A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 3.6 - Elia Winter

“……Ugh, El……, what is all this?”

“If you give me your hand, I’ll explain.”

Enduring his shyness, he barely lifted his head to see Elia’s face, which was drawing a pretty eye-smile. And the moment their eyes met—with a mwah sound—Elia’s lips unexpectedly touched Noah’s lips and then pulled away.

“Nnh? El……!”

Noah ended up tapping Elia’s chest and ducked his head deeply again. The sound of an unidentified woman laughing “Oh my, my” right next to them made him even more embarrassed. El, having successfully neutralized Noah, pulled the small hand that had been tapping his chest and held it out of the bathtub.

Low murmurs of conversation were heard. As he buried his face in El’s chest, a surge of warmth and a wonderful fragrance washed over him, and the inside of his heart felt soft and squishy. Noah began to doze off once again.

“The pulse has returned to normal, and his complexion has returned, Lord. It seems he recovered quickly thanks to resting in warm water and the body heat you shared, Lord.”

With a satisfied face, Elia kept pressing kisses against the cheek of Noah, who had already fallen asleep. After the physician left, Matilda, who had been watching the two with a face soaked in a dream-like expression, asked cautiously.

“Lord. Is he the person who made you want to prepare a bedchamber?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, my.”

Matilda wiped away tears of emotion and laughed brightly.

“I heard he disappeared from the Secret Palace……. What on earth happened?”

“Well.”

Elia tilted his head, hesitated for a moment, and answered shortly.

“It doesn’t seem like he ran away because he hated me, does it?”

At the sound of Matilda’s small affirmation, Elia showed a wide smile. Since that smile was like a spring flower blooming exceptionally brightly, Matilda tidied up the surroundings with an excited heart. Until she closed the room door and disappeared, she continued her grumbling while sniffing, saying, ‘This nanny didn’t know how much her heart was aching,’ and ‘I’ve barely seen the Lord’s smiling face once in a hundred years.’

Elia showed an awkward smile. The fact that his appearance moved Matilda even more would remain a secret between the two of them.

Thus, Elia and Noah were finally left alone in the room.

Elia carefully embraced Noah and stood up from the bathtub.

Every moment he felt the soft, sleeping breath was overwhelming with joy. Elia, who wrapped Noah’s white naked body—which had regained its warmth—completely in a large towel, forgot even to wipe his own body. He carried Noah and headed beneath the Snow Flower Tree where the bedchamber was prepared.

Submerged in warm water and having received Elia’s body heat, Noah was enjoying the lethargy. Since he had found Elia, he just wanted to take some rest like this. Then, a very soft and toasty warmth enveloped his body. He barely pushed up his heavy eyelids.

“El……”

At the voice mumbling his name, the lips of Elia, who wore a smile as beautiful as a painting, landed on Noah’s lips. Then, he whispered softly above them.

“Rest more, Noah.”

Without thinking, Noah lightly sucked on the soft, squishy flesh. He heard Elia whisper, “You wicked little thing,” and let out a playful, chuckling laugh. It was a light laughter that felt like downy feathers hovering around his ear.

In the midst of his daze, Noah felt himself being moved somewhere, swaying back and forth. Because Elia’s solid arms were holding him tight, there was no fear of being led to an unknown place.

Soon, Noah was laid down on a bed as soft and fluffy as a cumulus cloud.

As he peeked his eyes open, he saw a glass ceiling with a background of a night sky so beautiful that stars seemed to pour down, and pure white branches covering the space above his head.

“Wow……”

As Noah admired it feebly, Elia’s lips poured down on Noah’s face and body like countless stars.

“Do you like it?”

“Where is this, El?”

“I told you preparation was needed, didn’t I? It took some time to arrange this place.”

Noah nodded and closed his eyes again. Elia dropped kisses incessantly—mwah, mwah—over the face of the boy who was falling back into sleep.

Just as Noah was about to fall asleep again while feeling that softness and warmth to the fullest, the warmth staying by his side suddenly moved away with a rustling sound. At that, a chilly air rushed in, and his shoulders hunched instinctively.

“Ah?”

He didn’t want to let go of that touch. So Noah opened his eyes. Elia, who came into his view, was looking at Noah while standing at a distance, as if he intended to leave the bed and go elsewhere.

Noah jumped up from his spot and grabbed Elia’s hand.

“What is it? Rest as you are, Noah.”

“El……? Where are you going?”

“…….”

El smiled as if he were in a bind and held Noah’s hand in return.

“Can’t you stay here with me?”

“Well, I think that might be a bit difficult.”

Elia looked truly troubled.

Right. Even though he had rushed out of the Secret Palace with the sole determination to meet Elia before he had to serve the bedchamber of a Lord whose face he didn’t even know, he hadn’t anticipated that Elia might not want to hold him. Noah, whose thoughts reached that point, made a crying face and let his head drop.

Seeing him hang his head and hold back tears, Elia approached in a startle.

“Noah, Noah. Why are you doing that?”

“El……. El, please hold me.”

Noah caught Elia with violet eyes shimmering with tears. Elia’s predicament deepened.

“I, actually, sold myself to the Chancellor. I wanted to save the Red House.”

Without letting go of the hand he gripped so desperately, Noah confessed about his life in a soft, low voice. He said that in truth, he wasn’t such an innocent fellow and had grown up in a brothel. He confessed in detail how he had lived relatively happily with the women at the Red House, and how someone like himself had ended up coming all the way here to the Central Territory.

Elia embraced Noah tightly and listened to his story, occasionally chiming in with “Oh dear……” or “I see.”

And finally, Noah spoke with a distorted face.

“And today, they say I have to serve the Emperor’s bedchamber. I ran away because I hated that.”

“…….”

“I don’t want to give my first time to a guy whose face I don’t even know! So El, if you don’t dislike me……, with me……”

The predicament that had been on El’s face became even clearer. When Noah said ‘first time,’ his prettily protruding Adam’s apple surged as if he were swallowing dry saliva. Then, soon, a strange playfulness began to linger on Elia’s face.

“Noah, if you share a bed with the Lord, you could receive a title and spend the rest of your life in comfort.”

“I hate it. I don’t desire such things.”

“Really?”

“I really mean it! If El was okay with it, I searched for El to ask to run away. But, I thought it might be difficult for El, who works in the castle……. Also……”

Unable to endure the unfairness, a few tears rolled from Noah’s eyes and fell onto his white cheeks. He rubbed them clumsily, and his white face turned red from the friction.

“Shh.”

Elia smiled as if in regret and erased Noah’s tears with his lips.

“Your pretty face will swell if you wipe them like that.”

“Hut……! It will get better if El holds me.”

Noah burrowed into El’s arms once more. But El only let out a sigh while keeping his body tense again.

“I can’t, Noah. You need to recover your strength a bit more.”

“I hate it! Tomorrow, someone might barge in here right away and offer me up to that ice-monster-like Emperor.”

Noah undid all the towels that were covering his body. And he pulled at the robe covering Elia’s body as if snatching it.

“Noah……. Wait a moment……”

Elia was noticeably flustered, but Noah did not stop. Finally, only after snatching his robe did Noah stop his hands as if surprised, seeing Elia’s penis standing up tight and twitching.

Elia grabbed his forehead and confessed like a groan.

“Ha……. I’m on the verge of losing my mind because I want to hold you, Noah.”

Noah swallowed hard once and then spoke.

“Then……, sleep with me. I want to spend the night with El.”

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?”

Elia bit his lip repeatedly, then held Noah’s hands tightly and confessed.

“If I get extremely excited, I have no confidence in holding you gently.”

He raised a hand and slowly stroked the soft white cheek. After he had rubbed the tears away roughly, the area around the eyes seemed to have eventually swollen red. Elia kissed over those eyelids and continued his words.

“Noah. You said it was your first time. Then it will be very hard. Your buttocks are so small they can be grasped in one of my hands……. And as you can see, my penis is much larger than that.”

“I don’t care.”

“…….”