Chapter 6
Husband is the Protagonist of Another World 6
“Were you hungry? I’m sorry, this is all I could get.”
I placed a tray with bread and soup on the small table.
My husband looked a little surprised, glancing back and forth between me and the food.
Yeah. How absurd must it be?
This must be the worst meal he’s ever had.
None of the family members know how to cook, so I was at a loss as to how we were going to survive.
‘If Alex loses any muscle, it’ll be a disaster….’
Now all that’s left is his healthy body.
“…I’m sorry. But I’m glad we can at least have this kind of meal. I wasn’t even in the right state of mind to get food. I didn’t even get to thank the head maid.”
I pulled out a chair.
“Come and sit down.”
“…Thank you.”
Only then did my husband approach. Glancing at him, he seemed awkward.
I took out a bottle of milk and a cup from the pocket of my dress.
Drizzle, drizzle.
Gulp.
As I poured the milk into the cup, he swallowed hard as if he was nervous.
His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed up and down because of it.
I wondered how a sick person’s Adam’s apple could be so sexy, but I was bothered by the strangely distant feeling.
We weren’t exactly affectionate with each other to begin with, but it didn’t feel this distant.
Is he acting like this because he feels bad for me?
“Drink up, Alex. Don’t tell Eloy and Mother that I gave you milk.”
“Huh? …Ah, yes. Thank you.”
With that, my husband began to drink the milk I offered.
Seeing him drink so well made me feel relieved.
Haa….
I let out a silent sigh and tore off a piece of bread and put it in my mouth, but I didn’t really taste anything.
I glanced at my husband.
He took a small bite of the warm bread. He looked like he didn’t know if he was eating bread or chewing paper.
‘But just seeing him eat makes me feel full….’
We ate like that for a while, but I felt a strange sense of unease, as if time was suffocating.
Sure enough, my husband suddenly choked.
“Cough, cough!”
“……”
I sighed inwardly and quietly got up and patted him on the back.
“Was the bread too rough? Well, you wouldn’t have eaten something like this before….”
“Ah, no. It’s not that… It’s delicious.”
…Delicious?
It sounded like a lie, but I decided to let it go.
After all, he’s the kind of person who puts other people’s feelings before his own.
He’s the kind of person who would say it’s delicious for my sake, even if it was a worse meal than this dry, tasteless bread.
Fortunately, he calmed down quickly, and I returned to my seat.
“Even if it’s delicious, eat slowly.”
“…Yes.”
Another quiet meal began.
We can solve breakfast and lunch like this, but what about dinner?
I never thought I’d have to worry about food again in my life.
I even remembered my past life when I had to eat cautiously at the orphanage.
“You don’t look well.”
I raised my head at the sudden voice.
When our eyes met, my husband’s eyes fluttered again.
It seemed that a shadow had inadvertently fallen over my face.
“How could I be? My husband said he wanted a divorce and then tried to die alone.”
“……”
This time, my husband’s complexion worsened.
His pupils shook, and he lowered his head slightly and wiped his mouth.
“…I’m sorry.”
A slightly awkward, but apologetic and remorseful face.
I was inwardly puzzled by his neat attitude.
It was strangely unfamiliar and polite.
His tone was normal and mature, not the frustrating, tongue-tied way he usually spoke.
‘Gasp! His way of speaking really has changed?’
I was so surprised that I couldn’t even scream and covered my mouth.
Why didn’t I notice it sooner?
He hadn’t stuttered once since he woke up.
It was so natural that I didn’t even notice the strangeness.
Could it be that he had a sudden change because he came back to life after going to the brink of death?
Wondering, I asked.
“Alex, you seem different all of a sudden.”
“Yes?”
“Your way of speaking seems to have changed a lot. Would you like to say it again?”
I looked at him with an incredulous expression. I waited for him to open his mouth, but Alex seemed even more flustered than I was.
Suddenly, my husband stuttered as if he had glitched.
“Th-th-that’s….”
“……”
Is it not?
Well, he’s been like that since he first started talking, so it wouldn’t be easy to fix.
“Never mind. I was just wondering. Please finish your meal.”
Did I hear wrong?
I tilted my head for a moment and dipped my spoon into the soup again.
I could feel my husband swallowing hard again.
He seemed to be more estranged from me than usual since regaining consciousness, perhaps because he was too ashamed to look me in the face.
\ \ \
‘…Haa, this is driving me crazy.’
Meanwhile, Alex concealed his troubled heart and wiped his lips a few times.
Across from him, his wife was taking a bite of soup with a complexion that didn’t seem to have much appetite.
For a moment, she seemed to suspect him, but she didn’t seem to think that he wasn’t her husband.
How could he tell her that he wasn’t her husband in this situation?
Just in case, he looked for the Status Window.
But the System didn’t appear.
It seemed clear that the wife in front of him wasn’t a NPC in the game.
‘It’s absurd that I suddenly became someone else.’
What’s more, the owner of the body he possessed had a mother, a younger sister, and even a wife.
As someone who had never even dated, let alone married, because he was busy saving the world, this situation of suddenly having a wife was too much for him to handle.
‘Honey…?’
How shocked he was when he first heard that sound.
It was too warm and ticklish of a title to suddenly enter his life.
‘Why is this world my final reward?’
He had never wanted a family.
He felt lonely sometimes, but basically, he was more comfortable being alone.
Alexis and Luise were not people he knew either. They didn’t seem to have anything to do with him.
Could it be that the ‘reward’ he was supposed to receive was something like ‘An ordinary husband’s heart-fluttering daily life!’ or ‘A dad who became a daughter-fool after returning♡’?
He was the kind of person who could remain calm no matter what situation was in front of him, but now he couldn’t deny that he was embarrassed.
He roughly grasped what kind of situation he was in now through the conversations of his family members.
‘I was going to endure even if I suddenly lost the magnificent mansion and the noble status of duchess.’
‘My husband tried to die, do you know how I feel right now?’
‘How could I be? My husband said he wanted a divorce and then tried to die alone.’
“……”
So, he lost his title and his family was ruined, so he tried to give up his wife and family and die?
He didn’t know what kind of person the original Alexis was, but anyway, that Alexis was now him.
‘Why of all people….’
So far, the System’s rewards had always been related to him or useful in some way.
Alex believed that there must be a reason why he became the bankrupt duke Alexis this time as well.
He wondered if he had to find that reason in the future, at that moment.
Luise, who had been silent, opened her mouth.
\ \ \
“…I don’t think we can stay in this inn for long.”
After eating for a while, I brought up a story that was useless to hide alone.
It was a realistic story that we had no money or home.
“…The innkeeper seems to be watching the Emperor. Well, we can’t let other people get hurt because of us.”
“……”
“Just between us, that tyrant might do something outrageous again.”
I glanced up at my husband.
He was silent.
Well, what could he say when we were about to be kicked out onto the streets?
I didn’t expect anything from him anyway.
He seemed to have finished his meal and put down his spoon.
“…I see.”
He was a little calmer than before.
“I think I understand what’s going on.”
Then he continued in an uncharacteristic, dignified manner.
“I can’t keep wandering around inns forever with my mother, sister, and wife.”
With that, my husband stacked his clean dishes into one pile.
“……?”
My eyes widened a little, wondering why he was suddenly tidying up.
His eyes had changed like a different person.
Those eyes were as clean as the best-honed blade in the world.
Was Alex the kind of person who could make that kind of expression?
