By the time calm returned to the refugee camp, the snowstorm seemed to have eased somewhat, its once-violent winds gradually weakening until only a faint chill lingered in the air.
Lucian lowered his head and looked at the little girl who was still clinging tightly to the hem of his clothes.
"Where do you wanna go now?"
As he asked, his voice was remarkably calm, completely unlike that of someone who had just slaughtered a duke and several hundred people.
"Hyperborea..." Cerydra raised her little face, her blue-and-white hair dotted with melting snowflakes that slowly slid down the strands. "Hyperborea is where my home is..."
Although that place held nothing but painful memories, and although her parents had died there, it was still the place where she had been born. It was the only place she knew by name, and perhaps the only place she could truly call home. Even after everything that had happened there, that simple fact had never changed.
Lucian nodded without hesitation.
"Okay."
He did not ask why she wanted to return, nor did he bother saying something pointless like, 'It's too dangerous there.'
As far as he was concerned, everywhere was essentially the same. Danger had never been something he needed to take seriously, so there was naturally no reason for him to stop her from returning to the place she considered home.
He took Cerydra's little hand, which had been chilled red by the cold, and gently held it in his own, shielding her small fingers from the biting wind.
"Let's go back then."
As luck would have it, the duke had left behind a carriage, and Lucian had not ridden in one for quite some time.
Normally, whenever he needed to travel somewhere, he would simply use Absolute Hit and teleport there in an instant, so he had almost forgotten what it was like to rely on such an ancient means of transportation.
Compared to crossing vast distances in an instant, sitting inside a carriage and allowing horses to slowly pull him along was almost unbearably inefficient.
Still, since he had some free time today, there was no harm in enjoying the experience again.
A little while later, after the two of them left, more than a hundred horses remained behind, all of them belonging to the noble soldiers.
Now that their owners were dead and the animals had been abandoned in the snow, the refugees nearby saw those horses as more than abandoned livestock—they were meat, and therefore food.
In their current circumstances, that was already an extremely valuable gift.
Realizing that, the refugees seemed to have regained their strength almost immediately and rushed forward, scrambling to seize the horses before anyone else could claim them.
Lucian did not pay any attention to whether they lived or died.
All the horses he had deliberately left behind were a lifesaving gift to them, and what happened afterward was no longer his concern. Whether the refugees used them to escape, to survive, or simply butchered them for food had nothing to do with him.
Inside the carriage, he glanced at Cerydra's filthy appearance and frowned slightly.
"You're way too dirty. We'll find somewhere deserted up ahead and get you cleaned up."
Lucian remembered that the last person he had complained about for being dirty had been the catgirl Cifera.
===
Half an hour later, when they passed a frozen lake along the way, Lucian stopped the carriage and took Cerydra down to the lakeshore.
They were still some distance from the imperial capital of Hyperborea, but the surroundings were quiet and peaceful, with no one else in sight. A thick layer of ice covered the lake, while snow had accumulated along the shore and stretched across the surrounding landscape, turning everything within sight into a silent expanse of white.
Lucian looked at the little girl beside him and frowned again.
Cerydra was both dirty and smelly, and the fact that he could smell it even in such a low-temperature environment was impressive in its own way.
Normally, the freezing air should have dulled one's sense of smell considerably, yet the grime and odor clinging to her were still obvious enough to notice. If they had been somewhere with a normal climate, he could hardly imagine what the smell would have been like.
It was genuinely difficult to believe that this little girl would eventually become the Imperator.
Cerydra lowered her head in embarrassment, her small hands twisting the hem of her ragged clothes as her cheeks slowly reddened.
"I... didn't have much food, so I had to avoid moving around too much... that's why..."
During those days of wandering, merely staying alive had been difficult enough, so there had been no room to worry about whether she was clean or not. When even finding enough food to survive had been a struggle, bathing and changing clothes had naturally become luxuries far beyond her reach.
"Forget it..." Lucian sighed helplessly. "From now on, you gotta keep yourself clean and take a bath every day."
He raised one hand, and with a sudden whoosh, a ball of flame appeared out of thin air and hovered beside them.
In that instant, the warmth spread through the surrounding air, driving away the biting cold. A huge iron barrel also appeared above the flames. It was unclear where he had gotten it from, but the barrel was quickly filled with clean snow.
Within just a few seconds, the snow melted rapidly under the heat, transforming into water that soon grew warm before quickly turning into enough warm water for a proper bath.
Before long, steam was rising steadily from the barrel, drifting into the cold air and creating a faint mist around them.
"Come here."
Lucian beckoned.
Cerydra approached cautiously, her eyes immediately lighting up when she saw the warm water. After spending so long in the cold, the sight of a steaming bath was almost irresistible.
It couldn't be helped, considering she had not enjoyed a warm bath in a very long time.
"Take off your clothes."
Lucian instructed calmly, causing Cerydra to freeze for a moment before becoming visibly flustered, her small hands tightening around the collar of her clothes.
"I... I'll wash myself... Other than Mama, nobody's ever touched me... I'm not used to it..."
Cerydra was so embarrassed that even the tips of her ears had turned completely red.
At ten years old, she had already developed a clear sense of shame, and being asked to let a strange man bathe her naturally made her feel extremely uncomfortable. No matter how much she trusted Lucian compared to the people she had encountered before, there were still some things she could not simply accept without hesitation.
Lucian raised an eyebrow, then laughed.
"Can you actually get yourself clean? Your hair's all tangled up, and you're covered in dirt..."
He pointed toward the black grime accumulated around her neck, where there was so much of it that, with enough effort, it almost looked as though it could be rubbed into little balls.
Cerydra lowered her head and examined her own filthy hands before reaching up to touch her messy, tangled hair. Unfortunately, the strands were so badly knotted that even she had trouble separating them with her fingers.
In the end, she only hesitated for a while before eventually nodding.
She knew perfectly well that she would not be able to wash herself properly. More importantly, she did not want Lucian to dislike her because of her appearance, much less abandon her after finally giving her a place to stay.
After wandering alone for so long, the thought of losing the first person who had offered her a place to belong was something she could not bring herself to risk.
"Alright, come over here and sit still."
At Lucian's command, Cerydra obediently walked over and sat down.
Lucian raised a finger, and the warm water inside the barrel immediately rose into the air in thin streams before gently cascading over her body.
In an instant, the warm water flowed across her skin, carrying away the cold that had settled deep into her body, and Cerydra could not help shrinking her neck slightly at the pleasant sensation.
After being exposed to the freezing weather for so long, the sudden warmth felt almost intoxicating.
Lucian began washing her hair, his large hands working through the long blue strands and carefully rubbing away the accumulated grime while slowly separating the tangled sections one by one.
Once he had worked the knots loose, he rinsed her hair thoroughly until the water running through it was finally clear. He then moved on to her back, rubbing the dirt away with his large hands.
As he expected, the texture beneath his palms could only be described as unpleasantly thin, with little more than bones beneath the skin. Her stomach and thighs were the only places that retained any noticeable softness.
When his hands moved to clean those areas, Cerydra's entire body stiffened, and her little face became bright red.
Sitting on the stone stool, she was so embarrassed that she barely dared to move, looking almost like a wooden puppet as she allowed Lucian to handle everything for her.
When he told her to spread her legs slightly, she did so, and when he told her to lean forward, she obediently followed his instructions.
At this moment, Lucian naturally did not think of Cerydra as a woman at all but simply as a stray cat that needed to be cleaned.
He had plenty of experience bathing a certain stray cat, after all.
Cerydra could feel that Lucian's hands were large and strong, and although his scrubbing was slightly painful at times, he worked thoroughly enough that the grime covering her body was gradually washed away.
Black, filthy water ran down her ankles before disappearing into the snow beneath her feet, revealing more and more of her original fair skin. With every rinse, the dirt that had accumulated over her long days of wandering gradually disappeared.
By the time Lucian finished, the filthy little beggar from before had completely disappeared.
Lucian controlled the flames with both hands and carefully dried Cerydra's body and hair. He then created a clean and beautiful dress with a white base and blue trim. A thick fur cloak was added on top to keep her warm against the freezing weather, and he put it on her without another word.
"Are you still cold?"
Hearing Lucian's question, Cerydra stared at the new clothes with her eyes wide open.
For a moment, she seemed unable to believe that she was actually wearing something so clean and beautiful. All this soft fabric and the warm cloak felt completely unfamiliar after the ragged clothes she had worn for so long.
"Is it... for me?"
"Duh, who else?" Lucian looked at her like the answer was obvious. "You think I'm gonna wear it?"
Cerydra hurriedly shook her head.
Yet despite her response, her imagination genuinely conjured up the image of Lucian wearing a dress, and she quickly suppressed the strange thought before it could become any more vivid.
In the end, she turned toward the lake and looked at her reflection in the water.
A clean and beautiful little girl stared back at her.
Her long blue-and-white hair fell loosely over her shoulders, smooth and glossy like silk. Her skin was fair, her eyes bright, and the difference between her current appearance and the filthy little beggar from earlier was so great that they almost seemed like two entirely different people.
Even better, she also had a cute little hat to go with her new clothes.
Cerydra turned back toward Lucian, her eyes sparkling with happiness.
"Thank you, big brother."
Lucian smiled and reached out to rub her head.
"Let's go. We're going home."
===
A few hours later, Lucian and Cerydra finally arrived at the imperial capital of Hyperborea, which stood in the middle of the frozen plains.
Its towering walls rose high above the surrounding landscape, constructed from enormous blocks of ice. Under the sunlight, their surfaces glittered brilliantly, making the entire capital appear almost like a city carved from crystal.
At the city gates, many people and carriages came and went without stopping, making the entrance bustling with activity.
Merchant caravans slowly passed through, with Dromas or horses in tow, while the guards stationed at the entrance wore thick leather armor and carried long spears as they inspected the travelers entering and leaving the city.
Lucian held Cerydra's hand as they walked through the gates.
Before long, they saw that the interior of the city was even more prosperous than the outskirts had suggested.
Broad streets stretched through the capital, with shops of all kinds lining both sides. Taverns, weapon shops, armor shops, general stores, and countless other establishments all contributed to a bustling atmosphere despite the harsh climate.
Most of the residents wore thick fur clothing to protect themselves from the cold, and although genuine smiles were rare on their faces, the city itself remained lively.
Meanwhile, the air carried the rich aromas of food from nearby shops and stalls, including roasted meat, freshly baked bread, steaming soup, and other warm dishes that were particularly tempting in the freezing weather.
Cerydra could not help swallowing as the smells reached her, then tightened her grip on Lucian's hand while her large eyes wandered from one side of the street to the other.
Even now, the city was just as lively as she remembered from her memories, almost as though the turmoil from a year ago had never happened. No one seemed to remember the parents who had died during that conflict, nor did the people walking these streets seem to carry any trace of the tragedy that had once taken place here.
Lucian continued leading Cerydra through the streets, and the two of them naturally attracted quite a bit of attention.
Most of it was because Lucian was simply too handsome, with an extraordinary bearing that made him stand out wherever he went.
As for the little girl beside him, she was thin and small, but beneath her frail appearance were delicate features that made it obvious she would grow into a remarkable beauty. Her long, flame-like blue hair was particularly conspicuous, its unusual color making her even more difficult to ignore.
People occasionally turned their heads as they passed, whispering among themselves.
"Whose kid is that?"
"Hmm, that hair color is kinda..."
"Doesn't it look like the royal family's color?"
"No way... Didn't the emperor leave behind no heir? Could she be the emperor's illegitimate daughter?"
Cerydra grew nervous as the whispers among the citizens continued, instinctively moving closer to Lucian.
He noticed her reaction and gently patted her head.
"What are you scared of? I'm right here."
Lucian's calm voice carried an inexplicable sense of reassurance, and Cerydra nodded before relaxing slightly.
Needless to say, her unique blue hair was simply too conspicuous to go unnoticed. In the middle of the crowd, it stood out like a beacon in the darkness, making it almost impossible for anyone familiar with the royal family's appearance to overlook her.
Ultimately, it did not take long for trouble to find them.
*CLOP!**CLOP!**CLOP!**CLOP!*
"Hey, you two up ahead, stop! And you, blue-haired kid, come over here and let me take a look!"
===
[A bonus chapter for reaching 400 Power Stones]
[Support and get early access to upcoming chapters at: patreon.com/VALRRR]