Dear Contract Husband, I Didn't Know You Were Like This? - Chapter 40
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“We can rest there for today.”
Maya pointed to a cave to Tristan.
It was fortunate not to have to face the night among the sparse trees. They were unaware of such a cave near the lake, but it was a welcome discovery.
The entrance to the cave was large, but there was nothing inside.
‘It might have originally been a monster’s den.’
But now, it seemed to have lost its purpose.
Nonetheless, having a space to avoid the wind felt cozy.
Maya quickly lit a fire with the twigs she had gathered intermittently. Despite hardly ever doing this since working in the imperial palace, her body remembered how.
This force of habit was unexpectedly fresh.
‘Fire was always important.’
She marveled at the thought of when she first joined the imperial knights.
‘To think I’d get another chance like this.’
With every moment, she was grateful for the opportunity given to her, for being alive.
Tristan took out some jerky from his bag and offered it to Maya.
“Please eat.”
“Wow, thank you!”
Maya received the jerky with a bright smile. As she chewed the jerky thoughtfully, she soon said,
“Then, let’s have jerky and this monster meat for dinner.”
Tristan nodded, looking at the bird monster, an Iberid, that Maya had skewered on a stick.
‘It’s fascinating.’
With so many types of monsters, knowing which ones were edible was essential, and Maya knew this perfectly. Only those suitable as food substitutes.
Being around the warm fire made their bodies relax. The scent of the roasting bird was appetizing.
Maya’s eyes sparkled in anticipation of the meal.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Then, holding the stick carefully, Maya took a big bite.
Although the high-quality jerky was tasty, real meat was incomparable.
It was a common meal during her time in the knight order.
‘There are parts more useful than the meat, but let’s eat first.’
Enjoying their meal, Maya recalled what Alec had told her.
‘The mountain range almost encircles the entire North, so we haven’t been able to explore it all. The higher we went, the worse the knights’ condition became, slowing us down.’
Many experienced nausea or collapsed, unable to breathe properly.
At first, they thought it was just ordinary altitude sickness. Therefore, those from the Northern Knights who often climbed the range didn’t take it seriously.
However, after seeing that everyone exposed to the fog collapsed, they decided not to take any more risks.
Monsters were not found in the fog, nor was there any expansion of the fog’s territory, so there was no pressing need to continue the adventure.
‘That must have been the Northern Knights’ oversight.’
Listening to Alec’s story and conducting her own investigations, she became convinced.
The symptoms indeed matched those of altitude sickness, but exposure to the fog seemed to amplify these symptoms.
‘The peak of this mountain range is the lair of the snake monster.’
The reason the snake monster remained unseen by people was that it hid perfectly within the fog and ice.
The white snake, specialized for winter, could move around at will, resting in places unreachable by human steps.
Because it did not stay in one place for long and moved around, Alec’s knights never encountered it.
Honestly, Alec’s knights could be considered lucky.
But luck wasn’t always on their side.
‘The reason Alec couldn’t continue as the commander of the knights.’
And the matter serious enough to prevent Tristan from meeting Maya must have surely been Alec’s death caused by this snake monster.
After finishing their meal, Tristan looked at the pile of bird monster corpses behind Maya and asked,
“What are these for?”
“Ropes.”
“Ropes?”
When the ends of the feathers were twisted together, they formed a long rope. The knights had accidentally discovered this property of monster feathers that could stick together after capturing a wyvern.
Maya intended to make full use of this fact.
“We’re going to catch a wyvern here to use as a substitute for our carriage.”
Maya grinned.
Tristan’s thoughts deepened.
‘A wyvern.’
There had been sightings of monsters, but no wyverns had been observed.
He stared intently at Maya.
“There’s a wyvern around here?”
“Yes, it’s in this lake.”
The journey, too smooth to be true, almost like a vacation, raised Tristan’s suspicions.
Despite being new to the Northern mountain range, Maya boasted perfect knowledge of the geography.
Over the two days, Maya’s skills had exceeded Tristan’s expectations. Though he expected much from someone of Pendragon lineage, he didn’t anticipate this extent.
Maya caught monsters as naturally as breathing. Her precision in striking their vital spots made her seem like a completely different person than she was at the castle.