After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 64
The Sixth Road was a narrow path between the last two hills of the Seven Hills. Sparse in foot traffic and leading nowhere, it was an isolated place where hardly anyone ventured and infamous among the people of Supredi.
“The atmosphere here feels peculiar.”
Sebelia looked around, tightening her grip on the bag in her hand. The scenery changed as she passed between two hills and approached the beginning of the Sixth Road.
The grass that had reached up to her ankles was now replaced by thick, waist-high underbrush that surrounded her from all sides. There was a tension in the air, as if she was enclosed by an unknown presence.
It was similar to the feeling Sebelia had just experienced with the knights surrounding the inn.
Come to think of it, the illusion should have disappeared by now.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, she felt the frightening sensation of the cord connecting her to the illusion being severed. Sebelia clenched and then opened her empty hand, the eerie feeling of it lingering in her palm.
“Dehart…”
She recalled the last thing she saw of him before leaving. His desperate and yearning gaze toward the impostor. The anguished way he called her name…
“No.”
Sebelia shook her head vigorously to dispel the thoughts surfacing in her mind.
We’re done, we were never meant to be together, and we’ve had the ending that we deserved.
She clasped her hands together, reassuring herself. The strategy of creating a fake Sebelia to draw people’s attention had worked perfectly. Even the knights guarding the back door had turned away and couldn’t take their eyes off the illusion.
I took advantage of the opportunity and fled.
Fleeing in front of Dehart was much more terrifying and frightening than escaping Hillend Hall. She kept looking back out of fear that they might see through the illusion and come after her.
“…I can only hope that this is the end of it.”
Sebelia didn’t understand Dehart’s reasons for chasing after her. To him, she was just the illegitimate daughter from the Capital. A woman who didn’t even appreciate his kindness and betrayed him.
Yet now, he yearns for me?
Reason tried to persuade her it might be possible, leveraging everything she had witnessed in Supredi—all Dehart’s heartfelt and desperate displays—to sway her heart. But the door to a heart that had been wounded and closed for years was not so easily opened.
“Any regret that started after my death isn’t worth anything.”
Sebelia couldn’t believe his emotions. She couldn’t trust his drastic change in attitude. To her, Dehart was a cold and cynical man who despised her as much as he despised himself.
[Because I’m weak.]
The despair and humiliation she felt in that moment. The shame and self-loathing that coursed through her body couldn’t be erased by just Dehart’s impassioned voice.
“Ugh…”
Her stomach churned at the memory of the past. Sebelia set the travel bag down and sat on it, trying to catch her breath. The tense air that had been pulling at her seemed to have relaxed. It was as if someone had keenly noticed her state.
“Haah.”
With one last long exhale, Sebelia opened her eyes. Her nauseated stomach had calmed somewhat.
Well, he’s someone I won’t have to see again anyway.
If she found the laboratory of this Doctor Watts, it was unlikely that she would return to the city until her illness was cured. Dehart, on the other hand, was the head of a prominent family and the Duke of the North, so it was certain that he would have to head back soon.
Time was on her side.
“Let’s go.”
Rising from her seat, Sebelia cautiously scanned her surroundings. She hoped to find something helpful before entering the Sixth Road. Even a sign would have been reassuring, but there were none.
She was greeted by the pitch-black sky, the sunlight barely reaching it when it had been so warm before.
“This is a space separated from reality.”
Finally, Sebelia realized the truth behind the shopkeeper’s words, about people leaving and coming back in tears, even though nobody was harmed or injured.
This place was an unreal space created by Dr. Watts to deny people access. In short, it was nothing less than a false maze.
“Hmm…”
Sebelia paused for a moment, contemplating. The doctor at Ursic assured her that he would welcome her if he was the one who sent her. If what he said was true, then she should be able to reach Watts unlike the others.
But how?
In that moment, though unseen by her, a faint light flickered within the bag she was carrying.
