Winter Field Chapter 23

“It looks like thunder is about to strike again.”

It was just as he had predicted. Before his words had even ended, the sound of massive rods of light pounding the ground followed. Standing close together, he could feel Rensley’s breath catching in his throat. Even the minute detail of his long eyelashes trembling faintly over his eyes as he stared at the closed window entered Gisel’s sight.

When the resounding noise had receded, Gisel quietly admonished him.

“Thunder and lightning are merely natural phenomena. There is no malice in the light or sound, and as long as you are within the castle, there is no possibility of an accident befalling you.”

“I know that too. It’s just that the thunder is so loud… It’s not that I’m scared, it’s just that this is my first time experiencing such intense thunder and lightning, so I’m startled.”

Rensley, who had been staring fixedly only at the window, glanced at Gisel. Feeling awkward just standing there blankly, Gisel proposed first.

“How about we go to bed now?”

“Let’s do that. Get into the bed first.”

As soon as Gisel finished speaking, Rensley approached the bed and threw himself into it. The meticulously warmed bed was as soft and toasty as bread just taken out of an oven. As if he had donned armor capable of blocking any attack, his tension eased and the courage to face the thunder through the night arose.

The warmth enveloping his body, the fluffy pillows, the soft fur and blanket pulled up to his chin. Why did being surrounded by warm, cozy things—possessing absolutely no defensive power—make him feel as though he was being protected by the strongest thing in the world? He knew it was a foolish delusion, but what did it matter? Rensley soothed himself with the sweet delusion.

Around the time the sky was preparing to rumble again, Gisel, who had finished preparing for bed, also got into the bed. Startled, Rensley shifted slightly to the side.

The Grand Duchess’s bed was spacious enough for two grown men to lie down with room to spare, and they could lie side by side without even a fingertip touching. Gisel, not fully lying down but with his upper body propped up at an angle, asked.

“Shall I close the bed curtains as well?”

“It’s fine. I think it’s better to have a little light tonight. Ah, can you not sleep unless it’s dark?”

“No. I can sleep just as well in front of the fireplace.”

At those words, Rensley ended up laughing without realizing it. It reminded him of the sight of Gisel when he had gone down to the basement.

Grand Duke Gisel, seated with his body buried in an armchair before the fireplace, reading documents. If what had been on his lap had been a cat or a puppy rather than papers full of difficult writing, it would have made for a very peaceful scene.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Ah…”

Rensley hastily glossed it over.

“I’m just happy that Your Highness is sleeping with me.”

Even though Rensley had said there was no need to draw the curtains, Gisel did not lie down and still looked down at him, his body remaining upright. Rensley looked back up at him, too. In the dimmer light, the color of his amber eyes had deepened a little. They even looked like the soft, mellow hue of black tea.

Having removed his cloak and regalia and lying on the bed, his stern aura as a sovereign softened, Gisel Siebendad was easier to meet the eyes of than just a moment ago. In truth, much like the act of wrapping himself in a blanket that couldn’t truly protect him at all to drive away the fear in his heart, Rensley accepted without wariness the optical illusion created by the unique situation, the candlelight, and the curtain shadows combined.

“Well then.”

Gisel, who had given no other reply, slowly opened his mouth.

“Shall we sleep together tomorrow as well?”

“Pardon?”

At the unexpected proposal, Rensley’s eyes widened. The one who had actually made the suggestion continued on indifferently, as if he thought nothing of it.

“Sleeping alone has been a habit for so long that I failed to take notice… but if My Lord prefers sleeping together, I do not mind doing so.”

“No, Your Highness. I do not wish to impose on you for long. Today was because of the thunder; originally, I too have always lived alone. Despite how I look, I once dreamed of being a knight, you know.”

Rensley shook his head, appalled. No matter how much more relaxed the atmosphere was than usual, if he had to share a bed with this large and taciturn sovereign every night, how could he ever close his eyes in peace? He might end up developing the insomnia he had only ever heard of.

“A knight?”

Gisel fully propped his arm up, resting his head on his hand, and lay down on his side. Rensley felt he had let slip unnecessary words, but it was water under the bridge. He laughed it off.

“It’s a story from when I was young. How common are nobles willing to appoint an illegitimate son who didn’t even receive a proper education as a knight? After I learned that there were many rotten knights out there, I lost interest anyway.”

“Is the treatment of legitimate and illegitimate children very different in Cornia?”

“Well… Can’t you tell just by looking at me? Isn’t it similar everywhere?”

The look that returned was not an expression of particular agreement.

‘Why is he suddenly asking this?’

It was only then that Rensley grew a little tense. As if Gisel had sensed that too, he did not bother to hide it and drew out his inner thoughts.

“You, My Lord, do not seem accustomed to being attended to, for someone from a royal family.”

“Ah, that’s… because I’ve actually rarely ever received it. Although I was acknowledged as a child of the king’s blood and came to live within the royal palace, I was only given lodgings and was effectively treated like a servant. The king had few daughters, so for Yvette, he granted her the surname Elvanes and recognized her as a princess, but I wasn’t even permitted to use a family name.”

Rensley shrugged his shoulders as he lay there.

“Honestly speaking, all the Cornian royals are rotten luck. Though the little children born to the current queen are still cute. Whether it’s because I grew up among servants or what, I actually think it’s rather fortunate that I didn’t turn into such a nauseating human being. It was the royals and nobles who tormented and discriminated against me, not the servants and commoners, after all. The current Crown Prince is especially trash, and if I were to speak of the atrocities that bastard committed, it wouldn’t be enough even if we stayed up all night. Why on earth they put a wretch like that in the position of Crown Prince… I only feel sorry for the people of Cornia. He’ll surely go down in history as a tyrant later on.”

Rensley, whose words had been growing faster, suddenly shut his mouth and lowered his eyes.

“I’ve talked too much nonsense. I apologize.”

“No. The Crown Prince of Cornia is someone who cannot be said to be completely unrelated to Oldenland in the future. Was his name Felix?”

“Yes. Is Oldenland a place where discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate children is not severe?”

“It is said that in the old days, because the environment was harsh, children often died. As a result, there was no room to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate. Adultery is judged, but no discrimination is made based on birth.”

“I see…”

BANG. Just then, a violent sound struck again. Rensley, who had completely forgotten about the weather outside due to the brief quiet that had continued and his conversation with Gisel, was so startled that he let out a short cry and yanked the blanket up.

Afterward, his ears grew hot. For a grown man who had just declared with his own mouth that he had wanted to be a knight to be scared of a mere ‘natural phenomenon’ could not, after all, be something to be proud of.

With it now difficult to hide that he had been frightened, Rensley slowly pulled down the blanket that had covered him to the top of his head, and began making disjointed excuses to his bedmate, who was still looking down at him with no change in expression whatsoever.

“I too, I didn’t dislike thunder this much from the beginning… That Fel… the Crown Prince bastard I mentioned earlier, once tied me to a garden tree in the palace courtyard all night on a day with thunder, claiming it was punishment. Lightning could have struck the tree— isn’t he a complete madman? Do you know what’s even more terrible? The tree I was tied to actually got struck by lightning and caught fire!”

“So what happened?”

Even Gisel asked, sounding slightly surprised. Accidents in which tall trees were struck by lightning and burned or toppled occasionally happened even in Oldenland, where the plains were wide and there were many trees.

Most of the time, only the tree suffered damage, but it was not uncommon for woodcutters or hunters working nearby to get caught up in it and sustain injuries both large and small. To think he had been struck by lightning while tied to a tree, no less.

“Fortunately, only the tree broke, and I wasn’t hurt at all.”

“…”