Ch.14750. Marital Fate (1)

The snow fell more fiercely.

Timewise, it was already close to morning at 6 AM. But the surroundings remained as dark as the deep night.

Our destination was the Snow Woman’s village.

I had already received a map to that place from Maria, the Glass Maiden’s chamberlain. But due to the heavy snowfall and darkness, visibility was practically nonexistent.

‘The map won’t be of much help.’

However, the two of us didn’t have much time.

The final battle of the Three-Nation Allied Forces would take place in Tokyo. Since the rest of Flame would be participating in that battle, we couldn’t stay away from the allied forces for long.

Of course, this wasn’t desertion. We had already obtained permission from headquarters for this mission to awaken the Sage of the East. So we absolutely had to reach that village.

I was a bit worried when we first got out of the car, but finding our way turned out to be surprisingly easy.

After leaving the car, Yuri’s eyes changed. She walked without hesitation along the snow-covered mountain path.

“A journey just for the two of us. Hehe. Without any nuisances like Yeon Soso or Seong Arin…”

Humming a tune, Yuri took my hand and led me forward.

It seemed that Yuri instinctively knew where she needed to go.

‘The Snow Woman’s village, huh.’

I recalled what Maria had told me about that village.

It was the hometown where Yuri’s mother was born and raised. And it was also where Yuri herself was born.

‘Grand Duke Andrei visited this place in his younger days.’

It was about ten years after the Slavian Kingdom had dimensionally merged with Earth. So it was more than 20 years ago.

At that time, Grand Duke Andrei was desperate to seize power within the Slavian Kingdom. So he was establishing connections not only with Korea but also with the power elite in Japan, which was a major power at the time.

That’s why the place he visited for a secret meeting with Japanese politicians was a famous ski resort in Nagano City.

One day, while staying in a VIP room at that resort, Grand Duke Andrei fell for one of the resort’s employees.

That employee was Yuri’s mother, Reika.

Grand Duke Andrei courted Reika earnestly, but Reika was from a rural village far from Nagano City. And she came from a village that placed great importance on tradition.

While marriage to men from outside the village wasn’t forbidden, the villagers would never approve of a relationship with a foreigner, especially an Ailetanian like Grand Duke Andrei.

Reika was only temporarily working outside the village at that time. She was meant to return to the village someday.

Moreover, Grand Duke Andrei was already married with a wife.

‘Yet he still ardently pursued Yuri’s mother.’

Of course, I couldn’t know Grand Duke Andrei’s true feelings at that time. But the Grand Duke, smitten with Reika, remained in Nagano without returning home for a while.

After a month of courtship, Reika finally opened her heart to him.

So they went to Reika’s hometown, Setsu-no-mura, the Snow Woman’s village.

In that rural village, whose name even people from nearby cities had never heard of, the two formed a marital bond.

And the daughter born from that bond was Yuri.

But the Grand Duke left the Snow Woman’s village not long after forming that bond with Reika. He promised Reika that he would definitely take her to the Slavian Kingdom.

However, the Grand Duke didn’t keep that promise.

‘Yuri’s mother… gave birth to her in that village and passed away.’

And later, only Yuri left that village to go to the Slavian Kingdom.

‘When Miss Yuri learned about this…’

Before entering Ains Academy, Yuri had learned about this truth.

Because of this, Yuri developed a deep hatred for her father.

‘From the beginning, Yuri didn’t get along well with the Grand Duke… and the people of the Tarkovsky family.’

Since Yuri wasn’t the daughter of the legal wife, she wasn’t qualified to be an heir.

But with her overwhelming affinity for ice mana, and her genius talent that had been recognized since childhood, she even made Nivis, the treasure of the Tarkovsky family, her own.

Because of her talent, which was on a completely different level from other promising awakeners in the family, she was even called a devil’s child within the family.

‘The Grand Duke is cold-hearted. He’s definitely not the type to be swayed by emotions. He must have been attracted to the special blood that Yuri’s mother possessed. That’s why he had relations with a woman of such low status.’

Maria told me that Yuri had always heard such malicious gossip, even things that shouldn’t be said in front of her.

As a result, Yuri’s relationship with the Grand Duke had become virtually severed.

Even during the strategy meeting at the Three-Nation Allied Forces headquarters, when Grand Duke Andrei was present, Yuri didn’t even make eye contact with him.

I walked alongside Yuri, recalling what Maria had told me.

‘The only person Miss Yuri has truly opened her heart to is you, Min-su Lee. Only you.’

Yuri tightly interlocked her fingers with mine until her cold hand became warm.

***

The snow didn’t stop, but day had broken.

The two of us walked along the deep mountain path and finally arrived at a village. Deep in the mountains where it seemed impossible for people to live.

In the midst of the heavy snowfall, there was Setsu-no-mura, the Snow Woman’s village. It looked like a quiet village from a painting.

“This is my mother’s hometown. It seems we’ve found it successfully.”

Yuri looked at me and smiled brightly. Throughout the journey here, Yuri hadn’t hidden her emotions.

Her feelings for me were overflowing. She tried to embrace me at every slight opportunity.

‘What a change.’

Compared to the cold and sharp Yuri Tarkovskaya from Ains days, her current self was completely different.

If her Ains classmates saw Yuri like this, they would probably be more surprised than seeing the resurrected Chae Min-a.

But I didn’t dislike it.

Maybe it was because of what Arin had told me. Or perhaps it was because of Yuri, who was transforming into a Snow Woman as we approached Setsu-no-mura.

I too was gradually opening my heart as I looked at Yuri.

After all, Yuri was giving me such captivating gazes that even I, who knew her well, was caught off guard.

‘It must be because of her Snow Woman bloodline.’

Pushing aside everything that had happened until now, I was looking at Yuri with the same emotions I had back in our Ains days.

“Mmm…”

As I gazed at her, Yuri leaned into me. Just as she had done several times on our way here, Yuri tried to kiss me.

But at that very moment.

“!@#!@#$#$!!!!”

Someone from the village who recognized the two of us rushed out. It wasn’t just one or two people.

“Tch. Interruptions…”

Yuri’s eyes grew cold as our kiss was interrupted. I quickly surveyed those who had surrounded us.

‘Mana radiation…’

The fact that they were using mana meant they weren’t ordinary rural villagers. And I could feel their wariness and hostility toward outsiders.

I tried to translate what they were shouting at us through the In-ear, but the translation wasn’t working properly, perhaps due to their strong dialect.

Just as I was hurriedly preparing a fire spell, the villagers looked at Yuri and shouted.

“Reika-sama?”

At that moment, their hostility toward us subsided. And they suddenly prostrated themselves before Yuri.

‘What’s going on?’

I was a bit confused for a moment, but at least it didn’t seem like a bad situation. And although I could feel them glaring at me when they rose again, their attention seemed to be focused on Yuri.

That’s when it happened.

An elderly woman, who appeared to be the representative of the group, approached the two of us.

“Are you Lady Reika’s daughter, Yuri?”

Since it was standard Japanese without dialect, the In-ear translated it naturally. Yuri, who could speak Japanese, answered the woman.

“Yes. I am Yuri Tarkovskaya… no, I am Yuri, the daughter of Amano Reika.”

At Yuri’s words, the elderly woman shed tears. And she embraced Yuri.

“Miss Yuri… to think that you would return all grown up like this…”

After the woman, who seemed to be the village chief, cried for a while,

She finally guided the two of us into the village.

***

Yuri and I entered a house in the village.

While it had appeared to be a small rural village from a distance, the place we entered was notably grand and traditional compared to the rest of the village.

Inside that house, I was briefly separated from Yuri. The village chief separated the two of us.

At that moment, Yuri moved her ice mana so intensely that snow began to swirl indoors, but when the village chief carefully said something to Yuri, she calmed down.

‘…I’ll see you later then.’

Her face reddened, and she hurriedly left with the village chief without making eye contact with me.

I was curious about what she had been told.

Soon, a woman approached and guided me to another room in the house.

A woman who appeared to be about Maria’s age, so around her late twenties, introduced herself as Akemi. She could speak Korean.

“You may wash up a bit before we have a meal shortly.”

There was even a separate open-air hot spring inside my room.

Having driven all night and walked a rough mountain path, I did want to wash up quickly.

“I will be waiting. When you finish bathing… Ah! Please make sure to be fully dressed before calling me!”

Akemi emphasized this point strongly.

‘I don’t have a habit of coming out undressed in front of women anyway.’

When I gave her a puzzled look, she waved her hands as if to explain.

“Lady Yuri might become angry… no, upset… no, displeased. Despite the rudeness, that’s why I mentioned it.”

Seeing her reaction, I could understand the reason.

‘Perhaps it’s because Yuri is a Snow Woman.’

When I was guided here, the people of Setsu-no-mura treated me with great hospitality despite their wariness.

Yuri’s mother, Amano Reika, seemed to have held a particularly high status in this village.

Like a lord’s daughter, the villagers’ voices were filled with reverence when they spoke her name. And for Yuri as well.

This place seems to not only have legends of Snow Women but also actually worships such beings.

So the villagers all seemed to understand the significance of Yuri bringing a man to this village.

‘Do they think of me as Yuri’s prospective groom?’

Otherwise, there would be no reason to treat me, who had no connection to this village, with such hospitality, even assigning someone to attend to me.

And the reason Akemi, who guided me, emphasized that I should be fully dressed when coming out was probably because she knew about the intense possessiveness of Snow Women toward their partners.

‘That’s true.’

In this village, it seems to be more than just an old tale. And in reality, Yuri is indeed very possessive of me.

It made sense that Akemi, a woman, was being so cautious.

If Yuri found out that another woman had seen me naked, I was even afraid of how fierce the current Yuri might become.

So after washing up, I changed into a yukata, a traditional Japanese garment. When I came out, Akemi very carefully adjusted only my attire.

“Please follow me.”

I followed her to another room. There, a lavish meal was prepared.

And Yuri, who had also changed into a yukata and put up her hair, had already arrived there.

At that moment, our eyes met.