Chapter Text
The sweet scent of the greenhouse enveloped Tartaglia as he made his way inside, he could see his husband tending to the roses. Tartaglia will admit that his husband is handsome, especially surrounded by thickets of roses that made him look almost ethereal.
But the lack of expression on his face, the cold look in his eyes always made it seem otherwise.
“Why are you here?” His tone was devoid of emotion, but there was an underlying feeling inside it. It is as if Tartaglia is an unwelcome presence here.
He isn't even looking at me..
“I.. I wanted to talk to you.”
Zhongli still faced the flowers, the sharp sound of scissors is the only response Tartaglia got, but he figured it's his way of telling him to continue.
“I was wondering if we could have dinner together..”
Zhongli immediately laughed in disbelief, “You came to waste my time just to ask that?” He inquired while he snickered to himself, his fingers casually fiddling with the sharp edges of the scissors.
“It's just been a long time, i just want us to-”
The sound of scissors tossed on the table, an unpleasant clang that ruthlessly interrupted Tartaglia's words.
“I don't give a shit about your schemes, leave.” For a few moments Zhongli didn't hear any response, at the end he heard the door close with fading footsteps.
“Dinner together.. what a joke.”
Tartaglia sat in his room, his eyes glued to his reflection in the mirror. He seemed as if he wanted to say a lot of things but he took a breath to calm down and gather his thoughts.
It's been less than a week since he woke up in this place. Just before he went to bed he was reading a novel to pass time and fell asleep with it.
The shock he felt when he woke up at an unfamiliar place was too much, but after a day he calmed down and realised he ended up in this book somehow.
If I knew this was gonna happen I would've read a smut book!
Tartaglia only found out that his original body and his current body are eerily similar, from the colour of his hair to the moles on his body, everything was completely similar. It was as if his actual body came here.
At least Tartaglia knows he's still hot even in this world.
And the book, the character he's currently possessing and the story? He has no idea, he never paid much attention when reading this novel, and whatever he read before he already forgot.
I wonder how all those fuckers remember every single detail in the story whenever they possess bodies in these stories.
So he started to write down his thoughts about everyone in a notebook.
The maids and butlers are no help, they either avoid me or look at me in disgust. Fuck them.
But there is this one maid who's nice to me. From the looks of it she's my personal maid? She's nice!
The guards and the knights stationed around don't even look at me, they literally ignored me when I tried to talk to them! Fuck them too.
At least I remember the name of my supposed husband, Zhongli.
Fuck him too!
I don't know how bad their relationship was for him to be ignored to this extent, but bro could've just divorced his hubby instead of ignoring him and let his employees treat him like shit.
The only redeeming quality he has is his face.
Today Tartaglia tried to talk to his so-called-husband but their little interaction was enough to give him what he should know.
“For a moment I almost stabbed him with those scissors, I'm proud of myself for holding myself back.”
“Um.. sir? What are you mumbling about?”
“Oh yeah I forgot you're here.” Tartaglia finally looked beside him to see his maid staring at him confused, he actually forgot she was in the room with him.
“Hey Lumine, can you bring me a knife?”
“..m-may I ask why sir?”
Tartaglia gave her the most honest smile, a smile that was so beautiful the maid couldn't help but blush looking at it.
“I'm going to chop off your Duke's dick.”
Tartaglia was only joking of course, he would never possibly hurt someone. He only wanted to tease his maid, scare her a little. She is the only person in this entire mansion he could trust after all.
Lumine was shocked to hear what her master said, she frowned and held his arms in a hurry, with a determined look on her face.
“Master, I know some herbs that could give a nasty infection, we can use that instead of castrating the duke. I don't want you to sully your clothes with blood.”
“...”
That day another note was added in his little notebook.
Never piss off the maid.