I’m Just a Counselor Chapter 44

The next day, as I expected, I was greeted by a white world.

 

Estella, who had dragged me to the office as soon as she heard that Jeremiah had prepared it for me, looked around the room as if to take in the sights and smiled wryly.

 

“It’s a cliché to use money to hold someone down. I guess I should say you’ve gotten the better of him for now, huh?”

 

“Huh? What?”

 

I asked, too busy fixing the curtains to hear her, and Estella giggled and threw her arms around my back.

 

“It’s good to see that you finally realize how important you are!”

 

When I finally found the curtain strings and secured the curtains, I noticed that Estella’s face looked particularly excited. The pure white landscape seemed to make someone’s heart sing.

 

The white snowfields, made from the snow that had fallen overnight, glistened in the sunlight, and Estella couldn’t contain her excitement as she gazed at the beautiful sight.

 

“Sis, let’s go outside and see the snow!”

 

It was nice and relaxing to watch the scenery outside from the warmth of the room, but that’s not what winter is all about. On days like this, you need to get out into the cold wind, freeze your hands, and freshen your breath.

 

I nodded at Estella’s suggestion. So we decided to change our clothes and go out into the garden.

 

I went to my room, put on a thick coat over my dress, pulled on a pair of store-bought gloves, and shuffled down to the garden. After a while, Estella came out too.

 

“Estella…”

 

I couldn’t help but mutter as soon as I saw her.

 

“You’re so cute…”

 

“I don’t want a sheep’s parting, but the maid keeps making me do it.”

 

Dressed in a fluffy furry cape and gloves with adorable fur bells, Estella looked like a cute little snow fairy. 

 

She fiddled with the ends of her braided hair and grumbled softly, then glanced at me and twirled around in front of me.

 

“Am I that cute in your eyes?”

 

“Of course!”

 

“Well… then I’ll have a lamb chop!”

 

I was nodding my head enthusiastically when Estella blushed, giggled, and pulled me into a hug.

 

I hugged her back, then took her hand in mine.

 

“Shall we take a walk hand in hand like this?”

 

“Okay!”

 

Estella replied bubbly, her freshly-painted lips parting to reveal a trail of white breath.

 

My breath was white as well, but I was too busy feeling happy to focus on the cold.

 

Estella didn’t hide her excitement, waving back and forth between me and the hand I held as we wandered around the garden. Her and my footprints pattered across the white, untrodden snow, one after the other.

 

After a while, she squatted down under one of the trees.

 

“Sister Vanessa, let’s build a snowman.”

 

“Oh, do you think so?”

 

“How do you do that?”

 

Bam!

 

I jerked up from my squat beside Estella at the sudden interruption.

 

“Oh, no.”

 

It was Shane who corrected me.

 

He grinned mischievously as he straightened my waist and opened the collar of my coat.

 

“Don’t look so surprised. What, did I overhear a secret conversation?”

 

“Oh, no… You surprised me by showing up out of the blue.”

 

I coughed in embarrassment and punched Shane in the bicep.

 

He grunted and looked at Estella curiously.

 

“So, Miss, how do you make a snowman? Do you just put snow on a person?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know, then do you want to join me, Mr. Shane?”

 

Estella had already removed her gloves and set them aside.

 

Apparently, you have to touch the snow with your bare hands. I quickly took off my gloves and set them aside. Shane followed suit and sat down next to me.

 

“First of all, you need to rub your eyes together like this…”

 

Estella explained to Shane, quite seriously, how to make a snowman.

 

Shane nodded his head as he listened to her explanation and began to gather the snow, but it didn’t seem to form into a round shape like he thought it would.

 

Estella, who had already finished the body of the snowman, laughed at him.

 

“I guess there are some things even you, Mr. Shane, can’t do, huh?”

 

“Miss, we can’t all be good at everything.”

 

“But Vanessa is good at everything, and my sister is good at building snowmen!”

 

Estella complimented me, but my skill wasn’t much different from Shane’s. I laughed hollowly as I watched the snow crumble in my hands.

 

Apparently, Estella is the only one of us who has the ability to make snowmen.

 

“Voila, look at this. Heart shape.”

 

Estella showed me how to make snow in other shapes, not just circles.

 

I giggled and patted her head, as if to show off that I could do this too.

 

Shane, on the other hand, who had been smashing the snow together, looked annoyed when he couldn’t get the snow to do his bidding.

 

“There’s a way to do it without that.”

 

Shane muttered through gritted teeth and traced a circle with his finger over the snow.

 

He frowned, muttered something under his breath, and to our surprise, the circle began to glow. Estella and I stared at it, wide-eyed.

 

A moment later, when the glow faded, there was a duck standing in the circle, carved out of snow.

 

“Voila!”

 

Shane made a playful mouth sound.

 

“Ooh, wow! Mr. Shane, did you use magic? Mr. Shane, are you a wizard?”

 

Estella’s eyes widened and she muttered in amazement.

 

I opened my mouth, too, because I had never seen Shane use magic before.

 

“So this is how magic manifests.”

 

So the magic circles he drew over his eyes were magic circles, but I don’t think he drew any circles for his transformation spell, so how did he do that? Is there another way?

 

While I was pondering this, Shane, who had just created several snow ducks in the same spot, turned to Estella and said cheerfully, “I’m not good at it.”

 

“I’m not good at everything, but I’m pretty good at most of it.”

 

“Wow, I can’t believe it, Mr. Shane is wasting his magic!”

 

“Wasting… Miss, I’m just playing with you, and you’re being a bit harsh.”

 

“What? I don’t need Mr. Shane, I just need Sister Vanessa!”

 

“Miss, don’t you think you’re playing favorites?”

 

Shane said, sounding hurt, and leaned into me. I gave a small laugh and patted him on the shoulder.

 

At that moment, Estella, who was reaching out her arm to touch the snow duck Shane had made, froze.

 

“Mr. Shane. You need to get yourself straightened out right now.”

 

“What?”

 

“Don’t you dare hit on my sister! I won’t forgive you!”

 

Estella shouted, grabbing a handful of snow and throwing it at Shane.

 

“Ouch, Miss Estella. Did you just attack me!”

 

Shane raised his arm to block the snow baptism and began to throw snow at Estella in a hail of bullets. Like a shrimp in a whale fight, I was pelted with snowflakes from both sides, and I scrambled to my feet.

 

Estella, who had taken a bean-butt kick to the back, scrambled to her feet and threw a cluster of snowballs at Shane. Shane was no slouch either.

 

And just like that, their snowman-building session had turned into a snowball fight.

 

“No magic snowballs! Can’t Shane do that by himself?!”

 

“Miss, that’s for making snowmen… Ew, it’s frozen! It’ll hurt if you get hit!”

 

“So who wants to hit on Vanessa?!”

 

“I really tried to look at her, but she’s like a little crab… Hey, come here! Aren’t you coming?!”

 

Shane, engrossed in the snowball fight, finally let go of Estella, but neither of them seemed to care.

 

Shane formed a ball of snow with his magic and flicked it at Estella, who dodged it like a ghost and threw a ball of snow at Shane.

 

The snowball flew at Shane with a puck sound, leaving white marks on his clothes.

 

“Come on, you two, I don’t want to get snowed on!”

 

I scrambled across the snowfield, dodging flying snowballs.

 

The once pristine snowfield was now littered with the footprints of the three of us.