TMGDW 11

Chapter 11

Calix couldn’t figure out where his unease was coming from.

His footsteps quickened as he walked down the corridor.

—You’re making that face too. You’ve become quite the coward.

Just when he thought the magic sword had been quiet for a while, it chose this moment to speak.

“If you don’t want to be thrown into lava, keep your mouth shut.”

At Calix’s words, the magic sword fell silent as if it had never spoken.

Calix frowned and began searching for his wife.

The image of her removing her chemise last night had refused to leave his mind all day.

He was angry.

Even as he searched for his wife, he had no idea why he was doing this.

If he had known it would come to this, he shouldn’t have suggested sharing a room. Once he found her, he would tell her they should sleep separately again.

But Selena was nowhere to be seen—not in the bedroom, not in the garden.

Where had she gone?

Was she doing something suspicious behind his back?

‘……Is she finally showing her true colors? Good. Just let me catch you. I’ll twist that slender neck of yours with my own hands.’

With suddenly blazing eyes, Calix began to search every room meticulously.

“Y-Your Grace the Archduke! What’s the matter?”

A servant who had been patting his belly after finishing his meal saw his master radiating a terrifying killing intent and cried out in surprise.

Wasn’t Calix supposed to be at the training ground at this hour?

“Do I need a reason to be in my own castle?”

At the chilling voice, the servant swallowed hard and hurriedly lowered his gaze.

“……Where is the Archduchess?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you deaf? I’m asking where my wife is.”

“She should b-be in the bedroom, Your Grace.”

At the servant’s words, Calix let out a hollow laugh.

He had already searched there. But his wife wasn’t there—not even a single strand of her hair.

If they were being paid, they should at least do work commensurate with their wages, shouldn’t they?

The servant’s incompetence made his blood boil.

At Calix’s fierce expression, the servant dropped to his knees and cried out.

“I-I’ll find her!”

“No. Never mind. I’ll do it myself.”

What could he possibly trust such people with? He would find her with his own hands.

“And as of today, you’re fired.”

“……Pardon?”

“Get out.”

Just from the look in his eyes, it seemed he wouldn’t hesitate to run his sword through the servant at any moment.

Fearing for his life, the servant stammered “Y-Yes, sir!” and hastily retreated.

The castle was unnecessarily large. After wandering for a long time, Calix’s footsteps finally stopped in front of a certain room.

The room where his wife had stayed from the very first night.

But inside what should have been an empty room, he sensed a very faint, small presence.

‘Was she here?’

What could she possibly be doing in there?

Calix opened the door somewhat irritably.

“……!”

Upon seeing the room, Calix’s eyes shook violently. Selena was lying limp on the floor as if dead.

Startled, Calix scooped her into his arms.

He brought his index finger to her nose to check if she was breathing properly. A faint, thread-thin breath could be felt.

“You’re really something else.”

Calix carried his wife in his arms and stepped out of the room.

He summoned a physician renowned as a master of medicine to examine Selena. And while the physician examined her, he didn’t leave her side for a moment.

The physician took her pulse for a long while before speaking.

“It’s a simple cold. She’ll recover after taking the medication for a few days.”

“What? Is that true? If it’s just a simple cold, then why did she collapse?”

At Calix’s urging, the physician lowered his gaze and answered.

“Her Highness the Archduchess lost consciousness because her lungs are weaker than others, compounded by symptoms of anemia.”

So she had been pushing herself to come to the training ground despite being unwell.

Calix silently looked down at his wife, whose eyes were closed.

After the physician dripped a little medicine into her mouth, Selena’s complexion soon became much more comfortable.

“I’ll take my leave now.”

*Click.* The door closed.

Calix reached out toward Selena, who was lying on the bed. He brushed aside the hair clinging to her cheek.

She must have liked the touch, because Selena pressed her cheek against his hand.

Calix stopped moving and looked down at his wife.

Seeing the color returning to her face, the anxiety that had been tormenting him washed away like a lie.

After all, his sick wife wouldn’t know what he was saying. So this was…… a grumbling soliloquy.

“You skipped meals today too, didn’t you? That’s why you’re so weak.”

“…….”

“You’re such a fool. From now on, don’t even set foot near the training ground.”

Calix withdrew his hand from Selena’s hair and crossed his arms.

“And why of all places did you have to collapse in that room?”

“…….”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through looking for you? You’re so much trouble in every way that I’m about to lose my temper.”

As he said this, Calix looked at Selena, whose eyes were still closed, and noticed something strange.

“You’re awake, aren’t you.”

At Calix’s voice, which she heard the moment she regained consciousness, Selena suddenly felt like crying.

“Calix……?”

When she opened her eyes, she really saw Calix’s face before her.

Selena, thinking it might be a hallucination, reached out and traced his face with her fingertips.

Even as she touched him, he didn’t disappear.

“Is it really…… really you, Calix?”

Calix said nothing. He still had those cold eyes.

But somehow, his gaze seemed much gentler than before.

“Yes. It’s me.”

Calix even allowed his wife, who was tracing his face, to confirm it herself.

“Why did you collapse in that room?”

A question came immediately.

“……I was afraid I might pass it on to you.”

“Do I look like someone who gets sick easily to you?”

He certainly had a point.

Even if illness tried to come, Calix seemed like he would just slice it cleanly with his sword.

“The campaign is coming up soon, and I couldn’t afford to be a burden…….”

At Selena’s following words, Calix let out a hollow laugh.

“Are you an idiot?”

Selena gave a small nod.

He had expected her to say no, but she readily admitted she was an idiot—Calix was left speechless.

“……I’ve married an idiot.”

“I’m sorry…….”

Now what on earth was she apologizing for?

Seeing his wife apologize with a tearful voice, Calix felt like the worst kind of trash.

“If you like it, say you like it. If you don’t, say you don’t. If you’re sick, say you’re sick. Is that so hard?”

Calix suppressed his rising anger and grasped Selena’s hand. Her childlike small hand made his anger flare up again.

“I’m sorry. I’m just not used to saying those things…….”

Tears streamed down Selena’s cheeks. At those tears, Calix’s hand moved on its own.

But seeing Selena flinch and look frightened, he felt complicated emotions.

Calix slowly reached out so as not to startle her and wiped away her tears.

But contrary to his intention, the tears didn’t stop—instead, they poured out even more.

“Don’t cry.”

Calix kept wiping away her tears. But no matter how much he wiped, his wife’s tears showed no sign of stopping.

“If you’re not used to it, you just need to get used to it from now on. So don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

It was clumsy but sincere comfort.

*”Does sitting down and crying your eyes out solve anything?”*

Her husband’s comfort reminded her of that man.

The man who had reached out to her when, as a child on the day the Viscount first took her to the Imperial Palace, she had been crying her eyes out.

*’Ah, how could I have forgotten?’*

She hadn’t been able to see his face clearly through her tear-blurred vision, but his clear blue eyes were vividly etched into Selena’s mind.

*’The reason I couldn’t take my eyes off your eyes from the very first moment…… was because of that.’*

That man was the same person as her husband.

And just like back then, he was clumsily comforting her.

“Calix, thank you. Thank you…….”

Selena kept thanking Calix through her tears.

Calix didn’t leave his crying wife’s side.

He simply couldn’t leave her, worried as he was.

—

A long while later, watching his wife who had cried herself to sleep, Calix was seized by an indescribable emotion.

He covered the sleeping Selena with a blanket and left the room, heading straight to the garden where the animals were.

But perhaps having grown accustomed to Selena’s touch, the animals seemed to find Calix, whom they hadn’t seen in a while, unfamiliar and wouldn’t eat the food.

*’They used to eat right out of my hand.’*

But he didn’t dislike this change.

Calix set down the food he had been holding in his hand onto the ground. The animals, who hadn’t eaten all day, devoured the food ravenously.

As he quietly watched the animals, he suddenly felt a gaze looking down at him from above to the right.

Calix turned his head toward where he felt the gaze.

There sat a pitch-black squirrel.

The squirrel, perched on a tree branch, only silently watched the other animals eating without moving.

“You must be hungry.”

Calix waved some extra food in front of it, but the squirrel didn’t move an inch.

*’What a peculiar creature.’*

Wait.

He had never picked up a black squirrel before?