A Certain Winter’s Tale Chapter 4.2 - That Winter

“That’s right.”

Michaelis’s eyes, still filled with bewilderment, fumbled here and there across the book. Finally, his bluish-black pupils dilated wide, and his eyes grew as large as lanterns.

“Uh, this pattern is definitely from somewhere……?”

Horror began to seep into Michaelis’s face as he traced his memories.

“Elia? Lo, Lord. Don’t tell me……!”

Elia let out a short sigh, shut the book—which was thick enough to be used as a pillow without any problem—and stood up from his seat.

“To think you’ve dared to see Noah’s naked body, it’s unpleasant.”

Michaelis was dumbfounded to see the bridge of Elia’s nose wrinkled with displeasure as if he were looking at a foreign object. However, right now, confirming Noah’s identity, which he had just realized, was more important.

“Is it true? Really? Noah is…… of the Flowers…….”

“Shh.”

Elia warned with a chilling gaze. Michaelis snapped his mouth shut. Having heard the entire conversation, Administrative Official Petr also opened his eyes wide in a rare display of surprise and glanced toward the door.

“Investigate in secret. See if there are any survivors of the Glory family of the Nobles of Flowers. See if there is anyone among the descendants of the territory people who lived in and escaped the Territory of Flowers a hundred years ago who knows that story. Anything you can find out regarding that.”

After gaping his mouth like a goldfish, Michaelis nodded his head vigorously. Come to think of it, from the first time he met Noah at the Red House, Noah had been strangely calm even when experiencing things that would surprise an ordinary young man, and he showed a peculiar attitude even toward the Madam, his elder. Hadn’t he been able to engage in natural conversation quickly with Michaelis without fussing over the difference in status for long? He had thought Noah was a unique fellow, but to think it was all because that sly boy had hidden his age.

Elia let out a chuckle at the sight of his friend’s face, which looked dazed as if he had become an idiot, and prepared to return to the inner palace.

Watching the Lord, who was now accustomed to smiling, Old Man Petr spoke carefully in a voice that was as thick and locked as if phlegm were boiling.

“Lord. If the news that you are looking into this matter now reaches the Noble Council, and if by any chance he truly is of the Glory bloodline, his personal safety will be in danger.”

Elia nodded with a bitter smile.

Unable to endure the obsession and madness of the late Emperor, Ariel Glory eventually fled to her hometown, the Territory of Flowers. And the late Emperor dispatched an army to forcibly drag her out as she remained holed up in the Castle of Flowers.

The late Emperor himself even went out to that distant territory to try and bring Ariel Glory back. However, the late Emperor ultimately failed to return with the lover he held in his heart. In the process of the struggle, Ariel Glory fell from the bell tower and died. Right at that moment, the long, long winter that only now shows signs of ending after a hundred years began.

After that, the late Emperor, just as Elia had done until recently, withdrew from government affairs and remained holed up in the inner palace, never stepping outside. Elia, who had begun to take over government affairs bit by bit around that time, knew his father’s situation well. The late Emperor’s disastrously gaunt and hollow face was still so vivid that it flickered through his nightmares.

“Unable to bear seeing the late Emperor raging at even a single blade of grass associated with the Nobles of Flowers, the Noble Council exerted even more effort into their determination to wipe out the seeds of that family. Is it not true that the Lord’s own mother passed away early because of the heartache she suffered due to the behavior of that Ariel, who was as enchanting as a harlot?”

As a Noble of Flowers, Ariel Glory was a woman with an appearance beautiful enough to drive the late Emperor mad, but her personality was angular and twisted, earning the antipathy of many nobles.

There were many opinions that the reason she fled to the Castle of Flowers was that she wanted to rise to the position of Empress herself. It was because the late Emperor had tried not to take a second wife in order to avoid displacing Elia’s maternal family.

Thanks to her, who had wrapped the Lord around her skirts and swung him about at will, and who eventually snatched the Lord’s heart and vanished from the world altogether, the winter of deep resentment rushed in. Therefore, the nobles had reached a point where they were so sick of it that they hesitated to even mention the name ‘Glory’.

“There are several families that took the lead in exterminating the Nobles of Flowers back then to grow their power. Until they are cleared away, no one must know this fact, including Noah himself.”

At Elia’s chilling and firm words, Michaelis swallowed hard and clenched his fists. Sweat began to soak his palms. Since he was a member of the Noble Council, it was certain that if there were anyone in the Eve family who had participated in that, they would not be able to escape Elia’s target.

“It’s possible Noah isn’t of that bloodline. I didn’t see it in detail, so that pattern could just be something else similar.”

“It is a pattern that matches this exactly.”

Every time they shared a bed, Elia had obsessively caressed that pattern. At that moment, the feeling of the soft and tender skin winding inside his mouth came back vividly. Each time, Elia had tightened his physical senses—including his sexual sensitivity—to touch Noah, trying not to miss even a single one of the few hairs on Noah’s body. It was a pattern he could not possibly mistake. Furthermore, Noah might be very old, perhaps far more than his appearance suggests.

Licking his lips like a hungry wolf, Elia swept his tongue over his lips and continued.

“Besides, flower buds have formed.”

“Th, that! According to what Aiden claims, flowers have also bloomed on his family’s tree, which he transplanted from the Territory of the Sun when he entered the palace. But Noah is……”

“……”

Seeing the bridge of Elia’s nose wrinkle, Michaelis moistened his lips and asked in a suggestive voice.

“There are many stories among the palace officials. Did you really never go to that palace on the night of the Spring Awakening Festival?”

“I have been there.”

“Th, then, at that time with Aiden……!”

“But that is not my child. That much I can state with certainty.”

“Ho, how can you be so certain! Aiden even lured you to his room, so how can you guarantee that nothing happened. At that time, if that fellow burned something like a paralyzing incense and forced you like before!”

“It didn’t get up.”

Elia spat out and walked across the room toward the door. What on earth did I just hear? A dumbstruck Michaelis turned his gaze toward Administrative Official Petr, but the elderly gentleman was also looking at Elia with an expression no less shocked than his.

Perhaps their expressions were funny, as Elia chuckled and drove the point home.

“That crazy person tried to drug me and pounce on me. But I didn’t get an erection. Is that enough of an answer?”

“Uh……”

The wickedness of Aiden Lux, who actually attempted that, was shocking. However, as a surge of emotion rushed in along with it, Michaelis muttered while half-sobbing.

“El, Elia, uh, congratulations……!”

“……”

Having made the two of them half-mute, Elia opened the office door wide with a refreshing smile. Confirming that there was no one in the hallway, he spoke to his two henchmen who were staggering like scarecrows as he left the office.

“So, look into it. About the Nobles of Flowers. And seeing how Aiden, who has been holding his breath until now, is acting so anxious, there must definitely be an owner of that seed inside the castle. He must have timed it to have relations with me and intended to insist it was my child.”

Seeing the two trees where buds had formed simultaneously at the exact right time, most people did not doubt what Aiden claimed. But for him to affirm it like that.

Finally, the two subjects nodded their heads violently. Elia was displaying displeasure and annoyance, but he nodded back at them. He was suddenly exuding an atmosphere from his whole body that made him not easily approachable. The two subjects were still dazed, as he looked entirely different from the languid and exhausted appearance the Lord had shown recently.

“So, until the cleanup is finished step by step, let’s leave that crazy harlot as he is. It would also be troublesome if the fact that Noah is pregnant became known too early.”

In the presence of an Elia who felt even imposing, the lethargic image he had shown for the past 100 years was quickly forgotten. Before Elia lost his motivation. Administrative Official Petr could not overcome the sudden surge of deep emotion as he seemed to be regaining the appearance of when he reportedly looked after state affairs intelligently and benevolently; he bit his trembling lips several times and then bowed his head.

“I shall follow your command, Lord.”

“Yes, Lord. Just leave it to us!”