‘That person needs to look in the mirror. How scary his eyes are.’

His thick, black eyebrows looked as if they were drawn with a very thick brush in one stroke, and his distinctly shaped eyes felt as fierce as a tiger’s.

Perhaps because he was working under the sun, sweat dripped down his smooth cheeks.

The tendons on his rolled-up forearms were taut, and his chest, exposed due to two undone buttons, was broad and firm.

‘What am I looking at right now?’

As I examined every aspect of his appearance, I blushed and lowered my head.

Clearly, it started with his fierce eyes, but as I looked at each feature one by one, his large muscles and objectively handsome features caught my eye.

‘Ugh, seriously.’

I let out a deep sigh.

‘…But he is good-looking.’

As I had that thought and slightly raised my head, Cedar’s gaze met mine with a snap.

I felt another hiccup coming, so I quickly covered my mouth with my palm.

Cedar sighed again and gestured with his chin.

“I’m not going to eat you, so you don’t have to be that scared.”

“I know. It’s illegal to eat people.”

“Is that the problem?”

Then what is the problem? If eating people isn’t illegal…

‘But I don’t think I’ll eat anyone. If I had to, I’d probably eat someone with more flesh first, right?’

As I was sneakily glancing at my forearms, Cedar clicked his tongue.

“You’re having weird thoughts again, aren’t you?”

‘How did he know?’

Startled that he read my thoughts, I hunched my shoulders. Cedar frowned and answered curtly.

“I can’t read thoughts. It’s just plainly visible on your face.”

“Is, is that so? I have no idea what you’re thinking, husband.”

“I’m thinking I’d like to get rid of that annoying way of addressing me.”

“Haha.”

I only let out an awkward laugh. Since I woke up, he has been constantly reading me, but he remains an enigmatic man to me.

‘Am I too dense when it comes to people, or is Cedar too sensitive?’

As if the break was over, he started swinging the pickaxe again.

As I was awkwardly scratching my cheek, he spoke abruptly without looking my way at all, as if it meant nothing.

“You said Hail came to see you earlier? Did you run into each other at the restaurant?”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

“What did you talk about?”

What did I talk about with Hail? We didn’t really talk about much.

Tilting my head, I shrugged my shoulders.

“I didn’t talk much with Sir Hail, but I had a lot of conversation with Sir Jack, who came with him. It was a very fruitful time.”

Since I couldn’t tell him everything we discussed, I just laid out the facts appropriately.

A useful conversation, that’s right. Because I heard the incredible news that he knows the clue to my mana depletion.

‘Plus, I saw an elf, a race I had only seen in literature, for the first time!’

In fact, shouldn’t that have taken priority?

Just a few fact checks could draw a huge line in the field of non-human species analysis.

“The next time we meet, a longer conversation…”

Bam!

At that moment, an enormous thud rang out. I blinked in surprise.

‘What was that sound?’

Cedar definitely struck the ground with the pickaxe, but it made a different sound than before.

‘It’s not just the sound! What I see is different too!’

Cold sweat dripped down. I clenched my hands tightly and cautiously asked Cedar.

“Um, isn’t the pickaxe stuck in the ground right now?”

The pickaxe, which was supposed to be lightly scratching the ground in an arc with just the tip, was completely stuck with only the wooden handle visible!

‘How strong is he? How do you make it do that by striking vertically?’

No matter how much I thought about it, the angle, the force, everything didn’t make sense.

Hearing my mumbling, Cedar straightened his waist and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Phew.”

He exhaled as if catching his breath, and his face looked refreshed.

As if he hadn’t heard what I said, he smiled brightly and even walked over.

“What did you say?”

“I think you should be a bit more gentle…”

“What?”

“No…”

“…”

“…”

Even though I’m not the most tactful person, I couldn’t help but notice that Cedar was in a bad mood.

Plus, is it my imagination? I think I see white smoke rising in front of me. From Cedar’s body!

‘That’s not smoke, it’s mana!’

The mana that usually rippled like a haze along the lines of Cedar’s body was now swirling around as if it had gone out of control.

It meant he was in a very, very bad mood.

But why?

What on earth did I say to make him so angry?

The only thing that comes to mind is that I broke the promise not to tell anyone that I had recovered from my comatose state.

‘Is it because I talked to Sir Jack? But I didn’t even call him.’

If you didn’t want my presence to be discovered, you shouldn’t have called that person to our house! In the first place, it was you, Cedar, who entrusted my examination to that person when you said I had a fever.

In the end, I only concluded that he wasn’t angry because I had a conversation with Jack.

‘Then why on earth?’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out the reason, so I made groaning noises.

After worrying for a long time, this was the only conclusion I could come up with.

‘Is he angry because he made a swordmaster do things like tilling the fields?’

Right, there was more possibility of this being the case.

He picked up the pickaxe with good intentions to help me, but as he swung it, he felt a sense of self-reproach.

When the body is tired, it’s only natural for a person’s emotions to change.

I awkwardly got up from my seat. If he disliked it that much, I was going to do the pickaxe work.

“Um, husband.”

Just give me that pickaxe and go inside. Your kindness is more than enough just by helping with the work this much today.

I couldn’t even say half of the words that came to my mind.

The moment I got up from my seat, icy cold silver-gray eyes glared at me sharply.

“I thought I told you to sit there and only open your mouth when I tell you to.”

“…Hi, hiccup!”

I quickly sat back down obediently. I was so startled that my body shook with hiccups.

Curling my back and covering my mouth with my palms, I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed a scream inside my body.

I really don’t understand! That person’s heart!

[This is the timeline separator]

It was only natural that Nelly couldn’t guess Cedar’s heart at all.

Because even Cedar himself couldn’t understand his own heart.

‘Why do I feel so bad?’

Still, since it was his own heart, Cedar felt the change in his mood a bit more clearly than Nelly.

In other words, the point where his mood rapidly deteriorated was when her lips familiarly contained Jack’s name.

‘I thought she only met Hail. Did Jack visit the mansion too?’

He seemed to know why he visited.

Nelly’s fever was so severe that Cedar, who had never been that sick before, didn’t even know what to do, so he eventually called Jack, the healer of the Blue Dragon Knights, to treat Nelly.

‘How absurd it was when he said it was overwork.’

Did he make her clean or cook?

Without taking a single step down from the 2nd floor except for mealtimes, it was an outrageous thing to say she was overworked.

Jack added with a quiet smile.

[Her body has become very weak. You need to pay special attention.]

He thought he was taking good care of her, being mindful of her meals and all!

Ordinary people with weak bodies really required a lot of care. Just moving the body a little bit made the person turn to mush and burn with fever like this.

Moreover, that was a very normal reaction.

[At times like these, wipe her forehead with a cool towel. The armpits and soles of the feet are good too. If the fever rises more than this, she’ll feel chills and coldness, so you need to cover her with a blanket.]

It was a completely unfamiliar experience for Cedar, who had never been sick in such a way before.

Jack was amazed at Cedar’s restlessness and readily told him how to care for the patient.

‘Since he’s a responsible guy, he must have come to check on Nelly today. It’s not strange.’

But why does it feel so unpleasant?

It felt like something hot was welling up from somewhere inside for no reason.

The reason he didn’t get angry despite the anger surging up was because he knew this anger was inappropriate even to himself.

Cedar stopped swinging the pickaxe for a moment and let out a deep sigh.

‘It must be that I’ve become too sensitive from living with an unfamiliar person for the first time in a long while.’

There was no other reason he could think of for having an abnormal emotional reaction.

He had left home early and lived alone for a very long time.

But suddenly trying to take care of a wife, he must have become sensitive from feeling an excessive sense of responsibility.

Cedar slowly soothed his own heart.

‘But everyone who visits this mansion is only those with a clear identity.

No matter how much responsibility I feel towards her, there’s no need to be this wary.’

Right at that moment, Nelly said with a beaming smile.

“The next time we meet, a longer conversation…”

Bam!

At that moment, an impossible sound rang out as the pickaxe dug into the ground with more force than necessary.

Naturally, this couldn’t happen with an ordinary pickaxe.

It happened because Cedar, a swordmaster, imbued the pickaxe with aura as he would a sword.

‘Ah, seriously.’

To Nelly, Cedar’s expression may have looked very calm, but right now, Cedar’s heart was a complete mess as if a storm had landed.

Aura in a pickaxe.

As the youngest swordmaster who was accustomed to handling mana that gushed out from his heart like breathing, he imbued the tool he was holding with aura without even being threatened?

Something that should never happen was happening.