Spring in My Grasp - Chapter 7

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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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(7) A Good Broth for a Hangover!

I’d seen plenty of drunken fools spouting nonsense during my part-time work days. The best approach was simply to avoid getting entangled with them.
Rowan rose without hesitation, brushed off her clothes, and retreated to her own Bed. Alexis remained crouched on the floor, his head drooping against his legs, continuing to mutter incoherently.
“I’m sorry….”
Whatever he was apologizing for, it would be my problem tomorrow. Rowan pulled the blanket over her head and drifted back to sleep. Lately, I’d been gradually expanding the Vegetable Garden and experimenting with new seeds.
Half of the seeds I’d planted hadn’t germinated, so tomorrow I planned to try different ones. On top of that, I needed to make tomato sauce with the ones I’d bought today.
‘Tomorrow will be a busy day, so I should get some rest.’
And so Rowan fell asleep without a second thought to whether Alexis was there or not.
***
Alexis’s consciousness returned as the morning sun blazed brilliantly across the sky.
“No matter how warm the Kingdom is, you can’t keep sleeping on the floor, can you?”
Alexis, who had fallen asleep in that hunched posture, suddenly jerked his head up at the sharp, cutting voice that struck his ears.
‘Where am I….’
Had I gotten drunk again and wandered to the East Annex without realizing it?
The familiar floor, the room’s scenery—Alexis quickly recognized where he was.
‘Again.’
Once or twice a year, whenever he lost control to alcohol, he would inevitably find himself in this Room of the East Annex. But this time, something was different.
“I can’t forgive you for barging into someone else’s Room without permission, but-”
When he lifted his head and turned his eyes toward the source of the voice, there stood a woman with her hair tied back tightly. Rowan, her golden-brown hair casually bound in a ponytail, regarded Alexis with a cold stare.
“Still, it doesn’t seem like you did it on purpose, so I won’t hold it against you.”
Alexis looked up at Rowan with a bewildered expression. Rowan clicked her tongue softly. Such a beautiful woman with that vacant look—it made her all the more endearing.
‘I never knew I was so susceptible to appearances.’
But when a man with such an otherworldly, mysterious beauty—the kind you’d never see in comic books—was suddenly thrown before her without any sense of caution, it was only natural that he appeared desirable. Rowan felt her resolve weakening.
“Since you couldn’t have slept properly last night, I’ll allow you to rest on the Bed for a bit. Once you’ve come to your senses, go back to your Room.”
“….”
“To the Main Residence.”
Whether he returned to the Main Residence or not was his concern.
Rowan quickly turned away, trying to steady her heart against the allure of his beauty, and left the Room. When the door closed with a bang, Alexis finally came to his senses.
‘Right.’
He finally grasped that this was the East Annex, and that this was where his nominal wife had been cast out to. He’d heard that she’d been expelled from the Glister Main Residence, but afterward, he’d carelessly forgotten about it entirely.
‘I see.’
He slowly rose and looked around the Room.
‘What is this?’
And only then did he realize that this Room had changed considerably from before. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, but the atmosphere of the Room was distinctly different from how it used to be.
‘I can’t quite remember….’
Had the Room always felt like this?
Alexis stared blankly at the elongated lizard-shaped cushion resting on the bed. It bore the unmistakable traces of Rowan having cradled it through the night.
He turned his head toward the brilliant sunlight streaming through the window, piercing the heavy curtains. Rowan, who desired to wake bathed in morning light, had deliberately removed the oppressive, drab drapes and replaced them with light, cheerful daisy-patterned curtains that now adorned the window.
‘It feels as though I’ve entered an entirely different room.’
A peculiar sensation washed over me. Yet the furniture and bed placement hadn’t shifted significantly. In this very spot, on this very bed, my aunt Ureia had been dying. There was no specific illness. What was killing her was the despair she harbored within.
“….”
I turned my gaze back to the lizard figurine rolling across the bed, feeling utterly deflated. My aunt Ureia’s age at that time likely differed little from my wife’s current age.
-Once you’ve regained your senses, return to your own room.
That cold-mannered stranger who had spoken those sharp words to me. She is my wife.
‘What was her name again? Ro….’
No matter how hard I tried to recall, I couldn’t properly remember even her name. All that remained was that she was the daughter of Marquis Hartwood.
Alexis, still dazed, slowly left the room.
‘Has the alcohol not fully worn off yet?’
My head throbbed. With a clouded mind, I descended to the First Floor. As I made my way down the stairs, a cheerful voice rang out from below.
“What time did you wake up, Lea!”
Bright laughter echoed through the air.
Laughter? I doubted my own ears. Laughter in the East Annex?
“When did you wake up and make such delicious soup? The meat is so tender—it must have taken hours to cook properly.”
“I fell asleep earlier than you did yesterday, so I woke up early and was hungry. That’s why I made this pork soup this morning.”
“So you made this delicious pork soup from scratch this morning? Be honest with me. What did you put in it?”
“That’s my special recipe. I can’t tell you even if you’re Rowan.”
“Wow, how mean. I tell you everything!”
“I think I can figure out Rowan’s cooking without you telling me.”
The sound of cheerful chatter. I moved toward the source of their voices. A small simple dining table was positioned near the kitchen, where Rowan and Lea were eating while engaged in lively conversation.
“Ah…oh!”
Lea, who had been happily conversing while eating, was startled upon seeing me. She jumped up from her seat in alarm, unsure what to do.
“Shouldn’t you be resting more?”
Rowan was equally flustered. Unlike Lea, she didn’t bolt from her seat, but she too stopped eating and turned to face me.
“I….”
I was equally bewildered. I had descended here as though drawn by something, yet I couldn’t say precisely why. Eventually, seeing me standing there with a stern expression, my lips pressed firmly shut, Rowan rose without complaint.
“We have an extra chair, so please sit. You seem to have drunk quite a lot yesterday, so having something to eat should help settle your stomach.”
“I’ve just finished eating….”
Lea hurriedly cleared her bowl. Rowan seemed about to say something but closed her mouth instead, then retrieved another bowl from the kitchen cupboard. She ladled soup from the pot and offered it to me.
The soup emanated a savory aroma. Yet I had never tasted such an exceptionally mild dish before.
“At least have some broth. Eating something will ease your discomfort.”
Broth is the cure for a hangover.
As Rowan continued to urge me, I reluctantly picked up a spoon. As I reached for the soup, I paused and turned back to look at Rowan. She had prepared my meal and was now seated across from me to finish her own.
“You’re eating here?”
I asked bluntly, barely concealing my surprise. Rowan nodded as though it were nothing unusual.
“There’s a separate dining room.”
Even if this annex was called Glister’s Hideaway, it was still officially the Annex of the Count Glister’s Household. That meant it possessed all the necessary formalities and decorum. So why were they living with a small dining table set in the middle of the kitchen?
“Ah, enough of that.”
Rowan waved her hand dismissively, as if to silence further protest.
“What’s the point of dining in that cavernous Dining Room when there are only two of us?”
“But that place is—”
“Besides, cooking in the Kitchen and carrying everything all the way there is work, and cleaning up afterward is more work. It’s far simpler and more pleasant to cook in the Kitchen and eat here at this table. We’re only two people anyway.”
Alexis’s expression grew more bewildered at Rowan’s reasoning.
“But that isn’t your responsibility, is it?”
Rowan’s eyes blinked at his words.
“You’re right.”
She replied as though she’d realized something, yet her voice remained calm and measured.
“It’s Lea’s work.”
“Then why—”
Why would you, a noblewoman, forgo dining with proper decorum in that grand hall and instead sit across from the Maid here, eating as equals?
Alexis refrained from voicing the rest, waiting for Rowan to continue.
“What good would it do me to burden Lea when we’re only two people living in this Annex together?”
Rowan said.
“As I mentioned, it’s just the two of us here. This East Annex is difficult enough to maintain and clean with only two people. So we deliberately keep the doors closed to unused rooms and leave them untouched. We only manage our own rooms, the Kitchen, and the Living Room—it’s far more practical that way.”
A smile graced Rowan’s face as she spoke.

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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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