Chapter 55: Winter Flower (1) (1/2)

About 300 years ago, there was a king who was called the Civil Engineering King.

He built a great wall across the northern border to prevent the invasion of the northern barbarians.

It was an enormous and large-scale construction project.

The construction, which began in the fifth year of the Civil Engineering King’s reign, lasted more than 30 years and was finally finished in the third year after the Civil Engineering King’s death.

The northern wall was guarded by the Jackdaws.

However, neither the wall nor the Jackdaws were perfect.

As it stretched across the entire border, the entire wall did not have a uniform height, thickness, and defense.

There was also a limit to the number of Jackdaws, so it was impossible to keep a close watch on the entire border.

Hence, inevitable gaps occurred.

There were areas where the defense was left only to the wall.

“This way.”

It was the very place where Red Wind crossed the border.

Jude followed Red Wind’s guidance without any complaints, while Cordelia dozed off with her head in front of Red Wind as they rode on the horse together.

About half an hour passed again like that.

In a place where human traces were scarce and it was deserted and out of sight, Jude decided to take a break.

“If the patrol passes by, they’ll see our traces.”

Because their footprints could be clearly seen on the snowy field.

But they didn’t worry about that for now.

Jude properly swept the snow under a tree to create a place to sit.

“Cordelia, please.”

“Huh? Okay.”

Cordelia was half-asleep and had a sleepy face, but she sluggishly nodded and heated the water canteen to make the cold water lukewarm.

No matter how infrequent the place was from humans, it was still within the surveillance area of the Jackdaws.

If they started a fire, there was a risk of being caught right away because of the smoke.

“Here, beef jerky.”

“The jerky is hard.”

Cordelia grumbled, but she knew well that they didn’t have much of a choice. After he gave some to Red Wind as well, they started to chew on the beef jerky.

They continued to eat for a long time without saying a word.

Suddenly, Red Wind tugged Cordelia’s sleeve.

“Huh? What is it?”

When Cordelia asked with a smile, Red Wind hesitated for a while as if she was choosing her words, before she spoke again.

“Cordelia, I, curious about one thing, that.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Fack? F*ck? What does that mean?”

“…huh?”

Cordelia asked again with a stunned face, and Red Wind said again.

“Cordelia, often, you say it. Jude and secret words, words of love, that you share.”

It was something that was not in the continent’s official language.

‘Words of love’ that were often used by the two.

When Red Wind carefully listened, ‘f*ck’ was a word that came out very often.

“N-no. Wait, wait a second.”

Cordelia was embarrassed. She was so embarrassed that she didn’t even think about the comment on the words of love.

“H-how do I explain?”

It had been quite some time since the two had began talking in Korean, and her old habit had revived.

Cordelia groaned and looked back at Jude, and Jude replied with his eyes.

‘It’s karma, karma. Who told you to swear so much?’

‘It’s not a curse? It’s an exclamation?’

But it was a useless quarrel.

Cordelia turned to Red Wind again instead of the unhelpful Jude, as she said as calmly as possible.

“That…what ‘f*ck’ means is…”

“Yes, f*ck.”

Cordelia flinched at Red Wind saying that with a smile. It felt like the Red Wind that she liked so much was swearing at her.

“Ah…well, that is. That is…an exclamation.”

“Exclamation?”

“Yeah…exclamation. So cool! Wonderful! Amazing! Well…something like that?”

It didn’t sound like her explanation worked, but when one thought about it, Cordelia had in fact, used that very word for that kind of purpose.

Upon hearing Cordelia’s desperate explanation, Red Wind’s eyes sparkled and then she said with a broad smile.

“F*ck Cordelia. F*ck Jude. Both of you are f*ck!”

Red Wind brightly shouted before she sent an impatient gaze to Cordelia.

It seemed her eyes were asking for an answer.

“Ye-yes…Red Wind is f*ck.”

“F*ck Cordelia, so good, f*ck!”

As Red Wind hugged Cordelia and cursed, or rather, repeated the ‘exclamation,’ Jude finally couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“Kuku…ku…haha, haha…is this karma?”

Although Red Wind brightly using foul language was shocking, it seemed to be helpful in some way.

That way would be Cordelia reducing her use of exclamations in the future due to education issues.

And indeed, when Cordelia tried to exclaim in succession by reflex, she tightly shut her mouth and was in distress.

“Ah, this is so funny. It’s so much fun.”

“Jude, is this funny?”

“Uh, I’m glad that the two of you are having fun.”

Jude roughly evaded Cordelia’s angry look and said to Red Wind again.

“Red Wind, are we entering the valley like this?”

“Yes, but the valley is rugged. It’s narrow. The horse can’t go.”

At Red Wind’s words, Cordelia was surprised as her eyes widely opened, while Jude nodded.

Because Jude had already roughly guessed it.

‘It would be natural as it is a place where the surveillance of the Jackdaws is negligent.’

“Jude, what about the horses then?”

At the same time he was thinking, he heard Cordelia’s voice.

Jude replied with a shrug as they had no other choice.

“We have to release them.”

“They’ll be released?”

“Oh, they’ll become wild horses…or some lucky person will find them.”

Cordelia had a very unwilling expression at hearing Jude’s answer, as she found the fact to be really hard.

“Let’s release them at this point. If we take them deep into the valley, we’ll have trouble coming out too.”

“…I understand.”

Cordelia replied with a gloomy voice before standing up from her seat and releasing the saddle of the horse she had been riding on so far. There was a sense of regret in each of her touch, as if she held a lot of affection for it.

‘Somehow, you’re very affectionate.’

Jude happily watched her before he rose from his seat too, unfastened the saddle of the horse, and brought together their small luggage.

And the time of parting finally came.

Jude and Cordelia made the horses run forward by slapping the horses’ butt.

The two horses began running on the white snow field.

“Farewell, Jude.”

“Farewell, Cordelia.”

The two who spoke at the same time looked back at each other and said immediately again.

“Cordelia? You named the horse Cordelia?”

“Yours is Jude?”

“No, it was a male horse.”

“In that case, me too. It was a female horse.”

Red Wind burst out into a laugh at hearing the two’s words.

“You’re of the same mind. You two. Really f*cking fantastic.”

She had a bright, innocent, and pretty smile.

‘Do something about her.’

‘I-I’ll work hard.’

After finishing their conversation with just their eyes, Jude and Cordelia tried to stop Red Wind who was trying to use her newly learned vocabulary, as they urged her to step forward again.

***

Time had passed.

In the afternoon, the group was able to reach the valley’s entrance after passing through the storming blizzard that started.

“It widens after passing here. Just have to struggle a bit.”

Red Wind said as they passed a narrow path that one person could barely pass through, while Jude wondered if they should camp-out tonight or move overnight.

And Cordelia suddenly stopped.