The First Snow of Suspicion
The night in the North, where the first snow had fallen, was utterly brutal. The raging blizzard forced its way through the cracks of the ramshackle huts in the slums. A handful of people huddled together around a single small brazier, shivering, but there was barely any firewood left.
“……Heard the rumor?” One of the crouching men parted his cracked lips and spoke.
“They say dozens of wagons rolled into the Grand Duke’s Castle this morning.”
“Wagons? Don’t tell me relief food finally arrived from the South?” The old man beside him lifted his head, eyes shining with faint hope. But another man slammed his fist against the frozen ground in bitter resentment.
“Relief food my ass! Those are luxury goods ordered by that worthless prince!”
“W-what did you say……?”
“Top-grade silk carpets, expensive wine shipped from across the sea! That bastard threatened Her Excellency the Grand Duke, claiming he needed to decorate his room, and squeezed a whopping 100,000 gold out of her! Every single one of those wagons is packed with that garbage!”
At those words, despair settled over the faces of everyone gathered around the brazier. 100,000 gold. It was an enormous sum—enough to feed every citizen in the Northern territory through this hellish winter and still have plenty left over. The fact that the money had been spent not on food, but on silk for the Empire’s dog to sleep on, made the people shed tears of blood.
“Aah…… The heavens are truly heartless. How could they send such a demon to our North?”
“The Imperial family has decided to starve us all to death. Let’s just storm the castle together, hang that bastard by the neck, and die with him!”
“Shh! Watch your mouth! You want our entire families executed for treason? Her Excellency is already swallowing her own tears and enduring this because of the Imperial family’s pressure!”
The people clutched their empty, starving stomachs and hurled curses at the Imperial family and the Empire’s Eighth Prince. But their tearful, venomous sobs were swallowed by the howling blizzard and scattered without a trace.
“Haa……”
Giselle let out yet another sigh—she had already lost count of how many. The office was freezing. There wasn’t even a single spark in the hearth, and the desk was buried under a mountain of documents awaiting approval.
[3rd Defense Fortress — Food reserves below 3 days. Urgent support required.]
[Sector 2 Slums — 3 deaths from hypothermia. Firewood shortage.]
[Dangerous rumors spreading throughout the territory. Public sentiment toward the 8th Prince at its worst.]
As she read through the documents, Giselle pressed hard on her throbbing temples. Every time she closed her eyes, the horrific procession of wagons she had seen that morning flickered before her.
— How dare you touch what’s mine?! This is a matter of the Imperial family’s dignity!
Kael, eyes bloodshot and raging like a madman out of fear that his precious belongings might get scratched. She hated him. She loathed him enough to want to tear him apart. But what was even harder to bear was her own helplessness—having to watch that trash’s atrocities with her own two eyes and do nothing.
“Your Excellency.”
At that moment, Financial Officer Godwin entered the office, his face deathly pale.
“……Yes. How is the situation outside?”
“The people’s hearts are seething with unrest. The rumor that the prince squandered 100,000 gold on debauchery has already spread to the farthest corners of the territory. A few hot-blooded young men tried to storm the annex, but the knights barely managed to stop them.”
“……Double the surveillance. No matter what happens, the citizens must not come into contact with him.”
Giselle commanded. The prince was simply waiting for the North’s public sentiment to explode. The moment the citizens attacked him, the Imperial guards and the Empire’s army would gain the perfect excuse to ravage the North. Therefore, they had to endure.
“However, Your Excellency. There is a limit to suppressing the people’s anger. Right now, citizens are wandering the streets without even a single piece of bread to eat tonight. At this rate, a riot would hardly be surprising……”
“Godwin.”
Giselle rose from her seat, unfastened the silver longsword she carried at her waist, and placed it gently into Godwin’s arms.
“Your Excellency? This sword is……!”
“It is a keepsake from my late father, the previous Grand Duke. Remove the blue magic crystal and all the jewels embedded in the hilt and sell them.”
Godwin’s eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out.
“Y-you mustn’t! How could you sell even the last symbol of the family……!”
“A mere symbol cannot be more important than the lives of our people.”
Giselle continued.
“Since the Imperial family has blocked all normal distribution routes, buy food in small quantities even if it costs extra. With those jewels, we should at least be able to secure enough provisions for the orphanage children and the soldiers at the forward fortress to last a month.”
“Your Excellency……!”
“Never let it be known outside that I sold the family heirloom. If the citizens find out, they will despise the prince even more.”
In the end, Godwin clutched the sword to his chest and shed silent tears. The sacrifice of his lord. As a vassal, there could be no greater shame or heartbreak than this.
After Godwin left the office, swallowing his sobs, Giselle was left alone once more. She gazed out the window. Snow poured endlessly from the pitch-black night sky.
“How much longer…… can I endure?”
She tightened her grip on the windowsill. If she collapsed, the North would collapse with her. That heavy sense of responsibility crushed her shoulders and tightened her chest. Once again, Giselle stood alone in the cold, empty office and let out a lonely sigh.
While Giselle spent the night in endless despair—
In a tightly controlled back alley of the slums on the outskirts of the territory.
“Achoo! Who the hell is badmouthing me this hard? My ears are itching like crazy.”
I sniffled and looked at the scene before me. Dozens of people wearing black masks moved silently, loading something onto the wagons.
“Your Highness.”
Viola, wearing a hood, approached and handed me a ledger.
“As promised, I mobilized every single delivery runner in the shadow distribution network. From Sector 1 to Sector 4 in the slums, the orphanages on the outskirts, and even the isolated 3rd Defense Fortress at the front lines. Everything will be distributed precisely before sunrise.”
“You made sure to completely hide who sent it, right?”
“Obviously. Every crate is stamped only with the anonymous mark ‘Will of the Northern Wind.’ When the people of the North open their eyes in the morning, they’ll think food fell from the sky, won’t they?”
Viola let out a small chuckle. I checked the ledger and nodded.
“Good. Send them out.”
At my command, dozens of sleds and wagons began to scatter secretly into the blizzard.
The next morning, in the Grand Duke’s office.
Giselle sat at her desk with bloodshot eyes, having not slept a wink all night. Outside the window, the blizzard still raged violently.
Soon, the reports will start coming in.
The list of additional deaths that occurred in the slums last night. And the number of soldiers who collapsed from starvation at the forward fortress. Giselle steeled herself to endure those horrific reports and clenched her hands tightly together.
Bang!
At that moment, the office door burst open.
“Your Excellency! Your Excellency!!”
It was Godwin—the same man who had left yesterday clutching the silver longsword and sobbing. Giselle thought the inevitable had come and spoke heavily.
“Speak, Godwin. How many casualties were there?”
“That’s not it, Your Excellency! It’s a miracle! A miracle has occurred!”
“……A miracle?”
Tears of joy poured from Godwin’s eyes.
“This dawn! An unidentified merchant group appeared across all of Sectors 1 through 4 in the slums, the orphanages, and even the isolated 3rd Defense Fortress at the front lines. They left behind an enormous quantity of relief supplies and vanished!”
“What did you say?!”
Giselle shot up from her desk, kicking it aside.
“Wheat, potatoes, smoked meat, and enough firewood to survive the winter! The citizens have poured into the streets, weeping, saying heaven has not abandoned the North!”
“T-that’s impossible. The Imperial family has completely blocked all grain distribution—exactly who could have smuggled in that much food?!”
“We investigated as well, but the people driving the wagons wore black masks and disappeared without a trace. The only thing left on the supply crates was……”
Godwin added in a trembling voice.
“……the anonymous stamp that read ‘Will of the Northern Wind.’”
“Will of the Northern Wind……”
Giselle murmured the name and stared blankly into space. A force capable of slipping through the Empire’s strict surveillance network and delivering such a massive amount of food all the way to the Northern front lines. No matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn’t think of anyone.
But one thing was certain: thanks to this mysterious benefactor, the North had overcome its worst crisis.
“Your Excellency, do you have any guesses?”
“……No, I don’t. However.”
A spark of life finally returned to Giselle’s red eyes.
“This person saved our North from destruction. They are a savior of life. Mobilize every intelligence operative we have. We must find them no matter what. As the lord of this land, I must thank them personally.”
“Understood! I will begin inquiries at once! Ah, and I will return the sword you gave me yesterday to its proper place!”
Godwin left, overflowing with joy. Left alone, Giselle organized her thoughts.
Hmm.
The Imperial family had completely blocked large-scale grain distribution. No matter how capable a merchant group, it was impossible to secretly slip that many wagons past the checkpoints guarded by Imperial knights.
There had been only one large-scale wagon procession that had recently passed through the checkpoints and entered the Grand Duke’s Castle without issue.
The luxury goods wagons belonging to the 8th Prince that arrived yesterday morning.
Giselle’s breathing trembled slightly. The money Kael had squeezed out of her was exactly 100,000 gold. And when you converted the scale of the food distributed across the entire territory at dawn today into monetary value…… it matched up almost perfectly with 100,000 gold.
Don’t tell me…… everything inside those luxury goods crates was actually……?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Giselle bit down hard on her lower lip. Her mind screamed that it was absolutely impossible, but her instincts as the ruler leading the North kept pointing to one person.
Giselle immediately flung her cloak over her shoulders and stormed out of the office. Her destination was the annex where that worthless prince was staying.