After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 118

“(118)”

“Aaaaaaagh!”

“Ah….”

On the left, the frigid river flowed, and on the right, the lively atmosphere of a pub beckoned. The clinking of glasses and a cacophony of sounds muddied the mind. White snow fell, and when I looked up, the alleyway seemed to tilt, a bubbling swamp threatening to swallow ankles.

A scene pieced together like paintings from different artists, a chaotic mess. In this hallucination, a personal hell made manifest, people confronted their deepest nightmares.

[Look me in the eye! Why do you keep turning away? You killed me! You gave me the poison and told me to hang myself!]

[Long time no see, huh? Aren’t you happy to see me? Don’t you remember my face? I remember. The voice that told me to ‘fall into the river,’ the laughter I heard as I plunged into the water. That voice, laughing, saying they’d get a fat reward for this!]

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

“Why are you doing this to me, you damned bitches? I’m innocent, I’m innocent! I just did what I was told!”

The servants who had aided Nathan in manipulating and killing innocent women. They struggled against the spectral corpses that clawed at their ankles, clung to their shoulders, and whispered curses.

[Die, die, die.]

[Let’s go together. Down into that cold river, let’s sink together!]

“Kaaaaa! Let go, let go!”

The middle-aged woman who had played the role of a mother was also ensnared by her ugly past. Unlike the knights, those clinging to her feet included men and young children, but their appearances were uniformly horrifying.

Their eyes were gouged out, and they cursed her, dripping black blood.

“Ah….”

Amidst this hellish landscape, a fusion of illusions and barrier magic, Sebelia quickly realized that this place had become a space akin to the barrier surrounding the laboratory.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to either…!”

Among those consumed by the illusion, some wept and begged for forgiveness, while others raged and swung their fists.

And Sebelia sighed, a chilling understanding dawning.

“So, this was it.”

The illusion magic that only I can wield… this is it.

Looking back, the clues had been there all along. Right in the laboratory. Why had I forgotten that day? Sebelia wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing her eyes shut.

The corridor that had transformed into a lush forest the moment I tried to stop Claude from recklessly running out. That gloomy forest where the wreckage of a broken carriage lay scattered, and it was raining.

At that time, Claude had been greatly surprised, as if he had faced something terrible, and lost consciousness. Now that I think about it, that was probably….

‘A memory I didn’t want to recall, I guess.’

Sebelia sighed. Once again, she understood the nature of her ability. It evoked memories buried deep within a person and manifested them as illusions.

‘This was my specialty.’

My specialty, which hadn’t offered a single clue even after days and nights of research, bloomed in a moment of desperation. Sebelia laughed humorlessly, then quickly refocused on the situation.

“…Nathan.”

She had to catch him. Ignoring the servants who were rolling around and screaming, she scanned the room. Soon, she found him clinging to the window handle, screaming.

“How dare you lowly things harbor resentment against me!! If you had known your place from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened. You ignorant things!”

More than ten women surrounded Nathan, who was yelling at the top of his lungs. Sebelia could easily guess their identities.

‘Women who were manipulated by Nathan… poor women who were once happy, dreaming of a bright future with him.’

They reached out to Nathan, their anger, sadness, and ambivalence coalescing.

“Aaaaaaagh! Save me, save me! Open this door right now!”

Nathan thrashed and pounded on the window. However, the talisman he had set up to trap Sebelia was so strong that the window wouldn’t budge.

But as they say, fortune favors the bold. Or, in this case, those with powerful illusion magic.

The power of the barrier began to weaken under Sebelia’s potent illusion magic. The pattern that had been glowing on the floor gradually faded. Soon, the window rattled with a creaking sound.

The cold wind from outside brushed Nathan’s cheek through a gap about the width of a finger. He let out a joyful scream and threw the window wide open.

“This is quite a gruesome sight.”

A languid voice, laced with a unique sarcastic tone, cut through the air. It was a voice that shouldn’t have been in that room.

“Sub-Marquis Weden. Can you explain this unpleasant situation?”

The Second Imperial Prince, Shateian, stood framed in the wide-open doorway. Nathan blinked blankly, leaning against the creaking window.

He had been so consumed by panic that he hadn’t realized that when the barrier broke, it wasn’t just the window that opened.

“Uh…. Uh-uh.”

As Nathan stood there, dumbfounded, nobles filling the hallway peered into the room and screamed.

“Th-that’s… no way. Lilia, Lilia!”

“Mother, no, right? The person standing there now, it can’t be her. Right? Tell me I’m seeing things, Mother!”

Their screams weren’t the instinctive shouts of terror. They were a deeper, more personal cry of grief, leaving scars on the hearts of those who heard them.

In that way, people were confronted with their suddenly missing childhood friends, past lovers, or secret crushes in a form they had never imagined.

[You said you loved me!]

[I was going to meet you one last time and give up on you… but….]

[You were planning to play with me from the beginning, you trash! Die, just die!]

They shouted Nathan’s name and cursed him, a nightmarish stage play unfolding before them.

* * *

The chaos continued for quite some time. The sound of wailing, people screaming in denial.

And among them, some quickly regained their senses and took action.

“Yes, that guy. Sub-Marquis Weden. Why didn’t I think of it? He was the one who kept hovering around Lilia a few months ago…!”

“I will take full responsibility, Your Highness. Please, imprison him in the dungeon for just one day!”

“Hmm.”

Shateian smiled, narrowing his eyes. What should he do? He raised the corners of his lips and scanned the crowd, then felt an intense gaze that seemed to pierce his cheek. It was Dihart.

“Duke. If you have something to say, say it.”

“It’s not me, it’s her.”

Dihart carefully supported Sebelia and stepped forward through the crowd. Sebelia, struggling to steady her dizzy body, raised her head.

The blue eyes burned with an eerie glow. Only then did people realize that Nathan wasn’t the only one in the room.

“I request that Nathan Weden be imprisoned in the Imperial Underground Prison on charges of abduction, confinement, and attempted murder, Your Highness.”

“That’s an excessive demand, Miss Bella Appenz. But why should I do that? There is no basis for your claim. If you bring those things as the basis… well… we would have to summon all the ghosts wandering around in this world to the court.”

Shateian said, gazing at the illusions that were beginning to fade.

“I never intended to bring them to court.”

Shateian’s eyes flashed with a different light at her words, a faint smile playing on his lips.

“Then what is it?”

“Uncle, please bring the teacup and teapot from the table.”

At her words, Claude, who had been watching the situation with bated breath, moved. He easily navigated the wailing illusions and brought the teacup and teapot from the room.

“This is the tea that Nathan Weden served me. And what went into this tea was a new type of truth serum made by adding medicinal ingredients banned in the Empire.”

Sebelia said, receiving two small crystal vials from Claude. One was colorless and transparent, and the other was blue.

“So, what are you going to do with that?”

Shateian asked, hiding his amusement at the increasingly intriguing situation. Sebelia was a little puzzled by Shateian’s reaction, who was cooperating more readily than she had expected, but she proceeded with her plan.

“Administer both to one of the servants who has collapsed over there and check the effects and symptoms. Then you will be able to understand the danger of the truth serum he tried to feed me and the repercussions that will occur if this spreads to the people.”

Shateian deliberately hesitated. He tilted his head and pretended to ponder, dragging out the time, and then he heard a low growl from behind.

“If you don’t do it, I will.”

At Ballack’s whisper, audible only to me, Shateian finally burst into laughter. “I can’t help it. Is this the end of the teasing?”

Shateian waved his hand and ordered.

“Do as Miss Appenz says. However, that does not explain this hellish landscape, so Miss Appenz will have to come to me separately and testify about this tragedy.”

That day, Nathan Weden was imprisoned in the Imperial Underground Prison by the Second Imperial Prince Shateian. By the time Silas heard the news, it was already too late.

* * *

“Dillian, please do something! Your brother has imprisoned my brother! He imprisoned an innocent person in that heinous place without any evidence!”

Nellia’s piercing voice echoed through the room. Dillian, who had taken her away from the scene early on, knowing that the plan had failed, frowned.

“There’s nothing we can do but watch the situation.”

“Until when, exactly?”

Nellia was beside herself. That day, the nobles who had witnessed the hellish landscape had looked at Nellia with the same eyes they had looked at Nathan.

Nellia was greatly shocked by the stinging, cold eyes of contempt and criticism she was receiving for the first time in her life. What made her even more upset was that they were painting her family as perpetrators without any proper evidence.

“We can reveal it now! We can issue a statement saying that she is falsely creating illusions and slandering us, but why are you stopping me?”

“I’m going crazy! Nathan Weden was caught at the scene on charges of kidnapping and attempted murder of Bella Appenz. How many times do I have to explain for you to understand!”