A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 3.2 - Elia Winter

It was quite pitiful. After weeks of being neglected by the man who was to be his husband, he had seemingly come upon hearing the rumor that a bedchamber was finally being prepared. Yet, that very husband didn’t even recognize his existence.

And hearing the words that followed, Michaelis couldn’t help but pity Aiden Lux from the bottom of his heart.

“Hmm. I think I vaguely remember now.”

“Do you remember now?”

“Yeah. Send him back.”

Having issued the short command toward Michaelis, Elia finally stood up. Aiden Lux’s face burned bright red, steeped in an even deeper sense of shame. However, Elia went ahead and drove the wedge in.

“I said I don’t need him, so send him back.”

“Eli-no……. Lord!”

Michaelis hurriedly caught up to Elia as he left his seat. However, Elia left the office straight away without even looking back. Michaelis alone was left to scan the atmosphere, glancing at the back of the head of the abandoned Aiden Lux.

Walking out into the hallway, Elia headed deep into the Inner Palace without hesitation. Michaelis, who knew Elia’s daily routine inside out lately, noticed that he intended to go out for another bout of playing at love under the guise of a walk or something, and hurriedly asked.

“Elia! How can you just leave like this?”

“What.”

“What do you mean, ‘what’? The Noble Council selected and sent up a bride, and you already finished signing the approval! But send him back? Send who back! Are you in your right mind right now?”

Rolling his gray eyes, which could feel chilly, to gauge his own condition, Elia answered with a faint smile.

“Yeah. Besides, my mind is clearer than ever before.”

“Heh.”

That face, which looked almost refreshing, was quite unfamiliar. Since getting to know Elia, Michaelis had never seen his friend’s face look so softly relaxed, as if soaked in a dream. So, even though he had followed him out to demand an explanation, he couldn’t even open his mouth.

“Elia.”

“Mika. So, have the bedchamber prepared. The night I spend with Noah must be the most beautiful and most perfect night.”

Mika soon nodded his head with a smirk, as if he couldn’t help it. Elia was hurrying to go out for that problematic “walk” with light steps. Mika tapped him on the shoulder and said playfully.

“See. I told you you’d like him, didn’t I?”

Elia showed a beaming smile without either denying or affirming it.

The layered cold and a winter that felt as if it would never end even if the world did. Elia, who he thought only knew how to mock himself coldly, as if he were trapped inside the ice of the Central Territory.

The spring that bloomed on his face was a light so clear and lovely that it momentarily stole Michaelis’s spirit away.

❄️🐺❄️

To deliver that good news instead, Michaelis headed straight to the Secret Palace where Noah was. And there, Michaelis encountered an unexpected crisis.

Elia had confidently ordered the bedchamber to be prepared with a refreshing expression, as if he were dancing above the clouds.

Recently, there were days when their Lord would rush out of his room every other day and not return. There were also times when he appeared in the office the next day without having changed the clothes he wore the day before, as if he had spent the night outside. So, after hearing that he was meeting Noah, Michaelis thought there must be quite some progress between the two.

‘His face was pretty enough to look delicious, but to think the effect would be this good.’

With a grin leaking out all over his face, Mika headed toward Noah’s room with a light heart. Thinking that the jewel he had gone all the way to the distant Territory of the Sun to buy was finally going to be worth its price.

However, when he arrived at the Secret Palace and delivered that fact. The comfort that had been hovering on Noah’s face until then vanished completely.

“Pardon? What did you say?”

“Prepare yourself. Coincidentally, tomorrow is a propitious day.”

Noah’s complexion turned pale. His eyes, shining transparently with the color of violets, trembled slightly. It wasn’t very difficult to read confusion and fear in that gaze.

‘Strange. Weren’t things going well with Elia?’

Michaelis was bewildered. At that, Noah, who couldn’t start speaking as his lips fluttered, finally spoke like a groan.

“Why so suddenly…….”

A small face turned blue. Staring at that expression, Michaelis had no choice but to reach a conclusion.

‘Ha. That Elia, I thought it might go well this time. Was it a one-sided love?’

He must have discovered Noah while out on that damn walk. From Elia’s perspective, hadn’t he been constantly visiting just to seduce this pretty fellow somehow? As soon as he realized that Noah was someone who had entered the Secret Palace, he must have had the bedchamber prepared to take that body first.

Having concluded as such, Michaelis answered with a face of regret.

“The Lord says he wants to embrace a person of the Secret Palace. Is there a need for another reason?”

Though he kept his mouth shut tight like a clam, Noah nodded as if in resignation. Then, he crossed both arms and hugged himself tightly. Noticing that those fingertips were trembling, Michaelis shook his head.

“In any case, I have paid the price. I hope you make it worth that value, Noah. I already paid the price by helping the Red House, and I trust you won’t pretend not to know the deal that was between us.”

Michaelis patted Noah’s shoulder shortly a couple of times and left. It was a patting that felt like both consolation and encouragement, but as soon as he disappeared, Noah flopped down.

I thought I would be forgotten forever like this. Since I heard a new bride was coming in, I thought he wouldn’t have any interest in this side at all. I had hoped, even if just a little, that after time passed like that, I might be able to bring up the words to send me back to the place where I lived.

Furthermore, the palace servants he met while moving in and out of the Secret Palace said that their Lord was of such an extremely selective temperament that the instances of him spending the night with someone could be counted on one hand over the past 100 years. But what on earth possessed him to…….

“And why does it have to be now?”

Suddenly, last night. The moment he shared affection while caressing each other’s bodies with Elia came to mind. The act with a man as lovely as Elia felt so good. Every time his breath quickened and his heart thumped, a sense of fulfillment spread through his whole body. To the point that Noah, who had experienced a sexual act for the first time in his life, fell deeply into it without realizing the night was passing.

But to think he has to give his body to someone whose face he has never even seen, rather than him.

“Even if it hurt, I should have just endured it a bit and spent the night with Elia…….”

The more he agonized, the more all those events became riddled with regret. He regretted the fact that he stopped in the middle of mixing bodies with Elia while whining that it hurt, and going further back, he resented his own stupidity in rashly offering to sell his body more than anything.

Even when Noah made the deal with Michaelis to sell himself for the sake of the Red House, he thought there would be no regret in his choice. Since there had been no one he wanted to mix bodies with until now, he had merely kept his purity unintentionally. It wasn’t something he had kept while placing any particular meaning on it.

However, a crack formed in Noah’s heart. From the moment he began to strongly yearn to mix bodies with Elia. He began to agonize over whether the choice he made was truly the right thing.

“Should I just run away?”

But if that happened, what would happen to the Red House? If he ran away, wouldn’t he also be separated forever from Elia, who works as a caretaker in the castle?

The event that suddenly struck him was overwhelming. He almost burst into tears from sorrow, but he barely swallowed them down. Noah, who was racking his brains while biting his lips repeatedly, suddenly lifted his head. Then he jumped up from his seat, pulled out a thick coat, and hurriedly prepared to go out.

One cannot pick up water that has already been spilled.

Michaelis was making a fuss, saying he would have Noah start preparing from noon tomorrow for the consummation that would take place tomorrow night. So, before that, he had to meet El somehow and let him know this fact.

It would be good if he said he would run away together. Couldn’t they think about the Red House after escaping somewhere first? And in the worst-case scenario, if Noah had to remain in the palace and give his body to the Lord…….

At the very least, he wanted to spend that ‘first time’ with Elia first.

“El…… I have to find El.”

Let’s tell Elia this fact. Let’s confess everything truthfully, and tell him that if he doesn’t mind even a version of me like that, I will offer him my first time. Noah left the Secret Palace like that to go out in search of the wolf caretaker whose whereabouts were unknown.

❄️🐺❄️

“This is driving me crazy.”

The next morning.

Michaelis, who visited Noah’s room again, muttered hollowly. Behind him, unable to hide his bewilderment, three maidservants spoke in discouraged voices without being able to lift their heads.

“Yesterday’s dinner is still right there on the table. According to this girl, who was in charge of the meal, she thought he was returning late because he went out to the garden yesterday as well, so she just put the meal up and withdrew.”

Since it was Michaelis who had sent out all the palace servants from where Noah was by his own command, he had nothing more to say. Worried that things would get complicated if the Noble Council, who had abruptly sent a bride to Elia, found out about Noah’s existence, he had intentionally minimized the number of personnel who could contact him. To think that Noah himself would use that point to run away.

“Sigh……. This is making me lose my mind. Really.”