Chapter 172 — Guests of the Kant Domain

The instant Amber sprang from the shadows, Heddy had already deftly snatched up her staff and assumed the opening stance of a Sweeping Sand Landing Goose—but the half-elf miss, having been taken to task once before, had learned her lesson. The moment she finished her nonsense she darted behind Gao Yang, using him as cover and shielding herself behind his body, then poked half her head out to taunt: "Rua! I dare you to hit your own ancestor—Mommy, ow!!"

She never finished her sentence; Gao Yang casually grabbed her by the ear and dragged her out. As he dragged, he asked with great curiosity: "What were you thinking? After badmouthing someone, you hide behind that very person for safety—did you really think I wouldn't hit you?"

"Ow, Mom, I was wrong, wrong, wrong!" Amber hopped and skipped about. "My ear's going to cramp! My ear's going to cramp!"

And so the tent was filled with merry air...

Several days after the messenger was dispatched, a reply from Viscount Victor Kant was delivered to the Cecil family's domain.

The old viscount expressed the utmost eagerness regarding Duke Gao Yang's wish to visit, and cordially invited Gao Yang to tour the ancient castle and manor of which the Kant family was so proud. And so, on the second day after the messenger's return, Gao Yang, long since prepared, set out on the journey to the Kant Domain.

He departed in a carriage, deliberately bringing few attendants: besides the coachman and two soldiers, he took only Amber as his personal guard, and Sir Philip, who had recently returned to the domain after escorting the refugees.

When the silhouettes of villages and farmsteads at the edge of the Kant Domain appeared at the end of the road, the sky gradually turned overcast. A cold wind swept across the land, carrying moisture and the smell of earth, and with the wind came the signal that rain was imminent. It seemed that at this moment, at the end of the Frost Month and on the eve of the Fog Month's arrival, this land was about to receive a hearty rainfall.

After this rain, the brief autumn of the Kingdom of Ansu would be declared over. What followed would be this northern kingdom's long winter: first the sixty-day Fog Month, foggy and damp and cold, then the sixty-day Month of Chill, with nationwide snowfall continuing intermittently until the arrival of the Month of Revival. Even the "southern frontier" where the Cecil Domain lay would be covered in frost and snow.

After all, the entire Kingdom of Ansu lay in the north of the continent.

He did not know whether the refugees in the wilderness would reach the Cecil Domain and receive shelter before the coldest days arrived; whether the domain's winter construction plans could be realized as expected; whether the border between Ansu and Typhon would see war this winter...

Gao Yang pulled open the side panel of the carriage. In the gradually darkening and overcast sky, he could already see the ancient Kant Castle standing on a hillside off to the front side. That ancient stone structure rose from the highest point of the domain, several dark tower spires pointing straight at the sky now filling with dark clouds, and on the broad land below the castle stood row upon row of town buildings.

Now nightfall and the dark clouds were arriving together, and the early darkening of the sky had already begun to kindle scattered lights in the town. Gao Yang counted the number and distribution of those lights, judging the wealth and order of this land.

There were more lights than he had expected, and they could be seen everywhere throughout the town.

A drop of rain slanted through the carriage's side panel and landed on Gao Yang's face, and with the raindrop came a bleak cold wind. In a corner of the carriage, Amber pulled her blanket tightly around herself and mumbled drowsily: "Gao Yang, shut the window..."

Gao Yang smiled and lowered the panel. On the roof of the carriage, made of waterproof wooden planks, the sound of rain had already begun to drum, growing denser by the moment.

The carriage raced past the fertile, already-harvested fields of the Kant Domain. In the direction from which the carriage had come, the road leading out of the domain was gradually veiled by the curtain of rain, growing blurred and unrecognizable...