New World with Four Husbands

"It's already lunch! Coco will be here in a couple of hours!"

"I know that, idiot." Alhai hissed, shooting a menacing glare towards Quizen's way.

"Yeah, well, out of the four of us, you're the one who's still not done packing your things." Quizen states bluntly, pointing at the two bags sitting at the foot of Alhai's bed.

"I don't need your nagging." Alhai mumbled, turning his attention away from the fourth husband.

Instead of answering Quizen's questions and responding to his poking, he went back to folding his clothes and nearly put them inside the bag, one by one.

He has one bag for his clothes and other essentials such as perfume, hair ties, and towel, but the other bag was for his books— that Coco bought for him— so he could read something while they were staying in the big city.

He knows that books that could be bought from the bookstore in the main city would require Coco to sell her soul and he also knows that if he asked, Coco would buy him books, no matter how expensive it gets, but he won't do that because he would rather have her focus on getting her license.

What a weird thought. Alhai frowned, pushing the thought to the back of his mind, convincing himself that he does not care about Coco's desire to get that hunter license.

To him, thinking about Coco's situation and considering the difficulties that she may go through to get the license for being a hunter is just an unsettling thought that should not bother him in the first place.

Coco Hughes is his wife.

A wife that is abusive, but kind, caring, loving, thoughtful, beautiful, generous, cheerful—

No, stop. Alhai hissed in his mind, his grip on his linen shirt tightening as he pushed those thoughts on the back of his head, his heart thumping against his ribcage and echoing in his ears.

She's not any of those things I said because she's the kind of person who could hurt her husbands. Alhai thought, suppressing the bubbly feeling blooming in his chest.

Once again, Alhai continued folding and packing his clothes, making sure to block his thoughts about Coco.

In the kitchen, the red haired mediator is busy with baking a few loaves of bread with the brown haired mediator being busy marinating the ham of the flying pig that Coco's friend brought to them last night.

Renaldo was his name, wasn't it? Heiren thought, his hands working and cutting the onions, garlic, and tomatoes, slicing them into small cubes.

When Renaldo first dropped by to the house, carrying a poison tiger meat, he initially thought that Renaldo was Coco's mister because no matter how a mediator looks because by the end of the day, they are still a mediator.

Besides, a mediator like Heiren could sense if the person in front of him was a mediator so he could tell right away that Renaldo is a very healthy mediator.

However, when Renaldo introduced himself that he was just there to deliver the meat and was asked by Coco to drop it off at the house, Heiren felt a wave of relief washing over him.

He felt relieved because Renaldo is quite big for an average mediator.

If that mediator wanted to tackle him down to strip him off his status as Coco's second husband, Renaldo would be able to do so.

Heiren shuddered, the thought of a big mediator like the butcher fighting for the position of Coco's second husband giving him goosebumps.

"What's wrong?" Zaque asked, his voice snapping Heiren out of his stupor.

Heiren blinked, his eyes dropping to his hand and realized that he stopped slicing the tomatoes halfway. "Oh, uh, I— I just had a thought, but it's alright. Don't worry about me. I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" Zaque raised an eyebrow, wiping his hands off on the clean towel that was hanging by the oven's door, and took a step towards Heiren.

He pressed the back of his hand on Heiren's forehead, checking if his temperature was higher than usual.

"I said I'm fine." Heiren grumbled, his eyebrows furrowing in annoyance, and pulled his face out of Zaque's grasp, "I really just had a thought. I'm not sick, okay?"

"It's never bad to be cautious." Zaque said, pulling his hand away and smiling softly, "It's getting colder anyway, catching a flu at this time of year is normal so I'm just looking out for all of us."

Heiren's annoyed expression softened, his shoulders relaxing from tension.

"I know.." The brown haired mediator mumbled, "I'm sorry. Really, I'm fine. I don't feel sick or anything. You don't have to worry."

Zaque did not say anything and just stared at him, but after a second, he looked away and nodded his head. "If you say so. I'm still going to keep an eye out, okay? I hope you don't mind."

"Whatever, you worrywart." Heiren rolled his eyes, but the corner of his lips twitched into a small smile.

Zaque merely shook his head at the name calling, but didn't comment on it, and felt slightly relieved that Heiren is not coming down on something.

Well, even if Heiren did come down on something, he could just ask for Coco to get some herbs and medicine to help the second husband recover, knowing full well that Coco wouldn't let the flu make itself feel at home.

Zaque sighed, going back to kneading the second batch of dough, but then, he paused, Quizen's screams echoing from the second floor.

"Zaque! Alhai threw his sandals at me!" Quizen shrieks, voice dripping with horror.

"I won't do it if you stop bothering me!" Came a muffled response from the third husband, sounding annoyed and fed up from whatever the fourth husband did.

Heiren and Zaque simultaneously let out a sigh, their shoulders sagging in exhaustion.

They haven't left for the main city yet, but they already felt so done— all because of Quizen's and Alhai's squabble since that morning.