My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields

In Tyria’s memories, Elric had had a mischievous glint over his round face. His brown hair had been immaculate, and his clothes were so fine you could tell they were made of good fabric at first glance.

He was the first boy of her age that Tyra had ever met.

“Where are you from, I’ve never seen you before?”

The curious question was an unfamiliar action Tyria had never experienced before.

Though she felt ashamed for not caring about her appearance just moments before, she couldn’t help but feel an instinctive favor toward the boy she had just met.

“…There.”

Tyria pointed over the hill to the Wyvern Family Mansion.

Seeing this, Elric had said.

“Ah, the Bobber’s Lair!”

She couldn’t help but gasp.

The words that had come out of his mouth had been vulgar words she’d been trained to never use in her language.

“Bobber…”

“My dad says that that’s where the bobber lives, eating up all the land.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what he meant. She just couldn’t believe he was using that kind of language whilst talking to someone from the manor.

It wasn’t until later that she realized he was an accident waiting to happen, but at the time, everything about him had just been a shock to Tyria.

“Well, whatever. Just follow me.”

“Huh…?”

“The medic can’t come out today because he got in trouble with his mom. You’ll be the medic instead.”

Grab–

Elric snatched Tyria’s hand.

Tyria was then dragged by him, forgetting that she had been the one supposedly asking for help.

It wasn’t without pain, of course. Her calf was so sore from the previous day’s punishments that she could only limp, and her swollen face stung from the wind.

Elric’s lips pouted as he realized it too.

“What? You hurt your leg? Then you should have told me.”

“It’s…”

“Come here.”

What he did next was embarrassing.

“Awww!”

Elric had picked up Tyria and started swinging her around.

Elric had been six years old and Tyria had been only eight.

As a child who hadn’t yet reached puberty, Elric was obviously much smaller than Tyria, but he had picked her up easily.

It was in that moment.

“You’re now a wounded soldier, not a medic!”

Elric grinned.

The boy’s face was confident as he grinned against the sun.

The breeze was cool, and the boy’s arms, so small, were full of a sense of security.

It had been a first for her.

The experience of having someone hold you close.

To feel the warmth of another human being was such a shock for her that it could only be described as wonder, and so Tyria responded in a way that she didn’t even understand.

“Hiik…”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she cried.

“What the hell, you’re ugly and a wimp.”

“A-A….”

“Don’t cry, you’ll mess up all your hair.”

“Sorry… Sob…”

“Ugh, who told you to apologize? That’s enough.”

Elric patted Tyria on the back.

Only then did Tyria realize.

Crying was not something to apologize for.

“Hehehe…”

In the giggling boy’s arms, for the first time in her life, Tyria felt comforted.

She still remembered that moment to this day.

“You’re on medic duty today!”

Elric had led her to a small clearing at the edge of town.

A look of surprise had crossed her face as she realized there were so many other children her age in Wiven.

Of course, they weren’t all like Elric.

Some were scruffy, some wore clothes that she had learned to identify as rags, and some even had unwashed hair.

It didn’t particularly bother her, but it certainly made her realize that Elric was the outlier in this group.

“Hey, Ugly!”

Elric called out to Tyria.

TYria was suddenly overwhelmed by embarrassment.

“…No, I’m not.”

“You’re ugly because you have a puffy face, and Aldio said that pretty people have very thin faces!”

Calling someone ugly in front of other people was a very vulgar thing to do.

But even if she could deny Elric’s words, Tyria knew she was ugly right now.

Her red flushed, but blue face.

Her eyes started trembling again.

Elric sighed.

“Haa, she’s crying again.”

“The boss made her cry!”

“It’s the boss! He’s the epitome of a bad boy!”

The kids cheered.

Elric shrugged, then walked over to Tyria and wiped her tears away with his handkerchief.

“Don’t cry. Do you really want to be a wimp?”

“Sob…”

“I said stop crying, now, huh?!”

Choo–!

Tyria blew her nose in the handkerchief.

Thus, Elric flicked the handkerchief to the floor.

“Anyway, be friendly with the guys. If they get hurt, will you treat them?”

His words rang in her ears, were funny, and self-serving.

And yet, somehow, she didn’t hate it.

Tyria nodded shyly, remembering Elric carrying her and laughing as they walked.

That was the day she had learned how to play.

Or, more accurately, the day she realized what play really was.

Up until then, all she had known was education in the guise of play.

Putting words together to write a poem, or cleaning a teacup.

This new “play” was refreshing.

“Medic, tend to the wounded!”

Elric sat down in front of Tyria, his red cloak wrapped around a small wooden sword that matched his size.

He had just come from a fight on the floor with a wooden sword.

Tyria, who had been watching the whole time, glared at him.

“Here, let’s heal this place!”

Elric rolled up his sleeve.

Tyria could only gasp in horror.

“It’s so dirty…”

“Idiot, injuries are supposed to be dirty!”

Elric smirked and shoved the mud on his arm at Tyria.

Tyria pulled her head back in disgust.

So Elric said.

“Here, wipe it off with this rag.”

She knew that wiping it with a rag would only make it dirtier.

But, even as she thought about it, Tyria still ended up grabbing the rag and wiping Elric’s arm.

It didn’t make his arm clean.

Only the mud was now gone.

She wondered if he was going to get in trouble.

Worry surged through her.

But then,

“Well done, Medic!”

“Um! Umm!” Elric mumbled in satisfaction, as if that were enough.

Immediately afterwards,

“It’s excellent!”

With a swoosh, Elric ruffled Tyria’s hair.

Tyria’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

“If I ever get injured again, you should treat me like this, alright?”

It was a simple compliment, but it cut deep into her heart.

Maybe she was just hungry for affirmation.

In her life, praise had only come after too much punishment.

‘Play.’

So this was how one played.

Tyria had finally realized.

That there was no punishment in “play”.

The events she had experienced that day had been like a dream.

And, as with all dreams, one’s moment of awakening eventually came.

“Captain, see you tomorrow!”

“Goodbye, Ugly Medic!”

It was sunset.

The sky was colored red, and the day had grown a little cooler.

The clearing was beginning to empty as the children who had caused the ruckus scattered one by one.

“You’re coming again, aren’t you?”

Elric had asked.

But Tyria couldn’t answer quickly enough.

She couldn’t, she had thought, sneaking out without telling her parents and skipping classes all day.

And that wasn’t all.

She hadn’t apologized properly the day before, and so today, she was going to get a worse spanking than the day before.

Suddenly, Tyria felt terrified.

-“Why! Why don’t you understand our hearts!”

She shuddered as the image of a giant hand filling her vision flashed through her mind.

Her mind blanked, and she began to gasp for air.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Elric frowned, studying Tyria.

Tyria shrank back.

“…Nothing.”

“No, it’s not nothing. Come here.”

Elric gripped Tyria’s hand tightly and leaned his head in, searching every inch of her face.

Tyria bowed her head deeply, embaressed.

At the end of it, Elric said, “Ah!”

“I got it!”

“…”

“You don’t want to go home!”

It was like a lightning bolt, as Tyria’s head snapped up.

It was a surprise.

The thought of Elric seeing right through her mind when she hadn’t said a single word sent a shiver up her spine.

Elric smirked, as if he knew all that she was thinking.

“Then, let’s play some more!”

“Captain?”

“Are you going to run away again today?”

“Un, you guys want to run away too?”

The two remaining children, Luton and Bart, shook their heads.

Elric pouted his lips.

“What the hell, Sissies. Let’s go then, Ugly.”

Tyria couldn’t believe her eyes.

This was how out of control Elric had been.

Even so, she felt a mixture of impatience and relief in her heart.

A runaway, did that mean that she was not going home?

If so, would she not be punished today?

Tyria wondered, feeling her fear recede, but still worrying about Elric.

“Is this okay…?”

“What, running away?”

Maybe it would have been, she reflected in the present

“It’s okay, my Dad doesn’t really care about me.”

In that moment, she had felt a sudden sense of kinship with him.