I Picked Up an Abandoned Villain in the Polar Region

Episode 48

***

 

The destination of the yak tribe was the Kelkov Hills, near the border of the Rubinus Wilderness.

Their intention was to spend the coming fall and winter there.

Brody and Kyle decided to accompany the yak tribe to the Kelkov Hills.

Their leader, Ason explained that it would take about a week to get to the Kelkov Hills.

“Both the children and the woman will ride on horseback. The livestock will follow the group, so to herd the goats, you must go to the back and follow behind them.”

And so Kyle separated from Brody and fell to the rear, while Brody went with the women on the horse they had provided.

All the men, including Ason, transformed into black bulls with large horns, carrying heavy loads on their backs like mountains.

“Isn’t it heavy?”

When Brody asked them about the heavy luggage, they laughed heartily and answered.

“We’ve been carrying this all our lives, so how can it be so heavy now?”

As the answer suggested, yaks were exceptionally strong. Even though they were carrying such heavy loads, they walked steadily across the snowy plain.

A long line of herds stretched across the white snowfield while Brody rode in the center of the herd, holding Ron in her arms.

Considering her journey so far, Brody was now living in luxury.

Especially compared to Kyle, who was walking behind them, preventing the goats from going stray.

It was a very comfortable trip. Fortunately, the weather was clear and the wind was just right.

Brody hoped the journey ahead would be just as smooth.

But soon after, unfortunately, her prayers were rejected.

“Waaah…”

Brody heard Ron, who had been in a deep sleep and didn’t wake up no matter how much he moved, crying and quickly looked around to check on him.

“Hello, baby.”

Since he had been sleeping the whole time, it was her first time greeting him up close, so Brody awkwardly waved her hand and said hello.

“Waaah, waah~!”

Ron saw the stranger Brody, twisted his body around violently, and began to cry, almost hysterically.

Brody, who dreamed of an elegant parenting, was greatly embarrassed by Ron’s crying that broke the quietness around them.

“What? W-why are you crying? Baby, don’t cry, okay? Or at least tell me why you’re crying…”

“Whaaa!”

The baby cried louder, as if to say something annoyed him as he couldn’t speak. And Brody’s face turned pale.

“Are you hungry? Then let’s eat, ok?”

Brody opened the bag attached to the saddle and found the bottle of milk that the woman who had been looking after Ron had left for her.

She boiled goat milk in a pot to sterilize it and wrapped the bottle in cloth to keep it from cooling.

But when Brody took out the bottle and tried to feed it to Ron, who was still in a slumped position, the baby just cried, his face red and his body tightly wrapped in a blanket.

Brody, who was sweating profusely while holding onto the bottle and the baby, realized that she had made a huge mistake less than half a day after setting out.

How dare she think of taking responsibility for a baby when she had never raised one before.

If she had known this would happen, she would have looked after the younger siblings of Joshua, the hardware store owner’s son, when he asked her to!

But regret always comes too late.

Brody, who only knew how to adore the baby but was a complete novice when it came to caring for the cute little one, began to feel increasingly overwhelmed.

By this time, Brody was gradually falling into a mental breakdown.

 

***

 

At noon, while the yak tribe was taking a short break, someone approached Brody, who was still soothing the whining Ron, and spoke to her.

“Is it your younger sibling?”

It was a smiling middle-aged woman. Brody remembered greeting her before she set out.

It was Kaira who introduced herself as the wife of the leader, Ason.

Brody replied, blushing, knowing that Ron had been crying loudly the whole time.

“I’m sorry. It must have been very noisy, right?”

“Sorry? It’s natural for a baby to cry.”

Kaira smiled affectionately and asked if she could hold the baby for a moment.

Brody was worried that Kaira would have a hard time holding Ron, but she was so tired that she gave the baby to her.

However, contrary to Brody’s fears, The way Kaira held the child was different.

She carried Ron very comfortably, without even trying to hug him, like Brody did.

And soon after, she figured out why the child had been crying and told Brody.

“Oh my, you must have been really worried that the baby would be cold. You wrapped him up so tightly that he couldn’t even move.”

As Kaira said this, she unwrapped the tightly wrapped blanket around Ron and only then did he stop his crying fit, which seemed like it would never end.

Brody looked at Kaira with a face that looked like she had met a savoir. Kaira smiled and said,

“I’ve had six children, so I know what’s wrong just by hearing the crying. You haven’t fed him yet, have you?”

She even gave Ron some milk and taught her how to feed him while she was at it.

Brody was able to catch her breath after meeting Kyra.

Fortunately, God did not reject her prayers, but rather sent her the Lord of Parenting.

The yak tribe decided on a place to rest and stopped traveling early before the sun set. 

It was because it took time to pitch a tent and build a temporary fence for the livestock.

Brody learned from Kaira how to milk goats and even how to pasteurize the milk so she could feed it to Ron safely.

It was not until late at night that Brody was able to set out to find Kyle.

“Kyle!”

Kyle was sitting near the cattle pen, eating the meat the yaks had brought him.

Brody approached him along with Ron, who was in the middle of digestion.

But Kyle, who was busy eating and said without even looking at her.

“What are you doing out there? Just sleep.”

“We’ve been apart all day. I came because I missed you.”

Brody, sitting next to Kyle, added, handing him a bowl of water.

“Drink some water first.”

“…?”

Kyle looked up at the bowl of water. It was strange that water was suddenly brought to him, when everything was covered with snow.

But he soon drank the water without thinking much about it. It tasted a little strange, but he ignored it.

It was an action that came out of the trust that Brody would not poison him.

He didn’t realize it though.

“By the way, Kyle. You hated taking care of the goats so much, but word got out in one day that you were good at it.”

Brody chuckled, nudging him with her elbow.

He had been so good at his job that Ason asked Kyle, who arrived last with the goats, to guard the livestock fence all night.

According to the yaks, Kyle charismatically led the goats with a grim face because he didn’t want to do it.

Originally, it was said that a group of about five or six dogs would round up the goats as soon as they were set out, ensuring that not a single one strayed off course.

So when Brody heard that Kyle had been getting lots of treats from people, she burst out laughing, thinking that Kyle was cute.

“Really, my honey is secretly cute.”

Brody stroked his fluffy ears and head. Of course, Kyle just growled quietly at the touch.

“Hands off if you don’t want to die.”

“Okay, okay.”

She said okay but she was always the type of rabbit that was good at saying empty words.

Brody looked at Kyle, then leaned back against his chest and laughed.

At that bright laughter, Ron, who was in Brody’s arms, also burst out laughing at her.

“Oh my. Kyle, look at him! He just laughed at me!”

Unlike Kyle, who wasn’t interested, Brody couldn’t help but find it so cute.

Under the night sky filled with the Milky Way, his laughter made her forget the hardships of the day.

Brody opened her mouth, feeling ticklish all over as the three of them sat together like this.

“Kyle, don’t we look like a newlywed couple raising a child? Hehe.”

Brody was bashful and curled up, but Kyle answered her with a cold face.

“You’re the only one who feels that way.”

Of course, she just pretended not to hear the cold answer and asked Kyle.

“Have you ever thought about starting a family?”

“Never.”

“…No, not with me.”

Rather than being offended by his decisive answer, Brody was curious about the future he might have seriously dreamed of.

“You said you liked someone. Haven’t you ever thought, ‘Oh, someday I’ll build a happy family with that person’?”

“I’m not interested in creating a happy family.”

It was a freezing cold answer.

Even though it was a question aimed at Zelda, Brody noticed that Kyle was starting to show his discomfort, so she quickly added something as a joke to change the mood.

“Well, I can tell just by looking at the fact that you don’t care about the baby.”

“What’s the point of caring about something that can’t even talk and just whines?”

“But to be a good father, you have to care.”

Brody blurted out these words without thinking then bit her lips in regret.

What didn’t occur to her was that this advice might sound cruel to Kyle, having grown up without much affection from his father.

As expected, Kyle frowned and reacted sharply when he heard Brody’s words.

“I have no intention of being a good father. To me, children are nothing more than successors.”

Because Kyle’s father only thought of Kyle as his successor, not as his son.

So, just like his father, Kyle had no affection for his family or anything like that.

Even though she knew all this, she felt bad that she had touched his pain for no reason.

Brody stroked the back of his neck carefully. 

Perhaps sensing the regret in her touch, Kyle, who had been clenching his teeth, twitched his ears.

It was only then that Kyle realized that he had been reacting harshly to Brody, who had nothing to do with it.

He felt uneasy, thinking he had made her self-conscious for no reason. 

So although, normally, he would have growled at her for petting him, but feeling sorry, Kyle decided to let her touch him this time.