“Am I really that angry?”

He recalled last night’s events.

No, he didn’t want to remember, but the memories surfaced on their own.

“You’re such a piece of trash, Ethan.”

It was a marriage contract, but… it was still their first night together.

Yet he had found himself kicked out of bed! His bride slept curled up on the sofa!

On the surface, that seemed the biggest issue, but in reality, there was a larger problem.

Pushing her away, desiring her in drunkenness, and then pushing her away again.

If he had explained the situation in advance for their first night, she would have understood. She would have agreed.

He seduced her in her ignorance and then coldly rejected her.

He saw her eyes, which had been glowing in response to him, suddenly turn troubled.

It was a gaze that feigned coldness but had been wounded.

“She doesn’t reject me. She doesn’t approach me on her own, but if I approach, she doesn’t step back.”

Is my face and body really that appealing to her?

“Haha, even that is fine. How insane.”

She found his face and body desirable, and even that was okay with him.

It was the first time he had ever heard such words…

Until now, everyone had avoided him in fear when they saw his face. Ethan had never thought or been conscious about his own face before.

He was satisfied with becoming an intimidating Ice Duke.

This body was built to protect people, or in other words, to overpower someone physically.

A body no different from a weapon or a piece of machinery. Like sharpening a knife or oiling a cannon to prevent rust. Like a good and useful tool.

But she said she found his body desirable.

Every time her slender hand clung desperately to his shoulder, he began to feel his body had value.

Not as a Duke, not as an object, but as a person.

He wished to approach her multiple times.

To urge her and be met with her approval, to hold her. Then, she would desire him.

He felt like he was losing himself in that tender sensation.

But it had vanished now. It would vanish even more.

Because she had decided so.

Even if he approached her, she would be resolute in not welcoming him.

Although distancing himself from her was what Ethan wanted and intended,

He already felt his heart constricting from a sense of loss.

The harsh north wind that did not affect him was ominously closing in.

Suddenly, he was worried about Brody.

The clatter of cleaning dishes and other activities quickly dwindled, and they were once again sitting in silence.

From a distance, only the faint conversations of the soldiers occasionally broke the heavy night air.

Turning around, Brody was hunched over, staring at the campfire. Her pale face looked extremely cold.

Ethan hesitated.

If he wrapped her in his cape, she would become much warmer.

But would that be acceptable?

Brody was unconsciously leaning toward the campfire, shivering.

But that position was too hot to maintain for long.

Even the warmth from the food couldn’t fend off the cold that kept seeping in.

Brody once again curled up under her already well-wrapped blanket.

Too cold to lie down, she would likely stay seated like this and doze off throughout the night.

Then again, she had slept on a galloping horse; this was nothing in comparison.

Feeling herself grow accustomed to this world, Brody let out a quiet laugh.

“Sitting and sleeping is fine, but… it’s too cold…”

Are the northern people alright because they are northern? Or is it because they are sturdy knights? Either way, if they’re immune to the cold, they wouldn’t understand the pain Brody was currently enduring.

Brody bit her trembling lips in an attempt to calm her body even a little.
If she hadn’t, her trembling jaw would have made her teeth chatter so loudly that Ian would have heard.

‘Cold……, so cold…….’

She clenched her eyes shut.

The hazy scene of that day in the warehouse unfolded in her fading memory.

‘Scared.’

‘In pain.’

‘I want to live.’

‘Is this all I get for living this hard?’

‘I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t done anything for myself.’

She was utterly alone. And that didn’t just mean being trapped alone inside the warehouse.

Her family relied on her but never became a place for her to rely on.

Always busy, she couldn’t make a single dear friend.

She’d thought that enduring day by day would eventually come to an end.

She never thought the end would be like this.

She mindlessly flipped through the novel on her smartphone with hands stiffened from the cold.

‘Cold, and… lonely.’

As her vision blurred, droplets of water fell onto the dimly glowing screen.

“Brody.”

“……!”

Brody’s eyes snapped open, and instead of the blue electronic light, she stared at the blazing campfire right in front of her nose.

She pulled her body back in surprise.

Then she saw Ian’s large hand propping up the spot where her head had just been.

Whether she had leaned forward while dozing off, or whether Ian had prevented her from plunging into the fire, she didn’t know.

Her pallid face and dilated pupils trembled unstably.

Cold was terrifying, but fire was equally so.