My Villainous Husband

72

In comparison to their previous departure to aid the Temple of Tunia, the Actilus army’s progress was slower this time, but they were steadily advancing forward. Since everyone had already anticipated that the journey would be more challenging compared to before, it wasn’t a significant concern. Instead, the desire to claim the land of Sombinia for themselves was fueling their determination.

Even though Raniero was particularly eager for conquest, he intentionally advanced at a slower pace.

It was to build frustration among the knights.

The more they pushed themselves to endure the journey, the more ferocious they would be in battle. By doing so, they would easily swallow up the Sombinia army, who had to contend with the weather’s challenges.

The sky started to cloud over, but no one paid much attention to it.

Raniero and the people of Actilus assumed that the weather this year would follow the patterns of the past ten years. It was a reasonable assumption to some extent, given their familiarity with the region’s climate tendencies. However, what they were unaware of was that heavy snowfall was expected this year. Only a few individuals knew about it, and unfortunately, none of them belonged to the Actilus army.

He glanced up at the white sky.

Yesterday, he had a dream.

Upon waking, like any dream, most of its contents had slipped from his memory. Although for someone who had never dreamed before like Raniero, the fact that he had experienced one felt foreign and peculiar. Determined to hold onto even the slightest fragment of the dream, he made relentless efforts to grasp its fading details.

In the dream, Angelica had appeared, but her actions and words had vanished from his recollection.

What lingered was the impression that she hadn’t been smiling.

He strained to recall what the Angelica in the dream had said, but ultimately, he knew that she was merely a figment of his imagination, not the real her. Usually, he would dismiss such things as meaningless and inconsequential.

A small demon whispered in his head as he struggled.

‘Forget it.’

The words gripped his mind as it breathed a sinister wind into it.

‘Do your part.’

Looking up at the sky, he cast his gaze into the distance toward the direction of the Sombinia Kingdom.

‘Show me something interesting.’

The ‘interesting’ thing the voice in his head was talking about was, of course, a battlefield filled with the stench of blood and screams.

Raniero grinned brightly.

“Let’s go.”

Although he could hear what sounded like the laughter of a young child in his mind, he wasn’t conscious of it.

It was elated.

It was because as time passed, and the more time he spent away from that insignificant girl, the more Raniero listened to it.

·: * ✧* :·  ̊

“The sky is getting cloudy.”

Eden opened his mouth.

While it may have sounded like a straightforward observation, beneath his words, I sensed a hint of concern. Since we had quite a distance left to cover before reaching the Temple of Tunia, the prospect of heavy snowfall before our arrival worried him.