The Winter Kingdom stretched under a mantle of icy tranquility, where towering mountains, cloaked in eternal frost and trees crystallized by snow, reached toward the sky. Lakes began to freeze under the touch of the winter solstice, heralding the season that ruled supreme in that realm.
In the capital, oblivious to the biting cold approaching, a young woman with black hair and light blue eyes carefully examined flowers in a small and bustling flower shop. Her name was Letícia, Princess of Winter—though no one there, under her simple disguise, recognized her. While pretending to focus on the petals of a rose, her attentive ears caught the lively chatter of the shop's employees.
"Can you imagine? Princess Letícia is going to marry the Prince of Autumn!" said one of them, with a dreamy sigh.
"I wish I could see the wedding!" lamented another. "But it'll be in another kingdom... I really wanted to see her in the wedding dress. They say the Autumn Kingdom's gowns are the most dazzling!" Enchanted by the idea, she twirled with a bouquet of roses, mimicking a bridal waltz.
"Do you think the prince is handsome? If so, she's really lucky!" commented a third, arranging a stack of flowers.
"Nonsense!" interrupted an older employee. "It's not enough to be handsome, he must be a gentleman! You girls are too young to understand such things."
Letícia smiled subtly. Having chosen her flowers, she approached the counter, where Verônica, the flower shop owner, greeted her with a warm smile.
"Who are they for, miss?"
"For my mother. Could you add a red ribbon? It was her favorite color."
After paying, the young woman left the shop with one last discreet glance. Little did they know it was she they had been talking about all along.
Letícia continued down the bustling street. She had barely taken her next step when a loud crash made her freeze. A heavy flower pot, falling from the top of a building, shattered on the ground—exactly where she had stood just moments before. Her heart pounded. Was it a coincidence? Or a warning? The crowd around her expressed concern and relief, but Letícia felt a chill race down her spine.
The Winter Kingdom, her home, was facing dark times. The harsh climate hindered agriculture, forcing the kingdom to rely heavily on trade—especially with its main economic ally: the Kingdom of Autumn.
However, the king's poor management during the last harvest had plunged the realm into a deep economic crisis. To save his people from hunger and ruin, the monarch had been forced to turn to the prosperous Autumn Kingdom. But their help came with a price: the fulfillment of an old pact that sealed Princess Letícia's fate. Having just turned eighteen, she was to be wed to Prince Ryuuji of Autumn, forging a crucial political alliance to ensure Winter's survival.
Meanwhile, in the flower shop, the topic of conversation had changed.
"Mrs. Verônica, did you see the new knight who arrived in the city?" asked one of them, eyes sparkling. "He's around twenty, breathtakingly handsome, athletic, tall... and his voice is just dreamy!"
"Athletic? Well, he's a knight. That's to be expected," replied Verônica with a playful smile.
"And he has these incredible light gray eyes!" added another. "But no one's seen his hair color yet. He wears a cap all the time."
"With this cold, it's no surprise," Verônica commented. "By the way, where have those three gone?"
The three youngest employees, utterly captivated by the mysterious knight, were stealthily following him through the busy streets.
"Do you think he's bald?" one of them whispered.
"Impossible!" another exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously. "Impossible!"
"We're going to find out!" declared the third, eyes gleaming with mischief. "We're going to get that cap off, one way or another!"
With conspiratorial smiles, the three girls devised a plan to uncover the knight's hair secret. One pretended to stumble and twist her ankle, while the other two rushed to her side, feigning distress to draw the knight closer.
"Sir knight, our friend hurt her ankle!" they cried. "Could you help us?"
The young knight, standing at an impressive 1.85 meters, promptly answered their call. He gestured for the girl to sit so he could examine her ankle. But as he knelt down, the other two seized the opportunity and, in a swift movement, pulled off his cap. Short, shimmering silver-gray hair framed his face, perfectly matching his eyes. A striking contrast to the dark hair and blue or green eyes so common in the Winter Kingdom.
"He's gorgeous!" exclaimed the girl who had faked the injury, admiring his hair. "You should show it more often! No one around here has hair like that!"
The knight, clearly uncomfortable, responded with a polite but firm tone:
"Please, return my cap."
His soft and melodious voice only heightened the girls' fascination.
Letícia, watching the scene from a distance, noticed the knight's discomfort and decided to step in.
"Mrs. Verônica is looking for you," she said clearly.
Ashamed, the girls handed the cap back to the knight and hurried away.
"Apologies for the trouble they caused," Letícia said to the knight with a slight nod. "Excuse me."
The knight returned the gesture with a respectful bow.
Letícia then continued to the royal cemetery—the resting place of her mother and generations of monarchs from the Winter Kingdom. She laid the flowers on a white marble tomb and lit lavender incense, Queen Elyza's favorite scent.
"Soon, I will leave for the Autumn Kingdom, Mother," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "Know that I will always remember your teachings. The longing I feel cannot be eased, but I will do my best to carry on, no matter what hardships may come. I will become the kind of princess you would be proud to see standing by your side."
Silent tears streamed down her face as a deep longing overcame her in that moment. After a final farewell, Letícia left the cemetery.
Moments later, the silver-haired knight approached Queen Elyza's tomb. He placed a bundle of white flowers beside the ones Letícia had left.
"My father asked me to bring these," he murmured reverently. "It's a shame I never had the chance to meet you, Your Majesty."
With a final bow, the knight departed, leaving behind a mystery as dense as the icy mist that often blanketed the kingdom.