abnabooks Chapter 38: Snow Lion Pup [2]
Chapter 38: Snow Lion Pup [2]
Chapter 38: Snow Lion Pup [2]The snow outside bit into my face the moment we stepped out of the cave.
It was dusk. The sky bled orange and violet over the endless stretch of frozen peaks. The blizzard that once howled around us had calmed to a lazy drift of snowflakes, drifting down like feathers. Beneath that calm, the mountains felt quiet—almost reverent, like they knew what had just happened.
The pup nestled against my chest, wrapped inside my cloak, his tiny breaths tickling the crook of my neck.
Alice didn’t say anything for a while. Her boots crunched in the snow beside me, steady, purposeful.
Then, after a long pause, she spoke.
"I am asking for the last time. You’re keeping him?"
"Obviously."
"Hmph. Don’t forget if he killes anyone you will also be dead." She didn’t sound pleased. Or maybe she was and just didn’t want to show it.
"I know."
I adjusted the cloak, making sure the pup’s head was covered from the wind. "He needs a name."
Alice shot me a sidelong glance. "You want me to name it?"
"Would that be a problem?"
"Considering I almost decapitated it ten minutes ago? Maybe."
I grinned. "Then I guess I’ll name him myself."
The pup looked up at me with sleepy eyes, still unsure whether I was his savior or just another predator.
"How about... Sera?"
Alice blinked. "Isn’t that a girl’s name?"
I shrugged. "Short for Serac. Like the ice towers you find on glaciers. Fits, doesn’t it?"
"No. It’s a monster. He doesn’t this kind of the name."
"Then what kind of name will it suits him?"
I couldn’t help but asked. A name is just name.
Don’t tell there is discrimination against even names?
Damn.
"Forget it. You don’t have any sense. I will choose a fitting name for a monster later. For now let’s go."
I wanted to point out that she shouldn’t discrimination against names but I held myself back.
I don’t want to be the next target of her sword.
So, without saying anything I followed her.
---
"Head butler, there’s nothing around here!"
Hans pressed a hand to his temple, a sharp throb pulsing beneath his fingertips. His patience was wearing thin.
"This is the worst Successor Trial in decades," he muttered under his breath.
They had mobilized nearly two dozen soldiers, servants, and a support team—yet not a trace of Alice or Julies.
Why even assign escorts if Alice would just wave them off?
Why bring Julies Evans along in the first place?
A noble from the South, an outsider unfamiliar with the North’s merciless winters and blood-soaked trials.
"Julies Evans..." Hans repeated the name like a curse. Whether he followed Alice of his own will or was dragged along didn’t matter anymore. If he was the one taking the lead, it was reckless. If Alice had brought him, then he was just dead weight.
In both cases, the outcome was the same—Hans would be furious.
Hans took a deep breath, his eyes drifting toward the horizon where the sun had begun its slow descent. Crimson light stained the snow, and he felt a chill deeper than the cold.
"If only they had fired the flare," he said, voice tight. "Monsters grow bolder at night. Even Alice won’t last long without proper support."
He stepped forward, raising his voice.
"Keep
"Have you lost your mind entirely Lady Alice?"
Alice just shrugged. "He agreed to keep it."
"I—" Julies started, but her glare silenced him.
Hans rubbed his temple again, muttering under his breath, "Of all the reckless, impossible—"
Then he paused.
He looked again at the boy. At Alice. At the bloody lion corpse, and the pup blinking up from under Julies’s cloak.
This shouldn’t have worked.
It shouldn’t have been possible.
And yet...
The Snow Lion was dead. Alice had done what no noble heir in decades had dared. And Julies—this soft-spoken, clueless southern noble—had survived it. Not just survived. He’d come back with something in his arms, something he was willing to protect, despite the odds.
Hans exhaled.
Maybe it was luck. Maybe foolishness.
But sometimes... that’s exactly how legends begin.
"...Fine," he said at last. "You can keep your monster."
Julies blinked. "Really?"
Hans’s eyes narrowed. "But if it so much as growls at anyone in the castle, I’m feeding it to the frost hounds myself. And you’ll go right after it, boy."
"Yes, sir."
Alice smirked. "Don’t worry. I’ll keep him in check."
Hans grumbled, but said nothing more.
The wind howled again across the peaks as night finally fell, and the group began their trek back—leaving behind the bloodstained snow, the broken fangs of a dead beast.