After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 124

Severia lay in bed, receiving treatment from Wartz. After taking the medicine he gave her and her fever subsided, Balak came to visit.

“May I have a word?”

Deehart, having no excuse to refuse, reluctantly allowed him to enter. The problem was that he brought Shatayian, the Second Imperial Prince, with him.

“Does Your Highness have nothing better to do?”

“I’m busy enough as it is, thanks to what you’ve stirred up. You should be grateful that I, not the Imperial Security Bureau [the Empire’s intelligence and security agency], came to see you in person.”

“Ha.”

“I know you dislike me, but don’t make it so obvious, Duke. We have unfinished business, don’t we?”

‘The person I want to talk to isn’t you.’ Deehart swallowed the retort that rose to his throat and crossed his arms. Shatayian smirked and looked at Severia, who was talking to Balak.

“We need to finalize the punishment for Nathan Weden.”

Deehart raised an eyebrow at the conversation that immediately jumped to the conclusion.

“I thought you needed an explanation of the situation that day.”

“Is there any need to waste our breath? The fact that you accepted the invitation proves your innocence.”

The smiling face seemed to already know about Severia’s illusion magic.

‘As expected.’

Sending the summons to explain the phenomenon of the walking corpses was just an excuse. From the beginning, the Second Imperial Prince intended to bring Balak and her together.

Deehart glanced at that annoying smile and glared at Balak. After blinking his fiercely burning eyes a few times, Deehart spat out,

“So, where is the illusionist known as His Highness’s bodyguard?”

“Hmm? Isn’t he sitting over there, chatting with Bella?”

Deehart, with a sneer on his lips, tilted his head and said,

“Shamelessness is in your nature. Do you think I don’t know that the illusionist known to be by His Highness’s side is a different person from him?”

“Hmm, I thought you wouldn’t know since you haven’t been in the capital for long, but I guess not.”

Shatayian chuckled. As Deehart said, the illusionist beside the Second Imperial Prince known to the public was not Balak but Ludmill. The reason he didn’t write it in detail on the invitation was simply because of his twisted personality.

The two were bickering and talking when Severia let out a shrill cry. Deehart strode forward and asked,

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, that’s…”

“It’s none of your business.”

Balak coldly pushed Deehart away. Anger flashed in Deehart’s golden eyes. While the two were locked in a silent battle of wills, Severia, who had been blankly staring, shook her head violently.

“No, no. I can’t do that.”

Severia even waved her hands, refusing something. Suspicion sprouted in Deehart’s mind. Could it be that Balak made another absurd offer to come to his house? He was about to say something, determined not to let it pass this time.

“I can’t go to Rukhwood [Balak’s family estate] so suddenly like this.”

“What?”

Deehart was taken aback by the unexpected place.

“Are you thinking of taking Bella to Rukhwood?”

“I don’t know why you’re reacting like that. What’s wrong with it?”

Balak steadfastly maintained his stance. She was the cousin he had finally found. Just thinking about her being abandoned as a child pained his heart, and he even found out that she had suffered harsh humiliation from her family.

‘The years she lived with such a guy couldn’t have been happy.’

Balak gnashed his teeth, thinking of Nathan, whom he wouldn’t feel bad about chewing up and killing right away. Since the brother was like that, there was no need to mention the rest of the family. They clearly didn’t cherish Severia.

“Every minute and second of Bella’s time is too precious to be spent in such a rotten place.”

Balak was firm. He wanted to take Severia to her home, Rukhwood. To the real home where her family loved, cherished, and waited for her.

If Deehart had heard this story a few hours ago, he wouldn’t have been able to say anything. He would have just bitten his lip in self-reproach, feeling that he wasn’t qualified.

But not now. He looked into Severia’s blue eyes and gained conviction.

“That’s not possible.”

“I’ll say it again, you have no right to interfere!”

“No, I do.”

Severia opened her mouth, cutting off Balak’s shout. Balak looked embarrassed at her words.

“No matter how much I think about it, I can’t go back to Rukhwood like this. Especially now that I know the truth about my mother… I can’t.”

The bones on the back of her hand, clutching the blanket, were stark white. With a face that had become paler after her fever subsided, she murmured,

“I’m going to take revenge. Even if it’s not for me, it’s for my mother.”

How could they be so alike, father and son? Severia felt her heart freezing coldly.

Her mother was betrayed by her father, just like the poor young ladies who were deceived by Nathan. The two met at a resort in Belkram and fell in love rapidly, but that was only true for her mother.

From the beginning, her father had no intention of taking responsibility for her. Dreaming of marrying her father was only her mother’s wish. Poor mother. Not knowing that he was already a married man, not knowing that he only intended to play with her….

‘After confessing that she was pregnant, she received assassins instead of a proposal.’

The price of love was bitter. She barely escaped, crossed the border, and gave birth to me amidst the curse and sinister violence of her brother, the head of the family. And the rest was as I knew it.

“My father, no. That trash who isn’t even worth calling father. I’m going to trample on everything of Silas Weden.”

“Bella!”

“So don’t try to keep him away from me, Balak. Deehart is the most important person in my revenge. An indispensable person to me.”

Staring straight into her widened sky-blue eyes, Severia said,

“He is my sword. A being who willingly gets blood on his hands for me and accepts the infamy I have to take. So he is the person closest to me, more than anyone else.”

Balak gasped. The person closest to her. It was more shocking than the words that she wanted revenge. After taking a deep breath, he stammered,

“I, I’m here for you.”

Even as he spoke, Balak realized that he was being hasty. To him, Severia was a precious being he had been searching for all his life, but to her, he was a stranger who had suddenly popped out of nowhere.

But he couldn’t just stand by and watch her go into the mud like this.

“I’ve heard about your married life. I also know what kind of scandal was attached to you after you were sold off to the Duke of Inverness like that.”

“…….”

“Please think about it one more time. I’m not saying don’t take revenge. Why does it have to be him? That man is someone who has already hurt you once, and he’s a stranger. But I, I’m your family.”

“I’m not trying to deny that you’re my family. From the moment you told me about my mother, from the moment I learned that you had been looking for me for a long time, you have already become precious to me. But… that’s not a reason to abandon Deehart.”

Facing her unwavering blue eyes, Balak realized. His sincerity had clearly reached Severia. But it wasn’t enough to change her mind.

“I’m sorry.”

At this moment, Balak felt that Severia resembled her mother very much. A strength that could not be explained by the appearance of her features and atmosphere, a strength that was passed down through blood.

“…Okay.”

The sky-blue eyes that had been shaking violently gradually calmed down. Balak looked down at her hand, which he was holding tightly, and raised his head. He felt sick at the sight of Severia’s face, which was smiling apologetically.

He didn’t want to make her make such a face. He blamed his impatient nature and opened his mouth calmly.

“If you want to take revenge, do as you please. But I have no intention of standing by and watching that guy stick by your side.”

“Yes?”

“Kalman can’t get blood on his hands for you instead, can he?”

Balak said with a solemn look.

“Use me as much as you want, Bella. Use my name and family name and wield people as you please anytime, anywhere to protect yourself. You’re allowed to do that.”

“I can’t, I can’t cause you any trouble.”

Balak said firmly to Severia, who shook her head in surprise.

“That’s what family is for. They make trouble for their family by acting as they please, and then they brazenly raise their heads and ask if you’re going to abandon them for that. It’s an everyday occurrence to blow a raspberry, saying, ‘You can’t even replace my blood, so what are you going to do?'” [This is a playful, teasing way of expressing the irreplaceable bond of family].”

Severia stared at him in disbelief, then turned her gaze to Deehart and Shatayian, who were standing behind him. The two men nodded as if asking if it was true.

“See?”

While Severia was in confusion amidst the unspoken conspiracy, Balak made a decision.

‘I need to engrave it firmly now.’

He thought he should teach Severia, who had never experienced the close and annoying unwritten rules between families, about it. He had to leave Belkram for a while to meet Roswell anyway.

“And let me be honest. If a situation arises where you have to use my name, it’s clearly because of someone else’s malice.”

“…….”

“If an imperial citizen is in trouble, they’re in trouble, but there’s no way me and Ashrent will have to bow our heads. Am I wrong?”

Severia had nothing more to say. When she nodded, letting out a hollow laugh as if she couldn’t win, Balak got up from his seat with a relieved face.

“Okay. Then I’ll be on my way today. Let’s meet again.”

Severia got out of bed and saw him off. Meanwhile, Shatayian left with Balak, leaving behind an incomprehensible remark.

“In exchange for hearing a tearful family story, I’ll make sure to sew the first button of revenge securely.”

The next day, Severia learned what that meant.

Early in the morning, Second Imperial Prince Shatayian accepted the testimony of illusionist Bella Ofentz and handed Nathan over to the Imperial Security Bureau. It was a surprise announcement that hit people in the back of the head.

The investigation proceeded rapidly. Nathan was charged with kidnapping, confinement, and attempted murder of Bella Ofentz, as well as adultery under the guise of marriage and serial murder.

In that place where Silas Weden’s hand could not reach, Nathan was brought to trial.

It was an unusually quick and excessively simple process.

The Weden Marquis family strongly protested, but Nathan Weden could not escape the charges due to the confessions of the servants and the successive discoveries of corpses. Amidst the commotion, the First Empress quietly stepped back and watched the situation.

And this news reached Gren, who was anxiously searching for the missing Rhoden.