Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband - Chapter 102

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 102

Ten days since we received that news at the Imperial Palace and returned.
Thanks to Kailas moving swiftly, we’ve been stockpiling Holy Water and Purification Stones from the Northern Region as I requested, and the Central Temple has dispatched ten priests here.
As a result, the Contaminated Land in the Northern Region has been purified faster than other regions.
And across the nation, the number of Purification Stones coming from the Temple has been decreasing.
The Temple has clamped down on supply quantities.
There was a high likelihood it would freeze completely within a month.
It was time to ask Annie how much she’d accumulated.
I needed to check the market rate, and since a year’s time was locked up, it seemed I might need to withdraw and use it if necessary.
Amid all this, another problem arose.
Even after returning to the Northern Region, I was being treated like an invalid. Apparently I’d slept for four days—understandably worrying, but…
“Kailas.”
“Hmm?”
“Why don’t you just carry me around everywhere?”
Kailas’s overprotectiveness had crossed all reasonable bounds.
“Should I?”
“Aren’t you busy? Isn’t this exhausting you? I’m completely fine now, all the fatigue’s gone!”
Especially after that day, when things were already awkward, he clung like glue and wouldn’t let go.
Because he kept such strict time, I finished every last bit of the Fatigue Recovery Medicine that Lily had prepared. And still!
Today too, only after reassuring him several times did he finally get up from his seat.
“I’ll be back early.”
“Coming back late is fine.”
……
“No, really—I’m not doing anything. I’ll just stay home quietly and eat. Go take care of your work.”
Reluctantly, he left the room.
“Ugh, seriously.”
What was I thinking?
I pressed my head, feeling the weight of it.
I’d told Kailas the fatigue had vanished seeing how worried he was, but truthfully, ever since opening my eyes, my head had felt peculiarly heavy.
My thoughts seemed sluggish, as if wrapped in fog, and irritability crept in without warning.
The slightest inattention and I’d snap at Kailas.
He accepted it without complaint, but I couldn’t keep doing that.
That’s why I’d forced him out more firmly.
Given my current state, Kailas—who carried frequent migraines—seemed remarkable for enduring it.
Anyway, they’d said the water I drank had no problems whatsoever, but what was that iron taste I’d noticed that day?
Like when you accidentally bite your lip, the unpleasant copper flavor—a hundred times stronger.
“I must have really been exhausted.”
After that, I rested a few more days.
Fortunately, whether from the meticulous care or his overindulgent nursing, the headache and heaviness lingering like fog in my mind disappeared.
My irritability lessened, and my condition returned to normal.
Whether Kailas thought the same, he too became much more relaxed, and his surveillance-like protection began to ease.
“My lady.”
“Oh, is he still out?”
“Yes, it looks like he’ll be late again today.”
The number of Monsters, however, had increased exponentially, leaving Kailas frantic with work.
He’d promised to return by evening today, but past six o’clock, there was still no word.
I’d told him to make sure to eat dinner early, as if knowing it would come to this.
Having resolved to go into battle myself, I was repeatedly refused because of my collapse.
Though I know Kailas makes short work even of Cult Members, the Monsters in the Northern Region aren’t merely simple animal-forms.
With every conceivable type of Monster that an ordinary person might never see in their lifetime, I felt all the more that I was needed.
If I could just hold the line until Lily shone on the Battleground as written in the original, and until the land remained unpolluted until she came to be revered as a saint by future generations, we could reduce the casualties greatly.
But that was something to discuss only after Kailas returned.
It seemed he would be quite late.

* * *

“…….”
I woke to find the space beside me empty.
I’d nearly given up on sleeping separately by now, so he was usually there when I opened my eyes each morning.
“Surely he’s not working at this hour?”
I knew that because he had so much to handle outside, he only attended to Duke’s Castle matters after he returned.
I tried not to worry and settled back into sleep, but it wouldn’t come.
“Sigh.”
His candid confession at the banquet had already left me restless enough.
In the end, I didn’t fall back asleep. I wrapped my shawl around me and left the bedroom.
I went straight to his office, but it was empty.
“Where on earth could he have gone at this hour…….”
His words about how the Greenhouse was worth seeing even at night suddenly came to mind, and I turned my steps in that direction.
Whether it was intuition or coincidence, I glimpsed Kailas through the transparent walls of the Greenhouse.
He was sitting on the sofa, leaning back with his head tilted, his arm draped across his eyes as he rested.
“…….”
It bothered me. Really.
I bit my lip, weighing what to do, and finally I opened the Greenhouse door.
I thought I’d been quiet about it, but before I’d taken more than a few steps, he sensed me and sat up.
“Hazel.”
“Why aren’t you asleep? What are you doing out here?”
“I was just heading back inside. Why are you awake? Did you have—”
“It’s not a nightmare. I just came out because I was thirsty and thought I’d stop by.”
“You’ll catch a cold doing this.”
“Temperature-wise, it’s practically summer.”
I moved closer to Kailas.
I gently pressed down on his shoulder as he tried to stand, and placed my palm against his forehead.
Kailas’s eyes widened briefly, then slowly closed in peaceful calm.
“…….”
I knew that when his headaches grew particularly severe, my cold hand was the only thing that helped.
I’d also noticed lately that he frowns when I’m not around.
I’d meant to talk things through with Kailas, but this didn’t seem like the right moment.
We’d only end up fighting, and I was tired of that now, so I’d decided to find the most peaceful way forward.
…I’ll tell him tomorrow, anyway.
I kept my hand on his forehead like that, waiting for him to open his eyes again.

* * *

From the next day onward, I began trying to persuade Kailas.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but Kailas seemed to wear the word “no” like armor.
The man was a living iron wall.
A full week had slipped by since I’d begun my attempts at persuasion.
Convincing him through calm conversation without a single fight proved to be genuinely difficult work.
Kailas had apparently decided this wasn’t going to work, and now he kept producing hobbies to distract me.
He tried to convince me that embroidery was such fun—dangling a toy before an infant—and I realized this approach wouldn’t do.
Monsters were appearing almost daily now.
To make matters worse, snow had begun falling frequently, stretching out combat operations longer and longer.
Crystalline Monsters hard as snowmen were troublesome enough to deal with, but when combined with heavy snow, the knights faced brutally exhausting battles.
When I was deployed to suppress Monsters in the Northern Region, I’d prayed never to encounter such things.
Though I brought these matters up in my persuasion attempts, I was rejected several times, and today I found myself waiting once again for him to arrive.
“Kailas!”
As he returned from his outing, I checked his face and hurried over.
Fortunately, his work had gone smoothly—he was back before the sun set.
The moment Kailas saw me, a slight smile crossed his face.
“No.”
Ah, I feel like I’ve been through this before.
I’d decided to help, made up my mind to do so earnestly, but he won’t support me.
“Everyone else is desperate for your help, but why do you always refuse me?”
“Because it’s dangerous. Why insist on suffering?”
“What’s the point of having power if you’re just going to waste it? Might as well let it rot.”
“It won’t rot, so keep accumulating it.”
“What if I stay right beside you?”
Kailas stopped walking.
He stood there for a long moment, as if wrestling with himself, then resumed his stride.
“…No.”
I seized the opportunity to slip behind him and clung to his back.
Kailas went rigid.
“Then what about like this? It’s not as though I’d need to exert myself unnecessarily anyway. Well?”
After holding himself stiff for a time, Kailas finally spoke.
“…I said no.”
“I’ve already explained everything about why I need to leave. Don’t just keep saying it’s impossible—think about it properly. Or at least let me ask the knights for their opinion.”
…….
I kept my arms firmly around his waist from behind, tilting only my head forward.
“Look, you keep saying no to everything. How am I supposed to focus on embroidery with you like this? Just consider it, would you?”
…….
Kailas reached back and seized my hand, then turned around and suddenly pressed his face against mine.
Finding myself puckered like a fish with no warning, I frowned sharply.
“…What are you doing.”
Kailas exhaled a long breath.
“Promise me you won’t leave my side.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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