Chapter 196

Yelena unconsciously swallowed down her saliva and then snapped back to her senses.

‘What am I doing?’

Why was she salivating? A flustered Yelena looked back at Kaywhin’s face.

“…”

Her husband slept peacefully without a sound.

‘He must have been really tired.’

Yelena stared at her sleeping husband’s face and blinked. Usually, they would lie down facing each other and engage in affectionate chatter and Yelena would be first to fall asleep. But today, for some reason, her husband fell asleep before her.

‘Well, it’s understandable.’

Her husband had worked tirelessly for the last two days. The fatigue he accumulated from fighting countless monsters, particularly during the retrieval of the Holy Sword, must have been substantial.

Yelena’s gaze suddenly shifted to her husband’s shoulders.

‘Today…’

Yelena recalled her husband’s appearance when he returned to the count’s castle after excavating the Holy Sword. Just about half his shirt buttons had been torn off, and he wasn’t wearing a jacket.

‘…Was he not worried about his scars?’

There were burn scars on his shoulders from long ago. Since his buttons had been ripped off, his shirt could have easily slipped and exposed his scars when he moved.

Yelena was fascinated by the fact that her husband had taken off his jacket solely because of the smell of monster blood. While she did wonder just how repulsive the stench was for him to do that, another part of her also felt hopeful.

‘Perhaps…’

The scars may have faded, she thought.

Of course, the scars on his body probably didn’t change much, but perhaps the scars in his heart were fainter than before.

‘I hope that’s the case.’

With that hope in her heart, Yelena gazed at her husband and then closed her eyes.

‘I want to get rid of all of it, seriously…’

Her husband’s painful past, his scars. She wished she could make them disappear as if they had never existed in the first place.

‘His brother better appear in my dream. That jerk.’

Yelena closed her eyes and peacefully drifted to sleep, as she earnestly hoped to exact revenge on her husband’s family in her dreams.

“Wife.”

Yelena could hear her husband’s voice. She reflexively turned her head.

“Kaywhin?”

She was surprised to see him drenched in water, just like when he had returned to the count’s castle with the Holy Sword.

“Oh my goodness! Darling, why are you so wet?”

On top of that, he was only wearing a single shirt, just like last time. Half his buttons were ripped off, exposing his wet bare chest.

“And why are your clothes like that again… This won’t do. I’ll tell a maid to bring you new clothes and a towel.”

Yelena, who didn’t know where to look, hastily went to ring the call bell.

But something was strange. The bedroom looked different from how she remembered.

‘Huh?’

Yelena blinked and slowly took in her surroundings.

‘This isn’t… my bedroom.’

But it wasn’t a completely foreign place either. The more she looked around, the more she felt a vague sense of familiarity…

‘Kaywhin’s bedroom?’

Yelena was flustered after she realized where she was. Just what was she doing here?

‘I’m sure I fell asleep in my own room.’

Did her husband move her while she was asleep?

Kaywhin came into sight amidst her confusion.

‘Ah.’

For now, she had to do something about her husband. She couldn’t just leave him in his drenched state.

Yelena reached the rope of the call bell, but she wasn’t able to pull it.

“…?”

Kaywhin’s hand shot forward and blocked Yelena’s hand.

“Kaywhin?”

“Yelena.”

“…Yes?”

Yelena blinked and stared at Kaywhin. When did he come so close? He was so close she could smell his scent.

“Do you not like it?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Do you not like how I look right now?”

“Uh, no… Well, um, what are you…”

“I thought that you would like this.”

Creak.

Kaywhin moved, hovering over Yelena, his weight pushing her further into the bed.

He looked down at Yelena from where he trapped her between both arms.

“Was I wrong?”

“…!”

“Yelena.”

“Y-yes?”

“Look at me.”

Kaywhin’s wet shirt clung to his chest, exposing his body right before Yelena’s eyes. Yelena unconsciously stared at her husband’s marvelous muscles as if in a trance.

Then, a droplet of water trickled down her husband’s fine, statuesque jawline and fell on Yelena’s cheek. Only then did Yelena snap to her senses.