I Reincarnated as a Noble Girl Villainess But Why Did It Turn Out This Way?

Chapter 8 - One day during winter

Winter in the Cardia domain is very cold. Although the weather is mild from spring through autumn, since we're south of the highest mountain range here, the Amon Nor Mountains, temperatures fall sharply during winter. Especially to the northeast, the river will freeze over as well.

Since the Cardia domain runs longer east to west, it's usually split into the southwestern and northeastern sections, and the villages are concentrated more in the southwestern section where there are many gently rolling hills.

In the northeast there are many small lakes and rivers, but right now there's an issue of how to best make use of them. In the past, it seems that people were able to fish successfully here, but because of father's despotic policies, forcing people to work in the fields, currently the northeast is mostly pristine, untouched land.

Since Earl Terejia didn't want to just leave this land alone, he recently decided to try and do something with it, but just building up entire villages seems to be difficult. Since the northeast is closer to the mountains, many beasts will be coming down from the mountains during the winter, taking that into consideration it's a difficult location for people to be living in.

"During winter, Rashiok sure is energetic."

During my daily routine of walking Rashiok, Kamil smiled while he applied a hot bottle of tea to his cheek. I wonder if it was really that fun to sink his feet into the snow, Rashiok was flying about and jumping around on the hillside that had become completely covered in snow. Since the snow snakes which are his main source of food hibernate during the winter, I wonder if that causes him to be the most active during the winter.

The snow that had been falling for the past two days was so soft and smooth, that it was difficult to walk. The woolen cloak I have to wear to protect against the cold is also annoying. It was already rather heavy since it reached all the way down to my knees, but since water from the snow was getting caught in the hems it became even heavier.

It's good that Rashiok seemed to be having so much fun, but today was cloudy and dim and the ground was slippery, and I'm really fed up with this biting cold. It's the first time since I've reincarnated that I've experienced the winter outside, and I quickly assessed that I wasn't going to get accustomed to this.

Since the grain had been harvested, there was nothing other than the mansion and barracks to obstruct my vision, and the snow-covered, silent hills created quite the lonesome scenery. While chasing Rashiok and creasing my eyebrows because my eyes were smarting from the cold, Kamil would occasionally stop me from time to time if it seemed like I was about to accidentally leave the area under direct control. Because there was no signs or marks, it was hard to keep good track of distance.

"It's cold......"

"It's fine to walk Rashiok for a little bit more. When we return, Nathan should have boiled eggs and soup prepared for us."

Reflexively I had complained a little about the cold to Kamil. As the son of a large merchant that had been to many other countries, he's surprisingly good at calming people down. I feel it must be the merchant blood in him.

It's very regrettable that his father the merchant has already passed away. That's because Axians with information on other cultures are few and far between. It would have been nice if I could have heard stories about other countries as well, is what I thought, but there's no helping it. Since Kamil had been too young at the time, it seems that he's forgotten most of the stories about other countries. What bad luck.

"There's even boiled eggs, eh. How luxurious."

"It seems like Claria village bought some chickens from the Henznight domain this year. If they breed them successfully, you'll be able to have boiled eggs more often next year."