Chapter 12
Harvest Festival (1)
The meal concluded without any further conversation regarding the matter.
A mere apology wasn’t enough to mend their relationship instantly.
The two were still strangers, and as little as they knew about each other, they lacked the common ground for proper conversation.
In the end, the atmosphere grew awkward once more, and after finishing the meal, they retired for the night until morning came.
“Doryeon-nim, are you awake?”
“I’m up.”
Elric rose from his bed, feeling the increasingly chilly morning air.
As he washed his face to clear his mind, the events of the previous night flashed through his head.
A bitter smile played on his lips.
Now that he had finally set a destination for himself, he felt a certain sense of relief.
“Ugh….”
He dragged his uncomfortable leg and stood up.
He had resolved to leave once his leg healed, but it was clear that it would take some time.
He would have to stay through the winter at the very least. To be safe, there was a high probability he would still be here in the spring.
Whatever the case, he would have to spend that time helping Tiria.
While there wasn’t much he could do in this physical state, he couldn’t exactly sit around doing nothing without feeling a prick of conscience.
“I am coming in.”
Aldio opened the door.
Behind him stood a maid carrying a basin filled with cold water.
“Your wash water, sir.”
“Thank you. You may go about your business.”
Even now, he wasn’t used to a lifestyle where someone else prepared everything for him the moment he opened his eyes.
Elric waved the maid away and washed his face.
The cold water fully jolted his senses. After a quick hair wash, shaking off the excess water, and changing his clothes, he was finally ready to head out.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, the Madam is waiting for you.”
“She must be busy.”
“Eating meals together as a family is the Master’s ironclad rule, is it not?”
Elric let out a short laugh.
That was true. His father was a man who insisted that the family must face each other at the breakfast table. He was a man pathologically obsessed with schedule management; if Elric ever broke the routine and missed breakfast, he would sometimes be starved for the entire day.
That culture must still persist in the mansion.
“Let’s head down. We’ll be here all day at this rate.”
Elric leaned on his cane and stepped out of the room.
When he arrived at the dining room, Tiria gave a short nod.
“Are you awake?”
“Good morning.”
For a moment, their eyes met.
Tiria blinked, and Elric gave an awkward smile.
Given what happened the day before, it was difficult to act as he usually did, yet showing a different demeanor felt equally troublesome.
“Let’s sit and eat. You must have much to do.”
“Yes.”
Breakfast was the same as always: bacon, bread, and eggs.
It was a menu that filled the stomach without being too heavy—and in other words, a menu that would soon liberate them from this awkwardness.
Clink. They began to eat. Elric planned to finish quickly and look into the matter of changing the heir to the inheritance.
It was at that moment.
“……The harvest season will begin soon.”
Tiria spoke up.
“It looks like it will take about a week to finalize everything.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Yes.”
He was slightly surprised that she had initiated a topic for once. When he looked up, Tiria was nibbling on her food.
Elric felt a strange sense of pressure.
‘What should I say here?’
Since she had started the conversation, the thought that he had to respond wouldn’t leave his head.
He felt as though he would be a terrible person if he let the conversation die here.
A cold sweat trickled down.
“Hmm….”
Harvest.
As he focused on that word, Elric found himself drifting into old memories.
“……It brings back memories.”
“What kind of memories?”
“During the harvest, don’t all the adults gather in the wheat fields to work? What else would the kids do? We’d gather together and pull all the pranks we couldn’t do under the adults’ watchful eyes.”
He said pranks… but they had done some quite dangerous things.
Exploring the back mountains where monsters occasionally appeared or going outside the territory to play war.
Looking back, it was a miracle no one had died.
“You were quite a troublemaker.”
Elric felt a prick of guilt.
‘You little troublemakers!’
He suddenly remembered the shouts of the restaurant owner who used to give them snacks every time they visited.
His head naturally bowed. Lacking words to reply, his hands moved faster to eat.
Meanwhile, he noticed Tiria hesitating.
It was surely hesitation. There was no other way to describe the way she nibbled her food while staring blankly at her plate.
“……Do you have something to say?”
“Ah.”
He saw the tips of her fingers tighten around her knife.
Soon after, Tiria’s lips parted, and she finally spoke.
“Perhaps….”
“Perhaps?”
“……May I ask a favor of you?”
What kind of favor required such caution?
Elric nodded, feeling curious.
“Go ahead. I’ll help as much as I can.”
“It’s regarding the Harvest Festival.”
“The Harvest Festival….”
He remembered it.
Wibin’s Harvest Festival was a celebration that lasted for about four days, starting from the day the wheat harvest ended.
It was an event where alcohol and grain were distributed to the people of the territory to reward them for their hard work throughout the year, and it was his father who had presided over it.
He didn’t have very good memories of it.
In Elric’s memory, the Harvest Festival was specifically a time when his father’s attention drifted even further away.
“Is there a problem with the Harvest Festival?”
“It is a problem of sorts. The Portman family still presides over Wibin’s Harvest Festival. On the final night, the head of the Portman family must give a speech.”
“I do recall something like that.”
“Last year, since the previous head had passed away, I took on that role. But this year….”
Only then did Elric understand what Tiria was saying.
“You want me to give the speech?”
“……Yes.”
Tiria’s hands had stopped moving completely.
Elric pondered for a moment. Was it right to play the role of the head of the family when he had already decided to leave? Shouldn’t he leave that role to her?
No matter how much he thought about it, his mind leaned in that direction.
However, he also didn’t feel like refusing her request.
“Hmm….”
Was there a compromise?
After some thought, Elric came up with an idea.
“How about this?”
“Yes?”
“To be honest, I’m not confident in things like giving speeches. However, I know it would be strange for a member of the Portman family not to show their face. So, you give the speech, and I will stand by your side.”
Wasn’t that a fairly good solution?
It could give the impression that Tiria was the one in power in Portman, and he could fulfill her request to some extent.
His only concern was whether she, who seemed so steadfast, would allow such a thing….
“……If that is what you wish, then for this year, at least.”
Fortunately, she seemed to agree.
The condition ‘for this year, at least’ was attached, but this year was enough.
“Then let’s do that. If there’s anything else needed for the Harvest Festival, tell Aldio. He’ll know more than I do.”
“Yes.”
Tiria nodded.
Something is different. It’s strange.
Tiria was lost in such thoughts.
She couldn’t help it.
Despite his initial look of distaste during their first reunion and the fact that he still considered himself a ‘Wibin,’ Elric’s attitude had been remarkably soft.
To put it another way, it was an attitude that fostered ‘expectation.’
Setting everything else aside, his apology for the last ten years was exactly that.
How shocked she had been by his sincere apology, saying he was sorry for leaving like that and that he hadn’t left because of her.
The shock had been enough for her to forget to control her expression in that moment.
Thinking back on it made her heart pound again. She felt her face heating up.
She didn’t know if his words were sincere, but she found herself becoming greedy nonetheless.
Could it be that he doesn’t actually hate me?
That thought simply wouldn’t leave her.
Asking him the favor regarding the Harvest Festival was an extension of that expectation.
The official reason was that he ‘should show his face as the head of the Portman family,’ but she couldn’t say there was no personal desire behind it.
What she inadvertently thought of was the event after the speech.
‘……The after-party.’
On that day, a massive campfire burns in the village square.
The villagers dance around it.
It was a festival she had seen many times since she was a child, and at some point, she had begun to watch it while imagining Elric as her partner.
Could she finally fulfill that dream?
As long as he didn’t hate it, it was something she truly wanted to do.
Of course, he wouldn’t be able to dance with his uncomfortable leg. She didn’t expect that much.
She just wanted to be there with him.
Tiria felt her face grow even hotter and pressed her palms against her cheeks.
It was a relief she was sitting alone in her office.
If she had been outside, she would have had to exhaust her mental strength trying to suppress these emotions.
“Whew….”
She was exhaling to let out the heat when…
Knock, knock—
“Madam, may I come in?”
It was Aldio’s voice.
Tiria’s face instantly returned to an expressionless mask.
“……Come in.”
Her voice also regained its original tone at once.
She was a woman who did not reveal her emotions to others.
The Wife Waited in the Wheat Field (Serial)
