After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 65
Dehart found himself wandering in a nightmare. The place he stood was an endless, murky swamp where dark shapes reached out and clutched at his ankles with each step.
[Brother, stay with me. Brother.]
[Don’t leave, child. This place without you is too lonely…]
They opened their mouths and held onto him with cold tears, shaking his guilt, appealing to his compassion, breaking down the hard walls of his closed heart from within.
After all, we are your only family.
A laughing voice pierced his heart. Suddenly, when he came to his senses, he found himself kneeling in a pit.
[Though they say we abandoned you, deep down, you know it’s the other way around.]
[Dehart, my dear son. Why did you abandon your mother?]
[We all died at the hands of your uncle. Why do you insist on living and enjoying happiness alone?]
This is the price he had to pay.
“Ah.”
Accompanied by a chilling laughter, his body grew heavier and heavier. Dehart knew that dozens of black hands were reaching out from below, dragging him downward, yet he offered no resistance.
“Yes, this is right.”
It was destined to be this way from the start. He was never meant to have a warm, loving family. He pushed them away with my own hands.
The black hands slowly invited him to the bottom of the swamp. Heavy, viscous water had risen up to his throat. He felt his breath gradually stifling and closed his eyes.
The next moment, he woke up in terrible pain.
“Cough…!”
“You’re awake.”
The voice was unfamiliar, but infuriatingly calm. Dehart groaned in pain and managed to open his eyes. He looked up to see who the voice belonged to.
“…a physician?”
The doctor in a white gown was holding a stethoscope. Dehart looked down at his bound wrist and realized the cause of his agony. The bare injection site was swollen, proudly displaying his existence.
“It’s nothing. The medicine is strong, but it works well.”
The doctor glanced at him as if she was giving him a onceover and then put down the stethoscope she was holding. She understood that Dehart, judging by his resolute gaze, wouldn’t easily comply with a physical examination.
“Then I’ll call your guardian.”
“…Guardian?”
Dehart let out a hollow laugh, feeling chills. Despite his reaction, the physician maintained a composed expression and left the room. Soon after, Eli entered through the door.
“You’re awake!”
“What happened after I blacked out?”
The last thing Dehart remembered was Sebelia vanishing into feathers. It was the moment she spoke something so terrible in his ear that he wanted to rip my heart out, just before she disappeared into thin air.
“After the Duke fainted, there were no further incidents. However, considering the possibility that the other party might be some sort of mage, we’ve stationed a shaman or sorcerer at each entrance as a precaution.”
“Sorcerer, a sorcerer,” Dehart muttered, covering his face with his hands. “Yes, that could be it.”
It had hit him hard that the Sebelia he’d finally gotten his hands on was gone so quickly. It shaken him tremendously when Sebelia, whom he had barely rescued, vanished so helplessly. That dreadful sensation of his beloved being snatched away so suddenly from his embrace was beyond anything he had experienced before.
I don’t want to go through that again.
It was a level of torment that was different from gazing down at a lifeless corpse. It seemed better to have her die quietly in his arms than to have her disappear without a trace, leaving nothing behind like she had never even existed. In that moment, Dehart felt as though he had fallen into hell.
“Ha.”
It was painful to even breathe, but he had to. He had to live and move on, no matter who was behind this or what the truth might be. He couldn’t afford to sit idly by.
“Whoever it is, whatever the truth may be… it doesn’t matter now. I’ll capture them, no matter what it takes.”
If it were the real Sebelia, he would gladly endure the pain she had caused him. But if someone else had stolen Sebelia’s appearance to deceive him… there would be no forgiveness.
“Even so, we have a clue now,” Eli said, supporting Dehart as he stood up.
Dehart’s eyes flashed sharply. He motioned for him to continue, and Eli lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Do you recall the sorcerer holding something in the square?”
“…It seemed like she had a lot of baggage.”
“A woman couldn’t carry such a heavy load for a long time. So, we investigated the shops around the square.”
Along the way, Eli admits he saw the portrait on Dehart’s pendant and hastily created a composite sketch. Dehart’s temple visibly pulsed, but contrary to expectations, no bloodshed occurred. After all, he felt largely responsible for his own collapse after Sebelia disappeared.
“So, did you find something?”
“Yes. The shopkeeper remembered having a conversation with her.” Eli nodded, his face full of conviction.
As he opened the door, he added, “He said she was traveling to the Sixth Road to meet with the doctor hiding in the Supredi mountains.”
