Skadi, My Wife

"Yeah. She said it was someone Texas and I both knew, but she didn't say who. She said we'd find out when we delivered them... Hey, don't talk about me. Talk about yourself."

Exusiai turned sideways to look at Chen An. "Skadi said you've been acting suspicious lately, always looking around. Don't tell me you've gone to the Lower District to treat those Oripathy patients so many times that you caught Oripathy yourself and something went wrong with your brain?"

Her words were blunt, but her concern was impossible to hide. "I feel a little sorry for the people in the Lower District, but honestly, you should just stop going there. Treating people doesn't make money, and sometimes you even have to pay out of pocket. I know you're a good person, but what's the point of keeping this up? What if you really catch Oripathy by accident? What will Skadi do then?"

Texas rarely chimed in. "I think so too."

It wasn't that they lacked compassion. It was just that after more than half a year together, both of them felt that Chen An mattered more than the people in the slums.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Chen An rolled his eyes at Exusiai, but avoided addressing her advice. "This lord hasn't been acting suspicious. I just keep feeling like someone's got their eye on me."

"Got their eye on you?"

"Yeah, and not in any ordinary way."

At the mention of it, Chen An couldn't help pouring out his grievances. "It feels like I'm walking along just fine, then suddenly realize I'm on a bridge. There are vicious beasts at both ends of it, and that would be bad enough, but then I look down and Skadi is glaring up at me from the water below. It's terrifying."

Exusiai and Texas were both stunned. Skadi was in the water under the bridge? What kind of absurd metaphor was that?

After complaining for a while, Chen An suddenly looked pleased with himself. "But then I realized I could fly, and it stopped being scary. I can't go forward or backward, sure, but there's no way I can't go through the sky too, right? You've got wings, A-Neng, but you can't fly."

Exusiai flew into a rage. "What exactly do you mean by that...?"

Before Exusiai could finish losing her temper, Skadi, who had been swimming in the water, came ashore and ran over.

"Chen An, let's go swimming together."

She tugged at her swimsuit, gave her chest a little shake, then grabbed Chen An and ran off with him.

With Skadi having dragged Chen An away, only Exusiai and Texas remained on the shore.

Exusiai kept cursing, still annoyed that Chen An had compared her to some flood beast, while Texas watched Skadi and Chen An enter the water.

Texas said, "A-Neng, are you really not planning to go to Chernobog?"

"What would I go there for? Isn't Croissant going?"

She knew Texas was talking about something different from the work they had discussed before, but Exusiai still looked utterly unconcerned. She rolled her eyes, cursed Chen An again, and said casually, "I joined Penguin Logistics to make money. And I don't make money to support a family—I make it to buy games, comics, good food, and live a carefree, happy life."

"If Emperor had come to me half a year earlier... No, even a few months earlier, and told me he wanted me to leave Lungmen and go to Chernobog as a liaison, I'd have obediently listened to him. But now? No chance."

Texas gave her a meaningful look. "There'll be a raise."

"So what if there is? You can't buy happiness with a fortune."

Miss A-Neng curled her lip. "It's like offering me a raise to separate me from you. I wouldn't agree to that either.

Besides, if I go to Chernobog, who's going to cook for me? I've been in Lungmen for so many years, and I've never met anyone with better cooking than Chen An. If Lungmen doesn't have one, I doubt Chernobog will.

And the games... Hmph, no matter how I play, I lose. I haven't won even once. I, A-Neng, have never suffered such a grievance in my entire life. You want me to leave before I win even once? Keep dreaming!"

By the end, Exusiai's face was full of misery and indignation.

"Is that so?"

"What else could it be... Huh? Where did they go?"

Exusiai lifted the sunglasses on her nose and stared at the lake in surprise.

Texas followed her gaze. The lake's surface was perfectly still, but Chen An and Skadi were nowhere to be seen.

Sugar, Such Sweet Sugar

The jade-green lake water was cool and clear.

Once submerged, moisture wrapped around the entire body, and the scorching midsummer heat vanished in an instant.

Skadi was an Abyssal Hunter from the sea, accustomed to living alongside water.

The damp sea breeze, the salty seawater, the endless azure ocean—the world she had once lived in and loved had now become memories.

How could she describe that feeling?

It was like a fish suddenly coming ashore, its living environment changing beyond recognition, everything becoming unfamiliar.

Forced to live in an unfamiliar place, it became lost and melancholy.

Skadi missed everything about the ocean, and for a time, she missed it especially dearly.

She had always felt that everything about her life in the sea before she came ashore had been wonderful. Though she fought constantly, she had companions. Those days had been her happiest, and she wanted to share them with the person she loved.

But later, she changed her mind.

Holding Chen An's hand as they swam through the water, the two arrived at the center of the lake.

Sunlight fell over the lake, making the waves shimmer. At a glance, it seemed as though the lake itself was glowing.

Like a mermaid, Skadi swam around Chen An several times, laughing brightly and cheerfully.

Then, she suddenly took his hand again. After telling him to take a breath, she pulled him beneath the water.

The world beneath the water was completely different from the one above it.

Other than each other so close at hand, everything swayed and blurred, dreamlike and hazy.

Holding Chen An's hand, Skadi dived in one breath to a depth of five or six meters. She raised a hand and pointed overhead, motioning for him to look up.

The rippling water bent the slanting sunlight, scattering it into countless fantastical colors.

Within it, two mermaids swam about. Red scales and black scales covered the private parts of their bodies respectively—Exusiai and Texas had entered the water too, worried their friends might drown.

"Chen An."

Skadi called the name of the man she loved. Her voice dissolved into the water, tumbling upward with the bubbles toward the sky.

Sound could not be heard underwater, yet Chen An seemed to hear Skadi calling him. He lowered his head and met her gaze.

There was light in her crimson eyes, and within that light was him.

Skadi liked Chen An. She showed that affection more through her actions and rarely put it into words.

The boldest confession Skadi had ever made to Chen An was simply that she liked him and wanted to be with him.

"I love you."

Surrounded by water, in that silent world, Skadi became brave.

She looked at Chen An gently, then opened her arms and hugged him. Her hands wrapped around his waist, her face pressed to his chest as she listened to his heartbeat.

"I want to return to the sea, but I want to be with you even more. The days I spend with you are so happy, Chen An. Can we always be together?"

The water's surface was the sky, and the lake water was the clouds.

In that cloudscape of countless colors and vanished sound, the man seemed to hear the girl's confession.

His lips moved, his expression becoming helpless yet gentle.

He wrapped an arm around Skadi's shoulders and back, resting his chin softly against her forehead. I really don't know what to do with you.

Beneath the shimmering water, the scene was dreamlike and beautiful.

As the sun set at an angle, the four returned to Lungmen, bringing this vacation to an end.

After mooching dinner at Chen An's place, Exusiai stayed behind and dragged him into playing games until late at night, when Texas finally pulled her away amid her cursing—she had lost terribly again that night.

Then early the next morning, after mooching breakfast at Chen An's place again, Exusiai went home to pack her luggage before swaggering into Chen An's room.

Chen An was sleeping... Don't misunderstand. He hadn't slept until now. He had finished making breakfast and eating, then found himself with nothing to do, so he went back to his room for a nap.

Casually hanging a ring of keys from the doorknob, Exusiai tapped the door to announce her arrival and said boldly, "Little Chen, your big sister A-Neng is heading to Chernobog with Texas today to deliver goods. While we're gone, our home is being left to you like usual. Remember to keep it nice and tidy every day."

Chen An sat up after being woken and glared at her irritably. Did she really have to come all the way over to say this? Couldn't she just put the keys on the kitchen table?

"Oh, and Texas and I left some underwear and stockings in our rooms. Don't get any weird ideas and use our things for weird stuff."

After thinking it over, she decided that wouldn't do. Asking someone to clean the house without giving them anything in return—how could that be acceptable?

So she changed her tune, putting on a reluctant expression. "Fine. Since you're a young man full of vigor, and I, A-Neng, am so charming, and we're so close, if you really have any desires you can't vent, you can borrow Texas's things or mine. But remember to wash them after you use them, and don't tell us. We'll still be wearing those clothes later, after all."

Chen An: "..."

"Get out! You shameless little brat, what do you take me for? Get the hell out of here!"

With Chen An's furious roar, their thoroughly unsentimental farewell came to an end. Miss Exusiai, with her filthy mouth, was kicked out the door by Chen An—and the innocent Texas was dragged down with her.

Standing at the door and looking at the visibly annoyed Texas beside her, Exusiai couldn't help giving an awkward laugh.

Several days passed.

It had to be said, once you got used to being around an energetic person like Exusiai—someone who was great at finding fun and made it seem like you could never be bored around her—being suddenly separated from her made life feel lonely and dull.

...That was what other people thought. Chen An felt the opposite.

No one dragged him off to play games the moment they saw he had nothing to do, then cursed at him when they lost.

No one came over before mealtimes to pester him, loudly asking what they were eating, whether they had this or that, making it seem like she had memorized an entire menu just to come pick a fight.

No one got excited at the mention of game launch events or comic conventions, wallet in hand and running faster than a rabbit. It was bad enough that she ran off herself; she always had to drag him along too.

No one...

Chen An didn't dislike liveliness. In fact, he rather liked it. But even while enjoying a lively life, he was also exceptionally lazy. If he could stand, he would never hang around; if he could sit, he would never stand; if he could lie down, he would never sit. He slacked off whenever he could. His dream was to sleep forty-eight hours a day—twenty-four hours in reality, then another twenty-four in his dreams.

Of course, since there was always so much to do, his dream had never come true.

Even his daily slacking off... Well, if Skadi counted as a fish, then he could probably say he slacked off with fish every day.

Under these circumstances, while Exusiai and the others were away, Chen An not only didn't feel bored or lonely at all, he found life incredibly comfortable.

It would be even better if Texas and the others came back a few days later.

Chen An sighed to himself.

Just then.

The door to the room quietly opened, and Skadi poked half her face out to secretly observe Chen An, who was watching television on the living room sofa.

After watching him for a while, she opened the door fully, crept quietly behind the sofa, reached out to cover Chen An's eyes, and asked playfully, "Guess who I am?"

She had expected Chen An to guess her right away, but his answer was this: "A-Neng, how old are you already? You're not a child anymore. Can you stop being so mischievous?"

Skadi: "..."

She said angrily, "I'm not A-Neng! You guessed wrong on purpose, didn't you?"

Obviously. Other than me, you're the only one in the house, and your voice hasn't changed one bit. If this lord wasn't guessing wrong on purpose, then what was he doing?

Muttering to himself, Chen An continued teasing her. "Rich lady, it's been days since I last saw you. Why are you being as mischievous as A-Neng too? Who taught you such bad habits?"

Skadi puffed out her cheeks, as cute as a pufferfish swelling under pressure. "I'm not Swire either! If you keep this up, I'm going to get mad!"

He wanted to say, then get mad. But after thinking about it, forget it. If he teased her too much, she might run back to her room in anger and hide. Then he'd have to coax her, which would be a hassle.

Chen An laughed. "I was only teasing you. Why take it so seriously, Titi?"

Titi was Skadi's nickname. Chen An called her that occasionally, though not often.

Skadi loved it when Chen An called her by that nickname. The instant he called her Titi, she stopped being angry.

She removed her hand from his eyes and instead wrapped her arms around his neck. Leaning forward over the sofa, she pressed her chest against the back of Chen An's head with considerable force. "It's so boring at home. Can we go out and have fun?"

"A-Neng left, and now you're here. Can't you let me laze around at home for a few days?"

Chen An complained aloud, but immediately agreed. "Fine. You've been in Lungmen for so long, and I haven't bought you many clothes. Let's go buy you a few outfits."

"Mm."

Skadi smiled, her eyes curving into beautiful crescents.