After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 146

“Rosalyn is… Ugh. Rosalyn is in danger.”

“What did you say?”

Clutching her as she was about to collapse, Claude asked with a trembling gaze. Sebelia grabbed his hand and said in a fading voice,

“Madam Gren is targeting Rosalyn again…!”

Bang!

Sebelia reflexively flinched at the explosion. After barely regaining her senses, she thought the fireworks had started again.

However, what she saw when she raised her head was not such a beautiful and extravagant spectacle.

“Oh my god.”

White lightning bolts embroidered the sky beyond.

* * *

‘This is a disaster.’ Rosalyn bit her lip as she fled from those chasing her.

“Find her immediately!”

A woman’s voice, filled with malice, echoed in the distance. She didn’t know who it was, but it was likely the instigator who had led the unidentified knights to raid the meeting place.

‘How did things escalate to this point?’

Rosalyn ran through the darkened hallway, quickly trying to piece together what had happened. With each step, a dark stain appeared on the floor. It was blood flowing from the wound on her side, where she had been cut by a sword.

Pressing her hand against her burning side, Rosalyn let out a weak laugh. In truth, that wasn’t the only place she was bleeding, but she couldn’t exactly walk around pressing her back or thighs.

“Haa…”

‘Where did I go wrong?’

Last night, the Second Empress ordered her to focus on winning over the northern nobles at a meeting, instead of attending the banquet as punishment for her perceived misdeeds. Rosalyn, who had been planning to contact the Second Prince once more at the welcome party, was dismayed but had no choice.

“The Lady is here… Argh!”

Rosalyn, having struck the person blocking her path with a bolt of lightning, paused to catch her breath in front of the stairwell shrouded in darkness.

“Cough.”

She wiped the blood that had trickled onto her sleeve. She had overused her powers to avoid the attack, and her insides felt completely out of sorts.

‘I won’t be able to hold out for long.’

The same likely held true for those who had been with her. The screams had ceased some time ago. Poor souls. Rosalyn pressed down on her side and swallowed a groan.

‘Who is behind this?’

It couldn’t be Second Prince Shateian. She had demonstrated that she was not simply a puppet following Hares’s will, and she had offered him an opportunity to collaborate with her.

‘Then the First Empress?’

Rosalyn cautiously began to descend the stairs. Occasionally, the torches of those searching outside the mansion swept past the windows. At times like that, Rosalyn thought it was fortunate that she had deliberately chosen a large mansion for the meeting place.

“Cough.”

Once again, a mouthful of blood spurted out. She smiled bitterly and continued down the hallway. In reality, she knew from the start that she couldn’t escape.

The knights who raided the meeting were skilled, and their numbers were overwhelming. Perhaps none of the nobles who attended today’s meeting would survive.

‘I won’t either.’

‘There she is.’

Rosalyn straightened her shoulders and took a slow, deep breath. A woman came into view as she slowly stepped into the darkness.

“Is it even possible that you still haven’t found her?! Find her quickly! Before I lock you all in the mansion and set it on fire, bring me her head!”

Perhaps driven by fear, the woman, surrounded by half a dozen knights and screaming, had green eyes that gleamed even in the darkness.

‘If I can’t escape, at least I should take the life of the one who is after mine.’

Tsutsut.

Eerie lights flickered in the darkness-soaked hallway. *Tadat*. They popped out of thin air like sparks and instantly filled the space, illuminating all directions.

“You…!”

The woman, her green eyes filled with inexplicable hostility, finally recognized Rosalyn’s presence.

Rosalyn smiled brightly. Black blood streamed down her mouth.

“Kill her immediately!”

Her hand pointed at Rosalyn. The knights raised their swords and charged down the hallway. Though there wasn’t a single ray of moonlight outside the window, the narrow hallway of the mansion was as bright as day.

‘I didn’t expect it to end like this.’

Looking at the sword tips aimed at her, Rosalyn slowly closed her eyes. She felt her heart beating slower and slower as she gathered her strength. But she didn’t care.

‘We’re all going to be shattered anyway.’ Rosalyn chuckled and slowly opened her closed eyes. The moment her snow-white eyes captured the scene in the hallway…

Clang, clang, clang!

All the windows in the hallway shattered, and a strong wind swept everyone away. Everyone clung to the walls, unable to keep their feet on the ground due to the powerful force.

And a heavy voice cut through the wind and echoed high into the sky.

“Protect the Crown Prince’s fiancée and subdue the rioters! Anyone who dares to resist against the will of the Imperial Family may be killed!”

Rosalyn, who was barely supporting her swaying body with both hands on the floor, felt goosebumps all over her body. At that moment, the blood soaking the floor and her increasingly cold hands and feet felt like they were from a distant world.

Peering out while barely holding onto the windowsill, she saw those with a familiar but unfamiliar insignia on their chests.

‘The Inverness Knights [a powerful knight order], ?’

‘Not the Imperial Knights?’ A moment of curiosity arose, but she quickly realized that she had no time for that. Now that she had a chance, what she had to do was escape, not mutual destruction.

However, she couldn’t even take a step before her neck was grabbed and she was thrown to the floor.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

“Cough…”

Rosalyn’s face turned white. She struggled to shake off Gren’s hand choking her neck, but it was no use.

“You disgusting bitch. Why did you suddenly appear and make things difficult for me? Why didn’t you just die back then, and why are you tormenting people now!”

“W…what…”

Even as she lost consciousness in the pool of blood she had shed, Rosalyn’s eyes widened as her words rang in her ears.

“Haha, no. It’s better this way. I can just finish everything I couldn’t root out that day in this place today. Yes, anyway, people will have no choice but to believe the words of the survivors.”

Gren stretched her lips wide and burst into laughter. Rosalyn heard the screams of people she didn’t know.

“Dihart and you will be finished today.”

It was the moment Rosalyn gritted her teeth in anger and fear. *Thud, thud*. Neat footsteps cut through the screams and noise.

The brown hair of the man who brought silence swayed in the wind. In the hallway filled with darkness again after the white flames disappeared, an unprecedented rage was engraved in his burning golden eyes.

“……”

Gren, who had unconsciously turned her head, gaped. The opponent’s appearance was vividly reflected in her greatly dilated pupils.

“No way……”

“That’s what I should be saying, Gren.”

“Claude…!”

The man grinned savagely. Rosalyn realized for the first time that he could make such an expression.

“Kyaaak!”

The next moment, a huge force exploded in all directions. Gren rolled beside Rosalyn, her lips trembling.

The power, resembling anger, was not as sharp as lightning but as passionate as a volcano.

Gren belatedly realized what kind of man Claude was. Yes, he was the unparalleled genius that the Inverness family loved so much. A person who might have become the next head of the family if Gilland hadn’t been there.

Cold sweat ran down her back.

“I, I. I will surrender, I surrender!”

Claude tilted his head and slowly approached her. Meanwhile, Gren raised her upper body, which had been lying down, and retreated, falling backward on her buttocks.

“You’ll surrender?”

“Yes, so…!”

Gren glanced at her fallen knights and shouted with a painful expression.

“Please, just spare my life. There’s no way I can stand against you alone anyway. I’ll follow your will, so just spare my life…”

Claude sighed and nodded. He bent down and picked up Rosalyn, who was left alone in the pool of blood.

“Let’s get you treated first.”

“……”

“Don’t fall asleep even if you’re sleepy, okay?”

Rosalyn nodded, even though she was drowsy from losing too much blood. Then Claude smiled slightly and shook his head, and she saw something like red paper falling from his collar.

She wondered what that was, but she didn’t even have the energy to ask, so Rosalyn closed her eyes. Claude held her tighter and tried to take a step.

Thud.

A sharp sound of something piercing flesh echoed through the hallway. Rosalyn was startled and hurriedly lifted her eyelids.

Gren, whose abdomen had been pierced by a red blade that had appeared out of thin air, was staring at them with disbelieving eyes.

“Cough…”

“Did you think I would believe your words forever?”

Claude slowly turned his body and lowered his eyes. Endless rage was raging like a storm in his sun-like eyes.

“Gren. Please, I beg you.”

“You…. You……. Cough!”

“Stop tormenting our family and die.”

Kwaang!

It was a force so powerful that all the windows of the mansion shattered. Dihart, who had belatedly arrived at the scene after subduing Marquis Lims’ knights that Gren had led, clicked his tongue.

The corpse of Gren, who had received all the anger that had accumulated over the years of being deceived, was so charred that it was impossible to recognize its shape.

“Let’s go back now.”

Claude said kindly to Rosalyn, who was looking up at him with a dazed face. They were just about to leave the mansion under the escort of the Inverness Knights.

“Ah.”

As if she had finally realized her situation again, Rosalyn was startled and shook her head. To others, it only looked like she was trembling.

“Ah, no…. I have to go back…”

“If you’re worried that the Second Empress and Third Prince Hares are holding the people of Valeri Territory hostage, you don’t have to worry anymore.”

Her ever-clear voice shone even in front of the ruined mansion. Sebelia, who had appeared at some point, smiled with a gentle face.

“The maids and friends who grew up like sisters with you have all been evacuated to a safe place.”