“Shall we go?”

Finally. We’re going. Brody nodded and stood close to him.

Because the attire was uncomfortable and she didn’t have the courage to speak alone, she needed an escort.

Seeing Aidan’s chest slightly rise for a moment, he seemed to let out a light sigh.

He reached out, aiming for Brody’s waist. It seemed like he was going to lift her up as before.

Aidan’s body heat became close in an instant.

In the moment of trying to lift her, Aidan’s chin brushed against Brody’s hair.

He said, “Beautiful, Brody. Almost too difficult to look at properly.”

“……!”
It was a voice so small and low that it could easily be scattered by the wind.

However, that voice tickled Brody’s ears and was enough to make her cheeks flush.

Without waiting for her reaction, her body suddenly lifted, soon settling gracefully on Kaice.

For a brief moment, Brody’s eyes, which had grasped Aidan’s shoulders, met his gaze.

At that moment, he quickly averted his gaze and smoothly sat behind Brody, just as when he had returned to the North, searching for her, back when she was a captive in the South.

Aidan embraced her.

Why? Why did her heart flutter every time she touched this person?

While their chests were pounding with each other’s scents, the two nonchalantly stiffened their bodies and sealed their lips.

Once Aidan confirmed that Brody had positioned herself well, he urged Kaice forward.

Soon, under the protection of the spirit, Kaice began to run to the south like a storm.

It wasn’t a time to be immersed in romantic fantasies.

They had to hurry along the road for a scheduled journey.

Kaice was a magnificent steed, and Aidan, ensuring Brody was secure, guided the horse steadily.

However, running at an extraordinary speed against the winter’s biting wind wasn’t an easy task for an ordinary horse.

It felt like riding a sports car without a roof.

Moreover, with snow starting to fall, Aidan furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

The arrival at the first village occurred around the time the sun was setting.

Perhaps the other parties that had departed for their respective destinations were already preparing for camping. Aidan and Brody’s speed was indeed remarkable.

Feeling a bit nauseous, Brody entrusted her waist to Aidan again after dismounting.

Since villagers were there to greet them, they had to maintain their dignity.

After descending, she stood gracefully by Aidan’s side with a straight posture.

No, she tried to. If Aidan hadn’t quickly brushed off the snow piled on her hair and cloak without any decorum, it would have been that way.

People started to murmur in confusion, and Brody rolled her eyes, signaling Aidan to stop through her gaze.

But Aidan, whether he didn’t receive her signal or couldn’t feel the people’s stares, only turned his head toward the villagers after neatly arranging her appearance.

“Your Grace!”

Only then did an old man with a staff notice them and hurriedly approached.

Seemed like the village chief.

In an instant, Aidan recognized him.

He was the one taken hostage on the plains near the capital not long ago, during a confrontation, although Aidan didn’t know his name.

He had tried to twist his body to throw himself to his death during the confrontation, but his aged body couldn’t overcome the grip of the soldier, and thus, he survived.

“You look healthy.”

While the expression on the Icewall Duke’s face remained stern, his gaze seemed warm.
The old man looked at the Icewall Duke in confusion.

“Do, do you know me?”

“I didn’t know you were the village chief. I sincerely thank you for surviving that time. Thanks to all of you, the North could be protected with courage until the end.”

The old man, realizing that the Duke had been his captor, stammered in surprise.

“I’m… I’m just ashamed that I couldn’t die at that time.”

“If you had died then, I would have been the one ashamed. Don’t say such things.”

The old man teared up, and Aidan comforted him.

The villagers surrounding them began to look at Aidan with even more respectful eyes.

Following the limping steps of the village chief, they slowly moved into the village.

The situation in the village was dire.

Although it was an environment where plants should have grown abundantly, considering it was an area not reaching the northern tree line, there were no properly grown plants.

Due to the famine, even the roots of the trees seemed to have been scraped clean.

Brody felt a sense of desolation and began to observe the surroundings with a keen eye as she followed them.

There were too few people compared to the number of houses.

There were only a few adult males, and most of them were women and children.

However, there weren’t many women and children either.

Especially, the number of children was noticeably low, probably becoming the initial victims of the famine.

These vulnerable beings were relatively susceptible to hunger and disease.

This was quite different from the areas Brody had directly experienced, such as south of the Fertan Fortress, Fertan, and Potato Village.

The area near Fertan was originally imperial territory, so there was no need to mention it. As for Potato Village, it was now a newly established special region. It was nowhere near the average of the northern villages.

“I didn’t expect it to be this bad… Can the village sustain itself like this?”

They needed to gather the necessary workforce to build a fortress, and it seemed questionable whether it was even possible. Having such thoughts felt almost sinful.

The clothing seemed to be only one set, and even though Northern people were resilient to the cold, the attire didn’t seem suitable for winter.

People in their prime seemed to be losing weight, and their hair was becoming sparse.

The faces, with bloodshot eyes, emphasized the eyeballs, giving a stark contrast.

A peculiar gaze covered half in despair and half in hope.

Aidan’s expression sank deeply.

Brody’s heart also sank deeply.

‘Even with relief supplies from the empire, it must have been tough. It was probably not something that could self-sustain and was difficult to regenerate. Especially if the famine lasts for another three years, no, even two.’

The village chief glanced back at Aidan, Brody, and Kaice as they walked.

Everyone had expected relief supplies to arrive, but seeing the party so frugal and with minimal luggage, there was an air of concern.
Aidan seemed to sense their feelings and spoke.

“The relief supplies are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. The schedule was unavoidable, so please understand.”

“Ah, tomorrow. Yes, yes. I understand.”

The villagers who followed their conversation grumbled.

“What? Not today? Ugh, it feels like the leather will stick to my skin.”

“But still, it’s coming tomorrow. Ah… What about today and tomorrow…”

It wasn’t a gloomy atmosphere, but a strange sense of disappointment weighed heavily in the air.

After a while, guided by the village chief, they arrived at the village cemetery.