“I have something I’ve always wanted to ask the Holy Maiden if I ever met you. I know it’s a rude request, but could you please come outside for a moment?”

Snow stared at the boy’s deep, captivating eyes with her lips tightly closed. Normally, she rarely ventured outside the Santarium even in broad daylight. However—

She was this boy’s dream.

Snow nodded her head heavily. Then she climbed down from the bed and put on her pristine white sandals.

Snow opened the door. Fortunately, thanks to the softly flickering candlesticks in various parts of the corridor, she could find her way properly without bumping into walls in the darkness.

Snow passed by Arianne’s room, where she was probably sleeping. Her heart pounded at the thought that if even one of the priests discovered them, the boy would likely be in considerable trouble. Snow came down to the first floor, making as little noise as possible.

Since the Santarium’s door was always open, she could see the boy standing far ahead, waiting in front of the entrance. As soon as Snow stepped off the marble floor onto the moist earth, the boy bowed, saying, “Holy Maiden, thank you!”

Judging that their conversation might wake the priests, Snow decided to move a bit farther from the Santarium. So she walked toward the grassy area where “El” had come from.

The boy noticed that Snow was about to sit on the grass and quickly took off the thin outer garment he was wearing, spreading it on the ground for her to sit on. But since Snow was not yet familiar with the etiquette of noble society, she carefully sat beside it, making sure not to step on the boy’s coat. The boy was a bit taken aback but soon pretended nothing had happened and picked up his coat again. It was a considerate gesture to prevent Snow from feeling embarrassed.

The boy sat down beside Snow. With her knees drawn up and hands clasped over them, Snow could see the boy sitting next to her clearly. Their seated heights seemed similar.

His short orange-tinted blonde hair swayed slightly in the wind, giving the impression of faded sunlight coming through a window in the afternoon. His deep, slightly drooping eyes made the boy’s expression appear very gentle. His eyes were black, but not pitch black like darkness—rather, a black with hints of gray that added to his warm impression.

Snow thought the boy, who gave her a warm and distant feeling, was like the sunlight on a spring day.

“Holy Maiden?”

The boy called out with puzzlement as Snow stared at him. Snow was so startled that she buried her face in her knees. Her face flushed bright red again. She couldn’t raise her head at all, fearing that her reddened face might be noticed at such close distance.

“As I mentioned earlier, there was something I really wanted to ask the Holy Maiden if I met you.”

The boy said. His voice conveyed a trembling that could have been either joy or nervousness. Snow still had her face buried in her nightgown, but her ears were perked up, focusing on the boy’s voice.

“First, I’d like you to hear my story.”

After saying this, the boy brought his palms together on his chest and took a deep breath, as if preparing himself mentally. Snow slightly raised her lowered head. She thought it would be impolite not to look someone in the eyes when they were speaking to her.

“My father is a very strict person. He expects me to become a truly excellent person.”

‘Father?’

Snow silently repeated this unfamiliar word. She had been without both father and mother since birth. No one had ever properly told Snow about her parents.

But Snow had certainly been curious about it before. So she had once asked Arianne, “Do I have parents too?”

At that time, Arianne had seemed surprised. She hesitated and didn’t immediately answer Snow. After a while, she replied, “The one who gave birth to the Holy Maiden is the Goddess Amir. She is your mother.”

Even to young Snow’s eyes, Arianne had looked very anxious, so Snow, uncharacteristically for a child, kept glancing at her cautiously and stopped asking further questions. And she never brought up the subject again.

The boy, misinterpreting Snow’s complicated expression, quickly added:

“That’s not to say my father is a bad person! He’s only expecting what’s natural from me. My father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather were all incredibly admirable people. But I don’t seem to be as excellent as my father expects…”

The boy sighed deeply, like someone who had seen everything in the world.

“Is El’s father such an admirable person?”

“Of course. I’m sure the Holy Maiden knows him as well.”

The boy, who had seemed a bit dejected, immediately spoke with a voice full of pride. Snow was certain she couldn’t possibly know El’s father. Everyone she had met in her life had been temple people, except for this boy in front of her. However, not wanting to hurt the boy’s feelings, she simply nodded.

“My father, my grandfather, and all my ancestors before them were tremendously remarkable people. But since I’m not as excellent as they were, I keep feeling afraid. This is really, really important. Not just for me alone, but for many other people too. I’ve been wondering every day how I can become excellent, how I can become so amazing that everyone who sees me would look up to me.”

Snow blinked her silver eyes, waiting for the boy’s next words.

“That’s why I really wanted to meet the Holy Maiden. Despite being around my age, you’re already admirable and respected by all the people. I wanted to meet you and ask how I could become like you. This is a matter as important as life itself to me.”

The boy’s words were completely unexpected to Snow. To want to be like her—she hadn’t done anything. She had simply been born, and everyone called her Holy Maiden and looked up to her.

The boy was now waiting for Snow’s answer, his warm black eyes sparkling. As Snow broke into a cold sweat, not knowing what to do, a sharp wind blew, tousling her hair as if reflecting her mood.

“I… am not excellent at all.”

Though she felt bad about betraying the boy’s sparkling eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to lie. Snow spoke in a small voice. Unfortunately for Snow, the boy seemed to interpret her words as “the Holy Maiden’s modesty.”

“How remarkable the Holy Maiden is—my father and brothers know it, all the people know it, and the Goddess Amir knows it.”

“No!”

Snow raised her voice slightly out of frustration, then caught herself with an “oops” and calmed down again. Snow spoke carefully:

“I’m not remarkable at all. I should always keep a positive mindset, but I fail to do that and end up causing dark clouds to gather in the sky. Besides, I’m a coward who can barely leave the Santarium. I know far less than what I don’t know, so I bother Arianne every day. And this is a secret, but even though I’m twelve years old, I still play with dolls when no one is watching. Do you still think I’m admirable?”

The boy was very taken aback, as he hadn’t expected Snow to deny it to this extent.

“But everyone says the Holy Maiden is noble by her very existence. So I thought the Holy Maiden was remarkable from birth…”

“El, where in the world is someone remarkable from infancy? Except for imperial princes and princesses who live in the palace, no one is like that. People work hard and gradually improve from where they are.”

The boy stared at Snow with a blank expression, as if he’d been hit on the head with something. After a moment of silence, he spoke in disbelief:

“Do you really think that? That princes in the palace are remarkable from birth?”

“Of course. They’re special.”

Snow, who was generally quite shy, was now speaking to the boy as comfortably as she did with Arianne. Snow spoke as if asking what was so obvious about it. The boy began, “Ah, well. That is…” and after spending a long time choosing his words, he opened his mouth:

“To think the Holy Maiden thought that way… I believed the Holy Maiden was the special one, different from others…”

“No, if you’re looking for someone like that, you should go to the imperial prince, not me. The imperial prince would surely tell you what you want to hear.”

The boy looked at Snow with a serious expression as if thinking about something, then suddenly burst into laughter, “Hahaha!”

He laughed so hard that he held his stomach and rolled on the grass. Snow looked at the boy as if she were watching something very strange and cautiously asked:

“Why are you laughing?”

After rolling around laughing for a while, the boy answered while still lying on the grass:

“Holy Maiden, the truth is, I know the imperial princes.”

“Wow, really? Is that true?”

Snow asked in surprise.

‘Wouldn’t there only be important people around the imperial princes?’

Come to think of it, the boy’s attire was quite splendid, suggesting he might indeed be someone of high status. Snow began to see the boy who had been saying strange things like “The Holy Maiden was remarkable from birth!” in a new light.

“Yes. No one knows the imperial princes better than I do. But you know what? The imperial princes aren’t as remarkable as the Holy Maiden thinks.”

The boy continued, trying to suppress his laughter with “ahem, hmm”:

“The eldest, Imperial Prince Elios, is the most decent one with nothing to criticize. But from the second prince on, it’s truly a spectacle. The second prince, Imperial Prince Crusis, is extremely picky about food. He absolutely refuses to eat anything with peas or fish. Moreover, he’s such a stubborn one that if something doesn’t suit his taste even slightly, he begins a hunger strike from that moment.”

The boy waved his hands, contorting his face comically as if the mere thought disgusted him. Snow didn’t know whether to believe El’s words or not. The boy read Snow’s mind like a ghost.

“You don’t believe me, do you? It’s true.”

“…Then what is the third imperial prince like?”

Snow asked in an uncertain voice.

“The third? Imperial Prince Papel? Imperial Prince Papel, who recently turned six, is a tremendous crybaby. And it would be fortunate if he just cried. He cries and gets irritated at the slightest thing. He causes trouble with everything he does. That’s why the third prince’s maids always go around looking miserable.”