After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 22

[This city has many foreigners. It was strange at first, but I’m adjusting well now. I’m running out of medicine, so I’m planning to go to the hospital tomorrow…]

Sevelia stopped writing a letter to Denisa and stretched.

“Ugh.”

Perhaps because she had been bowing her head for too long, her shoulders were stiff.

She put down her pen and got up to pour herself a glass of water.

“It’s almost lunchtime.”

Looking out the window, she saw people gathering at the inn in groups of twos and threes. Usually, the first floor of the inn doubled as a restaurant, so the building was crowded with people during meal times.

“Being here makes me feel like a normal person.”

Sevelia, who had been admiring the scenery with a languid smile, soon hardened her expression and turned away. She froze, pale as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

‘Oh, no… again.’

After a moment, Sevelia sat down, holding her forehead. She was very upset that she kept losing her composure over trivial matters.

Ersik, a city located on the way to the East. It had been four days since she had stayed here.

And it was the fourth day she had encountered a man who resembled her father.

* * *

Four days ago, Sevelia arrived in the city of Ersik. She still had four more cities to go before reaching the East, but she decided to unpack her bags here. Since she had no companions and was suffering from an illness, an unreasonable forced march was out of the question.

“Welcome to Ersik. Please, come inside.”

“Thank you.”

The identity pass that Denisa had prepared was useful. Sevelia admired her ability and unpacked her luggage in the accommodation overlooking the square.

“I’m tired.”

Sevelia slept soundly until the next morning without waking up once. And the next day, at lunchtime, she came down to the restaurant and was scanning the menu.

“Haha, stop with such ridiculous jokes.”

At the hearty laughter, Sevelia naturally turned her gaze. And she witnessed him.

“Gasp…!”

A man who looked like Silas, or perhaps was Silas.

It was only a fleeting moment. But she moved instinctively.

Sevelia swallowed her breath and cowered. She leaned close to the wall, trying to hide in the shadows.

‘Father, is that Father?’

Cold sweat ran down her neck. She held her knees tightly with both hands. Her determination to face her father without being fazed if she ever met him was overshadowed by her frightened attitude. However, contrary to her expectations, he did not approach her or speak to her.

‘I must have seen wrong.’

A long time passed. The sound of a family laughing and chatting at the next table echoed emptily around her.

Sevelia took her hands, which had regained warmth, off her knees and raised her eyes.

“…Ah.”

He was not her father. His eyes, hair color, and mouth were similar, but his eyes were undoubtedly orange.

“Ha.”

As the tension was released, shame came over her.

‘I boldly declared that the old Sevelia was dead, that I would cut off all past life and live on…’

She was ashamed of her confident attitude in front of Denisa, telling her not to worry.

Sevelia sighed, touching her red ears. Then she straightened her bent back and raised her lowered neck.

“Let’s stay calm.”

The other person was not her father. No, even if he was Duke Weden, she had to be confident.

‘I am no longer Sevelia Weden.’

So even if she actually encountered him, he could no longer oppress her under the name of father.

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

While Sevelia barely regained her composure, the man who resembled Silas got up from his seat. Sevelia quietly stared at his back. It wasn’t because she wanted to follow him or hold him back.

She just thought the situation was very coincidental.

‘To see someone who looks like my father in a place I fled to.’

It felt like she had become the protagonist in a fairy tale who, upon waking up from a nightmare, realized that the reality was actually another dream.

“Madam.”

Sevelia, who had been watching the other person open the door and leave with calm eyes, turned her head at the voice she heard beside her.

“Would you like to order?”

Before she knew it, a waiter was standing next to the table, smiling brightly at her.

* * *

‘I need to be more composed.’

To boldly shout that the past self is dead, and then freeze up like that. Sevelia shook off her embarrassment as she packed her coat and wallet to go to the doctor’s office.

It was about time for the doctor’s office to open since lunchtime was almost over.

Today was the day to see the doctor to get a new prescription for the medicine that had run out.

‘Either way, the diagnosis of an incurable disease will be the same…’

Sevelia sighed, knowing that Denisa still hadn’t given up hope. It was always painful to deliver news that betrayed her expectations.

* * *

“…Explain.”

Dihart said quietly, holding Sevelia’s will.

“How is it that her will, which supposedly left nothing behind, is in your hands?”

His voice was eerie, echoing through the cave. Lyon raised his lowered head.

“Tell me who else in Hillen has deceived me and insulted my wife’s death.”

The golden eyes, stained with guilt and regret, were now filled with pure light.

Was it anger, or betrayal? Lyon couldn’t tell. But it was much better than withering away alone. It was better than abandoning everything, even himself. Lyon opened his mouth, looking at the golden eyes with white edges.

“…The will was found in Mrs. Gren’s room. It was hidden in a jewelry box that she brought out of the burned room.”

Dihart’s eyes narrowed at Lyon’s words. The hand holding the will tightened.

“My aunt.”

Rustle.

But the thin paper was not crushed in his hand.

“Not surprising.”

Dihart murmured, looking down at the will. He bit his lower lip, fixing his gaze on the first line of the will.

[To Dihart, who was once my hope.]

Once a hope.

What did he mean to her, who was only a momentary hope to her? He couldn’t even imagine.

Dihart swallowed a sigh. Then he slowly closed his eyes.

“….”

Reaching the last line, a cold light flashed across his transparent golden eyes.

Dihart lowered his head with a very painful expression. Lyon couldn’t bear to watch him.

After a long time, Dihart called him.

“Lyon.”

It was a frighteningly calm voice. Lyon felt a chill down his spine without realizing it. It was like hearing the call of the dead.

“Yes.”

Nevertheless, Lyon immediately lowered his head. He could feel it just from the fluctuating air. The man who had been wandering in a hallucination, trying to see the ghost of his dead wife, was gone. Lyon felt that something solid and cold had taken root in him. And his prediction was correct.

“As soon as day breaks, seal off Hillen Hall. Control the entry and exit of everyone from the manor, including the hunting grounds and amusement park, and do not allow anyone to enter or leave without my permission.”

A monotonous voice quickly gave orders.

“And dismiss the knights who are currently guarding the mansion and put them on probation for the time being. At the same time, quickly recall the knights waiting at the port to fill the vacant positions.”

Lyon sensed that he had drawn his sword. The closure of Hillen Hall and the probation of the knights whom Mrs. Gren treated like her own limbs.

‘There may be talk of harsh treatment.’

But Dihart had no intention of stopping there in the first place. From the moment he chose Sevelia’s ghost instead of the exit in the burning room, he was already running to extremes.

“Find out if Sevelia’s death may have been a murder.”

“Your Grace.”

“There is no need to leak these orders to the servants. Let them live in fear, and we’ll get what we want.”

Lyon looked up at him with disbelief. But Dihart did not withdraw his order.

This decision would clearly be poisonous to him as well. But what did that matter?

‘I don’t care even if it’s the price for arrogance.’

He was just walking the foolish path of realizing its importance only after losing it. So it was okay to say that this was not a judgment as a duke, but an outburst of a foolish man’s revenge.

Or maybe he was really crazy.

Dihart continued, ridiculing his mental state as if it were someone else’s.

“My aunt and uncle did all sorts of dirty things to separate her and me.”

The moment he said that, a ferocious look flashed across his golden eyes and disappeared.

“Who knows if those people even concealed the truth about her death.”

“But Your Grace, didn’t the doctor write a confirmation that the Lady died from an overdose of sleeping pills?”

“The story changes if that Peter Hanson was also a bribed man.”

Dihart’s cold eyes stared at Lyon.

“That…!”

Lyon’s face hardened. It was something he hadn’t thought of.

“They realized that their slander had been discovered by me and hurriedly urged her to die.”

Thinking that way, everything was suspicious. Sevelia, who was chased away to a separate building where people’s eyes could not reach, the doctor who examined her body and suddenly disappeared, and….

“Otherwise, they wouldn’t have hidden a will with this… content.”

Dihart’s voice trembled as if in pain. He turned his head and put down the will with a bloodless hand.

[What plunged me into despair was Weden, but what drove me to death was everyone in Hillen Hall: Gren, Flora, Rasch, and you, who were once my hope.]

The neat handwriting became a mess towards the end.

[May my last scream reach your ears.]

It was as if someone was grabbing his heart with both hands and twisting it.