HPMC 06

 Chapter 06

“Were you hungry? I’m sorry this is all I can offer.”

I set down a tray with bread and soup on the small table.

My husband looked a little surprised, glancing back and forth between me and the food.

Right. How absurd must this feel?

This kind of meager meal must be a first for him.

No one in the family even knows how to cook, so I had no idea how we were going to survive from now on.

‘What if Alec even starts losing muscle at this rate…?’

All we have left now is a healthy body.

“…I’m sorry. Still, I’m glad we can at least have a meal like this. I didn’t even have the presence of mind to prepare anything. I didn’t even get to thank the head maid.”

I pulled out a chair.

“Come sit here.”

“…Thank you.”

Only then did my husband approach. From the corner of my eye, he looked awkward.

I took out a bottle of milk and a cup I had hidden in my dress pocket.

Pour.

Gulp.

As I poured the milk, he swallowed dryly, as if nervous.

His Adam’s apple bobbed noticeably.

It was strange how even that could look so… attractive on someone who had just been ill, but the subtle distance between us made me uneasy.

We were never particularly affectionate, but it had never felt this distant before.

Is he acting like this because he feels guilty toward me?

“Drink this, Alec. And don’t tell Eloy or Mother that I gave you milk.”

“Huh? …Ah, yes. Thank you.”

He started drinking the milk I handed him.

Watching him gulp it down somehow put me at ease.

Phew…

I let out a silent sigh and tore a piece of bread to eat, but I couldn’t really taste anything.

I glanced at him.

He tore off a piece of the warmed bread and ate it, wearing an expression that made it hard to tell whether he was chewing bread or paper.

‘Still, just seeing him eat makes me feel full…’

As we ate like that, an odd sense of suffocating silence settled over us.

Sure enough, he suddenly choked.

“Cough, cough!”

“……”

Sighing inwardly, I quietly stood and patted his back.

“Was the bread too rough? Well, you’re not used to eating things like this…”

“N-no, that’s not it… It’s good.”

…Good?

It sounded like an obvious lie, but I decided to let it go.

He was the kind of person who always prioritized others’ feelings over his own.

Even if the food were worse than this dry, tasteless bread, he would still say it was good—for my sake.

Thankfully, he calmed down quickly, and I returned to my seat.

“No matter how good it is, eat slowly.”

“…Yes.”

The quiet meal resumed.

We could manage breakfast and lunch like this, but what about dinner?

I thought I’d never have to worry about food again in my life.

It even brought back memories of my past life in the orphanage, eating while watching others’ reactions.

“Your complexion doesn’t look good.”

At the sudden low voice, I looked up.

When our eyes met, his pupils trembled again.

It seemed my face had unconsciously darkened.

“How could it be good? My husband said he wanted a divorce and then tried to die on his own.”

“……”

This time, his complexion worsened.

His eyes shook as if struck by an earthquake, and he lowered his head slightly, brushing his lips.

“…I’m sorry.”

It was a somewhat awkward apology, but his face clearly showed guilt.

His neat attitude made me inwardly puzzled.

He felt strangely unfamiliar—polite.

His tone wasn’t stiff or stumbling like before; it was normal and mature.

‘Wait! His way of speaking really has changed!’

So shocked I couldn’t even scream, I covered my mouth.

Why hadn’t I noticed sooner?

Since waking up, he hadn’t stuttered even once.

It was so natural I hadn’t realized the difference.

Could it be a sudden change after coming back from the brink of death?

Testing the thought, I asked,

“Alec, you seem different all of a sudden.”

“Pardon?”

“Your way of speaking—it’s changed a lot. Could you say something again?”

I examined him with disbelief, waiting for him to speak.

But Alec looked even more flustered than I was.

Suddenly, like something glitched, he started stuttering again.

“Th-that is…”

“……”

Maybe not?

They said he had always spoken like that, so it wouldn’t change so easily.

“Never mind. I must have imagined it. Hurry and finish eating.”

Did I hear wrong?

Tilting my head slightly, I dipped my spoon back into the soup.

I could feel him swallowing dryly again.

Unable to face me, he seemed even more distant than usual after regaining consciousness.

…Ha, this is driving me insane.

Meanwhile, Alec hid his troubled thoughts as he rubbed his lips a couple of times.

Across from him, his wife was eating soup with little appetite.

She had seemed suspicious for a moment, but didn’t appear to consider that he might not be her husband.

How could he possibly tell her that he wasn’t?

On the off chance, he tried to check for a status window.

But no system appeared.

It seemed clear now that the woman before him was not an NPC from a game.

‘Becoming someone else out of nowhere… this is absurd.’

To make matters worse, the owner of this body had a mother, a younger sister, and a wife.

For someone who had spent his life saving the world without even dating, suddenly having a wife was overwhelming.

‘Honey…?’

When he first heard that word, he had been utterly shocked.

It was far too warm and intimate a term to suddenly enter his life.

‘Why is this world my final reward?’

He had never wanted a family.

There were moments he felt lonely, but fundamentally, he preferred being alone.

Alecsius and Louise were not people he knew, nor did they seem connected to him.

Was his “reward” something like “The Heart-Pounding Daily Life of an Ordinary Husband!” or “A Returning Hero Becomes a Daughter-Obsessed Dad♡”?

No matter the situation, he had always maintained composure—but now, he couldn’t deny his confusion.

From the family’s conversations, he roughly grasped the situation he was in.

—

‘Even after suddenly losing our grand estate and noble status, I tried to endure…’

‘Do you know how I feel, hearing my husband tried to die?’

‘How could I feel okay? My husband said he wanted a divorce and then tried to die alone.’

—

“……”

So, because the family had fallen from nobility, the original Alecsius tried to abandon his wife and family and end his life?

Regardless of what kind of person the original Alec was, he himself was now that Alec.

‘Why this, of all things…’

Until now, every reward the system had given him had always been related to him or useful in some way.

He believed there had to be a reason he had become the ruined Duke Alecsius.

Perhaps he needed to uncover that reason from now on.

Just as that thought crossed his mind—

Louise, who had been silent, spoke.

“…I don’t think we can stay at this inn much longer.”

After eating for a while, I brought up something that couldn’t be hidden.

The reality that we had no money and no home.

“…The innkeeper seems to be watching the Emperor’s mood. And we can’t let others suffer because of us.”

“……”

“Between us, who knows what that tyrant might do next.”

I lifted my eyes slightly to look at my husband.

He said nothing.

Well, what could he possibly say to the fact that we might soon be homeless?

I hadn’t said it expecting anything from him anyway.

As if he had finished eating, he set down his spoon.

“…I see.”

He seemed calmer than before.

“I think I understand the situation.”

Then, in an unexpectedly composed tone, he continued,

“With a mother, a younger sister, and a wife to care for, we can’t keep drifting from inn to inn.”

As he spoke, he neatly stacked his emptied dishes together.

“…?”

My eyes widened slightly at the sudden tidying.

His gaze had also changed—like he was a completely different person.

Sharp and clean, like the finest blade in the world.

Was Alec ever someone who could make that kind of expression?