‘I didn’t think there would be someone else who found me this frustrating besides the professor.’

I spoke in a calm voice.

“If it sounds insensitive, you should understand, husband. At the academy, we only say what’s really necessary.”

“Shouldn’t you usually say you’re sorry?”

“I’m sorry for being insensitive.”

There, an apology.

Even though I apologized obediently as told, Cedar’s brow remained furrowed.

“What a strange feeling. Receiving an apology yet still feeling uneasy.”

“You could just not accept it.”

“Is that something you should say yourself?”

“You’re quite sensitive, aren’t you?”

“That’s an evaluation I’ve never heard before in my life.”

I wanted to have an academic discussion with him about what sensitivity is and what relativity is, but I couldn’t.

Gurgle gurgle―

Because a sound as loud as thunder came from my stomach.

After silently looking down at me for a moment, he turned around abruptly and started walking with heavy steps.

As I sat up on the sofa in a daze, he said in a very small voice, as if making an excuse.

“…I heard Hail didn’t prepare a meal for you before leaving. So I came to take care of it instead.”

Though his tone was unpleasant, it meant he was worried about me.

I quickly got up from the sofa and followed behind him, saying:

“Ah, that’s right. He didn’t even tell me where the food storage was.”

At my grumbling, he chuckled.

“If I tell you? Can you cook for yourself?”

“I can. As long as there are potatoes.”

“Potatoes?”

“You can just boil them to eat, right?”

Silver-gray eyes like a foggy night sky suddenly turned to look at me. I tilted my head.

“What?”

“What other dishes can you cook?”

“Besides boiled potatoes?”

Let’s see. I said while folding my fingers one by one.

“I can also boil eggs.”

“What else?”

“I can boil eggplants too. Though I don’t like vegetables, so I don’t eat them unless I’m really hungry.”

I was about to say what else I could boil to eat, but Cedar changed the question.

“Besides boiling, what can you eat?”

“Huh? Then how do you eat? Raw? I was told eating raw potatoes is dangerous.”

“…”

Why was it? The more I spoke, the darker Cedar’s face seemed to get.

Just what did I say wrong to make him like this? As I frowned and pondered along with him, Cedar’s large hand grasped my shoulder.

“From now on, you’ll eat all three meals with me. Understood?”

“Huh? Why so suddenly?”

“It’s not sudden. So this is…”

After looking at the floor with wavering eyes for a moment, the man shouted with a bright smile.

“Family tradition! It’s the Granite family tradition. The whole family eats meals together.”

“Oh, as expected of a noble family, it’s different.”

Cedar’s expression eased a bit at my agreement. I tilted my head and asked back.

“But we’re just in a contract marriage anyway, do we have to strictly follow such family traditions?”

Cedar’s face darkened again.

Grumbling as if extremely angry, he answered in a very curt voice:

“Yes!”

“But this morning you left me alone to eat by myself?”

“That, that time… Anyway, that’s how it is!”

After answering loudly, Cedar started walking even faster.

Watching his retreating back, I tilted my head.

Why is he like that?

‘Could it be that the self that doesn’t want to follow and the self that must follow are having an internal struggle?’

And it ended with the victory of the side that must follow!

‘It really isn’t easy living as the scion of a noble family.’

Cedar’s frowning face suits his swaggering pose well, but unlike his face, he seems to have a personality that follows rules well.

‘Even if I’m just a contractual wife, I should try to follow along as a housemate.’

Firmly making up my mind, I chased after Cedar.

[This is the timeline separator]

A life of over 20 years and some more.

In Cedar’s own thoughts, his life was one where he had to become strong.

‘Every day was a war.’

Cedar’s mother was a maid of the Granite ducal family.

The Duchess of Granite was a princess who married from a neighboring country, and often fell ill, unable to adapt to the sudden life in a foreign country.

So she was often away from the capital’s ducal residence, staying at a villa.

It was during one of these times that Cedar’s mother, Lady Briar, snuck into the Duke’s bedchamber.

Approaching the lonely Duke with her silver hair flowing, Lady Briar was lucky enough to share his bed and give birth to Cedar.

Even if he was the Duke’s firstborn son, with the Duchess still alive, he was just an illegitimate child.

But the frail Duchess was unable to bear children for a long time, and with opinions that she might not be able to have children at this rate, Cedar was eventually officially registered as a legitimate heir.

And in the end…

[The Madam finally passed away.]

The Duchess died at a young age, leaving behind a much younger sibling to Cedar.

After that, Cedar’s life was a mess.

Those who wanted to make the firstborn Cedar the family head, and those who supported the second son born of the princess’s bloodline, fought every day.

To push their opinions, they did not hesitate to attempt assassinations on Cedar and his brother.

‘I just needed strength.’

Cedar didn’t speak nicely to anyone. He thought it made him look weak.

Not trusting anyone meant there was no need to get hurt. Thinking everyone was an enemy meant there was no need to share his heart.

When he felt confident that he had gained enough strength even outside the family, Cedar began living alone.

It had been exactly 4 years since he left the Granite ducal family and started living on his own.

Cedar found himself looking back on himself anew.

‘Am I weak to the wrong person?’

It was because of his wife, Nelly Periway.

She said she would manage on her own and sent Hail away, but Nelly’s stomach kept making gurgling sounds as if she had been starving all day.

If that was all, he would have thought, ‘She’s supposed to be a great mage, but can’t even take care of her own meals?’ and found it pathetic.

But Nelly remained nonchalant as if she didn’t feel the hunger.

She just seemed like someone for whom starvation was routine.

‘I heard she stayed at the academy before becoming a great mage. Do they all live so pitifully at the academy?’

It was too strange to just sympathize, as Nelly’s expression was far too calm.

‘With how she said she only boiled things to eat… Maybe it was just her normal life?’

Cedar’s gaze turned to her clothes that hung loose even though the corset was tightly laced. And to her arms as thin as chopsticks.

‘Looks like they’d break if I grabbed them.’

Even if they were to separate later, he needed to feed her something for now. So Cedar said this:

“From now on, you’ll eat all three meals with me. Understood?”

Even going so far as to tell an impossible lie about family traditions.

‘How did I end up…’

Why does this woman keep catching my eye? Even when he asked himself, there was no answer.

Cedar kept heaving heavy sighs as he headed to the kitchen.

The clueless woman followed closely behind Cedar like a puppy, saying:

“They say your luck runs away if you keep sighing. Ah, I wonder if a Swordmaster could catch even fleeing luck?”

“…”

Cedar looked down at Nelly with exasperated eyes.

‘Who do you think I’m sighing because of?’

What am I doing here during knighthood duty hours?

Cedar, who had been agonizing over the pathetic situation and self-loathing, began to rationalize in his own way.

‘No, this is unavoidable to keep the secret that my wife has woken up. Since she said she doesn’t want Hail to take care of her, I have no choice but to do it myself, right?’

I’m not saying I’ll take care of her for the rest of her life.

I’m just going to show her how until she can do it herself.

‘Mages have good memory. Once I show her, she should be able to do it herself next time.’

After finishing his rationalization, his heart felt lighter. Cedar showed her the door to the food storage.

He also showed her where the box that always contained bread was, and where the ham was kept. Along with that, he decided on the meal menu while looking at the ingredients.

‘I should roughly make sandwiches by putting grilled ham and cheese between bread.’

Mealtime had already passed, and they would be hungry throughout the time it took to simmer a stew, so it would be better to eat something simple and quick instead.

Nelly was frustratingly ignorant about food, but extremely curious.

“What are you doing now?”

It’s just grilling ham. Embarrassed, Cedar answered gruffly.

“Cooking.”

“I know it’s cooking! I’m asking what you’re making!”

“I’m not that good at cooking either. I just know how to do simple things that everyone can do.”

“You keep saying strange things since earlier? Are you deliberately avoiding the point? Or are you answering like that because you don’t know the name of the dish?”

“…Sandwich.”

“It would have been nice if you answered like that from the beginning.”

If a subordinate had picked at his words like this, they would have been hit long ago.

‘I’m holding back because if I hit her once, it could really be a big deal. It’s because the other person is too skinny.’

Once again, Cedar rationalized his uncharacteristic behavior and let the thoughts flow away.

The sandwich was quickly completed.

Normally he wouldn’t even sprinkle salt, but thinking that Nelly would be eating it, he generously added various sauces.

Mealtime was more fun than expected.

Because Nelly’s hands were small, the sandwich looked much bigger than the one Cedar was holding.

She took a big bite like a hamster and chewed very slowly.

“Do you chew a hundred times like a cow after taking one bite because you have no appetite?”

Cedar rested his chin on his hand and sneered. After a while, after swallowing what was in her mouth with a gulp, Nelly retorted with a bright red face.

“I chew about thirty times! Is it that strange to chew thoroughly?”

“Why thirty times specifically?”

“When I was young, a book said to chew thirty times… Don’t other people chew thirty times when they eat?”

It was truly an unexpected answer. Cedar pressed his lips together.