Sleeping in Another World

The Merchant's Route

On the 25th day of Early Spring, we found ourselves still in the road. I found the travel getting more and more tedious. Although my husband had been nothing but sweet, patient and doting towards me, I noticed he had become more irritable and impatient, especially towards his men. The priests were also not helping since they insisted that we went over the temples and insisted that we must stay there. They had started to use my wellbeing as an excuse to rest and stay in temples along the way.

"How many days do we have until we reach Anslume?" I asked, finally. I have known my husband as a travel buddy more than the man who had awaken me from the temple.

"At this rate, we may spend the whole early spring travelling." he sighed. A month for them was about 40 days. The men of this planet had longer lives naturally. My husband was 35 last year but still looked young.

"I really do not mind camping, and not taking any rest periods, if this could speed up our travel time, Astia."

"Between taking a long route and making you sleep in a dirty tent, I prefer the long route" he said stubbornly. "The temples are already shabby enough, making you sleep on a camping mattress is already absurd."

This was our usual argument. Naturally I yielded.

Because we had spent countless hours in an enclosed structure, it was inevitable that we also grew closer. Although there were several times when my heart would race with fright, I had started to open up to him. I made him laugh with my playfulness and shared my silly views and opinion. While I talked and talked about the most useless things, I found him to be a good listener than a talker. I had stopped digging into his past, and decided to appreciate him at present.

Most of the time, his paranoia spells would flare up whenever we separated. His most common thought was that I will leave him. It was not a delusion since I had contemplated about it and I must have shown it to him in some way.

One afternoon, around the 20th, I was learning about the different herbs from a devout. He was a local patron of the temple, and did a lot of charity work. His past time was gardening and had brought some herbs for the temple to use. Incidentally I saw him with his planted goods and I asked to be introduced to him.

The local priests introduced me to him and he told me about the herbs. I was having fun and that was when my husband's men saw us together. They immediately reported this and I was escorted away from the devout. I did not even know his name.

His men had escorted me from the grounds and into my room. It had been dark when my husband came to my room and he had a very frightening aura. "who is that man" "why were you talking to him?" "why were you smiling at him? " and for every second that I did not answer, he hit the table, threw jars randomly and tear the linen and tapestries. He did not held his fist against me nor slapped me, however I was really hurt and afraid. The marble table was thrown and the bed had been flipped over and his glare was sharper than a knife.

And when he saw me being afraid, he turned into a demon. Everything else that was intact got broken.

The night ended with me crying trapped in his arms while he coaxed and apologised for his temper. Since he never hit me nor called me derogatory terms, I found it in my heart to forgive him the following morning. Meanwhile, the confused priests wondered why the room was trashed and never suspected my husband even in their hearts. How my husband persuaded them I also wanted to know.. The head servant was punished as everyone believed I was made to sleep in my husband's arms instead of a bed.

My husband gave them a huge donation instead since he was delighted that his wife had to sleep in his arms. I had to plead for the servant so they will not punish her.