“…Huh?!”
Chaika’s eyes went wide as he looked out the window, an exclamation slipping from his lips. Snow that had fallen steadily through the night lay piled high, blanketing everything in white. The entire world had turned white. A sense of wonder rose in Chaika’s eyes as he gazed at the snowy landscape.
“It’s so beautiful.”
Chaika breathed out in awe.
“Want to go outside?”
At Mihail’s suggestion, Chaika nodded his head vigorously. Anticipation and delight bloomed across his face. Mihail had the servants prepare warm clothes, then gently calmed the overly excited Chaika and made him eat some light soup and drink warm tea.
At the mention of going out with Chaika, the servants skillfully brought out appropriate outdoor clothing and dressed him. Now accustomed to Chaika’s presence, they layered his clothes meticulously, starting with a thin undershirt, making sure not even a sliver of cold wind could seep in. On top of that, when Mihail draped over him the fox-fur coat he himself had worn as a child, Chaika truly looked like a baby duck. Unlike Chaika, Mihail’s own attire was nothing special. For a Dominant Alpha’s body, this level of cold was nothing at all.
“Let’s go. Hurry.”
Fully dressed, Chaika urged Mihail on. His back, wobbling as he tried to walk as fast as he could, was both ridiculous and adorable. It must’ve looked the same to the servants, because they turned their heads aside or covered their mouths, smiling to themselves.
If he kept waddling like that, they’d never make it outside. In the end, Mihail scooped Chaika up into his arms. Perhaps because he wanted to reach the snowy field as soon as possible, Chaika obediently let himself be carried this time.
The main gate opened, revealing a white world beyond. The carefully tended garden trees all wore caps of white snow, and the ground, too, was entirely white—like a sheet of paper that had never been used.
Once set down from Mihail’s arms, Chaika stared in fascination at the footprints that appeared with each step he took. Then he waddled over one way, then another, leaving his own trail of footprints stamped across the white snowfield.
“Huh?”
Chaika suddenly voiced his confusion, then waved his hand toward Mihail.
“Lord Mihail. Look at this!”
As Mihail approached, Chaika pointed toward a corner of the garden. There, snowmen of various sizes had been made. They were probably created by the servants just for fun.
“What’s this?”
Seeing a snowman for the first time, Chaika asked. Without a word, Mihail grinned and bent down, gathering snow into his hands and beginning to pack it together.
In Mihail’s large hands, a round snowball quickly took shape. He rolled it back and forth across the snow. As the snowball gradually grew larger, Chaika’s eyes sparkled with amazement. Mihail made two snowballs, placing the larger one on the bottom and the smaller one on top.
“It’s called a snowman.”
At Mihail’s explanation, Chaika nodded as if he finally understood. Mihail snapped off nearby branches and used them to give the snowman arms, eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
“Oooh!”
Chaika clapped his hands.
“I want to try too.”
Chaika squatted down and gathered snow. Just like Mihail had done, he packed it into a ball and rolled it around. But strangely, it wouldn’t become round, instead warping into odd shapes no matter how much he tried. A crease formed between Chaika’s brows. Mihail considered helping, but Chaika’s gaze was so serious that he held back. He watched as Chaika, after many failed attempts, finally managed to make one small snowman.
“I made one too.”
Chaika said with a smile. His cheeks were flushed bright red, having been exposed to the cold wind for too long.
“You’ve played enough. Let’s go back inside now.”
Before Chaika could even answer, Mihail scooped him up and headed for the mansion. Chaika couldn’t take his eyes off the snowman, staring at it all the way until the main gate doors closed.
After peeling off the many layers of clothing and sitting him down in front of the fireplace, Chaika soon began to nod off.
“With stamina this weak…”
Clicking his tongue, Mihail prepared a soft sleeping spot in front of the fire and laid him down. In the meantime, Chaika, who’d shaken off his drowsiness, smiled with crescent-shaped eyes.
“That was so much fun.”
“It’ll be fun for a while, but if you look at it long enough, you’ll get tired of it. Once the snow starts melting, the ground turns into nothing but mud.”
“That’s such a shame. It’s so pretty.”
Chaika’s face fell. Mihail brushed a hand over his cheek. A faint smile returned to his previously sullen expression. Mihail gazed at Chaika for a moment, then leaned down and pressed a light kiss to his lips. Chaika wrapped his arms around Mihail’s neck and met his gaze. The vermilion light flickering in his eyes was deep and lingering. Chaika slowly closed his eyes, and the two shared a deep, lingering kiss in front of the fireplace.
***
Winter at Castiya Castle was bitterly cold, and snow fell constantly. Just as Mihail had said, when the snow melted, everything turned into a muddy mess—but once the snow fell again and piled up, all the filth was hidden away, leaving behind nothing but a pristine white world.
Chaika stood by the window, a book he’d picked at random left half-read with several pages turned over. Since he’d completely stopped taking Bellagie, the pheromones emanating from Chaika’s body had grown stronger, prompting Mihail to reorganize the inner castle’s security. Even the garden paths rarely used by anyone other than the gardener were now regularly patrolled by knights.
Ordinarily, Mihail never left Chaika’s side for even a moment, but the one place he allowed Chaika to be alone was the study. Each day, under the pretense of reading there, Chaika spent an hour or two observing the garden patrols.
As was usually the case, patrols followed a fixed pattern and schedule. Watching a knight in the distance who was just switching shifts, Chaika lifted the corner of his lips. That freshly rotated knight patrolled the same secluded path every day—an area with little foot traffic and tall trees that made it hard to see. A young, inexperienced Alpha knight, brimming with forced discipline. He likely hadn’t been knighted very long. He was the perfect target Chaika had been looking for.
The moment he saw the knight begin his patrol, Chaika left the study without hesitation. Using the hidden passage within the walls that servants commonly used, slipping outside was easy. At a suitably secluded spot along the knight’s patrol route—one that wasn’t easily visible—Chaika hurriedly gathered snow and began packing it together. Just as Mihail had taught him, he shaped the snow into a ball and rolled it across the snowfield to make it bigger. Rolling it again and again, it grew to the size of a baby’s head, and with more rolling, it became as large as Chaika’s own head.
It was while he was deeply focused on making the snowman that it happened. The crunch, crunch of footsteps on snow drew steadily closer. Chaika pretended not to hear, concentrating on what he was doing. Moments later, the patrolling knight spotted him.
Everyone in Castiya Castle knew about Chaika. Seeing Chaika crouched alone in a secluded garden, the knight glanced around, searching for Mihail. But after confirming there was no one else nearby, he approached Chaika.
“Are you here by yourself?”
the knight asked. His stiff, overly formal tone reeked of a freshly knighted rookie.
“Ah… yes.”
Chaika put on an awkward expression, clearly uncomfortable at having been discovered. The knight’s face immediately hardened.
“Nothing should happen within the inner castle, but it can still be dangerous for you to wander around alone. I’ll escort you back to the mansion.”
At the knight’s words, Chaika hesitantly looked at the snowball he’d been diligently rolling just moments ago. The knight’s gaze followed to the snowball.
“I was trying to make a snowman as a surprise gift for Lord Mihail. Lord Mihail is always so good to me, but there’s nothing I can do for him in return… I thought at least something like this might make him happy.”
When Chaika put on a dejected expression, the knight looked troubled.
“If you stay out here alone for too long, His Grace will start looking for you.”
Chaika alternated his gaze between the snowball and the knight, then asked carefully,
“Then… could you help me finish it? No matter how much I roll it, the snowball won’t get any bigger. I want to make Lord Mihail’s snowman really big. If you help, it’ll be done quickly.”
The knight hesitated briefly, then soon nodded. Chaika smiled brightly.
“The one I was rolling just now is the body. Make it bigger—bigger, bigger. I’ll make the head to put on top.”
“Understood.”
It was obvious he was thinking that, since it had come to this, he’d finish quickly and take Chaika back to the mansion. Smiling, Chaika pointed to the snowball the knight would roll. As the knight stepped right up in front of him to take it, his body suddenly stiffened slightly.
“Thank you for helping me.”
Chaika thanked him with a clear, innocent smile. The knight’s eyes wavered. So easily shaken, Chaika scoffed coldly to himself.
“You’re supposed to roll it forward once like this, and then roll it to the side once to make it bigger.”
With an utterly guileless face, Chaika stood close to the knight, instructing him on the direction to roll the snowball. Without a word, the knight began rolling it. Chaika stepped slightly aside and started making a new snowball for the head.
Unlike Chaika, with his small hands, the knight quickly produced a massive body. When Chaika looked on in admiration, the knight stiffened awkwardly. The head was relatively small, so Chaika finished it himself. Once the sizes were roughly matched, Chaika beckoned the knight closer with a wave of his hand.
“Please place this carefully on top of the body.”
At Chaika’s request, the knight lifted the head and set it atop the body, then gathered snow and carefully packed it between the two pieces so it wouldn’t fall. Using branches he’d snapped ahead of time, Chaika made the eyes, nose, and mouth. It didn’t resemble Mihail at all—just an ordinary snowman—but it was finished nonetheless.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I managed to finish it safely. There’s no way I could’ve made something this big on my own.”
Chaika stepped closer and thanked him again. The knight’s face was faintly flushed, his breathing quick. One hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, and beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead. He was desperately resisting Chaika’s pheromones. Chaika sneered inwardly, then put on a deeply concerned expression. Reaching into his clothes, he pulled out a handkerchief and offered it to the knight.
“You must’ve worked up a sweat lifting something so heavy. Use this to wipe it off.”
That handkerchief was one Chaika had deliberately kept tucked against his body for several days without washing it.
