My Husband Yearns For Me After My Death - Chapter 11

Denisia shook her bag thoroughly to show it.

“I spent all the money I had getting here.”

The fact that not even dust came out was enough to involuntarily furrow her brows.

“…I shall arrange for a carriage. You can take it to your destination.”

“By now, my family must have realized I’m missing. It’s better to be thoroughly late than to arrive halfway and be interrogated.”

“It would be the same whenever you go.”

“No. There’s a significant difference.”

She continued speaking as she tidied up the bag she had been turning upside down.

“It’s that I spent the night with you, Margrave. If rumors spread, even my parents wouldn’t be able to ignore it.”

Dietrich was momentarily lost for words, looking at Denisia. A hint of perplexity lingered in his eyes beneath his furrowed brows.

“You are…”

For a moment, his gaze lingered on Denisia’s neck then vanished.

“Butler.”

At Dietrich’s gesture, the person who had shown her in approached.

“Have her stay in the spare guest room.”

To have said all that, yet to be offered a guest room instead of a bedroom was somewhat disappointing, but it wasn’t a bad outcome. Denisia gave a slight nod of acknowledgment and followed the butler.

“This will be your room. If you need anything, please ring this bell.”

After showing her how to use the bell placed on the bedside table, the steward left the room. As the door closed, Denisia slumped onto the bed like a marionette with its strings cut.

“…Phew.”

It felt as though her body was pressed into the bed. Denisia lightly groaned as she touched the area around her neck.

“My body really isn’t adapting at all.”

To be tired from just this much movement. Her body was undeniably weak.

Though she didn’t even want to move a finger due to her relaxed state, Denisia grudgingly got up.

After calling a maid to take a bath and changing into the provided pajamas, darkness had fallen in the room. Once the attending maids had left, Denisia cracked open the door.

The corridor was no different. Empty. After surveying her surroundings, she cautiously left her room.

‘I know the layout well enough.’

By this time, except for a few, most would be asleep. Denisia, recalling Grace’s memories, leaned against the wall.

There was a reason Dietrich had insisted on hosting her, even to the point of rudeness.

‘My child.’

My child that I have not seen yet since arriving here. The child of Dietrich and me.

There was a limit to how much she could endure. She clutched at her chest, overwhelmed by the longing.

“…I hope the room hasn’t changed.”

Back when she was still Grace. When her belly was barely showing, she and Dietrich had prepared a room for their child. If it hadn’t been changed, surely their child would be there.

Denisia quickened her steps. As she was about to turn a corner at the top of the stairs,

“…Ah.”

The moment she found a room, Denisia’s steps halted as if she had no control over them.

‘This is the room I used last…’

Up to five years ago, it was her bedroom. Though it’s been five years, to Denisia, who had not long awakened, it felt as if it was just days ago.

The view through the slightly ajar door was exactly as she had left it. The bedroom. Even the chair remained placed askew. Nothing differed from her memory.

The moonlight streaming through the curtain gaps completely captivated her gaze.

“This room receives the first afternoon sunlight. Master didn’t say it outright, but he made an effort to give you the best room, Madam.”

Suddenly, she remembered what the former butler had said. Perhaps it was the bright moonlight coming through the curtains, but Denisia unknowingly placed her hand on the doorknob.

“What are you doing here?”

Startled by the low voice above her, Denisia turned around abruptly.

“D-Dietrich…”

He was looking at her with a stern expression, his presence unknown until then. His face, shrouded in a chilly aura, was twisted into a grimace.

“Already attempting to play the pitiful wife, are you?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why are you here?”

“That’s…”

‘I came because I missed you. Because of the memories we shared, because I wanted to see our child.’

She wanted to utter the truth, but her frozen tongue could not form any words.

“That, that’s…”

It felt as if her tongue was paralyzed from root to tip. The words she couldn’t deliver turned into fire, scorching her heart.

“Ah…”

‘Is this what it feels like to be unable to speak?’

The man’s voice, suggesting she would not tell the truth, echoed in her ears. The sensation was more intense than when she hadn’t been able to tell Sarah. She was already feeling a slight fever in her weakened body. Denisia tried to clear her increasingly blurry vision.

“That place is not somewhere you, of all people, should enter.”

“I didn’t intend to enter…”

“Or, did you mistake the room? Wanted to come to me, perhaps? Is that what you wish to say, Miss?”

Dietrich’s narrowing gaze scanned Denisia from top to bottom. Dressed in a thin nightgown, her intentions seemed blatantly obvious.

‘Could it be… sent by relatives.’

It had been suspicious from the moment she abruptly proposed a contractual marriage. To dismiss it with just a letter from Grace was excessively rash.

And her overstepping action displeased Dietrich.

“Perhaps it’s best to consider the contractual marriage null and void.”

No.

“You can’t just decide that all of a sudden. You said it yourself, Margrave, that you would help me.”

Denisia bit the inside of her mouth to keep her fading consciousness alert.

“…Or, do you speak differently during the day than at night, Margrave?”

“Miss, you seem somewhat contradictory.”

His sharp tone stung her ears.

“A contract is based on mutual trust, isn’t it? How can I trust you when you act so suspiciously?”

“The truth is…”

Her throat closed up abruptly. It felt as if her heart and esophagus were burning up. Denisia, trying to confess the truth, clutched her chest and groaned.

“Ugh…”

Again! This damned curse!