief silence, Jenadea left, saying unilaterally that she would go first.
Kaiden was left alone in the snow-swept backyard. He felt he should follow and stop her, but his legs wouldn’t move.
‘Jenadea is angry.’
Jenadea didn’t get angry easily.
The Jenadea Kaiden knew was a woman who smiled even when tired and brushed off any harm done to her.
Yes, only once.
“Don’t come!”
When he met her in Bedes as a child, she had gotten angry.
‘But there’s no other way…’
He had given her multiple chances.
Yet Jenadea neither answered nor faced him, only avoided him.
The more she acted that way, the more impatient Kaiden became.
If, as he feared, she was being threatened by the Pope and the Emperor…
Then he wanted to find out the reason as soon as possible and give her freedom.
But that impatience caused things to go wrong.
“……”
In the end, he couldn’t hear her true feelings.
Regret washed over him like a tide.
But that feeling didn’t last long.
“Your Highness the Duke!”
Maurice came running from afar, his face serious.
Maurice was known among the knights for his calm demeanor. For him to be agitated, it meant something truly urgent had occurred.
“What is it?”
Kaiden asked, pushing aside his ominous premonition. Maurice caught his breath and began.
“Urgent news: numerous monsters are descending from the snowy mountains.”
Monsters usually emerge from the mountains during this season to stock up for hibernation.
But recently, like with Drake, monsters had been leaving their habitats more frequently.
“What’s the scale?”
“About twice as many as last year. You must leave immediately.”
“Form a squad with the best-conditioned knights.”
“Understood.”
Kaiden hurriedly formed an expedition and headed to the snowy mountains.
Jenadea didn’t go out to see him off, making an excuse of feeling unwell. It was because of the last time she had gotten angry in front of him.
She had no intention of showing anger in front of him again.
But when he made an absurd threat, the words slipped out despite herself.
“…shameless man.”
Instead of sinking into guilt, she focused on the defense of the duke’s castle as the duchess.
Because the people of the castle were one of the things she wanted to protect, just as much as Kaiden.
When the duke was absent, the duchess held full authority.
Her experience with the knights and royal guards came into play. The remaining knights, seeing her command with mastery while armored, began to follow her one by one.
As she pushed her body, memories of fighting Kaiden gradually faded.
‘The probability of monsters attacking the castle is low, but if even one gets in, it’s fatal.’
The monastery priests went to the borders to prevent demonic intrusion, and the remaining knights were not in good condition.
Most of the fit knights had been dispatched to the snowy mountains.
‘Healing with just holy magic has its limits.’
Jenadea tended to the injured left in the castle.
But it was impossible for her alone to heal everyone completely.
‘At least the villagers are armed…’
Like the castle staff, the villagers carried weapons as if their lives depended on them.
They never knew when a monster might appear.
She did her best.
Yet a creeping sense of unease lingered.
‘Why do I keep feeling uneasy?’
There was no other way to defend the castle.
Or rather…
‘Am I worried Kaiden might get hurt?’
One thing she knew for sure: he was strong.
He hadn’t died from her blade not because she was strong, but because he had held back. He would not die.
He would survive.
Having completed her tasks, she sat briefly to rest.
Then she heard the sound of glass breaking.
Startled, Jenadea instinctively grabbed her sword and looked around.
The glass had shattered, letting the northern wind in. It looked like it had been forcibly broken.
She cautiously moved toward the noise.
Crunch, the glass shards under her boots shattered further.
When she finally looked outside…
“……!”
A wyvern hovered in the air, staring at her.
Jenadea hurried inside and called for Lora.
“Lora, contact the knights on the walls immediately!”
“Yes!”
Lora, waiting outside, ran swiftly to the castle walls as ordered.
Jenadea watched the wyvern, confirming Lora had disappeared from sight.
The wyvern had lowered its altitude, still staring at her.
‘It’s targeting me.’
Grateful it wasn’t going after anyone else, Jenadea searched for a torch.
Her chances of defeating a flying monster were near zero. There was only one way to improve her odds: attack its eyes, the common weak point of all monsters.
The wyvern was openly staring at her.
She placed her sword on the ground, raised both hands, and slowly approached the creature, signaling surrender. High-intelligence monsters recognized such signals.
Seeing the deadly gleam in the wyvern’s eyes fade, she knew it understood.
She summoned courage and took another step closer.
The wyvern remained non-aggressive, flapping its wings calmly.
Pretending to lower her hands, Jenadea drew a dagger from her clothes and stabbed the wyvern in its left eye.
“Kyeeeek!”
With a scream, the wyvern thrashed violently.
Delighted that her plan worked, Jenadea moved to strike its other eye. But just then…
The magical alert stone she had temporarily installed began to glow red, signaling danger.
