I Picked Up an Abandoned Villain in the Polar Region

Episode 76

 

Is he pretending not to remember? But for someone pretending, he looked far too confident. He really seemed like someone who genuinely had no recollection.

Brody stared at the closed bathroom door with a bewildered expression.

She wondered if Kyle had been drunk the night before.

‘He did have some alcohol with dinner,’ she thought.

But not enough to get drunk. Besides, if he had been intoxicated, the effects should have shown immediately after drinking. Yet Kyle had been perfectly composed until he went to bed.

In other words, his actions last night weren’t due to drunkenness.

But then why had he, seemingly out of nowhere, turned into a maddened beast and attacked her? 

The unanswered questions from the night remained a mystery. And as she recalled the events, Brody felt her face heat up.

“**** wolf,” she muttered to herself.

“Causes chaos in my life and acts like nothing happened.”

“…”

But Brody’s anger didn’t last long, and soon she shrank into herself.

Upon reflection, if Kyle truly didn’t remember last night’s events, maybe it was better to leave things as they were.

If he remembered, he might recall how she had pushed him away in embarrassment—and that was mortifying to even think about.

Eventually, Brody decided to let the matter rest. The thought of Kyle possibly finding her ridiculous made her want to die of shame.

A short while later, Kyle exited the bathroom after washing up.

The two silently agreed to pretend nothing had happened and packed their belongings to leave the room.

As they made their way down the creaky hallway to the first floor, the innkeeper greeted them.

“Did you sleep well last night? You both look tired. I even lit a special candle to help you rest—”

The innkeeper couldn’t finish his sentence when both Kyle and Brody, who were too embarrassed to respond, walked past him as if they hadn’t heard anything.

After finishing breakfast in the inn’s dining room, they avoided the overly jovial innkeeper, left the establishment and crossed the border leading from Quis Village to the plateau of Erbe.¹I have fixed the name in the previous chapter.

The plateau of Erbe was bordered by the Elos River and marshes to the east and flat highland plains to the west. Unlike the infertile land under Rubinus, the area was lush and green all around.

“Let’s not go through the plateau,” Kyle suggested.

Brody, checking the map, shrugged.

“Makes sense. Whether we cross the plateau or go around through the eastern forest, it takes about the same time.”

She then pointed toward the forest by the Elos River.

“But I don’t think we can completely avoid the plateau. The eastern forest has marshes with aggressive crocodiles, according to the map. If we don’t want to become crocodile food, we’ll have to skirt the edge of the plateau.”

Kyle, staring warily at the plateau, glanced reluctantly toward the eastern forest. Between the two dangers, it seemed skirting the plateau was the lesser evil.

“Let’s do that,” he agreed.

Once they passed the Erbe plateau, they would head through the black bears’ domain near the slopes of Alcamon, finally reaching the Roden Valley.

The journey was nearly at its end.

Having settled their future route, they transformed into their wolf and rabbit forms.

Free from the cumbersome human body that made travel difficult, Kyle stretched his front legs and let out a deep sigh.

“Ah, I feel so light! I love this!”

Kyle looked over to see a white fluffball hopping excitedly through the green grass, squealing with delight.

“It’s so freeing! I love being light! Wheee!”

Brody, who was in her rabbit form, was leaping and twisting in the air, clearly ecstatic.

Kyle couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of the overly excited rabbit.

Despite everything, he was glad to see her in this form again. Watching her do backflips and rolls nearby, a small smile spread across his face.

“Are you that happy?”

“Yep!”

The playful rabbit jumped into the air and body-slammed Kyle, who pretended to fall over.

Brody laughed gleefully as she nudged against his side.

The lush green meadows stretched before the rabbit and wolf as they journeyed toward the long-desired summer lands.

After their playful antics, Brody leaned against Kyle, catching her breath.

She lifted her head to see him gazing toward the plateau. His eyes, tinged with caution, seemed lost in thought.

Brody had a sense of what was on his mind—his uncle, Fabian Erbe.

Fabian Erbe: the man who had lost the throne to his younger brother and was exiled to the northern plateau.

Meeting him here could spell trouble. Fabian likely still resented the brother who had taken everything from him. If he found out Kyle, his nephew, was passing through his lands, he wouldn’t let it go.

This was why Kyle had suggested avoiding the plateau earlier—because Fabian’s forces resided there, and he wanted to avoid a confrontation.

But Brody had a small source of reassurance.

In the original story, Kyle had safely passed through the Erbe plateau and reached the Roden Valley.

That meant the journey wouldn’t face any major disruptions here.

Recalling the calendar she had seen at the inn, Brody realized there were only two weeks left until the festival in the Roden Valley.

At their current pace, they would arrive in about a week. Then, just as in the original story, Kyle would prevent the tiger clan’s attack during the festival.

Feeling the reality of the journey’s end, Brody turned to Kyle, who remained deep in thought.

The closer they got to the Roden Valley, the nearer the day of his reunion with Zelda would be.

Brody let out a quiet sigh as she watched Kyle, who still seemed like an impregnable fortress.

It felt like he had opened his heart to her as a companion, but romantically? She wasn’t so sure. As for what happened last night, it seemed he hadn’t been in his right mind.

‘Does Kyle still love Zelda?’ she wondered.

The answer was obvious. Of course he did.

Brody scoffed at her own question.

He wouldn’t be traveling to rescue Zelda if he didn’t love her. The realization weighed heavy on her heart.

After all the effort she had put in, she hadn’t been able to sway his heart in the months they’d spent together.

For a moment, she felt a twinge of resentment toward Kyle, who seemed to care only about Zelda. But before she could fully process her feelings, Kyle called out to her.

“Done playing around? Let’s get moving.”

When she looked up, Kyle was urging her to get up.

Brody stared at him for a moment before brushing herself off and standing.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

No matter what she felt, their journey wasn’t over yet. They had to keep moving.

The two passed through the meadow and entered the eastern forest, filled with towering trees and thick shrubs.

Kyle remained vigilant, carefully guiding Brody forward. Even so, he occasionally glanced toward the Erbe plateau with a mix of wariness and curiosity.

It was his first time seeing such a flat, expansive highland, almost like an overturned bowl. Having never been allowed near Erbe’s lands before, the sight was unfamiliar to him.

But even as he marveled at the terrain, Kyle didn’t let his guard down.

Having grown up under his father’s warnings that his uncle would kill them on sight, the mere thought of his uncle—someone he had never met—filled him with unease.

If, by some chance, they crossed paths here… would his uncle kill him?

Kyle thought about it. If he were in his uncle’s shoes, and the son of the brother who had taken his throne dared to trespass on his land without permission…

‘He’d kill me’

The answer came without hesitation. Kyle was certain his uncle would feel the same.

The only silver lining was that his uncle supposedly stayed on the plateau. Kyle had overheard his father mentioning it once.

He prayed—pleading with god he had never before turned to—that his uncle would remain there.

Lost in thought, Kyle instinctively glanced back, only to realize Brody wasn’t beside him, making him stop in his tracks.

“What now?”

A chill ran down his spine as he looked around. Thankfully, he spotted her not far behind, seemingly absorbed in something.

Upon further observation, he realised—to his disbelief that she was munching on fresh clover leaves with an almost blissful look on her face.

Grinding his teeth, Kyle called out, “Hurry up, will you?”

But Brody, surrounded by a patch of white clover flowers, merely muttered to herself in delight.

“So good. It’s been ages since I’ve had anything this fresh and tasty.”

She seemed utterly lost in the joy of eating fresh greens.

Given how she had lost her appetite lately, Kyle couldn’t bring himself to tell her to stop. Instead, he waited silently until she finished.

Not long after, Brody seemed to snap out of her trance when she noticed Kyle standing still.

She hastily stuffed the clover sticking out of her mouth back in with her front paws and jumped over to him.

“Kyle, sorry! I couldn’t help it…”

But mid-sentence, Brody’s eyes widened as she looked past him.

“Oh my…!”

Her black eyes grew impossibly large as she stared in awe.

Following her gaze, Kyle turned to see an apple tree, its branches laden with bright red fruit.

Overwhelmed, Brody rushed over to the tree, clasping her front paws together as she gazed up at the ripe apples.

“Wow…”

Her expression was pure bliss, as if just looking at the apples made her happy.

Kyle, knowing exactly how she felt, couldn’t resist teasing her.

“Want one?”

Brody’s eyes sparkled as she nodded eagerly.

“Yes!”

A faint smile tugged at Kyle’s lips. He scanned the tree, found the best-looking apple, and jumped up to break the branch it hung from.

“Here.”

When he handed it to her, Brody, whose body was almost the same size as the apple, wobbled backward and fell onto her backside.

But the minor tumble didn’t faze her. Hugging the apple tightly, she bit into it with fervor.

“It is amazing!”

She exclaimed, her voice full of joy as she looked at Kyle.

Seeing her vivid expressions, Kyle couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“You’re unbelievable,” he said, smiling as he shook his head.

Thank you AntoniaLopez for the Kofi! I am sorry if the chapters took too long, I am so tight on time rn😭

We are now exactly half way through the novel!🥳