In the past, Kai was not one to shy away from the cold. He didn't mind a little chill, in fact, he quite liked the cold. He would much rather have a cold pillow than a warm pillow, or a cold bed rather than a warm bed. There was obviously some things that he would rather have warm, but he still liked the cold.
However, the same could not be said for the cold wind that crashed into him full force as soon as he opened the door.
Instantly, he was overwhelmed by the bitter frost. It didn't look so bad from his bedroom window, but it was a different story actually being in it.
Kai squeezed his eyes closed and lifted a hand up to his face, attempting to shield himself.
But that effort was meaningless as the next second, all the wind disappeared.
"That happens quite a lot."
Yelena said as Kai lowered his hand.
"The strength of the blizzard is always changing. Some days it is incredibly strong and everybody has to hide inside until it calms, other days it is weak and everyone gets to enjoy themselves outside.
Today is one of those days."
Kai slowly opened his eyes and...
Instantly believed Yelena's words.
In front of him was a large castle gate that must have just been there to separate the general public from the royalty, and there was also another wall connected to it that seemed to wrap around the entire castle.
But the gate was one of those ones that was made out of bars, meaning Kai could see through it.
Sadly, it was now that he realised that the castle was up on a hill, above where all the other houses were, meaning the two of them had a bit of walking to do.
Kai took a step forward and-
Nearly fell down as he hadn't realised that there had been stairs in front of him, which should have been an obvious thing as the gateway was below where he was standing.
Catching himself before any other potential embarrassments, he slowly made his way down the stairs while focusing on one thing that was at the bottom of all the stops.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, Kai crouched down and grabbed at some of the snow that was resting on the surface of the ground.
He picked up a handful and stood up before extending an arm and watching as he let the snow fall through the gaps in his fingers.
"Huh..."
The snow... felt exactly the same as snow on Earth.
"Is this your first time seeing snow?"
Yelena's voice snapped Kai out of his snow induced trance, it was then that he also realised that his fingers were stinging softly. Turns out, snow here was a lot colder than snow on Earth was.
However, he was a little confused at the fact that Yelena used the word snow to describe it. Was there some way that all Main and Subdimensions used the same words to describe certain things?
Or maybe it was just to do with the golden charm attached to her maid outfit automatically translating whatever word she had called snow into one that Kai could recognise.
"Uh, no, there was snow back on my planet, just where I lived it was rather scarce."
After Kai finished speaking, another thought popped into his mind.
"Say, you wouldn't happen to have a spare translator or something lying around, would you? I wouldn't mind having one."
Instantly, Kai noticed the changes in the green haired maid's body language.
Before, she had been cheery and slightly aloof, only now she was shifting nervously, as if she was unsure of what to say.
"I apologise, Sir Kai, but I only possess one of these, and I must keep it on me to perform my duties properly. I also do not know where His and Her Majesty aquire these, so I apologise for being unable to fulfill your request."
Kai inwardly sighed, he felt a little guilty putting Yelena in such an awkward position, between her bosses slash people that could potentially execute her for any wrong doings, and a so called honoured guest that her bosses had spent a large amount of money to aquire.
... Even though he didn't know that a question like that would end up turning the atmosphere so awkward.
"It's fine, I was just curious, forget I even said anything."
Yelena opened her mouth to say something, but decided to close it a moment later.
After that, Kai let out another sighed and wiped his hands clean of the remnants of the snow that was sticking to his skin.
However, just as he was about to go and exit through the gate, he suddenly got curious about something.
The message at the end of the tutorial had mentioned that the bottom of the castle was built out of some pretty strong ice, so...
Turning around to look at the castle, Kai let out a soft whistle as he admired the sight.
The castle itself had quite the gothic look to it, really pointy at the top and overall quite dark.
However, the part of the castle that began under the stairs that Kai had walked down was completetly different.
It was a deep blue colour, and wasn't even see through like most ice was. The shade of it reminded Kai of the body of a whale, for some strange reason.
Still, there was another aspect that he was curious about.
Curiously, Kai approached the ice base and gazed at it incredulously.
Once he was close enough, he reached out and was about to knock on the ice, and-
"Don't!"
Yelena's cry snapped Kai out of it. Confused, he turned around to look at the maid and ask:
"Why not?"
Yelena had a soft blush on her face, it seemed that even she was surprised by her sudden outburst.
"I... uh... That ice is dangerous."
Kai frowned slightly.
"Dangerous?"
Yelena's blush intensified as a result of Kai's gaze.
"I- I've only hears rumours, but apparently if you touch the ice your whole body freezes over."
Kai's frown deepened.
"Seriously?"
Tears started to well up in the corners of Yelena's eyes, making Kai's eyes widen and instantly feel even more guilty. Not even a second later, he took a couple of steps back from the ice in an attempt to calm her down.
He could kind of guess what she was worried about, it certainly wouldn't look good on your resume if you accidently let your bosses guest turn to ice on your watch.
"I-I don't know if it actually happens, it's a rumour that all the maids have heard. It's just that no one wants to test it."
Kai couldn't fault her logic, he wouldn't want to test that either.
"Okay, I'm sorry, just, don't cry, please?"
Yelena sniffled softly and slightly lifted up her glasses to wipe away the tears.
"I apologise for my outburst, Sir Kai."
Kai couldn't even sigh at this point, he just shook his head and smiled softly, making his way back to Yelena's side.
"Don't worry about it, it's fine. Now, let's go get your errands done."
Yelena smiled weakly at Kai's words, but he noticed that she still seemed rather shaken, which was something he didn't know how to react to.
Once they were at the gate, Kai softly pushed it open and held it open for Yelena.
Once they had both exited, the two of them started making their way down the trail that led to the actual city.
As they walked though, Kai realised how strange the castle actually was.
It was obviously home to the royal family of this Subdimension, yet there hadn't been a single guard stationed outside to protect the castle, or even the gate for that matter, the courtyard was completetly empty.
Maybe Ezekial really is enough to defend them...
As they continued making their way to the city, Yelena slowly calmed down and returned to normal.
But it was when they actually entered the city that Kai realised he had one big oversight on his part.
Yelena had gotten him to change into this outfit to remain inconspicuous among the general public, and this plan would definitely be working, if not for one thing.
The fact that Kai was walking beside an attractive maid that was wearing a maid outfit so pristine that she had obviously come from the Royal castle.
As they walked down the street, Kai noticed that all eyes seemed to innately track to Yelena, however, she actually handled all the attention really well, which surprised Kai considering that she nearly cried just a couple of minutes ago.
But another thing that Kai noticed was how happy everyone seemed.
There were people populating the streets, smiling, laughing and having heartfelt conversations with one another.
There were children on the streets, having snowball fights and building snowmen, there was even some that were-
Suddenly, Kai felt something soft crash against the back of his coat. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw some snow falling down his back, then he also saw a young boy with a terrified expression on his face.
Slowly, the young boy approached Kai. His hands were trembling softly reached into his pockets, pulling out a coin that Kai had no idea how much it was actually worth.
"I-I'm sorry Sir, I didn't mean to hit you."
The boy outstretched his hand, offering the coin to Kai as some sort of compensation. After he finished speaking, he waited for the moment that Kai took the coin.
Only that moment never came.
Kai laughed softly as he patted the young boys hand before pushing the boys hand back into his chest.
"Don't worry about it, when I was younger I hit plenty of people with a snowball that I aimed at someone else."
The boy flinched slightly when Kai's hand came close to his head, but when he felt the softy hand he looked at Kai, amazed.
In fact, Kai could almost swear he saw stars in the young boys eyes.
"Thank you, Sir."
The young boy quickly retreated, returning to his friends that he had been playing with.
When Kai turned around, he saw Yelena smiling softly.
"That was nice, what you did."
Kai simply shrugged.
"It was only a snowball, no need to make a big deal of things."
Yelena's smile grew ever so slightly more.
"Even so, there are plenty of people who would have willingly made a big deal of that."
Kai simply grinned before responding.
"Then those people are dickheads."
It was only after another minute of walking that Kai and Yelena arrived in an open area with a fountain in the middle, only the fountain was completetly frozen over.
Yelena walked in front of Kai before putting her arms behind her back and looking all around.
"This is it, Sir Kai. This is the centre of the entire city."