Chapter 10 #7
With that, he began to walk back, leading Maxi like a dejected puppy.
Though he usually tried to match her pace, he took his naturally long strides now, practically pulling her along.
She was so busy stealing glances at his face, hoping to gauge how angry he really was, that she did not immediately notice he was leading her away from the great hall.
“A-Aren’t we g-going back to the c-castle?”
“You said you came outside for some air,” he said, leading her toward the stables. “I told you before that I’d take you to the lake when it got warmer. Well, it’s sunny today, so we should go for a ride.”
Maxi beamed, but her smile faded when her eyes fell on his armor. “I-I heard y-you had an intense t-training session today. Sh-Shouldn’t you rest?”
“You underestimate how boundless my stamina is,” Riftan said, shaking his head. “I could march for three days straight without rest and be perfectly fine.”
Recalling the relentless passion that he had shown her almost every night, Maxi blushed. His stamina was indeed extraordinary. Fanning her face with her hand, Maxi followed Riftan into the stable.
Inside, the servants stopped sweeping the floor to greet them with a soft chorus of “My lord, my lady.”
Riftan waved dismissively and walked directly to Talon’s stall. While Riftan saddled his horse, Maxi looked in on Rem. The mare stuck her head over the stall door and pawed at the ground in excitement.
“H-How are you, R-Rem?” Maxi said with an apologetic look as she patted the mare’s neck.
Rem snorted and nuzzled Maxi’s shoulder. Laughing, Maxi gently stroked Rem’s thick mane. Qenal, the stablemaster, appeared with a bundle of fodder on his shoulders and promptly walked over to Maxi.
“Good morning, my lady. Will you be riding with his lordship today?”
Maxi nodded. “W-We plan to go to the l-lake.”
The stablemaster put down the bundle of fodder and deftly saddled Rem, then handed the reins to Maxi. She led Rem outside and met Riftan, who hoisted her onto her horse.
“Don’t ride too fast,” he said. “The wind is cold today.”
With that, he leaped onto Talon and rode toward the back gate. Maxi followed after him, her heart racing in anticipation. She recalled their ride through the meadows and immediately felt her melancholy dissipate.
“W-Where is the lake?”
“Down this path, to the west.” Riftan pointed to the winding path through the forest. Surrounded by bare but densely packed trees, it did not look like an easy ride.
After a brief hesitation, Maxi cautiously steered Rem onto the rough, winding track. They were surrounded by entangled branches, but she managed to keep her balance atop the horse.
Riftan smiled. “You look far more graceful than before.”
“I-I practiced w-whenever I could.”
“Well done.”
Maxi blushed, feeling like a child who was rarely praised. Riftan looked over his shoulder several times, and when he was satisfied that she could keep up, he urged Talon to a slightly faster pace. Maxi tailed closely behind as they galloped down the winding path.
As they rode on, the path grew wider. Soon, a glistening silver lake came into view and Maxi gasped.
The mirrorlike surface of the circular lake vividly reflected the bright blue sky and rust-colored mountain peaks.
Pine trees lined the lake’s edge like clusters of spears, their dense branches thick with lush, dark green needles.
Between the dense trees flitted winter birds, and wild animals drank along the shore.
Maxi had not seen such abundant greenery in a long while, but their horseback approach shattered the picturesque stillness. A stag poked its head out of a bush and darted away, startling a flock of birds into flight.
“I expected the lake to have frozen over, but it looks like I was wrong.” Riftan tapped Talon lightly with his heels and rode to the edge of the water.
“C-Can such big lakes f-freeze over?” Maxi asked as she followed on Rem.
“In the north, lakes even bigger than this freeze solid in the winter. The ice is so thick that people can walk over them.”
Maxi’s eyes widened in disbelief. She had seen only thin layers of ice form in buckets of water that had been left outside. For such an immense body of water to freeze was unfathomable to her…. She looked at Riftan dubiously, thinking he might be poking fun at her ignorance.
“H-How can that be p-possible? W-What if the ice c-cracks and you f-fall in?”
“People do drown from time to time,” Riftan said, as unconcerned as if he was discussing the weather.
Maxi frowned, shaking her head. “Th-Then why would p-people w-walk on the ice?”
“It’s perfectly safe if the ice is thick enough,” Riftan said. “Winters are harsher in the north, so unless a colossal monster like a hydra is hiding below the ice, chances of it breaking are slim.”
“H-Have you w-walked across a lake before?” Maxi asked, astonished.
“Not a lake, but something similar. On a monster raid in Balto—I was still a mercenary then—we had to cross a giant glacier to pass through the Tranoa highlands. It took three days.”
“G-Glacier?”
“Glaciers are blocks of ice larger than that mountain over there.”
Maxi was awestruck. Riftan had experienced so many astounding things in his twenty-eight years of existence. Not only had he defeated the Red Dragon—the most powerful and ferocious monster on the continent—but he had even walked across an ice mountain.
Maxi, on the other hand, had never set foot outside her father’s castle before coming to Anatol.
The simple maintenance of the castle and the most basic magical studies overwhelmed her.
Riftan’s feats filled her with wonder. How magnificent and full of possibility the world must be in his eyes.
To Maxi, he seemed to be an entirely different species.
“H-Have you been t-to all seven k-kingdoms?” Maxi asked.
“I haven’t been to Arex or Sykan,” Riftan said, considering the question. “But I lived in Livadon for about two years when I was mercenary. I ended up as far up as Balto, chasing commissions.
“The money was good there, but the place was practically uninhabitable for humans. So I decided to go down to Osiriya. I was there for three months and participated in a tournament held by the central church in the Osiriyan capital. That’s when it was suggested that I join the Remdragon Knights.
” Riftan cocked his head, reminiscing. “After I returned to Wedon and became a knight, I spent most of my time in Anatol and Dristan.”
“W-Why were you in D-Dristan?”
“Because of the dispute between Southern Dristan and the Duchy of Croyso.”
Located in the southeasternmost part of Wedon, the Duchy of Croyso stretched into Dristan’s territory.
Because of this, there were often armed conflicts on the duchy’s eastern border.
The King of Wedon and the central church in Osiriya always sent knights to mediate, wishing to prevent the conflict from undermining the armistice between the Seven Kingdoms. Riftan must have been among those knights sent to mediate.
“So th-that’s why you visited C-Croyso Castle so often.” Maxi tried to recall scraps of overheard conversations about the Dristan conflicts. Feeling Riftan’s gaze on her, she tilted her head quizzically. “W-What is it?”
“I was just trying to remember if I visited that often.”
“You v-visited at least once or t-twice a month.”
Riftan shifted his gaze away from her. It seemed he did not remember.
Maxi watched his expression, worried that she might have offended him.
He looked distant, as if he were standing alone in some far-off place.
Why wouldn’t he share his thoughts with her?
Did he find spending time with her tedious?
The simple act of his turning away made her uneasy.
Something cold dripped onto the bridge of Maxi’s nose. Startled, she frowned and rubbed it away, then looked up for signs of rain. Just moments ago, the sun had been shining bright. When she saw white flakes drifting down from the silvery sky, her eyes grew wide.
“I suggested coming out here because the weather was good, but it looks like it’s going to snow.” Riftan clicked his tongue in disappointment.
Maxi turned to him with a bewildered look on her face. “Th-This is snow?”
“Have you never seen snow?”
“I’ve seen s-sleet, but I’ve n-never seen proper snow. It’s s-so white.”
Maxi stared as snowflakes floated down like flower petals in a breeze and stretched her hand out to catch them.
“Sit up straight,” Riftan said, frowning. “You’ll fall off your horse.”
“I know, d-don’t worry.”
Maxi closed her fingers over the snowflakes that fell on her palm, surprised to feel how light and delicate they were.
In the blink of an eye, they melted, leaving small droplets on her skin.
That a substance resembling dandelion puffs could transform into water delighted her.
She examined the droplets in wonder, then lightly tapped Rem into an exhilarating gallop.
Rem dashed around the lake at a breathtaking speed, releasing the pent-up energy from weeks inside the stables. Maxi grew giddy as her thighs moved in rhythm with the horse, and she laughed into the wind like a child.
The light, feathery snow soon grew heavy, obscuring Maxi’s vision, and she fell into a trance. It was beautiful, unlike anything she had ever seen before. She tilted her head back, enjoying the sensation of the cold snow brushing against her face.
Sunlight broke through the wispy clouds, and the flakes glistened silver in the light. A pair of birds dove toward the lake’s dark surface, then took off into the forest like arrows.
Maxi took in everything, trying to sear the moment into her memory.
When she looked back at Riftan to thank him for showing her such an exquisite place, the words froze on her lips.
His face looked stern, and he was visibly tense.
There was a deep furrow in his brow, and his dark eyes flickered violently like the ocean in a storm.
Growing anxious, Maxi tightened her grip on the reins. She had no idea why Riftan was looking at her that way. He opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it again without speaking. For a brief moment, he looked lonely.
“We should return to the castle before the snow gets heavier,” Riftan said, returning to his usual purposeful self. He turned Talon around, his face impassive. “The clouds are gathering. Let’s hurry. You’ll grow cold quickly in this snow.”
As he made his way back up the path they had come down, Maxi hurriedly followed after him on Rem.
An uneasy silence fell between them. Maxi wondered what she had just witnessed—Riftan’s unspoken words, his lonely expression.
She shifted her gaze from his broad back to the calm surface of the lake.
A faint reflection on the deep blue water showed her Riftan’s face, and the bleakness there chilled her heart.
It can’t be…
Riftan was the strongest and most daring of knights.
It was absurd to pity him. But what was this desolation she saw in his expression?
As Maxi hastily tried to get such thoughts out of her mind, an eastward wind swept Riftan’s dark hair back and stung her eyes.
Maxi squinted against the gust. In the distance, snow enveloped the mountains in a white haze.
Paxias, the coldest season of the year, wore on.