"Wah..."
Faced with the man's gentle words, she sniffled, feeling sulky and unwilling to respond.
She felt he was doing it on purpose.
Even though she didn't want to cry, seeing his attitude made her tear ducts act up.
—You know, I gave up a peaceful, easy life, left my parents, married you, and now I have to bear ten children for you.
—Besides... I've only just gotten used to being a girl, to being a wife, to the point where I can't really do without you anymore.
—So why can't you just pamper me all the time?
This was exactly how she felt...
Celia silently accused him in her heart, her tear-glazed eyelashes fluttering.
The man in front of her stared straight at her for a long time, occasionally using his fingertip to scoop up a tear from her cheek and taste it on his tongue.
Tears... are so dirty...
Celia didn't understand why he liked her tears.
She wanted to stop him, but both her wrists were still firmly held in his one hand.
Being treated like this was super embarrassing, but that might not be the main point...
It's just that when doing that, it's obviously even dirtier, and he still likes it...
Celia turned her burning face to the side, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, trembling with a sob as she asked, "Why... do you do this?"
"What else? Because I like you. Because even when crying, my little princess is stunning."
The man's deep, magnetic voice fell beside her ear, carrying with it his scorching breath.
"This pitiable look makes me want to just squeeze you to death."
"S-squeeze to death?"
Celia's pupils contracted slightly, and she choked mid-sob.
"A bit of an exaggeration."
The man rubbed his thumb over her reddened, damp eye corner, his movements gentle as he explained, "It's just that you're too adorable."
"Adorable..."
As someone who was once a boy, he had lost count of how many times this man had called him adorable.
"At first, I found it hard to believe—how could there be such a naive person in the world? But after spending this month together, I'm completely convinced."
"Naive... or whatever, how could I be naive?"
Celia narrowed her tearful eyes.
Applying the word 'naive' to herself felt indescribably awkward.
In her previous life, she had even drunk alcohol.
Did that still count as naive?
The man murmured a whole lot more beside her ear.
The weight on her wrists finally eased.
In this state, he showed no trace of tenderness, having crushed her wrists until they ached.
He cupped her delicate little face with his palm; tears welled in her eyes, and his hand nearly covered half her face.
With a smiling curve on his lips, he used his thumb to wipe her tears and said softly, "Someone like you is exactly my type. You listen to everything I say, never harboring any ulterior motives."
"Even when talking to me, whatever you're thinking is clearly written all over your face."
"No wonder I always found other women annoying before—it turns out they all lacked your purity."
No, no, no.
Aren't you some kind of pervert?
I didn't notice it before, but the more I look at Liam now, the more I see some yandere potential in him.
If I tried to sneak away, would I be caught, locked in a cage, and have my limbs chopped off?
Celia ranted wildly in her heart.
And yet...
She clutched the button on his collar, her face still being toyed with by the man.
Celia thought,
With all this time spent dawdling, wouldn't it be better to just... eat her right here?
The location might not be ideal—it's hard and would probably hurt.
But Celia could grudgingly live with it...
"Alright, I've had my fill. Time waits for no one, we should set off."
"Now you remember..."
She muttered under her breath.
By now, the embarrassingly wet tears on her face had been slowly wiped dry by her husband with a tissue.
Only her eyes were slightly red and swollen, evidence of her crying...
She looked up and saw
Liam rummaging in his storage ring.
Soon, a blanket appeared on the ground.
"A flying carpet?"
Seeing the object, Celia's eyes instantly lit up.
Her previous grievances vanished, and she looked eagerly at the man's face, seeking confirmation.
"Flying carpet."
Liam raised an eyebrow, somewhat taken aback.
"That's a pretty good name. If you like calling it a flying carpet, then flying carpet it is."
"But how did you know it can fly?"
"Because... it looks like it can fly."
In this other world, if a blanket was just lying flat on the ground outside a room for no reason, and it couldn't fly, then the person who put it there must have been incredibly bored.
"I never expected my beloved wife to have such a clever idea. I'm genuinely surprised."
Liam praised her, then casually lifted his wrist over the blanket.
Sure enough, the soft, collapsed blanket instantly levitated, its fabric undulating like waves, rolling intermittently towards one end.
It even had special effects!
Celia grew even more excited.
She had long grown tired of the tribe's monotonous, unoriginal magic.
But staying by Liam's side, she got to encounter so many novel things with an otherworldly feel—it felt magical to her.
"The mother of my children should board first."
Liam elegantly bent at the waist, smiling as he extended his hand, making a "please" gesture towards the carpet.
"Oh... thank you..."
Never mind the 'mother of my children' address—after all, she was the mother of his children.
Right now, Celia's eyes were practically shining.
She hurried to the edge of the carpet and tried to lean on it with both arms.
—The material was soft and comfortable to the touch, like a high-grade fabric she hadn't encountered before.
Her movements were cautious, as the carpet looked so fragile; she was afraid that with a little too much force, the fabric would tear.
While she was hesitating,
Suddenly, she felt a lift under her armpits—the man had picked her up again like a kitten and successfully placed her at the front of the flying carpet.
Before Celia could complain, the hands under her armpits let go, and the carpet began to sway unsteadily, followed by a sense of weightlessness.
"Eeek~!"
Celia let out a startled cry, hurriedly leaning forward to press her hands tightly against the carpet's surface, her lips slightly parted in helpless panic.
"Lord Liam... q-quick, help me!"
She pleaded anxiously.
"Hahaha, it's not a big problem. You'll get used to it."
The man actually didn't help immediately, choosing instead to stand by and watch the spectacle.
Her recently dried eyes grew moist again.
She fully understood now: her husband simply enjoyed teasing her, loved seeing her flustered and overwhelmed.
Is messing with a girl really that fun?
Yes, Liam was certainly amused.
Thinking back to when she was a boy, she had always been so considerate towards girls, attentive to every detail—would she ever have deliberately teased someone like this?