People were seen clearing the snow here and there. They used wide, flat tools to shave off layers of snow from the path, then spread it back onto the road and packed it down. Some were also using planks to reinforce the snow walls, preventing them from collapsing.

“Where does this path lead?”

When Cecilia asked, Russell answered,

“To the outer castle.”

“Ah…”

Cecilia let out a breath of relief.

‘Good thing I didn’t ask if they cleared the snow just because I was coming out.’

“Do the people in the outer castle stay there even in winter?”

“They come inside the castle when the sun sets during winter. But they go back out in the morning. The forge can’t be left unattended even for a day, and the workshops have to keep running.”

‘So this path was made for them to travel back and forth.’

Many of the workers were wearing the same type of hat as Cecilia—one that covered their entire head except for eye holes. The maids who had followed her outside also wore them.

She felt a strange sense of solidarity. At least she wasn’t the only one looking like this.

At the same time, she was unsettled.

People in those eye-hole hats looked utterly ridiculous. She must look just as absurd as they did.

‘But what about that person? And that one too?’

Scattered among the workers were a few who weren’t wearing the same headwear.

Cecilia glanced at Russell.

He, too, wasn’t covering his face. Instead, he wore headwear that only covered his ears.

“Why aren’t some people wearing headwear like mine?”

“They’re hunters.”

“Hunters don’t have to wear them?”

“It’s not that they can’t, they just don’t need to. They go through special training.”

“What, do they train their skin to thicken or something?”

Her words carried a hidden jab. After all, Russell himself was a hunter.

Lately, she had been realizing that he was quite different from her first impression of him. He had a surprisingly shameless side.

So much so that she felt he would fit right into the high society she once knew.

Russell chuckled.

“That’s not something you can train. It’s inherited.”

‘See? He totally caught my meaning. This man is strange.’

He resembled the nobles of the continent more than the people of Lagos. But there was still something distinctly different about him.

Cecilia wondered who had raised him.

“I heard hunters are similar to knights on the continent.”

“They are.”

“Then why are hunters clearing snow?”

“They’re the most efficient for the job. They’re strong, don’t tire easily, and are less prone to frostbite.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. They’re a privileged group, aren’t they? Wouldn’t they have a problem with being made to do this kind of labor?”

“If they saw clearing snow as mere grunt work, they might. But it’s about protecting. A hunter’s duty is to defend what’s theirs. Strength exists to guard what’s around you.”

‘To protect…’

If she had heard these words before coming to Lagos—or at any point in her past life—Cecilia would have scoffed at them as empty hypocrisy.

Every noble she had ever known was greedy. They spent their lives obsessed with taking from others.

But why did his words not sound like hypocrisy to her?

As she looked at the world blanketed in white, she murmured, “There’s really so much snow.”

“You can’t see anything but snow, no matter where you look,” Russell muttered as if to himself.

He was reminded of the first time he had visited Jericho Grand Castle.

Back when he went because of the grand duke’s proposal for him to marry Cecilia.

It had been an exceptionally clear day.

He couldn’t help but compare Jericho’s environment to Lagos.

Russell loved Lagos, where he was born and raised, But he acknowledged that it was a difficult place to live.

Even before formally meeting the grand duke to discuss the marriage, he had already known.

A woman raised in a place like that would never be able to endure life in Lagos.

That was why he had agreed to the grand duke’s contract marriage.

Under normal circumstances, such a marriage could never have been arranged. He assumed the bride’s side was also well aware of that.

He had thought she had simply used the grand duke as a proxy because she couldn’t step forward herself.

There were moments when things seemed off.

The way she had openly resented him.

Even looking as though she wanted to die on their wedding day.

Everything about it had been puzzling.

So at the time, he had assumed it was simply because she despised the idea of setting foot in Lagos, even for a single day.

Now, however, he was more confused than ever.

Russell turned to look at her.

She was staring at the snowy landscape.

‘What is she thinking about?’

Was she finding this winter, where nothing could move under the snow, suffocating and unbearable?