“Excuse me, but who are you referring to?”
Johan cautiously repeated the question, puzzled by the ambiguous subject.
Before answering Johan, behind him appeared the sight of the first unit, led by an officer.
All of them were silently following the Duchess’s carriage with their eyes.
It wasn’t just the first unit.
Though no one voiced it, every knight present had been gazing at Yerpi with reverence even before departure.
Just as the power of dragon blood varied from individual to individual, so too did spices—depending on their scent and flavor, their abilities differed greatly.
The Duchess’s spice was honey.
This was the domain of dragon blood.
The Duchess’s ability had been etched into everyone’s memory as a rich, sweet fragrance of honey.
And that fact displeased him.
Raymond’s brow furrowed, causing Johan—who had been waiting ahead of him—to tense up instantly.
Yet unlike his irritated mood, he had no proper outlet for his anger.
He couldn’t precisely pinpoint what about Yerpi had disturbed him so.
Instead of venting his inexplicable irritation, he clarified the subject.
“I mean the Duchess’s father.”
“Ah, you mean the head of the Deilang family.”
Johan immediately thought of Baron Deilang and couldn’t hide his discomfort.
No matter how one looked at it, outsiders—even if they were spice-bearers—should be treated with caution.
The officer had already completed a full investigation on the Duchess before she crossed the barrier.
That investigation covered everything about her background and lineage, naturally including Baron Deilang.
After all, that man had been the most vocal opponent of this marriage.
Johan quickly brought up a story he thought would satisfy his superior.
“Shall I summon the Mirrorbird?”
The Mirrorbird was a type of summoned creature, notable for mating across seasons—birds of one season pairing with those of another.
Another unique trait was that paired Mirrorbirds could share thoughts and vision with each other.
Raymond nodded.
Johan then whistled sharply, calling forth the bird.
Soon, the rapeseed flower bushes rustled, and a pure white bird landed on Johan’s arm.
It was a spring Mirrorbird, specially trained for military use.
To use a Mirrorbird, a human needed a mirror.
Following its master’s command, the bird slipped its body into the prepared mirror.
Gradually merging with the mirror’s surface, the bird began projecting the vision of its mate onto the reflective surface.
Wheeeing—
Beyond the mirror, a fierce snowstorm raged over sharp ice cliffs.
At Johan’s instruction, the scene within the mirror began to shift.
The winter Mirrorbird perched atop an icy bridge.
The view lowered, revealing a foreign traveler pushing through the blizzard across Growen territory.
It was Baron Deilang and his entourage.
The Baron was wrapped head to toe in thick winter clothing. Yet due to his excessive attire, he appeared to struggle even with forward movement.
Unlike the knights pressing ahead, the servants attending him were poorly dressed, exposed directly to the cold, and one by one were falling behind the group.
Their numbers had significantly decreased since the last time they were observed.
Raymond clicked his tongue as he watched the scene unfold in the mirror.
“He still hasn’t given up yet.”
Raymond had been communicating with the Baron through the Mirrorbird this entire time.
Even from just a few exchanged words, he had already understood.
Just how greedy and venomous this man truly was.
‘I should’ve seen it the moment he demanded the bride price.’
The Baron had gone on at length about how difficult it had been to raise Yerpi, and then demanded payment for sending such a precious daughter beyond the barrier.
The amount requested was comparable to the annual budget of an entire nation.
Even accounting for her status as a dragon blood bride, the sum was outrageous.
He acted like a merchant desperate to sell his wares at the highest possible price.
Raymond had paid the sum—an unprecedented amount in Growen family history.
Yet even after receiving such a fortune, the Baron was now wandering here, seeking even more.
‘Are all outsiders like this? Greedy to the core, with no sense of their own place?’
His judgment of the Baron soon extended to all people from the outside world—and eventually, to Yerpi herself.
Not long ago, Raymond had personally reviewed the officer’s report on Yerpi.
The document was suspiciously brief for a record about a single woman.
It mentioned only that she had suffered a severe fever in childhood.
Afterward, her father had kept her confined within the estate for recovery, not even allowing her debutante ball.
Raymond had learned of Yerpi’s status as a spice for dragon blood only afterward.
By now, doubt had begun to creep in.
Had the Baron truly cherished his daughter so much that he refused to let her leave?
Raymond now recalled the past two days when Yerpi had collapsed.
Her frail body had nearly fallen to the ground as she stepped out of the tent, losing balance completely.
Only because he had rushed forward to catch her.
And when he held her, he was shocked by how much thinner and smaller she was than he had imagined.
Her forehead burned with fever, while her fingertips were icy cold, nearly blue.
Flustered by the sudden turn of events, he had urgently called the army physician, who diagnosed her condition as fatigue caused by abrupt environmental change.
‘No wonder her body is so weak.’
Yet seeing her delicate frame, he thought it understandable.
The real problem was that she had no one to care for her.
‘Perhaps I should have allowed her a maid.’
Raymond recalled the maid the Baron had abandoned in the ice valley, now likely frozen to death.
In a male-dominated camp, the only one who could care for the ailing Duchess was her husband—Raymond himself.
As he gazed at Yerpi lying in bed, he remembered their first night together.
Then, abruptly, he shook his head, dispelling a sudden thought.
She was bedridden, weakened like a flower wilted by sudden climate change, and he was no rogue who would take advantage of an unconscious woman.
Though, of course, he had no idea how she truly saw him.
Deciding that even entertaining such thoughts was strange, he began carefully pulling down the uncomfortable dress she wore.
Why were women’s clothes so complicated?
After struggling for a while, he finally succeeded in uncovering her pale skin beneath the layers of fabric.
The moment he saw her bare body, every baseless thought—whether of her being a nuisance or disliking him—vanished completely.
‘What is this?’
Faint scars, likely from past injuries, marred her skin and disturbed Raymond deeply.
So he hadn’t been mistaken back then.
‘Is this truly the body of the Baron’s cherished daughter, the one he claimed to have raised with such care?’
That was exactly how the Baron had described her.
Then the only one capable of doing this was the man himself.
But then again, there might have been even more perpetrators.
The wounds were a mix of old and recent ones.
For example, the scars around her waist—clear marks left by tightly laced corsets digging into her skin.
If his suspicion was correct, then abandoning that maid at the ice barrier might have been a mercy in comparison.
‘From now on, I’ll assign her a maid or attendant from among Growen’s own people.’
To aid the spice’s recovery, he had lain behind her, sharing his body heat. Two days later, the Duchess finally awoke.
The overly timid woman immediately overwhelmed him with excessive apologies and gratitude.
Knowing there was reason behind every action, he felt anger rising.
And also toward himself—for having so easily ignored someone who looked so fragile, barely more than a handful.
He didn’t have to treat her kindly just because she was a wife he was forced to accept.
But this situation was different now.
Raymond decided to give the Duchess a small recompense.
‘There was an ancient text that mentioned leaked information about the Growen territory.’
He still couldn’t fully trust everything the Duchess had said. But it was undeniable that she had helped the unit.
As he continued observing the Baron through the mirror inhabited by the Mirrorbird, Raymond finally reached a decision.
“He wants more bride price? Then as her son-in-law, I should accommodate him. Drive the Baeknuu herd beneath the ice bridge.”
Baeknuu were herds of cattle native to the winter domain.
Though rare, some summoned creatures occasionally strayed beyond the borders of their seasonal domains.
Baeknuu horns possessed a hardness comparable to diamond and were valued far more than rare gems in the outside world.
If he wanted money so badly, making him gather it himself wasn’t a bad idea.
Understanding his superior’s intent, Johan used another Mirrorbird to contact the unit stationed in the winter domain.
While the officer carried out the order, Raymond gazed at the mirror reflecting the winter landscape.
The Baron’s group had set up camp beneath the ice bridge.
Now, only a few knights remained—barely a fraction of their original number.
The only reason those left had survived so far was because they had captured and consumed summoned beasts native to the winter domain.
To trespass into Growen lands and devour creatures meant to be preserved as the land’s heritage?
Truly, what a spectacle.
“If they survive, then that is their fate.”
He didn’t know how privileged they had been in the outside world, but this was Growen’s domain.
If they refused to leave on their own, it was only right to deal with them in Growen’s way.
Or perhaps burying them here forever wasn’t such a bad option either.
Having given the Baron a choice, Raymond turned away from the mirror and fixed his gaze on the carriage carrying the Duchess.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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