VCHM 06

Chapter 6

Violet felt a little wronged about having her bed taken away overnight, but she decided to be generous about it.

Fine. He’s just come back after rolling around in the mud for three years. I can let this much slide.

And tomorrow, she would go to the furniture store and buy a bigger bed.

No matter how she looked at it, this bed was far too small for two people. Aldric, in particular, was so large that it might not even have been spacious enough for him to sleep alone.

Violet pulled down the blankets and began spreading them out on the floor. She had given up the bed, so surely she could at least use the blankets.

“What are you doing? Why are you putting the blankets on the floor?”

Aldric, who had been silently watching her, frowned and asked.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell you to sleep there.”

“Then you’re going to sleep there?”

“Yeah. Why?”

For a moment, he opened and closed his mouth as if searching for the right words.

“It’s cold.”

“What?”

“The floor is cold.”

“So?”

“…Never mind. You sleep on the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“No. I’m not the kind of heartless person who would make her husband, who just returned from war, sleep on the floor.”

“I don’t want to be the kind of h-husband who makes his wife sleep on the floor, either.”

The two of them bickered back and forth for a while over where they would sleep. Neither of them was willing to compromise.

In the end, when Aldric refused to back down, Violet somehow ended up lying in the same bed with him.

“It really is too small. One of us is definitely going to fall off.”

She lay flat on her back, staring at the ceiling as she muttered.

“I’ll move over a little more.”

As he shifted his body, the old bed creaked and groaned beneath his considerable weight.

“Stop. You’re going to break the bed.”

At Violet’s words, he stopped moving.

The quiet night in the countryside was quite different from the atmosphere during the day.

In the dark room, on the narrow bed, Violet kept tossing and turning. Even though they were trying not to touch, Aldric’s warm body kept brushing against hers.

“If you keep moving around, I can’t sleep….”

Aldric whispered quietly, as though he were telling her a secret.

It occurred to Violet again that he really did have a wonderful voice. Ignoring the way her heart threatened to flutter, she deliberately grumbled.

“I’m the one who can’t sleep because the bed is too narrow. It seemed plenty wide enough when I slept alone….”

As soon as she said it, Violet regretted it a little.

It sounded almost as though she were telling him to leave the house again.

Before Violet could explain that that wasn’t what she meant, Aldric’s voice covered hers.

“…Weren’t you scared?”

He asked it without sounding offended by what she had said.

For a moment, something in Violet’s chest ached.

At that one simple question, she felt as though all the things she had gathered and kept buried in her heart over the years might come pouring out.

But Violet couldn’t say anything.

How could she possibly tell him about all those countless nights in just a few words?

The loneliness.

That she had been a little frightened whenever thunder and lightning struck, that she had sometimes been cold in winter, and that she had sometimes felt lonely in spring.

“Well, not really.”

With that blunt little answer, Violet dismissed all of her thoughts and feelings.

Otherwise, she felt that she might burst into tears in front of Aldric—the second time she had ever met him—and tell him every little thing that had happened to her.

She didn’t dislike him, but she still didn’t trust him that much.

The relationship between them still couldn’t be defined as anything.

More precisely, it was almost as though there was nothing between them at all.

“It feels strange.”

When Violet said that, he stiffened again.

Why does this guy keep getting startled like that despite being so big?

“Today is only the second time I’ve ever seen you, but it feels strange because it feels like we’ve known each other for a very long time.”

“I feel the same. I never dreamed you’d still be here.”

“You’ve been making me sound like some unfaithful wife ever since earlier. Why are you doing that? Weren’t you the one going around pretending to be a bachelor with no ring on your finger?”

He looked extremely flustered by her words.

“Every knight who goes to war is already married!”

“Oh, right.”

“And the ring wouldn’t fit on my finger.”

“…I’d forgotten about that, too.”

When Violet remembered the pitiful little ring her father had given her, she regretted bringing it up for no reason.

“So I tied it to a string and wore it around my neck. Look.”

He showed her the thin ring hanging around his neck.

Hmm. Once I make more money, I really should buy him a new ring.

With her face burning, Violet made a mental note of it.

“Anyway, since this is our first marriage, as a keepsake….”

“First marriage? Who’s had a second one? Or are you planning to get married again and again—”

“No!”

He looked so genuinely flustered when he shouted that Violet eventually burst out laughing.

She had only been joking because she disliked the unnecessarily heavy atmosphere, but apparently her young husband had taken her words quite seriously.

“Sorry. I was joking.”

“…Don’t joke about things like that.”

Even after he said it in a slightly sulky voice, Violet couldn’t stop laughing for a while.

Once Violet’s laughter finally died down, the room became quiet again.

The sensation of having someone beside her was unfamiliar, so Violet lay awake for a long time.

When she continued shifting around, Aldric sighed and sat up.

“If you’re really uncomfortable, I’ll get down.”

When he actually began to move as though he intended to leave the bed, Violet instinctively grabbed his hand.

“Forget it. It’s fine. Let’s just sleep.”

When she tugged on him, his body sank back down helplessly.

“Then should we try changing positions?”

At Violet’s suggestion, he shifted around a few times before turning onto his side and extending an arm toward her.

“Try using my arm as a pillow.”

In the darkness, Violet’s face grew inexplicably hot.

She felt terribly embarrassed for some reason.

“You’ll be able to lie down more comfortably like this.”

In the end, the two of them finally managed to settle into a comfortable position only after Violet practically curled up in Aldric’s arms.

The muscular arm beneath her head was incredibly warm.

She couldn’t tell whether the pulse she felt through their contact was her own or Aldric’s.

His masculine scent surrounded her, unfamiliar to her nose yet strangely intoxicating at the same time.

So this is what it’s like to fall asleep with someone beside you.

Since her early childhood, which she could barely even remember, this was the first time she had ever fallen asleep in someone’s arms like this.

It wasn’t as bad as she had expected.

No, perhaps it was much better than she had expected….

As her consciousness slowly faded, Violet let out a contented sigh without even realizing it.

Just having someone beside her made her feel as though something inside her had been filled.

And shortly afterward, she drifted into a deep sleep.

For once, her feet, which were always cold, remained warm and toasty.

The next morning, Violet opened her eyes feeling refreshed.

She felt as though she had slept deeply and sweetly.

But why is the bed so warm today?

She blinked absentmindedly.

Judging by the familiar wall in front of her, she was definitely in her own house.

So why did everything feel so unfamiliar?

As her consciousness slowly returned from sleep, yesterday’s memories gradually came back to her.

Oh, right. Aldric came back.

And we slept in the same bed.

Only then did Violet remember that the warm body temperature she could feel against her back belonged to Aldric.

Being warmed by someone else’s body heat was actually quite pleasant.

Violet savored the warmth for a while, remaining exactly where she was.

Aldric didn’t seem to have woken up yet.

His body was pressed completely against Violet’s back, without even the slightest gap between them.

Because the bed was so narrow, he had apparently fallen asleep holding her from behind.

His body was practically like a human-shaped heater.

Warm and comfortable.

But what was this strange sensation that kept intruding through that gentle warmth?

The faint smile on Violet’s face disappeared as she slightly furrowed her brows.

Something had been bothering her for a while.

It was uncomfortable, almost as though something had gotten underneath the bedsheet.

It was enough of an odd sensation to ruin Violet’s pleasant mood.

Could Aldric really sleep with his sword on even in bed?

If that was the case, Violet wanted to get it out of the bed immediately.

There was no room for even the slightest discomfort in this soft, comfortable bed.

She reached a hand behind her, intending to find and remove whatever was making her uncomfortable.

Feeling around with her fingertips, she soon found it.

She had expected something cold and hard, but the object was wrapped in cloth.

What on earth is this…?

At that exact moment, Aldric suddenly shot upright.

Violet was startled out of her wits.

She hurriedly sat up as well, only to see Aldric’s face, which was strangely red.

It was an almost impossibly deep shade of red.

“What happened? You startled me. Did you suddenly remember that you forgot something?”

Their eyes met.

He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something.

But no sound came out.

Only a strange groan escaped.

For a moment, he simply opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air.

It took him a long while before he finally managed to speak.

“Your, your hand… your hand….”

“What? More importantly, are you sick somewhere? Do you have a fever? Your face is red. And why are you stammering so much? Are you cold? Oh no. You haven’t caught a cold, have you?”

“No, it’s not that.”

She saw him vigorously rub his face with his rough hands.

He looked utterly exhausted.

“Were you unable to sleep because you were uncomfortable because of me?”

“Yes.”

He answered as though blaming her, and Violet felt a little hurt.

He was the one who insisted on sleeping together until the very end, and now he’s complaining?

“Today, let’s go into town and buy a bigger bed right away. No. We should just buy another small bed altogether. I think it would be better if we slept separately after all.”

At those words, he abruptly lifted his head.

“Sleep separately? We can’t do that. H-husband and wife are supposed to sleep in the same bed.”

“But you said you couldn’t sleep comfortably because of me.”

“It’s not really because of you…. Well, it is because of you, but….”