A Rainy Day (3)
Chester tossed a few wet stones into the campfire, then added more firewood to build up the flames. I hope these rocks don't explode. Having checked the fire, Chester looked back at Monia. She was curled into a tight ball in front of the hearth, shivering violently.
Chester, like all commoners in this world, was well-acquainted with the cold. A commoner's winter was harsh and unforgiving. No crops grew, and animals went into hibernation, leaving no food to be found. They had to rely entirely on the hard, tasteless preserves they had prepared during autumn. And then there was water. If there was a river nearby, they were fortunate; if not, they had to melt snow to survive. But even that was no simple task. Melting snow required fire, and firewood was never cheap. They had to ration their wood carefully, enduring the chill to stretch their supply, using just enough to make water. If they ran out, they had to risk their lives venturing into the treacherous winter mountains to forage for more.
Winter mountains were deadly. The greatest danger was the loss of any recognizable path. When the snow piled thick, a sheer cliff could easily masquerade as a flat trail. Many met their end by mindlessly stepping onto a ledge of snow, only to plummet to their deaths. Furthermore, during the early days of winter, the snow would melt and refreeze, turning the ground into a treacherous sheet of ice. Even without those hazards, trudging through deep snow was exhausting. It drained one's stamina far quicker than expected, causing them to sweat. As that sweat evaporated, it stole their remaining body heat, leaving them too weak to fight off the freezing cold. People froze to death just climbing the hills behind their villages. That was why they rationed their firewood. They endured the biting cold as long as humanly possible, only throwing another log onto the fire when they truly couldn't bear it any longer. Naturally, households with young children often lost them to the winter freeze. It was heartbreaking, but it was the way of the world. Having survived such brutal, unforgiving winters, commoners grew hardened to the cold. They were resilient.
But the nobility lived in a different world. When winter arrived, they spent their days in leisure, cocooned in rooms kept constantly warm by roaring fires. At most, noblemen might venture out to hunt, treating the snow and cold as a seasonal amusement, but noblewomen never did. Consequently, their bodies had absolutely no tolerance for the cold. A high-born lady of Monia's stature had likely never experienced the sensation of being truly cold in her entire life.
"U-ugh...!" Chester watched Monia huddle herself into the smallest possible shape, shivering uncontrollably, before finally walking over to her. "I'm taking your clothes off."
"Ah!"
"If you don't take them off, you'll die."
"...Y-yes, alright."
In the face of such agonizing cold, any sense of shame had completely vanished from Monia's mind.
"Wait, how do I even get this thing off?!" The problem was that Monia's dress was ridiculously complicated to put on, let alone take off.
"I-I don't know..." Unsurprisingly, Monia, who had always relied on her maids to dress her, had no idea how to undress herself.
"...How does this part even work? Sorry, but I'm going to have to rip it." When Monia nodded frantically, Chester used his stone knife to slice through various parts of the dress, peeling it away from her. The moment the soaking wet fabric was gone, she felt a brief reprieve from the chill. Of course, that was only because the wet dress was no longer actively leeching her body heat; as soon as the wind and rain lashed against her bare skin, the freezing cold rushed back to claim her.
Chester stripped away her undergarments as well, then pulled her damp, naked body tightly against his chest as he sat before the fire.
"H-hnn..." Shivering violently, Monia felt a wave of warmth wash over her as she pressed against Chester's radiating heat. Chester, on the other hand, felt his own body heat rapidly drain into her, the sudden shock making him feel as though he had been plunged into a frozen lake.
"Seriously, why did you wait until you were in this state to say something?!"
"I-I'm sorry..." When Chester barked at her, Monia apologized meekly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
She's half out of her mind. Seeing her repeat the apology like a broken record, Chester poked at the fire with a branch. He pulled out the stones he had placed in the embers earlier, testing them with his bare hands to make sure they wouldn't burn her skin. Good. Fortunately, because the stones had been wet, they hadn't gotten scalding hot.
Chester took a stone and tucked it under Monia's armpit. He placed another under her other arm, held the last one against the nape of her neck, and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Positioned like this, the heat from the stones would warm the blood flowing through the major vessels in her neck and armpits, circulating the warmth throughout her body and raising her core temperature. Having finished the emergency treatment, Chester tossed more stones into the fire and began rubbing Monia's limbs. The friction between his palms and her skin generated a faint, comforting heat.
"Haa... haa..." As her body gradually warmed, Monia stopped her endless stream of apologies, keeping her mouth shut and breathing softly. She squirmed slightly, trying to burrow even deeper into Chester's embrace. Chester wrung the water from her hair as best as he could while continuing to massage her hands and feet, rubbing her skin to keep the circulation going. The wind was howling louder now. There was no sign of the rain letting up. If anything, the Floating Island seemed to be drifting deeper into the heart of the tempest.
The world flashed a brilliant, blinding white.
"Whoa?!" Startled by the bright light piercing through his eyelids, Chester snapped his eyes open just as a deafening roar shook the heavens.
"...Thunder." Damn it. When did I fall asleep? Chester wiped the drool from his chin and looked at the campfire. The embers were dying down, prompting him to hurriedly revive the flames. "Phew." Exhaling a sigh of relief, Chester checked the rain outside. The deluge pouring over the island was still terrifyingly intense. It felt even heavier than before, the sheer force of the downpour making their makeshift shelter shudder.
Chester grabbed an empty container left over from building the walls and reached his hand outside. The rain pelted his skin hard enough to sting, filling the container in mere seconds. Drinking this freezing water raw was out of the question, so Chester set the container near the fire and pulled out a hot stone. Dropping the heated pebble into the water caused it to boil instantly, sending up a cloud of steam. Ignoring the murky color the stone had given the water, Chester took a cautious sip.
"...Is that actually safe to drink?"
"Yeah. It's clean." Chester looked down at Monia, who was still cradled in his arms. "You awake?"
"...How long was I?"
"Hard to tell with the sky so dark, but you've been out for about a day."
"..."
At his answer, Monia finally took stock of her situation. Stripped of both her dress and undergarments, her pale, naked body seemed to glow softly against the dimness of the shelter. Though her face flushed crimson with embarrassment, she didn't try to pull away from Chester, choosing instead to curl up even tighter. Seeing this, Chester drank half the water and offered the container to her.
* * *
"...Mmh." Monia hesitated at the sight of the cloudy water, but she soon closed eyes and took a tentative sip. The hot water seeped into her chilled body, bringing a melting sense of relief. "Haa, phuu..." Her initial reluctance completely forgotten, Monia took small, continuous sips. It was too hot to gulp down.
"I wish I had some tea. Black tea would be lovely. And a sweet dessert to go with it..."
"Tea is definitely useful. It provides nutrients you can't easily get from meat."
"That is not what I meant at all." Pouting at Chester's utterly unromantic response, Monia glared at him as if to ask why he had to be such a mood killer. Just then, the world flashed brilliant white once more.
"Aaaah!" Startled by the flash and absolutely terrified by the deafening crack of thunder that followed, Monia clung to Chester for dear life.
"Calm down. We're on low ground, so lightning won't strike here."
"R-really?"
"Yeah. Lightning targets high, pointed things."
Chester offered an example from back in the kingdom to reassure her. "Think about it. On rainy days, lightning always strikes the spires of the cathedrals, right? Sometimes the priests praying up there get electrocuted and die, claiming it's a divine revelation." Priests who died of electrocution were often revered as saints, supposedly summoned by God.
"I-I suppose that's true."
"It's not a divine revelation; it's just lightning hitting the highest point. It strikes the royal castle all the time, too."
"N-now that I think about it... S-so we're really safe here? Phew."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Monia only then realized she was clinging to Chester completely naked. Startled, she scrambled backward. "You pervert! What do you think you're doing to me?!"
"Are you serious? Is that any way to talk to the guy who just saved your life?"
"Hmph! Isn't it a gentleman's duty to look after a lady?!"
The moment she knew she was safe, she reverted right back to her usual self. Recalling how cute she had been just moments ago when she was scared and honest, Chester felt a strange pang of regret at the loss of her warmth. Wait, am I losing my mind? There's no way Monia is cute. Chester forced himself to remember the Monia who used to call him a pig, beating and kicking him whenever his hard work failed to yield perfect results. Right. There's no way in hell she's cute. I've definitely gone mad.