My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields

Luton felt like he had been possessed by a ghost.

That feeling didn’t go away as Elric riddled his body with cuts and bruises, grinded the Blade Wolves, and crushed the pristine trees around him.

The same was true afterwards.

“We’ll part ways here, then. I’ll be waiting for you in the cabin.”

Even after Elrik limped away, Luton was dazed.

A throbbing sensation pounded throughout his body.

His tattered armor made movement uncomfortable.

But, he gritted his teeth and returned to the village,

“K-Knight!!!”

The hunters’ voices bring Luton back to his senses.

“Ah…”

“You’re alive! You look like a bunch of…”

Luton smirked as the leader of the hunters looked at him tearfully.

He couldn’t see his face, obviously, as there were no mirrors around, but the parts of his body he could see when he bent his head down made him look like a man who had been through a war.

He pondered on what type of excuse he should make, but finally said,

“It was nothing, Sir.”

“What do you mean, “nothing”! Your injuries are too serious! And what about the monsters? I’ve already called for backup…”

“I’ve handled them. The Blade Wolves.”

The hunters’ bodies stiffened.

The expressions on their faces went beyond surprise to awe.

“I-If they were Blade Wolves…”

“They’re high ranking beasts, and you said there were several of them…”

“As expected of a knight…”

The murmurs were not limited to the hunters.

Even the townspeople began to look at Luton as if he were a numbered monster.

Luton scratched his head, unable to explain what had happened.

The only thing that came to his mind in the moment was Elric’s single edged blade.

He couldn’t recognize it, couldn’t react to it, and couldn’t understand it.

‘Come to think of it, he wasn’t even carrying a sword.’

His cane, then? Was it even possible to cut everything so cleanly with just a cane?

No, apart from that, how did Elric become so strong?

Sure, he was unusually strong among the village children ten years ago.

However, it didn’t seem like he could resort to such unreasonable techniques as a beginner.

Luton was confused, then abandoned his thoughts.

He simply smirked and looked to the sky.

‘He’s the boss.’

And now that he’d stopped thinking about it, he felt a pang of relief.

Well, whatever happened, it worked out, so all was well.

By the time Luton put down what he was holding, the rumor had spread among the crowd.

“If it was a Blade Wolf, then it was a monster with blades for its claws?”

“You mean several of them were defeated by this man?”

“C-Cursed Sword Breaker! Cursed Sword Breaker Luton!”

Cursed Sword Breaker Luton.

This revered nickname began to echo quietly from a village in the far corner of Yubin.

It was another few hours before Elric and Tyria were rescued.

The villagers had brought the Portmans, who had been holed up in their cabin, down the valley in a snowmobile.

Aldio, who had rushed over upon hearing the news belatedly, embraced Elric with a tear-streaked face, something that had become somewhat of an open secret.

Back at the Portmans’ mansion:

“The lady’s fever is quite high. I’m afraid she’ll have to rest for a while.”

“I see. I’ll be out a little while longer, so you can go about your business.”

“Alright, Milord.”

Aldio bowed and left Tyria’s room.

Elric stared at Tyria as she lay on the bed.

He had a complicated look on his face.

He was half worried, half angry at her reckless behavior.

The realization that he would have to confront her about this when she woke up was beginning to settle in.

He sighed heavily.

Elric’s gaze began to scan her room.

‘It’s simple.’

It was so simple that it was immediately apparent to him that Tyria hadn’t brought in many new things in the last ten years.

A bed, a shelf, a bookcase, and a side door.

The back of the room must have been her dressing room.

In retrospect, it was the first time he’d ever been in her room, and it was a strange, but exhilarating feeling.

As he thought, Elric looked at her again.

Her normally pale face was tinged red.

There was a slight trickle of sweat crawling down it, and her breathing was ragged.

Elric dabbed at her forehead with his handkerchief.

Each time he did so, her scowl loosened a bit, and Elric let out a small chuckle at how inappropriately funny the reaction was.

“It was much more than just a little struggle.”

The five Blade Wolves had sprinted off down the mountain with no regard for his knee.

Thus, they had re-injured his healed knee.

Along with the extended recovery period, his knee had started to ache just from sitting quietly, much like when he was first injured.

It was embarrassing.

“I’m in so much trouble. So… much trouble.”

He found himself relieved that he could use this injury as an excuse to stay here longer, and it was this that was troubling.

“I feel like I’m becoming too inconsiderate.”

Elric’s hands were still.

“I find myself growing accustomed to life here, and it doesn’t seem so bad, as every morning feels so refreshing.”

It was in that moment that he had started speaking…

With a start, Tyria’s body trembled, and soon her eyes fluttered open.

Elric’s eyes widened.

“Milady… Ugh!”

He jerked to his feet, forgetting the state of his knee, and thus, feeling the repercussions of his actions as he winced at the pain.

Frowning, he steadied himself and looked over at Tiria.

“…Hmm?”

Her eyes were dazed and were staring into space.

He blinked hard, then brought his gaze back to her.

Their eyes met, and Tyria fumbled for Elric’s index finger.

There was no strength in her movements at all.

“Milady…?”

“….”

Tyria observed Elric’s index finger that had been trapped in her hand for a moment, before eventually hunching her body and pulling Elric’s hand toward her.

Elric panicked, being pulled in her direction.

His hands were now clasped in Tyria’s arms.

He wondered what the hell was going on, but as he watched, she closed her eyes again and drifted off to sleep.

Elric let out a dry laugh.

“It seems like the one who needed something to cuddle and sleep with was you.”

Tyria’s complexion relaxed.

Satisfied that Tyria was sound asleep, Elric made his way to his office.

While she rested, he would take care of the manor’s affairs.

With what he had learned, he could handle the simple tasks, so he started opening the papers.

At the sight of a hand holding a pen, Elric was suddenly distracted.

It was inevitable that once one started working, they would be distracted.

‘Have my senses dulled?’

Elric thought back to the moment he’d killed the Blade Wolves in the snowy mountains.

‘I’m pretty sure I could have made a cleaner cut.’

At the time, he’d been in a hurry and hadn’t thought about it, but now that he thought about it, it seemed like he hadn’t been as good at controlling his mana as he had been on the battlefield.

After all, his initial intention had been to cut Blade Wolves cleanly, avoiding the surrounding trees.

He hadn’t been looking, and he hadn’t had a sword in his hand, but it didn’t really matter.

He didn’t even need a sword to perform the technique, as he had been simply slicing his mana like a knife and shooting it from his body.

Elric frowned.

The cause was immediately apparent to him.

“My vitality has decreased.”

Sword Realm was a technique in which killing intent kept mana under control.

Unlike conventional mana cultivation methods, as one distances themselves from vitality, controlling mana becomes more difficult.

It wasn’t about the amount of mana one had or the power they had.

If one loses control of the amount of mana they emit, then they’d lose control of the details.

In other words, if he were to step onto the battlefield in this state, there could be a catastrophe wherein both allies and enemies could be swept away in one fell swoop.

In fact, when his vitality had been out of control, there had been quite a few instances wherein he had wiped out allies in the middle of the battlefield.

Thus, there had been some grudge matches as a result.

He had to be careful.

If he kept going, he might cause another accident like those that had occurred before.

‘Maybe I should do some rehabilitation training…’

Even as he thought about it, he hesitated.

The idyllic atmosphere of Yubin had desensitized him.

He would be going back to the battlefield.

But, every time he thought about it, the hesitation in his mind grew stronger and stronger.

“Huh….”

Elric sighed.

It was at that moment that he heard a knock on his door.

“Milord.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Lord Luton wishes to say goodbye to you before he returns.”

He was leaving already?

Elric jumped to his feet in surprise. [1]

“I’ll be right there!”

With that, he strode out of the office, cane in hand.

He headed straight for the drawing room.

“Ah! The Captain is here?”

Luton greeted him with a cheerful smile.

Elric couldn’t help but smile.

“Hmm? Why do you look like that?”

Playfully grinning, Luton looked as if he had been hit by a stick as his whole body was tinged with a bluish bruise.

It was all Elric’s doing.

‘…Should I have been a little gentler?’

Suddenly, a surge of remorse crashed through him.

[1. Even I can tell that he should have been hurt here…]