#21
“Aeongi~ Aeongi~ What are you doing?”
“Sleeping~”
“Sleepyhead~”
Noah sang a nursery rhyme for the first time in a while, wiggling the front paw of Aeongi, who was sleeping with his belly exposed and not moving at all. Once Aeongi had shrunk, he didn’t grow back, and it seemed he would stay in his small form until Raymond made and sent a ring, which made Noah feel even better.
Though he was overall white with black stripes, Aeongi’s paws were completely white as if wearing socks. Noah’s face broke into a beaming smile as he touched the contrasting vivid black jelly-like paw pads.
“Aeongi~ Aeongi~ What are you doing?”
Still humming the song, Noah showered kisses on Aeongi’s soft paw pads. But seeing that he still showed no signs of waking up, Noah bit down on that small front paw while controlling his strength.
“He’s awake!”
Though touching his soft fur with his hands and rubbing his lips all over him hadn’t made Aeongi budge, his two eyes snapped open. And Noah, meeting the gaze of Aeongi who was still drowsy from not being fully awake, said loudly:
“Since Aeongi is awake, we can go together, right?”
That’s right.
There was a reason for waking up sleeping Aeongi so passionately from the morning.
“Won’t Aeongi catch a cold? Mom is already worried about you going.”
At Loren’s words, Noah pulled the blinking Aeongi into his arms. Aeongi, who had shrunk to kitten size, fit snugly into Noah’s embrace.
Aeongi, whose main habitat was those cold mountains and who had managed the mountains, was receiving sudden overprotection just because he had gotten smaller. When he roamed around in his threatening size, no one cared where, what, or how Aeongi did anything. Even when Aeongi wandered up the mountain after putting Noah to sleep, everyone just accepted it.
Even when he didn’t touch the food prepared for Aeongi, even when he rolled around in the snow and got it tangled in his fur, they considered it characteristics of a snow leopard.
Whether big snow leopard or small snow leopard, they were the same snow leopard, yet now Aeongi was even wearing a wool outfit that Loren had knitted herself. And Noah was wearing a sweater of the same color.
“Aeongi is wearing clothes.”
“But you’re still going into water.”
The place where Aeongi had picked up Noah and brought him. In other words, the hot spring where Noah had picked up Aeongi had now become a place known to everyone in Schwein Castle. When Lucas asked exactly how far they had gone, Noah mentioned the hot spring that wasn’t too far from the castle.
The very next day.
Lucas, accompanied by knights, did find that hot spring. But since he took no action, Noah, remembering how he had soaked his body languidly in the hot outdoor spring until his bones felt mushy when he was Jihun, had been pestering Lucas for a while.
So he changed his approach. He said he wanted to play in the water.
When he made a fuss about wanting to play in water in the dead of winter, not summer, what was provided to Noah was a bathtub filled with hot water.
Who asked for this kind of thing? These people are doing this because they don’t know the taste of hot springs.
Noah, determined to make them experience that feeling where your head is so cold it stings but your body is filled with heat, continued to sing praises of that hot spring.
For the long-term plans he would achieve in the future, he needed to let those staying at Schwein Castle experience the life he wanted. Today, when the continued cold wave had finally subsided, was that day.
Noah didn’t say he would soak in the hot spring.
He just appealed earnestly that he wanted to go to the place where he first met Aeongi. He said Aeongi might have family, and if by chance they met Aeongi’s family there, he wanted to bring them back.
The things Noah was saying now weren’t logical at all, but it didn’t matter. What logical things could a five-year-old say? To them, it would just seem like a young child’s whining and throwing tantrums.
Whether going directly or indirectly, Noah’s dream came true as long as he reached his destination. The cold wave that had continued for days subsided, and on this pleasantly mild day, they decided to head to the hot spring Noah said he wanted to see, under the pretext of a picnic.
After the people going together were decided – Lucas, a few knights, Loren, and Elisa – the problem was Aeongi. There was a standoff between Noah, who wanted to bring Aeongi, Aeongi, who seemed particularly unwilling to get up today, and Loren, who wanted to leave small Aeongi behind out of consideration.
But when Noah committed the atrocity of biting his front paw, Aeongi, who had been refusing to get up with his whole body, opened his eyes. Loren, who ended up having to bring Aeongi, began making excuses like Aeongi was weak because he was small, or that he’d catch a cold.
“Aeongi, let’s go.”
Though Loren’s worry-filled words continued, Noah boldly opened the backpack he carried around. Then he took out his favorite cookies that he had packed inside and pushed Aeongi in.
“Aeongi?”
Whether it was some form of resistance, Aeongi’s small sound as he raised his front paws trying not to go into the bag was easily drowned out by the other busy sounds of preparing to go out. And Noah, with the bag containing Aeongi slung over his shoulders, kicked open the door and went outside.
It was time to face Lucas, who at least had the thought of raising him a bit more firmly, rather than Loren who felt overprotective.
“It really is a beautiful place. Aren’t you cold?”
Loren looked around after arriving at a place not too far from Schwein Castle, but with an entrance hidden by dense trees that would be hard to find without someone’s guidance.
The white snow, bathed in sunlight floating peacefully in a sky with stable wind and not a single cloud, sparkled like jewels. The hot spring with white mist settling over it even looked mystical.
“I’m not cold at all.”
Since it was a distance adults could comfortably walk, Noah, who had been riding comfortably on Lucas’s shoulders, answered while touching Lucas’s hair. Aeongi, sticking his head out through the slightly open gap of the backpack worn by Noah, who was riding piggyback on Lucas’s shoulders, was busily looking around.
“There’s nowhere proper to sit. How about we just look around briefly and go?”
Though she had come along due to Noah’s insistence, Loren, who judged this to be just a small pond with warm water in the mountains, slightly frowned.
“No. I have things to do here.”
Noah got down from Lucas’s neck and first took off the bag he was carrying on his back. Then Aeongi came out as if he had been waiting and began running around on the white snow. It sounded nice to say running around, but he was actually rolling around on the white snow.
Seeing snow piled on the wide rock where he had eaten snacks when he came alone, Noah began to rack his brains earnestly. How could he get these people to go into that warm water?
There was no way to push them all in, and they hadn’t brought spare clothes either, so he couldn’t just insist recklessly. Lost in thought, Noah watched those who were clearing snow and making a place to sit, thinking the rock looked better.
Even if he couldn’t get all of them to go in, he at least wanted to go in himself. At least he had spare clothes, and since the premise was that he was an active child, Elisa had packed spare clothes even for this brief picnic outing.
“Let’s just have a simple snack here and go back. If we stay too long, both Noah and Aeongi will catch colds.”
Loren picked up Aeongi, who was covered with snow, with one hand while the others had already settled in and begun unpacking, and spoke while brushing off the snow stuck to his fur with a handkerchief.
“Noah, don’t go far.”
Noah, who had been stealthily approaching the water, stopped and pulled his foot back at Loren’s words. He had thought about pretending to fall in by accident, but it didn’t seem like the right time now.
“Can’t I go in here?”
If he couldn’t do it secretly, he had to do it openly and boldly.
“Do you know what kind of water this is before trying to go in? We don’t know how hot it might be, and there might be something that’s not good for your body. Noah, what did you promise when we came here today?”
“Go to the pond where I met Aeongi. To meet Aeongi’s family.”
Noah answered quietly while crouching and packing snow.
“But do you see Aeongi’s family here?”
Noah looked around and shook his head. With so many people making such a commotion here, what mountain beast would come near this area?
What to do? He wanted to go in the water, but if he even tried to unwrap his scarf here, Loren and Elisa would definitely be horrified and bundle him up tightly. Should he just fall in?
The fur hat with rabbit ears slipped off as Noah tried to hold his head with both hands.
“Aeongi.”
Noah put his cheek on his knee and looked at Aeongi, who was walking over with short legs, whether Loren had let him go or not.
“I want to go in there.”
Noah whispered quietly to Aeongi so the busy adults couldn’t hear.
As soon as Noah finished speaking and Aeongi tilted his head to the side, Noah pushed his lips forward.
“I want to swim in there.”
When he revealed his true feelings, Aeongi’s eyes sparkled briefly. No, Aeongi’s eyes always sparkled, and it was natural for them to sparkle more in such a sunny place. But sometimes like this, it seemed like Aeongi understood everything he was saying.
“Splash splash. But mom, Elisa, and Lucas would all say no, right?”
Noah moved his index finger and wrote “hot spring” on the snow like doodling.
“The water there is warm. It makes you drowsy to the bones. Right? You know?”
When Aeongi nodded as if he really understood what he was saying, Noah laughed quietly.
“Really going in… Huk!”
Sitting there wouldn’t give him any answers, and he had been sitting too long so his legs seemed to be getting numb. As Noah was getting up, a scream burst from his mouth.
Splash—
The sound of something falling into water followed.
“Noah!”
“Noah Schwein!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
