After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 67
Whether it was day or night, whether a day had passed, or if everything remained unchanged, Sebelia couldn’t tell. She opened her eyes slightly, gazing at the dark sky without a single star.
“I can’t tell the direction or the time…”
The only thing she could rely on was the thin path of light extending in front of her. For a long while, Sebelia wandered aimlessly through the forest, not knowing where she was. Then, suddenly, she sensed a change.
“The shadows…Wait, what about the light?”
She urgently lifted her head. In the previously stifling sky, something had appeared— the moon. Like unfolding a massive curtain, the once pitch-black sky now cradled the swiftly expanding moon, its blue eye swelling like a lake.
“I can’t make heads or tails of this.”
Sebelia sighed. However, the fact that the moon had risen was a good sign for her in many ways. Navigating through the vast darkness where front and back were indistinguishable, relying solely on a beam of light, was mentally exhausting.
“Phew…”
Since it’s like this, she thought it might be time for a short break. She felt her throbbing legs and looked around for a place to rest. Luckily, there was a large rock nearby where she could sit. Sebelia breathed a sigh of relief and slowly settled onto the rock.
“Ugh…”
As she stretched her body, fatigue engulfed her. Sebelia only then realized how tense she had been. As she relaxed, she felt her body groaning in various places. To make matters worse, she was hungry.
I must have been walking for quite a while.
It seemed that the sense of time had become distorted. Absently gazing at the dark, forested surroundings, Sebelia couldn’t resist the pangs of hunger any longer and stood up from her seat. In the moonlit area, she picked up fallen twigs one by one.
After a couple of failed attempts, she managed to kindle a fire. Sebelia spent some time staring at the simmering stew.
Satisfying her hunger to some extent and contemplating whether she should take a short nap, changes began to unfold.
Crash-!
“…?”
Startled, Sebelia turned her head to find the source of the loud noise. However, all she could see were densely packed trees, just like before.
Yet, she distinctly heard a booming sound that seemed to shake the very ground beneath her. Undoubtedly, something was happening within this space.
No one came out injured, so what was it?
Before she call out to whoever it was, another colossal noise tore through the air. Crash, thud! Not only did the ground tremble, but in the distance, on the opposite side of the forest, flames erupted like an explosion.
And then, Sebelia grasped the nature of the thunderous noise.
“…Dehart!”
One, two, three… Hundreds of blades stood tall against the shroud of night. As their numbers increased beyond count, they plunged towards the ground.
Clang!
Shaken by the intense impact, Sebelia tightly closed her eyes. The storm of force, which began from afar, rushed towards her like an angry wave.
* * *
The letter given by the Ursic doctor did indeed contain a magical path-finding spell, guiding the way to Watts, just as Sebelia had surmised. However, there was another enchantment, unknown to her.
“No, this is all a lie. So, aaargh! Damn it!”
The dark forest beguiled the human mind and induced the most dreadful despair—a nightmare from the forest. It was a magic spell that protected its owner and made them unrecognizable even to themselves.
Thus, naturally, as Dehart stepped onto the Sixth Road, he continued to despair at the multitude of deaths blocking his way. It wasn’t the family he had abandoned and fled from, not even the deaths of the knights who had entered the forest with him.
It was the repeated deaths of Sebelia.
“Ah, aah…”
His mind was twisted and on the verge of collapse. His soul, which had already shown signs of crumbling in the inn before he set foot in the forest, was shattering.
The distinction between hallucination and reality was no longer meaningful. After self-administering hallucinogens following Sebelia’s funeral, the two had become indistinguishable for him.
Hallucination or reality, falsehood or truth – what he desired was neither of those. He simply wanted Sebelia, alive and well. He longed for her forgiveness, or at the very least, to hate him for what he had done.
But his shallow hopes were destined to remain unfulfilled.
“Ah…”
Crackle!
Thousands of thunderbolts tore through the air and struck down. In an instant, the darkness was lifted and a cold reality was revealed before him. The shadows revealed numerous bodies of Sebelia, blocking his view.
Sebelia pierced by a spear, Sebelia bleeding from drinking poison, Sebelia hacked to pieces.
In that moment, Dehart regretted his profoundly foolish thoughts.
Wouldn’t it have been better for her to quietly breathe her last in my arms?
Of course not. There was nothing ‘better’ about her death. Dehart burst into a fit of laughter.
And then, this time… he looked up to the pitch-black sky.
“Please, don’t. I was wrong. I’ll leave like this. I won’t come looking for you again. If this is the punishment you give, then let it end here. Please…”
He had now given up even on claiming that all of this was a lie.
On the unreachable spire, where the morning bell should have been tied, Sebelia stood. With a noose around her neck and a creaking ladder beneath her feet, she looked down at him indifferently.
“Sebelia, please stop.”
A surge of tears filled his eye sockets. It was horrific. Whether it was an illusion or falsehood, it didn’t matter. Witnessing her death with his own eyes, knowing it was fake, yet unable to turn away from her gaze, was simply soul-crushing.
At that moment, her hands clenched the noose. The moment of despair unfolded before him again. Dehart’s eyes once again turned a stark white. Above the dark sky, thousands of lightning bolts revealed their forms.
“Uck…!”
Blood vessels burst throughout his body, and threw up blood. His vision gradually blurred. Finally, it’s the end. Yes he’d rather die together. Whether it’s fake or not, being with her is better. He felt himself rejoicing.
But Dehart’s hope was, by nature, designed to be broken.
“…I can’t help it.”
Haa, a hot sigh tickled his face.
