WFMW 6

Chapter 6 

I Don’t Especially Want to Be a Wife

2024.03.06

“Absolutely not.”

“…Absolutely?”

Nellie straightened her back and spoke in a firm, confident tone.

“Absolutely, never, not even by the remotest chance. I don’t have the slightest desire to become your wife.”

“…”

Was there really any need to deny it so decisively?

Feeling stung in his pride, Cedar leaned back hard against his chair with a thud and asked in a disgruntled tone:

“Aha, I see. So if you don’t have the slightest feeling, why ask me to maintain this marriage?”

“If I’m still married to you, Diana won’t try to kill me.”

“You knew your sister was trying to kill you?”

“Of course. That’s why I deliberately fell into a suspended state in the first place.”

So she’s not as naïve as she looks?

Cedar tilted his head. Nellie continued clearly and evenly.

“As long as I’m married, even if I die, my inheritance goes to you. Then she wouldn’t have any reason to kill me, would she?”

“And what if I’m after your inheritance too?”

“Do you need it? I can give it to you. But really, if we stay married, it becomes shared property anyway. Is there a need for you to covet it?”

To Cedar’s probing words, she responded as if she’d happily hand over everything she owned.

“Didn’t you say you had money rotting away? If so, then yes, that’s what I mean. I wish you’d start remembering what I say.”

“I do remember. My memory’s quite good. It’s just that in this case, trust doesn’t really exist.”

“You’re awfully quick with that tongue.”

Cedar felt an extreme weariness from this conversation. The problem was her answers—unexpected, bouncing in unpredictable directions.

Diana’s greed had been far too transparent, but Nellie’s inner thoughts were impossible to read.

In a flat tone, Cedar asked:

“You don’t seem particularly attached to your inheritance. Why not just give it to your sister instead of hiding behind me?”

“I don’t want to.”

For the first time, Nellie’s expression hardened as she spoke each word distinctly.

“If she hadn’t tried to kill me, I might have handed it over. But Diana already killed me once. That was the end of my relationship with her.”

“Killed you?” The words sounded odd, but Cedar let them pass. After all, no one who had truly died could come back.

“You don’t seem as gullible as I heard.”

“Gullible?”

Why suddenly bring that up? Nellie tilted her head. Cedar just shrugged.

“I have no particular intention of keeping this marriage. If you want me to, you’ll have to offer me better terms.”

He pressed his fingers against his eyes.

Seeing his disinterested look, for the first time Nellie’s expression showed a trace of anxiety. Her fingers fidgeted, and her face puckered.

“I can’t think of a good proposal to convince you. Then… does that mean I can’t stay married anymore?”

Her wavering expression only piqued Cedar’s interest again.

Like a drowsy cat, he answered languidly:

“Don’t give up. Think harder.”

“Then at least give me a hint.”

“I’m not interested in your inheritance. So—what do you think Diana Ferieway offered as payment for this contract marriage?”

Nellie quickly found the answer.

“Did you… perhaps need a wife?”

“Correct.”

“Wow!”

Nellie clapped like a child at his reply.

She couldn’t help being a little simple—after all, she’d spent nearly half her life cooped up at the academy.

“Then I’ll become a wonderful wife!”

Resting his chin on his hand, Cedar asked indifferently:

“And what exactly is a wonderful wife?”

“A wife who pleases her husband?”

“My favorite kind of wife is one who stays in a suspended state.”

At his answer, Nellie flinched.

Her green eyes rolled anxiously. After a brief pause, she asked cautiously:

“…Then couldn’t you just pretend I never woke up? You’re not going to force me into unconsciousness or half-death, are you?”

Her ridiculous response made Cedar burst into laughter before he realized it.

This woman… she’s entertaining.

The displeasure and frustration he had felt when she woke up, ruining his plans, had vanished completely.

Though I’d woken from a long sleep, I felt no sense that time had passed.

Of course. A suspended state from mana exhaustion was no different from time stopping altogether.

So Grisha’s research proved right after all.

Just to test it, I wiggled my fingers and toes.

Only the layers of mana built up inside me gave me a vague idea of how many years had gone by.

Yes—three years. A long time, if you thought about it.

Had Grisha managed to gain recognition as a mage at the academy? Three years should be enough to become a proper magician.

This isn’t my home, so I don’t have the communication orb Grisha gave me.

I wanted to contact him.

I guess I’ll have to write a letter instead.

In the end, only the old-fashioned way remained. I quietly imagined the letter I would send him.

*Hello, Grisha. Long time no see.

Thanks to you, I woke from my suspended state at the perfect time—right before my inheritance was about to be claimed.

You ask what I’ll do since there’s still some time left? Don’t worry. Amazingly enough, I ended up with a husband.*

…Grisha might faint if he read that.

A husband. Even when I first heard it upon waking, it sounded like nonsense. Even after sleeping again and hearing it anew, it still didn’t feel real.

Me, married? Already for nearly a full year?

That morning, after dutifully touring the estate, I found myself staring blankly at the man who had come to eat breakfast with me.

His bold, well-defined features, sun-darkened skin, slightly tousled black hair and silver-gray eyes…

He straightened his broad shoulders—broad enough that I could probably sit on them—and looked back at me.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

That was my husband, chosen by Diana. I bit my lip.

I thought he had an unusual aura, but who would have guessed—Cedar Grenit.

He was famous enough that even I, long cloistered in the academy, knew his name.

The Grenit ducal family was a long-standing noble house, said to be descended from a dragon.

Perhaps because of that, the family had produced an unusual number of mages and magic swordsmen.

But even among them, Cedar Grenit was exceptional.

He was one of only three Swordmasters in the entire empire. Just as not every mage becomes an archmage, not every magic swordsman becomes a Swordmaster.

When he achieved Swordmaster, the academy was in an uproar.

I frowned at the memory. I’d never seen the professors unite like that, regardless of field.

[He became a Swordmaster before even reaching adulthood!]

[We must analyze the mana circuits of his body! He must be different from ordinary people.]

[Even if he’s a swordsman, surely we can learn from his mana control!]

[It’s the Dragon Heart! His ancestor was a dragon—there must be a secret in his heart!]

[You, in magical creature studies—don’t tell me you’re suggesting we dissect the young lord’s heart?!]

I somehow survived among those madmen.

Lost in memory, I forgot to answer Cedar’s question. His sharp gaze turned on me.

“If you’ve got something to say, then say it. I hate hesitation.”

I wasn’t hesitating, though.

But I couldn’t exactly say I was remembering professors clamoring to dissect him. So I made up an excuse.

“I was just looking around the estate. It’s very different from the academy.”

At the moment, he was showing me around the house.

A small two-story building with a modest garden—that was the home Cedar Grenit and I shared.

‘Modest’ is putting it kindly. Even the Ferieway estate had a larger garden.

My eyes wandered past the small garden to the plain building itself.

It looked utterly devoid of aesthetic consideration.

At least the interior has been arranged neatly.

Inside, things were tidy enough.

But what really stood out was that, from the garden to the entrance, I hadn’t seen a single other person.

Crossing the too-small garden and stepping back through the front door, I spoke to Cedar.

“Aren’t you about to become the next Duke Grenit? But you live in such a secluded place.”

His reply came a beat late.

“…I dislike being around too many presences.”

I nodded obediently.

As expected, a Swordmaster must be sensitive to auras.

It was probably similar to my sensitivity to mana.

“This is the perfect environment for me to stay in a suspended state, then.”

“You do talk well.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

At my breezy reply, Cedar frowned. He had intended it as sarcasm, but I brushed it off too easily.

Even now, I could sense the distortion of the air around him.

The immense mana within his body was unmistakable.

Now I see why the professors were convinced he had a Dragon Heart. No ordinary human could contain that much mana.

But wasn’t he far too irritable to be descended from a dragon?

Or maybe it’s just the temperament of a Swordmaster?

Why did every word from him sound so combative?

Maybe that was simply the Swordmaster’s way.

Even as we stepped back inside and passed through the parlor, not a single servant appeared. I asked him:

“Um, then which room will I be using?”

Cedar frowned again. By now, it seemed like frowning was his default expression.

“The one from earlier—that’s your room.”