The next morning.
The hour of departure had dawned.
Count Aizen, who had spent the night in the yurt, appeared once more wearing three layers of fur clothing, looking like a round snowman.
All preparations were complete.
Every member of the tribe came out to see us off.
“Sniff... my child... my little pup....”
Old Baba clung to Kara and would not let go.
Her wrinkled hands stroked Kara’s back without pause.
“Don’t skip your meals... don’t endure it if you’re sick... and be sure to write....”
“I know, Granny. Don’t cry. I’ll be back soon.”
Kara, her eyes reddened as well, patted the old woman on the back.
The other tribesmen thumped my shoulder and wished me fortune in battle.
“Varg! Go flatten those imperial bastards’ noses!”
“Show them the strength of our Winter Claw!”
Amid the noisy farewells, Gorgon stepped out of the tent.
There was none of his usual mischief in his expression. He looked solemn.
He was holding something in both hands.
The crowd fell quiet.
Gorgon approached Kara and held out a sleek sword tinged with blue light.
“Kara, take it.”
“......What is this?”
“I saw the sword you used in the last war. Its teeth were all gone; it had turned into a saw. You can’t go to the Empire carrying a club like that.”
On the scabbard Gorgon held out, the wolf emblem symbolizing the Winter Claw tribe was intricately engraved.
As if it had just been sharpened on a whetstone and freshly oiled, a cold chill flowed from the blade.
“It is the sword your mother used, 「Frostwind」. I had it completely restored after your wedding.”
“......!”
Kara accepted the sword with trembling hands.
Inside the cold scabbard, the part Gorgon had gripped still retained warmth.
It was as though she could feel within it her mother’s warmth and her father’s care.
Kara held the sword to her chest and bowed her head deeply.
“Mother’s sword... I’ll treasure it.”
Gorgon roughly stroked Kara’s head, then turned to me.
“And Varg. Here, your damned axe.”
He tossed me the old double-bladed axe I usually used.
Thud.
I caught the axe with practiced ease.
A heavy grip.
It was a weapon that fit my hand perfectly, like an extension of myself.
But something was different.
‘Huh?’
In truth, this axe had been shoved into a corner of the storeroom after the last war against the Blood Fang tribe.
It was a stupidly thick lump of solid iron, so it had not broken, but its edge had dulled and bloodstains had crusted over it until it looked wretched.
On top of that, lately I had been so immersed in my sweet newlywed life with Kara that I had completely forgotten things like weapon maintenance.
But the axe in my hand now shone like a mirror.
Its edge was as sharp as a razor, and a new leather cord, untouched by grime, had been carefully wrapped around the handle.
‘Father...’
Every night while we slept, he must have stayed up sharpening and polishing it on the whetstone.
It seemed he had been bothered by the thought of his son going around with a rusty axe.
Just as something warm welled up in a corner of my chest—
Thwack!
“Argh!”
A flash of fire burst across my forehead.
Gorgon had struck my forehead with a brutal knuckle flick from his thick fingers.
When that crisp yet terrifying impact rang out, Count Aizen, who had been standing beside us, went “Eek!” and began trembling like an aspen leaf.
Reflexively, he moved both hands behind himself and curled up, clutching his own back and shoulders.
As if it were a conditioned reflex.
‘Ah... I think I get it.’
Rubbing my forehead, I looked Count Aizen over.
Twenty years ago, when Gorgon had been bursting with hot-blooded vigor, I could picture all too clearly how hard he must have slapped that man on the back while laughing, “Hahaha! Good to see you, my friend!”
Gorgon’s grip strength was enough to beat a bear to death, and that was when he was in his prime.
Even I, who could convert most pain into strength, felt like I was going to die from it, and Count Aizen, a civil official by origin, had apparently had to receive that on his back with a smile.
That trauma was fear of Gorgon’s “brute strength” itself.
“No, why did you hit me?”
I grumbled, pretending not to see Count Aizen’s pitiful trembling.
“You fool, I don’t care how good newlywed life is! How many times have I told you until your ears grew calluses that weapon maintenance is a warrior’s foundation and the discipline of the heart?”
Gorgon clicked his tongue and scolded me.
“You’re a husband now, and soon to be a father, yet what state was your axe in? Tsk, tsk.”
I rubbed my throbbing forehead and gave an awkward laugh.
The next chieftain who would lead the tribe, and the head of a family who had sworn to protect one woman.
But before Gorgon, I was still nothing more than his troublesome, immature son.
Feeling the love contained in that rough scolding, I exaggerated my suffering and lowered my head.
“I’ll keep it in mind. My discipline was lacking.”
Just then, I noticed crude letters carved into the end of the handle, ones I had never seen before.
「First Flurry」
“......?”
I frowned and read the words.
“...「First Flurry」? Father, what is this? How many times have I told you I find it embarrassing to name weapons....”
“Silence!”
Gorgon grinned and cut me off.
“What would become of my dignity if the son and son-in-law of the Great Chieftain swung around an unnamed axe? If you don’t want the imperial bastards looking down on you, it needs at least that much of a name.”
“No, still, First Flurry? Isn’t there something that sounds stronger? Like 「Boulder Crusher」, or 「Storm of the Bear Claw」.”
“Stop talking back and use it! It means you should become someone the world looks up to, just as everyone in the world looks up at the first snow!”
At Gorgon’s roar, I let out a hollow laugh.
First Flurry....
His sense for naming was crude beyond measure, but I could feel Gorgon’s own affection within it.
Though I grumbled on the outside, strength entered the hand gripping the axe handle.
It was not bad.
No, truthfully, I rather liked it.
“I’ll use it well. Father.”
I slung the axe onto my back and bowed deeply to Gorgon.
Gorgon shouted heartily.
“Good. Go! And don’t look back!”
We moved our feet, following behind Count Aizen’s carriage.
The snowy plain receded into the distance.
The tribesmen waved their hands.
And the sight of Gorgon, like an enormous boulder, standing there until the very end and watching over us, gradually grew smaller in my vision.
「Frostwind」 and 「First Flurry」.
And the fruit within her belly.
Thus, carrying all of it with us, we headed toward a new world.
* * *
But the moving sentiment lasted only that far.
Not long after leaving the tribe, I found myself facing a grave survival crisis.
“......”
Inside Count Aizen’s luxurious carriage.
At a glance, it was a splendid four-person carriage glittering with gold leaf decorations, but the reality was different.
‘Who said imperial carriages were spacious and comfortable? This is just a torture device with wheels!’
The thought nearly burst out of me on its own.
Of course, the carriage did not have wheels right now.
It had been modified to run across the snowfield, its wheels turned into skis.
The inside of the carriage had gone beyond full and was on the verge of bursting because of two huge barbarians and the enormous number of farewell gifts the tribesmen had packed for us.
My shoulders nearly touched the ceiling, and my knees were folded so tight I could not even stretch them out.
Kara, too, was tall and broad-framed for a woman, so she looked cramped, but compared to me, who was close to two meters tall, she had it easy.
“Creeeak....”
Every time I breathed, the carriage screamed.
I had to fold myself up as much as possible and take shallow breaths.
Count Aizen, crushed into the opposite corner, looked up at the ceiling with anxious eyes.
Every time the carriage rattled, my knees struck the count’s knees.
Unable to bear it any longer, I opened my mouth.
“Count, do nobles normally enjoy being locked up in such cramped places while traveling? What peculiar tastes you have.”
“Pardon...?”
“This isn’t some coffin experience. I’m going to suffocate.”
Count Aizen looked ready to cry, but he forced himself to remain calm as he clung to the window.
“A coffin, you say? This is a top-class four-person carriage. It is merely... that the passengers’ specifications are somewhat unusual....”
The Empire’s greatest administrator and a barbarian couple from the north.
Our cohabitation was off to a creaking start.
Literally, physically creaking.
That was when it happened.
“Uwaaah! The luggage is falling!”
Each time the carriage rattled, the bundles piled up almost to the ceiling swayed dangerously.
Among them were hard chunks of dried meat and heavy sacks of medicinal herbs.
If those fell toward Kara, it would be a serious problem.
‘I’ll die before I let my beloved Kara and our baby travel uncomfortably!’
But it was not as though I could throw the gifts packed with the tribesmen’s sincerity out the window.
There was only one way.
I would handle it.
“Hup!”
With a shout, I embraced all the huge bundles leaning toward Kara.
I spread both arms to block the falling luggage and supported the weight with my chest and shoulders.
I felt like Atlas, the giant in myth who held up the sky.
My tremendous strength shone at last.
Of course, the crisis had been brought about by the very body that produced that strength.
Thanks to that, a comfortable space was secured around Kara.
“Varg, isn’t it heavy? You can just put it on the floor....”
Kara asked with a worried look.
I poked only my face out from between the piles of luggage and grinned.
“It’s not heavy at all. If it makes more space for my wife and our baby, this much is nothing. Light as a feather. A feather.”
In truth, never mind feathers—it felt like boulders with no handholds—but I was enduring with the power of love.
However, opposite me was someone who could not endure even with the power of love.
“......”
Count Aizen.
He was now tasting a living hell.
In truth, the cause of this entire situation was his own stubbornness.
『Count, can’t we just tie it to the roof and go?』
Before departure, when I grumbled that it would be hard to load all the luggage, he had firmly shaken his head.
『Absolutely not. The lifeblood of supplies is transporting them intact. Those bundles were packed with care by the tribesmen, so they are not in standardized boxes. What will you do if we tie them to the rattling roof and precious medicinal herbs fall off, or the meat tumbles into the snow?』
『No, if we tie them tight with rope....』
『A zero percent loss rate during transport. That is my pride and my ironclad rule. I do not trust items that are not within my sight. They must be loaded inside, no matter what.』
So he had insisted with all his might, and this disaster had resulted.
He was an administrator and quartermaster to the bone.
An occupational disease close to mysophobia, in which he hated losing goods more than death itself.
The price was harsh.
Because we had not yet left the snowfield, he was still wearing three thick layers of fur clothing to keep out the cold.
In the already cramped carriage, he had become a giant furry penguin, taking up a tremendous amount of space.
On top of that, the remaining luggage I had failed to lift was piled like a tower on his thighs.
‘Suffocating... heavy... hot...’
Count Aizen’s glasses fogged over.
In that narrow space were a massive adult man and woman, a mountain of luggage,
and fur clothing that emitted heat like a heater.
The temperature inside the carriage was rising to sauna levels.
His legs were going numb and his breath kept catching, but seeing me supporting luggage with my entire body, he could not even show that he was struggling.
He had his dignity as a patron. If that barbarian could endure it, a civilized man could not whine.
But Aizen’s eyes were already deeply colored with regret.
‘Damn it... I should have just tied them outside.... Pride or whatever, I’m going to die....’
“Haha... You two are... truly... a devoted couple. Holding the luggage like that... your arms must hurt....”
Count Aizen barely managed to speak from behind the luggage in a trembling voice.
It seemed he was not shaking from the cold, but from muscle spasms.
Rattle!
The carriage lurched violently.
In that instant, the wooden crates piled on Count Aizen’s knees nearly collapsed all at once.
“Uh, u-uuuh!”
Count Aizen desperately flailed his arms, trying to keep them balanced.
It was a scene too pitiful to watch without tears: the Empire’s greatest administrator locked in mortal combat with baggage.
Then the coachman’s shout rang out.
“It’s the 「Norheim Wall」! We are passing through the checkpoint!”
We had reached the 「Norheim Wall」, the massive barrier that guarded the Empire’s northern border.
‘From here on is the Grand Duchy...’
And so, the barbarian couple left their first footprints in the Empire.