Leave a comment

『What is this, Ain? What is this?』
『It’s a snowman, a snow sculpture of a… person, I guess?』
『So this is supposed to be a person?』

Then the upper part must be the head, and the lower part should be the torso. If it had a face like the snow rabbit, it might look more like it.
But right now, it doesn’t really look much like a person to me.
Even Ain, who taught me about this, doesn’t sound very confident about her answer, so I suppose that’s just the way it is.

I tried adding a face to it like Ain did earlier, and it does actually add some charm to it.

『Just like that, adding a face and… some branches for arms should make it look more like a person…
I never really thought much about the snowman’s appearance, but looking at it objectively, it doesn’t actually seem much like a person, does it?』
『It’s alright; it’s somewhat cute. Besides, it seems pretty difficult to shape snow into a human figure.』
『There are people who are capable of doing that, but this is the best I can do.』

Ain isn’t capable of doing everything.
On the contrary, I’ve been seeing Ain as more of a klutz lately, which is adorable in and of itself.

And as for the snowman, if made a bit smaller, anyone should be able to make it.
Maybe that’s why Ain was a bit hesitant to talk about it earlier, because of just how easy it is to make.
It certainly isn’t really much of a game to talk about.

『But it’s good enough, isn’t it? If it’s too difficult, it wouldn’t be fun to do, after all.』
『That’s true. I also made snowmen in my childhood days, probably when I was your age or even younger, if I remember right?』
『So there was a time when you were young, Ain.』
『I am undoubtedly human, after all. Compared to you, I was fairly more childish at your age.』
『Fufufu, I can’t imagine it.』

I don’t know Ain’s previous appearance, so it’s only natural.
Still, for some reason, I always imagined Ain to be an adult.
Or more precisely, someone older than me, I guess?
That’s why an Ain who’s younger than me is something I’m really curious about.

She must have been super adorable to see.

『Are there other ways to play with snow?』
『It’s not doable alone, but there is snowball fighting.
It’s a game where people make snowballs and throw them at each other. You could consider being hit as a loss, but thinking back, we didn’t actually have any formal rules.』
『That’s pretty unorganized.』
『It’s a children’s game, after all. That’s how it is. Having fun is the top priority.
I think back then, just moving around felt fun on its own.』
『Prioritizing fun is something I can agree with. I want to try it, but I guess it’s impossible by myself.』
『Would you like to ask the spirits if they want to play? They might play with us, you know?』
『That’s good too, but we’ll have to convince them to hold back.』

If even just the smaller spirits went at full strength, I likely wouldn’t stand a chance.
Still, since Ain went out of her way to teach me about it, we asked the spirits, and immediately snowballs came flying to me from all sides.
Ain’s barrier blocked it all, and we told them to stop for a while.

We had Liessyl – Lisyl mediate between us, and we moved somewhere out of sight before officially starting the snowball fight.

◇◇◇

I’m sliding down a white mountain slope at a very high speed.
This must be the skii thing, I thought, but from Ain’s reaction, it seems to be different.
According to her, it wasn’t as fast as this when she did it in the past.

I do feel like I’m overdoing it. Still, the spirits are having so much fun chasing after me, so I couldn’t help but go faster.

We’re currently on a snowy mountain.
Since we were looking for a place out of sight, we headed to this mountain where people shouldn’t be around in this season and had a snowball fight at first.
There were no rules; we only split into two groups and threw snowballs at each other. However, while I had to take time making snowballs by hand, the spirits could make one and throw it in an instant.

Eventually, it ended up turning into a game where we shot down each other’s snowballs, and when I got completely exhausted, it marked the end of the game.
Apparently, this was also different from the snowball fights Ain thought of.
But Ain just told me that as long as I have fun, it’s good.

After a short rest, I then suggested to Ain that we could try going down the mountain the same way the skii thing is done, and I used the Dance Princess’ power to slide down the mountainside.
I don’t know if it’s because of the slope’s steepness or the snow-covered ground, but I continued picking up speed, and now the spirits are happily chasing after me.
I’m sure they’re not really trying to catch up to me; they just enjoy chasing me around.

I can’t converse with spirits, nor can I touch them, but today I was able to play with them a ton.
Isn’t this the first time I’ve ever spent this much time together with the spirits?

『It was so fun!』
『I’m happy to hear that.』

Reaching the foot of the mountain, I told Ain how I felt about it.
Because I was… skayting? down, the scenery was changing so fast.
I was going at a different speed compared to when I’m gliding on ice or in the sky.

Seemingly satisfied as well, the spirits joyfully float around me.
However, the sun has started to go down, so we need to go back to the manor now.

「Let’s play again sometime!」

I told the spirits before returning to the manor.
Playing with the spirits was so fun.
It wasn’t as fun as that time when I could be with Ain, but I genuinely didn’t expect that we’d be able to play this much without being able to talk or touch each other.
I didn’t really think about that while we were playing, though.

And that ends our very snowy Ciel interlude~

It’s nice seeing Ciel interact more with the spirits. It was pretty funny how the spirits were so excited about playing that they immediately threw snowballs after the game was explained to them, lol. For the offhand comment of Lisyl being the mediator, I imagined her being a kindergarten teacher leading around the children, lol.

Also funny how every example Ain gave was played “wrong” just because of how they’re honestly just playing it as they go. But the precision of shooting down snowballs midair tho, lol. Lastly, as with the previous update, it’s fun how Ciel sometimes parrots words that Ain use; “Skating” being the example this time, while several chapters ago it was “French”.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!