I Became the Tutor of the Royal Twins - Side Story 4
Side Story 4
Translator: Yonnee
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* * *
The winter palace was serene.
Surrounded by forests and with only a minimum of attendants following the imperial couple’s request for a quiet honeymoon, it was tranquil.
As night fell, only the sound of snow settling on the palace could be heard.
The snow that had started to fall lightly during dinner was now pouring down heavily like large cotton balls.
Wrapped in a thick nightgown, Sera stood in front of a large arched window admiring the scenery. The snow-covered palace and the frozen lake shone brightly under the lights.
“Is this place to your liking?”
As Helios’s voice drew her attention, Sera turned around.
Leaning against the door, Helios stood in casual attire, his hair slightly damp and shoulders sprinkled with snow.
“Don’t tell me… you went outside after saying you’d just be a moment?”
At Sera’s question, Helios quietly nodded with a smile.
“Just needed to check something.”
“But to go out in that attire… It’s so cold outside!”
Recalling the cold she felt just during the short walk from the carriage to the palace earlier that day, Sera was astonished.
Even wrapped in a thick fur-lined cape, she had shivered from the cold. She was lucky to be in Helios’s arms then, but now, with the night deepening and snow falling, it must have been even colder.
Seeing Helios’s red fingertips, Sera eventually asked a maid outside to prepare a warm drink.
Helios declined, but soon after, he was holding a mug of warm milk mixed with a little brandy.
“Why did you go outside?”
Snugly held in Helios’s embrace under the strange excuse of warming up with body heat, Sera asked him.
Helios, setting down his milk, answered with a somewhat regretful expression.
“I just went to check if we could go out tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“We can’t come all this way and not go anywhere, but it seems too snowy to go out.”
Regret flickered across his face.
Sera realized she had no plans of her own for the honeymoon.
Being busy with the wedding preparations, often more so for the bride, and tired from her lessons as the future empress, she had deeply wished to rest during the honeymoon.
There’s a reason why people choose resorts as honeymoon destinations, both in past and present lives.
Sera, too, had been one of those people and had actively agreed when Helios suggested the northern part of the empire as their honeymoon destination. It seemed like they could stay cozily inside together with its perpetual winter, unlike the warm capital.
But it seemed Helios had various plans.
“Did you prepare a lot?”
“Well… It’s our first trip together, so I wanted to make it perfect. It’s your first time in the north. There were many things I wanted to do.”
Helios sighed with a smile.
It was rare for him to show regret, so Sera smiled involuntarily.
“I’m not too disappointed…”
“Really?”
“Now that we’re stuck inside, we can spend the whole day together, just the two of us.”
Sera said with a light smile.
Watching her quietly, a smile slowly formed on Helios’s face.
“Is that an invitation? Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t go outside at all?”
“What? How did it turn into that?”
“It sounds to me like you just want to be locked in here all day with me.”
“Heli!”
“Did I misunderstand?”
“I purely meant it’s nice to be just the two of us!”
“Really?”
Sera, flustered by the mischievous Helios making her imagine all sorts of things, blocked his naughty mouth with her hands.
A ticklish laughter escaped through Sera’s fingers.
Helios and Sera leaned on each other, looking out at the snowy scenery.
The view outside the window of snow heavily falling was tranquilly beautiful, like a painting.
“I wonder what Their Highnesses are doing right now?”
Sera recalled the sight of Rosé and Ferre sleeping off their tiredness as they left the palace.
Worried about their first night without them, Rosé and Ferre had waved without a fuss, perhaps because they were still groggy.
But children often seek others at night. Sera worried slightly that Rosé and Ferre might cry.
“Rosé and Ferre are probably enjoying our absence. Like eating ice cream before bed that they weren’t allowed to.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.”
Sera burst out laughing.
Helios reassured her that there were plenty of people around to care for them.
“Ah, right. Let’s make sure to bring back lots of souvenirs.”
Sera suddenly remembered.
“Souvenirs?”
“Before we left, His Highness Ferre handed me a list of souvenirs to get.”
“That must have been Rosé’s idea. So cute.”
Sera nodded.
The couple continued to talk about Rosé and Ferre as they watched the snow pile up, then moved to the bed.
As the night deepened, so did their love.
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