A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 2.6 - Winterfall

When a hand suddenly touched his skin, Noah, startled, reflexively tried to pull away. But Michaelis gripped his shoulder tightly and observed the pattern.

It was a design that seemed familiar yet strange, as if he had seen it somewhere before. He gently rubbed it and asked.

“Is it a tattoo?”

“Yes.”

“Does it signify your affiliation with the Red House?”

Noah shook his head. It was the first time someone else’s hand had touched his bare skin for so long, and he felt like he might cry.

“No.”

“Then?”

“…”

“There must be no flaws in a gift to be presented to my lord. No scars, and especially not a tattoo like this.”

At those words, Noah started in surprise and exclaimed.

“The bruises will fade soon! And they won’t leave any scars… that mark is…”

Noah, who had been pouring out excuses, squeezed his eyes shut. For someone who had put on such a bold front, he looked so innocent that Michaelis chuckled softly. Noah, being deceived by his simple lie, somehow felt lovely.

What nonsense about no scars or tattoos. Among the noble daughters offered to Elia as wives, there had even been a strange woman who, after fooling around anywhere and everywhere, saw Elia’s looks and asked to be his partner just because she wanted to sleep with him.

However, Noah, completely taken in by him, slowly confessed.

“I don’t know. It’s been on my body from the start.”

“…”

“I-it’s true. My sister said it was there since I was born…”

“I know. So don’t tremble like that.”

Michaelis smiled lightly and pulled Noah’s clothes up tight. As his face suddenly drew close, Noah squeezed his eyes shut, thinking he was about to be kissed.

Michaelis spoke playfully, his voice full of laughter.

“If you keep acting this pretty, Elia will like you a lot.”

When he cautiously opened his tightly shut eyes, he saw Michaelis’s deep ultramarine eyes, tinged with sadness.

It was the first time that he, whom Noah had only known as playful, had revealed his inner self. For some reason, it looked as if he were entrusting a friend to him, and Noah felt strangely solemn.

❄️🐺❄️

Noah thought that rather than being sold to a filthy greedy man, he should sell himself to the noblest person in this empire. As it happened, his regent, who said he would buy him, was right before his eyes.

That deal was quite successful.

Michaelis, though full of mischief, was not as lawless as the governor who had tormented the Red House. As promised, when Noah was leaving the Dominion of the Sun, he cleared the Red House of the false accusations and, on behalf of the emperor, dismissed the governor.

It did not seem like he was going to such lengths just for Noah’s sake. But Noah, who had ended up getting his revenge as a result, looked at him with eyes that seemed to be witnessing something strange.

“What are you looking at? I just didn’t like what that governor was doing from the start.”

Noah was left even more speechless as he looked at Michaelis, who replied with an expression that suggested it was nothing special.

Noah managed to leave only a letter for the members of the Red House, telling them to be well, and then headed for the central dominion with Michaelis.

To the central region, ruled by the Winter family, the nobles of winter, who were once the nobles of the wolf.

“What kind of person is the monarch?”

On the way to a colder, more solitary land, the carriage ride with Michaelis was quiet. Just by looking at Michaelis, who had come to the Dominion of the Sun as his supposed subordinate, it was not easy to picture what kind of person the emperor was. That was why Noah asked.

However, Michaelis thought for a moment and did not open his mouth easily.

Noah smiled playfully.

“There were many rumors about the emperor at the Red House too.”

“What kind of things were they?”

“Um… that there’s no one as beautiful as him in all of Winterfall.”

“Hmm.”

Michaelis thought for a moment, weighing the looks of Noah before him against his friend Elia. Elia’s face was quite beautiful, but his build was much larger and broader. Besides, Michaelis, who had been close to him since they were young, had always thought Elia’s face was objectively pretty, but he was reluctant to describe it as beautiful enough to capture his heart.

If anything, Noah, who was right in front of him, was more to Michaelis’s taste.

“I think it would be different for everyone who sees him.”

“Really?”

Michaelis nodded and stared at Noah, who had quickly regained his composure, with a look of someone seeing something strange.

Still, since Noah was a gift he was bringing to his friend, he was treating him with a certain degree of formality. After all, he was someone who might spend the night with Elia and take up a place in the private palace.

But at some point, Noah too began to treat Michaelis with a casual attitude.

People who are accustomed to the hierarchy of status, no matter how well they are treated, will have the mannerisms of their time at the bottom show in their gestures. But Noah treated Michaelis naturally, as if he had never made such distinctions from birth.

Yet, that attitude was neither rude nor thoughtless. When Michaelis offered help, he would bow deeply to show respect, and when the coachman or servants helped with the carriage, he would naturally express his gratitude.

It seemed as if he was used to being in a high position, and in some ways, it looked as if he didn’t care about status at all.

‘What a strange fellow, in more ways than one.’

As Michaelis stared intently at him, as if observing a gift he had chosen himself for his friend, Noah asked again.

“Then what about this rumor?”

“What is it?”

“The reason the emperor’s wives changed so often.”

“And what is that reason rumored to be?”

“That the emperor’s thing is super tiny, like a mouse dropping. That’s why his wives ran away.”

As soon as Michaelis heard that, he burst out laughing. He looked like he was about to roll around on the carriage floor with laughter, and it was Noah who was taken aback.

“Th-the women of the brothel are knowledgeable about that sort of thing! The madam and Ellie told me, so it must be true.”

“Khahahahaha!”

Michaelis, who had been laughing for a long time, said with a regretful face.

“Noah. In my opinion, you’ll be the saddest person in the world because that rumor isn’t true.”

“What? Why me, and not the emperor himself?”

Noah’s face was filled with a mixture of bewilderment and confusion. But Michaelis nodded and patted his shoulder.

“You’re on the smaller side, aren’t you? So, about the size of the monarch’s thing… I’m sorry, Noah. I’ll say sorry in advance.”

Michaelis’s comforting gesture was utterly incomprehensible, and Noah could not shake off the feeling of unease throughout the journey to the central dominion. But his body was already sold. Since he could not express any other complaints, he was carried along in the carriage in silence.

To the very center of the central dominion. A land that had been thoroughly seeped in 100 years of cold and was frozen solid. Michaelis brought Noah to the private palace within the castle right there.

Noah was constantly tense. Because the Red House had been on the verge of being torn apart, he had boldly declared he would sell himself and had been led away by a strange man. But now that he was actually being led into a magnificent palace and being made to bathe and purify himself, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was the right thing to do in such a desperate situation.

He tried to console himself by saying it was a last resort in a desperate situation, but a sense of self-reproach kept creeping in, wondering if he had foolishly sold himself off when there might have been a better solution.

Especially when the court ladies came close to help him bathe, he flinched and trembled every time the soft cloth touched his body.

Michaelis, who was standing and silently watching him cleanse his body, noticed the change and smiled faintly. Being surrounded by strangers while naked, he was already preoccupied with just covering his private parts. It was truly a deplorable situation.

‘I stopped counting my age long ago, but this is the first time I’ve been bathed by so many women!’

Shame mixed with humiliation washed over him, and he squeezed his eyes shut. But he consoled himself by thinking that the procedures and conventions within the castle were probably difficult for an ordinary person like him to understand.

But finally, the hands of the women stroking his body began to move deeper down. Just as he was seriously contemplating whether he should run out, the woman at the very front, who was caressing Noah’s body, spread his thighs and suddenly thrust her hand between his private parts.

“Ugh, aaaaah!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Noah curled up his body and retreated. Both the women and Noah himself were surprised by his reaction.

The women could not hide their bewilderment and glanced at Michaelis. Stealing glances at him, they once again began to try to grab Noah’s arms and spread his legs. As a result, Noah’s white chest, which had been tinged with a red flush, became completely suffused with a frantic pink.

“Ah.”

Michaelis, who was watching, let out a low sigh and then commanded in a voice full of laughter.

“You can leave that part alone. No one else has ever entered there. Let’s save it for pleasure.”

Noah, who had almost had his shyly situated anus, of all things, offered up between his buttocks by the gentle and calm hands of the women, finally calmed down, breathing heavily. Michaelis, watching him, added teasingly.

“The nobles of winter, the Winter family, were originally said to be nobles of the wolf. If you show such a vulnerable, prey-like side, my friend will be very pleased.”

Noah thought that Michaelis, who had come all the way to the farthest Dominion of the Sun to procure someone to attend to the emperor in his bed, and was even watching the entire preparation process, was a bit overzealous for a mere friend. However, seeing the attitude he subtly revealed, he guessed that he must be a very old friend of the monarch and accepted it in his own way.

But knowing a new fact was one thing. Noah did not have the mental capacity to reply to those words right now. The women gave up on washing between Noah’s thighs, but they scrubbed every nook and cranny of the other parts very cleanly. Afterwards, a white powder was applied over the bruised areas from being beaten by the soldiers, and the bruises were quickly concealed.

Michaelis carefully inspected Noah’s body, as if examining a product about to be sold.

“This should be fine. The bed will be dark, so he won’t be able to see that closely.”

Although the words were directed at those assisting with the bath, he smiled brightly at Noah. That smile was also detestable, and this absurd situation nearly drove Noah half-mad.

‘Ugh, I want to go home.’

But he had to pay the price for saving the Red House. Noah, in a state of half-resignation, squeezed his eyes shut and surrendered his body. A large part of him was thinking, ‘I’d rather not see.’ If he didn’t close his eyes like that, it felt as if tears would finally fall.

While Noah was enduring the shame and bewilderment, the bath finally ended, and a white gown of a soft texture he had never worn in his life was draped over his body. In that state, he was guided by the women and Michaelis to a lavish and dark room.

In the center of the room, there was a large bed with a canopy draped on all four sides. Noah swallowed hard and approached the bed.

The tools on the bedside table and the atmosphere of the room. It painted a vivid picture of what purpose this room was used for. Noah squeezed his eyes shut. Once he got over the shame of having his naked body completely exposed to others, tension now crept in.

Michaelis, who had sent the maids out, approached Noah, took his chin, and gently tilted it up. Reading the tension in Noah’s eyes, he smiled faintly.

“You’re nervous. It must be your first time.”

“Hoo…”

“The monarch’s attitude in bed is not too bad. It’s been quite a while since he’s spent the night with someone else. But then again, he’s never really done it properly before… Ah, since it’s your first time, you might find him a little rough. But Noah? Are you okay?”

Noah’s lips, facing Michaelis, trembled minutely. Not only that, but his violet eyes, shining transparently, shimmered slightly with something that might have been tears.

“I don’t know…”

“Are you scared?”

“I want to go home…”

Michaelis clicked his tongue, tsk tsk, and patted Noah’s shoulder.

“Get used to it and try to receive him. It’ll be easier on your mind that way.”

Finally, Noah was left alone in the bedroom. As night deepened and a frigid wind seemed to rage outside the window, a strange sound, whoosh, began to fill the room. But such sounds were something he had always experienced, and compared to the completely different kind of storm that was about to sweep Noah away, it was nothing more than the sound of the wind.