Rolling in Bed with the Male Lead

It's cold and grueling, but...

Clenching his hand, which felt as though it would freeze solid even inside his thick glove, Richard continued up the slope.

It's still relatively uneventful.

Hadn't he said it just a little while ago? The North was a cold, harsh land teeming with monsters.

Fortunately, he hadn't encountered any monsters so far.

As Richard took comfort in that thought and stepped onto another sloping snowfield, it happened.

Whoosh—!

The snow beneath his foot slid away.

"!"

Losing his balance, Richard hastily thrust out his arm. His hand desperately seized a tree branch stretching out before him.

"Huh..."

That was close...

Having barely regained his balance by grabbing the branch, Richard let out a sigh of relief.

On such a treacherous snowy mountain, even a single fall could cause serious injury.

If asked whether he knew that from experience, he would rather not answer.

Carefully, again.

Richard looked up and surveyed the path where he had nearly fallen moments earlier. He cautiously planted one foot on the ground and pulled his other leg up. After pausing for a moment, he stepped forward again.

After repeating this dozens of times, he finally managed to reach relatively flat ground.

"Hah..."

Richard released the tension in his body with a sigh of relief.

He hadn't reached the summit yet, but he seemed to be about halfway there.

Having climbed the mountain without rest for hours, he was out of breath. Richard pulled the water bottle he had brought from inside his cloak.

Let's rest for a while, then start climbing again...

Just as he twisted off the cap and let the ice-cold water flow into his mouth—

"Grrrr..."

He sensed a murderous gaze from somewhere.

"!"

Immediately stuffing the water bottle back inside his cloak, Richard scanned his surroundings. It was coming from the forest directly behind him.

"Grrrr... Grrrrr!..."

Three or four wolves, each the size of a boulder, stared at Richard with their sharp fangs bared.

Snow Wolves!

Richard immediately thrust a hand inside his cloak.

These were no ordinary wolves. They were Snow Wolves, monsters found only in the North.

Three times larger than ordinary wolves, a single Snow Wolf could tear apart and kill four or five people at once.

"..."

Richard gritted his teeth. A hollow laugh escaped through them.

Zahir... I'm really going to kill him...

Before he could even finish the thought, the pack of Snow Wolves charged at him with lightning speed.

"!"

Richard quickly lowered himself and rolled to the side.

The dagger!

Having dodged the pack, Richard frantically rummaged inside his cloak and pulled out a dagger.

He had bought it at a shop in the capital in preparation for the possibility of encountering monsters.

"Grrrrr!"

One of the Snow Wolves lunged for the back of Richard's neck, its eyes rolling back.

Thwack!

The dagger sank deep into the wolf's left eye.

"Gyaaaaaah!"

The Snow Wolf let out an agonized shriek.

Frowning, Richard pulled out the dagger. Disgusting fresh blood splattered across his cheek.

Ugh.

His brief impulse to curse Zahir again was cut short as Richard immediately drove the dagger into the left side of the Snow Wolf's chest.

Thud—!

The wolf's body went limp.

One down.

Retrieving his dagger, Richard turned his gaze toward the remaining wolves.

"..."

"..."

Having lost one of their own, the wolves glared at Richard as though they were ready to tear him to pieces.

"...?"

Richard furrowed his brow.

Don't tell me...

"Awooooooooo!"

"Awoo!"

The Snow Wolves began howling at the top of their lungs.

Ah.

Richard let out a hollow laugh.

Within seconds, numerous packs of wolves swarmed in from every direction, drawn by the howling.

Looks like I killed the leader of the pack.

Dozens of Snow Wolves surrounded him on all sides. The situation was not good.

Damn it.

Richard gritted his teeth.

"Grrrrrrrrrr!"

Dozens of wolves charged, their eyes rolling back.

"!"

Richard ran in the direction where there were the fewest wolves.

"Kiiiiik!"

"Grrrr!"

The wolves fiercely bared their fangs.

Thud!

Richard drove his dagger into the neck of the nearest wolf and spun around. With the dagger still embedded in the wolf's body, he swung its corpse.

"Grrrr?!"

"Kiiik?!"

The wolves charging at Richard to tear him apart instead sank their teeth into the corpse of their dead companion.

Heh.

Richard raised one corner of his mouth.

It's been a while since I've done something like this.

He pulled another dagger from the belt strapped around his thigh.

Thwack!

Taking advantage of the wolves' confusion after biting into one of their own, he slashed through their bodies with his dagger.

"Hah."

Wiping the blood splattered across his face, Richard thought back.

In the past, he had been weak.

Despite being the young master of a noble house, he had never properly learned swordsmanship, nor did he know how to use a bow.

Thwack! Thock!

He had been so weak that even he found it frustrating.

So weak that I couldn't even save her properly.

The day she was kidnapped by thugs, he had drawn his sword to save her, but he was pathetically helpless—weaker even than the mere thugs hired to abduct her.

He could do nothing but watch helplessly as she was taken away.

It was the same in his second regression and his third.

"Gyaaaaaah!"

"Guhwek!"

So he practiced swordsmanship until he was half-dead.

To save her.

To become the one who saved her—not Cailus, the "male lead," but himself, the "second male lead."

Crack!

Twisting his wrist while the dagger remained embedded in the eye of a charging wolf, Richard {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} laughed.

I came to the North and trained.

With no proper swordsmanship instructor and no training grounds, that was the only option available to Richard.

He nearly died several times.

But for her sake, he had to do it. Even though he was afraid, even though it hurt, he endured.

Even when his arm was torn open by the blade-like fangs of a Snow Wolf, even when his entire body froze from a Drake's breath, he endured and held on.

And so, by his fourth regression...

"Hah..."

He finally managed to save her when she was about to be kidnapped.

It's all over now.

Richard swept an indifferent gaze over his surroundings.

The pure white snowfield was now stained with blood and filth. With every step, the chillingly cold corpses of wolves caught against his boots.

Richard's reflection in the clear ice was also a pitiful sight.

...

Richard coldly examined his appearance. His cloak, face, and limbs were drenched in monster blood, all stained a dark reddish-black.

Daphne probably wouldn't be pleased if she saw me like this...

Wiping his bloodied face with the hem of his cloak, Richard's shoulders slumped. It wasn't a sight he particularly wanted Daphne to see.

She should only see good things...

It was then.

"Grr, rr..."

One of the fallen wolves twitched.

Ah.

Richard's blue eyes turned cold when he noticed it.

Crunch!

Richard stomped on the wolf's head.

"Kiiing..."

The wolf's body went limp like the corpses surrounding it.

Richard looked down at it with a cold expression.

"Your Highness, there's blood here..."

The escort knights, heavily armed with swords and thick armor, all came to a halt at once. The ground was soaked with blood, and the corpses of Snow Wolves lay scattered haphazardly around them.

"It seems there was a battle."

"So it appears."

Draped in a black cloak, Cailus swept his cold gaze over the scene.

The identity of the person who had caused this commotion was immediately apparent.

The one who had passed this way ahead of him.

Richard Friedrich.

There could be no one else.

He looked down the long, straight path ahead.

Deep footprints continued along the blood-soaked snowy trail.

"Your Highness, what shall we do?"

One of the knights who had accompanied him asked with a grim expression.

"Follow the trail."

Cailus began walking, following the footprints.

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