I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess - Chapter 289



289 – Side Story – A Story About Creating Peace (8)

The next day, Edgar and his wife left their overnight stay and set out to explore the village.

People’s general view of Prutium may be that there isn’t much to enjoy other than hot springs, but surprisingly, this place is also a place with a fairly well-developed food scene.

In particular, street food sold using imperial recipes based on the traditional food of the Karbita people was cheap and plentiful, and most of it was made from wild animals native to the north.

“Does this taste good? “It seems similar to the food you liked when you came to Ardenum before.”

“Right? I was thinking that too. “For some reason, I’m glad to see you.”

Edgar and Ariel were also leisurely walking along the snow-filled streets of the village, each holding a piece of the famous street food in their hands.

The two people carefully guessed that the main ingredient inside was probably wild boar meat.

The food, made with thick meat with a wild texture wrapped in thin blood, was warm because it was freshly made, and it strangely warmed my body every time I ate it, making it perfect for the cold northern region.

“Yah! Stand there!”

“Nah! Try to catch it!”

When half of the food in my hand was gone, I saw a pair of children chasing and being chased, passing without hesitation through the snow piled up between buildings.

While the boy had somewhat dark skin typical of the Karbita tribe, the girl chasing him was a typical Imperial girl with clear and pale skin.

“Ouch!”

“Heh, heh… “Who knows that you can’t catch it?”

In the end, the winner of the chase ended up being a girl, but as the two watched the scene, they were able to realize that the boy had stopped on purpose.

While the girl was panting as if she would stop breathing at any moment, the boy was in perfect health.

An argument began between the two, but the eyes of the passers-by and adults around them were filled with joy. To a third party, it seemed like nothing more than a love fight between dishonest children.

“We had times like that too, didn’t we?”

Similarly, Edgar, who was watching this happily, wrapped his arms around his wife’s shoulders and opened her mouth as if recalling her memories of her, but Ariel’s reaction of her was quite cold.

“It did. Unlike that kid, you were never caught.”

Recalling the chase, Ariel glared at her husband and nervously stuffed the remaining food into her mouth.

In those days, Edgar was much more mischievous than he is now, and even if she was the one to do pranks herself, she rarely suffered any retaliation from her pranks.

Unlike today, when she reached the level of an archmage, her physical abilities also increased dramatically, but at that time, her physical abilities she were not even able to reach Edgar’s feet her her, so her battle of attrition would be fair. There was no way.

Thanks to this, when Ariel was caught by Edgar’s her prank her her her, she would go to Helen with her horns her her her all grown up and tell her her her her.

The problem is that Helen does not interfere at all unless it is too much of a prank that could become dangerous. She only patted Ariel and did not scold Edgar.

Ariel was dissatisfied with that, but now that she understands everything, she feels grateful to her mother.

“If I think about it now, I know why my mom didn’t scold you. If that were the case, you would never have pranked me again.”

“I guess so.”

No matter how much of a friend she is, if she hears a scolding from the grand duke’s mistress, even Edgar can’t help but hesitate in her actions. Even if he did n’t stop, her parents would have come forward and admonished Ariel not to cause trouble for her.

However, that was something that should never have happened to Helen, who wanted the two to be friends, not master-servant.

That’s why she neglected it. I hope that the two people will bicker with each other and grow into a true friendship.

“Ed, why don’t you go up there this time?”

From noble mtl dot come

“Hey, where?”

Ariel, who was momentarily reminiscing about her past and immersed in her memories of her, pointed somewhere toward her, and Edgar moved his gaze to follow her, her hand, her her.

What was there was a pure white snow mountain behind the village. Although it is not very tall, it is still a thankful presence that acts as a breakwater to block the cold winds that visit Prutium.

“On the mountain?”

“Yes, there is something I want to see over there.”

Suddenly, he wondered what kind of mountain it was, but since there was no reason not to go, Edgar decided to go.

The mountain is a place with many memories for both of us in many ways.

Although it is not the mountain behind the neighborhood that we often visited when we played together in Ardenum, we decided to climb it for the first time in a while to feel like taking a trip down memory lane. I was curious to see what the scenery from there would be different.

“Okay, let’s go. Should I go up and get something warm to drink before that?”

“Good.”

So, he went to a nearby store, bought some bangsho to warm his body, and set out to climb the mountain with his wife.

***

Pout. Pout.

Every time we walked down a snow-covered mountain path, a pleasant sound rang out, and each time, a strange sense of touch flowed through the spinal cord of the two people.

It was the first time for both of us to walk in a pure white snow field like this without any human footprints.

To begin with, in Hespania, unless you leave the city, you rarely see snow, and even if you go to other regions, most of what you see is snow fields that have turned black with people’s footprints.

“It’s pretty high.”

When we finally arrived at the observatory located just below the summit, Edgar straightened his back and looked down at the open view of the village.

“Well, if it wasn’t the first place I came to, I would have come to the warp.”

Ariel said, as if she felt sorry for causing her husband to go through such a difficult time on her long-awaited trip, she took out her handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The space movement magic called warp can only go to places you have been to at least once, so it is a pity that you cannot use it in cases like this. Should we at least develop new magic?

“It’s nice to go hiking after a long time, huh? It reminds me of the old days.”

“Well, in the past, we often climbed the mountains together.”

A tomboy princess who often took her childhood friend to the mountains to avoid the guards, and a boy who was always led by the princess’s unruly behavior in her.

For these two people, the mountain is a place that holds quite a lot of meaning.

It was not just a playground, but it also contained each and every one of their memories, and was also a place where someone felt love for the first time in their childhood.

“I’m telling you now, but when I went up the mountain with you on a rainy day and met a wild boar, I really thought I was going to die.”

As Ariel looked around the village in a state steeped in memories, this b*stard’s husband brought up the past history he wanted to hide, as if putting a candle to the mood.

Ariel’s face immediately turned red, not just because of the cold.

“You’re bringing up a story from a few years ago… ! And they said they didn’t take it to heart!”

“Oh, did you? I remember well…”

“Profit… !”

Ariel gritted her teeth as she watched him shamelessly taunting.

At any rate, he clearly remembers what he said. Because this man has that kind of personality to begin with.

But that wasn’t what made Ariel angry. She just hated the idea of intentionally bringing up something that she probably didn’t even know about and trying to play a prank on her by observing her reaction.

“Okay, I’ll stop. “Anyway, why did you ask me to come up the mountain?”

He eventually raised a white flag towards Ariel, who was attacking her with both arms, and asked her why she had belatedly asked to climb the mountain.

To someone who lives Compared leisurely and follows the flow of the river, Ariel does not always act without reason. So she thought there must be some reason here.

“… “I guess I just wanted to remind myself of her will she?”

“Will?”

When Edgar tilted her head, thinking that it was quite an unexpected word, Ariel opened her mouth with mixed emotions, as if she was looking out at the snowy country and village scenery spread out beyond the open field of view, as well as other things beyond the horizon.

“Do you remember what I said the night before the peace agreement with the Karbita people?”

“Remember, someone said that.”

I remembered it clearly without a single mistake.

She said that she hoped there would be a world where everyone in the North would recognize each other’s mistakes and live together without hating each other.

“Honestly, I thought it was impossible. But as I looked at the gradually changing landscape of Hespania and those children, this thought occurred to me. “Maybe it really isn’t that far away.”

“…”

As Ariel said that, a smile of a different kind that Edgar had never seen before appeared on her lips.

As the head of the family and ruler of the North, Ariel has this look and expression when looking at the people she rules. Edgar, who realized this again, unconsciously added the image of her childhood to the person she is now.

“So, thank you, Ed. “For running together for my dream.”

Against the background of the brilliant sunlight flowing from beyond the white mountain ridge, the sight of her expressing her gratitude was so beautiful and sacred that it immediately captured her attention.

But for Edgar, there was just one thing she wanted to correct in her words.

“There is no need to thank me. “I didn’t come here just to help you achieve your dreams.”

“… Then?”

“Well, if I had to express it, it would be that I also ran for my dream.”

I don’t know what other people would think, but at least Edgar thought she wasn’t a very altruistic person.

However, the reason he wanted to pursue her dream and create a world like this together was because his dream ultimately had the same destination as Ariel’s dream of her.

For him, who ran without a goal or an endpoint in his life, the only thing that was important was Ariel.

At first, I wanted to save a girl who had been blindly destined for a bad ending, and then I wanted to support a girl who moved forward steadily while pursuing a somewhat vain dream, and as I spent my whole life rooting for this girl, I fell in love.

Only then did I realize it.

His dreams and happiness had already been entrusted to this girl.

That’s why Edgar never ran to help her dream of others. Because her her dream she she was her her own dream her her her.

“So you don’t have to show gratitude or anything like that. Until now and in the future, we just walk together toward our dreams.”

“We…”

Ariel, who was thinking about the words, muttered, ‘I see.’ And fell into her husband’s arms.

He said he didn’t have to say thank you, but she was thankful just for saying it.

However, since she could not say it out loud, she wanted to express her feelings in this way.

I am truly grateful that you, not anyone else, came to me.

Maybe that was also what Edgar wanted to convey.

“Huh. I love you, Ed. Until now and in the future.”

“I am.”

Ariel conveys her heart her by quoting his words her her her. As if in response, he kissed his lips and looked back at the snow field stretching out in the distance.

I just hope that one day, another village will be created in that empty plain, and that warmth and warmth will gradually come to this cold northern land.

Because that was the life he gained through this woman and her her her her dream her.