“Look at this, Mom! It’s amazing!”
“Wow…”
Reina looked at the snow pillar, which was standing tall and solid.
‘Is this possible?’
Reina closed and opened her eyes again, wondering if she had seen something wrong.
“…?”
However, the tall pillar still boasted the dragon above. The nine knights, excluding Dean, seemed to have built this pillar while waiting for the car to arrive. The nine knights looked proud as they looked at the two happy children.
“Have some tea.”
“Thank you.”
It was a warm tea perfect for the chilly winter. While Dean served tea to her drivers, Reina handed Estelle and Bonita cocoa topped with marshmallows.
“Thank you, Reina.”
“Be careful because it’s steamy. It’s hot.”
“Is it very hot?”
“Is it hot?”
Estelle and Bonita blinked their big eyes and tilted their heads, wondering if they were hot at the same time. How lovely it was to see them both wearing matching gloves and tilting their heads in the same direction!
“Sure. It’s very hot.”
“How much?”
“How much?”
Reina smiled as she looked at her adorable children who showed the same reaction over and over again.
“Hmm, it’s so hot that the snow instantly turns to water and becomes warm.”
“Then you better be careful!”
“You better be careful!”
Estelle and Bonita laughed amongst themselves wondering what was good. As the children’s clear laughter rang out, the expressions on the faces of the adults present softened. Even though it was a cold winter, spring was clearly visible on everyone’s faces. The white marshmallows in the warm cocoa melted like snow, and the children puffed and drank the warm cocoa. Reina stood near the children and looked at the eye pillars, which the knights had painstakingly erected.
‘It’s serious.’
The snow pillar looked like a skeleton that could be used to build a house. The snow house that Raina spoke of was in the form of an igloo where she piled up pieces of snow. It was by no means a mansion built so thoroughly from scratch.
“Miss, look at this!”
“Bonnie! Look at this! It’s a snow duck I made!”
When Reina glanced behind her, she saw other knights taking care of the two children.
‘It’ll be okay, right?’
Reina slipped inside her. The only thing inside was the pillar, so it was open on all sides.
“The ground is flat too…”
They cleared the snow, leveled the ground, and took the skeleton. Weren’t they definitely members of the Knights Templar?
“Is architecture the basic knowledge of engineers these days…?”
Without doing that, was it possible to build things up this well? Reina, unaware that the entire knights fiercely competed to be selected as a member last dawn, showing off their architectural knowledge, was calmly impressed.
“Okay! Now that we’ve had tea, let’s finish the rest!!”
“Lady, please stay there and watch!”
“Bonnie stay there too! “The guys will finish it!”
“Reina Borton, get out of there! It’s dangerous!”
All the knights, who had neatly stacked glasses on empty trays, began to warm up. Estelle and Bonita, who had not yet emptied half of their cocoa, watched the adults moving about with bright eyes.
“Can you complete this?”
“Sure!”
“Really?”
When Reina looked at the snow pillar and the knights with a nervous expression, everyone nodded to her with an energetic expression.
“Do not worry. I heard that Hans’ family makes architecture a living.”
Dean noticed how worried Reina was and whispered to her.
“Okay.”
At that time, Reina had only one thought.
‘Who is Hans?’
* * *
Damian looked at the lonely shovel.
“Why is this here?”
“Ah, master! Are you here?”
“Borton.”
Behind the tree where the shovel was placed, Raina appeared among the dense forest. Damian looked at the shovel with a serious look on his face and asked.
“Here’s the shovel.”
“…yes?”
Reina, what does that mean? And looked at Damian. Ah! She did and she answered.
“The knights were so skilled that there was no need for me to add anything.”
“…Right.”
Damien picked up her shovel and glanced at Reina. There was a tree branch in Reina’s arms, he was wondering what she was going to use it for. Damian snatched all the branches from her arms and stuck them into her sides.
“Well, I can lift that.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t do anything today, so I should at least do something like this.”
‘Isn’t it common for employers to bring in employees who don’t want to work?’
Without knowing Reina’s true feelings, Damien wondered what this tree branch was used for.
“Oh, I was just looking for the best tree branch.”
“The best branch?”
“Yes. Miss and Bonnie made a snowman, but we don’t have any arms yet. Everyone was looking for tree branches to use while making the snow mansion.”
Damien looked at the sky while listening to her explanation. The sun was setting.
“The sun is going to set soon, so the forest is dangerous.”
“But since it’s private property, I thought it would be okay.”
Even though it was private land, it was quite large. Reina was able to infer that Damien was worried that she might get too deep and get lost.
“So, are all the guests gone?”
“They are not guests.”
“Yes?”
“You can’t call someone who just comes by without asking you a guest a guest.”
Damian clicked his tongue. She guessed they would leave when the sun set. Damien probably decided that today wasn’t the right day based on his attitude.
‘And I’ll prepare more in earnest next time.’
She was always like that. She tried once, and if it didn’t seem right, she left and tried to cajole in another way. When she remembered their greedy faces, she started to feel bad. It would probably be an instant for their misguided desires to reach Estelle. So Damian sent a message to Count Embron to come as quickly as possible. Damian took note of her frozen expression again and glanced at Reina, holding a shovel in one hand and a bunch of twigs in her arms.
‘I wonder if it would be a good idea to talk now.’
He had something to offer Reina.
“Reina Bort…”
“Reina- The wall of the snow house is completely…!”
The moment Damian was about to call Reina, Dean came running from far away, smiling brightly.
“…”
“My lord, when did you come?”
It wasn’t a very warm atmosphere, but it quickly became awkward enough to be colder than the middle of winter. Dean was startled as he looked at the shovel in Damian’s hand and the tree branches in his arms.
“Lord, lord, I will take it!”
“It’s okay. So what’s going on?”
“Ah, I’m here to let you know that the walls of the snow house are all complete and only the interior needs to be built.”
“Eh.”
Reina tilted her head slightly when she heard those words.
“Interior?”
“Interior?”
Damian seemed to have similar thoughts to Reina.
“Yes, we divided into teams led by Hans to make beds, sofas, and desks.”
“Hans Vankin is trustworthy.”
Raina, among the men who were at least a hand taller than her, could only think, ‘So who is Hans?’
“Oh, Borton isn’t sure who Hans Vankin is.”
“Yes…”
Damian, who noticed Reina’s puzzlement, continued his words.
“There is a person named Hans Vankin, Reina Borton, who joined the Knights in the same year as you.”
“I see.”
Reina nodded her head as she listened to Damien explain about Hans. The Bankin family is a family that makes a living in architecture, or they have no status but have a lot of money and are treated as semi-nobles. Hans was originally a very talented man, but he chose to become a knight because he wanted his older brother to take over the family line etc… As Reina listened to Damian’s endless explanations, a question suddenly occurred to her.
“Master, do you know all the information about the knights?”
“Approximately.”
“That’s amazing.”
She didn’t think it’s ‘roughly’, but he didn’t roughly express the degree to which he chose the path of a knight to avoid fighting over the succession with his brothers.
‘I guess he pays more attention to his surroundings than I thought.’
Both in the novel Reina recalled and in this world, Damian was known to not be a particularly pleasant person to those around him. However, as he explained about Hans Vankin with a blunt expression, I could tell that he was a person who cared about his surroundings, even if he was not friendly.
‘Because he noticed that I didn’t know who Hans was and told me.’
It was difficult to get close to him due to his status as the first or duke, his sharp appearance, and his overwhelming atmosphere, but after talking to him a few times, I could immediately tell that he was a good person. In fact, the Winternight Duchy was barren compared to other territories, but poor people were rarely found. This was because Damian had built a system for them better than expected. The reason Reina was thought to be nearly impossible to find was because she was one of the few poor people. As she walked, thinking about this and that, she came to the site where her snow house was being built.
“Oh my god…”
Reina forgot to close her mouth as she stared at the majestic snow mansion.
“There is a slide built over there that goes right down from the second floor.”
As soon as Dean finished explaining, a sound of laughter was heard from beyond.
“Is this slide dangerous to collapse and get hurt?”
“No. But just in case, about three people will be watching when the slides are used.”
“Hmm.”
Reina stared at the outer wall with her mouth wide open.
‘Is that… a window?’
It wasn’t just a hole drilled and called a ‘window’. Even the design of the windows was meticulously taken care of.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on November, 19.
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