My Wife Waited in the Wheat Fields - Chapter 20: Guests (3)

Everyone goes through a naive period of time in their life, and sometimes, they would suffer the consequences of their actions during that time.

Polo was no exception.

He had a past that he was ashamed of, embarrassed by, and reluctant to revisit.

The events of said past had transpired five years ago.

It was a time of change, wherein the game of the battlefield had been torn apart when the continent’s six powers had grown to seven, and a time when, apart from those external circumstances, Polo’s world had been made up of the little island that surrounded him.

At the time, he was in a banquet hall.

“Hello, Lord Noteum!”

“Ah, Lord Bold! It’s good to see you again this year.”

“The banquet only comes once a year, you know. When else can we have such a good time?”

“Well said!”

He had been at a secretive and exclusive gathering in the empire that only the children of high-ranking aristocrats of the rank of viscount or above were allowed to attend.

Once a year, at the beginning of the year, the young lords and ladies would gather to socialize and have clandestine meetings… meetings that, in retrospect, were quite debauched.

Of course, not everyone was so… indulgent.

There were outliers, such as the Graymans and the Imperial Family.

But, because he was different from them, and because he believed he was in the right at the time, Polo had been obsessed with finding a lady to spend the night with on that day.

It was on such a day that he had met Kasha, the sword demon.

“Ah, they’ve arrived, the Grayman Entourage.”

“Who is the man next to him? Does anyone know who he is?”

“I heard that he was brought by Lord Grayman as a personal acquaintance. I was also told that he’s a foreigner.”

Elvus Grayman.

A hero who had fought in the war before he became a man, earning the rank of a major, whilst receiving wounds that couldn’t be washed away, becoming a half-paralyzed man who relied on a wheelchair.

And that man, who was a person more famously known as “Grayman’s Crippled Leg,” a man so awkward that even his purpose for attending the party was ambiguous, had brought a guest.

“He looks like an asshole.”

Beside him, the person in the wheelchair, was a handsome man with a neat appearance.

The aura he exuded was unique. Despite his obviously agitated demeanor, his stoic expression and the muscles bulging through his clothes gave people the impression of a knight on the battlefield.

Polo saw him quite flatly at the time.

“He’s a dude who never quite got past puberty. You know the kind of person I am talking about. The kind of guy who thinks he’s the only one in the world who is suffering and thinks it’s cool. Look at how he’s trying to set the mood. Don’t you think he’s intoxicated by himself?”

“Hahaha! Lord Notuem is also quite something.”

“What do you mean? It’s true.”

“Is that so?”

In retrospect, it had probably been his jealousy talking.

It could also have been a sense of possessiveness.

Perhaps he just hadn’t liked the idea of a stranger that, from the moment he had arrived, had stolen all the attention of the young ladies he had been eyeing.

It wasn’t just Polo who felt that way.

All the young men who had wanted to befriend Elvus Grayman, and all the young men who had the attention of the young ladies stolen from them, were wary of him.

To the young men who were consumed by sexual desire, the foreign species that had disrupted their ecosystem was extremely threatening.

Only the man and Elvus Grayman were relaxed in this atmosphere of heightened vigilance.

It wasn’t long before the young ladies began to form a circle around the two men.

It was at that moment.

“…Look at this, Lord Noteum. I have some amazing news to share with you.”

It was Viscount Bold’s second son, who had been with him that day.

“That man seems to be a mercenary. He had become friends with Elvus Grayman during his time on the battlefield.”

“…You mean he’s not a nobleman?”

“From what I’ve heard, he’s stateless.”

“Really…!”

A young man’s jealousy had a one-dimensional and aggressive aspect to it.

That was how Polo was that day.

After all, the stranger, who had seemed invulnerable to anything, had his one and only weakness exposed.

His young heart had been consumed with greed at the sight of this exposed weakness.

He wanted to pick out the man’s faults and make him kneel before him.

He wanted to prove his superiority.

He wanted to take the reward he deserved.

His actions had been swift.

Polo had led his pack through the crowd and had approached the man who had been buried among the young women.

“I’ve never seen you here before!”

He had smiled brightly and had opened his arms in a feigned gesture of goodwill.

“Oh, it’s nice to see you, Lord Notuem.”

“I greet the Grayman family; may you introduce us to the gentleman next to you?”

“Uhm….”

At Elvus Grayman’s embarrassed smile and discomfort, Polo felt his confidence surge.

At the time, he had thought it to be a sign of weakness, but looking back now, he realized that Grayman had probably been worried about Kasha’s fiery personality.

It was still impossible for him to fully understand Elvus’ expression even now.

Meanwhile, Polo had been enamored with biting down on Elvus’ inability to answer his questions as a sign of weakness, and had relentlessly pursued such a thing.

“What family are you from?”

“…I have none.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I have no family, I’m just a mercenary roaming the battlefield.”

The man had looked uncomfortable as he answered.

And Polo had felt a twinge of pleasure from this.

“Oh… Someone without a family name is allowed to attend this party? That’s really something….”

As the group of young men echoed his thoughts, Polo gained confidence in their solidarity.

Perhaps this had been the reason he had messed up and had taken it a little bit too far.

“Calm down, everyone. They just might not have parents. They say that they are a mercenary, right? Oh, or perhaps…”

He really shouldn’t have said this.

“…they ran away from their wretched parents and became parentless.”

He didn’t remember much of what happened afterwards.

No, it was more like he didn’t want to remember.

The only thing Polo could remember vividly was,

Thwack–!

And then the sound of a tree being split vertically by an axe, followed by the pain of having the entirety of his neck ripped off.

“Kyaaaaaah!”

A scream echoed out.

The sound of the other young men choking back gulps of fear could be heard.

Amidst it all, only Polo looked dumbfounded.

“Stop, stop…!”

He didn’t know when he had fallen to the ground and stretched out his arms, but he could feel nothing.

It wasn’t until after the banquet ended that he had realized that he’d been slapped.

After all, it wasn’t every day that a slap on the cheek with the palm of one’s hand would produce a “Thwack!” sound.

Anyways, the words that man had told Polo afterwards still lingered in Polo’s head today.

“Your body is so delicate. It’s a shame really, because if we had met on the battlefield, I’d have twisted your neck and ripped it right out.”

Even in the midst of the confusion, the man’s voice was still clear in his mind.

His cold, velvety voice remained vividly in Polo’s mind even after five years had passed.

It wasn’t until a week later that Polo had realized that his name was Kasha, and that he was a monster who had become the new continental powerhouse.

And it was another matter for him to realize that he hadn’t left his room for a month, afraid that Kasha would come to get him.

Then, long story short, Polo moved on with his life, forgetting about that day.

He had been too afraid of the sound of that voice to the point of losing his memories, and he thought he would never see him again.

However, he could never quite escape Kasha’s influence.

He had been born into a military family after a”, which was why he had begun his career as a supply officer, hearing often about Kasha’s exploits on the battlefield.

‘I thought that was the end of it…!’

Polo shuddered as he finished his reminiscence and glanced over at Kasha… no, Elric Portman, who was sitting in the front of the carriage.

If only he had become an officer, then he could have stepped away from the front lines.

Then, he would have never been able to meet this man who had rolled around on the battlefield all his life again.

But what was this?

Why did he appear here as the young heir of a run down noble family from a rural eastern town?

“Ugh, the smell of fertilizer.”

“Well, what can you do, it’s the countryside.”

‘You lunatics!’

Armin and Disha’s supply officers were grumbling arrogantly.

Polo felt a shiver run down his spine.

It suddenly occurred to him that he should stop them.

He didn’t even think about the fact that they were enemy soldiers and his competitors in today’s trade.

It could be called human kindness.

Polo was on the verge of coming to the heroic conclusion that he had to rescue them out of that monster’s jaws.

But, before he could do so,

“Haha….”

The moment his laughter echoed out, Polo’s heart sank.

Polo’s head dropped down.

A cold sweat poured down his body.

“Are you okay, Mr. Polo?”

When asked this by Armin’s supply officer, Polo nodded his head frantically.

“I’m totally fine!”

He shouldn’t be fully in the red.

The man hadn’t acted like he knew him yet, so wasn’t there still a chance that he didn’t recognize him?

Please, it had to be so.

‘Please….’

Polo prayed to the heavens.

But that wasn’t the way the world worked.

If all wishes were granted by the heavens, why would there still be wars and conflicts on this earth?

Elric knew him.

He remembered him quite clearly in fact.

The only fortunate thing was that he wasn’t the same man he had been five years ago.

In fact, it was the opposite that was true.

‘Damn gods, why the hell are you doing this to me?’

Sitting in the very front of the carriage, looking out over the landscape, Elric felt his heart pounding like crazy.

Even the heavens weren’t indifferent. After all, how could they have singled out one of his enemies from all the people on this vast continent to send here?

He felt a sense of crisis and impatience arise within him.

What if his true identity was revealed? What if he returned and reported him to the authorities, and they found out his whereabouts as the Sword Demon Kasha?

He couldn’t quite get these thoughts out of his head as they lingered there.

Elric closed his eyes tightly and thought.

‘…Where did I put my sword again?’

Given the circumstances, threats were his only answer.

And if that didn’t work, then…

‘…I’ll have to destroy the evidence.’

It had been a while since he had had to bury someone.

Elric’s hands tightened into a fist.

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