Translator: Nox

Chapter 15

15. Harvest Festival (4)

In the city center, visited for the first time since his return, Elric encountered memories and old connections.

Things that had once existed as a lingering yearning in his mind were now being overwritten with something new.

Regardless of such sentiment, Elric’s time passed relentlessly.

“The Harvest Festival begins today.”

“So it seems. I was quite surprised to see the wheat fields have gone completely bald.”

At the breakfast table, Elric chuckled as he replied to Tiria.

The wheat fields that had dyed the whole world in golden hues had become a barren plain.

The harvest had concluded successfully, and now only the enjoyment remained.

Of course, that was only for the common folk of the estate.

“You will become quite busy from now on.”

Tiria was the exception.

She had to organize and categorize the harvested crops into those to be presented to the royal family, those for commercial use, and those to be distributed to the residents.

After that, she faced the tedious task of finalizing the year’s total revenue.

If Aldio was correct, she would be subjected to grueling overwork starting today.

Elric felt a pang of regret at that fact and asked.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“There is not.”

“Truly nothing? I at least know how to sort documents.”

“It is not a task that is strictly necessary.”

She was firm.

Just as Elric was thinking he might have to sit idly by and twiddle his thumbs, she spoke again.

“Watch from my side this year. I shall oversee everything and teach you.”

Ah, so that was what she meant by saying help wasn’t needed.

Elric grinned sheepishly.

“Mmm….”

“You will only learn the broad categories. The details are so complex it takes years of education to even begin to grasp them, so you won’t be able to master it all at once.”

Though her voice was calm and soft, for some reason, her words carried weight.

The gentle slant of her eyes added to the pressure.

“This works out well. Let us begin the paperwork this very day.”

“…Do you not enjoy the Harvest Festival?”

“Attending for the speech on the final day is sufficient.”

Had he poked a beehive?

“…I am not particularly bright, you know.”

“I shall endure it.”

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything at all.

Elric felt a wave of belated regret.

However, nothing changed.

The time had come to pay the price for failing to recognize her patience.

In any case, this mouth of his was the problem once again.

“Spare me, please.”

“I have not killed you.”

“I feel like I might die.”

“People do not die so easily.”

‘They die very easily. One stroke of a blade and everyone is equal,’ Elric barely swallowed those words.

The location was the office; the time was the morning of the final day of the Harvest Festival.

Her teaching was relentless.

Her obsessive and meticulous nature meant that if he failed to understand even a single part of the lesson, she would never move on until he did. Her patient disposition led to the worst possible outcome: lessons that dragged on for hours once they began.

Elric found himself thinking, ‘Might she be a talent more suited for torture than the renowned interrogation experts of the Western War?’

It was that dreadful, and that was why he yearned for today so desperately.

“…Should we not start preparing soon? For the speech, I mean.”

“It is still morning.”

“Is there… no rehearsal or anything?”

“I have already done it in advance.”

“When did you find the time?”

“One simply needs to carve it out from their sleep.”

Indeed, Tiria seemed to be a workaholic.

But Elric could not give up.

More than anything, he desperately wanted to escape this agonizing lesson.

“…Instead of that, why don’t you take a break? It’s the last day of the festival; surely you can enjoy it a little?”

Tiria’s movements stopped.

Elric was desperate. He prayed for the words “let’s rest a bit” to come out of her mouth, and for some reason, the heavens did not forsake him.

“…My thoughts were narrow. It must be the first festival the Head of the family has seen in ten years.”

That wasn’t the actual reason, but Elric nodded like a madman.

The more excuses, the better.

And it actually worked.

Tiria let out a long breath and organized the documents.

“Very well. Then we shall stop the lesson here for today. It might be good to go out a bit early and… look around the streets together.”

“That is a wonderful idea! I am truly looking forward to it! I shall go and prepare quickly… no, I mean, I shall prepare at a leisurely pace!”

Elric jumped up with a shout and immediately grabbed his cane.

Because he left the office so hurriedly, he didn’t see it.

He didn’t see Tiria pressing her lips together tightly and bowing her head.

Her face was quite flushed.

Finally, he was free from those dreadful lessons. He would be able to rest properly for at least today.

Doing work that didn’t suit his temperament in the first place had made his body ache.

From the perspective of Elric, who had done nothing but swing a sword for the past ten years, sitting still and staring at ink stains was a form of torture that made him feel nauseous.

“Young master, you must change quickly.”

“I shall do it at my own pace.”

“That is not ‘pace,’ that is dawdling.”

“Is it standard for a servant to talk back to his master?”

“It is loyal advice. Besides, someone who cannot even act like a proper master isn’t scary in the slightest when they try to act tough.”

“You’re fired….”

“You cannot. Personnel management is handled by the Madam.”

“….”

Somehow, there wasn’t a single person on his side.

Of course, it was laughable to expect someone to side with a man who had run away for ten years before returning, but a sense of disappointment was still a sense of disappointment.

He thought at least Aldio would understand his heart….

“Young master, you cannot wiggle out of it this time.”

He was firm.

For some reason, Elric felt like he had returned to his childhood when he was scolded for being immature.

He was aware that he was indeed acting immaturely, but feeling it was a different matter entirely.

Elric grumbled as he changed his clothes.

It was ready-to-wear attire.

“You will be ascending the podium. Even if you aren’t the one speaking, you must be properly groomed. I shall call the maids.”

“Why are maids necessary?”

“You must wear makeup as well.”

“A man wearing makeup? You’ve gone mad.”

“If I am mad, then every noble, royal, and imperial person in the world is mad as well.”

“Aldio, your tongue is quite long today.”

“You are even more immature than usual today.”

Elric was defeated.

In the end, only after enduring the ridiculous process of having powder applied to his skin as Aldio insisted, did he lead his uncomfortable steps toward the office.

It wasn’t that he intended to do more work; it was because the window there was perfectly shaped for looking down outside the mansion.

Creak—

The door opened, revealing a room drenched in sunlight.

Could an office where no work was being done look this beautiful?

The moment that thought occurred to him, Elric let out a soft chuckle.

‘…I no longer think of Father first when I look at this place.’

It was a realization that came late.

Whether it was due to her ruthless education, or because it was an event from too far in the past that had grown hazy, even upon entering the office, it wasn’t his father’s face but the documents she had left behind that caught his eye first.

The moment he opened the office door, he first imagined the scene of her sitting at the desk.

This, too, was an overwriting of memory.

Just as the changed city center had been layered over the faded city of the past, the scene he envisioned when thinking of the office had changed.

Bitterness and pleasure arose simultaneously.

Elric looked out at the wheat fields, now stripped bare after the harvest, and then perched on the edge of the office desk.

Tap—

His hand brushed against some unorganized documents.

“Hm?”

Elric turned his head to check the papers.

“This is….”

It was the task he had learned today.

Had she not cleared it away? Unthinkingly picking up the documents, Elric only then noticed the memo tucked beneath them.

Elric’s eyes widened.

[Deadline: 21st.]

The marked deadline was today.

She had clearly said the schedule was generous, but how could these documents, which weren’t even half-processed, be considered a volume that could be finished leisurely within the day?

There were dozens of pages in sight; solving all of them would take at least half a day.

The moment he realized that, it clicked for Elric.

‘…If she does it while teaching me, it takes half a day.’

If she were to process the work alone, it wouldn’t be at this speed.

Elric knew that he was a slow learner when it came to administrative tasks.

Tiria had been teaching him while matching Elric’s pace.

In the first place, the reason the deadline was tight must have been because of him.

The reason she had permitted an early outing today despite the work piling up like this.

That, too, finally began to engrave itself into Elric’s mind.

‘She was being considerate of me?’

Had she slowed down even more to accommodate his exhaustion?

Even with work so busy, had she worried about his fatigue first?

It was a self-centered assumption, but the reason he couldn’t easily dismiss it was because of the attitude she had shown until now.

Looking back, she had been considerate of Elric at every moment.

“….”

What would have happened if he had just gone out like this?

Given her personality—never uttering a word of complaint—she would have likely finished the work alone by cutting into her sleep and then kept her mouth shut about it.

Then he would have never known that she had suffered even more.

A sudden sense of shame washed over him.

This was just the state of a child who only knew how to whine.

Elric furrowed his brows.

Then he picked up a pen.

To feel no gratitude toward someone who showed consideration and to merely receive was truly a cunning thing.

Elric did not want to be such a person.

So, he rummaged through the documents for a long time, recalling what he had learned and beginning to fill in the letters bit by bit.

It was about an hour later when Tiria entered.

“Head of the family?”

She looked surprised.

Elric gave a bashful smile and said.

“The deadline was today. Why did you not tell me?”

“That is….”

“I am sorry. I failed to properly consider your position.”

The face of the Tiria he faced was filled with clear surprise.

Feeling quite embarrassed by that, Elric lowered his head and spoke.

“I could not do much. Can you help me?”

Her answer came a beat late.

“…Yes, let us do that.”

Her voice was a bit more strained than usual.

Her mood… didn’t seem bad at all.

That was a relief.

The Wife Waited in the Wheat Field (Serial)