“Dristan, W-What about Dristan?” Max asked.
“Because of the conflict between the Duke of Croix and the southern part of Dristan” Riftan replied.
The City of Croix was located at the south eastern most point of Whedon, and covered extensively as far as Dristan. As a result, there were frequent military disputes with Dristan in the eastern part of the Duchy, where knights were frequently dispatched from the Whedon royal family and from the central temple of Osiria to mediate them. The move was aimed at preventing disputes from escalating and shaking the seven-nation peace treaty. Was Riftan one of them?
“C-Croix is a conflict state.. so you f-frequently visit to arbitrate.”
She suddenly felt Riftan’s strange gaze when she tried to combine the stories she picked up when she was young in her head. Max looked at him with a curious look.
“W-why?”
“No… I wonder if I’ve been there so often.”
“Well, at least two months… s-sometimes o-once a month. Didn’t you visit?”
Riftan, who was staring at her, turned his head again, thinking it was like that. Max glanced at his expression just in case she made a slip of the tongue.
When he was in silence alone, Riftan seemed to be alone in a distance place. ‘Why doesn’t he tell me everything he thinks about?Maybe being with me is boring.’ She was anxious because he looked away for a moment, and suddenly something cold fell on the nose bridge.
Max rubbed his nose with one hand in surprise. Water droplets were formed. It was so sunny just a while ago, but is it going to rain in winter? Max, who raised her head frowning, opened her eyes wide the next minute. Fluffy things were falling from the white faded sky.
“It’s a nice day, and it’s going to snow.”
She heard Riftan kicking his tongue. Max looked back at him with a puzzled look.
“I-Is this snow?”
“…is this your first-time seeing snow?”
“I- I’ve seen sleet falling, but… This, like this close, I’ve never seen this before.”
She stared blankly at the snowflakes that were slowly falling like petals and extended her hand forward. Riftan frowned at the sight.
“Straighten up. What if you fall off the horse?”
“I- it’s okay. My lord, I’m paying attention.”
Max answered and held the snowflake in her palm. The unpleasant thing melted away as soon as it reached the skin and became a small drop of water. ‘How on earth does a dandelion seed-like thing become a droplet?’ She looked down at her wet palm with a curious glance and kicked Rem lightly around the waist and began to run around in the fluttering snow.
Rem was also excited and hopped his feet, probably because he had been in the stable for weeks. She was getting excited by the cheerful rhythm between her thighs. Max burst into laughter and looked at the wind like a child with no worries.
The snowflakes, which had fallen gently one by one, gradually increased and filled the view with faint colors. An ecstasy came to the beautiful scene she saw for the first time in her life.
She raised her head and enjoyed the sensation of the cold snowflakes gently brushing her face. The snow glistened with a faint silver lining in the sun that leaked through the thin clouds, and the lake regained its deep color and fluttered in silence. A couple of winter birds plummeted onto the dark surface and flew away into the forest.
Max stared at all the sights as if she were going to capture them in her eyes and turned her head toward Riftan. Max was going to say thank you for bringing her to a nice place. However, when she saw his face, she was speechless. Max looked at his sharp face with a strange thrill.
Riftan’s large body was visibly tense. His forehead was wrinkled, as if it contained deep agony, and the black eyes shook violently like the sea in which the wind and waves met. Max pulled the reins tightly in confusion. She couldn’t figure out why he was looking at her like that. Feeling faint fear and faltering back, Riftan, who was clapping his lips as if he were trying to say something, shut his mouth tightly. There was a lonely look on his face.
“The clouds are coming. Let us go back to castle before it snows more.”
But he quickly went back to being a determined, outspoken man. Riftan said, turning his head with a grave face.
“When I’m hit by snow, my body temperature drops quickly. We’d better hurry.”
Then he slowly started going back the way he had come. Max hurried after him. A strange silence fell between them. ‘What was that just now?’ She looked at his wide back with a confused look, then turned to the calm lake.
Her face was dimly reflected on the dark blue wave. Somehow it looked precarious and lonely, and Max felt a corner of her chest cool.
‘That’s ridiculous….’
There is only one thing in the world that puts the strongest and bold knight at risk. She quickly dispelled the strange feeling. Just in time, the wind blew his black hair, poked her in the eye and flew eastward.
Max frowned and turned her head toward the distant mountains along the wind. White snow was scattered like fog all over the mountain. The season of rest was getting so deep.
***
Snow, which began to fall in the late afternoon, covered the whole world white until evening. Rudis was surprised that it had been almost 10 years since the Anatol had snowed like this.
Max exclaimed that the whole white world was just amazing, but Riftan didn’t enjoy it. He led the knight out of the castle early in the morning to see if there was any damage caused by snow in the compound.
Even servants were busy cleaning up the snow. They meticulously swept the snow piled up on the stairs with broomsticks, covered it in layers to prevent firewood and other water from getting wet, and cleaned up the snow piled up in the backyard and garden to prevent the ground from freezing. The guards were busy clearing snow from the patrol route from the morning.
Max, who was pacing the garden and looking around in the snow, saw them working and ordered Rodrigo to distribute more firewood than usual before returning to the room. She thought about going to the library, but she was discouraged by yesterday and didn’t feel like looking into the book.
Max sat on a rug in front of the fireplace and played with the cats after a long time. Ron, Laura, and Roy, who have been loved by maids for the past few days, have been rolling on the floor cheerfully.
Max tickled her plump stomach with the busy running cats on her lap one by one. Laura and Ron whined away from their knees, but Roy, the black cat, seemed to like what she touched, lay still, grumbling and shaking. The lovely figure made her laugh.
“Madam, would you like me to warm you up?”
Rudis, who was putting firewood in the fireplace and bellowing, turned her head and asked. With a welcome smile and nod, Rudis put a kettle in the fireplace to warm up the milk. The cat crept up on her skirt, smelling the savory milk that was spreading secretly.
Even Laura, who pretended not to know even if she called her, smiled as she approached.
“Hey, hey… Didn’t you eat earlier, Ron?”
“He ate a plate of porridge made with minced meat. All three of them are very gluttonous and eat endlessly.”
Rudis shook her head, but cooled the goat’s milk lukewarmly and poured it into the cats’ exclusive bowls. The cats put their noses in the bowl and soaked their whiskers and drank milk.
The small ones were so hungry that the bowl quickly revealed its bottom. Max found out that the milk had cooled down enough and poured her own into the cat’s bowl. The cats ate up the rest of the milk. Watching the scene with joy, she was in a peaceful mood, and suddenly I heard a knock.
“Excuse me, My Lady.”
“What’s going on?”
“The Wizard has come. Would you like to meet him?”
The maid’s words from beyond the door clouded Max’s face. Did he come here himself because she didn’t come to the library? Or did something happen again?
Max got up from her seat with a nervous face and opened the door. Then she saw Ruth yawning with a disheveled look. The relaxed appearance of Ruth drained her shoulder. Apparently, something happened again.
“What-what, what’s going on?”
“Oh, good morning, My Lady.”
It was well past the morning, but Max didn’t bother to correct it. Ruth yawned once again, stretching all the way, and said what she had to do.
“I came here because I thought of a good training method. Can you come outside for a moment?”
“G-good… training method?”
Max opened her eyes round. Ruth nodded vigorously with a childlike innocent face. Yesterday, even though she was disappointed, she quickly put on a robe as she felt expectations creeping up again.
“Oh, what h-how?”
“I’m trying to induce Mana myself. You have a weak magnetic force, but you have good absorption, so I’m sure this will work.”
She looked a little worried. She doesn’t know how to inject mana directly. She was also reminded of Riftan’s request to be careful around Ruth because he made people around him get involved in a strange experiment. She asked with a suspicious face.
“Oh, it’s safe, right?”
“Of course! Don’t worry. It’s absolutely safe.”
