Chapter 27
Kaylen walked to his desk, unlocked a drawer, and took something out. He approached me and held it out.
“What… is this?”
“Open it.”
It was a leather document case. When I untied the tightly wrapped cord, inside were several papers and a key.
“Your dowry from your parents, and a small amount of money and jewels from His Majesty the Emperor.”
I quickly checked the amount. My eyes instantly grew hot.
They must have pushed themselves so hard to prepare this…
The dowry was much larger than I expected. Knowing the financial state of Baron Rudd’s family, the amount in my hands felt overwhelmingly heavy.
Are they doing well? Dad isn’t crying again… right?
I held back the tears forcing their way out and gently touched the edge of the leather case.
“The deed for the mansion the Emperor gave you can’t be exchanged for cash immediately, but I brought the jewels just in case. You can sell those first.”
“I’ll… use it well.”
I put the documents and keys back into the leather case. As I stood and bowed to him, preparing to leave, Kaylen called out to me.
“Caspian is heading to the capital tomorrow. If you wrote a letter to your parents, ask him to deliver it.”
I take back what I said about him being insensitive just because he didn’t greet me earlier.
I sniffled and nodded.
A few days later, a reply from my parents arrived, as if they had been desperately waiting.
The thick envelope was filled with worry—wondering if I was surviving in such a cold region, if my health was holding up, if I was eating well.
The knitted scarf they sent had loose holes everywhere, so it was clearly handmade by Mother.
Thinking I should write them more often, I touched the scarf when Mia peeked in after knocking.
“Your Grace, are you busy?”
“No. Come in.”
Mia smiled, freckles rising on her cheeks. She added wood to the fireplace and tidied the room, then brought me the torfaz heater my father had sent.
“If you leave this lying around like that, the Baron will be heartbroken.”
Ah. So that’s where it was. No wonder I couldn’t find it.
I smiled sheepishly at Mia and held the heater tightly. Warmth spread from my hands throughout my body.
“Will you be in the office all day again today?”
Mia asked with concern. Ever since arriving at Winterford, I had only gone back and forth between the office and my room.
Whenever I worked late, buried in documents, she panicked as if I would collapse any minute.
“Huh? No, not today. I have somewhere to go.”
I stood and clenched my fist with determination.
After placing orders for necessary repairs and paying the overdue wages, the dowry I brought was nearly gone.
“I need a source of income… somewhere.”
“Pardon?”
Mia tilted her head at my muttering.
Winterford was poor and sparsely populated—of course the taxes collected would be low. I racked my brain for ways to earn income in such a cold, resource-scarce region but found nothing.
Then, one day, a piece of news reached me: Kaylen was going to scout the villages near Winterford Castle.
And today was that day!
I nodded at Mia with a grave expression and ran to Kaylen’s office.
“Take me with you.”
Kaylen’s desk was in a worse state than mine.
The previous lord had left mountains of useless documents. They were so bad that it was impossible to tell what was accurate or not. They had decided to rebuild instead of simply renovate.
Kaylen lifted his head from the huge piles of paperwork.
Yesterday Dylan had even gotten a nosebleed from overwork, but Kaylen—buried in even more work—didn’t even have dark circles.
Ah, so this is why he’s the male lead.
Avoiding staring at his handsome face, I continued glaring at the documents about Winterford’s traditional festival when he spoke.
“Why do you want to come?”
Managing the territory was his responsibility. Managing the castle was mine.
But if I wanted to fulfill the promise—making him emperor within a year—Winterford needed to stabilize as soon as possible.
I didn’t even hope for development. Just stability! Yes, just stability.
But after seeing how bad the situation really was, my resolve wavered.
Maybe I should change it from one year to two…
I wanted to tell him, “Sorry to change my words again, but I’ll divorce you in two years instead of one.”
There were too many things to fix, and many required time.
But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. My pride wouldn’t allow it. And I didn’t want to break that pride—not yet.
“I have a lot of things I need to understand for my own work. And, you know, there’s a saying: ‘Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.’”
“Seeing what?”
Ah, crap. I messed up again.
Lately, I kept accidentally saying Korean phrases—words that didn’t exist in this world.
I thought I was being careful…
“Ahem. It’s a saying from a distant eastern land. It means that seeing with your own eyes is better than hearing something a hundred times.”
Kaylen stroked his chin with his finger while staring at me, then nodded.
“We leave this afternoon. Get ready.”
I threw an invisible fist into the air.
Only the minimum number of people were taken for scouting.
The village we were visiting today was about 15 minutes away by carriage. I thought a village near the lord’s castle would be fairly large, but when we arrived, the scene made me rub my eyes.
A tiny, shabby village with fewer than thirty houses. Not a single person walking outside.
Smoke rose from some chimneys, so people were clearly inside—but not even an ant was visible outside.
The carriage stopped in what looked like a town square—though it was more of an empty, barren lot.
“According to old records, this used to be a fairly large village about 30 years ago.”
“Then why did it become like this?”
At Kaylen’s question, Dylan flipped through some documents and adjusted his crooked glasses.
“They all ran away from the lords.”
Kaylen turned to look at Dylan. He continued:
“Ever since this became imperial territory, the lords of Winterford were always greedy. If you look even slightly into their history, you can see how severely they exploited the villagers. That is why people left, as far away from their lord as they could.”
Powerless commoners who had everything taken while being unable to speak a word in protest…
I imagined people leaving the homes their ancestors had lived in for generations. My fists tightened.
At least in Korea, even if politics were awful, you could change leaders every 4 or 5 years.
But these people had to suffer under a bad lord for life—generation after generation.
My chest tightened painfully.
Dylan looked out the opposite window.
“We informed the village chief that the Grand Duke would visit… but it seems everyone has hidden inside their homes.”
As Dylan explained, Kaylen opened the carriage door. After getting out, he put on his gloves and scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes.
I followed him out. Dylan took out a map and pointed to the largest house.
“That should be the village chief’s house.”
Dylan started walking first. Caspian jumped off his horse and followed.
I tightened the scarf my mother knitted and walked quickly after them, when suddenly—
Thwack.
A snowball flew out of nowhere and hit Kaylen’s thigh. It happened in an instant.
The next snowball struck his chest.
Caspian, walking ahead, immediately threw himself toward the direction the snowballs came from. But the third snowball was faster than him—or any of the knights.
Thwack!
It was bigger than the first two, making a louder hit. And instead of hitting Kaylen, it struck my head because I had stepped in front of him with my arm outstretched.
It dropped to the ground with a splat.
“Y-Your Grace!”
A knight ran toward me in panic.
