My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields

T/N: Before you ask, no, fuck no, I won’t be posting 6 chaps today, cause I didn’t even think that y’all would be able to bring the rating up so damn quickly. Y’all can probably imagine the near heart attack I experienced logging in after a day of rest and seeing those stats, I mean, a 4.1? Dayum! Should have done the math before I made that promise…

Anyways, 3 today, 3 in two days. Deal with it.

[My beloved daughter, Tyria, your father is writing to you again.]

The letter began with these words.

After some ordinary pleasantries and inquiring about her well-being, the letter subtly stated its purpose.

Perhaps it was because it was a noble’s letter, but it was full of various flowery expressions and metaphors that could have been expressed in a single sentence, but the end destination was all too clear.

Elric read the letter over and over again with wide open eyes.

He honestly had started wondering if it was actually a curse rather than a blessing that he had such a knack for understanding the context of things.

‘This is….’

[Ten years is enough. Come back and join us. If you want, I can find you a new husband. Stop waiting for someone who won’t come back and take what you can get, you have suffered enough, haven’t you?]

What the letter said was simple.

It told her to take her share of the inheritance and come back to her family.

His hand dropped down.

His gaze was still glued to the letter.

“Did I not think of this possibility before?”

His father had cashed in all of his vast assets and had put them right in front of Tyria when he died.

Yet, there was no share for her in it.

Wasn’t that unfair?

A normal person would have coveted the inheritance and would have tried to take it away from Elric.

Elric thought of Tyria’s face.

Although a woman of few words, she was beautiful.

A woman with dignity that made people feel intimidated unconsciously.

She was such a woman….

‘…You must have suffered a lot.’

She had endured for a long time alone.

After all, she had lived for nine years under his austere father without her husband.

Honestly, he had nothing to say even if she had taken a part of the inheritance.

As far as Elric was concerned, it would have been her rightful share.

This was an easy answer to the question of why she was still here.

His mind cleared up.

But,

‘Why….’

Why did his chest feel like it was being weighed down by dark clouds?

He wondered if it was because of his peaceful times in Wevin, or if it was because of his young heart that still didn’t want his sweet and bitter first love to be tarnished?

A slightly evasive idea began to creep into his mind.

There was something about her behavior that still didn’t make sense.

‘…If it’s because of the inheritance, why did she work so hard every day?’

Elric looked back at how she dutifully scanned the wheat fields every day.

He remembered how they would always eat together in the morning, and how she would receive these letters late at night.

The fact was that she could have taken the entirety of his inheritance a year ago.

It wasn’t like he had broadcasted his true name across the land, spreading the fact that he was still alive.

There was a part of his mind that was uncomfortably poking at him, so Elric got up from his seat.

His eyes scanned the office with sunlight streaming in through the windows.

The space looked unchanged from when his father was still alive, so he could vaguely guess where things might be.

Elric opened a drawer somewhere in the bookcase.

‘As expected, they’re here.’

There were piles upon piles of letters there.

Upon closer examination, they were all letters from Wyvern.

He took them out one by one and read them.

The letters had all started coming in since over a year ago, and the purpose of all of them was the same: to urge Tyria to claim her share of the inheritance.

There were some letters that had never been replied to, and in some letters, there were even phrases begging for a response.

Elric smiled wryly.

The answer to all of this was clear enough to make him feel ashamed for ever doubting her.

‘You’ve been keeping your promise.’

She had been protecting the inheritance of her husband who she wasn’t sure would ever return.

Considering that even Aldio didn’t know about these letters, it meant that she had been hiding them thoroughly. After all, Aldio would have disclosed information about these letters to him to inform him of something that he might not have liked.

Elric glanced out the window, unnecessarily saddened about the fact that for the past year or so, she had been fighting this battle alone.

‘Why are you doing this?’

A field of wheat stretched out before him from through the window, and in the middle of it all was Tyria, working among the people.

She was wearing a straw hat.

Looking at her, Elric wanted to know why.

What’s more, he couldn’t wait to find out.

As he left the office, Elric spoke out.

“Aldio.”

“Yes.”

“Please call for the lady.”

In the end, he had chosen to tackle the situation head-on.

Tyria was doing her hair in front of her mirror.

She was in the best mood she had been in lately.

…No, come to think of it, she had been feeling pretty good for a while now.

It was because Elric, who she thought would push her away and act like she didn’t exist, was at least treating her well.

Not only that, but even though he was unmistakably formal, he would occasionally show her a smile.

Even if it was a fake smile, she couldn’t help but be happy knowing that she was the one it was directed towards.

She could help but cling onto her feelings, even if she knew that it was a foolish thing to do, her heart lingered around him alone.

He had even asked her to meet face-to-face today.

It was a first.

She couldn’t help but look forward to it.

‘Is this enough?’

She was unsatisfied with her appearance, having rushed out of the fields to get ready.

Even though she had changed her clothes, she was worried that the smell of soil would still be on her body and that her hair still looked unkempt.

She thought that maybe she should tidy up a little more… but there wasn’t enough time.

“My lady, are you ready?”

Aldio asked from the doorway.

Tyria swallowed hard and answered.

“Yes, I’m ready.”

But what was the matter?

Delusional speculations swirled around her head.

If it was about having dinner together tonight or if he just wanted to have a personal conversation with her, she couldn’t help but wonder how she should respond to such situations.

Tyria arrived at the first-floor reception room, preparing answers in advance for any possible reason the other person may have for meeting her.

But, as it turned out, the reason for the meeting was quite different from Tyria’s expectations.

“I’ve read this letter. But, first of all, allow me to apologize for opening it without your permission.”

She felt her heart drop into her stomach.

After all, she knew about everything that was in those letters.

They were letters from her family that had been tormenting her for the past year.

She wondered how he had gotten ahold of one of them, but he quickly answered that question for her.

“It was sandwiched between the letters that Aldio was moving.”

She knew that it looked extremely suspicious.

Anxiety gripped her.

She wondered if he would misunderstand her intentions.

That she was a conniving woman, aiming for the inheritance.

All sorts of unsavory thoughts raced through her head as she prepared for the worst case scenario, but thankfully, this wasn’t the case.

“Well… to tell you the truth, I’ve done some more digging, and I’ve discovered that the lady has been ignoring these letters for the past year.”

She was not happy.

Even though she was relieved that there was no misunderstanding, his words were heartbreaking to her.

‘The lady….’

To him, she was still just the lady.

“I just wanted to ask, why have you been guarding my share of the inheritance when you weren’t sure that I would ever come back? You could have kept it all.”

To him, she was a stranger.

A distant stranger whose role in protecting the inheritance was now in doubt.

She seemed really silly at the moment.

Even if the coldness he showed at their first meeting was gone, her heart, which had been grateful for it, was now inexplicably hurt by this small incident.

“Can you tell me why you did not return to Wyvern?”

It was such an obvious question.

But it was also a cruelly indifferent question that hit her deeply in the heart.

His face was calm.

Should she have been relieved that there was no anger or contempt in that expression?

‘No.’

He had probably relaxed himself, remembering that he would be in a position to receive hate if he acted that way.

His face was so deceiving, causing her to have false hopes.

So, she had ended up speaking.

It was almost akin to a rant.

Tyria did her best to respond, although her words seemed a little retaliatory.

“Portman.”

“Hmm…?”

“I’m Tyria Portman.”

She was the lady of the Portman Family, not the Wyvern’s.

She was his wife.

Although, she couldn’t bring herself to add that last part in there.

She was afraid that she would be looked down upon because of her words, or that she might become someone of lesser standing in his eyes than others because of her words.

It was a cowardly thought that she wanted to remain as someone else rather than becoming her own person.

Fortunately, her expression did not distort, and her voice came out steadily.

It was her refined etiquette, completed through harsh discipline in her childhood, that was now concealing her sorrow.

Even the hard punishment that she had hated so much before now felt like a fortunate occurrence for the first time.

He asked her, puzzled.

“Is that all?”

“Do you need another reason?”

Ah, she had replied properly this time too.

For how long could she keep her composure?

Under the desk, her hands clenched together tightly on her lap.

She felt numb on the inside.

If she stayed here much longer, she would make an ugly show of herself.

“Then, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“Well, th-…”

Elric, who had pursed his lips, then nodded in slow motion.

Tyria rose from her seat.

She feigned calmness.

She straightened her back and briefly bowed her head with her right hand over her heart.

“Then I will go.”

After raising her head again, she carefully made her way out of the reception room.

Walking down the corridor alone, she tried to calm her breathing.

Her stomach was lurching, but thankfully, she was used to it.

Tomorrow, she would be able to look at him as she always had.