After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 65

The fire that suddenly engulfed the forest thankfully ended after only slightly scorching the back of the mansion. Dihart, having caught the culprit, couldn’t contain his fury.

“That crazy bastard!”

The truth he extracted from the deranged Henkett was absurd. Henkett had learned about the situation inside the Nightmare Forest from those who had entered before him and prepared accordingly.

Instead of the camping gear people usually got from the general store, he had brought charms to destroy illusions and spells.

“Your Grace, ah, Your Grace! I came to save you! You trash, get away from His Grace right now!”

Henkett’s eyes were completely wild. He looked at the empty seat beside him, searching for Dihart, and cursed the real Dihart as a villain.

“You heartless, soulless devils! Do you think you’ll be safe after laying a hand on Duke Inverness!”

“Ha, this is driving me crazy.”

Dihart ran a hand through his hair, a cold laugh escaping him. Even after escaping the Nightmare Forest, Henkett hadn’t snapped out of his delusion, all thanks to the fake charm he used.

“He chased after me with this piece of junk.”

There was no way a charm bought from the back alleys of Surpredi [a fictional town] would be the real deal. Claude pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.

“I thought he was just another mediocre scholar following me around again. This is my mistake.”

Claude groaned in pain.

“I should have closed the forest entirely for a while.”

It would have been better if it had just been a useless piece of paper. The half-baked charm twisted the illusions within the barrier, showing Henkett ‘the scene he wanted to see.’

“Don’t worry, Your Grace. I’ve sent a signal to the main force. They’ll be here soon when they see it. But remember, I’m the only one who came to save you… Aaaagh!”

“If my life could be saved by the likes of you, I would have been rolling around in hell a long time ago.”

Dihart snarled and kicked him in the chest. This lunatic used a crude magic scroll to send a signal and ended up burning the forest. No, not just the forest, he almost turned the mansion to ashes.

Swish-

Dihart drew his sword. Claude opened his eyes, startled by the chilling sound. His eyes widened in shock. It was the sword he had secretly hidden the day Dihart was brought to the lab.

“You, when did you—?”

“I just threatened the doctor a little, and he brought it to me.”

Claude groaned. The threat was just an excuse. Wartz wasn’t someone who would give in to threats. He might not have shown it, but he must have been furious.

“I guess so, considering the herb storage was completely destroyed.”

The storage held precious herbs that Wartz had collected over the years. They weren’t just ingredients for medicine but also valuable data needed for research. The resentment Wartz felt for losing all of that must have been immeasurable.

“Hide behind me, Your Grace! This wicked man, you won’t lay a hand on my master’s body. This Henkett won’t let you get away with it… Aaaagh!”

The sound of blood splattering and bones grinding echoed through the underground lab. With that, Henkett became someone who could never hold a sword again in his life.

A moment later, Dihart opened the door to the lab and said to Claude,

“I’ll leave the rest to the doctor.”

“…….”

“Whether he lives or dies, I don’t care.”

It was a statement that he was entrusting the life and death of his vassal to someone else. It was quite a harsh measure for an accident that didn’t result in any casualties. But Claude simply looked at him silently, not objecting, because he knew why Dihart had made that decision.

Soon, the door closed. Walking up the shadowed stairs, Dihart groaned in pain.

“Damn it…….”

Each step was too difficult. It was only a distance of fewer than ten steps, but it felt like a thousand miles to him. The moment he stepped onto the last step, he felt like his heart was sinking.

“It’s impossible to make the medicine you used to take right now. I think we’ll have to use commercially available products for the time being…….”

Wartz’s voice could be heard from afar. His troubled tone was deeply rooted in self-disappointment and anger towards Henkett.

The loss of the herb storage meant that Sebelia’s treatment, which was nearing its end, would be halted.

* * *

Gashorn disease was endemic to Rookwood [a region in the story]. Not many people contracted it, but there were still a considerable number of patients, and thanks to that, a treatment existed.

“The problem is that this tricky disease requires equally tricky medicinal herbs.”

Wartz’s voice echoed through the burnt forest. He and Dihart were searching through the relatively intact forest for usable herbs.

“If Rookwood weren’t so closed off, there wouldn’t be any problems with the supply of medicinal herbs.”

Wartz rubbed his eyes and said in a regretful tone.

If the patient were from Rookwood, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. All the ingredients were common herbs in Rookwood.

But this was the Belkram Empire, located beyond the Frostwood. Among them, it was deep in the mountains of Surpredi, which was famous for having little interaction with other places.

“Are they that difficult to obtain? I know the overall climate is different, but I think we can still find them.”

Dihart asked, plucking a black touch-me-not. Despite being a duke, he knelt on the ground and collected herbs according to Wartz’s instructions.

Wartz sat down beside him and replied,

“Well, the black touch-me-not you’re picking is also hard to find in Belkram, though not as much as glass snowdrops. But you can find it here without much difficulty. But glass snowdrops are different.”

“Explain what’s different.”

Wartz frowned at the arrogant tone, but he didn’t stop talking.

“It only grows in very cold and deep valleys. There aren’t many places like that in Belkram. And even if it does grow naturally, it’s not easy because you have to risk your life to collect it.”

“…So you’re not saying it’s completely impossible.”

“I’m saying it’s almost impossible. The glass snowdrops I was going to use for Bella’s treatment were also taken from half of the five roots I barely collected. For reference, it was a Belkram product that came out in ten years.”

Wartz said it to discourage hope, but Dihart, as always, took it in a very different light.

“Give me the contact information of the herbalist who collected the Belkram glass snowdrops.”

Dihart said, dusting off his knees and getting up. Wartz looked up at him with eyes that saw someone clinging to a hopeless dream.

“It won’t work. The valley where he collected the glass snowdrops is already long gone…….”

Then Dihart laughed fiercely and retorted.

“I can see very well that you have a weaker will than I thought. But know that if you give up on Sebelia’s treatment because of that pathetic motivation, I won’t let you get away with it.”

Wartz’s face hardened at the raw criticism and relentless abuse. Anger that he had never seen before welled up inside his brown eyes.

“I don’t care if you quit being a doctor because of this, or if you close the lab because you’re feeling disillusioned. Just make sure you completely cure Sebelia first. After that, I don’t care what you use your smart head for.”

“Are you saying I’m not qualified as a doctor right now?”

“Why not?”

Dihart laughed coldly.

“Do you think I wouldn’t notice that you’re giving up on the one hand while saying that they’re herbs that can be found in Belkram?”

“I was just stating the reality!”

“That’s your reality, doctor. Unlike you, who only has a smart head, I live in a reality where I make impossible things possible.”

He smiled crookedly. The golden eyes shone brilliantly on Dihart’s face, standing tall against the sun.

“I am the master of Hillend Hall, the Duke who leads Inverness, and the representative of the North. I don’t care how rare or expensive those herbs are to other people. It won’t be the same for me.”

“…….”

“So you just focus on curing Sebelia. And get those eyes that are cooling down like a tongue-wagging dead beast out of her sight.”

Dihart passed him and disappeared. Wartz trembled with humiliation. But in his clenched fists, there was shame, not anger.

‘Did I really give up on the patient?’

Did I really think, even for a moment, that I couldn’t treat Sebelia anymore? He looked back on his actions over the past few days and found the answer. And soon he realized that Dihart was right.

“Damn it…….”

Wartz couldn’t leave that spot for a while.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sebelia was in despair at the unexpected misfortune. She had overcome many trials and tribulations, but this time it was different.

“Haa.”

It felt like God was playing a trick on her. Otherwise, there couldn’t be so many twists and turns in her life.

‘To be honest, I’m so tired.’

No matter how strong a person is, they can’t always maintain their strength. Moreover, she considered the cure a stepping stone to a new life, so it was difficult to shake off her depression.

“What should I do? If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have looked for Denisa.”

She felt guilty even though it wasn’t her fault. She kept regretting her rash actions. Sebelia stayed in bed, swallowing the medicine that Claude had hurriedly bought from the pharmacy, and spent her time.

“Haa…….”

She didn’t want to go out of the room, and she definitely didn’t want to take a walk. Sometimes Maya bothered her as if telling her not to be like this, but Sebelia didn’t budge.

“Sorry. Just let me be like this for a while.”

With a great sense of loss, Sebelia spent the whole day blankly. She knew that her condition was strange, but there was nothing she could do. She had no idea how to recover from the emptiness and hollowness that had penetrated deep into her heart.

That’s how a week passed. Sebelia didn’t wake up except when she had to eat and take her medicine. Today was the same.

“Bella, don’t be like this, come out and walk for a while. Lying down will only make you more depressed…….”

Claude carefully spoke, clearing the dishes she had finished eating. But Sebelia lay back down instead of answering. She hugged a large pillow and curled up in the blanket.

Claude’s sigh was heard. Sebelia closed her eyes to escape reality for a while.

Everything was just exhausting her.