After I Died, My Husband Went Mad [EN]: Chapter 79

The Moment of Truth

At first, Sebelia was dumbfounded when she saw him venting his frustrations. When she saw him breaking his promise and raising his voice as if he were right, she almost lost her temper. But she saw it.

[But I still endured it. Yes, I remembered my promise to you and endured it. Even when those bastards kept saying they couldn’t find anything with their stupid faces!]

While he was spewing harsh words, his eyes were as fragile as if they would break at any moment. His golden eyes, which seemed like they would crumble with the slightest touch, kept circling around her.

‘This man, could it be.’

So, Sebelia grabbed the man who was turning away after saying his last words. It was definitely not because she saw the tears welling up in his long eyes.

“Wait.”

Because she reached out in a hurry, her center of gravity shifted forward. Of course, it was Dihart who caught Sebelia, who was about to fall.

“Be careful.”

He didn’t want to show his teary eyes, so he quickly turned his head and set Sebelia upright. Then, he tried to open the tent and go outside again. Sebelia had to grab him again.

“Dihart, where are you going?”

Sebelia called him in a calm voice. But Dihart didn’t answer. Instead, he carefully removed Sebelia’s hand that was holding him and tried to open the curtain covering the entrance.

Sebelia’s blue eyes widened as she looked at her empty hands.

‘He doesn’t want to talk to me?’

He just poured out the words he had been keeping to himself, and now he doesn’t want to hear a single word from me?

At that moment, Sebelia recalled the lesson she had learned through Claude. The extremely sensitive men of Inverness would shut their eyes and ears once they were absorbed in their own thoughts. So, she had to break that immersion.

No matter what method it took. Sebelia used the lowest and coldest voice she could muster.

“Don’t think you can run away like this.”

At the same time, she grabbed his wrist and unfolded the illusion.

Whoosh-

The inside of the tent, which had been covered with soft cloth, instantly turned into a vast plain. The high sky was above their heads, and snow-capped mountain peaks could be seen far away in the open view.

And flowers. An intensely fragrant scent of flowers rose from under their feet. When Dihart opened his eyes, an overgrown rose bush was blocking his path.

“What is this?”

All of this happened at once. Dihart unknowingly opened his mouth, feeling as if he had fallen into another world. An intense sense of foreignness enveloped his body.

“Could it be….”

“Dihart Clayton Inverness.”

Dihart, who had hesitated in embarrassment, trembled greatly at the sudden sound of his full name. When he lowered his gaze, Sebelia’s blue eyes were looking at him with a cold light.

“Did you do this?”

Dihart said, looking around at the bushes that had surrounded him. Red and white roses were blooming as if to embrace him.

“Yes.”

“Why.”

Dihart asked in a low voice. His pale cheeks and tightly closed lips were stubborn. But the eyes hidden under his eyelids still looked like they would shed tears at any moment.

“I said I’m sorry. I was always like this. I couldn’t keep the promise I made with you from the beginning.”

The man surrounded by rose bushes let out a sharp laugh. His face, dripping with misery like poison-coated thorns, was beautiful and pitiful.

“A promise made with a crazy bastard can’t be kept properly, can it?”

A self-deprecating voice lingered at his feet. Sebelia looked at him and suddenly recalled the time in the greenhouse. The red roses that bloomed behind him like a saint’s halo brought back that time.

The suffocating scent of roses, the tall glass surrounding all sides, the intense sunlight pouring down on it, and Dihart hiding in between. He was arming himself with hatred and vigilance, and the moment from then when he would raise his thorns if anyone approached him even a little, overlapped with this moment.

Was that why? Sebelia felt the fiery emotions filling her heart gradually subside. It was a similar feeling to seeing an angry child crying after screaming.

‘How clumsy.’

You and I, too.

Sebelia slowly took a breath. Today made it clear. She still didn’t want him to get hurt. In fact, it was the same when she left Hillend Hall. She wanted him to grieve and cry over her death, but she didn’t want him to lose his will to live and die because of it.

She just wanted him to hurt as much as she did.

‘I just wanted you to experience the pain, the sorrow, and the resentment that I went through.’

Sebelia stared at him with a calm face. There was still resentment towards him. The coldness and neglect he had shown, and the feelings towards the people of Hillend Hall who had joined in tormenting her, would not easily disappear.

But Sebelia felt the deep-rooted wound in her heart slowly healing. It was none other than seeing Dihart suffering and wavering because of her.

It was a shamefully selfish method, but at the same time, Sebelia was vaguely aware that it was the only way. She had just ignored it because it was hard to accept. But while she was ignoring that fact, Dihart had faced a near-death crisis.

‘That won’t do.’

You can’t get hurt like this on your own, and you can’t be in a life-threatening situation.

‘Until all the resentment inside me is resolved. So that I am no longer held back by the life of Sebelia Inverness… you must not get even a single scratch.’

It was a somewhat eerie thought. But Sebelia didn’t feel that her thoughts were so wrong. And if the time came when all the knots in her heart were untied, Sebelia would finally be able to live her life as Bella. Without a trace of anger or resentment towards him.

‘Then you and I will finally be free from each other.’

Having sorted out her thoughts, Sebelia stared at him with a calm face. She could feel Dihart’s body twitching. Sebelia put strength into the hand holding him and made a firm expression. First of all, she needed to change his mind so that he wouldn’t do this again.

“Look me straight in the eye. Don’t try to let go.”

“……”

“And don’t try to avoid the situation by saying you’re crazy.”

Dihart’s eyes widened, and he turned his gaze from side to side. This was beyond his expectations. Sebelia held him in place and continued.

“Still, it’s a relief. It’s not so messed up that we can’t even talk. It seems like you’ve finally come to your senses after pouring it all out. You even noticed that the scenery has changed.”

A sharp rebuke was directed at him, who was confused. Dihart bit his lip without realizing it, then pretended to be calm as if nothing had happened.

“…Anyone would notice if it changed this much.”

He was trying to save face in his own way, but it was useless in front of Sebelia. She raised her eyebrows and said.

“Really? You noticed the scenery, but you didn’t notice the person next to you was at a loss in embarrassment. Or did you ignore it on purpose?”

“That’s.”

Dihart stammered as if he had been stabbed in the back. His momentum, which had been raging like a madman, had subsided. Sebelia, having confirmed that, softened her tone slightly.

“I know you were driven to your limit. But you can’t just pour it all out like this and try to leave. It’s something you shouldn’t do to anyone, not just me.”

“……”

“Could it be that the person in front of me is not the Duke of Inverness, but just a big baby?”

The cold voice accurately pointed out only what Dihart had done wrong. Dihart’s chest, which had been swollen with excitement, sank at the businesslike tone that contained no personal feelings.

“I didn’t know that understanding your place meant this. To break a promise as you please and corner the other person is what you call your position. I didn’t know anything.”

Dihart’s face turned pale. He blinked blankly and looked back at himself from just now.

“That’s not it.”

Dihart took a deep breath, looked down at the wrist held by Sebelia, and blinked anxiously. His neat lips collided with each other several times, and then a fading voice flowed out.

“It was a slip of the tongue. When I saw you, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I didn’t do it on purpose. To corner you, how could I ever……”

It was a very subdued voice. Under the eyelids weighed down by sorrow, his golden eyes welled up with tears once again.

“There’s no way I could dare to do that.”

Looking at his gradually drooping shoulders, Sebelia frowned. She didn’t let go of the hand holding Dihart and lightly waved her hand as it was.

Then, the plain full of flower fragrance returned to a normal tent. Dihart’s eyes widened at the miraculous change. Sebelia pulled him towards the bed while he was distracted.

“Okay. Let’s talk about that later. Come here.”

As expected, the men of Inverness had to have their spirits broken first. Otherwise, it was impossible to inject other thoughts into their narrow minds.

“Let’s treat your wounds first. I don’t want to have a serious conversation with someone who’s in pain either.”

What was he doing without even treating the scratches on the back of his hand? Sebelia clicked her tongue and opened the roughly placed first aid kit. Dihart glanced at her with teary eyes and sat next to her sullenly.

“Thank you.”

Then he obediently held out his hand. He seemed a little happy for some reason, but Sebelia decided to think it was just her imagination.

“Ugh!”

Dihart let out a low groan without realizing it at the disinfectant being poured on the back of his hand. But it was nothing compared to the treatment that followed immediately.

“Stay still.”

Sebelia recalled what she had learned from Wartz and picked up the tweezers. Looking closely, there were scratches not only on the back of his hand but also on his arms and legs. The problem was that unknown fragments were embedded in the wounds, and the blood wouldn’t stop.

“How dare you yell in this state.”

The tweezers mercilessly rummaged through the wound. Dihart couldn’t even groan and endured the pain with his lips tightly closed. It was a pathetic ending compared to the shouting that had made the tent shake just a moment ago.