Chapter 2: Chapter 2: My Wife Is a Little Too Adorable

Chapter 2: My Wife Is a Little Too Adorable

The woman standing before him was his wife.

Yes—after returning to the human world, he’d resolved to live more like an ordinary person. And so, he got married.

Her full name was Veya Selena. Beautiful, dignified, and grounded, she worked as a regular cleric in the Holy Church—a portrait of composure.

When he first came back to the human world, the Empire had just begun cracking down on refugees from the Fallen Lands. As fate would have it, he ended up stranded in Aurens Town, facing imminent expulsion.

That was when he met Veya—who, driven to the brink by relentless family pressure to marry and the suffocating demands of her career, had chosen to end her life by leaping into the river.

And then… he’d simply fished her out.

“In the end, we just got married right then and there.”

Even now, Lin Wei couldn’t help but feel as though he’d stumbled into good fortune.

Of course, there was a price: for the past three years of their marriage, he’d had to remain near Lotai to complete the Empire’s residency vetting process.

But that worked out for Veya, too. It solved her family’s marriage ultimatum, and honestly, Lin Wei didn’t mind at all.

“I just happened to finish work early and thought I’d drop by. Am I interrupting your nobleman daydreams?”

Veya brushed his hand away, her tone as chilly as ever. Her eyes carried a clear warning: keep your distance.

“Your Imperial citizenship is still under review. If you do anything suspicious, they’ll revoke it. Understood?”

She always spoke like this—cold and blunt.

But Lin Wei was long accustomed to her temperament. He shrugged easily and replied, “That’s why all I ever think about is my future after our divorce.”

“If you’d bother coming home a little more often, I wouldn’t be this bored. The last time I saw you was, what, twenty days ago?”

Veya’s duties in the Holy Church revolved around cleaning up after all sorts of incidents.

Whenever heresy broke out somewhere, or a demonic incursion occurred, she’d be dispatched to handle the aftermath once the Judgement Knights had finished their work.

Lately, with the constant skirmishes between demons and humans and the chaos sown by heretical cults springing up everywhere, her workload since their marriage had been overwhelming.

Of course, Lin Wei blamed the new Pope for this mess.

Sure, some of the Holy Church’s senior clergy had perished in negotiation fiascos—thanks, in no small part, to his own actions—but couldn’t they find someone else to send?

Having Veya travel for weeks at a time, treating her like some tireless beast of burden—what kind of management was that?

No wonder people called the current Pope useless.

“That’s just how it is when you’re busy earning a living. It’s all work, after all—I can’t exactly turn it down,” Veya replied, her tone cool.

Still, at his words, she looked away, a flicker of discomfort crossing her face. Her expression remained dignified and aloof, the very image of a devout, untouchable priestess.

“Then why don’t I get a job in Lotai and help take some of the load off your shoulders?” Lin Wei offered without missing a beat.

“No!”

She cut him off before he could finish.

“I just mean, if I find a steady job in Lotai, I’d be around more. You pass through the city whenever you come home anyway—it’s not like we’d never see each other…”

“No means no!”

Still, she shut him down without hesitation.

“You really are a little too willful, you know!” Lin Wei protested, but she had no intention of letting him finish.

Before he could say another word, Veya suddenly pinched his cheek, her expression fierce and unyielding.

She frowned, clearly annoyed, and brushed his hand away. Then, grabbing him by the collar, she yanked him close.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between them vanished.

Her holy, golden eyes slowly closed—and then, something soft as cotton pressed against his lips.

The solemn, dignified air around her melted away with every passing second, replaced by a sweetness that bloomed like fruit and flowers, spreading wildly in his mouth.

A full thirty seconds passed before Veya, breathless, finally let go and took a step back.

She inhaled sharply, feigning indifference, and then fixed Lin Wei with a frosty glare.

“That’s your compensation for being gone so much lately.”

“And let me say this one last time: I’ll handle earning the money. Your only job is to stay home. That was our agreement when we got married, wasn’t it?”

Indeed, that had been part of their contract.

It was a marriage of convenience, after all. Veya didn’t want to come home to an empty house, and Lin Wei was hopeless at managing household chores.

So, she’d agreed to cover all their expenses and give him a monthly allowance, while he stayed home to wait for her return.

It sounded like the dream deal—being pampered and cared for, living off someone else’s generosity.

But in reality, once he actually started this so-called “cushy” life… he realized it was anything but easy!

Did anyone really believe that the so-called “laid-back” lifestyle—sleeping in as long as you liked, sipping tea, reading the paper—was actually easy?

No, not at all.

A life of idle comfort only led to decay. Doing nothing all day turned a person into nothing more than a useless shell, living only for food and fleeting pleasures.

The urge to get out and work was so strong it nearly drove him mad.

He had never, not once, found any joy in simply lying around.

“How about we renegotiate our arrangement a little—”

“Shut up and come home with me.”

Veya cut him off coldly, showing zero interest in hearing him out.

Without another word, she grabbed Lin Wei by the hand and marched off, leaving him to follow behind, grumbling internally all the way.

“A wife who never cares about her husband’s feelings is bound to get what’s coming to her one day!”

“When this contract marriage is over, I’ll be the first to dump her! Then she’ll know the pain of being NTR’d!”

“Treat me coldly today, and you’ll regret it tomorrow!”

This… this was the classic “chasing husband to the crematorium” plot.

Their home was in the center of town—a two-story house with a cozy little garden, tastefully furnished.

Soft carpets with elegant patterns covered the floors, while exquisite wallpaper added a touch of luxury. The rooms were filled with expensive, well-crafted furniture.

Even the bed was a special order: a grand, lavish thing fit for royalty.

Once inside, Veya carefully inspected every detail of the house’s arrangement.

The coffee table and dining table were spotless, with no trace of anyone else ever having set foot inside. Satisfied that everything was in order, Veya’s frosty expression finally softened a little.

“Not bad,” she conceded.

But the moment her gaze landed on the bed—a disaster zone, with no sign it had ever been made—her brow knitted in displeasure once more.

“And what’s with this bed? Do you just leave it like this whenever I’m not home?”

“I just took a nap, that’s all,” Lin Wei replied, exasperated.

Why did this feel so much like a strict mother-in-law doing a surprise inspection?

“No excuses. Just leave it as it is,” Veya cut him off again, not interested in explanations.

She leaned in, sniffed lightly to make sure there was no unfamiliar scent, then finally relaxed. With a tired yawn, she headed into the bedroom.

“Don’t bother me until dinner.”

With that, she shut the door behind her, leaving Lin Wei frozen in place, still processing what had just happened.

“Seriously, this woman…”

Wasn’t she being a bit too overbearing?

After more than twenty days away, this was how she greeted him?

Sometimes, she’d do things so bold and affectionate they made him blush to his ears—yet the next moment, she’d turn cold and aloof, utterly unreadable.

He really couldn’t figure out what was going on in her head.

“Women really are impossible to figure out—way harder to study than those adventurer hunting parties I used to deal with,” Lin Wei grumbled.

“When this contract marriage is over, if I don’t kick this troublesome woman out… Even the Pope’s daughter will be taking my surname!”

He glanced at the groceries he’d picked up earlier and trudged toward the kitchen, a look of utter resignation plastered across his face.

“Just wait till you wake up. I’ll show you who’s boss.”

First things first: dinner!

He glared fiercely at the vegetables, as if they were stand-ins for his grievances.

Inside the bedroom.

Veya slipped off her outer robe and lay down on the still-messy bed, her face expressionless.

The familiar scent of home mingled with the fresh air, finally allowing her to relax.

The Holy Church’s endless work was even more exhausting than she’d expected.

Disasters sparked by heretical cults, demonic invasions erupting across the country… and the Holy Church itself rotting from within.

Even using every ounce of her strength, it had taken until now just to wrap things up enough to come home.

Yet, at most, she’d get a single day’s rest before diving back into the chaos.

But for now—at last—there was a sliver of peace.

Lin Wei just napped here… he really did nap here…

Letting go of all the headaches from the Holy Church politics and disaster relief, Veya kept repeating that simple fact to herself, using it to drive away the exhaustion weighing down her heart.

The next moment—

As if she could no longer hold herself back, Veya suddenly rolled over and buried her face deep in the bedding.

She inhaled—hard.

Drawing in his lingering scent with all her might, she pressed her face against the pillow, as if that simple, familiar smell could wash away all the exhaustion from her bones.

TL Note:

- NTR: A reference to “netorare,” a genre trope where one’s romantic partner is “stolen” by someone else.