"If you want to die, at least sign the divorce papers first."
The papers slid across the table. The woman in the wheelchair didn’t look up. Her silver hair hung around her face as she stared at them with the exhausted expression of someone who had already given up.
"...I’m tired."
Then everything went dark.
...
Reinhard slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, and for several seconds, nothing made sense. The first thing that came into focus was a woman with long silver hair sitting beside him, her eyes full of concern. She quietly laid a blanket over him, and then his vision faded again.
When Reinhard finally woke up, the room was brighter. The same woman set a glass of water on the table beside him, then turned her wheelchair toward the door, and Reinhard watched her leave as the door closed behind her.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, trying to work out where he was, when the smell of alcohol reached him. He pushed himself upright and found bottles scattered across the floor. He picked one up and frowned at the cheap label.
"I’m not sure if I should be impressed or horrified," he said, setting it down. "But what terrible taste. He couldn’t find a better brand?"
A mirror on the wall caught his attention, and a young man with silver hair and sky-blue eyes looked back at him. Reinhard tilted his head, turned from side to side, and brushed his hair back with a satisfied smile.
"At least the face is decent." He paused. "No, decent is an insult." He nodded firmly at his reflection. "Even in a new life, my face is still the best thing I own."
His eyes dropped to the stack of unpaid bills on the counter before moving across the peeling wallpaper, old furniture, and half-empty shelves. "Unfortunately, my finances didn’t get the same treatment."
The memories flooding into his mind filled in the rest.
This was a new world called Monad. He was living in a city called Axom, one of the many city under a Megacity called Aurileus.
More importantly, he was a drunk with a ruined marriage, a family that had spent two years putting up with him, and a wife named Emily who had finally decided divorce was better than staying.
Reinhard sighed. "What a mess." He glanced at his reflection again. "Still handsome, though."
A photograph sat crookedly on a nearby shelf, and he picked it up. Everyone in the picture was smiling except Emily. Another photograph was tucked behind it, and when Reinhard pulled it free, his eyebrows rose.
Emily stood at the center of an arena, holding a golden trophy above her head while thousands of people cheered around her. The headline read National Awakening Tournament Champion, and beneath it, Youngest Champion in Tournament History.
Reinhard stared at the words, then at Emily. "My wife was the youngest champion?" A pleased smile spread across his face. "Of course she was." He studied the photograph a little longer. "So you weren’t just good. You were apparently ridiculous."
Reinhard studied the photograph a little longer.
The memories told him that she hated the old Reinhard, and judging by the state of their marriage, he couldn’t blame her. She had already decided that divorce was better than continuing to live with him.
Yet she had still sat beside him while he slept and covered him with a blanket.
That didn’t make sense. If she truly wanted nothing to do with him anymore, why was she still taking care of him?
Reinhard looked at the wheelchair tracks leading toward the hallway. What happened between us?
For the first time since waking up in this world, his curiosity was stronger than his desire to understand his situation.
He wanted to know more about Emily.
Reinhard stepped into the hallway and heard footsteps.
A woman with long black hair and silver eyes walked past him, and his memories supplied her name: Maki Ashcroft, twenty-five, the oldest sister and the one who had been holding everyone together.
The dark circles under her eyes made that obvious. Her lunchbox slipped from her hand, and she caught it without breaking stride.
Reinhard watched her go. "She’s running on habit."
The middle sister, Yuna, came next. Their eyes met for barely a second before she looked away and walked past him a little faster.
Reinhard gave her retreating back a friendly wave. "Great talk."
Then came the youngest, with long red hair and multicolored blue, green, yellow eyes. Lily spotted him and immediately raised the slipper in her hand.
Reinhard sighed. "You’re really going to..."
The slipper flew straight at his face, and he caught it. He glanced at it with a raised eyebrow. It had moved faster than he expected, yet his hand had reacted before he had even consciously decided to catch it.
Reinhard narrowed his eyes. I thought this body was weak... Maybe I’m wrong.
Then he looked at Lily who was reaching for a second one.
"You came prepared."
She froze. "...Obviously."
He turned the first slipper over as though he were examining a rare artifact. "Most people only prepare one."
"I’m not most people."
"Clearly." He tossed it back to her with an approving nod. "Excellent. Keep practicing."
"Practicing what?"
"Your aim. If you’re going to throw things at me, I’d rather you get good at it."
Her expression grew even more confused. "...You’re weird."
"I’ve been told."
She stared at him. "Why aren’t you angry?"
Reinhard shrugged. "You missed."
"That’s not the point!"
"Then you should probably explain what the point is," he said, walking past her while she was still trying to figure out how to respond.
"...He’s definitely weird," she muttered behind him.
Reinhard smiled. He had barely been awake an hour, and this family was already entertaining. Maybe this new life wouldn’t be so boring after all.
...
In the living room, he finally got a proper look at Emily. Morning light fell across her silver hair and the sleeves of her dress, and her wheelchair was spotless despite the state of everything else around it.
Reinhard smiled, and then he noticed her reaching for the cup of water on the table beside her. She stretched, then stretched farther, until her body suddenly gave out. She fell forward and knocked the cup over, spilling water across the floor, and she barely reacted. She simply reached for the mop.
Reinhard looked around. None of the sisters had noticed, or maybe they had simply grown used to it.
"So this is how every morning starts," he said quietly.
Emily reached for the cup again, but her fingers only pushed it farther away. She tried again, and Reinhard walked over. "Leave it."
Emily froze and looked up at him.
Reinhard picked up the mop. "I’ll clean it up."
"W-What?"
"You do this by yourself every morning?"
Emily gripped her wheelchair and said nothing.
Reinhard stepped behind her and reached for the brake lever beside the wheel. It was stiff, and he had to put real force into it before it released. His expression changed. Even moving closer to the table required help, yet she hadn’t called anyone. Why not?
He rolled her closer to the table, refilled the cup, and set it right beside her hand. This time, when Emily reached for it, she didn’t have to stretch at all. She took a drink and stared at him in surprise, but Reinhard said nothing and went back to mopping up the water.
Behind him, the three sisters had finally looked up.
"What are you doing?" Maki asked.
Reinhard glanced up from the floor. "Cleaning."
Maki stared at him. "You?"
"Apparently."
Maki looked at the clean floor for several seconds. She had spent two years cleaning up after Reinhard. She couldn’t remember the last time he had cleaned up after anyone. Her expression didn’t soften, but something in her eyes changed.
For the first time that morning, she wasn’t looking at him like a problem she had to endure. She was looking at him like a problem she didn’t understand.
Lily slowly lowered the slipper she was still holding. "Did you hit your head?"
"Possibly."
Yuna stayed silent, watching him carefully. None of them knew what to make of it. The man they knew had spent years drinking away their money and leaving everyone else to clean up after him.
Now he was on his knees mopping the floor without being asked.
Reinhard finished and stood up, and his eyes settled on Emily as a small smile appeared. "I must have been an absolute idiot."
Emily blinked. "Why?"
Reinhard looked at her for a moment. "Because I never realized how beautiful my wife is."
Nobody in the room made a sound. Lily’s mouth dropped open, Maki froze, and even Yuna looked up. Emily nearly dropped her cup. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had spoken to her that sincerely.
Reinhard brushed aside a strand of silver hair that had fallen across her face. "Quality control."
Emily stared at him.
He studied her for another moment. "Hmm." His smile widened. "My wife is definitely going to turn heads."
Emily blushed, and Lily looked ready to explode.
Reinhard seemed completely satisfied with his inspection. "Oh, right. I hope you slept well last night." He smiled. "I know I did, thanks to the blanket you gave me. Thank you, my beautiful wife."
Plop.
A slice of toast slipped from Lily’s fingers and landed butter-side down.
Reinhard looked at the toast, then at Lily. "...A tragedy."
He turned toward the hallway.
"That’s what you’re sad about?!" Lily shouted.
"I’ll mourn appropriately later."
"Reinhard!"
He ignored her.
...
In the kitchen, Reinhard opened the refrigerator and found almost nothing inside, half a carton of milk, three eggs, a few vegetables, and a little meat. He closed the door. The bills were almost due too.
He leaned against the counter and thought about his new family. Getting through to them was going to take work, because two years of damage wouldn’t disappear overnight. But the strangest part wasn’t the sisters. It was Emily. She wanted to divorce him, and she had looked shocked when he helped her, yet she had still sat beside him while he slept and pulled a blanket over him with worry in her eyes. Why did she still care?
His thoughts drifted back to the photograph. Emily had once stood at the very top of the Awakener world, and now she couldn’t reach a glass of water without struggling.
His smile faded slightly. "First, I’ll fix this place. Then I’ll find out what happened to my wife." He glanced at the bills. "And apparently, I’ll need to make some money first." He looked up at the ceiling. "Being this handsome really should come with better financial benefits."
...
Emily remained at the table long after Reinhard disappeared into the hallway.
For two years, she had known exactly what Reinhard would do. He would drink until he could barely stand, waste what little money they had, ignore the family around him, and eventually fall asleep as though none of it mattered.
But today, he had done none of those things.
He had helped her without being asked, cleaned up the water she had spilled, moved her wheelchair closer to the table, and spoken to her as though she were still the woman she had once been.
Emily lowered her eyes to the glass of water he had placed within easy reach. Who are you?
For the first time in months, Emily didn’t want Reinhard to leave her alone. She wanted to know what he would do next.
And she decided that she would watch him closely.