Who knows what you've just touched

This barrage of grand logic completely dumbfounded Felsy.

Yes.

Logically speaking, Kuma was absolutely right.

Since she refused to admit that she loved him, and refused to acknowledge him as her true husband, what right did she have to care about what he did outside?

But...

Just the thought of Lynch showing that gentle smile to other women, using the hands that massaged her to touch other women, or even...

Felsy felt as if a heavy boulder was blocking her chest. She felt so sour she wanted to cry, and so furious she wanted to kill someone.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Felsy slammed the table fiercely, her face as red as a ripe tomato. Her usually aloof and expressionless face had never been so animated in her entire life.

She began to babble incoherently for an excuse:

"This isn't a matter of feelings! This is... this is a matter of hygiene!"

"Hygiene?" Kuma raised an eyebrow, barely able to hold back her laughter.

"T-that's right!" Felsy said loudly, as if grasping at straws. "Places like that... are so dirty! What if he catches some weird disease?"

"We live together now, use the same bathroom, and even... even sleep in the same bed, even though we haven't done anything yet!"

"If he gets himself dirty and passes it to me when he comes back, what then? I am a noble witch! How could I come into contact with such filth!"

"And another thing!" Felsy felt more and more justified as she spoke, her gaze turning incredibly sharp. "He is my exclusive chef! His hands are meant to cook for me! If those hands touched... touched that kind of woman, and then came to make rice balls for me... Ugh!"

Just imagining the scene made Felsy shudder with disgust.

"Therefore! It is absolutely not because I care about him!"

Felsy stared intently at Kuma, trying to overwhelm her with an imposing aura. "I am doing this purely to maintain the health and dignity of the upper echelons of the Demon Realm! It's to ensure my food safety! Do you understand?!"

Looking at her boss's tsundere appearance—clearly dying of jealousy yet still waving the banner of epidemic prevention and hygiene—Kuma finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Pfft... cough cough cough!"

Kuma buried her face in the tablecloth, her shoulders shaking violently. "Understood... your subordinate understands... My lady's... pfft... hygiene awareness is truly too advanced..."

"What are you laughing at!"

Felsy flew into a humiliated rage and reached out to pinch Kuma's ear.

Just then, the wind chime at the shop's entrance rang.

"I'm back!"

Lynch pushed the door open and entered, carrying two delicate little paper boxes. His face bore that brilliant smile that made Felsy's heart flutter yet simultaneously angered her.

"I got lucky and found a shop with freshly baked egg tarts. They're still warm."

Lynch walked over to the table and set the egg tarts down, completely oblivious to the weird atmosphere.

"Wife, want a taste? I bought them especially for you. I noticed you didn't eat much of the main course just now."

Felsy looked at the steaming egg tarts, then at Lynch's innocent face.

No, there must still be some leftover! The rest must be his secret stash!

"...I'm not eating."

Felsy turned her head away and snorted coldly. "Who knows what your hands just touched."

Lynch: "???"

He looked at his own hands, then at Kuma, who was wearing a wicked smirk.

"I only touched the coin pouch and the egg tart boxes... What's going on? Who made you mad again?"

Kuma lifted her head from the table and wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.

"It's nothing, Brother Lynch."

"The Lady Witch is just... um, having a germaphobe moment."

Seeing Felsy turn her head away with a look of disgust, and Kuma beside her with a strange expression trying to hold back laughter, Lynch didn't get angry. Instead, he smiled somewhat helplessly.

"Alright, alright, I didn't wash my hands. My fault."

Lynch didn't overthink it, assuming it was just Felsy's deep-rooted germaphobia acting up.

After all, his wife was usually a neat freak at home, even changing the bedsheets every two days, so it was normal for her to be somewhat repulsed by the outside environment.

This even made Lynch suspect that before she lost her memory, Felsy might have been a noble young lady.

He finished off an egg tart in two or three bites and clapped the pastry crumbs off his hands.

"Then let's rest for a bit and head out, so we don't keep Asik waiting."

Taking advantage of the break while the two rested, Lynch made an excuse to pay the bill and went to the counter.

Using his body as a shield, he quietly touched the small cloth pouch tucked inside his shirt.

Inside lay five silver coins quietly—this was the exact discrepancy Felsy had sharply detected earlier, and the evidence she used to conclude that Lynch was going to mess around in a brothel.

But in reality, Lynch's mind was on a completely different wavelength.

"Only five silver coins... It's still not quite enough."

Lynch sighed in his heart.

Actually, he hadn't skimmed this money off the top to go find amusement in some red-light district.

Although he was a normal man, with a breathtakingly beautiful wife like Felsy at home, he genuinely couldn't muster any interest in those vulgar, heavily powdered women outside.

What he wanted to do was buy Felsy a gift.

"Although Felsy's health has improved recently and she can get out of bed to walk around, she's cooped up at home all day. Other than reading, she just zones out. It's really too boring."

"Even though Kuma can chat with her, this little girl is a bit dense after all, and might not truly alleviate her boredom."

While strolling on the street earlier, Lynch had actually been looking for entertainment items to help pass the time.

His eyes had been drawn to a Phonograph Bird Music Box displayed in the window of an alchemy shop.

It was a very exquisite magical item that could not only automatically play over a dozen tunes but also imitate bird calls, and its design was quite unique.

Lynch felt that if he placed it on the bedroom windowsill, Felsy's mood would probably improve a lot from listening to the music.

It was just a pity that the thing was priced at fifty silver coins.

It felt like it had zero cost-effectiveness.

"Forget it, I'll look at something else."

...

Half an hour later, at the central plaza of Broken Gold Town.

The area was already packed with a watertight crowd.

Young people from the surrounding villages, as well as age-appropriate youths from the town, had all gathered here. Every one of them craned their necks, gazing eagerly at the temporarily erected high platform in the center of the plaza.

That was the site of the admission exam for the Royal Nine-School Alliance.

"Mr. Lynch! Over here! Over here!"

At the edge of the crowd, Asik was standing on his tiptoes, waving frantically.

He had clearly dressed up carefully today. His originally washed-out mage robe was ironed perfectly flat, his monocle was polished to a shine, and he even had some hair wax in his hair, making him look rather presentable.

Behind him, the dwarf Bronzebeard and the guard Rhodes had also arrived, looking like they were there to provide an escort.

"Sorry, I'm late."

Lynch squeezed through the crowd with Felsy and Kuma to join them, saying, "We went to grab a bite to eat just now, and took a walk to digest."

"Not late, not late at all! The big shots haven't arrived yet!"

Asik wore an excited expression and lowered his voice, speaking mysteriously, "Mr. Lynch, have you heard? The inside scoop about the admissions officer who's about to arrive."

"Oh? What inside story?" Lynch asked, playing along.