Chapter 223 - Hot Spring, Part Three

After dinner, the wives suggested going out for a stroll. They said they hadn't paid any attention to the mountain scenery on the way up.

It was snowing lightly outside. I didn't mind.

The children, though, weren't interested. Full and content, they just sprawled wherever they landed. Bad habits. But I let it slide today. They were too cute to correct right now.

Cliff, Zanoba, Orsted, and Nanahoshi talked without any regard for Ariel or the children nearby, drinking and discussing the futures Orsted knew. The children were naturally fascinated.

Especially Lucy.

"Then... what about Aunt Norn?"

"No matter what, she almost always marries Ruijerd. They start a family. Have children."

"Really?!"

"Mm."

Lucy looked genuinely pleased to have that confirmed.

Then Lara and Windsor raised their hands to ask about their own futures. Orsted didn't know, they'd only been born in this timeline. But he spoke anyway.

"I don't know what your futures will hold. But they will surely be happy."

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A snowy mountain at night has a quietness completely unlike the daytime.

The sky was buried under thick cloud. No moon. Fine snowflakes drifted slowly down through the dark, barely visible until they crossed the light.

The wooden corridor outside the hot spring inn glowed with a few warm-yellow lanterns. Their light pooled softly on the snow, forming gentle halos, and everything beyond that glow dissolved into the black of the mountain forest.

I stood under the eaves with my wives. Together, we exhaled small clouds of white breath.

The wind was light. Only the fine snow fell, without a sound.

The fir forest in the distance had gone dark and shapeless with the night, branches bowed under the white. Occasionally, accumulated snow slid off a branch with a muffled sound, somehow sharp and clear in all that silence.

"Hoo~ is this the kind of atmosphere Aisha was talking about?"

My left hand was taken.

Aisha. She smiled.

"It is~ this is atmosphere~"

Roxy shivered and pressed into my side. Sylphiette too, ears gone red from the cold.

I smiled despite myself. "And you two still said you wanted to come see the snowy mountain at night?"

Roxy looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't expect it to be this cold~"

Sylphiette nodded, her voice coming out somewhere between a pout and genuine grievance. "We just wanted to be alone with Rudeus... is that funny?"

I turned toward the maid standing near the corridor. "Could you bring five reclining chairs, and a wood-burning stove?"

"Yes, Lord Rudeus."

I reached out and patted Roxy and Sylphiette on the head.

Eris's voice arrived from somewhere behind me. "Rudeus~ me too~"

What Eris wanted wasn't a head pat. She just walked straight up and kissed me.

When it ended, I turned back to Roxy and Sylphiette. "Let's just sit here for a while? We can still see the mountain from here, can't we?"

"That's true."

"Alright~"

Hm. Aisha had gone quiet.

I looked over at her. She was still holding my hand, but her gaze was somewhere far off. The inn sat at the top of the mountain, so the view from here opened wide.

I followed her line of sight.

The village below was lit up. Small points of warm-yellow light scattered across the snow-covered dark. Some were inns. Some were homes. Here and there, thin wisps of cooking smoke rose slowly from rooftops and drifted apart in the night air. Lanterns lined the winding mountain road, their light threading down all the way to the base of the mountain, a blurred, warm ribbon fading into the snow. Seen from up here, the whole mountain town looked like something the winter night had gently wrapped around itself.

I was still taking it in when,

Ding-a-ling.

The wind chimes hanging under the eaves. When the night breeze moved through them, they rang very, very softly.

Behind us, the room still glowed warm yellow. Through the paper doors came the murmur of voices, laughter, and the occasional faint crack from the charcoal brazier. And ahead of us, the quiet, open dark of the snowy mountain stretched out without end.

This kind of scenery. This kind of feeling. It really did make you go still without meaning to.

"Aisha, enjoying the view?"

Aisha nodded, then turned to look at me, her voice low.

"Somehow... it feels like a dream, Brother."

"Hm? Why do you say that?"

"The happiness feels a little unreal. I just suddenly felt that way."

"Does Aisha not feel happy usually?"

"Of course I'm happy usually too! It's just..."

Her gaze drifted back to the lights.

"It's just that — on a cold winter night like this, watching the quiet distant glow with the people you love... somehow it feels like a different kind of happiness."

I didn't answer.

Neither did Roxy, Sylphiette, or Eris.

We just quietly followed Aisha's gaze. Watched the lights at the foot of the mountain flicker in the dark. The warmth from the hot spring still lingered in our bodies. The cuffs of the wives' bath yukata still carried a faint trace of wood and hot spring steam.

It wasn't until the maids had finished setting up the reclining chairs and the stove that Aisha finally looked away.

"Alright~ let's lie down for a bit~"

The wives all nodded and dropped onto the chairs without ceremony.

I laughed a little. "It's perfectly warm inside, and here we are lying in the corridor warming ourselves by the fire."

Then I reclined onto my own chair.

Roxy narrowed her eyes with a lazy smile. "Like Aisha said — this is a kind of romance~"

Sylphiette agreed. "That's right~ this is also a kind of romance~"

Eris nodded firmly. "Aisha's right! Romance!"

And finally, Aisha.

"Brother~ you really have no sense of romance~"

I smiled and said nothing. I just lay there with them, feeling whatever it was my wives had decided to call romance.

The firewood crackled softly as it burned, adding a note of warmth to the silent night. The air held a faint mix of wood smoke and charcoal, threading through the distant steam from the hot spring. A quiet that belonged only to winter.

The maids had quietly multiplied, from one to five. They stood at a comfortable distance, arms full of bedding, ready whenever we called. They didn't spoil the atmosphere. The distance was exactly right.

The courtyard lay under a thin blanket of snow. Stone lanterns burned with steady amber light. The bamboo grove swayed gently in the night breeze, and fine snow drifted down through the glow, slow and unhurried.

While I was watching the courtyard, Roxy's voice came in soft and sweet.

"Still a little cold, Rudy~"

Sylphiette followed. "Rudy~"

Aisha and Eris, both swordsmen, both completely unbothered by the cold, had nothing to complain about. And yet they watched Roxy and Sylphiette for a moment, then decided to join in anyway.

"Rudeus~"

"Brother~"

I waved the maids over. They were already holding the bedding for us. Very convenient.

I got up and took the blankets myself, covering my wives one by one.

Roxy smiled with her eyes half-closed. I bent down and kissed her lightly.

"Thank you, Rudy~"

When I drew close to Sylphiette, she reached up and touched my face. I leaned in and kissed her, then tucked the blanket around her.

"Love you, darling~"

"Why the sudden change in how you're calling me..."

"Grandmother said that sometimes changing what I call you makes you love me more."

"It doesn't. It's already maxed out."

"In what way?"

"...Sylphiette's learned to make risqué jokes. Bad influence from your grandmother."

"Does Rudy not like me this way?"

"I like it."

"That's good then~"

Then Eris.

Eris had actually been the quiet one tonight.

But the moment I got close, she grabbed me. Both arms locked around my neck and she pulled me into a kiss. Half a minute later she let go, catching her breath.

"It has Sylphiette's scent..."

"..."

"But I like both Rudeus's and Sylphiette's scents~"

"Alright, alright — didn't you say romance? This isn't very romantic."

"Got it~"

I covered Eris with her blanket and walked to Aisha's chair.

Aisha was reclined, but she'd propped her cheek on one hand. She watched me with the eyes of someone who owned the room.

"Ru~dy~"

"Hm? Why are you calling me that..."

"So? Which one satisfied you the most?"

I didn't answer. I just spread the blanket over her and turned to head back to my chair.

My hand was caught.

Aisha's queen expression was gone. In its place, something quieter. A little hurt.

"What about me...?"

I smiled. Leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

Aisha went still.

Then her eyes narrowed.

"Tonight, Brother. You'll have to answer for this."

"I'm looking forward to it~"

I settled back into my own chair and pulled the blanket over myself.

The wives started talking, the kind of easy, wandering conversation that goes nowhere in particular and everywhere at once.

"Did you know? Those nobles in Asura..."

"Windsor recently..."

"Grandmother Lize and Cliff..."

"Father and Mother, they~..."

Slowly, I let my eyes close.

Firewood crackling. Wind moving past the eaves. And somewhere further off, the faint murmur of hot spring water running through the dark.

Most of all, the voices of my wives. Warm and unhurried, just within reach.

A night like this had a way of making everything feel loose and easy. No urge to think. No place to be. Just this, lying still, surrounded by something soft.

➤ Next: Hot Spring, Part Four