"Lord Russell, Lord Karis!" At the campsite in the northeast corner, Lord Stephen, with his long, narrow horse-like face, replied coolly.
As fellow lords, it was only natural for Russell to come over and offer a greeting.
However, seeing that Lord Stephen was not particularly welcoming, Russell could not be bothered to continue the conversation and returned to his own campsite.
Knight Captain Karis soon followed him over. "Lord Stephen is always like that. He has a cold face for everyone, even when meeting the old count himself. Please do not take offense."
"I did not." Russell smiled. "It has been a hard day, Lord Karis. Shall we share some Ice Burn?"
"As you wish." Knight Captain Karis readily agreed.
Once his personal manservant Ram had prepared dinner, the two sat on the ground and slowly sipped Ice Burn with their simple meal.
"Taking a sip of Ice Burn in the snow truly feels wonderful." Knight Captain Karis sighed in appreciation.
Russell smiled. "Isn't that so?"
Ice Burn was frozen grape wine. It was icy upon entering the mouth, yet burned like fire going down the throat, hence its common name.
Russell was not particularly fond of alcohol, so he had not studied it much. Still, he knew that knights and merchants traveling across the snowfield loved frozen grape wine most.
So-called frozen grape wine was made by freezing grape wine, then removing the portion that froze once ice began to form. What remained was frozen grape wine, also known as Ice Burn.
In Russell's view, that was probably because alcohol had a lower freezing point than water. Water froze first, so removing the frozen water was equivalent to distilling the grape wine once.
That was why Ice Burn was so potent, burning like fire as it went down the