Newlywed Misunderstandings
As they entered the slum village, blatant stares poured in from every direction. Children of all ages could be seen peering out while hiding their bodies. For some reason, they looked utterly astonished.
The unusual whispering finally made Odeliana realize the situation she had walked into.
“It’s a bride. He brought a bride.”
“Looks like that fellow snatched himself a pretty young lady.”
“A new bride! It’s a new bride!”
It was the sort of reasonable assumption anyone might make upon seeing a young man and woman slipping into the same house late at night. In a lawless slum like this, kidnapping a partner for marriage was practically commonplace.
Because “blanket weddings”—bride kidnapping, where a man simply wrapped the woman he desired in a cloth and carried her off—were widespread, everyone naturally assumed Mathias had abducted his bride.
Thanks to that, Odeliana had suddenly acquired a younger husband.
“Put me down. I can walk.”
She could not allow the misunderstanding that her promising young disciple had a lame bride. Yet even now, Mathias kept his usual calm expression and only tightened his arms around her.
“Just stay still. Your leg is injured.”
“It’s fine. I can manage on my own.”
“We’re nearly there anyway.”
When they reached a ramshackle hut that looked ready to collapse at any moment, Mathias carefully set her down. Odeliana swallowed her embarrassment, all too aware of the crowd of children trailing after them.
“I’m sorry. I’ve caused needless misunderstandings because of me.”
“It’s better to leave them with their misunderstanding. At least they won’t bother us for a while.”
Even in this primitive marriage culture, certain rules existed. No one was to loiter near a newlywed’s home. It reflected a strangely refined belief that even the most bestial men would not interfere with the act of reproduction.
She felt guilty for turning Mathias—who had always treated women like roadside pebbles—into a shameless brute who kidnapped brides for blanket weddings. The man himself, however, seemed completely unconcerned.
“Wait here a moment.”
Mathias began cleaning the chaotic interior of the hut. After a rough tidying, he rolled up the ragged mat that had been spread on the floor and brought out a clean, brand-new blanket from somewhere. It was snow-white, without a single stain—clearly something that had not been used long. That made it strange.
Everything in the slum was old, worn, and filthy enough to be considered junk. A pristine white blanket stood out jarringly among the squalor. Pristine bedding laid across a dirt-caked floor. Wasn’t this too precious to offer a mere temporary guest?
“That looks brand new. I’m fine with the mat. You should use it.”
“Use it. I wasn’t raised so poorly as to offer a dirty spot to a guest.”
It felt unfamiliar. This courteous side of Mathias.
After personally spreading the blanket for her, he retrieved the mat he had pushed into the far corner and sat as far away as possible. Watching the owner of the house crouch in the corner made her feel so awkward it was like sitting on a bed of thorns.
A guest was one thing, but she was little more than an intruder who had forced her way in—yet here she was, receiving such precious treatment. How mortifying.
The stark difference from their previous life left her mind in chaos.
“Why are you sitting so far away? You’re making me feel awkward.”
“I thought you might be uncomfortable.”
“Me? You look far more uncomfortable because of me.”
“Well… you’re not entirely wrong.”
Odeliana carefully settled herself on the snow-white blanket, then patted the space beside her and beckoned to Mathias.
“Come over here.”
At her words, Mathias raised one eyebrow.
“You want us to sleep together?”
The clear tension in his voice was oddly endearing. Odeliana nodded.
“There’s no reason we can’t. We’re only sleeping.”
“That sounds rather dangerous.”
“What exactly is dangerous?”
“On a night this late, how do you know what I might do once you pull me onto that blanket?”
This time the remark was genuinely funny. Odeliana finally burst out laughing. Paying no mind to the young boy’s increasingly sullen expression, she clutched her stomach, tears streaming down her face, and howled with laughter.
After a long while, she tried to stifle her giggles and catch her breath. Then she looked at the disgruntled boy with open affection and smiled.
“What could you possibly do to me?”
It had been a casual, dismissive remark, but once spoken, it carried a distinctly provocative edge. By the time Mathias realized it, he had already cleared the mat and climbed onto the white blanket.
When had he moved? She was still reeling from the speed her eyes couldn’t even track when she belatedly noticed his face was so close their noses nearly touched.
Seen up close, his eyes were even more transparent and beautiful. The pupils sparkled as if stars had been embedded within them—more brilliant than any jewel in the world. Mesmerized, she stared into those eyes, then slowly lowered her gaze to his lips. He curled the corner of his mouth upward in a slow, perfect arc.
“What exactly do you think a man and a woman can do, alone together on a blanket in the dead of night?”
“……”
“There’s only one thing.”
The smile on his lips was neat and composed, but his eyes held a dangerous heat. His large hand gently enveloped hers. He exerted almost no pressure, yet strangely she could not pull away. The overwhelming difference in power was unmistakable.
With this much strength, why on earth were you letting yourself get beaten before?
With a flicker of discontent, she felt her balance shift under the weight pressing down on her.
The soft texture of the blanket met her back. A shadow fell across her upward gaze.
“Can you even do it?”
You, who hated anyone else’s hand touching your body and treated them like insects?
Mathias narrowed his eyes slightly.
“That seems far too rude a thing to say to a perfectly healthy man.”
“I didn’t mean you’re crippled. I meant you’re not the kind of shameless scoundrel who would do that.”
“How can you be so certain? You speak as if you know me well.”
“Because I have a good eye for people.”
I know you very well. In our previous life, I was probably the person closest to you.
Though their relationship had not been pitifully affectionate, it was undeniable that they had been closest to each other. Master and disciple, colleagues serving the same lord, and in the end, lord and vassal. Like it or not, they had spent a long time together.
“If you’re so confident, go ahead and try it. What are you going to do to me?”
“……”
“Shall I take my clothes off first? Or would you prefer to undress me?”
Only then did a hint of embarrassment flicker across Mathias’s face. He quietly released her hand, withdrew from above her, and subtly turned his gaze away. The tips of his ears had turned faintly red.
Odeliana was shocked in an entirely different way.
To think there would come a day when I saw Mathias looking embarrassed.
“See? You can’t do it, yet you talk so boldly.”
Mathias looked at her with clear displeasure before letting out a small sigh.
“It’s not that I can’t. It’s that I won’t.”
The way he corrected her was so comical she nearly laughed again.
“I see. How very kind of you.”
At her coaxing, child-soothing tone of praise, he let out a soft chuckle.
“That’s the first time anyone’s called me kind.”
“It seems everyone around you simply lacked the eyes to see it.”
At least in this life, he was neither as violent, nor as fierce, nor as cruel as before. She felt certain he could become a far better person than he had been in their last life.
“Just in case, let me warn you—never do anything this dangerous with another man.”
“Dangerous?”
“Don’t pull just anyone onto your blanket.”
What do you take people for! Interpreting his words as calling her frivolous enough to drag any man into bed, Odeliana flared up and explained herself.
“I simply didn’t want you sleeping on that filthy mat when there was a clean blanket. Besides, I’m the uninvited guest here. It would feel wrong for me to monopolize something this nice alone. There was no deeper meaning. Truly.”
“Even so, you were completely defenseless.”
He sighed and turned over, radiating a firm resolve not to lay a single finger on her. It almost seemed like he was making a point—see how well-behaved I am; you should know you’re safe.
“Go to sleep. Quickly.”
It was indeed far too late.
She had wanted to apply the medicine to his wounds and talk a little longer, but since he seemed drowsy, it would have to wait until tomorrow.
I still need to tell him to come with me…
Will he follow obediently? Odeliana turned her back to him as well and closed her eyes.
Whether it was the sudden change of environment or the fact that sharing a blanket with her disciple was a first across both lives.
It was a sleepless night.