Skadi, My Wife

The culprits were Swire and Skadi.

To make a long story short.

Swire refused to accept that she was hopeless at cooking, while Skadi wanted to learn how to cook. Both wanted to prove themselves to Chen An.

So after Chen An briefly left home to handle something, the two hit it off immediately and joined forces to wage a desperate battle against the kitchen during his short absence.

The kitchen was no match for them and was crippled within minutes.

Panicking, the two decided to salvage the situation. A few minutes later, they successfully beat the crippled kitchen into critical condition.

Then, realizing the situation was beyond saving, they grew even more flustered and decided to flee. One planned to act cute when Chen An came back and noticed something was wrong, hoping her cuteness would let her get away with it. The other decided to play dumb and claim she knew nothing no matter what Chen An said, refusing to admit anything to the bitter end.

Unfortunately, they were too panicked. When they fled the house, they forgot to turn off the gas, and Skadi carelessly forgot to bring her phone.

So when Chen An called home to ask Skadi whether she wanted him to bring anything back, the gas concentration in the house had already reached a dangerous level—and then—BOOM! The house exploded.

The critically wounded kitchen went GG, taking the living room to the heavens with it.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

Since the house had exploded and was no longer livable, Chen An could only take Skadi and temporarily move into a new home.

Their new home was a luxurious villa with its own garden and swimming pool, provided by Kitchen Killer, super-rich lady Swire.

Until Chen An's home was renovated and restored to its original state, they could live here for free... They could technically keep living here after it was fixed too, but Chen An probably would not agree.

By the way, Swire had originally wanted to move in as well. But since she had played a part in blowing up Chen An's home, she was too embarrassed to face him for the moment, so she ultimately did not come.

As for why Skadi was not embarrassed... she had used her ultimate move, Orca Apology, to muddle through the matter.

Orca Apology.jpg

The weather was wonderful today.

The sun was bright, and the sky was clear for miles.

On their first day here, Skadi had already set her sights on the pool in the yard. But it had rained yesterday, preventing her from getting what she wanted. So when the weather cleared up today, she hurriedly changed into her swimsuit and happily dragged the unmotivated Chen An to the poolside.

"Chen An."

Skadi pointed at the pool, delighted. "Can I go in? I want to swim."

"You already changed into your swimsuit, and you're asking me that? Are you an idiot?"

Chen An rolled his eyes at her, then added irritably, "You can, but don't take off your necklace. When you get in, only slide in along the edge. No diving, or you might smash all the water out of the pool. Got it?"

Skadi: "..."

Her happy expression immediately turned aggrieved, and she puffed out her cute cheeks. "You're calling me heavy again. You promised not to."

Chen An snorted, smiling without any warmth. "As if you ever listen to me. I told you not to go into the kitchen, not to go into the kitchen, but what did you do? Not only did you go in, you went in with the rich lady while I was gone. You don't listen, so why should I?"

Skadi: "..."

Guiltily turning her face away, she jumped into the water with a splash. This time, she was not trying to swim. She wanted to hide herself in the pool water and escape Chen An's gaze.

Chen An could not be bothered with her. Transforming into a third-rate fortune teller, he pinched his fingers and calculated his luck for the day.

Nothing would go right, and nothing would succeed.

...Actually, he was just randomly pinching his fingers, but details like that did not matter!

"Looks like it's a good day for slacking off... ahem, not a good day for doing anything."

After sighing like that, Chen An, having found himself an excuse to slack off, guiltily glanced at the pool and saw that Skadi was still underwater.

So while Skadi had not surfaced yet and could not stop him, Chen An quickly slipped into the villa.

—The beds in this villa were insanely comfortable. Today, he absolutely had to sleep for a full forty-eight hours!

By the time Skadi realized Chen An was gone, several minutes had already passed.

In this unfamiliar place, Chen An had suddenly disappeared, and she could not help feeling a little panicked.

She hurriedly climbed out of the pool and searched around the yard. When she could not find him, she headed toward the house with hurried steps.

Rather than waste more time searching outside, Skadi spotted a note Chen An had left on the door as she entered—Don't overthink it. I went back to my room to rest. I'll wake up in three years.

"...You clearly said we'd swim together. Sleeping for three years is so lazy."

Her tense mood relaxed, and she muttered softly before looking back at the pool in the yard.

Without hesitating for long, she ran upstairs to Chen An's room.

Just like at home, Chen An's door was closed but not locked. Skadi carefully opened it, then cautiously poked her head through the gap and carefully looked around the room.

Orca Peeking — Cautious Version.jpg

Chen An was indeed asleep inside, lying on the bed and looking like he was sleeping wonderfully.

Skadi blinked, then carefully walked into the room and gently closed the door.

Since she was barefoot and wearing no shoes, she did not need to be overly careful while walking. Skadi came to the bedside, bent over, and stared at Chen An.

Peaceful and gentle, Chen An's sleeping face did not look fierce at all like when he had been scolding someone earlier.

As she watched him, Skadi suddenly broke into a smile.

There was no particular reason. She simply felt happy.

Putting aside her desire to swim, Skadi felt sleepy herself and climbed onto the bed, lying down beside Chen An.

She pulled Chen An's hand so that he faced her, then lay on her side as though she wanted to curl her entire body into his embrace.

She placed Chen An's arm around her waist, hugged the hand resting on her stomach, softly said, "Have a nice, dry dream," then closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, filled with happiness.

Two uninvited guests arrived at the villa.

One had a halo over her head, while the other had animal ears and a tail—Exusiai and Texas.

Using a secretly taken photo with Swire, Exusiai led Texas through the villa district by bluffing and scamming their way through, then swaggered right up to the villa where Chen An currently lived.

"This should be the place, right?"

Exusiai looked at the grand villa before her and smacked her lips.

Rather than ring the doorbell and let Chen An know they had arrived, Exusiai vigilantly looked around. Seeing no one nearby, she quickly beckoned Texas toward a corner of the outer wall.

The villa's perimeter wall was quite high, but Exusiai and Texas were both nimble experts. Without any effort, they climbed over the wall and slipped into the villa grounds.

Exusiai clapped her hands, glanced back at the wall, and wore a smug expression. "A wall this low thinks it can stop Exusiai? What wishful thinking."

Unlike Exusiai, who was easily carried away, Texas wagged her tail and observed the villa nearby.

What a luxurious place.

She thought this, then kicked the still-smug Exusiai and scolded, "Stop getting carried away. We came to find Chen An, not to show off in front of a wall."

"What? I was only lingering for a second. Why are you so fierce... Come on, come on, let's hurry and find that guy. This place looks huge. There might be lots of interesting stuff here."

After glaring unhappily at Texas, Miss Exusiai excitedly began her grand search adventure through the luxurious villa.

"Garden? Why is this garden so huge? Our apartment and Chen An's apartment combined aren't even half as big as this."

"Holy crap, a pool!? No way. A villa garden with a pool? Didn't that Swire girl say she was only lending Chen An an ordinary villa someone gave her that she had never lived in? This is an ordinary villa? Did she take out her most luxurious villa because she wants to corrupt Chen An with a life of extravagance? Damn it! I've always gone easy on her when we play games and treated her so politely, yet she didn't think of corrupting me first. I'll remember this!"

"Eh? Eh? This is..."

They wandered around the villa without finding anyone, but Exusiai did see quite a few delightful things. The villa originally had servants, but Skadi did not like living with strangers, and Chen An was used to doing things himself. So on their first day here, Chen An gave the villa's servants time off and told them to return after they left.

Therefore, only Chen An and Skadi were living in the villa now.

And so, after entering the villa, Exusiai and Texas did not encounter anyone.

Making a racket and grumbling all the way, Miss Exusiai was filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment. "I knew that Swire girl was a rich young lady, but isn't she way too rich? With all that money, she still lives in an apartment? Is something wrong with her brain? If it were me..."

She thought about it, put herself in Swire's shoes, and decided not to continue the topic.

Because if she had to choose between this villa and the apartment where she currently lived, it would have been an easy choice before she met Chen An. She would absolutely choose this place. But now?

If she lived here, who would cook for her, play games with her, and bicker with her?

Texas? She was often like a mute. Bah!

Texas had ignored Exusiai's fussing as background noise the whole way. She had been searching for traces of Chen An and Skadi but found nothing, so she frowned.

"Chen An and Skadi seem to be inside the house, not outside."

"I noticed too."

Although much of her attention had been drawn by the villa's luxurious surroundings, Exusiai had not forgotten the purpose of their trip.

She crossed one arm over her chest, propped the other on it, rubbed her chin, and looked up at the villa before her, feeling troubled.

"But all the doors are locked. We need a password or fingerprint to get in. Unless we break something, we can't enter at all."

If this had been a mission, such a minor issue would have been no problem. They could simply break down the door and go in. Although most of the jobs Exusiai and Texas handled were escort missions, they were fully capable of that sort of thing.

Especially Exusiai. She was extremely familiar with blowing up buildings—back when she was still in Laterano and had not come to Lungmen to join Penguin Logistics, she had blown up the school she attended more times than she could count. Could a mere villa door possibly be harder to blow up than a school?

But this was not a mission. Chen An lived here, and Exusiai was certain that if she dared to tear down a door because she could not get in, Chen An would dare to have Skadi tear her apart.

"Then call Chen An and have him come open the door."

Texas straightforwardly took out her phone, intending to call Chen An. Exusiai jumped in fright and swiftly snatched the phone from Texas's hand.

With her hands on her hips, she said angrily, "We agreed to give Chen An a surprise! A surprise is something unexpected. If he finds out we're here beforehand, what kind of surprise is that? Wouldn't all our hard work sneaking in here have been for nothing?"

Texas paused, feeling strange. They had simply shown the guards the photo with Swire, then swaggered in the whole way. Had sneaking into this villa district really been hard work?

She did not dwell on that question because it was not worth arguing over. Texas could not understand Exusiai's thought process. "If you want to see Chen An, just tell him you're coming. Why do you have to be so sneaky? I really don't know what you're thinking."

"I said it's a surprise! Besides, I want to scare him too."

Exusiai clenched her fist and waved it forcefully. She looked so aggressive that if a certain someone were standing before her, she seemed ready to rush over and punch him.

"He moved into such a luxurious villa to enjoy himself without bringing us along. What a disloyal bastard! When I see him later, I'm definitely going to teach him a hard lesson!"

Texas could not be bothered with Exusiai's empty threats. Every time Exusiai lost so badly to Chen An in games that she began questioning life, she would always make fierce declarations that if she could not beat him in games, they would settle things in real life. She would definitely let Chen An see how formidable she was.

And the result? To this day, she had never seen Exusiai hit Chen An. Instead, because of her flighty personality, Exusiai had caused plenty of trouble and been lectured by Chen An until she could not even lift her head.

"So what do we do now?"

Texas said, "Chen An is inside, we can't get in, and you won't let me call him. We can't just stand around outside waiting, can we?"

"Then we wait."

Exusiai said carelessly, "Find a suitable place to hide first. When Chen An shows up, we jump out and surprise him, then scare him."

Texas was helpless, but since it was no big deal, she went along with Exusiai.

The hiding place Exusiai chose was a tree beside the pool garden.

The tree was tall and lush, and its higher branches were sturdy enough to support Exusiai and Texas's weight while concealing their presence—including the fluorescent lamp above Exusiai's head!

Supporting herself on a branch with both hands, Exusiai absentmindedly swung her dangling feet as she gazed at the villa in the distance, looking somewhat wistful.

"Texas, wouldn't it be nice if we had a house like this? If I had a villa like this, I'd definitely clear out one room just for gaming, then another room for manga and novels. The floors of both rooms would have to be covered in Higashi tatami too. Then after gaming to my heart's content and reading to my heart's content, I could just lie down on the tatami and rest. When I'm bored, I could even roll around."

"And this yard with the pool... Tsk, tsk, tsk. Throwing parties in a place like this at night would be amazing. Right, Texas?"

Exusiai opened her arms toward the sky as though embracing it.

"Stop dreaming."

Texas mercilessly shattered Exusiai's fantasy. "After working at Penguin Logistics for so many years, your savings are only a little more than Croissant's. Forget a villa—at this rate, you won't even be able to scrape together a dowry when you get married."

Exusiai's expression froze, then rage surged through her as she shouted, "You bastard Lupo, who are you looking down on!? I'm so pretty. Why would I need any dowry? Whoever marries me and still wants a dowry is way too greedy! Even if it's that guy, I'll beat him up, okay!?"

Texas thought, I didn't even mention anyone, yet you immediately imagined him. And you still say you don't like him.

Though Texas did not say anything else, Exusiai still passionately declared things like, "I don't need a dowry to get married!" "Anyone who asks me for a dowry gets beaten up!" and "That certain someone who wants a dowry after marrying me is trash!"—things so ridiculous that even Texas could not help wanting to laugh.