Chapter 10
Barkan stood at the exact spot where the princess had fallen only moments ago, his face drained of color.
The cliff was so precipitously high that he could not even see the bottom. His voice swept through the cliffs, echoing and reverberating back.
Then—
“Huh? Your Grace?”
A voice rose from directly below the cliff, so carefree, bright, and cheerful that it was almost absurd.
Barkan lowered his head farther, and his eyes met the princess’s blue eyes as she looked up at him, pressed flat against the cliff wall.
“……”
“……”
Whoooooosh—!
A fierce northern wind swept between them through the silence.
The princess had not fallen.
She was hanging precariously just a handspan below the edge of the cliff, firmly gripping with one hand a rock that jutted out from the cliff face.
With her other hand, she was pulling up the roots of some unidentified plant growing from a crack in the cliff.
Then she asked,
“Why did Your Grace come all the way here?”
Haah…
A short sigh escaped Barkan’s lips. This should have been a moment of relief, yet for some reason, he felt even more irritated.
Perhaps it was because the sight of the princess disappearing down the cliff had overlapped with memories from his childhood that he would rather forget.
Barkan clenched his molars.
It had been like this lately.
His life had been peaceful, without any particular emotional upheaval, until this princess appeared. Ever since then, his insides seemed to twist several times a day.
Even when the emperor had thrown the princess of an enemy nation at him, he had not felt like this.
And yet, just today, this princess had startled him several times, only to make him angry again moments later.
Barkan’s jaw twitched. With what little patience he had left, he extended a hand toward the princess below.
“First, take my hand.”
What is going on?
Why is the Grand Duke here again?!
“First, take my hand.”
“……”
His large hand reached toward me. Despite telling me to take it, Barkan’s voice was cold, as though he were suppressing something. His jaw was tightly set, and there was undisguised irritation in his eyes.
For some reason, the Grand Duke seemed angry.
Did he find out that I picked a whole bunch of poisonous herbs?
I eyed the hand he had offered warily.
What if I took his hand and entrusted myself to him, only for the Grand Duke to let go?
I glanced down at the cliff below, where the wind was howling.
Indeed…
This is a pretty good place to get rid of a nuisance.
Besides, in many ways, it was more comfortable for me to climb up the cliff myself than to entrust my body to someone else and be hauled up.
After thinking it over, I did not take his hand.
A brief silence passed.
Barkan clenched his molars and spoke again.
“Princess, it is dangerous, so you should come up first—”
Oops. He’s getting angry again.
I hurriedly slipped the roots I had just pulled from the crack in the cliff into the inner pocket of my cloak, hiding them as though I were concealing contraband.
Then I placed the tip of my foot into a crack in the cliff face and climbed upward with practiced movements.
“Up we go!”
With a light grunt, I launched myself over the edge of the cliff and landed on top. I brushed the snow and dirt off my cloak.
Barkan withdrew the arm he had been holding out and stood there, staring at me.
“Have you made up your mind to die?!”
At Barkan’s suppressed, almost strangled voice, I opened my eyes a little wider in surprise.
No, why on earth is he angry?
I looked at Barkan with an utterly baffled expression.
“Die? Who? Me?”
I shrugged.
“Of course not. I’m actually struggling to survive as long as possible, you know…”
“Then why did you jump off a cliff?!”
Barkan demanded with a menacing air.
Ah. Did he misunderstand and think I jumped off the cliff because I wanted to die?
This was a little troublesome.
I had merely seen a new plant growing on the cliff and gotten so excited that I had climbed down a little.
That’s right. I hadn’t jumped off the cliff. I had simply stepped down about a handspan at a time, carefully using the rocks.
Feeling a little wronged, I looked at Barkan, lifted my chin, and said,
“No, I didn’t jump off. I just went down for a little while. And I didn’t die, did I? As you can see, I came back up perfectly fine.”
I spread both arms to emphasize just how perfectly healthy I was.
Even so, Barkan did not seem to have calmed down. Looking at me as though he could hardly believe what he was hearing, he ground the words out between his teeth.
“I suppose they teach royalty in Delmar how to climb cliffs as well.”
I snorted at that.
“Yes, well. Let’s just call it one of my little hobbies!”
“Hobby? Digging through the ground and climbing cliffs?”
At Barkan’s incredulous expression, I grinned and took a step closer to him.
“Yes. A hobby.”
“……”
“Everyone has a hobby, don’t they? Just as Your Grace was so devoted to your hobby of hunting magical beasts that you left the princess of an enemy nation sitting around in your mansion.”
My pointed provocation caused Barkan’s eyes to narrow even further.
A brief silence followed.
Hoo…
Barkan ran a hand through his bangs and steadied his breathing.
Perhaps in an effort to calm his emotions, he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.
Then he bent his massive body toward me and spoke in a low voice.
“Princess.”
“W-Why…”
The shadow cast by his enormous frame seemed to swallow me whole.
Barkan’s voice rumbled in his throat like a growling beast.
“Do not test my patience. Whether you jump off a cliff or throw yourself into a river is none of my concern, but I will not tolerate finding you dead on my land.”
“…No, that’s not why I—!”
I immediately opened my mouth to protest, but—
Whoooooom—!
A low, heavy roar of wind came from deep within the mountain range.
At the same time, the snowfall began to intensify, blowing diagonally through the air.
W-What?!
Startled by the sudden change in weather, I looked around in confusion.
The snow continued to grow heavier, pouring down like a curtain and beginning to block our view.
I hunched my shoulders and looked at Barkan.
“W-Why is there suddenly a snowstorm?! It was clear just a moment ago!”
Barkan swept his gaze across the surroundings, seemingly accustomed to the sudden blizzard, and spoke calmly.
“…The God’s Veil.”
“The God’s Veil?”
“That is why there are so few magical beasts in the Pedrica Mountains.”
Barkan explained that savage blizzards swept through the Pedrica Mountains at irregular intervals, and that they were called the God’s Veil.
“What?!”
I widened my eyes as though I had never heard of such a thing before.
Barkan tilted his head and replied indifferently,
“Isn’t that why I told you it was dangerous?”
“N-No! I thought you just meant that I had to be careful not to freeze to death because it was cold! That’s why I came thoroughly prepared for the weather!”
I had also been told that magical beasts hardly appeared here. And even if one did show up, I had assumed that the knights who had gone ahead would deal with it themselves.
If necessary, I could always climb back down the cliff and hide below.
“But nobody told me anything about a snowstorm like this! I thought it would be safe as long as I was careful about the cold…”
“There is no safe place in the mountains of the North.”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
Good grief.
I pressed a hand to my forehead and sighed.
Then, suddenly, I raised my head and stared ahead at the landscape that had turned hazy white beneath the snowstorm.
“T-Then how are we supposed to find the knights who went ahead? T-They’re all right, aren’t they?”
When I looked up at Barkan worriedly, he turned his head again.
He surveyed the surroundings, looking alternately at the ground and the sky.
“The knights of the Grand Duke’s household are accustomed to the unpredictable environment of the Pedrica Mountains. They are thoroughly trained, and preparations have been arranged throughout the mountains as well.”
“That’s a relief, but… But I’m not!”
I said with a thoroughly miserable expression.
“You said you wouldn’t let me die in the Grand Duchy! You said I wouldn’t end up being found as a corpse!”
In this violent blizzard, I couldn’t even see a step ahead of me! Even if there were preparations in place, how were we supposed to move forward in conditions like this?
Oh, what a miserable fate I have!
I’m going to die in the mountains again!
What kind of fate is this? Why is my life so ridiculously unlucky?!
I muttered miserably, trying to hold back my tears.
Then Barkan took a step toward me.
He looked down at me with his pitch-black eyes, reminiscent of an abyss, and slowly opened his mouth.
“…That’s why I came.”a
