After Winter – Side Story

Heavy snow fell in the borderlands. It was amazing that there was still more snow to fall when so much had already accumulated.

“What did you do today, Ian?”

“I made a snowman, Mother.”

Young Arsen exaggerated, saying he had made a very large snowman, as tall as his father. He wanted to cheer up his mother who was lying in bed, but at the word ‘father,’ a sad expression appeared on his mother’s face.

“I see, well done.”

His mother, forcing a smile, patted her son’s small hand. Her life force was visibly fading day by day from her sunken eye sockets. Mother didn’t have many days left.

Both she and Arsen knew this fact well.

“Ian was here first.”

After a knock, Brahman entered. Looking up at Brahman, who was as big as a bear, Arsen bowed and rose from his seat.

“Ian, go outside for a moment.”

“Yes, Mother.”

It was time for the adults to talk. Arsen obediently went out, closed the door, and crouched in front of it. Unlike the duke’s mansion, the shabby mansion had worn doors that leaked sound even when tightly closed.

They discussed heavy topics like the outside situation and whether the emperor would continue to pursue them. Brahman repeatedly reassured his mother that there would be no pursuit and that they would be safe for a while because of the heavy snow.

Brahman Edis. He had studied swordsmanship with his father in the capital, Arsen had heard.

After Brahman came down to the borderlands to succeed his father, they had almost lost contact, so it would have been natural for him to be displeased when Arsen and his mother suddenly came seeking refuge.

However, he couldn’t turn away the son of an old friend who had become a fugitive accused of treason.

“Please take care of our Ian, Sir Edis.”

“You should recover quickly and protect him yourself, my lady.”

“I… I have no hope.”

From inside, Arsen could hear his mother sobbing. This had been repeating for days. Later, his mother became too weak to make a sound and only shed tears.

Arsen wished his mother wouldn’t cry. What if she weakened from crying so much and passed away soon? Every day, he prayed that his mother would hold on just a little longer.

As if even the gods had abandoned him, a few days later, on a day of heavy snowfall, his mother entered eternal rest. Brahman gently patted Arsen’s shoulder.

“You must be very confused, I understand. But Ian, we don’t have time to grieve.”

He was right. There were many things to grieve about, but Arsen had no time to do so. To survive, Arsen had to become strong. Arsen resolved to learn swordsmanship from Brahman and seek revenge.

A hand thick enough to kill a cow rested on Arsen’s head as he stood before his mother’s corpse.

“I’ve decided to adopt you. From now on, you are not Ian Bayern but Arsen Edis. Do you understand?”

“……Yes.”

“If it’s difficult to call me father, you don’t have to.”

Arsen thought he would never be able to call him father for the rest of his life. However, he was such an excellent father and teacher that Arsen had no choice but to accept him.

Brahman taught Arsen many things. He taught him swordsmanship, how to hunt demonic beasts, and even small things like how to light a fire with wet firewood. He strived to ensure that Arsen wouldn’t cling to those who had already died or burn his life away consumed by anger.

Arsen learned later that Brahman had lost his wife and unborn child to a demonic beast at once. The name he had intended to give his child if it was a boy was Arsen.

Arsen wanted to become an excellent adult so that Brahman wouldn’t regret giving him that name. However, Brahman only wished for Arsen to survive, for a very long time.

“……Father.”

Arsen brushed the snow off the tombstone with his gloved hand. Brahman Edis, who had spent his entire life fighting demonic beasts and protecting the borderlands, lived and died as a warrior until the end. It was a day of heavy snowfall.

Was he now with his long-missed wife? Had he met the son he never knew and taught him the things he had taught Arsen? Arsen sincerely hoped so. He himself had survived and could now smile even while facing the heavily falling snow.

“Mother.”

Diagonally behind Brahman’s tombstone, the nameless tombstone was his mother’s. At the same time, it was also the grave of his father, whose body was never found, and the place where Arsen had buried his name, ‘Ian Bayern.’

As he brushed the snow off this tombstone too, he thought he should replace it with a stone bearing his mother and father’s names when the weather improved. I should come with Lydia then.

Arsen hurried back to the mansion as dawn began to break.

After learning of his mother’s death anniversary, Lydia insisted on coming along, but Arsen had dissuaded her.

Snow always fell on his mother’s death anniversary, but this year it had come down so heavily that even the people in the border were amazed. Lydia, unaccustomed to snow, would find it difficult to even leave the mansion.

Arsen burst into laughter imagining Lydia struggling in the snow, whining for him to hold her hand. Chuckling alone on the pristine white snow, he looked quite mad.

It had happened yesterday afternoon. When the snow piled up to ankle height, Lydia frolicked around the garden like a puppy, full of joy.

‘Let’s make a snowman, us!’

‘Do you even know how?’

He had spoken out of concern, since Lydia had only experienced light flurries of snow in the capital, but she seemed to take it as a slight. Raising her eyebrows, Lydia proposed a competition.

The contest, which he thought would end trivially, continued quite excitingly. Lydia rolled the snow with the sole determination to make a snowman larger than Arsen’s, even sweating in the process.

My wife has a strong competitive spirit too. Arsen was about to let her win when she saw through that intention as well.

‘Please take this competition seriously, Your Highness Grand Duke Bayern.’

‘If I do, you will never be able to defeat me.’

‘Hmph, we’ll see who’s better when we compare.’

With her nimble fingertips, Lydia crafted a fairly large snowball. The rolled snowball must have been heavy, but she lifted it without anyone’s help.

Just as it seemed she would place the head on the snowman, Lydia suddenly staggered.

The large snowball lost its center of gravity and tumbled down, and Lydia plopped down with it.

‘Lydia!’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Really?’

‘Really. But if you just stand there watching, I’ll definitely catch a cold.’

Fortunately, she wasn’t hurt from falling since snow was everywhere. However, Lydia was trapped under the snowball she had made and couldn’t move. She naturally reached out her hand for Arsen to pick her up.

The look in her eyes that naturally assumed he would embrace her, her flushed cheeks, Lydia who couldn’t move without him—at that moment, he loved all of it. If the snow hadn’t been so cold, he would have wanted to just stand and watch her like that.

Delighting in his wife’s predicament—he had become quite perverted. But Lydia was partly to blame for this. Had it been a year since they married? Two years? It had only been half a year, yet her husband was already an afterthought.

He understood she was busy. There was much to do after Wonde’s territory and the borderlands were integrated into the Bayern grand duchy. Things had been a bit better when they were in the county. Though she practically lived locked in her office, she still made time for him.

They kissed and did other things too. Though she was tired, those days were sweet. With winter’s arrival, as they moved to the Edis mansion in the borderlands, Arsen expected to spend more time together.

However, since moving to the Edis mansion, it had become difficult to even see Lydia’s face. Since they were similarly busy, this was a matter of will. Even though they would soon have to be apart for days due to demonic beast subjugation, Lydia didn’t seem to mind.

Arsen tried in his own way to attract Lydia’s attention but failed to get her out of her office.

But it was the snow, that snow that falls so tiresomely every winter, that drew Lydia outside.

This was his chance. Arsen promptly picked up the fallen Lydia and headed for the bedroom.

‘Put me down, Arsen. People are watching.’

‘If I put you down, I know you’ll go straight to your office. I’m sorry, but not today.’

‘I have a lot of work to do.’

‘Or has your affection cooled?’

What was he talking about? Lydia stared at him with wide, round eyes.

‘Do you realize you spend more time looking at documents than at my face?’

‘It’s not that much more.’

She readily admitted it was a little more. As she acknowledged it, Arsen grew even more annoyed.

‘You knew but didn’t try to change it? So your affection has cooled. Now that we’re married, am I a fish already caught?’

‘That can’t be true.’

Lydia patted his shoulder and whispered.

‘Where would you find a fish walking around on land? You’re definitely human.’

‘If you’re trying to cleverly wriggle out of this, you’d better stop.’

‘What if I am? You’re talking as if you won’t leave me alone.’

‘That’s right. I’m threatening you right now.’