Kind Arcadia.

Without realizing it, I hastily opened my mouth.

“Deputy Commander, you must be a gentle elder brother to your younger sister too, right?”

I thought I asked as naturally as possible, but Arcadia stopped his hand that was picking up the cutlet.

“Why do you ask that?”

What should I say to give a good answer?

I ended up mumbling.

“Just because. You’re being very kind right now, to me.”

“······I’m not kind to just anyone.”

I know. I experienced how difficult it is to earn your trust when we first met.

“That’s······ true.”

“What do you know about me?”

What’s this, he’s back and forth.

But Arcadia isn’t difficult. He’s easier to deal with than the Grand Duke.

As I stood still, he pulled back the chair in front of the table. Then he nodded towards the chair.

“What?”

“Sit here. I’m displaying chivalry right now, just for you. It’s a very rare occurrence, be grateful.”

“Thank you.”

As I sat in the chair, he sat in the chair opposite me.

“Is this my food? But where’s yours?”

“Ah, it’s here.”

I took out the special sandwich I had made myself in the kitchen from my pocket.

It’s something I often make and eat when I want to eat simply because a full stomach dulls my thinking.

He asked grumpily.

“Mine is soup and quail stew, why are you eating a mere sandwich?”

“I made this myself. I prefer this to meat.”

“You made it yourself?”

“Yes.”

“······It must be delicious.”

“You’re eating something even more delicious.”

“Suddenly the sandwich looks more appetizing. Let me have some.”

Arcadia reached out his hand, gesturing for the sandwich.

Reflexively, I placed the sandwich in his hand, and he cut it into two pieces, one small and one large.

Then he picked out some of the scarce meat from his quail stew and put it inside the large sandwich piece.

“Just eating greens will make you weak later. Eat this.”

“What about you?”

He then put the small sandwich piece in his mouth and began to chew.

Then he drank a bowl of soup, as if drinking it all at once.

“It’s a bit······ salty. But delicious.”

He must not have liked the sandwich. Yet he still says it’s delicious.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“You really are kind.”

“?”

“Your younger sister must like you too, right?”

“······No.”

Arcadia answered firmly with an expressionless face.

“?”

“She hates me. She thinks of me as a traitor who sided with the Grand Duke.”

“A traitor?”

It was an incomprehensible statement.

“I left the North at nine years old and came to the islands following His Highness. I’ve been a person of the islands since I came of age. So for me, the Grand Duke is the top priority, but for that child, my father and the North were the top priority. But then my father passed away, and that child’s North collapsed.”

Arcadia opened the cork of the wine bottle. A subtle fruity wine scent spread out.

“I sometimes open it just to smell. I can’t drink alcohol. If you want to drink, you can.”

I’ve never drunk any alcohol other than butter beer.

“I’m not good with alcohol either. Didn’t you say earlier that you drink occasionally?”

“I prefer watching others drink. Anyway.”

“Yes, back to the story about your younger sister.”

As I quickly responded, he looked at me and smiled slightly. A smile reminiscent of cold snowflakes.

“That child probably needed someone to resent. I found out later that everyone suspected and hated the South······ but that child rather resented the Grand Duke. I was in the islands, so I couldn’t even attend my father’s funeral. To be precise, the Emperor prevented us from going. After the funeral, when I returned to the North with His Highness, the look in my sister’s eyes as she watched us at the Grand Duke’s castle is still vivid.”

“······.”

“When I left the North, she was a five-year-old baby, the same age as you. And when I returned at sixteen, she had become an eleven-year-old young lady with her own firm thoughts. After that, following His Highness around battlefields, I couldn’t be a kind elder brother. It’s natural for her to distance herself from me.”

Arcadia’s face as he spoke slowly, as if ruminating, was different from his usual appearance. A face that looked somewhat sad.

“Then how about preparing a gift or something when you see her after a long time?”

I said it jokingly.

“A gift?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Women like flowers, no. Flowers from an elder brother might be a bit unpleasant.”

“Adjutant.”

“Yes?”

“What do you think the gift Medeia is sending to the North is?”

“!”

You heard from the Grand Duke about the note I received from Medeia.

Arcadia’s green eyes deepened.

“If that gift is targeting my sister, I don’t think I can let that woman be.”

Arcadia is sharp. Even though he seems to laugh casually, if you let your guard down for a moment, he suddenly strikes at the core.

“I feel the same.”

‘If your sister targets the Grand Duke, I too······ cannot leave her alone.’

“That woman’s target is our Julia now, right? That gift might also be······.”

There was no need to beat around the bush anymore.

“Probably. No, it’s certain.”

“So that’s why you asked me about Julia?”

“······Yes.”

“So wanting to eat with me was just an excuse.”

“No. I don’t think that’s the case.”

“?”

“Eating with you, Deputy Commander, is fun and makes me feel less lonely. It’s delicious too. Really.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Because it’s true.

I didn’t want to see him looking deflated either.

But suddenly, his cheeks, like cold snow, turned red.

Is he so weak to alcohol that he gets drunk just from the scent of wine?

“Medeia might know that the young lady hates the Grand Duke. Deputy Commander, when you go to the North, become close with your sister. That way.”

“That way?”

“······The North could become more harmonious than it is now?”

Unable to speak of the future I know, I ended up attaching an embarrassing statement.

Arcadia burst out laughing.

“Harmony, huh. It’s a bit of an awkward word choice, but I’ll try.”

“Yes, definitely.”

“Thank you, Adjutant.”

[This is the timeline separator]

It truly was a more delicious time than eating alone.

After the meal.

As I was about to go out carrying the empty plates, Arcadia followed behind me, saying he would clean up what he ate himself.

As we bickered over who would clean up, we lifted the entrance of the tent. But there stood the Grand Duke holding a plate of dessert.

“Your Highness?”

For a moment, I stared at the Grand Duke with the same foolish smile I had been giving Arcadia.

Flustered, I withdrew my smile.

I wonder how long he had been standing here.

I looked at him like a clock hand that had stopped winding.

He looked at me the same way. Then he turned his gaze to Arcadia standing behind me.

“Lord Nugent, this is a special dish that came for me, but I wanted to give it to you too.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. Wow! This looks really delicious. May I share it with our Adjutant?”

“Do as you wish.”

The Grand Duke handed over the dessert and turned away coldly.

“What’s that? Why is he acting like that? Did I do something wrong?”

Arcadia asked me.

“I don’t know.”

I answered that way because I really didn’t know.

[This is the timeline separator]

The feeling of entering colder air with each passing day.

Hailway, the central city of the North, located at the northernmost point of the Empire.

The Grand Duke’s castle is located in the middle of a high plateau area above the ‘Terra’ River that crosses Hailway.

I fully realized that plateau was near when we reached the completely frozen Terra River, so wide and long that its end was not visible.

In front of the river, I followed Arcadia in changing our horses’ flat horseshoes to ones with sharp, pointed edges.

And we rode horses across the frozen river.

In my previous life.

That desolate landscape I had briefly glimpsed from the top of the Grand Duke’s castle I had secretly infiltrated.

That landscape comes back to life in my memory, like a picture I had seen just yesterday.

In that picture, to the near north, the territory of the former Ventus Kingdom, now subjugated to the Empire, could be seen.

And further north than that, the pagan Shantus Empire bordering the Empire was hidden by fog.

After riding for a while, the highest part of the gray Grand Duke’s castle, the spire, standing tall on the plateau, revealed itself.

‘Finally arriving.’

The moment to confirm Julia Nugent draws near.

Has Medeia’s gift already arrived, or is it still on its way?

There’s no choice but to confirm with eyes and ears, and if necessary, with a sword, after arriving.

When we had been riding at full speed for about twenty minutes, a group of people standing by the riverside came into view in the distance.

“It’s the welcoming procession!”

Bran, who was riding ahead, shouted.

A moment later, I arrived right in front of them with the knights.

At the very front of the procession stood a man with short platinum blonde hair and green eyes, who seemed to be slightly older than Arcadia. Judging by his appearance.

‘Could it be Infidel Nugent?’

Infidel Nugent. As the eldest son of the Nugent Count family, he is the chief administrator of the North who assists the Grand Duke.

“That gentleman is Count Infidel Nugent, the eldest son of Lord Hern Nugent, who was the acting Grand Duke of the North.”

Bran whispered to me as if boasting of providing precious information.

I quickly scanned them all with my eyes.

Behind the Count stood several people who seemed to be representatives of each vassal family. And behind them······.

A slender middle-aged woman with light green hair gently tied up stood there.

A calm green outer coat similar to her hair color, with a basket-shaped brooch attached to the chest area of the woman’s coat.

‘That must be her. Hans’ younger sister, Lewine Axel.’

I pressed my hand against Hans’ letter and brooch that I had carefully brought in my bosom.

The quality guarantee certificate and seal were still warm.

“Grand Duke! You’ve arrived!”

Everyone bowed their waists towards the Grand Duke as he dismounted from his black horse.

“Is everyone well? Are the people well?”

“Yes. Thanks to Your Highness’s preparations, all the people were able to spend a warm winter.”

Infidel Nugent answered politely.

“It’s your merit, Count Nugent.”

“You flatter me.”

No sooner had the brief greeting ended than Lewine Axel brought a thick fur and handed it to the Grand Duke as if offering it.

“Your Highness, the North is still cold. What if you catch a cold?”

Her voice was much younger and warmer than expected.

“Oh my, Lewine. Have I worried you again?”

“When I heard you had been poisoned, I nearly fainted.”

It’s as if a mother is scolding.

The Grand Duke showed a warm smile towards such a chamberlain.

‘Similar to Hans, but a different feeling.’

I looked at Lewine Axel with fondness.

“Elder brother.”

Arcadia also approached his elder brother. Infidel examined his younger brother with a joyful face.

“Are you uninjured? Are you alright?”

“As you can see, I’m too healthy for my own good.”

The two brothers embraced each other.

“I owe a debt to the Grand Duke that cannot be repaid even with death. Forgive me for only now expressing my gratitude, Your Highness.”

Infidel bowed once more towards the Grand Duke, bending one knee.

‘He must have heard about you drinking poison for Arcadia.’

The messengers who departed earlier must have relayed well the events that occurred in the islands.

‘He seems to be on good terms with both the Grand Duke and Arcadia. That’s fortunate.’

However.

No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t see any woman around my age.

‘Did Julia Nugent not come out?’

It was then.

In the distance, a carriage drawn by white horses approached us.

Infidel Nugent’s face turned pale.

‘Who could it be? Who dares to ride in a carriage that even the Grand Duke doesn’t use, coming to greet us here in the North.’

The dazzling white carriage decorated with gold stopped right in front of where I was standing.

As everyone’s gaze focused, the coachman bowed his head reverently and prostrated himself towards the Grand Duke.

Then he stood up and opened the door of the carriage his master was riding in.

The one who alighted was a woman with beautiful platinum blonde hair flowing abundantly.

Silver lace gently wrapping around a long neck.

A red satin dress flowing softly along graceful body lines.

The skin of the woman wearing that dress was as white and transparent as snow.

Even the snow-white fur draped over her shoulders paled in comparison next to her clear face. A woman with green eyes like Arcadia’s.

Could it be······.

“Julia! How dare you ride in a carriage with what safety!”

Infidel Nugent shouted at her in a low but stern voice.

“Count, it’s fine.”

The Grand Duke observed her with his usual calm expression.

At that, she boldly approached the Grand Duke, lifting her head and smiling.

Then, lifting the hem of her dress, she bowed her head lightly.

‘This woman is Julia Nugent······.’

Arcadia frowned, unable to hide his discomfort.

She gave a light nod to her elder brother, Arcadia, as well before opening her mouth.

“Your Highness, you must have had a hard journey.”

A tone that would make anyone think he had returned from a trip rather than a battlefield.

I slowly approached Arcadia’s side. And I spoke to him in a voice loud enough for Julia to hear.

“Deputy Commander, it’s truly fortunate. If the Grand Duke hadn’t saved you by even drinking poison for you, you wouldn’t have been able to reunite with your sister like this today. The Grand Duke’s grace is truly as vast as the ocean.”

“?”

Arcadia made an expression towards me as if he had eaten poison.

I signaled to him with my eyes to play along.

“So this is the sister you’ve been missing so much. She’s truly a beautiful person.”

Even though I thought it was an embarrassing thing to say myself, my face flushed, but it couldn’t be helped.

It’s clear she doesn’t know yet that the Grand Duke even drank poison for her brother.

If she had known, she wouldn’t have thought to come riding in a carriage so arrogantly.

“Who is this woman?”

Julia asked, looking at me. Arcadia answered.

“My adjutant.”

“She’s wearing a mask. It’s not particularly pleasant to look at.”

“······.”

She’s quite direct.

I smiled brightly as if unbothered and retorted.

“I apologize, it would be even less pleasant if I took it off.”

In that moment, her eyes changed.