How to Get My Husband on My Side

Translator: Yui
Editor: Nila

The ringing in my ears eventually exploded until my whole body vibrated with the sound of the ground shaking. Was this an earthquake? The nausea and lightheadedness became so much worse that for a moment, I could not see.

“Did you see him? Did you that b*stard just now? F*ck, did he fly all the way there or what?”

“Because his wife is sitting there! He sure wants to look good, that crazy b*stard, hahaha!”

The unbothered chatter of the spectators had me shaking my head in confusion. Was that not an earthquake? Did none of them feel that? Was I going crazy?

My head was spinning and I was seeing black spots. The churning in my stomach was unbearable and blinking my eyes didn’t help at all, so I closed them instead, hoping the pain would lessen.

The physical pain eased up, but the unpleasant feeling in my chest did not. I didn’t want to open my eyes again. I wanted to keep them closed for a long time, but I was not sure as to why.

I did not want to see what was happening on the battlefield.

“Ruby, are you all right?” Cesare asked, worry laced in his voice. “You must be shocked, do you want to take a break?”

He probably thought the ghoul had scared me, but I felt too nauseous from all of the candy and rum I had taken in to correct him. My throat had grown dry with all of the crap I’d stuffed into it.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m going to the washroom.”

Without giving him the chance to say anything else, I got up and walked away. I didn’t want to know if he was still following me with his eyes, or if someone else in the vicinity was keeping me under surveillance. The feeling of being watched made my skin crawl and I hurried to enter the empty hall.

But why was it that I did not want to look back, not even once?

***

When I stopped by the bathroom, rinsed my mouth, sat on the steps leading to the players’ dressing rooms for a minute or two, went outside to breathe in some cold air, and went back to my seat, there were only two players left on the battlefield.

This time, a draugr had appeared, dressed like a knight akin to the Dullahans I had met. Its skin looked even worse than a ghoul’s, with bones sticking out of its flesh, so grotesque and decayed that it looked like both a revenant and a mummy at the same time.

The last two players on the platform were standing side by side, one knight with silver-white hair and sword drawn, and another wearing armor bearing the rose crest that symbolized Rembrandt’s Vishelier family. He tapped the silver-haired knight on the shoulder and ran ahead.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the initiative taken, considering how loud it became again.

“Are you feeling better?” Cesare’s voice filled my ears.

“Yes, of course.” I felt miserable, for some reason. “I wonder what will come out next. It’s a lot more boring than I expected.”

“That’s unexpected. Everyone is on the edge of their seats, betting on who will win and who will die.”

“Unexpected, you say? Nobody here cares who will die. So do I.”

It’s the same for me if I died, right? No one would care.

The match was boring to me, however, because I already knew how it would end.

Cesare eyed me suspiciously. “You’re not being serious, are you?”

A polite question. Wondering if his sister was not anxious for her husband to win. I hoped that the cardinals sitting a few ways down had heard him, for his sake.

The match was still boring and it was annoying to hear him talk, so I thought it would be better to just lay back and shut it all out at this point.

I’m sleepy, so I’ll close my eyes for

“… You’re sleepy?”

laugh in his stupid face? “Because I couldn’t sleep last night. You

wondered if I replied too harshly—he’d probably punish me after the game—but I didn’t care and folded my arms, leaned back, and closed

thought I heard him mumble something, but the shouts of the audience drowned his

asleep here. Sleeping while a battle was raging down below? How absurd. I was just trying to protect my poor eyes from the constant torture of flashing lights. And also to block

that’s what

despite the noisy crowd and ongoing battle.

 very loud cry woke

was or what I was doing as my eyes sprung open. I raised my head, trying to

made me turn and look to

hard at something,

him do the same,

first, I thought a cardinal had somehow fallen off the stands and

ripped open the earth, and pieces of rubble were rising into the sky. Giant piles of bones were

wore on his demonic face stretched from ear to ear and looked more like a

was not just any cardinal. That was Cardinal

my face as I

Cardinal Richie came out in this match? Did I miss the

been conspiring with the Most Serene Republic of Venice against the Pope, he had been imprisoned and set to be executed for high treason. But Cardinal Richie had decided to not sit through Cesare’s interrogation and torture. He had done what no man of the cloth dared to

had become a wandering soul, doomed for eternity. He

special approval from the Vatican. In other words, the Pope had approved of sending his once closest subordinate, now cursed and demonic entity, to fight to the

my God, they approved of

in front of

in front of Cardinal Richie. They were twisting into a skeleton of humongous size, taking the shape of what looked to be a dragon. Richie’s unholy divinity allowed for its bare bones to grow flesh and come together, but

dragon slammed its

Not something,

all the way up here, I

are you? Can’t you escape from under it? Did you get hurt? Did that zombie

terrible screams erupted once again as the dragon opened its massive jaws wide and let out a deafening roar, the noise settling in my bones. It looked like it was

Izek’s eyes found mine.

crushed underneath the dragon’s foot, he

kind of expression I was

numb and dumbstruck and

moment our eyes interlocked, a thousand questions

Why are you looking

you looking at me with such a

only one who’s getting

shattered in

wouldn’t be the worst death if I were to die by

“No!”

I care about Richie or the dragon? It was none of my business whether the monsters set to fight had been changed from what I knew

to the stone floor of the balcony. All

its terrifying jaws gaping open,

“Izek!”

my shoulder, trying to