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Chapter 3
But Blake’s attitude remained completely calm.
He stared blankly at me for a moment before closing his eyes again.
And then… it looked like he simply went back to sleep.
Excuse me?
I was dumbfounded, but because his reaction had been so natural, it felt awkward to wake someone who had apparently fallen asleep again.
Still, it was embarrassing to remain wrapped in Blake’s arms as though we were a happily married couple.
After hesitating for a while and watching him carefully, I eventually gave up and kept my mouth shut.
Looking at my husband sleeping peacefully like an angel, I let out a sigh inwardly, deciding that whatever this was could wait until later.
Fine. Sleep…
I don’t even know anymore.
Having completely surrendered, I decided to spend the time observing the handsome male lead.
According to the story, he was my husband, but in reality, I had only met him a handful of times.
I had been neglected from the very first night of our marriage, and we even used separate bedrooms.
Meals were always taken separately.
Whenever there was an event we absolutely had to attend, either only one of us would go, or neither of us would.
We had so little contact that we were practically strangers.
No wonder this situation felt unbearably awkward.
But…
Was it really true that his heart didn’t beat?
Then shouldn’t he be unable to sleep like this?
I’d never seen zombies in movies sleeping soundly.
Carefully, I reached out toward Blake and placed my fingers against the side of his exposed neck, checking for a pulse.
What met my fingertips was exactly what he’d claimed—a quiet, motionless patch of skin without the slightest hint of a heartbeat.
Thinking I might have checked the wrong place, I pressed at several different spots.
The result was always the same.
“…Ha.”
Perhaps my probing had become irritating, because a long sigh finally escaped Blake’s lips.
He caught the hand that had been feeling around his neck and slowly opened his eyes.
A faint trace of annoyance colored his face.
Those blue eyes, filled with dissatisfaction at having his sleep disturbed, stared at me for a long moment.
“…”
Unable to endure that gaze, my eyes darted around nervously.
Finally deciding he wasn’t going back to sleep, Blake pushed himself halfway upright and looked down at me.
His face looked pale, making him appear even more exhausted.
His voice, low and almost growling, was still as deep and decadently husky as it had been right after he’d come back to life.
“You really hated sleeping beside me that much? Why are you groping the neck of someone who’s trying to sleep?”
“Huh? I was just… checking if your pulse really wasn’t beating.”
Ah, his face and voice had distracted me so much that I completely missed the chance to get angry first.
I hurriedly sat up and, after hesitating for a moment, finally blurted out,
“Then why are you sleeping here in the first place? And why are you… I mean…”
“Hugging you?”
“Y-Yes… that.”
Seeing the playful grin spreading across Blake’s face made my own cheeks burn bright red.
I was dying of embarrassment, but he seemed far more interested in something else.
After blinking thoughtfully for a moment, he spoke as though tossing the words out casually.
His handsome brows furrowed, as if something displeased him.
“So? Do you have a problem with me sleeping beside my own wife?”
“N-No, it’s not that… It’s just… you’ve never done this before.”
Oddly enough, my suddenly strange husband relaxed at my answer.
Then, smiling brightly as though he had another motive hidden away, he said,
“Do you know you slept for three straight days after bringing me back?”
“Really? It’s already been three days?”
Well… I had expected something like that after digging through all that rain with a shovel.
Even so, it was amazing that my entire body still ached with muscle soreness.
But every stray thought vanished as Blake continued.
“I couldn’t sleep during those three days.”
“Why not?”
“Just like I said. Maybe it’s because this body’s been resurrected. I never felt sleepy.”
He maintained a rather cynical expression.
His voice was low.
His tone was cold and sarcastic.
And yet, strangely enough, he was smiling.
“So I got irritated and came looking for you. I wanted to see if the person who turned me into this was sleeping comfortably.”
“…”
“But strangely enough, the moment I got close to you, I started feeling sleepy. And once we were touching, I could actually feel warmth. So I held you and went to sleep.”
In other words, it seemed that when he stayed beside me—the necromancer who had resurrected him—his body functioned normally.
Watching me sink into serious thought, Blake drove the point home.
“I guess it’s some kind of side effect. I never expected a resurrected body to be perfectly normal anyway.”
“…”
“So, Wife… I’m going to need your cooperation.”
The mischievous smile on his face was strangely irritating.
If he had a body that didn’t even need sleep…
Couldn’t he just not sleep?
Naturally, Blake seemed to read exactly what I was thinking.
“Oh, I still felt fatigue. Going without sleep made my body feel heavy.”
In the end, I let out a sigh and nodded.
It was the surrender he’d been waiting for.
If all we’re doing is sleeping together…
That should be okay, right?
I simply couldn’t think of any excuse to refuse.
At the same time, another question surfaced.
Just why had Blake ended up like this?
Everything had been progressing according to the original novel, so why had he suddenly died?
I didn’t even know what had killed him.
After hesitating, encouraged by the unusually cheerful expression on Blake’s face, I cautiously asked,
“Do you… remember why you died?”
Blake pressed his lips tightly together instead of answering.
The good mood from only moments ago vanished so completely that I wondered if I’d imagined it.
Still, now that I’d started asking, I couldn’t stop.
“You called it… an embarrassing death. You said something like that. So you know what happened, don’t you?”
I still vividly remembered him mercilessly judging his own death.
Just thinking about it made me cringe.
Yet Blake still showed no intention of answering.
He seemed lost in thought.
He looked at my face once.
Tilted his head thoughtfully.
Blinking, he looked at me again.
He repeated the strange behavior several times before slowly rising from the bed altogether.
His actions made it obvious he’d decided not to tell me.
Why on earth did you suddenly die?!
I desperately resisted the urge to grab him by the collar and shout those words.
Instead, I simply glared at the back of the man who was clearly trying to escape.
Perhaps sensing my piercing stare, Blake let out a quiet sigh before turning back toward me.
Then he muttered words that made absolutely no sense.
“Never mind.”
“…What?”
“Go back to sleep.”
After making me this curious, he was telling me to sleep?
After treating me like some lazy freeloader who’d slept for three whole days?
My infuriating husband left my room, making it abundantly clear he had no intention of explaining anything else.
It seemed that after coming back to life, it wasn’t just Blake’s body that had changed.
His head had become strange too.
He was doing things he’d never done before.
Teasing me.
Making jokes.
Everything was completely unlike the Blake from the original novel.
“…Ha.”
Letting out a sigh filled with frustration and unease, I forced my aching body out of bed.
Outside the window, the sky was still dim.
It seemed morning had only just begun.
Blake hadn’t told me to sleep longer for no reason.
Just as I carefully placed my feet on the floor and stretched my stiff body—
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
I answered briefly.
The door immediately swung open, almost as though the visitor had been surprised I’d responded.
Standing there was none other than my maid, Lily Benens.
Among all the nobles who refused to serve the Crown Princess because she was a commoner who had purchased a noble title with money, Lily had been the only one to volunteer.
“I’m the daughter of a fallen baron. I don’t care about all that. I just don’t want to worry about money anymore.”
That had been her remarkably practical reason.
In any case, the rather unusual noble lady approached me, glanced at the messy bed, and whispered conspiratorially,
“Did… something happen last night?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I suppose not. His Highness the Crown Prince isn’t the kind of man who’d act like a beast after his wife fainted.”
“Lily, please.”
Sometimes I honestly felt like I was better at acting like a noble than she was.
Despite that, Lily could be shockingly blunt.
You should’ve been born on modern-day Earth instead.
“Anyway, there’s something that’ll absolutely shock Your Highness.”
“More shocking than my husband dying and coming back to life?”
“Oh, that’s certainly shocking too. But the one who carried Your Highness back while you were unconscious was His Highness the Crown Prince after his resurrection.”
“…”
“Didn’t Your Highness already know that?”
Judging by Lily’s perfectly calm expression, fortunately no one seemed to find Blake’s resurrection suspicious.
Was it because of the prophecy?
When I nodded, Lily’s bright green eyes sparkled like a reporter who had just uncovered a huge scoop.
Even though we were the only two people in the room, she lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Saint Seira has disappeared.”
“What?!”
“I told you you’d be shocked.”
The moment I heard those words, I practically screamed.
Of course I did.
After all…
Saint Seira was the female protagonist of this novel.
The woman who was supposed to end up with my husband, Blake.
