How to Tame My Beastly Husband

Chapter 15.9: c14

Translated by Ailee 

Edited by Mori

Honestly, it would be a lie if she said it wasn't scary. She was now in a dark room alone with a man much larger than herself. He wasn't in his right mind and was even wielding a sword. She was scared to death by this strange appearance of Rafael.

“Rafael…”

But Annette didn't want to leave him all alone here. It was true that she was frightened, but she had now witnessed the weakest moment of Rafael that he had spent so long hiding. Annette somehow felt a strong sense of gratitude towards him. So with great courage, she gently wrapped Rafael's cheeks with both hands.

“Shh, Rafael. The war is already over. You are safe now, and nothing will happen to us. So put your sword down and come here. Yeah?”

Annette whispered tenderly and gently patted his cheek. Her small but warm hand caressed Rafael's face, neck and arms several times. His distressed expression gradually disappeared, and his taut body slowly relaxed.

~Clink.. clang…

Finally Rafael let go of the sword and it fell on the floor. Fortunately it fell on the carpet, so it didn't make much noise. Annette gently knocked the hideous thing away from his feet. She sat on the couch and half-hugged the exposed upper body of Rafael.

With both her small hands, she gently pressed down on his hard bare chest, so that he could fall down on the sofa. Once he was laid on the sofa, Annette exhaled a huge sigh of relief.

But it was still too early to relax her mind. Rafael, reclining on the sofa, looked down at his hands blankly. Then suddenly, he began to rub his hands roughly against his pants. After rubbing so hard against the coarse fabric, the back of his elegant hand quickly turned red. Her sigh of relief soon turned into a long exhale.

“Look at this. Blood.. it's blood, isn't it?  I wasn't trying to do this, Robert.. You know what I mean? I didn't want to, but … I could do nothing about it.” 

Rafael, who was rambling ceaselessly, soon buried his face in both hands as if he was in great pain. The appearance of the veins emerging on the back of the hand as he applied strength to his hands, was horrific. Annette, who saw this, sat by his side, grabbed his formidable veiny hands and gently pressed on it.

“I know. Of course, you're not bad at all, Rafael. So now stop making yourself suffer and rest. Now, would you like to lie down this way?…Yes… Like that.”

Rafael seemed to calm down a little, and then followed her hand and lay down with his head on her knees. Because he was so tall, his legs hung off of the sofa a little, but at least he looked much more comfortable than before. All that was left was to let Rafael have a peaceful sleep.

Underneath his long lashes, his blue eyes stared blankly into space. His eyes, which seemed to be still wandering at the end of his nightmare, were bloodshot. Annette reached out in sorrow, closed his eyelids, and stroked his shoulders. However, Rafael couldn't fall asleep and was gasping again and again.

'How do I get him to sleep?'

Annette thought about what she could do for Rafael. Fortunately, after searching her memories, she was able to think of a lullaby. Her parents didn't care about her enough to sing a lullaby to their young daughter, so her nanny must have sung it. Annette, who cleared her throat, started singing a little awkwardly.

Good night, darling.

When the silver bead-like moon hangs on the black ridge

When the soft spring breeze that kissed the flowers blows.

When the bubbles pop and rumble and then again grow over the ocean.

You will fall asleep

You'll fall asleep in my arms.

Annette's low, soothing humming filled the silent room. At the same time, her soft hands gently stroked Rafael's head as if he was a helpless lovely child.

Annette's lullaby worked better than she thought. Rafael's rough breathing died  down, and the movement of his eyes, which were shaking unsteadily behind his closed eyelids, stopped suddenly. After a while, there was a sound of even breathing. Rafael had finally fallen into a deep sleep.

Annette looked down at him, now only humming the melody of the lullaby. Rafael's face while sleeping so peacefully, looked very exhausted. He must have been suffering from sleep problems for quite some time.

Only now did Annette understand why he was drunk every night. Even now, Rafael's even breath smelled faintly of alcohol.

'It was because of insomnia.'

Under the strict discipline of the Duke of Bavaria, Annette led a diligent life. She always got up early in the morning and started her day. On the other hand, Rafael would only wake up late and appear past noon with bloodshot eyes. Annette once really disliked this appearance of Rafael.

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But now that she saw Rafael's weakness, she felt sorry for him. Annette was well aware of what these symptoms of Rafael were.

'This is….. probably the aftermath of the war, right? The war must have created a trauma for him.'

The Kingdom of Deltium was at war a few years ago. This was because the insurgent forces of Letan kingdom, a neighboring country that they occupied more than 100 years ago, rose up. They claimed for the independence of Letan, which had already been merged to the Deltium kingdom, and started a war. They even brought in the foreign powers to raise the stakes. For this reason, Deltium also had to shed quite a bit of blood to suppress it.

Rafael fought on the front lines in the war. He built a big army with his overwhelming skills and relentlessness, and got a sweeping victory in return. Even then, he continued to stick to his arrogant attitude of “Of course it was just natural.”

In fact, Rafael was a self-righteous, and proud man. He was as cold and firm as a well-forged-out Mithril*, and nothing seemed to hurt him. So no one, even his wife, Annette, knew the darkness hiding behind his pride.

(T/N: It seems author is a Lord of the Ring's fan.)

“You stubborn idiot.”

Annette touched Rafael's sculpted cheek and whispered in a small voice. While asleep, his delicate eyebrows and forehead wrinkled in a frown. It seemed as if his beastly sixth sense had noticed Annette looking at him and calling him an idiot.

When she saw that, Annette somehow burst out laughing. No matter how angry Rafael was now, it seemed that he would not be as scary as before. She also found out that he was a normal person with his own scars and heartache.

“Good night, Rafael. My brave husband.”

Annette whispered in his ear, hoping that Rafael would rest in peace for today. Then the wrinkles on Rafael's forehead smoothed out and disappeared. Annette, who saw this, laughed silently. So the peaceful night between the couple grew deeper.

* * *

The sunlight pouring through the window was dazzling. Rafael, who reflexively frowned, felt weird before even getting up. Something was different from usual today.

While he was still half asleep, Rafael realised he was in his best condition ever in recent years. He felt as if he had slept well after a very long time. The view of the room when he opened his eyes was similar to the usual, but there was something strange about it. He saw his feet sticking out over the sofa and realized why.

'It seems I had fallen asleep on the sofa last night.'

It wasn't so strange that the bed changed. Rafael was well aware of his sleepwalking tendencies. He probably slept on the sofa while moving around in his sleep. Maybe he fell down on such a small sofa and slept more comfortably than ever. 'What a funny thing to do.'

Anyway, Rafael, who had a good night's sleep, felt pretty good. It had been such a long time since he was in such good shape like this. He wanted to go out and practice his swordsmanship skills to become a Sword Master. As he tried to get up, he suddenly realized that there was something very soft and warm, underneath him. After confirming the identity of what he was sleeping on, Rafael was confused and could not think about anything properly. He wondered if he was still dreaming.

“Why is she here?”

On the corner of the sofa, he saw Annette sleeping. With a bandage on her injured head, her face seemed unusually small and pale.

Rafael gazed at her lowered eyelashes and slightly open, petal-like lips. Admiring her beauty, he inadvertently reached out and touched Annette's cheek and neck. He said to himself it was to check her body temperature, but truthfully , there was something strange inside him that made him want to touch Annette. The feeling of her skin on his fingertips, was as smooth as silk.

Fortunately, even though Annette's temperature was a little low, it was still in the normal range. The wound had now closed and didn't seem that sinister. Rafael lifted his hands and clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

“If you're hurt, you should stay in your room and rest. Why are you..”

The face of Rafael, who had been thinking so far, suddenly hardened. An ominous feeling ran through his head. Rafael unknowingly grabbed Annette's shoulder and roughly shook her to wake her up. Annette, who was violently dragged out of her dreams, woke up gasping in surprise.

“Rafael?”

Rafael glared at her reaction. She looked like a rabbit caught in a trap. He locked her in his arms to prevent her from running away. He then bowed his head to keep his eyes levelled with hers and questioned her in an eerie voice.

“Did you see it?”

“What? What do you…”

“Last night, did you see me?”

Annette who had just woken up was a little puzzled at Rafael's sudden weird mood. But hearing his words, she soon realized what he was asking. His blue eyes, glaring at her, were pretending to be angry, but they quivered a little with anxiety. The proud Rafael must have been worried that she might have seen his sleepwalking episode.

How should I answer this? Annette gulped down her saliva.

Chapter end