Chapter 55

The Yesters became more active in the cold, although it felt like there was another reason than that one. Idith swallowed his thought and said with a troubled expression. “But I’m worried that it may harm your health.”

Aden understood his concerns, but it was still Biflten in April. No matter how warm it was, it was still colder than the warm region by far.

Aden shook his head, “I have no intention of lowering it.” The cold of Biflten in April was too cold for Ilyin, who still had acclimatized.

“Your Highness, if you use your divine power like that…”

Aden raised his hand and stopped Idith from continuing. “I understand your concern, but it’s not as difficult to do as you may think.”

Strangely, everything around the mansion was warm, just like Idith’s worry. It was because of Aden’s divine power, but there was no power without consequences. The winter region’s temperature was determined by the owner of Biflten and how well he used that divine power.

An example of the misuse of divine power was the previous duke, who was by far the worst at handling the divine power out of all the dukes in history! And it was suspicious how he’d fathered someone like Aden de Biflten. Unlike him, Aden was known to be the best at handling divine power in all their history. Unfortunately, he was unable to make the entire winter region warm like the sunny lands. The most he could do was make it hotter for a short time in a specific area of the winter region.

When Aden was young, he felt pity for the people who froze to death, so he overused divine power to save others, but he no longer did that. He knew that if he collapsed, the winter region would fall with him. Idith knew that he wasn’t stupid enough to be the kind of person to destroy himself because he couldn’t control the amount of divine power he used. But right now, the winter region was warm as if it weren’t April at all, which was wavering his concrete belief in him.

“Is this April just particularly warmer?” Idith asked jokingly.

Aden was tapping on his desk again. He didn’t use as much divine power to accomplish this as Idith assumed he did. His body still felt light regardless of the higher temperature he’d raised in the area.

At that moment, someone knocked on the office door. Idith looked at Aden momentarily and then opened it. “Your Highness, there is an urgent message from the warm region,” Idith said.

The knight of the Delroses, whose shoulders were covered in snow, bowed before The Duke and then placed a scroll on Aden’s desk. As he opened the envelope with a sharp letter opener, he immediately recognized Milo’s writing. Viscount Arlen’s house wants to trade with Acid merchant, Aden read. He remembered the trouble Milo had caused recently. His subordinate was never someone without wit, but a mistake usually got engraved in one’s mind, and Aden hadn’t forgotten what Milo had done. Aden squinted as he read further. They want to start supplying carrots to the north.

Aden was aware of the carrot crops. Even though he was a winter region person, he was also an owner of an estate and would be in big trouble if he knew little about the current food situation. He knew that carrots were grown in the south. They were a dream crop because they didn’t take much labor and were therefore cost-effective. But because of the freight cost to the north, it was the same as other crops and ended being costly. If the Arlen estate, near the capital, began transporting the carrots to them, it would be a different story.

The problem was that Arlen’s estate was not in the south. Intrigued by the letter, Aden read on. The Arlen estate recently succeeded in growing carrots. I’m trying to confirm this, but meanwhile, they were in contact with other houses in the north. Contacting other families in the north was a given. They were likely thinking of direct trade from the beginning. But then the following sentence caused Aden to frown deeply. It looks like they’re looking for the Duchess. They are only searching in the north, so it seems like they know she came here, but they don’t seem to know where she is exactly.

So, in summary, the Arlen’s knew their daughter was getting married but had ignored this. And they didn’t even pay attention to where she had been heading when she’d left the estate. They wanted to supply carrots but had no connections, so they must’ve thought of Ilyin, who’d gone to the north. It had been a while since Aden had met someone who had such an easy mind to read. Aden put the letter down on the desk and stood up.

“How should I respond?” The knight who delivered the letter carefully asked. Aden raised his hand and stopped him. He knew this was an urgent matter, but he had somewhere to stop by first.

***

“The Grand Master of Delrose?” Ilyin responded as if she were surprised. The entrance of the mansion was guarded by the four houses who took shifts doing so. It seemed like it was shining Elo’s turn, and it was an Elo’s knight that arrived with a message of Aden’s visit. “I will meet with him.”

The Elo’s knight left with a troubled look on his face as he said, “She is on six-floor, in the Delrose’s library.” When the knight disappeared from the library, Ilyin turned to the Delrose maid beside her.

“Was it awkward?” The maid asked.

“No, not at all,” Ilyin replied.

The seventh-floor maids all giggled, and Ilyin laughed with them. It wasn’t a normal situation for the Delrose Grand Master and the Duchess to meet alone. Unless the person who delivered the message was a seventh-floor maid or a Delrose knight, there was some acting required by Ilyin. It seemed like she did better than she’d thought this time. While the maids joyfully neatened her hair, Ilyin sat and wondered what had prompted Aden to contact her urgently in the middle of the day.

Ilyin leaned her head against the backrest of the elegant chair she was sitting on and thought about his arrival. Being the Duke, Aden would come to the seventh floor every night, so there was no reason for anyone to start a rumor of the Grand Master meeting the Duchess in private.

Even though the library was on the sixth floor, the Delrose maids made sure to check the entire floor hallway before Aden came up, including the hallway in front of the library, even though it belonged to the Delrose’s. There were so many excuses they could use to kick all the other family’s people out.