Episode 13: My Husband Is Acting Strange

They checked Alec’s temperature and looked for injuries, but he was in perfect health, without so much as a scratch. Normally, he was the type to frequently get scrapes and bruises, but recently, even that hadn’t been the case.

This wasn’t surprising, considering that the village elder no longer asked him to help with chores like repairing walls or harvesting. Before Alec married Afrosa, the elder would often summon him to his daughter’s general store for errands, clearly hoping to make him a son-in-law. But once Alec married Afrosa—the daughter of Dallas, the village’s only priest—such tasks stopped entirely.

It wasn’t just because he had married Afrosa; it was because he became Dallas’s son-in-law. That carried a weight of its own. Regardless, he hadn’t experienced any head injuries recently, nor was there any other reason to suspect something was wrong. Still, Afrosa’s worries didn’t feel like mere paranoia.

“Yes, Father. Something really does seem strange about him…”

“Rose, I told you I’m fine,” Alec interrupted with a sigh.

“Stay quiet, you! Father, I really think he needs to go to the city for a proper examination,” Afrosa insisted, her face flushed with frustration. She began to tear up, her voice trembling as she appealed to her father.

Taken aback, Alec gently wiped her tears and soothed her like a child. Dallas let out a small laugh.

The sight of the couple treating each other like children was endearing. Especially Afrosa—she seemed to view Alec as a perpetually needy, hungry boy, much like the one he had been when he first came to the village: a dirty, starving child who wandered around all day without food. He was a small calamity for the village, a boy everyone avoided for fear of trouble.

The noble lineage of the imperial family, once deeply rooted, had cast him aside like a tumor. Without Afrosa, he wouldn’t have survived.

Dallas narrowed his eyes and studied his son-in-law. Alec, meanwhile, was busy comforting Afrosa, who clung to him, crying. Despite her father’s presence, she remained firmly in her husband’s arms.

Her tears and glances betrayed her thoughts: What if something happens to him? What if he doesn’t recover? Her gaze, as she sobbed against his broad chest and then lifted her head to check on him, was that of a mother worrying over a child by the riverbank.

“Rose, if Alec says he’s fine, you should try to calm down,” Dallas said gently, watching his daughter caress her husband’s face over and over.

Feeling misunderstood, Afrosa turned her head sharply and glared at him. Dallas sighed deeply before speaking again.

“I need to have a private conversation with Alec. Would you step out for a moment?”

“Without me?”

“Yes.”

He nodded firmly. Aphrosa looked baffled but didn’t argue further. Alec, still holding her like a younger sibling, coaxed her to leave. Muttering under her breath, she glared at her father and husband alternately before finally stepping out of the chapel.

Dallas pushed up his old glasses and watched her retreating figure before turning his gaze back to Alec. His expression shifted to one of icy sharpness, like the edge of a blade.

The man before him had changed. Whatever it was, something had shifted. Afrosa’s hypersensitivity wasn’t baseless.

Swallowing hard, Dallas studied his son-in-law. Alec’s face, devoid of warmth, felt oddly out of place. It seemed like he had spent eons alone, hardening into this unfamiliar version of himself. His sharp gaze, steely demeanor, and unyielding posture radiated a strange intensity.

In short, he seemed like a completely different person.

When he sat beside Afrosa, it wasn’t as noticeable. But now, alone with Dallas, the change was palpable. It was as if the essence of the man had been swapped, leaving only the shell behind.

It was as if the shell remained, but the core had been replaced. Of course, Alec had always been sensitive. Anyone raised in such a harsh and merciless environment as the imperial family would naturally grow excessively sensitive and irritable. Alec had been cast out of the royal palace at the age of eleven.

Perhaps his nature was already inclined toward sensitivity. Unlike Afrosa, who dropped everything and sharpened her focus only when it came to her husband, Alec was sensitive to everything. Particularly when it concerned Afrosa, he became so cutting and protective that it left others speechless. He never hesitated to clash with anyone, always bristling with tension.

Afrosa, in contrast, was rounded and soft in all matters except those concerning her husband. But the Alec now standing before Dallas…

“Alec,” Dallas began.

“Yes.”

“What really happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“I didn’t say anything in front of Rose so she wouldn’t worry, but even I can tell something happened to you.”

Alec said nothing. Dallas quietly studied him. His sharp, solemn face was unreadable. Though he’d never been particularly talkative, something about his silence felt different. It was as if he had stepped into another world between yesterday and today. The usual shadows that lingered around him seemed deeper, heavier.

“I had a dream,” Alec finally said, breaking the silence. His gaze, which had been fixed on the floor, shifted to meet Dallas’s.

“What kind of dream?”

“A dream where I lost Afrosa.”

“Oh dear.”

Dallas wanted to offer a comforting smile but found himself unable to move even the corners of his lips. The long shadow of fear that hung over his son-in-law’s pale face reached him, unsettling him deeply. He stared at Alec’s dry, haggard expression.

“It didn’t feel like just a dream. In it, I was a useless man who couldn’t even protect his own child. I became someone who, in the name of protecting Rose, fathered children with other women without hesitation.”

“….”

“And worse, I killed one of those children with my own hands. Even then, I couldn’t hold onto Rose; we were estranged, as good as separated.”

Alec’s voice trailed off. He fell silent, unmoving, as though trapped in the memory of his dream. Dallas, too, stood frozen, unable to even blink, before he finally spoke.

“That was quite a vivid dream.”

“Rose burned to death.”

Dallas didn’t know how to respond. Telling him not to worry because such a thing was absurd and would never happen felt too clichéd. Besides, it didn’t seem entirely impossible either. For the first time, Dallas found himself contemplating the idea of his daughter and son-in-law divorcing.

It wasn’t that he disliked or hated Alec. The fact that Alec had been cast out of the royal family didn’t matter much to him. There were moments when he worried that the current emperor might order Alec’s execution given the turbulent political climate. Yet, such thoughts never pushed him to consider separating Alec from Afrosa. If they had, he wouldn’t have allowed the marriage in the first place, nor would he have permitted Afrosa to approach Alec at all.

But still…

“Are you afraid because you think something like that could happen?” Dallas asked softly, observing Alec with a steady gaze. The previously unfocused look in Alec’s eyes shifted slightly, as if rewinding the dream in his mind.

“Yes,” Alec admitted.

“What exactly were you afraid of?”

Alec’s expression contorted at the question, and Dallas read the unease on his face. It was a look tinged with mild irritation, as though he found the question unsettling.

“Was it the thought of Rose burning to death? Or was it the idea of failing to protect your child?” Dallas pressed.

Alec kept his lips tightly sealed, refusing to answer for a long time. Dallas, too, fell silent, waiting for his son-in-law to speak. After a pause, Alec finally muttered, staring into the cold herbal tea in front of him as though lost in thought.

“Everything.”

“…”

“Everything was dreadful and terrifying. It was a long dream… and a long life. Over time, I kept losing Rose, piece by piece, and I descended into madness.”

“It’s not an entirely implausible scenario, which makes it more unsettling, doesn’t it?”

“Are you saying that dream isn’t impossible?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because you’re a royal,” Dallas answered plainly. His simple statement caused Alec’s already tense face to twist further. Dallas gave him a faint smile.

“You think I—”

“Circumstances are always subject to change,” Dallas interrupted.

Alec fell silent again, visibly grappling with the implications. Dallas chose his next words carefully, trying to ease the tension.

“What I mean is, if you and Rose part ways before such things can happen, it might be for the best.”

---

In the shadow of the chapel, impatiens flowers bloomed. Afrosa carefully plucked the clustered red petals, cradling them in her hands. Surrounded by spruce, oak, birch, and the fir trees most common in the village, she gazed up at the worn chapel. Its weathered exterior and faded red doors, textured like a crab’s shell, bore the marks of time.

Bending down, Afrosa gathered a handful of cornflower petals and placed them into a small cloth pouch. Then, she settled on a long wooden bench in the chapel’s clearing. The golden moth orchids she and Alec had planted two years ago were in full bloom, their beauty untouched by the passage of time.

in the chapel’s clearing. The golden moth orchids she and Alec had planted two years ago were in full bloom, their beauty untouched by the passage of time.

When her father was assigned to this village as a cleric, the first thing he attended to was this clearing. He pulled up the overgrown weeds, planted tidy shrubs here and there, and paved a path with beautiful stones. He wanted even those without faith to feel welcome to rest at the chapel. It was from then on that people began visiting the previously abandoned building.

As she sat on the bench, glancing at the chapel’s red doors, Afrosa fidgeted with the impatiens petals inside her cloth pouch. Memories of her childhood suddenly surfaced.

Like Alec, Afrosa wasn’t originally from this village—nor was she a native of Laurent. She had been born 200 kilometers away in a distant estate and had lived a life of poverty before being adopted by her father, who was a cleric.

Poverty didn’t even begin to describe it. It was a life so harsh it could barely be called living. She worked relentlessly, kicked around daily, and only managed to scrape by because her death would have inconvenienced someone. Her biological parents had lived no differently.

That kind of life had been all she knew. Her father passed away first, and soon after, her mother followed. She was so young then that her memories of it were faint, but one thing was certain—they both had died miserably. Especially her father…

“Rose.”

The deep, familiar voice startled Afrosa, pulling her back from her reverie. She spun around to find her husband standing there, his expression unusually hard. His face looked even grimmer than it had before visiting the chapel. If anything, he had at least shown some expression back at home.

“What did you and my father talk about?”

Alec shook his head silently. Afrosa, frustrated, stared at him with searching eyes before turning her gaze to Dallas, who had just stepped out of the chapel.

“Father.”

Unlike Alec, Dallas had a faint smile on his face. But when their eyes met, he awkwardly cleared his throat, looking sheepish. Afrosa glanced at him in confusion before stealing a look at her husband. Alec, however, showed no such awkwardness. His face was blank, his expression unsettlingly flat.

“Let’s go home,” Alec said.

His large hand brushed against her elbow, and the gentle friction of his dry skin made her cheeks flush. Afrosa cleared her throat and turned back to Dallas.

“Father, we’ll see you in three days, then.”

Three days later was the emperor’s birthday—a national holiday of sorts rather than his actual birth date. It was a day of celebration when everyone rested and feasted. Coinciding with the harvest season, the village would host a large festival, while the estates of the high nobility held even grander celebrations. In Empostium, where the emperor was revered almost as a deity, such festivities were only natural.

Afrosa always felt a flutter of excitement as this time of year approached. Even during the harshest and most exhausting days of her past, this one day had always been a time to eat her fill and rest. And since meeting Alec, she’d found the celebrations even more joyous and lively.

“Alright, see you in three days,” Dallas replied with a bright smile, waving at her.

Even though they’d be spending the entire day together soon, she felt a pang of sadness at the farewell and waved back for a long time. Alec’s hand tightened slightly around her waist, pulling her closer. Afrosa turned her head to look up at him.