Chapter 18

The trees of the manor were what announced winter’s arrival.

Heavy raindrops knocked down the autumn-colored leaves, and cold wind began to blow through the skeletal branches that had been stripped bare in an instant. Along with this, white smoke began rising endlessly from the chimneys that stood tall throughout the manor. Except for meals or brief trips to the stables, Ian spent most of his time sitting in the large armchair placed in front of the study’s fireplace.

‘I miss warm floors and electric blankets on beds.’

Ian, who had forgotten about the world he once belonged to for a while, found himself remembering these longed-for things for the first time in ages due to the unusually cold first winter he was experiencing at this manor.

While he examined documents that absolutely needed reviewing or dozed under thick blankets, Ash would come and go in the chair beside him. Sitting nearby, Ash didn’t seem bored—after lessons ended, he would sit beside Ian doing homework that Jeremy had assigned to prevent questions.

Ian glanced at the papers Ash was studying. The level had become so advanced that it was difficult to understand exactly what he was learning now. But rather than feeling uncomfortable, Ian felt pleased instead.

As he turned his gaze back to the blazing fireplace, there was a tapping sound from the study window.

Wondering if a crow—rarely seen since winter began—had come, Ian stood up still wrapped in his blanket.

Seeing Ian approach the window, Ash also rose. When Ian carefully opened the window, cold air that bit at the warm air inside the study touched his face.

A white world spread out before his eyes.

“Wow…”

Though he’d known it was brewing, he hadn’t expected this much snow to accumulate.

Rather large snowflakes were falling slowly and endlessly from the heavily overcast sky. Seeing another snowball hit the glass window beside him with a thud and slide down, Ian looked below.

“It’s the teacher.”

Ash, who had somehow approached and was standing beside him, murmured.

Looking around at the teacher waving both hands like a child and the student looking down at him with exasperation, Ian chuckled. At this, Ash’s eyes widened with an expression asking why he was laughing, but Ian smiled and waved out the window, saying:

“Should we go out too?”

Ash reached his hand outside with a worried look.

“The snow makes it feel cozy, but are you sure you’ll be alright?”

It felt like their positions had somehow reversed. At times like this, Ash seemed like an old child. Ian chuckled and lightly flicked Ash’s cheek with his finger.

“We need to be fully prepared before going out.”

Ian first opened the wardrobe.

Inside were clothes made by the skillful servants of the manor. Each fabric was worth nearly several months’ wages for a servant. Among them, he put on as many layers as possible including an outdoor coat with luxurious fur and wrapped a scarf around his neck, making his body bulky.

‘At this rate, I wouldn’t even get hurt if I fell. I’d probably just roll around instead.’

When he came out after imagining himself rolling in the snow, Ash had also finished preparing and was waiting for Ian in the corridor. Ian expected him to ask why he was so bundled up, but instead Ash walked around Ian in a circle, then made a satisfied humming sound as if giving his approval.

Standing there, Ash looked nearly untouchable, but Ian briefly took off his gloves and adjusted his scarf properly so wind wouldn’t get in through the gaps.

Meanwhile, Ash kept his eyes downcast and waited obediently.

“Let’s go now.”

Walking down the central staircase, through the lobby, and opening the front door to step outside, the white world opened before them once again. Cold air filled their lungs. A world transformed with different light, like another realm entirely. Perhaps knowing they would come down, Jeremy, standing over there, waved his hand.

And soon something hit Ian’s face.

“Oof!”

While he blinked in confusion, the snow stuck to his forehead slowly slid down.

A flustered Ash looked back and forth between Jeremy and Ian, then despite the inconvenience of the falling snow, ran toward Jeremy at fierce speed. Jeremy, who had thrown the snow and was laughing “hahaha,” saw this and started running nimbly.

‘It’s so hard to move, yet they’re all managing to run.’

Ian walked with difficulty through snow that sank up to his ankles, following behind them as they moved away.

After running around the manor for a while, when Jeremy fell and Ash was giving him a generous snowball bombardment, something suddenly dropped onto Ash’s back with a thud. When Ash turned around in confusion, he saw Ian, who had thrown snow at him and was laughing heartily.

His face, turning red from the cold, was filled with pure joy. As Ash stared as if frozen, a snowball flew toward his waist.

When he turned around, this time it was Jeremy, completely covered in snow and crawling on the ground while giggling.

“Hahaha.”

For some reason, when his teacher—who had a more childish face than a child—struggled to get up, Ash approached as if to help him up and grabbed him, then pushed him away the moment Jeremy leaned completely on him.

“Hey, isn’t that too much?”

Jeremy fell flat in a funny position. The snow piled around him scattered with a whoosh. Ian’s eyes held warmth as he watched the two bickering.

Ian always wanted to give Ash experiences that would fill the empty spaces in his heart that he might not even know existed. He thought this was his role as a guardian, as someone much more adult than the child.

‘I’m glad Jeremy seems to fulfill that role even more completely.’

Though Jeremy was a teacher, he looked after Ash like a troublesome older brother. While it might not have any particularly deep meaning, being born from his free-spirited nature, Ian somehow felt Jeremy was much more natural and reliable than himself, who sometimes didn’t know what to do.

Jeremy pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaned his glasses. Then he looked up at the sky where the snow had stopped. Words came out with white breath:

“Even at the beginning of the year, I never thought we’d have such a wonderful winter. It’s magnificent.”

The two people standing side by side, not minding the cold, expressed their agreement with Jeremy’s words through silence.

But thanks to that wonderful snowball fight, all three were inevitably struck down with colds. For a while, they had to lie in their respective beds for a week, taking the terrible-tasting medicine Dr. Sutton had prescribed.

“The doctor’s medicine felt more dangerous, I tell you.”

At the first meal they all shared after recovering, Jeremy shook his head. Usually Ash didn’t agree much with Jeremy’s words, but this time he had a sympathetic expression.

“But the cold definitely went away.”

“Hmm, how about we all gather after dinner and play Old Maid?”

At Jeremy’s suggestion, Ian nodded and looked at Ash. When the child didn’t answer immediately, the eccentric teacher also turned his gaze to the child.

“It’s better to go to bed early at night.”

“My goodness, the young master is really so proper. Isn’t it because you think you’ll lose since your emotions show so clearly on your face?”

At those words, Ash frowned.

“Wouldn’t it be fine as long as we don’t stay up too late?”

Thinking it would be fine as long as they didn’t spend time too late, when Ian looked at Ash, the child slowly nodded.

After finishing their meal, the three wrapped themselves in blankets and sat in front of the fireplace playing Old Maid. Jeremy, as before, seemed to read the cards clearly and only avoided drawing the Old Maid card. After playing several games, he suddenly looked toward the window.

“What’s wrong?”

When Ian asked with puzzled eyes, Jeremy put his index finger to his lips and said:

“Shh…”

At his words, all three fell silent and listened carefully.

Still, there was only the sound of wind rattling the windows and the burning sounds from the fireplace. Jeremy scratched his head with an embarrassed face.

“I thought I heard some kind of sound, but I guess not. Come to think of it, winters like this remind me of a story.”

Jeremy opened his mouth with an ominous expression.

“It was a winter like this too, they say. Long, long ago, when dragons flapped their wings breathing fire, and people could use something called magic… there lived a young lord. This lord was said to be someone who loved hunting very much and was quite spirited. One winter, the lord who had gone hunting suddenly encountered a blizzard so severe he couldn’t see in front of him, became separated from the retainers who had come with him, and was wandering alone. Before this lord’s eyes appeared a small cabin.”

Jeremy continued the story with hand gestures like a skilled storyteller.

“Thinking he might freeze to death if he stayed like this, he knocked on the cabin door, and an old woman came out. The grandmother quickly welcomed the lord in, telling him to come inside. That grandmother lived alone with her daughter in the remote cabin, so the two of them helped strip the nearly frozen lord of his clothes, covered him with a blanket, and let him warm himself by the blazing hearth. They even let him drink a cup of liquor made from wild strawberries picked in early summer so he could warm his body. But the moment he received that cup, the lord met eyes with the daughter… But is this story too early for young Ash?”

When Jeremy narrowed his eyes and looked at Ash, the child made an indifferent expression.

“I’ve heard this story before…”

“…Is that so? What about you, Baron?”

At Ash’s words, Jeremy turned his gaze toward Ian with a deflated expression.

Ian honestly answered, having never heard the story and wanting to listen:

“It’s the first time I’m hearing it…”

At Ian’s words, Jeremy showed a satisfied expression.

“Then let me continue the story. Yes, as you might have guessed, at that moment he fell in love with the daughter. They were young man and woman, after all. When the lord had somewhat regained his senses, he pleaded with the grandmother to let him take her daughter as his bride. The grandmother insisted it was impossible, but apparently the daughter had also taken a liking to the lord, so the grandmother had no choice but to give permission. The next morning when the snow stopped, the grandmother brought out a donkey from the stable behind the cabin, and the lord set off with the daughter riding the donkey. It would have been nice if they lived happily ever after up to this point, but…”

Jeremy shrugged his shoulders.

“A month later, the daughter returned on foot. They say she was treated not only as someone of low status but even as a witch who had seduced the young lord. The daughter who returned to the cabin fell ill and died, and the grandmother also disappeared. After that, the territory ruled by the young lord suddenly suffered from disease despite it being winter, and people began dying one by one. The young lord also died from disease. People whispered that it was because the mother and daughter had cursed them. So there’s a story that when winter comes, the ghosts of the mother and daughter wander about with the wind, screaming mournfully and scratching anyone who comes outside.”

When Jeremy closed his mouth like that, only the sound of wind blowing from afar and the crackling of logs burning in the fireplace could be heard again. Soon Jeremy pulled up his lips in a smile and said:

“The sound of the wind earlier seemed unusual, so this story came to mind.”

Being a story with eerie elements, Ian rubbed around his neck.

And a few days later, Jeremy Shiller, the manor’s tutor, was found as a snow-covered cold corpse among the strange sculptures in the garden that he had previously talked about excitedly as if he had made the discovery of the century.

Ice crystals clung to the eyelashes above his glass-bead eyes, which were wide open as if he had witnessed something terrible.