* * *

The carriage carrying me, Sir Penadel, and Leo traveled for three straight days.

Fortunately, there were fairly large villages in between, so lodging wasn’t an issue.

To prepare for any potential dangers, we hired a few reliable mercenaries introduced by Terry.

Although one might get bored being only inside the carriage, Leo couldn’t take his eyes off the window, fascinated by the scenery outside that was gradually turning white.

Everything was perfect.

If there was only one problem in this perfect journey…….

“Sir Penadel.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any complaints about me?”

“Not at all.”

Sir Penadel was strangely keeping his distance from me.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but he was extremely avoiding any contact with me.

In the past few days, I hadn’t even received his escort when getting into the carriage.

I glanced at him with suspicious eyes, then quickly turned my head towards the window as if I had lost interest.

The carriage wasn’t small, but due to Sir Penadel’s large build, our feet were almost, but not quite, touching as we sat facing each other.

The moment his head turned towards the window following mine, I slightly extended my foot forward.

Naturally, there should have been a ‘thud’ as our feet touched, but Sir Penadel avoided contact by slightly shifting his foot without even looking at me.

‘Oh really?’

I felt a bit stubborn and this time, like a lioness stalking her prey, I raised my foot and aimed to stamp down hard on his instep.

Sir Penadel once again elegantly avoided my attack with minimal movement.

Look at this, treating me like a germ while claiming he has no complaints!

“Sir, don’t avoid it.”

“Does that mean you want me to let you trample my foot, My Lady?”

Well, that’s not it… Okay, I was a bit aggressive.

I cleared my throat and elegantly extended my hand as if requesting an escort.

“Hand.”

Somehow it came out sounding like I was training a dog, but Sir Penadel silently extended his hand.

“……?”

Everyone, don’t be fooled. There’s space under Sir Penadel’s hand!

His hand was slightly hovering, barely touching the tips of my fingers.

‘Did I really get some filth on me?’

As I tried to grasp Sir Penadel’s hand firmly, he annoyingly slipped it away, once again avoiding contact with me.

I can’t take it anymore.

I spoke to Leo, who was now watching us with an excited expression instead of looking at the scenery outside.

“Ratchet, cover your ears and close your eyes for a moment.”

“Yes!”

Leo immediately covered both ears and tightly shut his eyes without asking why.

As soon as I confirmed this, I grabbed Sir Penadel’s collar to prevent him from escaping, pulled him towards me, and growled.

“What exactly is the problem?”

Sir Penadel’s eyes behind the mask briefly rolled away from me at this close distance.

Oh really? Look at this!

You should at least explain why you’re acting like this!

As I stared persistently, Sir Penadel finally restored his eye position and muttered as if he had no choice.

“……It doesn’t seem proper……”

“What……?”

“It doesn’t seem proper to casually touch a lady.”

The man who freely grabbed my chin the moment we first met is now preaching about propriety.

I lost the strength to argue back at such an absurd answer.

I sighed, gently patted and smoothed out his crumpled collar that I had grabbed, and then spoke.

“Sir, you’re allowed to be rude to me. So.”

After giving his chest a light push to make him lean back against the seat, I concluded.

“Cross the line, as much as you want.”

“……”

He should understand after being told this much.

I gently tapped Leo’s shoulder, who still had his eyes and ears tightly shut, to signal that the matter was over.

Leo opened his eyes and looked at both of us alternately with sparkling eyes, then carefully asked.

“So, who won?”

Won?

“The staring contest. You two were having a staring contest, weren’t you?”

Ah, so that’s how it looked to Leo.

The answer came from Sir Penadel’s lips.

“I lost.”

Saying that Sir Penadel slightly opened the carriage window to cool his face in the cold wind.

As if he was very frustrated about losing.

* * *

The capital city Monteo had a relatively warm winter, making it difficult to see snow.

Therefore, as far as Leo could remember, he had never seen a snow-covered landscape.

So when they arrived at the snow-covered Chavert Forest in early winter, he opened his mouth in awe.

“The whole world is white.”

Carefully stepping out of the carriage onto the snow-covered ground, there was a crunching sound like biting into lemon sherbet.

Somehow, that sound made Leo’s heart pound, so he walked carefully on the snowy field.

Leo waddled like a penguin, wearing three or four layers of clothes, topped with a white fox fur scarf, a thick wool hat, and fur boots.

Belinda, who was etching this adorable sight onto her retina with wide eyes, suddenly felt mischievous.

“Ratchet, have you ever eaten snow?”

“No. Can you eat snow?”

“People in the capital don’t know this because it doesn’t snow there, but snow is actually a special delicacy. It’s sweet like sugar.”

“Really?”

Leo’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the snow-covered field in front of him.

The snow reflecting the sunlight and sparkling did seem to look like sugar.

“Look, doesn’t it look just like sherbet?”

Leo nodded quickly.

On the day he first ate sherbet, he wondered how they made such lemon snowflakes, and now it seemed the secret was being revealed.

‘So sherbet is made from snow.’

Leo licked his lips and carefully scooped some snow from a small conifer tree onto his gloved hand.

And the moment he stuck out his tongue to lightly lick the snow.

“……!”

He realized he had been tricked.

“Y-You’re too much!”

“I’m always too much.”

Belinda replied coyly and extended her hand to Leo.

Thanks to the daily hugging training, Leo had become accustomed to physical contact with Belinda. He pouted his lips and held Belinda’s hand.

* * *

Although escorting nobles was a lucrative job considering its dangers, most mercenaries were reluctant to take on such tasks.

Mercenaries were generally aggressive and preferred to risk their lives hunting monsters rather than bowing down and catering to the whims of nobles.

Hammer, the leader of the Hammer mercenary group, felt the same way.

Even though it was Terry’s introduction, he didn’t want to earn money by throwing away his pride.

“We may not have money, but we have our dignity!”

…But it was too much money to refuse like that.

However, the job they took, selling even their dignity, wasn’t as grueling as they thought.

No, it was rather satisfying.

Despite the notoriously bad rumors about the client that had made them extremely tense, Belinda showed little interest in the mercenaries.

But she didn’t completely ignore them either, remembering to provide excellent accommodations and meals for their convenience.

Moreover, the best perk of this mission was…

“Mr. Hammer, have you ever been to the sea? Belinda told me that seawater is extremely sweet.”

Even his footprints in the snow were endearing—watching the young master’s every step.

The child, who was accompanying this trip in the strange position of the client’s prospective servant, mingled freely with the mercenaries, melting the fierce faces of the sturdy men.

“Yes, now that you mention it, I think I heard somewhere that people living in ports use seawater instead of sugar when making desserts.”

Leo’s serious expression finally crumbled at the mercenary’s response.

‘So seawater really is sweet.’

Leo nodded, recalling what had just happened.