Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon - Volume 1 - Chapter 23

Chapter 23 - The seeds of suspicion

After Godou left, Kiyoka, who was walking back to the living room after his bath, noticed that something was amiss.

The house was extremely quiet.

Miyo should be there, but for some reason, he couldn't hear a single sound. Perhaps she was done with cleaning up.

The lights to the kitchen were off and there was no sight of any fire either.

If so, was Miyo in the living room or her room? No, that shouldn't be the case, there was no sign of anyone when he passed by Miyo's room just now.

As he approached the living room with his brows furrowed, Kiyoka's ears picked up an interrupted voice.

"...op...St...Ok...-sama...pl...op..."

It was Miyo's voice. However, rather than proper sentences, it was more like incoherent mutterings in her sleep.

(What...)

When he hurriedly opened the sliding doors, Kiyoka was greeted with the sight of Miyo sleeping on the table in the corner of the room. She must've been tired and dozed off which wasn't surprising. However—

There were hints of an ability being used somewhere—he could sense faint remnants of it.

As someone who was always around the supernatural, Kiyoka knew.

(I'm not... imagining things.)

It was impossible for anyone to have visited while Kiyoka was taking his hot bath. If so, he would have noticed immediately. Godou didn't use his special ability during the party nor did Kiyoka himself.

That was eerie.

Could there really be some non-existent being skillful enough to use their power in such a way that even Kiyoka couldn't detect it? Was such a thing possible? Or perhaps...

He pondered over it for a short moment before his attention was immediately turned to Miyo's sleeping figure.

"...-top, ple...ase..."

The words that came out of her mouth were a plea.

When he quietly approached her, Miyo's face was drenched in tears. Her eyes were closed, but she was sobbing with a pained expression on her face.

He wouldn't forcefully wake her up if she was sleeping peacefully, but there's no way he could just leave her be when she was in such distress.

Kiyoka put his hand on Miyo's shoulder and shook her lightly.

"Hey... Miyo. Hey, wake up."

"...St-, pl...ase..."

She continued to be tormented by her nightmares even as he called out to her.

"Hey!"

He couldn't help but raise his voice.

Then, the crying that made his heart clench finally stopped and Miyo opened her eyes in a daze.

"...Hnn"

"Get a grip of yourself... Are you alright?"

"...H-Huh? Danna...-sama?"

At any rate, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her for now, so he let out a sigh of relief.

However, he couldn't be too careful for as long as traces of this unidentified power remained.

"That's right, You've been having quite a nightmare. How are you feeling?"

"E-Eh?"

Miyo slowly sat up-still not completely awake-and tilted her head like she was unable to grasp the situation.

The remnant traces of tears on her cheeks made his heart sting and he couldn't help narrowing his eyes.

"Were you having a bad dream?"

"Dream..."

After a short pause, a new wave of tears spilled from her eyes as she opened them again.

It was different from the first time he saw her cry.

Kiyoka felt his heart ache to see Miyo cover her face distorted from tears, her thin body curling up from crying.

Before he could think of anything, he quickly pulled her trembling figure into a tight hug.

"D-Danna-sama..."

"Don't worry about it... It must have been a bad dream. You can cry until you feel better."

He didn't feel embarrassed or anything of that sort.

Kiyoka could tell from the contents of her sleep-talking that it was probably a dream about her life in the Saimori house. It couldn't have been a good dream since he heard her calling out "Mamahaha-sama" and "Kaya".

"We're engaged to each other. I've told you this before, I want you to be able to be honest with me. I want to be your ally. You can rely on me more, depend on me, bare your emotions to me. It's okay to want to be pampered. That's what couples do, don't they? They support one another."

Kiyoka wondered how much of his words actually reached Miyo.

He believed that at least some of it was communicated to her. However, the wounds on her heart were far deeper than he could ever imagine. They won't go away easily no matter how much Kiyoka comforts her as her fiance.

(I want her to be freed already.)

There's nothing here that can hurt Miyo. And even if they're members of the Kudou family or those around Kiyoka, he would definitely protect her to the very end.

"So cry as much as you want. And when your tears dry, I want to see you smile again."

"...!"

Kiyoka gently stroked her hair as Miyo clung onto his chest as she sobbed.

There was no hesitation in his actions. It was no problem as long as it could stop her tears and ease her suffering, even just a little. He'd hug her the same way no matter how many times it took.

In fact, Kiyoka would be a little pleased that she was willing to cry on his chest, even if it may be unladylike.

After being like this for some time, Miyo started talking about her dream while choking back tears.

She said that they appeared and destroyed and burned her late mother's mementos before her very eyes, mocking her as she desperately cried, begging for them to stop and return them to her.

Although she didn't explicitly say if this had actually happened, Kiyoka quickly guessed that something similar must've happened.

"It must've been hard."

He wasn't just referring to her dream. Those words came out naturally when he thought of how lost the girl-less than ten years old, still in her growing stage-must've felt after losing her dearest servant, her only friend.

Although Kiyoka could only imagine what the Saimori family was like based on documents and people's impression of them, he believed that Miyo's heart can be healed, no matter how long it took.

"Danna-samma, can I really... continue to stay by your side like this?"

Those words again.

"Of course. Stay here, until the day your life runs out."

He gave his fiance, who raised her head to look up at him, the kindest smile he could muster.

"I believe I've said this to you before. I'll be troubled if you're not here."

"...No matter how useless and incompetent I am?"

"Yeah, despite that... Well, you're neither useless nor incompetent to me."

Miyo blushed and turned away her eyes that were still wet with tears.

"I..."

"?"

"As I thought, I don't think I'm worthy of receiving such words from Danna-sama. But if possible, I want to stay by your side, I want to be of use to you."

"Yeah."

"So I... I'll do my best to be as much help to Danna-sama for as long as possible."

"Yeah, pleased do that."

He knew very well that this was the best Miyo could do for now.

These were the most positive words she could manage after being denied for so many years.

It was impossible to tell her to be positive right away, but he hoped that she could continue in this direction, little by little, gaining the confidence to believe in herself and her husband-to-be, Kiyoka.

(That said, just what on earth was that trace of an ability being used...?)

The presence had faded to the point he could barely feel it anymore.

What if... just what if the cause of Miyo's nightmare was related to an ability? The owner of that ability could only be someone from the Usuba family.

★ ★ ★

The next morning, Miyo met Kiyoka with her head lowered more than ever.

Not only did she fail to wait for her master properly, dozing off, she even clung to Kiyoka, bawling her eyes out over a nightmare.

No matter how much he told her that she could be honest about her feelings, that wasn't really possible for her. She felt ashamed as a woman of her age.

Moreover, she inadvertently revealed that she had been having nightmares ever since she came to this house, causing much concern.

It was really frightening to see Kiyoka silent with a grim expression on his face. If anyone saw it, they would certainly think that he was cold and ruthless.

He didn't seem to be angry about Miyo blunder, but even so, it still sent her shudders down her spine.

"That's why, please accept this."

To express her sincerest apologies, Miyo presented what she had made to Kiyoka.

"...A bento?"

"Yes."

Although she highly doubted a bento could be taken as a token of apology, she still followed Yurie's suggestion and prepared it.

The bento box itself came from this house, but the food inside was prepared by Miyo, the bento wrapping cloth was also sewn by her with all of her earnest feelings.

"Thanks, I'll take this."

Kiyoka picked up the bento with a smile before getting into his car and going straight to work. It might've been her imagination but he seemed to be in a better mood than usual.

"I have to work harder."

She wanted to make him happy. She wanted to support Kiyoka as his fiance.

If she gave her all in everything single thing that she did, perhaps one day, she'd become a wife fit for him.