Chapter 176

Eventually, our eyes turned to something the other attendant had brought.

“That…… !”

“Is it a sled?”

“Right. Anyone who wants to ride a sled is welcome. The attendants will help.”

“Wow! I want to ride.”

“Me too! Me too! I will ride!”

Cedric and Alice stepped out and became interested in sledding.

But I wasn’t very interested, so I stood still.

Then, looking at me, Maya asked a question.

“Emir, aren’t you interested in sledding?”

“Well, I just want to sit.”

I also needed time to think about how to find out about the curse.

Maya reflected on my answer and suggested.

“Really? Then I’m going to go ice fishing here, would you like to take a look around?”

“Alright, huh?”

The moment I nodded, I turned my attention to the presence of someone right next to me.

Jake stood naturally between Maya and me.

“Young Duke Maya, I’ll take a look together too.”

“Ah…… okay. Great.”

With an awkward smile, Maya accepted Jake’s company.

‘I wonder if it’s because of my mood that it feels uncomfortable between the two of them.’

I wondered if the two of them had secretly quarreled while I was in the room.

Anyway, after a while, after digging a hole in the ice about the diameter of an adult’s hand, we sat around it.

‘Maya, you really like fishing.’

Although he usually has a smiling face almost always, when fishing like this, even his eyes twinkle, and it feels like he has suddenly replenished his vitality.

I stared blankly as Maya put the bait on the fishing rod and made all the preparations.

Then, suddenly, Jake moved closer to me.

What is it, is it cold?

I glanced at Jake’s outfit, but he didn’t look particularly cold.

However, his hands were particularly cold in the carriage earlier, so I thought that he might still be quite cold.

So I swung my arms around Jake.

Fortunately, Jake graciously hugged my arm tightly.

I could see the corners of his lips rising as if it was warm.

After a while.

Jake whispered softly.

“…… Mir, what are you thinking?”

“What? I’m just thinking about this and that. You, Jay?”

Actually, this time too, I secretly swallowed my saliva, thinking that it would be delicious to eat barbecued fish on the spot…….

I just ate, but I hesitated because it didn’t seem like a good idea to talk about what to eat again.

Then Jake laughed.

“I was thinking what Mir was thinking.”

“Ahaha, what is that?”

I laughed, thinking that Jake was joking around because he was bored.

At that moment, Maya, who had been hard at work fishing, lifted his head.

“…… You two look very close.”

“…… !”

I wondered if Maya was a little sad because we were talking without him, so I quickly changed the topic.

“So, Young Duke Maya, how many fish did you catch?”

“Me? Well…… Let’s see. I caught five.”

What? Already?

It felt like it had only been about 10 minutes, but it was a great speed.

Did he get one as soon as he dropped the line?

Maya smiled shyly and continued.

“Actually, it’s a little awkward because the two of you are watching, so I missed a few.”

With that much missed fish, Maya seemed to be a great fisherman by nature.

“Oh, more than that. Why don’t we have a barbecue in that vacant lot later?”

“Wow, that’s a good idea.”

Just as I had a similar thought, I immediately nodded my head in delight.

* * *

After about 30 minutes.

It was when there were almost 20 fish in the basket.

Maya said he was stopping at this point, cleared his spot and stood up.

We headed to the vacant lot with Cedric and Alice, who looked tired even after riding the sled for a long time.

“This land…….”

But somehow, it seemed that this land was not just an ordinary vacant lot.

It was a land that had a very strange feeling as it had been dug up here and there.

‘It definitely feels like something is popping out or something important is buried.’

However, as soon as a bonfire was lit and the fish was grilled, that feeling disappeared like snow.

As everyone was warming up with their hands near the bonfire, I saw Maya throwing dry twigs brought by the attendant into firewood and asked a question.

“But why are there so many pits here?”

“Oh, that’s right. This is the land where my father was going to build an outdoor banquet hall.”

“Aha!”

“But, as you can see, it can’t be built properly, and the ground is dug here and there.”

Saying that, Maya pointed to a corner.

Heaps of colored stones were piled up.

“Look over there. The stones that came out while digging the ground were piled up randomly. Shortly after the construction started, the weather became cold, so this is what happened. Now we can’t even build an outdoor banquet hall anyway.”

After hearing Maya’s words, I suddenly got curious and got up and headed towards the pile of stones.

As I was snooping around the stones piled up roughly, something strange caught my eye.

“……?”