MHITE - Chapter 3
My Husband is Too Earnest
Translator: Alphya04
Proofreader: Chonnie
Chapter 3
A sigh escaped my lips.
“Alberto-sama, you’re sitting idle.”
His groomed eyebrows twitched in response, but I decided to pretend as if I didn’t notice.
“After you finish up with those documents, please continue with this stack over here.”
Alberto glanced at me; not bothering to hide the dissatisfied expression on his face. Again, I faked as if all was good and swell and peachy.
After talking with Frantz, I realized that I was already tired of this. Subsequently, I decided that I would no longer refrain myself from speaking my mind.
Even if Alberto’s heart didn’t acknowledge our marriage, we have lawfully become husband and life.
Even if we– if I– didn’t like it, we’re here and stuck together. It would be good if we could understand each other’s real selves as soon as possible.
“Shouldn’t you have a little bit more compassion for your husband? If it was Liselotte, she would be sympathetic and look at me with a worried expression. Her words would have been kind, as they always are.”
Although they weren’t said, his meaning rung in my ears. What about you? Why aren’t you like that?
It was not to my surprise that Alberto questioned my personality. Furthermore, he mentioned the name of his beloved once more. His comparison seemed more like an attack; making me wonder if, after such a short time, he couldn’t stand me anymore.
The servants in the room with us either gained stiff expressions or lost the blood in their faces. Each one of them waited with bated breaths to see how I would react.
Something of note, Alberto mentioned Lady Lisolette’s name during a time in which he was not necessarily lost in his woes, but when he was doing business with me. Perhaps, he thought that if he mentioned her now, it would make me mad. Maybe he wanted me to get so mad that I would leave the room and leave him alone.
Hmm. Looking at his expression now, that was surely the case. It was quite obvious that the results he wanted were something along that vein, so I simply gave him what he didn’t want.
A calm, collected, and cold wife.
“Do you think that it would fit me if I acted cute like Lady Liselotte?”
“Not even an inch! Ah… I don’t mean it like that.”
He answered that so abruptly that he actually began to have a look of apology on his face.
I refrained from giving a dry chuckle. It wasn’t like I wasn’t aware of my own personality, and I embraced that it was who I was, so I didn’t get hurt. I would have ridiculed a person who dared to lie and say that I could pull off the sweetness normal ladies could so easily.
I value honesty more than flattery.
“If you need someone to be by your side to check on you, or if you can’t do your work by yourself, then you would be no better than a child tightly grasping onto the hands of his parents and refusing to let go. You’re already an excellent adult; try not to throw a tantrum.”
After I spoke, he finally began to do his job.
The servants watching the exchange let out a sigh of relief and lowered their shoulders.
Of course, this would only be a momentary peace.
***
“I’m at my limits.”
A few months have already passed. Recently, Alberto has been feeling ill, so he had been confined to bed-rest. The servants asked me as the madam of the house to see how he was doing. I found him cocooned in bedsheets sitting in the corner of his room.
Without hesitation, I pulled the curtains wide open. I quickly made work of the window latch to make the stuffy air within escape and let cool air in. I breathed in deeply.
Exhaling, I turned to him.
“What happened now?”
He looked like a Halloween ghost. Unfortunately, he was a grown man that could not carry the charm of the children that look had been intended for.
Exhaustion darkened his face, a stark contrast to his usual cheery disposition.
Ah. Perhaps that was no longer relevant to this time. Ever since he met me, it seemed like he always looked bothered or in despair. His tenderness and calming smile were reserved for the times between him and his beloved one.
“She came here,” his voice lacked emotion, “and she told me she’s getting married. She said that we need to break up and separate from each other.”
A sour taste came upon my tongue. What can you say to a man who’s had his heart broken twice?
Nothing came to mind–nothing that would seem right to tell him, anyway.
He wasn’t like me. He was an extremely delicate being.
“I fully see where you’re coming from, Alberto-sama.”
“You can never understand how much I loved Liselotte–how much I wanted to marry her.”
A part of me wanted to say that thanks to his constant and unyielding episodes, I fully understand. But of course, I did my best to restrain myself. There’s no meaning to putting the blame on him now.
“Albero-sama, I’m sure Lady Liselotte was forced into marriage like yourself.”
“I know that. And because I know it, I can’t stop blaming myself. I should have married her before any of this happened.”
He bothered me greatly. More and more I saw him like a child who just ends up sulking and blaming himself for something that was out of his control.
I could leave him alone to dwell with his thoughts, but with him being who he was, it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if he did something dramatic or unspeakable.
And also, even I find it pitiful that a beautiful man like himself is in a bad mood.
Well, it seems as if I’ve been sighing a lot since he entered my life.
I sat near him and placed my hand on his shoulder.
He looked up at me, astounded. He probably thought that I wasn’t capable of comforting someone, and frankly speaking, I’m not quite sure how to at all. As he moved, the bedsheet that had been casting a shadow over his face revealed his beautiful features.
My husband’s eyes were red.
“Alberto-sama, you may feel like you’re at the lowest point of your life since you have been separated from the person dearest to you. But since you feel like there’s a bottom, then there must surely be a peak. Now all you have to do is climb up to that zenith. If getting separated from her is the worst, then now nothing else can be worse, correct? So from now on, things will be good.”
I may or may not have paraphrased from a book I had read long ago. But the intention and essence are the same.
It was probably weird to him that I was being expressive because he looked at me with a thoroughly confused expression.
“Alberto-sama, we are married. I am your wife and you are my husband. As your wife, I will support you. I will never be your beloved, but I can promise to be your pillar. In any case, I can help guide you in whatever ways I can.”
“That… how could you call us a married couple without the fundamentals of love?”
Certainly, it was a bit different from the world’s ideal, but wasn’t this an alright arrangement anyway?
“I don’t see any problem. I don’t care about what the world would think of me or of us. Certainly it may seem a little strange, but it is something they must learn to be accustomed to. Life will continue to go on, as it should be. If we can go along with it, then it can be considered a win, regardless of the circumstances we’re in. So, Alberto-sama, please stand up.”
I let out a small smile, “Hard times like this is the best time to go work.”
“You… even at a time like this, you’re going to talk about work?”
“If I were in your situation, I would concentrate on work to forget my sadness.”
“You really are a strange one.”
Perhaps he reluctantly understood my logic, so he reached for my hand and slowly stood up.
Once stable, he looked at me like one would look at an animal at the zoo. His eyes boring intensely into my person.
He laughed slightly after.
Working off of that, I spoke. “I don’t know how a normal person would comfort you in this case, so let’s just go to the dining room. I’ll ask them to prepare your favorite foods and drinks. Don’t you know that if you fill yourself up with good food, then most of your problems go away?”
Alberto shook his head, wearing an expression that said ‘whatever, do what you want with me already.’ But he didn’t contest, and simply followed me.
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