Chapter 15.9 - c14 (2/2)

But now that she saw Rafael’s weakness, she felt sorry for him. Annette was well aware of what these symptoms of Rafael were.

‘This is….. probably the aftermath of the war, right? The war must have created a trauma for him.’

The Kingdom of Deltium was at war a few years ago. This was because the insurgent forces of Letan kingdom, a neighboring country that they occupied more than 100 years ago, rose up. They claimed for the independence of Letan, which had already been merged to the Deltium kingdom, and started a war. They even brought in the foreign powers to raise the stakes. For this reason, Deltium also had to shed quite a bit of blood to suppress it.

Rafael fought on the front lines in the war. He built a big army with his overwhelming skills and relentlessness, and got a sweeping victory in return. Even then, he continued to stick to his arrogant attitude of “Of course it was just natural.”

In fact, Rafael was a self-righteous, and proud man. He was as cold and firm as a well-forged-out Mithril*, and nothing seemed to hurt him. So no one, even his wife, Annette, knew the darkness hiding behind his pride.

(T/N: It seems author is a Lord of the Ring’s fan.)

“You stubborn idiot.”

Annette touched Rafael’s sculpted cheek and whispered in a small voice. While asleep, his delicate eyebrows and forehead wrinkled in a frown. It seemed as if his beastly sixth sense had noticed Annette looking at him and calling him an idiot.

When she saw that, Annette somehow burst out laughing. No matter how angry Rafael was now, it seemed that he would not be as scary as before. She also found out that he was a normal person with his own scars and heartache.

“Good night, Rafael. My brave husband.”

Annette whispered in his ear, hoping that Rafael would rest in peace for today. Then the wrinkles on Rafael’s forehead smoothed out and disappeared. Annette, who saw this, laughed silently. So the peaceful night between the couple grew deeper.

* * *

The sunlight pouring through the window was dazzling. Rafael, who reflexively frowned, felt weird before even getting up. Something was different from usual today.

While he was still half asleep, Rafael realised he was in his best condition ever in recent years. He felt as if he had slept well after a very long time. The view of the room when he opened his eyes was similar to the usual, but there was something strange about it. He saw his feet sticking out over the sofa and realized why.

‘It seems I had fallen asleep on the sofa last night.’

It wasn’t so strange that the bed changed. Rafael was well aware of his sleepwalking tendencies. He probably slept on the sofa while moving around in his sleep. Maybe he fell down on such a small sofa and slept more comfortably than ever. ‘What a funny thing to do.’

Anyway, Rafael, who had a good night’s sleep, felt pretty good. It had been such a long time since he was in such good shape like this. He wanted to go out and practice his swordsmanship skills to become a Sword Master. As he tried to get up, he suddenly realized that there was something very soft and warm, underneath him. After confirming the identity of what he was sleeping on, Rafael was confused and could not think about anything properly. He wondered if he was still dreaming.

“Why is she here?”

On the corner of the sofa, he saw Annette sleeping. With a bandage on her injured head, her face seemed unusually small and pale.

Rafael gazed at her lowered eyelashes and slightly open, petal-like lips. Admiring her beauty, he inadvertently reached out and touched Annette’s cheek and neck. He said to himself it was to check her body temperature, but truthfully , there was something strange inside him that made him want to touch Annette. The feeling of her skin on his fingertips, was as smooth as silk.

Fortunately, even though Annette’s temperature was a little low, it was still in the normal range. The wound had now closed and didn’t seem that sinister. Rafael lifted his hands and clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

“If you’re hurt, you should stay in your room and rest. Why are you..”

The face of Rafael, who had been thinking so far, suddenly hardened. An ominous feeling ran through his head. Rafael unknowingly grabbed Annette’s shoulder and roughly shook her to wake her up. Annette, who was violently dragged out of her dreams, woke up gasping in surprise.

“Rafael?”

Rafael glared at her reaction. She looked like a rabbit caught in a trap. He locked her in his arms to prevent her from running away. He then bowed his head to keep his eyes levelled with hers and questioned her in an eerie voice.

“Did you see it?”

“What? What do you…”

“Last night, did you see me?”

Annette who had just woken up was a little puzzled at Rafael’s sudden weird mood. But hearing his words, she soon realized what he was asking. His blue eyes, glaring at her, were pretending to be angry, but they quivered a little with anxiety. The proud Rafael must have been worried that she might have seen his sleepwalking episode.

How should I answer this? Annette gulped down her saliva.