I Don’t Want To Be The Hero’s Wife – Chapter 010

Normally, a servant’s role is to gauge their master’s mood first and foremost.

“Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?”…those were the sorts of questions they were supposed to ask. If the master said yes, the servant would prepare a meal. That was how things were meant to be.

But this impudent servant didn’t even bother asking the young mistress what she wanted. It was as if he expected her to simply accept and consume whatever he gave her.

Ophelia felt a chill of déjà vu creep up her spine, her hands turning cold. Watching the two of them, she couldn’t tell who was the master and who was the possession.

No… perhaps it was the contrast between his beautiful face and that unexpectedly rough voice.

He didn’t feel human.

It felt like a beast gripping its prey before devouring it.

Behind the curtain of black hair, his icy eyes showed no attempt to hide their hostility. It was as if he were expressing rage at something precious of his being touched.

“I’ll tend to my master myself, so I ask you to leave.”

The cold command jolted Ophelia like a slap.

‘He heard what I said…!’

Strangely, she felt grateful for being dismissed. For a moment, it even felt like mercy.

Like she’d been caught trying to steal a monster’s treasure.

It didn’t make sense.

He was just a servant. Not even one trained by a noble family, but a lowly errand boy who had worked for a wealthy commoner household.

And yet, his presence alone made her body tense. At some point, her hands had started to tremble.

‘Come to think of it… Before coming here, I did hear strange rumors about him in town…’

That was when…

“Heavens! Ophelia! What are you doing over there?!”

Her mother’s sharp voice yanked her out of her thoughts. Ophelia suddenly realized she had been holding her breath and gasped for air.

“Ah… uh, Mom…”

Seeing her mother rushing toward her, tears of relief welled in Ophelia’s eyes before she could stop them. It was just her mother, but it felt like salvation.

It had to be because of the man standing in front of her, who gave off the chilling impression of some unknown lifeform.

It felt like she had seen something she shouldn’t have.
When they briefly passed each other during the condolence gathering, she hadn’t felt anything like this.

But now, seeing him with Rona, he looked… different. Strange. Disturbingly out of place.

All her sympathy, all her noble intentions… they suddenly felt so insignificant.

She just wanted to leave this place.

Maybe it was better to pretend she didn’t know anything.

But then she saw Rona, held by the man’s large hand. She didn’t know where the courage came from, but she turned to her mother for help.

At least her mother was an adult… surely, she’d be different.

“Um, Mom. She has nowhere to go, and… and she said she’s going to marry that servant and live with him… Couldn’t we maybe… take her in…”

But then…

The man’s reaction was strangely calm. A crooked smile played at the edge of his lips. That twisted expression made Ophelia’s voice gradually grow smaller.

And then, like a bucket of cold water being dumped over her head, came a sharp rebuke.

“Why do you care about that?!”

“M-Mom?”

The response she got from her mother was far colder than Ophelia had expected, and she couldn’t hide her confusion.

Her mother, who had always considered it a personal mission to help those in need… volunteering and extending a hand to struggling neighbors, was now reacting like this? It didn’t seem real.

“Mom, no… listen to me, just for a second—”

“Listen to what? Come here! Stop meddling in things that don’t concern you! You have no idea how dangerous it is to get involved with this family!”

“Ah!”

Her mother suddenly grabbed her arm roughly, yanking her back. It was almost primal… a kind of survival instinct.. as if the only thing that mattered was pulling her daughter as far away from that place as possible.

She looked like someone desperate to flee, as though staying near them any longer might invite misfortune.

“Mom…! Wait… let me talk to Rona just a little more…!”

But Ophelia’s wish went unfulfilled.

As she was dragged away, neither Rona nor that terrifying servant made any move to stop them or say a word in protest. They simply let her go.

“Rona! If you ever need my help, come find me at the Brest Merchant Guild! I’ll help with anything I can… anything!”

As she was pulled away, Ophelia gathered all the courage she had left and desperately called out to the child, offering one last helping hand. Like the way she had first spoken to Rona, it might have been a bit reckless, but her heart was sincere.

Leaving that girl behind with that man gnawed at her. Her feet felt impossibly heavy.

She looked back one last time.

Rona’s face remained innocent as ever. And the man’s…

He was smiling like a monster who had successfully defended his precious treasure.

Ophelia had a feeling she would remember this day for a long, long time.

A memory that would stay with her like a nightmare.

* * *

After everyone had left, winter rain began to fall from the sky.

Anark removed his coat and fashioned it into a makeshift umbrella. Though the fabric was too thin to truly shield from the rain, under that small roof, Rona felt a quiet warmth.

Before they left, Rona looked back at the sandcastle she had built. It resembled a cave-like house on the verge of collapse, with two small snowmen beside it.

When Ophelia had approached earlier, she had almost unknowingly stepped on Rona’s creation. Anark had stopped her… he had protected it.

Raindrops splattered against the muddy snowmen, shaping their faces into something that looked like a smile. Rona stared at them for a while, then turned and smiled just like the earthen snowman as she grabbed Anark’s hand.

“Let’s go!”

Without a word, Anark shielded Rona from the rain. Even with just a thin coat, not a drop landed on her.

People assumed Rona didn’t understand death, but in truth, she understood it quite well.

It was just that her parents, while loving, were rarely home, and Anark, who cared for her daily, had always felt closer. So her attachment had naturally shifted from her parents to the servant standing beside her.

That’s why she didn’t feel grief or fear in the face of their deaths.

The thought that she would never see her parents again made her chest feel a little tight, but she truly believed that her daily life wouldn’t change much.

She didn’t yet know that everything… like the rain-drenched, ruined sandhouse and muddy snowmen… would eventually collapse.

* * *

One autumn afternoon, with the leaves glowing in shades of red and gold…

A middle-aged woman with glasses was briskly preparing a meal. Cream soup, meatballs, apple pie, couscous salad, butter rolls, grilled salmon, tomahawk steak, red wine…

Rona sat wide-eyed, watching the food pile up on the table.

“Madam, you know how to cook all this?”

The woman didn’t answer. She moved quickly on her slender legs, carrying dish after dish without sparing Rona a glance. It was clear disrespect.

Rona puffed her cheeks and squinted.

“Madam Andersen never answers when I talk to her. But she always listens to Anark.”

Madam Andersen had been hired by Anark. Rona had been extremely wary of anyone entering the home she shared with him, but having the woman live there had become unavoidable.

It had been one year since her parents died when Anark suddenly announced he was joining the military.

In the beginning, their life had gone exactly as Rona expected.

Even though her parents had died, her daily routine hadn’t changed much. Anark still fed her, managed the household, and stayed nearby until she fell asleep at night.

The biggest change was the move.

For some reason, Anark sold the estate her parents had left behind and relocated them elsewhere.

She’d wanted to ask why, but the constant weariness on his face made it difficult to bring up.

Without her parents to pay his wages, Anark had started working outside the home.

He wasn’t picky about his jobs… one day at an armory, another delivering newspapers, another waiting tables at a restaurant, and yet another working in a tavern.

Rona couldn’t understand why he worked so tirelessly.

When she asked, “Why not just use the inheritance my parents left?” Anark replied that it was hers, and he wouldn’t touch it.

She didn’t really mind if he used it. In fact, she had entrusted all of it to him in the first place.

But Anark was adamant.

‘What would I gain from stealing a kid’s pocket money?’

Even when a creature destroyed their new home and he lost everything he’d earned, he never once touched her inheritance.

Though he’d lost everything in an instant, Anark didn’t seem shaken. As long as Rona was safe, he simply returned to daily life and began building again from scratch.

Even in times of financial hardship, he would skip his own meals to make sure Rona was fed. Yet he never once asked for her help.

And then one day…

Anark announced he was going to become a soldier.