Woke Up And I'm A Married Woman - Chapter 36

Cedar was still shouting loudly.

“I’ve planted all the seedlings you bought in the garden, so don’t worry about it! So don’t even think about coming out of the room!”

“Hic!”

I tried to answer that I understood, but only hiccups came out of my mouth.

At my ridiculous response, Cedar’s eyes finally softened.

“Get some rest. I’m worried.”

He returned to his usual gruff yet affectionate self.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“And!”

“Hic?!”

Again?

At this point, isn’t his goal to surprise me?

Earlier, I started hiccuping from surprise, but this time I was startled and the hiccups stopped.

With the strange sensation of swallowing a lot of air, I covered my mouth with my palm, and Cedar shouted with a bright red face.

“I have no intention of divorcing!”

Then he slammed the door shut again and left.

“…?”

Is it over? Is it really over this time?

‘What was he talking about?’

He says he has no intention of divorcing. So that means he wants to continue the contract marriage, right?

‘It’s not a loss for him. It’s a natural decision, if anything.’

But why does it make me feel so good?

The corners of my mouth curled up without even realizing it.

I pressed my cheeks firmly with both hands. It felt like my muscles had gone weird.

‘I guess I liked this mansion more than I thought.’

There’s no other reason to be reluctant about divorce.

‘I just planted herbs for magic potions, right? If I leave now, I’ll have to give up all the herbs.’

Moreover, didn’t he say he planted all the remaining seedlings for me, except for the two rows I planted myself?

Leaving that behind and going away would be no different from trampling on Cedar’s kindness.

So I kept reminding myself of reasons why I shouldn’t get divorced right away.

Then I suddenly opened my eyes.

‘Ah, is that why he smelled of soil yesterday?’

Yesterday, when he saved me from the assassin, Cedar’s scent had a mix of something like the smell of soil after rain, besides his usual fragrance.

At the time, I thought it was strange to smell something that shouldn’t be on him, but now I see it was because he had been touching soil while planting seedlings.

‘Could it be that he was late in coming to save me because he was planting seedlings?’

Last night’s Cedar naturally came to mind. The strong arms that embraced me tightly, the rough breathing, and the body that was trembling slightly.

“…He’s really a strange person.”

I flipped the blanket over my head.

It was to hide the heat rising from my flushed face.

[This is the timeline separator]

Cedar, who had left Nelly’s room, bit his lip as he went down the stairs.

‘I didn’t expect Mother to act like this.’

Cedar’s mother, Lady Briar.

A beautiful woman with dazzling silver hair.

Like a tropical fish hiding deadly poison, her sorrowful appearance was merely a camouflage to hide her harsh nature.

Cedar had seen his mother commit all sorts of evil deeds to satisfy her greed since he was young.

That’s why he had a separate mansion instead of staying at the Granite ducal residence.

Because he didn’t want to be swayed by his mother anymore.

Lady Briar’s goal was solely for Cedar to become the Duke of Granite.

So she was pressuring Cedar to have a child as soon as possible.

‘She had been quiet for a while after I married Nelly.’

She must have been surprised by her son’s actions, who even dared to marry a woman in a vegetative state to defy her words.

Then she must have been wondering what to do next.

Cedar also thought his mother wouldn’t give up to this extent.

‘Well, with that personality, she waited for quite a long time.’

Still, he had only expected a marriage annulment lawsuit or forced divorce. He never imagined she would send an assassin to kill his wife.

‘It’s a complete miscalculation. I understand why Nelly says she needs to review the contract again.’

Rather, it was even admirable to see her, who had seemed so soft, seriously questioning her survival.

‘It seems right to divorce for her sake, but…’

But that would only escape the threat of Cedar’s mother, Lady Briar, not the threat of murder from her own younger brother that she had been carrying from the beginning.

At first, Cedar thought he would break up with her if she wanted.

That is, when he thought she could protect herself.

‘The lock was definitely melted by magic.’

But when faced with the assassin, Nelly couldn’t use magic.

It wasn’t simply that she couldn’t think of magic because she was afraid and the situation was urgent.

‘The flow of magic was strange.’

Although he couldn’t see the flow of magic in detail like Nelly, Cedar, as a Sword Master, could sensitively feel the flow of magic.

But that day, Nelly’s magic was unnatural.

Just as a Sword Master converts the magic flowing in the heart into aura and loads it onto a weapon, a magician transforms magic into spells.

But that day, the magic felt from Nelly was almost at rock bottom.

She looked worse than an ordinary person, let alone a magician.

As her heart, scraping the bottom, squeezed painfully like a seizure, Nelly suffered and even lost consciousness.

‘If she can’t use magic, it’s a different story, isn’t it?’

How is a woman threatened with murder by her younger brother going to live after getting divorced? Without even the minimum means to protect herself.

So Cedar asked Nelly. If she couldn’t use magic?

But that woman, blinking her pale green eyes nonchalantly, answered like this:

[I can’t tell you.]

Recalling those words, Cedar rubbed his face again, feeling anger rising.

Anger? No, it was a bit different from that.

He was angry at the fact that she didn’t answer him honestly and tried to keep it a secret.

So this wasn’t just simple anger, but an emotion mixed with half a spoon of hurt feelings and half a spoon of frustration.

‘I thought our relationship was close enough to be called friends! And yet she keeps even this a secret.’

And saying she can’t tell is ultimately no different from affirming it, right?

‘What a frustrating woman.’

Unable to suppress his emotions, Cedar messed up his hair roughly.

“You can’t use magic, you can’t cook meals, how are you going to live if you divorce? Is pretending to be smart everything?”

Why don’t you just ask to be protected? Why don’t you say you can’t use magic for various reasons and ask for help?

[Or are you saying you’ll bear my child instead?]

“…Why did I say such nonsense again.”

Cedar, who had been angry, let out a long sigh.

In fact, he regretted saying those words as soon as they left his mouth. Because the emotion he had been denying all along became clear the moment he uttered those words.

The reason why her talk of divorce, her attitude of keeping secrets from him, her attempt not to rely on him grated on his nerves was only one.

‘I, I like that woman.’

Cedar covered his face with his palms.

[This is the timeline separator]

I, who had been rolling around in bed, raised my head like a meerkat.

‘Someone stepped on the magic circle again.’

This had never happened when Cedar came and went from my room. That means it’s not Cedar!

‘It can’t be an assassin in broad daylight.’

Then the person who came up to the second floor is probably someone I know!

Pretending to be a great detective, I looked at the door with excitement.

After a while, there was a knock on the door. I answered in a thrilled voice.

“It must be Sir Hail! Please come in.”

“Good morning, my lady. You knew it was me quite well.”

The person who actually opened the door and came in was Hail.

I smiled brightly at him as he carefully walked in carrying a tray with a meal on it.

“My husband’s footsteps are different.”

To be precise, I noticed because he touched the magic circle. With each of these actions, I can’t help but realize.

‘Cedar is really a very considerate person.’

There’s no way only Cedar could see the magic circle.

Yet he was careful not to step on the magic circle out of consideration for me.

In case it gets erased, I would have to struggle again.

‘The more I learn about Cedar, the more I don’t know how to treat him.’

For now, I’ve bought three days of time, so let’s think during that time. In a way that’s good for both Cedar and me.

After reaching a conclusion, my stomach growled. Hail chuckled and handed me the tray.

“I came at just the right time. Please have your meal.”

Whether Cedar made it, there was a plump sandwich on the tray with blue vegetables piled high.

Normally, I would have frowned at that green color and gone ‘Ugh,’ but today my gaze went to Hail’s face.

I couldn’t see it earlier because he was far away, but up close, Hail’s face had a dark blue bruise.

“Your face… Did you fall in an innovative way?”

It was clearly a bruise from being hit, but it didn’t seem polite to ask a knight if he had been hit, so that was my roundabout question.

Hail awkwardly touched his cheek with his index finger and smiled.

“Haha, thank you for putting it that way.”

Maybe I gained confidence from deducing who had come earlier, but my head was spinning.

Someone hit Hail. → The person who hit him is superior to Hail in either status or strength.

And coincidentally, the person superior to Hail was someone I knew.

I tilted my head and asked.

“Was it perhaps my husband?”

“…”

Hail kept his mouth shut. It was an affirmative meaning.

Seeing the conflict between the two, I recalled something that would make Cedar angry.

Yesterday, when Lady Briar came, didn’t Cedar get upset asking why Hail wasn’t at the mansion?

In the end, Cedar had told Hail to keep guarding the mansion, but because I was uncomfortable, I told Hail to leave, and it seems he got scolded by Cedar for not guarding the mansion.