Chapter 75

Chapter 75. Please Do Not Lie (15)

“Eeeeng.”

I quickly went to her side and began soothing her.

Aaaah~ A woman who drinks and cries is what I hate most.

But Rene was the woman I loved, so I could not possibly pretend not to care.

With a bitter smile, I held her against my chest, patted her back, and soothed her as though comforting a child.

However, Rene was an adult.

“Sob, sob. Eeng, it is dirty.”

“It is all right, Rene. I said it is all right. We can clean it up. We can clean it up, so please, do not cry.”

This was probably the first time in her life that she had vomited up something she had eaten.

Elves did not overeat, and they did not drink alcohol either.

Mm, it must have been a shock.

I quietly looked at Rene, who was held against my chest, after drinking, getting angry, kissing, vomiting, and whimpering.

Right now, rather than beautiful, she was more adorable.

But I did not particularly like it when she did nothing but cry.

I decided to use my final resort and gently lifted her chin as she cried.

Rene made a dazed face when her head was raised while she was crying, and I smiled softly at her before kissing her.

When I closed my eyes and pressed my lips to hers, Rene opened her eyes wide and tried to push me away.

However, I did not move away.

Because I had one arm wrapped around her waist.

“Mmmmph!”

Perhaps because of the gastric fluid, I tasted something salty.

Rene opened her tearful eyes wide, shook her head from side to side, and resisted fiercely, but when I did not let go, she seemed to give up after a short while and simply stayed still, letting me do as I pleased.

I kept kissing her until the taste of gastric fluid no longer lingered in her mouth, then slowly pulled my lips away.

Rene had tears hanging heavily at the corners of her eyes, but she was no longer crying.

Looking at her face, I felt the need to say something rather stern, so I did.

“Do not cry like that over something as small as vomiting. You are an elf, are you not? If you are an elf, you should act like one. Why would you drink alcohol and try to forget everything? Do you have no pride? On top of that, you even threw a drunken tantrum. If my father-in-law had seen this, he would have foamed at the mouth and collapsed.

Ah?! You are crying again. Do not cry! The thing I hate most in the world is a woman who drinks and cries. You are no exception, so stop it at once!”

Perhaps because she was definitely drunk, unlike usual, Rene made a face as though she might burst into tears at my scolding.

And when she heard my irritated shout, she immediately looked frightened. That made me feel a little awkward, so I cleared my throat a few times and helped her stand.

“Mm, ahem. Do not be like that. I am going to clean, so go sit on the bed. If you stay there, you will get in the way.”

Rene wiped away a few tears, nodded, and walked toward the bed.

I watched her back, smiled faintly, then brought over the bucket and rag and wiped up what she had vomited, wringing it into the bucket.

Once, twice, three times… each time I wiped and wrung it out, a bizarre smell rose, a subtle harmony of the peculiar smell of gastric fluid and the smell of alcohol. However, it was not that severe.

After repeating the process about twenty times, the vomit was mostly cleaned up, and a round wet mark was left on the wooden floor.

That would dry after a while, so I left it alone. Then I brought over the liquor bottle that had been on the chair in front of the bed and poured a little of it over the place where she had vomited.

What a waste.

Perhaps Rene found this interesting, because she wiped her tears with the edge of the sheet and asked,

“Sniff! What are you doing?”

“Ah, I have to remove the smell. We cannot sleep while smelling this, can we?”

At my words, Rene nodded.

I sprinkled the liquor I was holding around the area to remove the smell, found the stopper, put it back in, and placed the bottle on the table.

Then I took the bucket and rag out, left them in the kitchen, stopped by the washroom to wash my hands, and went back up to the room.

The light in the room had been turned off again, and Rene was still sitting in the same place.

“How is it? Now that you have thrown up, do you feel a little more sober?”

“Yes. My head feels a little clearer. Mm, today is truly the worst. You slapped me, I threw up the alcohol I drank, and I cried and was scolded.”

“Ah, I am sorry I slapped you earlier.”

As I said that, I lifted my left hand.

Since that day, in twenty years, I had never once raised my hand to her.

I opened and closed the hand that had slapped her cheek.

It felt as though the sensation from earlier still remained.

At my words, Rene showed a small smile against the moonlight and shook her head.

“No. That was my fault. To be honest, I did not think you would slap me, though.”

What a relief. It seemed the usual Rene had returned.

I smiled a little bitterly at her words and went to sit beside her.

At that, Rene rested her head against my shoulder and said,

“Do you know this? That was the first time you hit me after we got married.”

“Do you know this? That was the first time I hit you after we got married.”

At my words, Rene smiled brightly, then began slowly pulling at the cord tied around my gown as she said,

“I love you. I am not saying this because of the alcohol. Han, will you hold me? I want to feel you.”

I could have told her, “Honey, I am tired,” but since I was a man too, those words absolutely would not rise from my throat.

---

The next day.

“What happened to your face?”

“It is nothing. More importantly, Luna, do you have something like a stamina recovery medicine?”

At that, Luna opened the storage cabinet, took out the dried root of some plant, and brought it to me.

“Chew it. It should relieve your fatigue to some degree. It is a little unfortunate that I cannot give you proper medicine because I do not have the ingredients.”

Proper medicine?

Ohhh! I refuse anything that terrifying.

“Thank you.”

“You have not had breakfast yet, have you?”

“Ah, I will eat around eight. So you can sleep a little more. I will come wake you.”

After hearing my words, Luna grinned and closed the door. I chewed the root she had given me and slowly went down to the hall.

In the hall, Rene was sitting at the table, leisurely drinking tea.

When she saw me stumbling down the stairs, she made a sympathetic face.

“You look terribly tired. Are you all right? I think it would be better if you went upstairs and slept more.”

“I am fine. Today is the day Mr. Jimant leaves, so I have to stay alive until then. Right, would you like to chew some of this too?”

I sat beside her and handed over the plant root I had received from Luna.

However, Rene shook her head.

“No. I am fine. But what did you do with the clothes you wore out at dawn?”

I smiled bitterly at her words.

“I put them under the bench outside. And I used several scrolls from your study. I am sorry.”

At my words, Rene smiled brightly and shook her head.

“It is all right. More importantly, shall we go look at the clothes you wore?”

She rose from her seat and walked outside.

I looked at her back, then realized something I had forgotten.

That is right! The Dragon Heart!

“Honey, wait a moment!”

I quickly stood, went down to the bath, found the pants I had placed on the very top of the wardrobe, and brought them up.

However, Rene was not in the hall.

She was in the yard, shaking out some piece of cloth. Looking more closely, I saw it was the robe I had worn.

I walked outside and was able to see Rene better as she coughed and shook out the robe.

The amount of sand dust is no joke.

“You are shaking it out when you are going to wash it?”

“Cough, cough! Ahem! I am shaking it out because I am going to wash it. If I wash it as it is, too much wash water will come out and stain other cloth.”

I nodded at her housekeeping philosophy.

After Rene shook the robe out thoroughly, she spread it long over the bench.

Then she picked up my shirt, which had been miserably crumpled.

She spread it out to shake it as well, then opened her eyes wide.

Immediately after that, Rene’s startled face turned toward me at high speed.

She pointed at the large amount of bloodstains on the back of the shirt in her hand and said,

“What is this?”

“Bloodstains.”

At my simple answer, Rene narrowed her eyes and asked again.

She had been sobbing only a short while ago, but what a varied change of expressions.

“And?”

I smiled bitterly and said,

“It did not completely break.”

Rene clutched the shirt in her hand, hurried behind me, and yanked up the shirt I was wearing.

I smiled bitterly at the way she put her hand against my back and felt around, and quietly stood there with both hands in my pockets.

After running her hand over my back once, she let out a faint sigh.

Slowly removing her hand from my back, she said,

“Haaah! What a relief. It should still be able to suppress your power.”

I bent down, picked up a stone lying in the yard, and crushed it with my fingers.

CRACK!

Just like usual, it only broke after I put a little strength into it.

“Ah, it seems so. But at this rate, it will completely collapse before long. Even tomorrow is fine, but I have to go see the old woman at once.”

“Yes.”

That was Rene’s reply as she lowered my shirt and stroked my back with a sorrowful face.

I looked back at her and smiled softly.

“Do not worry. The inscription can be drawn again, and there is also the armor, right?”

Rene only showed a powerless smile.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and nodded to tell her it was all right.

At that, she smiled faintly with her eyes, pointed at the pants tucked under my arm with her finger, and said,

“Are those pants?”

“Ah, they are what I wore out. They got dirty.”

“Give them to me for a moment.”

I handed her the pants I was holding.

Rene accepted them and held them open with both hands.

When the rolled-up pants spun around and unfurled downward, a large amount of sand fell out, along with a red jewel that dropped onto the ground with a thud.

Rene saw it lying on the ground in the morning sunlight and opened her eyes wide.

She bent slightly at the waist, stared at it, and pointed at it with her finger.

“What is this?”

At her question, I displayed the manner of a husband who deeply loved his wife and kindly explained.

“Aiarunit’s Dragon Heart.”

---

The study. Twelfth shelf on the right bookshelf, and from there, the seventh shelf from the top, fourth book from the right.

Mm, is this it?

I reached out and pulled out the book that fellow had told me about.

Beside me, Rene quietly looked at the clear red light of the Dragon Heart and muttered,

“I am not very interested in jewels, but it truly is a beautiful color.”

“It is the Dragon Heart, after all. Let us see… Hm? What is this?”

I was shocked when I looked at the book.

That was because all the writing was in Elvish.

Aaaah!

However, Rene, who had taught me her people’s writing, was watching, so I could not simply pass it over to her.

So, in order to show off the reading ability she had half-forced me to learn, I read while breaking into a cold sweat, but there were more words I did not know than words I did.

In the end, I had no choice but to suppress my sorrow and hand it to Rene, who was standing beside me with an incomprehensible smile.

After handing me the Dragon Heart neatly wrapped in a towel and receiving the book, Rene looked it over here and there before opening it and saying,

“Dragon… This is a book I have not seen before. Was something like this here?”

“Dragon? Is that the title of the book?”

“Yes. The title of the book is Dragon. So, what page did you say?”

“Page 284.”

Rene slid her slender fingers through the pages, then pointed with one finger and began reading slowly in a clear voice.

‘The Nature of the Dragon Heart, and the Properties or Effects It Possesses.’

The Dragon Heart is a crystallized form of mana that flows faintly through the atmosphere. Even a single fragment of it can make an ordinary mage be called an Archmage, and dense forest forms in the land where it is buried.

Such a forest is called a Dragon’s grave, and even after several thousand years pass, its green shade does not change in the slightest. However, if the Dragon Heart disappears, the forest will vanish before long. Therefore, countless intelligent monsters gather there to protect the dragon’s grave.

Furthermore, the one who possesses it will not contract any illness until the day they die. Even if they already carry disease, it has the ability to cure them, but it does not possess the ability to permanently extend one’s life span.

Therefore…

As I listened to her voice while holding the Dragon Heart beside her, I glanced at it, then turned my head toward Rene.

Perhaps the contents of the book had stirred a little interest in her, because Rene continued reading.

Such burning scholarly zeal.

I quietly looked at her and smiled softly.

Then I slowly lifted the Dragon Heart and held it up to the light of the Light Ball.

The glow of the Light Ball reflected roundly on the heart, and clear blood-red light streamed out.

Also, inside the heart, there was some black thing with a certain shape, and when it met the glow of the Light Ball, it created a strange image.

It felt as though I were seeing Aiarunit’s silhouette again, singing sorrowfully while looking up at the full moon before dawn, so I smiled a little bitterly.

What exactly is this? A small sense of responsibility toward those who lived upon your grave?

Or is it merely a wish that your name be remembered?

If the answer is among those, then I will choose the former.

Thank you, Aiarunit.

A short while later, Rene glanced at me, smiled somewhat apologetically, and closed the book she was holding.

I looked at her and smiled faintly.

Then, looking down at the beautiful red jewel with gentle eyes, I raised a firmly clenched fist.

“Will it break?”

“Well. Judging from the contents of this book… oh my?”

Rene was about to take the book from under her arm and open it, but she made a startled face. I turned my head toward her.

Rene was staring closely at the back of the book. When I looked, she showed a faint smile and turned the book around to show me.

And on one corner of the black back cover, the author’s name was written in white ink.

That name astonished me.