Ch#43
How did it come to this?
Elric thought to himself as he lay flat on his back in Tiria’s bed, staring up at the ceiling.
He let out a silent groan.
‘What do you mean, “how”…!’
It was all because the bed frame had broken.
There was no other explanation.
Resentment toward the cleaning company began to bubble up inside Elric.
“You should get some sleep, as we have to wake up early and move diligently.”
Tiria spoke.
Glancing sideways, he saw that she was lying just as rigidly as he was.
Even her sleeping posture is aristocratic!
In that brief moment of admiration, a thought flashed through Elric’s mind.
“……By the way, are you not uncomfortable?”
“About what?”
“You usually sleep curled up like a shrimp, do you not? I was worried that lying like this because of me might be uncomfortable for you.”
It was a habit he had learned while nursing her.
Tiria tended to seek sleep with her body curled inward.
Even if he tried to straighten her posture for fear of her back becoming crooked, she would return to that fetal position within ten minutes. He wondered if this upright posture was difficult for her.
After a brief silence, Tiria replied.
“……It is fine. And the bed is wide, so it does not matter much.”
“That is true. I was surprised by how large the bed is.”
“The previous head of the family took special care with it.”
“……My father did?”
“Yes.”
Elric’s head snapped toward her.
It was rare for her to be the first to bring up matters regarding his father.
The stifling sensation he had felt ever since entering this mansion seemed to thicken.
Elric asked in a voice tinged with longing.
“Could you tell me more about my father?”
Perhaps he could finally understand the intentions he had never grasped.
It would be a lie to say he had no expectations.
At first, he had thought neither she nor his father were in a position to exchange personal words, but it had been ten years.
Surely there must have been some conversations between them.
Tiria hesitated for a moment before answering in a slightly lowered voice.
“……The previous head of the family mentioned in passing that if you were to return, you would need a large bed.”
Elric’s fingertips twitched.
“He thought I would return? That man did?”
“I am not certain. The previous head of the family was a man who prepared for every eventuality, so perhaps it was simply a reflection of that temperament.”
The inner turmoil deepened.
In truth, it was a plausible explanation given his father’s nature during his lifetime, but that damn inheritance made him think otherwise.
Could it be that he had been waiting for him?
It was a lingering regret he thought he had cast aside, yet it felt as though it were assailing him once more.
Did his troubled mind show on his face? When Tiria, who had been staring at the ceiling, turned her gaze toward him, Elric forced a smile.
“I see.”
Elric tried to act as if he were fine.
Tiria did not immediately add anything more.
She simply remained silent while meeting his eyes, and Elric felt a strange sense of peace wash over him at the sight.
They say there are times when silence is a greater comfort than a hundred words.
The phrase came to mind anew, making him feel a bit bashful.
But that wasn’t all.
‘……Green.’
Even in the darkened room, Tiria’s eyes shimmered with a pale green light.
The hair covering the nape of her neck was gold.
No matter how deep the shadows, the fact that those colors remained unchanged felt surreal.
Then, his gaze accidentally drifted toward her bare skin.
Whoosh! His face flushed crimson.
At that moment, he felt grateful the lights were out.
“I, I should get to sleep now. Good night.”
Having said that, he closed his eyes, and soon felt Tiria shifting beside him.
“……Yes.”
Following that whisper-like voice, her breathing gradually grew steady.
Elric was different.
Thump, thump. His heart pounded so fiercely that it felt as though the heat would never recede.
He wanted to throw off the covers.
However, since they were sharing a single blanket, doing so would surely make Tiria notice.
How long did he spend fretting in that paralyzed state?
Rustle.
With the sound, he began to feel Tiria tossing and turning more clearly.
Elric peered at Tiria through half-closed eyes.
She was definitely asleep.
Judging by her furrowed brow, she seemed to be shifting because her posture was uncomfortable.
As he watched her, Tiria fumbled with her hand.
And then, she found Elric’s arm.
“Hup……!”
Ah, only then did Elric recall another habit of hers he had forgotten.
She had a habit of hugging something while she slept.
Before it had been his hand, and usually, she slept hugging a pillow.
Tiria, who had been fumbling along Elric’s arm, soon began to close the distance.
Elric held his breath and stiffened his body completely.
“Mmm…….”
With a mumble, Tiria pressed herself right up against Elric’s arm.
It was dangerous.
In many ways.
“W-Wife…….”
“…….”
Since there was no answer, he checked with a tearful face only to find that no one could possibly be in a deeper sleep than she was.
Had the train ride been that exhausting?
Praying it was a joke, he even stirred his mana to sharpen his senses, but all her biological signs indicated she was in a state of slumber.
“If, if you sleep like this, then I…….”
He whispered to her, but she showed no sign of waking.
It didn’t end there.
Tiria began to sleep like a shrimp.
As she curled her body, there were things he felt more vividly.
The soft sensation, her scent, and her breath tickled his skin and seeped into him.
Elric slowly tried to escape toward the edge of the bed.
Every time he did, Tiria clung to him.
It was a disaster of his own making.
He should have just given her his arm; now, Elric was in a position where he had given her his entire body.
Her head was resting on his arm as a pillow.
Her arm was wrapped around his waist, and her leg was hooked over Elric’s thigh.
She truly had terrible sleeping habits.
The fact that she was sleeping so peacefully all by herself while doing this made his resentment beyond words.
Elric tried taking deep breaths, but his heart refused to calm down.
In this moment, even the thoughts of his father that had so troubled his mind were drifting away.
Stray thoughts filled his head.
Does she wear perfume even when she sleeps?
He had no idea why she smelled so sweet.
‘Calm down. Calm down.’
Elric scolded himself and tried to think of bad things.
‘Right, how did the Chebor defense battle go again……?’
He went so far as to recall the defense of Chebor, a memory he hated to even think about.
But it wasn’t very effective.
The sweet scent overlaid the blood-soaked memories of the Chebor defense.
The soft skin overlaid the sensation of cutting through bone.
That wasn’t the end of it.
Her soft, rhythmic breathing pierced his body more intensely than a bullet cutting through the wind.
For Elric, it was enough to make him lose his mind.
He decided he might as well just sleep.
Closing his eyes tight and forcing his breath into a steady rhythm, Elric began an arduous effort to fall into slumber.
To jump to the result, he succeeded.
It was uncomfortable, but he managed to let go of his reason and fall asleep regardless.
And,
“…….”
On this day, Elric did not have a nightmare.
No, perhaps it was a nightmare in its own way.
He, who had wandered through nightmares of the battlefield without a single exception whenever he dreamed, today dreamed of floundering inside the belly of a slime instead of a battlefield.
It was a truly soft nightmare.
Tiria opened her eyes with a sensation of total refreshment.
And then she froze.
“Uuuugh……!”
Within distance of their noses touching was Elric, groaning with a pale complexion.
Her arm was shackled around his sturdy body, and for some reason, Tiria was at the very edge of the bed where Elric was pinned.
The first thought that came to her was, ‘Is this a dream?’
Because the sight was so provocative, her first instinct was to deny it, thinking it couldn’t possibly be reality.
However, the sensations were too vivid for it to be a dream.
She needed time to grasp the situation.
Why had she woken up in this state?
Tiria eventually reached a single conclusion.
‘The head of the family has terrible sleeping habits.’
He must have pulled her into his arms while she was sleeping soundly.
It had to be that.
If it weren’t, she would be so embarrassed she’d want to hang herself.
Wasn’t Elric’s arm also wrapped around her shoulder?
Tiria’s face turned as red as a radish.
Her breathing was surging like waves in the middle of a storm-tossed sea.
Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to move hastily.
Or rather, did she not want to move?
The composition felt quite like déjà vu.
Despite her embarrassment, Tiria reminisced about a childhood memory.
The day she spent a night with him in a tent under the bridge, the sight she saw upon opening her eyes was exactly like this.
She felt glad and fluttery.
Her body grew tense for no reason, and her heart melted like cotton candy soaked in water.
It was the moment she was staring blankly at him, finding his groaning figure utterly lovely.
“Auuugh……!”
The groaning Elric snapped his eyes open.
And then—one, two, three.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
Leaping like a live fish, Elric tumbled off the bed.
Tiria, barely managing to keep her balance on the bed, felt her heart drop.
The fact that she had been caught staring at a sleeping person was just as embarrassing.
Quickly getting up, Tiria straightened her clothes and calmed her complexion.
After turning her head away from him, she let out an excuse.
“……I could not get away. It seems the head of the family has severe sleeping habits.”
She couldn’t exactly say she had maintained that posture because she was preoccupied with looking at his face.
The only answer was to shift the blame.
Meanwhile, Elric’s face was filled with utter dismay and a sense of injustice.
“……Sleeping habits, you say?”
Of course, Tiria, with her head turned away, had no way of knowing.
The Wife Who Waited in the Wheat Field (Serial)
