Chapter 3

At that moment, the face of the leader changed drastically.

If it were for other people, they would have thought he was laughing, but Ilyin knew.

Even in Viscount’s mansion, she had seen maids who changed their attitudes strangely. It was mainly from new maids. They showed a strange attitude when they realized what Ilyin’s position was in the mansion and began to look down on her.

But for the leader, it was the opposite.

It was a more serious reaction.

Ilyin, who confirmed it, opened her mouth again.

“Biflten won’t deal with many places. It’s also a place where everyone is reluctant to interact.”

She handed over her own letter to the leader instead of a letter stamped with the Biflten family’s sentence.

“It’s hard to say that the leader of merchants’ group who delivers the goods now, not even in summer, doesn’t have anything to do with Biflten family.”

If they were going to the Biflten Territory now, which was hard to access in the summer due to the heavy wind, it was almost certain.

Ilyin continued.

“You’re at least in friendly terms with the Biflten family, or maybe someone loyal. Then you have a duty to deliver my letter.”

“Why is it?”

The leader asked back.

He no longer denied it.

“If no one wants to be a bride again this time, as every time, I will enter Biflten family without having to compete with others.”

Ilyin said softly.

“Then, at least I’ll be the hostess of the Biflten family or stay as a guest.”

She tilted her head slightly.

“Is this still not enough reason to pass on my letter?”

“…it’s enough.”

The leader eventually bowed his head.

“I’ll deliver it to them as soon as possible.”

“You can check the letter if you want to verify it.”

Because It wasn’t a sweet love letter that other people shouldn’t see. Ilyin had that thought.

The leader shook his head.

“No, but…”

The leader had a really curious look.

“How did you know?”

He was referring to the relationship between Biflten and the merchants’ group.

Ilyin euphemistically said that she won’t answer.

“I want to hear from you sooner than later.”

Anyway, you can’t believe it even if I told you that I had a precognitive dream.

***

It was just a week after that.

 [We welcome lady Ilyin de Arlene’s visit.]

The letter bearing the sentence of the Biflten family was polite.

It took three days to reach borough estate from the capital. But it was questionable how it took only a week to get to Biflten, which was at the north end.

[I’ll put the carriage on standby outside Viscount Arlene’s mansion. You can get in the carriage whenever you want.]

The contents of the letter were polite but indifferent.

Come if you want to come.

I won’t wait eagerly.

Is it an illusion to look at the letter that way?

Ilyin, who glanced at the letter, looked over the fence of the mansion through the window.

A strange carriage was seen.

However, there was no sentence of a noble family to identify whose it was.

Ilyin lowered her gaze in the letter again.

[The horseman has a sign of Biflten family.]

If it’s that, then there was no risk of getting into the wrong carriage.

Since what I had been waiting for came, there was no reason to drag on more time.

Ilyin got up from her seat.

***

“What’s the matter?”

Viscount Arlene, who saw her again in a week, naturally did not welcome her.

The repeated visits seemed very unpleasant.

Ilyin stared at her father quietly.

Was he a good father when she was a kid?

Not at all.

He was someone who cared more about the image of the family than his own family.

Instead of regretting that his wife went crazy, he was angry about how she tarnished the family’s name.

There was not enough to talk before she left this place.

She had no memory of being loved by her father.

“I’ve decided where to get married.”

“What?”

Viscount Arlene was naturally surprised.

Marriage was a celebration of the nobility. Depending on which family you marry, what you have to show to the outside world changes.

“Which family?”

“Northern.”

That’s how Ilyin replied.

I could hear a tsk sound coming from his mouth. There was already a hostess in Borough estate, the largest estate in the north. The small estates around them were only small families that were much less famous than the Viscount Arlene family.

 ‘It would have been better if I hadn’t revealed.’

Viscount Arlene beckoned as I concluded.

It meant to go out.

There was nothing good about declaring marriage anyway. For Viscount Arlene, she would tarnish only the name of the family.

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

I didn’t even think about getting a greeting anyway.

Ilyin turned around to leave.

“Ilyin.”

Then Viscount Arlene called her name.

Ilyin hesitated.

It was the first time in more than a decade that her father called her.

“Yes.”

Unknowingly, the answer came out with a slightly softened voice.

When their eyes met, Viscount Arlene asked.

“Have you ever dreamed of me?”

“…..”

Ilyin laughed.

Even the slightest expectation she had disappeared.

“None.”

Viscount Arlene didn’t call her name twice.

***

No one came out of the Viscount Arlene’s mansion.

Yes, now both my father and mother will live as if I were not there.

The same goes for the people who work here.

Ilyin never looked back twice at the mansion, which was getting further from the carriage window.

I’ll never come back.

“Biflten…”

Ilyin looked out of the carriage.

The carriage, which quickly left the capital, was running north. Wearing a sword engraved with the Biflten family’s sentence at the end of the handle, the horseman sped up silently. The road was well paved and was not severely shaken, but it was still uncertain whether it would be the same until we reached Biflten.

Ilyin re-opened the thickest clothes she had ever brought from the mansion.

It was said that Biflten is a place where it’s difficult to find a body that died from freezing in the cold.

Even in winter, it will be difficult to withstand the winter clothes worn in the capital city, which boasts a relatively mild climate.

“The horseman didn’t seem to wear warm clothes.”

Maybe it’s because the horseman was a Biflten man.

Ilyin looked around in the carriage.

The chair with black microfiber velvet fabric was fluffy.

The wall was also surrounded by velvet fabrics containing fresh cotton, perhaps to block the wind.

Rather than decorations, it was more noticeable that the cold wind was carefully handled to prevent it from leaking through the window.

“What is this?”

Ilyin looked at the cloth on the opposite chair. It was a blue fabric that was glossy like silk but somewhat cottony in texture. The luxurious fabric decorated with silver foil was so warm that my fingertips flinched. The fabric itself seemed to be heating up.

Is it a fabric made only by Biflten?

There could never have been a clothes that the aristocratic ladies who were sensitive to dress fashions didn’t wear.

No matter how little Ilyin had socialized, she had the experience of welcoming the guests of a crazy Mrs. Arlene and Viscount Arlene many times.

I’ve seen so much clothing, but I’ve never seen such cloth before.

Can I touch it?

If it was a precious item that should not be touched, it could not have been put here.

However, there was no such thing as a container for storing cloth.

Are you telling me to cover it with if it’s cold?

Ilyin carefully spread the fabric.

Although it was close to sky blue, it was a mysterious fabric that reflected the purple gloss upon receiving the outside light.

It looked more like a veil on the head than a blanket on the knees.

It was thin enough to see beyond the cloth.

Ilyin carefully put that fabric on her head.

The view was slightly blue, and at the same time, the warmth spread through my body.

“Wow,”

Ilyin admired.

If this was a common item, Biflten people might be really different from the capital people.

‘You’re really going somewhere else.’ 

Even if you call it a Principality of Biflten and not a Biflten territory, it was a place that had no exchange with the Empire.

Will I be able to adapt well?

And can I even survive?

There was no one to punish Duke Biflten for not obeying the imperial laws in a strange land even if he lived in the same Empire.

A place practically equivalent to a country of Biflten family.

It’s a place that nobody knows.

Even if the first night was safely played, you don’t know what will happen if you were out of the eyes of Duke of Biflten.

Besides, the Duke of Biflten.

‘Don’t make eye contact.’ 

The word that the nobleman who first made eye contact with the Duke of Biflten died with a stiff body was dismissed as rumors. However, when the knights under that nobleman were also found with stiffened bodies, the keen interest that they had for the Duke of Biflten completely ceased.

Who would want to die out of curiosity?

‘Never make eye contact with him.’ 

He’s the Duke of Biflten, who recruited a bride without caring about the fact that the bride has to carry out the family’s honor. It was unlikely that he would kill the bride by stiffening her body, but I still have to be careful since human affairs are always unknown.

Ilyin removed the blue cloth from her head.

Even though she didn’t know that the carriage was moving fast, her legs trembled.

“It’s all right.”

Ilyin comforted herself.

The dream has not foretold my death yet.

***

The outside of the window turned white. The somewhat unique-shaped carriage continued to run toward the north. In order to run outside of the blizzard, a separate compartment was set up for the cognitive horse seat, and the horse was also armed with protective gear.

“Wow…”

I couldn’t believe it was close to late summer.

A lie like snow blew out of the window as if it was turning the calendar backward, not a wagon to the north.

The white snow brushed past the carriage, drawing white lines, each with its rough shapes.

And the temperature in the carriage plummeted.

I can’t believe I’m getting steam out of my mouth in late summer.

“Huuu.”

I rubbed my hands together and blew my hands to warm it. The hands, which seemed to warm a little as the white steam touched them, quickly froze.

Once again, Ilyin quickly hid her hands on the fabric. Only the inside of the fabric was warm.

Rattle! 

The carriage shook incessantly.

Either I had to fight the cold or fall asleep.

Even if I fell asleep, I quickly woke up. It was so cold that I couldn’t sleep properly. And even the toes froze from the cold.

Ilyin rubbed her legs with her warm hands, pulled out of the fabric.

It was obviously in a blizzard, but the speed of the carriage got faster and faster. There was no sign of the time, and the sun was already buried in blizzards and clouds, and it did not seem like it would rise again.

And suddenly, I passed through the caves.

When I thought I was in the mountains, it was covered with snow and I passed by the place where it was dug like a cave.

“!”

The carriage shook violently.

Ilyin clasped tightly to the wall of the wobbly carriage. The carriage swayed sideways, but it didn’t stop.

What’s wrong with this?

Ilyin turned her gaze outside the invisible windows.

“….!”

At that moment, she couldn’t scream and kept her mouth shut.

Red things were coming in from outside. They didn’t care about the blizzard. The creatures that caught up with the high-speed carriage were all those who ran four-footed.

Monster?

Ilyin didn’t know much about monsters. But even the capital city’s knights may not recognize what those creatures moving at such a fast pace through the blind blizzard was.

“I’ll run fast!”

The rattling sound half-buried the horseman’s voice.

The other half was buried in the screeching sound of monsters jumping.