MHHASCD 36

Each time the man took a step closer, I stepped back.

Something instinctive warned me that he must not be allowed to approach.

“Sheila, I wanted to see you.”

The cloyingly sweet tone in his voice made me so nauseous I nearly gagged.

“…And who might you be?”

“It’s Leon. Your husband.”

The predictions I most wish to be wrong are always the ones that come true.

The ghostlike man—Leon—curled his lips into a thin smile as he spoke his nonsense.

“I don’t have a husband.”

“Not yet, you don’t.”

A shiver ran through my skin. It’s true that I don’t yet—but it’s already decided. There is no universe in which this man will be my husband, and the thought alone is repulsive.

“And you… what happened to your lovely wife and child?”

“My wife and child? Don’t say strange things. My wife is you, Sheila, and I don’t have any children yet.”

“Chiara and little Lilia, in Marseize. Have you forgotten them?”

In Marseize, he had looked at his beloved child with such gentle eyes.

The way he now acted as if they had never existed sent a chill down my spine.

“Sheila, I’m sorry. I know seeing that hurt you. Those two were just a small mistake. A bit of playing family.

I wanted a child too. But you couldn’t have one, and I thought it could be a sort of rehearsal.”

A deep crease formed between my brows before I could stop myself.

I had begged him again and again to refrain from long expeditions so we could have a child.

He was the one who ignored me.

“How dare you say you wanted a child?

You ignored my feelings over and over again.

What is this now? Go home. Don’t ever come here again.”

Anger surging, I turned on my heel and moved away from Leon.

I never wanted to see him again.

“Wait. Wait, Sheila.”

“Let go!”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him. The moment I was caught in his grasp, the disgust overflowed.

I shoved him away desperately and put distance between us, but Leon reached out again.

“Just listen to me.”

“What could you possibly have to say now?”

“I’ve… I’ve wanted to see you this whole time. I was suffering, wanting to see you.”

Leon’s face twisted in anguish.

“I can’t sleep without you. I can’t get going if I don’t eat your cooking. Going home to a house without you is empty.”

That’s a lie, I thought.

“Please. Come back to me. We’ll have a child. I won’t go on expeditions anymore. Actually, I quit the knight order. Let’s be adventurers together.”

I slapped his hand away when he tried to grab me again.

“I already live here. I won’t have a child with you, and I won’t be an adventurer. I will never support you again, ever.”

“Sheila!”

This time, I truly pulled away from Leon.

Yet no matter how many times I tried to leave, he clung to me, relentless and unwanted.

“Let go.”

He yanked me with brute force, fear locking my legs in place.

Thank goodness Ralph wasn’t here. The thought that Leon might have taken him made my blood run cold.

“There’s someone important to me now. Someone who cares about me. Someone who always reaches out when I’m hurting.”

“Who is it!?”

“Someone who definitely isn’t you.”

The look of hurt on his face stirred nothing in me.

Leon was the one who threw it all away.

He was the one who chose the mother and child in Marseize over me.

“Don’t interfere with my life anymore. Disappear.”

I will be happy in my own way. I have no time to waste on Leon.

Just as I turned to leave for good, a weak tug caught at the hem of my clothes.

“Please… come back… I can’t even breathe without you. I’ve been suffocating this whole time.”

The more he clung to me, the more even the last scraps of pity were stripped away.

From the start, all he’s done is talk about himself, without the slightest regard for my feelings.

“If you can breathe enough to live without me all this time after the divorce, then clearly you can breathe just fine.”

“…”

“You don’t love me. At best… you’re just relying on excuses like your sword belt wearing out, or the buffs in my cooking, aren’t you?”

“That’s not true! I love you, Sheila!”

A dry laugh bubbled up.

Before his illegitimate child came to light, I would have felt joy at being depended on like this.

But that’s no longer enough.

Because I now know a love that always puts me and Ralph first—single-minded, devoted, overwhelming, and wonderfully heavy.

“So who do you really love?

The mother and child in Marseize?

Or… yourself, drunk on praise and admiration?”

Leon’s eyes widened.

“It’s certainly not me.”

“Sheila!”

Seeing no end to this, I used the teleportation magic I had only recently learned.

All the practice I’d done since giving birth paid off, and I arrived home in an instant.

“This is—”

A voice that should not have been there made me gasp.

Somehow, Leon had come with me.

“Why are you here!?”

“I was holding onto you, and got brought along.”

A violent shiver ran through me. I was simply afraid.

In that moment—

The shrill alarm I had heard once before rang out.

It was the same alarm magic Asti had set, still sounding like a chicken being slaughtered.

At the same time, Leon dropped to his knees. He seemed unable to put any strength into his body.

“Gh… what… is this… I can’t… move…”

I could only stare at Leon, unable to comprehend what was happening.

“Sheila!”

Asti returned home via teleportation magic. The sight of him made me feel profoundly relieved.

“You… bastard…”

Leon glared at Asti.

Asti pulled me close, shielding me.

“This is unlawful entry. You were not permitted to enter this house!”

As Asti shouted, the alarm grew even louder.

I covered my ears, but it showed no sign of stopping.

“Ugh… gh…”

Leon somehow managed to stand, only to be blown away by an invisible force.

“Huh?”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what had happened.

Then the front door opened, and as if the house itself were spitting him out, Leon was flung outside and dumped onto the ground.

“This is…”

“My mother’s done quite a bit to this house.”

That reminded me of something Delilah once told me.

If the house doesn’t like you, it will drain your magic.

Perhaps that was what was happening to Leon.

“Waaah!?”

A scream came from outside, and I rushed to the window.

In the fields—the area where the spirits danced—Leon seemed to be under attack by something.

“Don’t interfere with the spirits’ dance!!”

“Ow!?”

The flickering shapes flying around Leon drove him farther and farther away from the house.

“Those are… spirits?”

“They are. He won’t be coming back.”

The anticlimactic ending left me utterly exhausted.

This time, the house and the spirits had saved me—but the fact that Leon had found me at all became a new source of unease.