Translator and Editor: Skye and Nabi

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chapter 20

***

I put sincerity in getting some sleep until early in the evening to stay up late that day. This is because I thought I should talk to Evan face-to-face.

It wasn’t until midnight that Evan came into the room with an exhausted face.

“…Aren’t you asleep?”

“I’ve been waiting for you.” I said with a big smile.

“Why would you do that?”

Evan threw a word and then went into the bathroom.

It was definitely strange. Evan wouldn’t talk like that even though he hid his true feelings.

After washing up in the bathroom and changing to his indoor clothes, he said a word to me while I was still waiting.

“Just grow up.”

Oh, that’s what he wanted to say.

‘I’m gonna figure out what’s going on with you tonight.’

I suddenly frowned at Evan’s long sleeves he was wearing indoors. It is already the beginning of summer when it is getting hotter.

‘Didn’t he wear long sleeves when it is colder than this?’

There is something unusual.

I jumped up and took out a fairy tale book that I got as a gift from the bookstore.

“Evan, do you want me to read you a fairy tale until you fall asleep?”

‘Reading fairy tales until you sleep at night.’ I am faithfully following the words in the diary.

Evan suddenly looked so worried that all of his facial muscles twitched.

‘Is there an issue?’’

I sighed lightly when I saw him groaning, as if he had faced a challenging problem of the century.

He’s just so cute that I can’t help but smile.

I went next to him because he was too cute when he acted like a child, pretending to be an adult, and made a face that I didn’t hate much.

“Why? You don’t want to read?”

“…Yeah.”

He sat on a chair, avoided my eyes as if he had made a decision.

“You don’t have to read it.”

It was a sharp voice that I’ve never heard before.

“And don’t buy anything like that from now on.”

Why is he so stern?

He was the one who wrote that he enjoys reading fairy tales. However, no matter how much I acted this way, it is right that I didn’t have to do this.

‘Even this fairy tale book…’

It’s been three days since I gave it to him as a gift, and there were already signs of burns on his hands.

He must have read this book several times while I was sleeping. So, why are you so melancholic?

Evan continued to grumble as he rummaged through fairy tales.

“Go to bed first. Don’t wait for me.”

He is still acting unusually.

“Why, let’s read together. I bought it because I wanted to read it with you.”

This is how you do it. I grabbed him by the arm with a sneaky smile.

“…Ah.”

At that time, I was also slightly surprised because he paused. It must have been a response that he is feeling unwell.

‘No, I grabbed him as if I was picking up a little fluffy object.’

Besides, Evan’s arm was originally hard as if it would never hurt even if I punched him.

“What’s wrong?”

I grabbed him by the arm and lifted the indoor long sleeves clothes, which had been bothering me for a while.

Evan tried to stop me, but he couldn’t even move my clinging arm and gave me a look offrustration.

“…Evan.”

When I came here, I was brave enough, bearing the thought of death in mind. So, for the first time, I asked with a trembling voice.

“What’s this?”

Not only were there bruises all over his arm, but there were also severe wounds.

No, Evan didn’t have these injuries when he was wearing short sleeves before.

“Don’t mind it.”

Evan spoke briefly without looking into my eyes, and I ended up shouting.

“How come I wouldn’t care? I’m your wife! I am the one who is the closest to you as a family!”

The words caught Evan’s eye.

“Look elsewhere.”

I forced myself to raise his other arm. The wounds were cleverly visible only at the parts that were covered by his clothes.

No way.

It was never mentioned anywhere that Evan was being abused! Who the hell hit my husband!

“What is this?”

I asked in a trembling voice.

“Who is it? Who the hell did this horrendous act to you?”

It didn’t look like he got hit somewhere randomly.

“Go to bed first.”

Evan casually lowered his sleeves.

“You don’t have to know, but everyone does that when you do sword training.”

It’s true that I’ve never done sword training before, however…

Just because he is a human being doesn’t mean he has to be abused by others.

‘It’s just that, I like swords. I couldn’t say any reason besides that.’

As expected, it was very suspicious that he didn’t look into my eyes until the end.

“Thank you for the fairy tale book. Though, you don’t have to read it. I’m not a kid.”

You believe sleeping while holding hands will give you a baby, but still said you are not a kid.

He jumped up and sat at his desk, took out another book, and opened it.

“And don’t buy things for me from now on. I don’t need it.”

I was lost in thought.

“Don’t wait for an hour to get me anything like Ganache.”

“Huh?”

“Why would you wait in line for that long? I don’t even like sweets that much.”

To say that, three nights ago, he was scraping the bottom of the ganache, getting every little bit he could.

‘Is he already experiencing the early adolescence stage? What’s wrong with him all of a sudden?’

At times like this, she can only keep her mouth shut even if she dared to ask.

“All right…”

I stretched my shoulders, got up weakly, and laid on the bed first, then covered myself with a blanket.

“I’m just…”

And with my back towards Evan’s, I murmured in a weak voice.

“I just wanted to see you…”

I didn’t forget to sniff a few more times.

My cute little appearance is completely specialized in stimulating pity. Pretending to be poor is also my specialty.

When I cried and pretended to be asleep with my shoulders hunched in a circle, I heard Evan’s sigh after a while.

“…Sorry.”

I heard a tiny whisper.

‘Oh-oooh, my.’

I flicked my tongue inwardly.

To be honest, he became so feisty that I thought this would eventually become the final version of the ‘Indifferent Man’ that he would be in the future. However, he still seemed to have the innocence of a child.

I’m going to save money and run away, anyway. So, why does it matter if Evan doesn’t fit in like anyone else?

I thought about that, but I felt sorry for his stained arms.

No matter how much my safety comes first, I couldn’t pretend not to see such a thing.

And strangely… I felt sorry whenever I saw Evan. I kept thinking about looking over him all night, or when he was reading the fairy tale book I gave as a gift repeatedly.

He looked very weak doing so.

‘I don’t have to be the one he wants to talk to, but I should at least know what’s going on. I will get back to sleep when he wakes up.’

‘Evan’s wounds.’ It was not mentioned in the original story at all.

Evan seemed to have not been described a lot, probably since he was a supporting character. Then, why did they describe the main characters even about their most useless information?

“The original story is really disgusting…”

I fell asleep just like that and felt Evan, who was next to me, getting up before dawn.

He slightly swept his hair, changed his clothes, picked up the sword, and left. Evan didn’t even eat breakfast and went straight to practicing swords.

Besides, why is he touching his wife’s dimly asleep head?

I woke up, rubbing my half-asleep eyes.

‘What’s wrong with him? I won’t let him go this time.’

I need to find who did this to my husband.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Advanced Chapters!

Rate the novel on Novel Updates.

Join our discord to receive the latest updates as soon as possible!