A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 3.4 - Elia Winter

Snow just closed his eyes and felt Noah’s touch without moving a muscle. If only he could speak, would he have told him where El was?

When Noah stopped his hand, those closed blue eyes peeked out slightly.

“Snow? The place where El is!”

“…….”

“……El!”

“…….”

“Uh, then…… Elia?”

“…….”

“Ha, where is your caretaker!”

“…….”

Snow just wagged his tail and stared at Noah with innocent eyes. Since Noah was only chattering and had stopped stroking him, he seemed dissatisfied, merely tapping Noah’s arm with his snout and nibbling gently without causing pain.

With a sigh, Noah granted Snow’s wish. As he stroked him gently with his hand, Snow closed his eyes again as if satisfied. Mmm, a groaning sound even escaped him, as if he were truly enjoying the touch.

“Puhaha! Snow, you’re really funny.”

While stroking Snow, his confusion finally settled down. Snow hadn’t been able to find Elia for him, but Noah was grateful that he had provided warmth and comfort.

After spending a moment of rest thanks to Snow, Noah stood up with a sigh. Just as he brushed the snow off his wet clothes and tried to take another step, Snow bit his sleeve and pulled.

“What is it, Snow?”

Snow silently held the hem of his sleeve and pulled gently. Noah tilted his head, then raised his hand to stroke his head again. However, Snow dodged the touch and bit Noah’s sleeve once more.

“You want to go that way? Are you telling me to follow you?”

As if that were the correct answer, Snow finally let go of the fabric and rubbed his head against Noah’s hand.

“Are we going to where El is?”

Snow began to trudge along without an answer. Unlike when he approached, his presence was now clearly felt. To anyone’s eyes, it looked as if he wanted Noah to follow him.

‘If I go to the place where Snow lives, El the caretaker might be there.’

Noah began to head into the forest following Snow, clutching a small shred of hope.

Snow’s scurrying pace was fast. However, if it seemed like the following Noah was getting too far away, he would stop his walk, turn around, and stare this way. Thanks to the help of that clever wolf, he was able to cross the forest without being spotted by people.

The sun had set, making the weather colder than during the day. However, thanks to the fact that there was a companion with him, he didn’t just shiver. He even laughed occasionally because of the sight of the white bundle of fur’s rear as he scurried along diligently, wiggling his bottom.

‘Haha, Snow’s tail was really bushy, wasn’t it?’

For a very brief moment, his worries and sorrows were forgotten.

How long had they been walking like that? Finally, Snow arrived at a spot in the middle of the empty forest and flopped down.

“……?”

He was perplexed. Even if they didn’t speak the same language, he thought Snow had noticed Noah’s wish and had set out to guide him. But wasn’t Snow preparing to fall asleep by plopping down in a place he didn’t recognize at all?

“Hey, you rascal! Where on earth is this?”

Noah, his face flushing with embarrassment, looked around. However, Snow acted perfectly innocent, resting his head on his two front paws as he lay down and closed his eyes.

“Yeesh! Are you really going to be like this?! Won’t you get up this instant? Because I followed you, I don’t even know where I am!”

Noah pulled on his tail, but Snow pulled his tail away as if it were a nuisance and wagged it back and forth. He considered pulling it as if he were going to grip it hard and pluck it out, but the thought that there was no point in taking out his anger on a speechless animal, even one that was large and had sharp teeth, made him give up even on that.

“Don’t sleep, hurry up and get up! Bring Elia! Elia!”

He nudged the lying body with his leg, but the wolf, who was the size of a decent adult man and looked much heavier than Noah, did not budge easily.

“Huff, huff……. Ah, jeez, real curses are coming out now!”

Noah looked around with a hollow face. The spot where Snow was lying down to seek sleep was a place where sturdy branches hung between large old trees. It even felt cozy, as if a roof were draped over it. Turning his head again, a few steps away from there, things like small animal bones and bird feathers were gathered neatly in one place.

“No way……? Is this your nest, Snow?”

There was no way an answer would come back. However, Noah simply sat down in frustration, feeling utterly lost.

“Sigh……. You naughty wolf. Who asked to be taken to your house? I thought you were taking me to Elia.”

Now that he had uttered that name, his eyes grew hot once more. His heart, which had swelled for a moment, plummeted all at once. Solitude and cold far deeper than before he had held hope rushed in simultaneously.

He bit his lip. If he didn’t, a sob seemed likely to leak out. He tried hard to swallow it, but before long, tears fell.

Feeling his breathing grow heavy, Snow snapped his eyes open. Discovering the tears pouring from Noah’s violet eyes, the wolf jerked his head up and perked his ears. It was as if he were bewildered to see Noah crying.

“What are you looking at, you naughty wolf rascal. Ugh.”

“…….”

Was it an illusion that Snow’s face changed to one of annoyance? The wolf, letting out a short breath as if sighing, jumped up from his spot.

The pure white snow wolf, who had shared his fluffy warmth, ran off beyond the forest without even looking back.

“Go then……! Fine. Jeez, what more could I expect from a wolf cub who can’t even speak.”

Noah irritably wiped away the dripping tears and flopped down in the spot where Snow had been lying.

“What if I can’t find Elia and have to go back. If I get caught by someone like this, I’ll be dragged off to that bedchamber or whatever and…….”

He couldn’t stop the pouring sighs. However, he was someone who hadn’t even been able to sit and rest properly while wandering through the extreme cold all morning. Once he found a place to settle and lie down, sleep suddenly rushed in an instant.

“Ah……, I shouldn’t…….”

His eyelids were heavy as lead. At this rate, it was certain that he would be in danger of freezing to death before the threat to his chastity.

If that wolf rascal comes back, at least the danger of freezing to death might be a bit less.

With that final thought, Noah’s consciousness sank deep into the pitch-black darkness.

❄️🐺❄️

Elia stayed shut inside the library closest to his bedroom all day. He pulled out and scanned books about love or romance from between the crannies of books that filled the library to the brim, but there was no clue anywhere to help him guess Noah’s heart.

He hadn’t embraced him fully, but he thought he had definitely glimpsed Noah’s heart when they caressed each other’s naked bodies. He thought that child’s heart had reached him too. To think that he would just run away when I said we should spend the night.

“Haaa…….”

With a deep sigh, he looked down at the book spread out on the desk. Only then did he realize that the sun had set long ago and the surroundings had grown so dark that the letters were invisible.

“I’m not in my right mind.”

With a sigh, he stood up and lit a candle. To think he had been lost in thought for half a day, obsessing over a problem for which there was no answer. The sense of betrayal and anger he had felt the moment he first learned Noah had disappeared had already turned into despair and sadness, biting Elia and refusing to let go.

He couldn’t concentrate at all. Elia stood up and walked toward the secret garden where the bedchamber would have been prepared by now.

Deep inside the Inner Palace. In the center of the most secret garden even there, stood a single Snow Flower Tree that the Winter family had tended and raised.

The giant tree, whose circumference could barely be measured by an adult man stretching out both arms, was pure white from its roots to the tips of its branches. It was a tree that was said to produce a spectacular sight by blooming transparent silver flowers at the ends of those mysterious white branches. Now, however, with neither buds nor leaves hanging, it looked only like a lifeless decoration with dry branches draped down.

Right beneath that tree, the bedchamber for him and Noah, which Elia had looked forward to so much, had been set up.

Elia, approaching it, flopped down onto the cloud-like bed made by gathering the underfur of snow wolves for 100 years.

The most perfect day. Beneath the tree most meaningful to Elia Winter, he had intended to cherish Noah, the most beautiful person he had ever seen, more than anyone else.

But for Noah to actually disappear. What change of heart made him run away? As expected, would it have been better if I had revealed from the start that I was the Lord? He might have been disappointed, thinking he was deceived upon learning that the man he thought was a mere caretaker was actually the Emperor.

He squeezed his eyes shut as if tears were about to fall. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand Noah’s heart.

Just as Elia Winter was trying hard to shake off the rising tears.

From far away, the howling of a night beast was heard. it was the wolf’s throat-cry that sounded like a mournful weep, or perhaps someone searching for someone else anxiously.