After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 141

Once again, light surged from the floor. Blue light filled the surroundings, and the spring garden slowly dissolved away.

When Rosaline tentatively opened her eyes, still adjusting to the dazzling light, she found herself back in the familiar, yet dreaded, mountain range.

“Hah!”

But this time, it was different. Instead of pitch-black darkness and rain obscuring her vision, the warm midday sun shone down on the forest. Rosaline bit her lip, struggling to adapt to the constantly shifting circumstances.

Then, she spotted movement beyond a large rock. A man with brown hair and a gaunt face was frantically digging at the ground before looking up.

Beneath his gentle eyes, a hint of madness gleamed in his golden irises. The man, his hands covered in dirt, shielded his face and rose with a painful groan.

He looked so devastated, so unlike the man who had smiled while holding his nephews in the spring garden, that he was almost unrecognizable. He appeared seriously injured; blood seeped from the bandages beneath his unbuttoned shirt.

[Rosaline, Rosaline…]

The mountain, scarred by a past torrent of rain, was difficult to traverse. Yet, he stubbornly continued walking. His desperate golden eyes held both despair and a sliver of hope he couldn’t relinquish.

[Rosaline, can you hear me? Rosaline, please. If you’re there, make a sound. Huh?]

He looked like a madman. His gleaming white eyes and the repeated calling of her name were suffocatingly eerie.

But he didn’t seem like someone who had given up; rather, like someone clinging to something he could never let go of.

[Rosaline. Uncle is here.]

Please answer me. Even as she heard his voice, laced with tears, Rosaline remained paralyzed. She couldn’t even offer a belated reply.

And countless times, the world shifted. A lush green forest, a snowy forest. The location and the person remained constant, but time and seasons changed endlessly.

[Rosaline. Another fruitless search. I heard there was a child who looked like you, so I went to find her, but it wasn’t you again.]

The man, now etched with the passage of time, knelt on the ground, his eyes weary. He pressed his forehead against the dirt, where no trace of the old tragedy remained, and whispered.

[It’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t appear before me, just please stay alive.]

Rosaline closed her eyes, feeling her breath hitch. Blood trickled from her tightly pressed lips. She no longer had the courage to watch the man’s tear-stained face.

In truth, she had never forgotten him, not even once. No matter how many years had passed, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize him.

From the beginning, she hadn’t lost her memory.

* * *

“She says she needs some time alone to think,” Sebelia announced, turning from the closed door. The two men who had exited the room earlier were waiting for her in the hallway.

“Did we do something unnecessary?”

Claude, once again disguised as Carl Ophentz, asked anxiously. Sebelia shook her head, reassuring him.

“No. It’s not like that. This was necessary for her, and for you too.”

The decision to show Rosaline Claude’s memories had been made after careful consideration.

Seeing the affection and longing she displayed for the late Duchess, and the way she had grabbed him, they believed she might not be as callous or cold-hearted as they had initially thought.

‘Even if that’s not the case, I wanted to correct the misunderstanding that no one was looking for her.’

Sebelia hoped to at least begin to heal the deep wounds in Rosaline’s heart, and fortunately, the result seemed promising.

After witnessing all of Claude’s memories, Rosaline had stared at Claude with an indescribable expression—a mixture of resentment and affection, anger and longing.

The realization that she had lived her life believing no one had searched for her, only to discover that wasn’t true… Sebelia understood the sensation of shivers running through her body and the fire igniting in her chest, spreading throughout her being.

‘It must be a similar feeling to when I met Balak.’

And just as she had needed time, Rosaline needed time to process it. So now, it was their turn to act.

“Is the Third Prince still causing a ruckus, demanding that Lady Rosaline be handed over?”

“Yes, but it’s merely a tantrum-level threat. Unlike the First Prince, the Third Prince, who hasn’t even established a proper power base, wouldn’t dare to bare his teeth to the North,” Dehart said, a chilling smile playing on his lips as he continued.

“It seems best to postpone sending her back to the Imperial Family for now. She looked thinner and paler than I expected when I saw her up close.”

“What happened to Lady Fria?”

“That’s a bit of a headache.”

Dehart frowned and leaned back against the wall. He looked troubled as he sighed and swept his hair back.

“There is a Lady Fria, the second daughter of Count Bester in the South, but she doesn’t seem to be the same person as the woman locked in my basement right now.”

Claude’s face hardened as he quietly listened to the conversation.

“You’re saying someone impersonated Lady Fria and tried to kill Lady Rosaline.”

Dehart silently nodded at Sebelia’s question. He sighed and rubbed his eyelids, a sudden wave of fatigue washing over him.

“I tried to find out who was behind it, but she wouldn’t speak. So, I had a female knight search her body, and this mark was discovered.”

“What is this?”

“…It’s the mark of the underground organization that tried to kill you, Bella.”

A heavy silence tightened their throats. Sebelia’s face paled as she moved her lips, and then a loud noise echoed in the distance.

Bang!

“You can’t do this!”

“Please step back!”

Clang! The sound of iron doors being rammed echoed again. Startled, Sebelia approached the window. Just as she was about to open it to assess the situation, she saw Dehart already crossing the garden in the distance.

“Hand over my fiancée immediately, Duke Inverness!”

Prince Hares III was leading the Imperial Knights in an attempted forced entry. Sebelia groaned.

“Good heavens.”

“Bella, stay with Rosaline.”

Claude said, grabbing Sebelia’s shoulder. He looked ready to rush to Dehart’s side immediately. But before he could take a single step, the sound of the door opening echoed in the hallway.

“There’s no need for that.”

Rosaline, looking weary, walked forward to confront Hares. While Sebelia was flustered, Claude grabbed her.

Claude turned Rosaline around, scolding her with a stern face as if she were a child.

“You’re a patient right now.”

“I, well.”

Rosaline was momentarily taken aback by her uncle’s concerned expression.

“Dehart will explain everything to His Highness the Third Prince, so go inside and rest for now. If he knows you’re unwell, the Third Prince will understand and leave. Okay?”

Claude, who had just been plotting to prevent her return, was now trying to appease Rosaline with gentle words. Oblivious to Sebelia’s incredulous stare, Rosaline felt a warmth spread through her at her uncle’s concern.

“I…”

The affection she had never received, not even from Baron Valery. Unlike the Second Princess and Hares, who had attempted to control her with empty words of love, her heart warmed at the sight of his genuine worry.

At that moment, a sound like an explosion erupted from outside.

Crash!

“What is the meaning of this, Duke? How dare you use your power against a member of the Imperial Family? Do you wish to be arrested for treason!”

Hares’s angry voice echoed sharply throughout the mansion. But Dehart wasn’t one to back down.

“Haha. Does His Highness the Prince feel his life is threatened by the lightning bolt stuck in the ground? That’s a light and insignificant life indeed.”

“What, what did you say…!”

Then, the Imperial Knights and the Inverness Knights began to clash. The situation escalated rather than de-escalated, and the Capital Defense Forces were seen approaching from afar.

‘This won’t do.’

Sebelia frowned and began to gather her strength, intending to subdue everyone with illusion magic.

Just as blue light began to emanate from her hand, someone covered it. Turning her head, she saw Rosaline staring at her.

“I’ll go back.”

Her golden eyes held a firm resolve.

“Hares needs me. Which means, he’ll do anything to the Duke to get me back.”

It was clear that persuasion would be futile. Nevertheless, Claude didn’t give up, clinging to her with desperate eyes.

“You don’t have to go. We can find another way.”

At those words, Rosaline took a shallow breath. Her glistening golden eyes seemed to waver slightly, but soon regained their firm light with a fierce nod.

She grasped Claude’s hand, which held her, and slowly pulled it away. Claude sighed and closed his eyes.

“You’ve only just, come back…”

Passing by Claude, who was groaning, Rosaline whispered softly.

“Not yet.”

With those words, Rosaline confidently strode across the garden, ended the conflict, and returned to the Imperial Palace with the Third Prince. Dehart tried to stop her belatedly, but only received a gentle refusal in return.

* * *

After that, there were no more opportunities to meet Rosaline. Since returning to the Imperial Palace, she hadn’t shown her face outside the Third Prince’s palace, not even once.

“He’s definitely holding her captive. I need to go and bring her back right now.”

Claude spat out, pacing rapidly across the office. Sebelia sighed at his inability to control his anger. Dehart sat in his seat, reading a letter sent by the Third Prince.

The contents of the letter, which were less than half a page long, were roughly as follows:

“Thanks to the request of ‘my Rosaline,’ who possesses a noble heart, I will tolerate and forgive this rudeness this time,” it stated.

Dehart scoffed and burned the letter. My Rosaline, indeed. What a variety of things he gets up to.