THNW 08

To My Husband’s New Wife Chapter : 08

How much time had passed?

After covering the sleeping Lancelot’s shoulders with a blanket, Anita quietly left the bedroom.
“Haa.”
Her forehead and palms were soaked through with cold sweat, as if she had been tense for so long.

She turned her body with weary steps.

Lancelot seemed to be falling more and more gravely ill as the days went by.

The amount of painkillers he swallowed was gradually increasing, but it didn’t seem to have any particular effect.

Claudnia said that doctors from all over the continent had examined Lancelot, yet they couldn’t identify a proper name for his illness.

Anita couldn’t accept that.

How can there be an illness in the world that doctors can’t diagnose?

Then Lancelot?

Does he have to be sick like this forever?

As if he might die?

That’s too pitiful.

If only I could share even a little of Lancelot’s pain.

Even just a little… I could endure it.
‘But what were those eyes?’
The light that had flickered in Lancelot’s eyes.

That golden gleam that hadn’t been human.

As she replayed the memory, goosebumps rose along her back.

If it hadn’t been Lancelot, she surely would have run away.
‘Still….’
It was fortunate that Lancelot had fallen asleep.

Truly, it was fortunate.
***
Lancelot seemed to have completely forgotten what happened last night.

Having regained a vitality so lively she could hardly recognize him, he now wandered about outside his bedroom as if nothing were wrong.
“What are you looking at?

Do your own work.”
It was the first time his unchanged unkind tone had felt so welcome.

Anita did not tell Claudnia or Lancelot about the wound she’d gotten that day.

She judged it would be better to forget such a painful memory for the rest of her life.

Instead, she told the Duke of Edenbahir about what happened that evening.

The Duke of Edenbahir did not take Anita’s story lightly.

Rather, he listened with eyes more serious than ever.
“At that time, were you by Lancelot’s side?”
“Yes.”
As he said that, the Duke of Edenbahir’s eyes were deeply complicated.

Lips that looked just like Lancelot’s opened and closed several times as if to say something.

But in the end, maintaining his silence, he quietly stroked Anita’s hair.
“Thank you, Anita.”
Perhaps because it was praise she hadn’t expected, her head dipped in embarrassment.
“Do not tell anyone about today.

Especially, you must never tell the Dowager Duchess.”
“She doesn’t even want to speak with me.

So even if I wanted to tell her, I can’t.”
After a long silence, the Duke of Edenbahir slowly bent one knee before Anita.

Then, meeting her gaze far lower than his, he asked,
“Anita.

Do you know this?”
The Duke of Edenbahir’s eyes were kind and warm beyond comparison with Lancelot’s.
“When the beginning of winter comes, the ducal residence’s servants grow bustling.

They seem delighted as they worry over what kind of cake to make you, and what kind of bedding to prepare for you.”
“Cake?”
“Sweet cake is prepared every day, isn’t it?

But in Edenbahir, no one likes sweet food.

It’s a sight you can hardly see unless it’s winter.

It’s made only for you.”
“I….”
I d-didn’t know.

Had he heard her small whisper?

A gentle smile was drawn on the Duke of Edenbahir’s face.
“More people like you than you think.”
So, do not waste your kindness on rude people.

It was comfort from an adult she had never heard before.

It wasn’t even an extraordinary thing.

But the Duke of Edenbahir’s words gifted Anita splendid magic.

The Dowager Duchess’s hateful gaze was no longer so sharp, and the words and sentences that mocked her no longer hurt.

Don’t waste my kindness on rude people.

E-except Lancelot.

Lancelot is just… a little more sensitive than other people, that’s all.
‘His Grace is right.’
When time isn’t enough even to repay the people who like you.

You can’t spend it being depressed alone.
‘In that time, I can play more fun with Claudnia, and also… now that I know Lancelot is sicker than I thought.’
Now that she knew that just hearing sounds and smelling scents was torment for him.

I should try harder.
“Hello, Lancelot.

Good morning.”
Greet him more.
“Lancelot.

W-what book are you reading?”
Speak to him more.
“Lancelot!

Look at these wild raspberries Claudnia found.

They’re so red!”
“Because you’re noisy, shut your mouth and get out.”
“I’ll leave after I look at this.”
Even if she was scolded for being noisy, try harder.
“Nice to see you, Lancelot.

O-oh, please take care of me again this winter.”
More, more.
“Hello, Lancelot.

Good morning.

Did you see the snow that fell all through dawn?”
Try.
“Yeah.”
Had he recognized Anita’s effort?
‘…Did I hear wrong?’
The words and actions that had been nothing but chilly like midwinter’s frozen ice began, little by little, to melt.
“Hello, Lancelot.

It’s been a while!

How have you been?

You’ve grown a lot taller.”
Their reunion every late winter, now familiar.

In the view that was noticeably rising day by day, Lancelot’s stiff voice fell against Anita’s ear like a spring flower breeze.
“You didn’t grow.”
That day, she was so happy her heart dropped all the way to her feet.
‘He answered my greeting!’
Claudnia, Lancelot answered me!

He reacted to my trivial greeting!

Squeezing her eyes shut in joy as she hugged her, Claudnia burst into laughter and patted her back.
“This is hilarious.

I think he’s become a person.”
Her conversations with him increased.

The habit of his brow furrowing whenever he spoke also diminished noticeably.

No matter what she asked, he tried to answer at least briefly, and he didn’t snap.

Claudnia’s assessment of Lancelot’s surprising change was concise.
“It’s because you’re kind.”
Claudnia, friend and older sister and younger sister all at once, whispered with a teasing smile.
“You’re so kind that even a devil like Lancelot doesn’t have the energy to be mean anymore.”
It seems it was around that same time that the feelings she had when looking at Lancelot.

The feelings when she met his eyes and heard his voice, became different from the feelings she had with Claudnia.

How many seasons passed like that?
“Anitaaa!

What do I do!

I’m studying abroad in De Rolland!”
Claudnia was leaving to study abroad in a kingdom across the sea.
“Grandmother says no matter how pretty you are, if you’re so ignorant you can’t even communicate, you’re useless!”
“That means if even your maternal grandmother says it, the person isn’t at a human level.”
“Shut up, Lancelot! …But where is De Rolland?

Is it a country name?

Or a school name?”
It was a farewell that would last a full three years.

Holding Anita and crying out all her tears and snot, she left for the Kingdom of De Rolland with both eyes swollen.

That year, Anita thought she wouldn’t be able to come to Edenbahir anymore.

With Claudnia gone, didn’t she have no more reason to visit?

But Lancelot.
“See you next year.”
For the first time, stroking Anita’s head, he promised a reunion on a winter day the next year.

Tears pricked at her.

Because she was grateful he said they would meet again.

Because the hand that took hold of her slightly, with that blunt face, was so, so, so wonderful.

Ah, right.
‘I like him.’
Anita liked Lancelot so much.

Not just the warmth that rose in her cheeks when she saw him, but even the thundering of her heart that shook at all times.

Every sensation and emotion Lancelot’s existence gave her was precious beyond measure.