17. The Effects of Heavy Snow (1)

The imperial palace, the tallest building in Phaesle.

Perhaps because it could be seen from anywhere in the capital.

It felt as if eyes were attached to the top of that tall tower, following and watching Saena’s every move. Even after leaving the imperial palace, she felt that gaze continuing to follow her.

The sticky, uncomfortable feeling didn’t improve even after arriving at the townhouse.

“Prepare the carriage!”

This wasn’t the time to be alone in the capital. She needed to go to Delvon.

She wanted to physically distance herself from the Prince, and rather than agonizing alone, she wanted to confide in and rely on her family.

In the time that was now erased, Saena had done exactly the opposite.

Having had her debut meant she was an adult, so she thought she needed to solve problems she caused by herself.

‘And it ended in complete failure.’

She wouldn’t do that this time.

Even after her debut, she was still eighteen. She was nothing more than a clueless child — why had she thought she needed to handle everything alone back then? She didn’t want to walk alone again through that anxious, hopeless time.

Most importantly, she really wanted to avoid situations where her entire life could be shaken without her consent.

‘It’s not like my family would have praised me for handling it that way anyway.’

Rather, they had been furiously angry. Her misfortune seemed to make the rest of her family miserable too. It had been a completely wrong decision.

“…Why is the weather like this today.”

Perhaps because her heart felt anxious and desolate. The weather seemed gloomy too. The wind was strong enough to shake the heavy carriage, and the day was dark.

“You’re right. The weather looks ominous. We should hurry. Hya!”

Though it had just been a bit cool in the morning, dark clouds were rapidly gathering as soon as afternoon came.

‘Maybe I should have gone tomorrow.’

She had rushed out because what happened at the imperial palace was too strange, but she had a bad feeling about this.

It would be more troublesome if the sun set. Sensing something wasn’t right, Rupert whipped the horses to increase their speed.

Clop. Clop clop clop.

Despite their hurry, rain began to pour. The sound of raindrops hitting the roof was loud.

“…Now it’s raining too.”

When she heard the rain, Saena slightly opened the carriage window to check on Rupert.

“Sir. You don’t have a raincoat, will you be alright?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not like we skip training on rainy days anyway.”

Though his cloak seemed to be somewhat waterproofed, his head was completely exposed to the rain.

“I’m more worried about your gift getting wet and ruined.”

Now that she looked, Rupert was wearing the fibula Saena had given him. The sparkling ornament suited him well.

“Would it really be ruined by this? Don’t worry, it doesn’t seem to be made of material that would rust.”

“I meant this.”

Rupert showed her the tassel decoration dangling from his sword tip.

“Ah.”

She had bought that too.

But then Rupert suddenly started to untie it.

“…Sir?”

“I’ll put it back on when the rain stops.”

Then he carefully folded the tassel decoration and tucked it deep inside his clothes.

“…That seems unnecessary. It’s just decoration.”

“It’s a gift you personally chose, Miss. This much is only natural.”

“Hmm. Are you using your other gifts well too?”

Saena playfully asked, obviously referring to the ointment.

“The grindstone? Yes. That was quite good.”

“……”

Ah, right, there was a grindstone too.

Saena felt embarrassed and thought she should stop there. But Rupert smiled knowingly and said,

“The lady seems very interested in men’s behinds.”

“……What?”

He chuckled at Saena’s shocked expression and pointed to himself.

“Can’t you tell from how I’m riding?”

Ah, it was a joke.

Either the ointment worked well, or his gluteal muscles were very strong. Either way, that was fortunate.

“More importantly, I’m worried this isn’t just a shower.”

Rupert expressed concern while checking the sky. As expected, the entire sky was so gloomy it didn’t look like rain that would pass quickly.

“Whoa– Whoa–”

Rupert ordered the horses to slow down, worried they might slip on the increasingly muddy ground. Meanwhile, the raindrops grew heavier.

“Rain is getting in. You should close the window.”

Even though it was only slightly open, the raindrops were so thick that water was seeping in and streaming down below the window. Saena acknowledged and closed it.

Swoosh–

But the raindrops grew even heavier. Now the rainfall was practically pouring down, making the view ahead hazy. The carriage slowed even more.

‘…Should we keep going?’

If this had happened right after they departed, they would have turned back, but enough time had passed to make it awkward.

Just as she could clearly feel the temperature dropping inside the carriage, perhaps due to the humidity…, something that sounded like stones hitting the carriage roof.

“What, what is it? Sir?!”

Thunk! Thud!

The loud noises grew louder and more frequent.

“It’s hail! Don’t open the door!”

Hail? This is the sound of hail? It’s like someone dumped a basket full of stones from the sky!

The hailstones must have been huge, as they not only made sounds loud enough to shake the entire carriage but seemed ready to pierce through the roof.

“Miss! Absolutely do not come out!”

Thwack! Thwack! The vibrations resonating through the entire carriage were almost enough to give her goosebumps.

If a person got hit, it seemed like they could be seriously injured — was everything alright outside?

“D*mn it!”

Just as she worried, she heard Rupert curse.

“Sir! Are you alright?!”

“Don’t open the window!”

But he prevented her from even opening the window to check on him.

“I’m fine! Just don’t come out!”

She heard alternating sounds of things breaking, crashing, and horses neighing.

What was this sudden chaos?

While wondering if they should turn back now, Saena thought she should ask Rupert. Just as she was about to speak…

Neeeigh–!

A horse’s scream-like neigh rang out loudly, then the carriage suddenly tilted and lurched violently.

“No!”

“Kyaa!”

Saena and Smila inside also slid in the tilting direction and crashed hard.

“Ah!”

“Smila!”

While Saena was stuck against the wall trying to recover, Smila was thrown out through the door that had opened from their collision.

“Sir! Smila! Please help!”

Saena shouted while barely hanging onto the tilted carriage wall.

“Hya!”

Rupert quickly dismounted and approached.

Having lost her balance and been thrown out, Smila was completely soaked from rolling on the ground. The rainwater from earlier was in a half-frozen state, making the ground completely wet.

Rupert helped Smila up, but with her clothes wet from the suddenly dropped temperature, Smila’s face began rapidly turning blue.

“Here! Wrap this around!”

Saena searched the carriage interior for anything to wrap around someone. Fortunately, there was a shawl and a knee blanket.

“Th-thank you….”

Smila’s pronunciation came out shaky, as if her mouth had frozen. Understandably so. The cold wind blowing through the open door was unbearably frigid.

If anything was fortunate, the hail that had been pouring down madly for a while had stopped. Though it seemed the temperature had dropped further, turning it to snow.

The hail had transformed into large snowflakes, as massive as the hailstones had been fierce. Moreover, it was accumulating so quickly you could almost hear the sound of it piling up softly.

“This keeps getting worse.”

Rupert explained the current situation.

Saena had been riding in a two-horse carriage. One of the horses pulling the carriage had taken a direct hit from the hail and fallen, breaking its leg. The impact had sent the carriage off the road into a ditch, breaking the wheel spokes.

“The condition of the wheels aren’t  good, and it’ll take double the effort to run through the snow. We should abandon the carriage and ride on horseback.”

He said they would likely become stranded if they delayed trying to take the carriage, given how alarmingly fast the snow was accumulating.

“We should head back toward the capital, Miss.”

“Is that direction even slightly closer?”

“Yes. It would be better there for getting help if something happens, and snow removal will be more active there too.”

“Alright. Let’s do that.”

We should hurry back, if only for Smila’s sake.

Saena searched the carriage and gathered everything that could help with cold protection, distributed them, then mounted the same horse as Rupert.

The coachman and Smila rode the uninjured horse separated from the two-horse carriage, and the group began retracing their path. Sadly, there was nothing they could do for the horse with the broken leg.

Snow poured down as if being dumped from the sky. Even the snowflakes that had looked fluffy quickly became heavy obstacles when falling all at once.

Such a sudden heavy snowfall…..

‘The weather seems to have been quite erratic since last year. I wonder why……’

She suddenly remembered what her nanny had said. Saena hadn’t known since she was in a coma, but there had been unusually frequent weather anomalies since last year.

Strange droughts during the rainy season, sudden downpours during the dry season, unprecedented heat waves. Moreover, temperatures fluctuated so extremely even within a day that many people caught colds.

‘Is today’s weather another anomaly……’

This hadn’t happened in the years when she was eighteen and nineteen that were now erased….. Something felt strange.

“We must hurry.”

The group turned their horses toward the capital. Though they urged the horses on, breaking through the snowfall wasn’t easy.

‘Of all places to have an accident….’

The capital, Phaesle.

It had the typical geography with large mountains to the north and a river flowing to the south.

The Debov territory was located west of Phaesle, with the end of the northern mountains at its border.

To leave the capital, they had to pass through a forest path that spread quite widely due to the influence of those mountain slopes. Though it was a forest path, it was fairly well-paved being near the capital and was a frequently used route as the shortest path.