My Husband Was the Master of the Magic Tower - Chapter 123

As I opened the front door, I was at a loss for words as I felt the damp air more clearly, the sound of rain coming from afar, and Dante’s smile in front of me.

As I stared blankly up at Dante in front of me, the sensor lights in the hallway that had been shining brightly on the ceiling gradually dimmed.

Contrary to the darkness that had suddenly come upon me, I suddenly came to my senses. As I traced the outline in front of me and grabbed Dante’s arm, the sensor lights in the hallway turned on again, making my vision brighter.

“…Come in first.”

I entered the house, pulling him towards me. Dante, who seemed to follow me obediently when I pulled, really just stuck his foot in and didn’t try to move in front of the front door.

I immediately took off my shoes and was about to go inside, but suddenly stopped and ended up standing in front of the entrance with Dante.

Although I looked up with the intention of urging Dante to go in quickly, I flinched when I saw Dante in a much brighter area than the hallway.

“Dante, you…”

I was so preoccupied right after encountering him that I couldn’t look closely, but Dante was drenched in the rain. Water droplets formed on his hair and fell on his shoulders at regular intervals, then his watery face and eyelashes sparkled and shined under the lights.

Even someone completely unfamiliar with the situation could guess that Dante had been in the rain for a long time. I realized a beat later that Dante’s arm, which I was holding on to, was damp, and that the body temperature felt under the cloth was too cold to be ignored.

I definitely had a lot of things in mind to ask Dante before I left home. But as soon as I saw the rain-soaked figure, all the questions I wanted to ask disappeared like smoke from my mind.

Dante, who made eye contact with me, whether he was aware of my condition or not, smiled slightly like before.

For a person who had been exposed to rain for a long time, his expression was as friendly as usual, so I felt a sense of discomfort.

“It didn’t rain until I left, but it suddenly started pouring an hour or two ago.”

Rain falls the same way in any world. Hearing the voice add quietly as if it was no big deal, I opened my mouth several times before finally being able to form a proper sentence.

“…So you’re saying it was raining continuously during that time?”

“Mmhm.”

Is that an answer worth giving so calmly? I felt like my chest was clenched, and then the words came out as fast as rapid fire.

“If it started raining, you should have come home right away. It was raining continuously during that time, right? Uou went out without an umbrella. Where on earth…”

—did you go.

The last words lingered in the air so faintly that they were barely audible. It was because I realized that I couldn’t think of any place that Dante could go to, and that in fact, there was no place in this world that Dante could go to.

I slowly lowered my gaze and looked at my hand holding Dante’s arm, then relaxed my grip and let him go.

Before I knew it, I could feel the coldness from Dante between my fingers, and I clenched and unclenched my fist.

“…Where have you been at this hour?”

“…”

“Even if you went out and came back, why did you go out alone?”

From the time I woke up until I opened the front door to look for Dante, it wasn’t a long time, urt it felt like an eternity to me. I was worried about where Dante had gone, wondered why he went out alone, and all kinds of emotions went through my mind as I looked outside in the rain.

He knew for sure that I would worry if he went out alone without saying anything.

But Dante just answered in a voice without the slightest guilt or regret, just like before.

“You were so deeply asleep that I couldn’t wake you up.”

“You couldn’t wake me up, so you went out alone without saying anything?”

Do you really think you can convince me of that and move on? Even though I tried to suppress it, a sharp voice eventually came out. I tried to calm down by pressing my feverish forehead, but it didn’t seem to be having much effect.

“I was scared when I woke up and couldn’t see you anywhere.”

“…”

“If the reason was really that you couldn’t wake me up, then you could have left a note before leaving. At least, go out wearing proper clothes. Why were you trying to go somewhere in this cold weather without any outerwear?”

I don’t know if what I’m letting out is worry or resentment. Ah, I didn’t want to just pour out what I had to say in front of someone drenched in rain. I was about to add something, but I stopped because I thought I looked so ugly right now.

“Are you going to keep standing in front of the door like that? Since you’re all wet now, after washing…”

“I came back to look around the places I went with you.”

The sudden answer made me pause for a moment. Even though I clearly heard it, I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t say anything and blinked slowly, but Dante continued talking.

“The walking trail you introduced, the river I saw today, the stepping stones you said you liked, the stores nearby, the cafes you stopped by on the way, the alleys, everything. I saw it alone while you were asleep.”

“…Why those places?”

There is no reason for Dante to suddenly go to all those places again. In response to my voice barely correcting my almost stuttering, Dante gave an answer whose meaning I still couldn’t understand.

“I had to organize my thoughts.”

After saying that, he looked into my eyes again and smiled sweetly. I noticed that the smile that seemed to disappear earlier but then returned made it difficult to understand Dante’s intentions.

And the fact that the calm answers that made me frustrated didn’t actually contain any calmness whatsoever.

“Ei.”

My ‘name’ that came out of Dante’s mouth sounded more unfamiliar than usual.

“Should I stay here too?”

“…What?”

“Me, too… together.”

Dante clasped my hand and held it, then lowered his head and kissed the back of my hand. 

Immediately, a tickling sensation spread across the back of my hand, along with a feeling as if there were a brand on it.

“Should I stay in this dimension and live here with you?”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

The hand I was holding became unusually cold, so I covered Dante’s face with my free hand, and sure enough, it was different. It felt surprisingly cold, as did his hands.

At that moment, a drop of water flowed from the end of Dante’s hair along my finger, and the coldness that had stayed in his hand spread thinly down my arm.

I flinched reflexively and tried to pull my arm back, but the firm grip on his hand prevented me from moving.

…Was it my mistake to think that he looked no different from usual, considering it had been raining for a long time?

The gaze we met up close was different from before. It seems like he’s deep in thought, or he seems to be focusing all his attention on me. But at the same time, it felt like he was looking at something other than myself.

The contrast between the dark, locked eyes and the friendly face made it feel somehow dangerous.

It felt like a deep-seated instinct, rather than the instinct that usually helped me, was sending a warning signal.

Dante isn’t in good condition right now.

To put it bluntly, it’s a warning sign that looks like he’s on the verge of turning upside down.

“I don’t know why you’re talking like that, Dante.”

The heat that I could clearly feel all the way to my forehead and the anger I felt toward Dante had all disappeared a long time ago. I tried to regain my composure in my dazed mind.

I don’t know what process Dante went through or why he said such a thing, but I knew that he was saying something that was completely unacceptable to me.

Do you think it’s right for you to stay in this world?

At least I don’t think that should be the case. I thought so, as I knew that this world was infinitely unfamiliar to you, that even if you got used to it, it would still be difficult to live in, and that I wasn’t saying this because you had completely grown to like this dimension.

But before I said all this, I had to know why Dante thought that way.

“Did something happen while you were out without me?”

“No, nothing happened.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

I thought Dante was doing well without any worries so far. Since I needed time to find a way to get back to work anyway, and to put aside complicated concerns for a while, I thought he was just focusing on adapting to this dimension.

However, seeing Dante suddenly go out alone and come up with nonsense, I guess that wasn’t the case.

I didn’t know he was thinking like that. Dante didn’t tell me about any of his worries, and I was reassured by Dante’s unchanging attitude that he seemed surprisingly fine for someone who had fallen into another dimension.

For now, I’m enjoying this peaceful daily life without any worries, and I promised myself that I would make a choice when the time comes.

I had overlooked the fact that I hadn’t set an exact ‘time’ and that I hadn’t tried to guess what Dante was thinking when he saw me like that.