‘What does it matter? He doesn’t even visit. El is mean.’

Snow grumbled quietly. She had thought she would feel better as time passed, but her mood only grew more depressed. Snow was so overwhelmed with managing her gloomy feelings that she couldn’t focus on anything else.

Knock, knock, knock. Someone knocked on Snow’s door. Usually after knocking like that, they would identify themselves. But there was only silence. Who could it be? Snow tilted her head in confusion.

“Come in.”

Snow’s cheek left the window. A tall priest entered, opening the door. However, the wide hood of the priest’s robe was pulled down so far that she couldn’t tell who it was. Judging by the height and build, it was clearly a male priest.

“Who are you?”

Snow blinked and asked. There was no answer. The priest approached Snow one step at a time. It was strange. Though the footsteps were deliberately slow, as if trying to leave firm imprints, there was somehow a sense of urgency about them.

“Who is it?”

Snow asked again softly. The priest came closer.

At that moment, Snow saw it—hair slightly peeking out from behind the nape of the neck under the hood, a curious mixture of gold and orange. As far as she knew, such a hair color was not at all common.

Snow got down from the bed. She walked quickly, almost running with small steps, until she reached the priest. Due to their height difference, even with the hood on, the lower part of the priest’s face was visible. The mouth was smiling. It was a smile Snow knew well.

Snow didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the hood and pulled it back forcefully.

Wide black eyes, looking surprised, were revealed.

“Snow!”

The smiling lips parted into a round shape. Hair colored like the setting sun cascaded down, illuminated by the sunset light streaming into the room. No, it seemed as if the color emanating from Elios’s hair was blending with the light, dyeing the entire room red.

No matter how surprised Elios might be, he couldn’t be more surprised than Snow was at this moment. Before she could do anything, tears began to well up in her eyes. The sunset glow deepened. Snow buried her face in Elios’s chest and began to sob. A warm breeze carrying the scent of flowers blew through the open window—a wind offering an early taste of spring.

“Thank goodness… thank goodness… I missed you so much… I was scared you wouldn’t come…”

Snow said in a tearful voice. When Snow buried her face in his chest, Elios froze, unable to move. He realized once again how much he liked Snow.

Snow clenched her fist and lightly pounded on Elios’s chest. Though Snow was using all her strength, Elios didn’t feel any pain at all.

“You’re really mean. Making it seem like you’d come and then not showing up. Playing cruel jokes.”

Elios felt too sorry to even apologize, and could only call out anxiously, “Snow, Snow.”

Snow lifted her face to look at Elios. Tears that had gathered on her silver eyebrows rolled down like dew from leaves. Unable to just watch, Elios pressed his sleeve against her cheeks to wipe away the tears.

After a while, Snow asked a somewhat unexpected question.

“Your name, who gave it to you?”

Elios, who was about to say ‘My father,’ felt puzzled. Why is she asking that?

“It suits you really well.”

Snow said. Elios didn’t understand.

“Huh?”

“It means sun.”

“…?”

“Prince Elios.”

At Snow’s direct hit, Elios’s hand, which had been wiping her tears, stopped. With her eyelashes still wet, she looked up at Elios with a triumphant expression.

“…How did you find out?”

“I heard that the Callisto family only has two daughters.”

As Snow needed to keep Elios’s existence a secret, she had clearly made a mistake in describing his appearance in detail to the High Priest, so she spoke in a roundabout way.

“Oh my. I was actually planning to tell you today. But you found out before I could.”

That was sincere. He had thought that as long as they were meeting like this, he shouldn’t keep hiding his identity. It was just a prank he had started for fun, with no particular meaning.

Contrary to Snow’s triumphant expression, Elios didn’t seem particularly flustered and carefully asked:

“Are you okay with me being a prince?”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay with it?”

Looking at her clear eyes that genuinely seemed not to understand the question, Elios recalled his conversation with Ceres. Now that he thought about it, Snow’s way of speaking closely resembled Ceres’s. Elios looked at Snow, smiled slightly, and answered:

“No, there’s no reason not to be okay with it.”

Elios looked around the room. It was his first time seeing her room. It was completely white, just like her. However, at the moment, it was all dyed in the crimson light of the setting sun pouring in. The spring-like, fluttering breeze continued to blow in. He wondered if all priests’ rooms were like this—spacious and simple, like Ceres’s room. The window was at the head of the bed, and the blanket was rolled up and gathered at the end near the window, as if she had just been wrapped in it.

Snow had Elios sit in a chair. She sat comfortably on her bed, supporting herself with her arms behind her. There was much to talk about.

“You weren’t surprised to learn that I’m a prince?”

At Elios’s question, Snow pouted.

“Of course I was surprised. You have no idea how surprised I was. I didn’t know and went on praising the prince to you. It’s an old story, but I even suspected you might be a bit mentally unstable when I saw you laughing so hard holding your stomach. How vexing.”

Elios leaned comfortably in the chair and burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! What a shame. I wanted to see your surprised face at the coming-of-age ceremony, but you were surprised somewhere I couldn’t see. I missed it.”

Snow thought once again that Elios was mean.

Elios told her small stories about why he had played such a mischievous prank on Snow and how he had been doing lately. Snow also honestly confessed how she had spoken to High Priest Patrick. Elios also told her that Ceres knew about their meetings. Of course, Snow made a dumbfounded expression in surprise. She now understood why Elios had been able to safely come to the Santarium disguised as a priest.

As they continued their small talk, time passed quickly, and soon it was time to part.

“I won’t be able to come often.”

Elios said. Snow nodded. Now that she knew Elios was a prince, she had no choice but to understand.

“But surely you’re not going to come again after another month, right?”

To her question, Elios gave his final answer.

“Snow. If I had to wait that long, I couldn’t bear it.”

It was a rather direct statement. Snow knew that friends didn’t usually speak to each other this way. Her heart felt warm and, at the same time, slightly aching.

♣ ♣ ♣

February passed, and March arrived.

Spring didn’t come all at once but seeped in slowly. Pale green. Pale pink. Pale yellow. The world was covered in soft colors. It was as if the whole world had been reborn.

Dozens of luscious magnolias bloomed, looking as if they would melt at a touch. Forsythia trees with their stiff branches poured out small yellow flowers in abundance. Even trees that hadn’t flowered sprouted plenty of soft, tender light green leaves.

Instead of heavy snow, flower petals rained down. A gentle breeze from somewhere blew the petals here and there. People could experience this flower rain wherever they stood. Anyone looking up at the sky, whether emperor or farmer, wore a distant expression at the chaotically fluttering scene.

Everyone said that there had never been such a beautiful spring in the empire’s history.

The First Prince, with less than two months left until his coming-of-age ceremony, frequented the temple as if it were his own home. He received blessings multiple times from both the High Priests and Ceres. Only from Saint Bernadette, who had already come of age, had he not yet received a blessing—it seemed he was saving that special moment for his coming-of-age ceremony. People in the city said that the Prince’s faith seemed particularly deeper than others’.

It was around the middle of April.

The white Holy Maiden, deeply asleep, had a distant dream that night.

Snow poured heavily throughout the night.

The snow stopped before morning, but by the time people began to wake one by one, the sprouts and flowers had frozen and been crushed by the cold snow, falling to the ground.

‘What could have happened?’ People whispered.

The flower petals piled thickly on the ground were trampled by the careless footsteps of passersby.

04. Falling Flowers

A single pink petal floating in the air rode the sunlight and slipped through the window crack.

That day in mid-April was such a day. Peaceful and comfortable.

Snow was in an especially good mood that day. It was because Elios had visited in the morning. Today, they had put their heads together to choose the prayer that Elios would recite at his coming-of-age ceremony a few weeks later. In the strictly regulated ceremony, the prayer was the only part where the person undergoing the ritual could have input.

One could quote a famous existing prayer or recite one’s own prayer. Elios, who didn’t have much talent in this creative field, chose to quote an existing prayer. He asked for help from Snow, who was unmatched when it came to prayers.

It couldn’t be too light or too short in content. After much contemplation, Snow selected several prayers that were somewhat solemn yet suited Elios well.