Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband [Novel] Chapter 140

Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband – Chapter 140

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When I opened my eyes again after that, I was back in the very first nightmare I had.

Everything was exactly the same, down to Cailus telling me he was sick of me and me being locked up in the Imperial Palace.

No, or so I thought.

I thought everything was exactly the same, but it was different.

While I had collapsed, the Emperor changed his mind and dispatched all his forces to the North, and Cailus successfully stopped the Demon King's descent and returned.

Meaning… the ending had changed.

I heard the news from Lily that Cailus had returned alive, but he never came to see me.

In the end, I wandered around searching for Cailus and ran into him in the Imperial Palace garden.

This time, he was truly alive.

On one hand, I felt a surge of anger.

I slowly approached Cailus.

"…You knew I had woken up."

"Yeah."

"And yet you still didn't come."

"That's right."

I hit him with my fists.

"You didn't come. You didn't come."

He stood there blankly, taking every punch I threw at him.

As I kept hitting him until my hands turned red, he finally caught my hands.

"At least hold something while you do it. It'll hurt your hands."

"Are you kidding me?"

"…I'm sorry."

He probably didn't know, but I remembered everything about being abandoned in that first dream.

"You bad bastard, you damn jerk."

"……"

"You're the worst jerk in the world."

Running out of strength in my arms, I even kicked him.

"How could you do that to me? How, how could you say such things to me?"

"I'm sorry."

"You begged me to give you love, begged me to love you, and then you do this! You always just deceive me. Right until the very end, again…"

Cailus didn't try to stop me.

"You're sick of me? We clung to each other enough by now? Is that why you told me to leave?"

"……"

I was huffing and puffing, venting my anger.

"Why don't you try saying it again! Why, aren't you going to say it now? Why can't you say it anymore! You have a mouth, so use it. Why, why!"

"I'm sorry, Hazel. I was wrong."

In the end, I burst into tears.

"Just how, how much more are you going to torture me…"

I collapsed into his embrace.

As if to prove he was truly alive, the scent of him that I loved so much filled my senses.

I could hear his heartbeat pounding, too.

And then, the scenery shifted yet again.

I was slowly beginning to realize what all these strange phenomena were.

The moment I saw the life in the modern world where I had died from overwork.

That realization turned into certainty.

Everything I thought I knew about the original story was nothing but an illusion.

---

Someone was gently stroking me.

"Mmh."

I slowly opened my eyes.

A blurry silhouette came into view.

"Hazel."

"……"

The moment I heard that voice, I felt like I was going to cry.

The voice I had wanted to hear.

The voice I had missed so desperately while continuously reliving the past.

"Hazel."

My vision gradually cleared.

"Cai…lus."

Suddenly, a drop of liquid fell onto my cheek with a light tap.

I saw Cailus's bloodshot eyes, tears welling up in the corners.

"…Thank you for waking up."

With a heavily choked voice, Cailus grasped my hand and buried his face in it.

He let out a long sigh, as if overwhelmed with relief.

The place where I was lying was the bedroom in the Duke's castle.

A place that was now far too comfortable for me.

I wanted to reach out my hand, but perhaps because I had wandered through such a long past, my body felt stiff.

On top of that, I had used a lot of my own power to draw out Lily's power to its absolute limit.

Before that, I had already been half-drained from casting illusions non-stop, so to use up everything like that must have taken a heavy toll on my body.

Still, after a little time passed, my strength was gradually returning.

I reached my hand out to sit up.

"Lie down a little longer."

When I shook my head in refusal at his words, Cailus reluctantly helped me sit up, firmly supporting my back.

As soon as I was halfway up, I wrapped my arms around Cailus's neck.

His large hand swept across my back.

I swallowed a sob with a hiccup and hugged him even tighter.

"It's all over. Everything is truly over now, Hazel."

But I felt like I would genuinely burst into tears if I opened my mouth, so I simply clung to his neck even tighter.

"……"

One thing was for certain, Cailus was always there at the end of my life.

Except for that one single time when I didn't live in this world.

Only after a long while did I compose my emotions and pull away from him.

It was time to return to reality now.

"What about Lily? Is everyone else safe?"

"Everyone is safe. Only you and Lady Dayworth hadn't woken up. She's resting in a guest room, so I'll have someone go check on her."

I nodded and looked at Cailus's face again.

The man I saw in the life right before I died from overwork was definitely Cailus.

"Why, are you uncomfortable? Where does it hurt."

As I stared at him blankly, Cailus continuously checked on me, urging me to answer.

This man, who had told me not to make a fuss in the carriage back then.

This man, who was so blunt yet ultimately helped me.

"…Pfft."

"Hazel?"

"It's nothing. Are you okay? You didn't get hurt?"

"I'm fine."

I reached out and touched his gaunt cheek.

"I'm fine, too. See. I told you we would succeed, didn't I? I told you everything would work out if you just listened to me."

Only then did Cailus let out a small laugh.

There was no longer any danger targeting us.

I wouldn't have to lose him, and he wouldn't have to let me go either.

Though I genuinely hated that he had hurt me in the past.

Remembering how he told me he was sick of me made me feel a surge of sorrow again.

Feeling resentful, I bit down hard on the arm he had wrapped around me.

"…Why aren't you saying it hurts?"

"I figured there must be a reason."

"…What if I just bit you for no reason?"

"Then I would have just thought my wife suddenly felt the urge to bite me."

His matter-of-fact response was so ridiculous that I bumped my head against his chest.

"I actually have a reason. But I'm not going to tell you."

Even at my words, he just smiled as if he liked it.

I leaned against him as if being held in his embrace again and closed my eyes.

Feeling like I had returned from a very long journey, I wanted to bask in this sense of security, even if just for a moment.

---

I spent a few more days recovering after that.

Every single injured soldier received treatment, and memorials were held for the victims.

We had tried desperately to prevent casualties as much as possible, but preventing them entirely was an impossible feat unless one was a god.

And with the success of this operation, those who had supported us naturally avoided being held accountable for defying the imperial order.

Lily, who woke up two days later than I did, apologized to me the moment she got up.

"I'm sorry. I should have stopped His Highness in advance from supporting that decision."

"You did your absolute best, Lily. I definitely would have struggled if I were alone."

Perhaps because everything ended successfully.

My mind was in an incredibly relaxed state.

Besides, honestly speaking, Lily truly wasn't at fault anyway.

She had awakened her power as promised and even came all the way to the Grand Altar.

Since we had successfully destroyed the Grand Altar and stopped the Demon King's descent, the ones in a difficult position now weren't us, but the Imperial Family and the Temple.

The reason being that while we were driving away the darkness, they had stood back and watched with their hands tied behind their backs.

Although they came to help belatedly, Zed hadn't widely publicized this fact to the imperial citizens.

I didn't stop Zed's choice.

The anger of the imperial citizens was growing day by day, and even though I hadn't taken any action yet, they seemed to have their hands full paying the price for their own decisions.

Thinking about Lily made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I even considered just leaving things as they were.

The darkness had completely retreated from the lands of the North, and the corrupted soil was now recovering.

Now fully recovered, I was about to head outside when I saw Rendil walking toward me from the opposite direction.

It seemed he hadn't returned to the Magic Tower yet.

"Duchess, how is your health."

He strode over and asked.