A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 1.1 - Prologue (This Winter)

This is a story about a certain kingdom that endured a very long winter.

Long before people recorded history in writing. A long, long time ago. The kingdom had winter, it had spring and summer, and it had autumn as well.

Spring was vibrant, summer was refreshing, autumn was tranquil, and winter was peaceful. It was a story from a time when the kingdom’s monarch was happy, passionate, wise, and benevolent.

Then one day.

A certain winter began.

It was a time when the kingdom’s monarch despaired, became obsessive, and turned cold and cruel. Swept up in the monarch’s solitude and despair, the kingdom had to face a very long winter.

The monarch who had gone mad met his end, and his son inherited the monarch’s throne, but spring still did not return. Because the monarch’s heart had frozen solid, losing all warmth and comfort, all softness and hope.

If the monarch’s frigid heart does not thaw, spring can never be reclaimed. The people who lost hope had to simply survive in misery.

The population dwindled, public sentiment grew harsh, and a world came to be where warmth and goodwill were as worthless as pebbles kicked underfoot. Never mind public sentiment and affection; even common hope was treated as something trivial and insignificant, worth less than dog droppings.

That thing called hope was cheaper and more worthless than the aphrodisiacs sold for a pittance in a brothel.

The prophet who was buried alive with the first monarch when he passed away, for the crime of failing to foresee the king’s change of heart. Only the last words of Daniel Blossom were the hope to end this arduous, long winter.

‘Spring exists everywhere, but it is in a place unseen.

For those who pass through that place and for those who do not,

it is a place unseen.’

And a few days later, another prophecy like this was discovered in the final chapter of Daniel Blossom’s last will and testament.

The flower is in the lowest place. A place that has already vanished.

It comes from one who was born in that place.

Without finding hope, a period of 100 years passed by helplessly. A silence and cold of that length lingered in the kingdom and would not leave.

Yes.

This is a story about a kingdom that lost its spring.

A certain winter’s tale in Winterfall.