After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 168

Side Story 2-5

“He really is a handful.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sevelia suppressed a laugh, and Balak shook his head.

“What do you have to apologize for? Here, this is your room.”

Sevelia, having barely calmed her trembling shoulders, opened the door with a nonchalant expression.

“Wow.”

It was a beautiful room that naturally elicited admiration.

Considering her dislike of anything too flashy, the overall color scheme was subdued, and the furniture and decorations were of the highest quality, maintaining an air of luxury.

“If you pull the cord, the maids will come at any time. Even if you don’t, there are people patrolling the hallway every dawn, so you can tell them what you need.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sevelia’s eyes sparkled as she carefully examined the style and structure of the room, different from Belkram. Balak hesitated, not leaving.

“Balak?”

Wondering why, she turned her head to see him ruffling his hair and saying, as if in passing,

“If you go past the hallway after five in the morning, it might be after the patrol shift change, so you might not get caught.”

“Pardon?”

“So… Haa. Since this is your home anyway, you can do as you please. I, well, I’m aware that I was being a bit mean.”

Sevelia watched him run a hand over his face with a complicated expression, realizing what he was implying.

In short, if she wanted to sneak into Dihart’s room, that was the time to do it.

“What are you talking about?”

The laughter she had been holding back resurfaced. It was just a joke she had thrown out casually, but she didn’t expect him to take it so seriously. As Sevelia explained that it was just a simple joke, Balak’s neck flushed.

“Ahem, ahem!”

“Still, thank you for the advice, Brother. If I suddenly want to take a walk at night, I’ll aim for that time.”

“Ahem!”

With a slightly reddened face, Balak checked every corner of the room one last time for Sevelia’s convenience before leaving. Sevelia saw him off with a smile.

“Everyone is too considerate.”

Even as she closed the door and turned around, she couldn’t shake the feeling of floating on air. Lying down on the bed, her heart fluttered, and Sevelia laughed awkwardly.

She couldn’t believe the days she had never dreamed of in the past, the happy times spent surrounded by people who loved her.

Then, suddenly, she wondered if she deserved to be this happy.

‘Don’t think strange thoughts.’

She tried to shake it off quickly, but the thought, once started, continued uncontrollably. Rosiel, like an incarnation of kindness, and Balak, who, though a little rough in his words and actions, loved her more than anything.

Cousin brothers who gave her attention and affection she had never received from her own family. Thinking of them suddenly made her throat feel hot.

“Haa.”

Suddenly feeling hot, Sevelia jumped out of bed and approached the window. Thoughts bloomed between her slow steps.

The affection they showed her was unlike anything she had ever seen. At first, she thought all cousins were like that, but she realized it wasn’t when she saw Illei and Ryan.

Their attitude toward her was very different from that of ordinary cousins. They wanted to give her everything while asking for nothing in return.

Unconditional and immeasurable affection. She couldn’t understand how they could be like that, but sometimes when she read the letters they sent, her eyes would naturally well up with tears.

However, Sevelia remembered that there was a sad reason for that deep and intense affection, different from that of ordinary blood relatives.

‘The guilt of not being able to protect me must have made them that way.’

Her mother, who loved and cherished the Balak and Rosiel brothers in place of their parents, and the two of them as children, who had vowed to protect her in return for that love.

But her uncle, whom she had never met, ordered his subordinate to kill the newborn baby as soon as her mother gave birth to her, and the subordinate, unable to commit such an atrocious act, abandoned the young Sevelia in front of her father’s house.

“…….”

As her thoughts reached that point, the blood that had risen with happiness calmly subsided.

Sevelia, with a cool face, rested her hands on the windowsill and gazed at the sky. Her face was reflected in the window against the dark ink-colored night sky.

She stared intently at the eyes looking back at her, as if facing another person.

Deeply double-lidded eyes with long, full eyelashes like butterfly wings, and beneath them, blue eyes like a lake, shimmering like dewy jewels.

Her mother’s eyes were also like that.

‘But there will be no day when I can meet your gaze like this.’

The eyes in her portrait were as blue as her own, but now there was no way to know. Originally weak, her mother was attacked by her father and returned to her homeland, where she gave birth to Sevelia and immediately lost consciousness.

“Haa.”

With a sigh, Sevelia stepped away from the window. The night air that had crept in through the cracks made her body cold.

Crawling back into bed, Sevelia thought.

‘My mother must be somewhere here.’

Balak had told her the truth about her mother that day, saying that she was still staying in Ashelant.

As she thought of that, she felt a hot pain as if someone had clawed at her chest. Sevelia squeezed her eyes shut and hugged the pillow tightly.

Mother.

Her mother, who still couldn’t open her eyes, her mother who was in a deep sleep without knowing she had been taken away. Her mother, who didn’t know how much time had passed.

Even at this moment, even as she returned, she would be breathing quietly, her deep blue eyes hidden beneath heavy eyelids.

Without knowing that she had returned.

How much time had passed? The blanket covering her face suddenly stirred. Veins stood out on the hand clutching the pillow. The thought of not wanting to continue the sentimental thoughts only aroused a fierce longing for her mother.

She was here, so why shouldn’t she meet her?

“…….”

Sevelia raised her head, threw back the blanket, and came out. Blue eyes sparkled in the darkness.

Surely the shift change was after five in the morning.

Carefully opening the door with a click, Sevelia moved silently in the darkness. As Balak had said, there were no knights in sight.

“Hmm.”

Taking a short breath, she checked the rooms lined up in the hallway one by one. Fortunately, none of the rooms were locked, but neither was there a room with her mother.

Sevelia sighed and hid behind a corner.

‘She’s not here.’

Leaning against a large decoration, Sevelia crossed her arms and pondered.

‘Where could Mother be?’

She was lost in thought for a long time. As the heat in her head subsided, she finally felt that she had been too hasty.

“Haa.”

‘Should I go back now?’ she thought, touching the floor with her hand, when a faint light shone above her head. Assuming it was the morning sun, as it was the time when dawn was breaking, she tensed her body, when a familiar voice rang in her ear.

“Bella.”

“……!”

They say that people are too surprised to scream. With the hair on her body standing on end, Sevelia raised her eyes. Unable to even lift her head, she barely raised her gaze, and Rosiel let out a low laugh at the sight.

“I didn’t think it would really be you.”

“Ro, Rosiel Brother.”

“The floor is cold. Here, get up.”

Having regained her senses, Sevelia was walking down the hallway with Rosiel. People who appeared to be knights, perhaps because the shift had ended, appeared and bowed.

Startled, she grabbed Rosiel’s arm, who was walking ahead. It was to explain what had just happened.

“That, well, you see.”

Rosiel, whose arm was grabbed, stared intently at the place where she was holding him, then took her hand away and crossed his arms. Huh? Before she knew it, the two of them were back in Sevelia’s room, arm in arm.

“Um…”

As she called out in a flustered voice, Rosiel chuckled and opened the door.

“I think I know roughly what happened, so it’s okay.”

At his words that Balak had told him, Sevelia bit her lip without realizing it. That’s not it. Her face flushed at the thought that she had been misunderstood, but she didn’t have the courage to tell the truth.

While she was hesitating, as if something was stuck in her throat, Sevelia stepped into the room. With the door between them, Rosiel said goodbye.

“Then sleep well.”

With nothing to say, she nodded, and Rosiel stroked her head. She was slightly embarrassed by the childish treatment, but his touch was too gentle to refuse.

“Have a good dream.”

Just as Rosiel was about to pull his arm back, with a voice that felt somehow proud, there was a small sound as if something had fallen to the floor. Looking down, there was a transparent container full of white medicine.

“You dropped this.”

Without much thought, Sevelia bent down and picked up the medicine bottle. The shape looked familiar, so she examined it, and there was a small label on the outside of the container.

There, the name Elena Ashelant was written in a familiar handwriting.

“Elena, Ashelant…….”

Sevelia, who had been reading the lightly written letters, raised her head sharply. And her eyes met the light blue eyes that held a troubled light.