A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 2.9 - Winterfall

At first, Elia had deeply sympathized with the importance of ‘spring’ and tried to go along with the Council of Nobles’ plans. However, over the long years, the attitude of those around him, who saw him as nothing more than a tool to bring about spring and a means of producing a second generation, had festered beyond inflammation and burst long ago.

Now, only an endless sense of helplessness constricted and tormented Elia’s heart. He had become so exhausted that he found himself constantly thinking he wanted to end the world just as it was and rest quietly.

“Ha… I wish someone would just poison me.”

He felt he would have been happier if it had been an attempt on his life. The prying, watchful eyes that constantly spied on him to see if he was interested in anyone were fearsome and stinging. Even on the night with the first woman Michaelis had tried to pair him with out of goodwill, palace servants sent by the Council of Nobles had surrounded them as if monitoring, to the point of confirming the moment he produced his seed. After losing his virginity like that, the Council of Nobles had set out with a vengeance to forcibly ‘mate’ Elia with someone.

He didn’t know how much he had struggled to hold back his nausea every time he had to have an unwanted, forced sexual encounter with another person. Perhaps it was due to that psychological factor. Unfortunately, Elia had become almost unable to feel sexual desire.

To the point where he wished he could feel sexual desire, even if it was forced. Those agonizing and painful nights were also countless winters that had wounded Elia’s heart.

“I should just go for a walk.”

Elia threw off his ornate clothes and changed into lighter ones. Rather than being surrounded by people and hearing harsh, unpleasant words, walking through the forest paths with the friend who silently stayed by his side was a routine that at least allowed him to breathe.

The dire wolf, Snow, who had been with Elia since he was very young, was a friend who had been by his side for as long as Michaelis. And today, too, Elia headed for the monarch’s forest, which was connected to the inner palace’s backyard, to collect his weary heart.

Unaware that his friend Snow had left the forest and gone to the garden adjacent to the private palace.

❄️🐺❄️

“Snow. What are you doing all the way out here?”

Elia was quite surprised that Snow wasn’t in the place where he should always be. In the monarch’s forest, so vast that its full size was difficult to comprehend, there were many old tales of unknown beasts appearing. Worried that Snow might have been caught in some threat, Elia had made the wolf stay within the palace grounds.

While searching for traces of Snow, Elia soon discovered a hole in a corner of the garden wall, large enough for a person to pass through. Noticing the snow-white tufts of fur scattered nearby, Elia realized Snow had passed through there and immediately entered the garden through it.

And at the unfamiliar scene that unfolded there, Elia was very surprised. The sight of Snow, who was aloof and brusque and rarely allowed anyone other than Elia near him, playing with others was new to him. Of course, Noah and Jonny might have felt differently, but at least to Elia, it looked like they were playing boisterously.

Seeing it thrust its face towards the man who had fallen in the flower bed without baring its teeth, Elia thought that Snow was clearly playing a prank, pretending to scare him.

The man, who was being teased by Snow, noticed Elia’s arrival and squeezed out a trembling voice.

“Are, are you this wolf’s keeper? I’m, I’m sorry, but please get this wolf off me right away…!”

“…”

Elia tilted his head and stared at the person in the flower bed who was covering his face. The young man’s slender shoulders were trembling finely, as if he were thoroughly frightened.

In that moment, a small bit of mischief stirred in Elia’s heart, who had been pestered by Michaelis and his nanny all morning.

“Snow.”

At his low voice, Snow tilted its head, waiting for the next words.

“Bite.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Snow obeyed its master’s command. The dire wolf, faithfully following Elia’s order, leaped up and pounced on the feeble young man’s body. Then it immediately opened its mouth wide and, crunch, bit his white nape.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Noah’s scream, which had been clear when he was calm, echoed throughout the garden. The only person who was alarmed by this sight was Jonny.

“N-Mr. Noah! Aaaaaah, what do I do! Th-… gasp, get away Snow! Shoo, shoo!”

Elia was just watching the scene leisurely with a mischievous smile.

“Are you the new keeper? What on earth are you doing, hup…!”

Jonny, who was about to scold Elia, clamped his mouth shut as soon as their eyes met. Piercingly white, shining silver hair and the gray eyes set within it. The moment he saw the broad shoulders and large build, as if the dire wolf had taken human form, Jonny immediately realized that he was not just a wolf keeper.

“…”

“Shhh.”

At the warning, laced with the playfulness of the frighteningly large man, Jonny gasped, took a sharp breath, and hastily nodded his head.

And just then, Noah, who had escaped from the beast’s jaws on his own, shouted and smacked Snow on the head.

“Get away, you dog-like bastard!”

Thwack! As soon as the rather loud sound was heard, Snow growled, but Noah clutched his stinging nape and shot up, shouting.

“What on earth is this! What are you teaching this wolf? I could have been seriously injured by those teeth!”

Elia silently stared at Noah, who was shouting heatedly. Meeting that gaze, Noah was at a loss for words. The large man’s expressionless face, which didn’t show a shred of apology, was even tinged with playfulness, making him all the more dumbfounded.

The only person fidgeting uncomfortably in the middle, glancing back and forth between the two, was Jonny. He tried several times to stop Noah, his lips moving, but overwhelmed by the gaze that shot at him like a pressure to keep quiet, Jonny could only stammer.

Given the situation, Noah’s anger, who had been fuming by himself, only grew. Finally, Noah took his hand off the bitten spot he had been clutching, and stomping out of the flower bed, he shouted.

“Hey! An apology, an excuse, say something…!”

Just then, the man’s lips parted.

“Ah.”

The man’s low voice, resembling a sigh. He didn’t seem to care much about the chaos around him. As the situation of shouting at a wall repeated itself, Noah barely managed to hold back a string of curses. And then, as soon as he heard the words that flowed from the man’s well-drawn, thick lips…

“You’re bleeding.”

“What? You son of a…!”

Noah finally let out a curse.

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The three people and one animal entered the gardener’s hut. Blood was still flowing from the two holes made by Snow’s fangs on Noah’s white nape. Seeing this, Jonny, his face pale as a sheet, had led them to his home.

Jonny, unlike his usual self, was flustered with an awkward face. He almost tripped and fell while getting out some ointment. He even burned himself when he immediately soaked a cloth in boiled water meant for cleaning the wound without letting it cool first. Unable to watch any longer, Noah calmed him down.

“Jonny. I don’t think I’m that badly hurt. You don’t have to be so flustered…”

The reply came from a completely unexpected place.

“Shhh.”

“…”

“Don’t talk. We don’t know how the wound is yet.”

The silver hair, loosely tied back carelessly, was scattered over the man’s shoulders. His gray eyes were full of a worried light directed at Noah.

“Should I call a doctor?”

“I-I’ll go get one!”

Noah barely managed to stop Jonny, who was about to rush out of the hut at any moment. Then he looked up at the strange man and said.

“It’s fine. It’s not that serious of an injury.”

“Right.”

The man’s gray eyes shone darkly at Noah. Jonny, making a sound like he was half out of breath, approached the two with a cloth soaked in warm water.

The man took the cloth and gently lifted Noah’s chin.

“Ngh.”

“Let me see the wound.”

“…”

The serious gray eyes emitted an intense light. The nape is a vital spot. Overwhelmed by the feeling that he was exposing a vulnerable area to the dire wolf, his body grew hot and he began to break out in a cold sweat.

But Noah couldn’t push the man away. He tried to joke, saying, ‘You should know when to stop with the pranks,’ but the man’s hot gaze made him swallow those words.

“You’ve lost quite a bit of blood.”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt that much right now, ouch…!”

Contrary to his gentle expression, the man’s hand movements were clumsy. A stinging pain shot through, causing Noah to flinch his shoulders. He let out a scream so loud that even the man was startled and pulled his hand away. Embarrassed, Noah let out a few coughs.

But from then on, the man tended to Noah’s wound with an even more careful touch. It felt as if he were being touched lightly with something like a feather. That such a light touch was possible with a bundle of cloth. Realizing how focused the man was, Noah silently entrusted his wound to him.

“…What’s your name?”

“Noah.”

“Pretty.”

The words that slipped out of the man’s lips inadvertently. Words he had heard as taunts dozens, hundreds of times on the dirty streets, yet Noah’s face flushed. He could no longer observe the handsome face of the man who was concentrating on his nape and had to lower his head.

At that, the man let out a small whistle and lifted Noah’s chin once more.

“You can’t lower your head yet.”

“Wh-when on earth will you be done.”

The man started wrapping a bandage over Noah’s wound without answering. His hand movements were still clumsy, but he tended to the wound carefully and meticulously. From his gray eyes, an intense gaze, unbelievable for coming from such a faded color, continued to pour out as if it would melt Noah’s face.

‘Are all the people who live in the central territory this pretty?’

With the handsome and beautiful man’s face so close, Noah was seized by a feeling of his whole body twisting for no reason. He had thought Michaelis, who had brought him to the central territory, was quite handsome, but the man was so flawlessly beautiful that he would have believed it if someone said his face was crafted by a master artisan over a lifetime.

Perhaps noticing Noah’s purple eyes staring at him, the man’s gray eyes slightly lifted their gaze.

“…!”

He almost lowered his head again as soon as their eyes met, but he couldn’t because the man was holding his chin. Did he notice Noah was embarrassed? The man’s smile bloomed even more gracefully.

Feeling as if his face was about to explode, Noah hastily opened his mouth.

“A-and you, Mr. Keeper…!”

“Keeper?”

“What is your name, Mr. Keeper!”

Jonny, who hadn’t dared to approach and was pacing in the distance like a puppy needing to go, gasped. Noah paid no mind to his reaction.