Chapter 95 : Side Story (Episode 15) 

Chernea is acting strange.

Of course, Riolem already knew she was an unusual person by nature.

But these past few days, she has been truly odd.

First, she stopped sneaking out to the village alone without Riolem noticing.

Riolem stared quietly at the firmly closed front door.

He had just come back from the neighboring village.

He wanted to bring some familiar mainland food to Chernea, even just a little.

In other words, Chernea had been alone for a while.

Riolem didn’t know how long he would be away, but it was clear he wouldn’t return for at least three or four hours.

Yet Chernea did not leave the house at all.

There were no obvious signs of surveillance or restrictions on her coming and going, but just from the look of the closed door, it was clear.

…Why?

Riolem furrowed his brow as he adjusted the milk pudding and fruit butter he was holding.

Just in case, he climbed over the fence to check the back door, but it was the same — no sign it had been opened.

In other words, lately, Chernea hadn’t even gone out for a walk alone, not even into the garden behind the house.

It was strange.

If Chernea were an ordinary person, Riolem might have simply thought she was finally obeying his request not to go outside alone.

But Riolem knew Chernea Antoinetta del Peroa too well — she was a woman he had been painfully familiarized with.

Because of that, he could sensitively detect her changes.

Chernea usually ignored Riolem’s requests.

The more earnestly he asked, the more mischievous her reaction would be.

So he had no idea why she was acting like this now.

What on earth was going on?

Riolem walked back toward the front door.

Then he saw Chernea sitting by the window facing the sea.

That was another strange thing.

Since she stopped going outside, Chernea spent a lot of time sitting blankly on the sofa staring out the window.

It wasn’t a new habit for Chernea to like sitting in front of that window.

Sitting on the sofa and leisurely watching the sparkling sea was something one rarely got tired of.

But recently, Chernea didn’t seem to be watching the sea, nor did she seem to be waiting for anyone walking along the coastal road.

“Usually, she’d lightly greet the villagers she saw outside the window.”

Today was no different.

Even though Riolem must have been visible walking from the back garden, Chernea showed no reaction at all.

She just sat there in a daze.

Riolem unconsciously clenched his teeth.

“Why on earth?”

Riolem opened the front door.

Chernea turned to look his way, as if to see if there was any point to the door’s loud opening.

“You’re back, Riolem?”

“…Yes.”

Riolem tried to respond as normally as possible.

But it didn’t go well.

Even the smile that usually appeared on Chernea’s lips was faint compared to usual.

His blue eyes glanced down at the dishes in front of Chernea.

The thin soup was almost the same as when he left the house.

Except for the few spoonfuls Riolem had fed her himself, she probably hadn’t eaten anything.

“You haven’t touched your meal at all.”

“Hmm, I wasn’t really feeling like it.”

Riolem swallowed unconsciously.

Since noticing Chernea’s strange behavior, he had been worrying every day, but no good answer came.

At first, he thought maybe she was sick.

Lately, she had been unusually tired.

She even seemed to have lost her appetite.

So he thought she must have caught some illness.

“The weather was just right for a summer cold.”

Chernea was generally healthy but not particularly tough.

In fact, when she got sick, she tended to suffer worse than others.

So he prepared mostly warm food and carefully warmed her shoulders with a hot pack while she slept.

But even that didn’t ease his worries.

She was the kind of woman who would be bedridden just with mild cold symptoms, so he thought she could still get sick despite those measures.

For days, he watched her carefully, but Chernea didn’t show clear signs of illness.

Though she had a slight fever, it didn’t seem severe.

Yet the strange symptoms grew worse.

The frequency of her sitting blankly or picking at her food increased.

So Riolem came to the conclusion it was a problem with food.

“…I bought some milk pudding and fruit butter. I’ll bake some bread, so please at least eat that.”

“You must have gone quite far.”

“Not really far.”

Of course, I had to cross a mountain, but that was nothing.

Actually, it was the closest place selling inland ingredients familiar to Chernea.

‘At least compared to what they sell here,’ Riorem thought as he entered the kitchen.

Since settling in the seaside village, Riorem and Chernea had been eating a lot of seafood.

Looking back now, it was a careless menu choice.

The Duchy of Peroa has no sea, after all.

It must have been hard for Chernea to get used to eating seafood she had never eaten in her life.

So Riorem brought what he could find of the foods Chernea used to eat often.

Though far less lavish than the dinners served to the Peroa princess, still… if it was familiar food, she might eat a little.

That was his hope.

But Riorem’s hope was quickly shattered.

Bang!

As soon as the rich smell of butter filled the house, Chernea flung open the window.

Startled, Riorem turned to her, and her shoulders twitched slightly.

At a glance, Chernea’s expression was no different from usual.

But Riorem knew his wife too well to ignore the slight hardening at the corner of her mouth.

Without a word, Riorem took the food from the oven and carried it outside to the garden.

There was no need to ask if it was because of the smell.

She reacted so obviously.

After airing out the room, Chernea’s expression returned to normal.

‘Though her complexion still didn’t look good…’

Riorem firmly shut his mouth and lifted Chernea into his arms.

Only after seating her on his lap, feeling her body warmer than usual, did his trembling hands begin to calm down.

Golden eyes quietly watched the scene.

“Riorem.”

“Don’t worry too much. It’s just that your body isn’t feeling quite as well as usual.”

“Is it because of the weather? Or does the perfume I changed to last time not suit you? Or…”

Perhaps because the words came out all at once, Chernea laughed aloud for the first time in a while.

“I really am okay. I heard it’s just something that happens with our constitution if we set our mind to it…”

Her words trailed off.

Riorem quietly lowered his head to look at Chernea.

As expected, her eyelids were half-closed.

This was the strangest part.

Chernea was a sharp, sensitive person.

She almost never dozed off like this, and rarely took naps.

But these past few days, she kept dozing off like someone who hadn’t slept at all during the night, falling asleep suddenly at any moment.

Riorem slowly stood up.

He was becoming more and more cautious.

He didn’t know the cause, but strange things kept happening.

That’s why, though he knew it was pointless, he kept asking Chernea if she was feeling unwell or if there was a problem.

But the answers were always similar:

“I’m fine, it’s nothing, really.”

Recalling those words repeated for days, his chest tightened painfully.

If only he could write and ask Teumesia.

Yet even using his own name was still awkward for him.

‘What on earth should I do?’

Every meal he prepared ended in failure.

Maybe her tastes had changed? Even when he carefully brought new gifts, her reaction was always lukewarm.

Decorations, furniture, books, flowers—none of it helped.

No matter how hard he tried to pick things Chernea would like, it was meaningless.

He was anxious.

Was Chernea seriously ill?

Or maybe she was simply fed up with this life?

As his thoughts drifted toward the extreme, Riorem finally reached the bedside.

He gently set Chernea down, and her long eyelashes fluttered.

Soon, she opened her eyes.

“Hmm… I must have dozed off again.”

“Please rest more.”

Riorem scratched his dry throat and barely replied.

Golden eyes glanced at Riorem.

“Now that you mention it…”

Chernea whispered,

“I think I want some fruit. Something sour, like oranges or pomegranates.”

“Would blueberries be okay too?”

“Probably.”

Only then did Riorem’s face brighten.

“Rest well. I’ll go get some right away.”

“At this hour?”

“I saw some fruit-bearing trees not far from here. I should be able to pick some quickly.”

Chernea’s eyelids closed again as she lay back down.

Riorem kissed her delicate eyes, then quietly stepped out of the room.

Maybe he was so excited because Chernea had finally spoken what could be called a ‘request’ after a long time.

He didn’t notice at all that Chernea was still awake.

After he closed the front door and left, Chernea murmured with a hint of a smile:

“When will he notice, I wonder.”