A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 3.1 - Elia Winter

The night Elia and Noah gave their naked bodies to each other. The very next morning. As soon as Elia returned from the Secret Palace, he summoned Michaelis and the nanny, Matilda.

“Prepare the bedchamber.”

At the short and clear voice, Michaelis froze, his mouth hanging wide open. Matilda was surprised, but she soon asked back with a bright smile.

“Lord, shall we also receive a propitious date?”

The bedchamber sessions intended to conceive life, which the Emperor, that is, their Lord, spent with other nobles, had primarily been held on propitious dates. Even in the case of a bedchamber session between men, if it took place under the Family Tree, they could mysteriously conceive a new life. To increase those odds, nobles desperate for a child would often request prophets to read the flow of magical power and luck to designate a propitious date.

Noah did not seem to be a noble, so was there a need to specifically designate a propitious date? However, even without considering the possibility of pregnancy, a propitious date was a day when the good energy of heaven and earth gathered. Since it was for Noah, Elia wanted to give him only the best things in the world and do only good things for him.

So, after contemplating briefly, Elia soon nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

“Excellent, Lord. It seems we might hear some good news soon.”

“Gasp!”

At Elia’s affirmation, Matilda left Elia’s office with a bright smile. Mika’s blood pressure rose to the point of fainting, and he stepped right up to the executive desk.

“Eliaaaaaa!”

“……You’re loud. If you heard me, go and prepare.”

“Is Aiden Lux really that much to your liking?!”

A wrinkle formed between Elia’s brows. However, Mika opened his eyes and mouth as wide as circles and shouted at the top of his lungs, spraying saliva.

“You wouldn’t even spare a glance when I talked about gifts and such. How long has it even been since Aiden Lux entered the palace, and what? Prepare the bedchamber?”

“Sigh…….”

Letting out a sigh, Elia scanned his friend with a look of pathetic disdain. Who cares who someone like Aiden Lux is. However, Elia weighed whether correcting Michaelis’s misunderstanding or leaving it be would be less bothersome and silently endured the nagging.

“In the end, was that your type! The type of greenhouse flower that looks like he’s never dipped his hands in water……!”

“Hmm, well. If I had to say, he’s closer to the gardener who looks after that flower.”

“Huh? What?”

Feeling something strange in Elia’s short retort, Michaelis brushed off a chilling sensation and flopped down into the chair opposite him. Elia made a sullen face out of annoyance.

“Aren’t you going to prepare?”

“Be honest. What’s this about a gardener?”

“Haa.”

This has become bothersome. Because he was thinking of Noah, he had answered with a small smile. Even if he seemed to just get by on the surface, Mika was a man who had bypassed his father at a young age to seize the actual power of the family. Since his intuition was no joke and he had been suspicious of Elia’s recent changes, a small clue had been given to him.

“Hooh, I see. No wonder……. You, who used to shut yourself in your room doing nothing but cursing the Noble Council, have been wandering here and there recently saying you’re going for a walk or something.”

“Chancellor Michaelis. Are you failing to show proper etiquette to your Lord?”

“Yes, yes, Lord. Since your recent movements have been quite unusual, this humble subject dares to raise a question.”

A sigh escaped at the sarcastic attitude. However, Mika, having caught a lead, asked regardless.

“Who is it?”

“…….”

“Hurry up and spill it. Even though you won’t even look at the gift I brought. I’m telling you, that person is no joke. Once I find out who it is, if they’re worse than that Noah guy, then give up cleanly and…….”

“What did you say?”

Hearing a familiar name in the middle of Michaelis’s grumbling, Elia hurriedly interrupted him.

“How do you know Noah?”

“Eh? What? Uh, uh?”

Michaelis, on the contrary, was greatly flustered. The puzzle pieces scattered inside Elia’s head began to fit together one by one.

No matter how uninterested he was in the Secret Palace, if he was a concubine who had entered the palace, Elia should have at least had a face-to-face meeting. He was already wondering why he hadn’t noticed such a beautiful child sooner. That was why, when they first met in the garden between the Secret Palace and the Inner Palace, Elia thought he was just a gardener. Before he found out that Noah was staying in the Secret Palace, that is.

But if the reason he hadn’t seen Noah before was not because Elia was indifferent, but because he had only recently entered the palace…….

As much as his own surprise, Michaelis was also quite shocked.

“No, wait, Elia. How do you know Noah and…….”

Just as Michaelis was about to ask back with wide eyes.

Knock, knock.

Along with the knock, a voice was heard from outside the office.

“Lord. There is someone requesting an audience.”

It was perfect timing, as he was finding it tedious to answer Michaelis. Without further hesitation and without lifting his head from the desk, Elia answered shortly, “Come in.”

Seeing the flashy blond hair of the person entering through the door, Michaelis blinked his wide eyes and shut his mouth. The blond young man walked straight up to Elia’s desk and smiled with his eyes.

“Lord. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Aiden Lux from the Territory of the Sun.”

“Hut.”

“…….”

Elia stared at him without a single word of response. It was Mika who made the sound of a sharp intake of breath. Elia took a brief glance at the face of the person who entered the room, then lowered his gaze back to the desk and began to leaf through the documents he had to process that day.

“…….”

“…….”

The rustle-rustle sound of turning pages pierced the silence.

The young man named Aiden Lux stood there facing him without saying anything, as if waiting for Elia to give him his attention. However, Elia did not show the slightest bit of interest. He just silently kept turning the papers.

It seemed that Michaelis was the only person who could not endure that silence.

“That, uh…… Mr. Aiden, it’s nice to meet you. I am Chancellor Michaelis Eve.”

“…….”

“…….”

Based on looks alone, he thought he would have been raised delicately, but Aiden Lux was not to be underestimated. One could tell by the way he didn’t spare even a single glance toward Michaelis, who had tried hard to greet him.

Tsk, Michaelis smacked his lips and was about to strike up a conversation with Elia this time when Aiden Lux said with a bright smile.

“Lord. I heard that you ordered the bedchamber to be prepared?”

Elia answered curtly without even lifting his head.

“And?”

“I have a propitious date that I received in advance; shall I have it prepared for that day?”

Pause. For the first time, Elia showed a reaction. Was it just a reaction? He lifted his head entirely and met Aiden Lux’s eyes with an expression as if he were looking at the most ridiculous fellow.

“…….”

“Why? Are you not arranging this in commemoration of me gaining the title of Consort?”

At the voice of Aiden Lux, who shot back as if he had been waiting the moment their eyes met, Elia’s eyebrows curved into a peculiar shape. He scanned the stranger standing before him from head to toe, looking at his flashy features, appearance, and posture.

Tilting his head slightly, Elia finally asked Michaelis.

“Wasn’t the last Consort brown-haired?”

“Pfft!”

Michaelis burst into untimely laughter. In response, Aiden Lux’s clean brow crumpled in an instant. No matter how much of a Lord he was, if he mistreated a Consort, would he get stabbed in the bedchamber? Michaelis hurriedly stepped in to mediate.

“Ah, Mr. Aiden. The Lord is originally very busy with government affairs, so he doesn’t have much interest in the matters of the Inner Palace. Lord, this is Mr. Aiden Lux, who will become the eleventh Consort, the one you said you would bring in during the last Noble Council meeting.”

This time, Elia’s lips parted slightly. Since he was so blunt and lacked facial expressions, for him, this meant he was considerably surprised. Michaelis laughed inwardly, finding it fascinating to see Elia painting an expression other than depression or lethargy for once.

“Several weeks have passed since I entered the palace and there was no word, so I thought you must be busy in many ways. I never imagined…… that you would have forgotten my very existence altogether.”

The answer blurted out by Elia, who had been scanning Aiden with a blank face, was even more of a spectacle.

“I guess so.”

The young man, whose well-drawn features were surely highly praised in his own territory, turned red in the face and let out a hollow laugh, “Heh.”