The thin dress that was connected to the top and bottom in the form of a one-piece dress and the underwear I was wearing underneath were soaked by Kaian’s brute strength and torn in half as if they were paper.
I, who suddenly found my body exposed, froze in place.
“Your body is too cold.”
Regardless of what I said, Kaian placed a large towel on my head and wrapped my body in a blanket.
The Shen River, which had enough water to float a boat, was cold despite the weather in midsummer July.
My body, which had lost weight and was so thin that it was impossible to find any oil, lost its body temperature and vitality in an instant.
Even though my whole body was stiff from the symptoms of hypothermia and my vision kept going dark, I was embarrassed because of what Kaian had done.
Kaian quickly wrapped me up tightly and laid me down on the bed to rest.
As if to prove that this was a pre-planned escape, there were several hot water bags on the bed. As I lay down on the hotbed, the strength left my shoulders that had been curled up so hard it hurt. My body which had been stiff like a block of wood loosened up, and my shallow, rapid breathing gradually became easier.
Kaian had been wearing only pants and a white shirt that the workers had given him because his clothes had been ruined after receiving treatment for his shoulder. He was also soaking wet, so he wrapped a towel over his clothes to keep the water from dripping down, and he put the hot water bags under my armpits and alternately massaged my arms and legs that were stiff enough not to bend.
“Haa.”
Every time the man’s hot, large hands gripped my body tightly, the sensation that had been distant as if I was being sucked into the abyss gradually returned.
“Kaian.”
“Why? Is something uncomfortable?”
I shook my head.
“You’re cold too. Change your clothes quickly.”
Kaian chuckled at my words.
“Seeing you worry about me, I guess life is starting to get better.”
Even if I had ten mouths, I had nothing to say.
“I change clothes and come back.”
Kaian said as he roughly picked up the clothes that were lying around in the room. I asked.
“Where are you going?”
“Isn’t it a bit much to take them off here?”
“Then why am I...”
I turned my head in question and saw my clothes that he had ripped in half.
“This is different. Women’s clothes are hard to take off because they’re wet, so there was nothing I could do.”
“I don’t know what’s different.”
I replied as if I was dissatisfied.
“Change here.”
“...”
“Comfortably.”
Kaian was speechless.
A person suffering from hypothermia loses consciousness.
I seem to be unconscious and don’t remember, but after swimming with him in the river, I started talking nonsense. I had a hard time breathing in the strong current, so I kept apologizing while spitting out the water in my mouth.
Kaian, I’m sorry.
Baby, I’m sorry.
Mom. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you sooner.
Only then did Kaian realize, “Oh no.”
The lake in the backyard of Rowen Castle was not so cold that you could feel lukewarm water with your hand if you touched it.
Given the structure of the castle, it was extremely unlikely that Valquiterre would let them out through the castle gate, so he considered finding the device in the hanging gardens and escaping, and he also considered the fact that Claudel could swim.
He had never seen it before.
If Claudel couldn’t swim, she wouldn’t have been able to swim from Rowen to Valquiterre's ship.
He had thought about that in advance, but he had overlooked Claudel’s physical condition.
The normal function of fat in a human body is to protect the body from sudden temperature changes or shocks by wrapping around the muscles and body.
When Claudel got Herzol, she was so dry that she went crazy as if she was on the verge of collapse after just a few minutes in stagnant water.
Even a strong and large man like Kaian would feel his body stiffen as his limbs became stiff due to the loss of body heat. He frantically swam with his arms and pulled her, thinking that if he didn’t do it right, Claudel’s life might be in danger.
However, when he saw her worrying about him and telling him to take off his clothes instead of being a stranger, he finally felt relieved.
“If you take off your clothes now, you might not be able to bear it.”
Claudel stared at him as he blurted out the words, teasing him a little.
“Keep me warm.”
“...Are you serious?”
Kaian felt a sense of deja vu.
'So this is like asking me to come to the bedroom when she has insomnia, something like that.'
Claudel's words must have literally been asking for him to warm up because she was cold due to hypothermia. It was true that he had a high body temperature.
He almost expected something for a moment, but he felt sorry for himself and lowered the oil lamp a little more, took off his wet clothes, and thoroughly dried the moisture.
Kaian changed into new clothes and went to bed, putting on only his pants and leaving his top behind.
Then, as if she had been waiting, Claudel lifted the blanket that had been covering him and greeted him.
The bed, which had been heated up in advance with boiling water in a leather pouch, warmed his body enough to make him sigh as soon as he lay down.
Kaian felt a little exhausted and tried to ignore the woman in front of him.
The plump lips that had regained their color, or the shadows of the collarbone drawn delicately over the soft, delicate white skin.
"Kaian."
But he had never known that a person’s heart was not always the same.
“Hug me.”
In the past, his expectations had been vain delusions, but now they were different.
Claudel’s hand slowly brushed his cheek lying next to him, then his ear, and then down the man’s tightly connected neckline and shoulder.
“Ha. You really are.”
Kaian hugged Claudel. Just by having her return to him while everything was still a mess, he felt like he had stepped out of the pit of despair that he had no way out of.
***
Claudel. I will lose to you. I can’t hurt you.
I can’t force you to hate me.
I am weak to you.
That’s how it has become.
When the body temperature they had been sharing reached its peak, Kaian let out a sigh onto her chest.
Then Claudel hugged him and whispered in his ear.
Me too.
Me too.
***
Irena and Madame Cronach hurriedly got on the carriage. As soon as the door closed, the carriage moved to the center of the road and mixed in with the other carriages.
Fortunately, the area around Salon Arvo was crowded with nobles from all over the country who had flocked to the capital even though it was late at night due to the chaos of the National Foundation Ball, so they were not particularly noticeable.
“Are you okay?”
“Uh. I’m okay.”
Madame Cronach tried to keep her composure, but her complexion had not been good since she had seen the flare that Kaian had fired a moment ago.
The light he had fired into the air was green.
It was a signal that they would escape from the Hanging Gardens to the river after failing to escape the castle.
Rohan, who had already launched a boat, would have to rush to rescue them, but since it was dark at night and the current of the Shen River was unusually strong, she was worried. As the carriage they were riding on was going down the road for a while, there was a commotion behind them.
As Irena saw the soldiers of the royal palace, clad in yellow cloaks, rushing toward the Salon Arvo, she quickly lowered the window cover.
The carriage, which had been running hurriedly along the capital’s splendid road, soon left the busy streets near the royal palace and arrived at the dock on the Shen River south of the capital.
The ship preparing to set sail was Vermont’s.
“Are you here?”
“Please hurry.”
At Irena’s words, the captain climbed up the ladder onto the ship and looked down at them.
“Come on up!”
Madame Cronach looked at Irena at her urging.
“How grateful am I?”
“Claudel is my sister. You don’t have to be, Auntie.”
Madame Cronach thought that Irena did not resemble the Duke of Vermont.
If not, could that position make a person different?
The position of Lord Vermont, who hid the cold north’s wealth and secrets under the frozen ground?
“Claudel will be safe.”
“I hope so.”
“Be healthy and happy.”
But as she wished her and Claudel well, Irena looked paler and haggard than ever.
“You too. You should be happy too.”
“That’s right.”
Irena smiled bitterly.
“That’s why I’m wondering what to do. Helping my aunt escape might have been the first step toward the beginning.”
It was going against the Duke of Vermont, the great Lord of Valmonde, and the man who was called the King of the North.
Daughters are sometimes ignored as they are moved for the benefit of their families.
Irena thought that it was not entirely her fault after going through this with Claudel.
‘I should have gone to the battlefield instead.’
If that had been the case, the scandalous events that followed, such as Claudel’s marriage and divorce, and the story of her remarriage with her brother-in-law, might not have happened.
She had learned that simply saying “yes” to her father was a virtue, and even though she did so, why did everyone end up unhappy?
“You can do it. Whatever it is.”
The kind and generous words gave Irena strength now.
“Thank you.”
Madame Cronach hugged Irena tightly for a moment.
"Claudel was lucky to have a sister like you. Thank you so much.”
“We must set off. The signal upstream is changing.”
Madame Cronach quickly went up onto the deck as the captain anxiously urged her. The ship set sail as soon as she got on.
Irena sighed as she watched the ship quickly move away.
What was going to happen from now on was no different from war to her.
The ship headed smoothly toward Rowen.
If the ship sailed very quickly, it would have taken four days to arrive.
The captain of the ship was an ordinary person.
The man who was second to none in navigation in the entire continent of Ita, Rohan Hindenburg, decided to sail the ship and the sailors were so shocked that they looked back at the performance of the ship they had worked on, wondering, "Was this ship really that good?"
However, the state of the lady who was taking her was not good, so the atmosphere in the cabin was tense.
Claudel, who had recovered quickly from hypothermia, was unconscious for a day and a half after that night and was suffering from a fever.
Kaian urged the doctor.
"Why won't you wake up?"
Daughters are sometimes ignored as they are moved for the benefit of their families.
Irena thought that it was not entirely her fault after going through this with Claudel.
‘I should have gone to the battlefield instead.’
If that had been the case, the scandalous events that followed, such as Claudel’s marriage and divorce, and the story of her remarriage with her brother-in-law, might not have happened.
She had learned that simply saying “yes” to her father was a virtue, and even though she did so, why did everyone end up unhappy?
“You can do it. Whatever it is.”
The kind and generous words gave Irena strength now.
“Thank you.”
Madame Cronach hugged Irena tightly for a moment.
"Claudel was lucky to have a sister like you. Thank you so much.”
“We must set off. The signal upstream is changing.”
Madame Cronach quickly went up onto the deck as the captain anxiously urged her. The ship set sail as soon as she got on.
Irena sighed as she watched the ship quickly move away.
What was going to happen from now on was no different from war to her.
***
The ship headed smoothly toward Rowen.
If the ship sailed very quickly, it would have taken four days to arrive.
The captain of the ship was an ordinary person.
The man who was second to none in navigation in the entire continent of Ita, Rohan Hindenburg, decided to sail the ship and the sailors were so shocked that they looked back at the performance of the ship they had worked on, wondering, "Was this ship really that good?"
However, the state of the lady who was taking her was not good, so the atmosphere in the cabin was tense.
Claudel, who had recovered quickly from hypothermia, was unconscious for a day and a half after that night and was suffering from a fever.
Kaian urged the doctor.
"Why won't you wake up?"
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