Five days had passed on the journey, and using the same loophole, Kai was able to get Yu instructions on how to hunt wild creatures. Over the past five days, Yu had also become a rather capable hunter if he followed the system's instructions, and would still be able to shoot an arrow in approximately the direction he wanted it to go.
However, it had also snowed considerably during two of the four nights Yu and Bob had to weather through, bringing the two of them to their current states of having their limbs frozen into an unnatural shade of red.
Yu knew this was frostbite, a silent killer which might not seem like too much of an issue at first, but if this continued it might lead to their deaths.
However, they could not take too many breaks to light fires, especially during the day. At night, lighting a fire would at best alert the enemies like James about their location if they were nearby, however doing this during the day was much worse, as everyone would be able to spot a pillar of smoke rising into the sky.
This was why they could not light fires during the day, and also why they did not light a fire on the first night, since James and his gang of traitors might be nearby at the time.
Now that they were a sufficient distance away, they could most definitely light fires during the night, but not during the day.
So, they had to brave the cold during the daytime, resulting in their current situation.
Braving through the snow, Yu realised Bob was no longer behind him, so he quickly turned around and ran backwards, only to find Bob unconscious in the unforgiving snow.
Yu thought about leaving Bob for a moment but then felt something inside him refusing to let him do that, so he took off the snow boots from Bob's legs and put them on his chest, followed by his hands, which were all tied in place with a vine.
After ensuring that Bob was still breathing Yu continued to construct a much larger version of the snowshoe and placed Bob on it, with his chest facing the cloudy winter sky.
Then, Yu tied a few vines to the makeshift sled and tied Bob securely onto it, before taking the last bits of his vines and making a rope for him to be able to pull the sled before continuing on the journey.
Based on his estimates, it should not take more than a day or two until he reached the village, and he had to keep moving if he wanted to stay alive.
…
Kai on the other hand was also not enjoying his situation. Although it was nowhere near as severe as Yu's, Kai was now already trying a new position to sit on the horse. Both his feet were on one side as he just focused on remaining balanced.
This was a position used mainly by women due to their clothes, which generally restricted the movement of their legs, unlike the pants men wore which were rather flexible.
Although that was the case, none of the soldiers made fun of Kai, not because he was their Young Lord, but because of two reasons. Firstly, they had to commend this young child of no more than 10 years old, who had been riding on horseback for over five days now throughout the entire time that there was daylight without complaining even once. Something like this required immense mental fortitude, especially considering that the young lord had never ridden a horse before, and had clearly been in pain from the moment they set off. The second, and more important reason for their silence was the fact that the young lord was most definitely the one who had killed all those soldiers alone and then dragged their bodies onto the road to prevent anyone from escaping.
"Pops, how long before we reach the Bluestone duchy?" Kai could not help but ask. It had already been 5 days since they set off, and although they had successfully been able to hunt for food every day, Kai did not wish to spend too much more time travelling.
"Hmm. We should have already crossed a barony, but it will take us at least another week travelling at this same speed to reach the Bluestone duchy. We will not be making any stops along the way other than the ones to rest for the night." Morgan replied without turning around to face Kai.
"Alright" Kai however did not mind that and instead returned to performing his act which deserved to be played out in a circus of reading a book while trying to balance sideways on a moving horse.
This time, Kai was reading another book about the Legendary Hero Blackthorn, whose descendants now rule over the Blackthorn Duchy to the north of the Bluestone Duchy. This was a story about how the Hero Blackthorn killed a rampaging Dragon, and how he was betrayed by his most trusted retainer for the dragon's body, but somehow ended up surviving against all odds and finally took revenge on all those who had wronged him.