After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 245

“I will trample everything that wretched excuse for a father—or rather, someone unworthy of being called a Father, Silas Wheddon—has ever touched.”

“Bella!”

“So don’t try to pull him away from me, Balak. Dehart is the most important person for my revenge. Someone I cannot do without.”

Staring directly into Balak’s wide, sky-blue eyes, Sebelia continued.

“He is my blade. The one who takes the blood in my place, the one who bears the shame I should endure. That is why he is closer to me than anyone else.”

Balak drew a sharp breath. Closer to her than anyone else? The words shocked him more than the thought of revenge itself. He stammered, trying to speak.

“I… I’m here, you know.”

Even as he spoke, Balak realized his words might have been premature. To him, Sebelia was the precious one he had sought all his life, but to her, he was suddenly a stranger who had appeared out of nowhere.

Still, he could not let her wade into the muck alone.

“I know about your marriage, and what scandals followed after being married off, just like you were sold to Duke Inverness.”

“…”

“Please, just think about it again. I am not saying you shouldn’t take revenge. But why should it be this person? That man has already hurt you once and is no longer yours. But I… I am your family.”

“I am not denying that you are my family. From the moment you told me about my mother, from the moment I realized you had looked for me all this time, you became precious to me. But… that is not a reason to abandon Dehart.”

Looking into her unwavering blue eyes, Balak realized that his sincerity had reached her—but not enough to sway her heart.

“I’m sorry.”

In that moment, Balak noticed how much Sebelia resembled her mother. There was an unexplainable strength in her features and presence that was inherited through blood.

“…I see.”

His sky-blue eyes, which had been trembling so violently, gradually calmed. Balak lifted his gaze from her hand to meet Sebelia’s apologetic smile.

His chest tightened. He hadn’t meant to make her give such a burdened expression. He scolded his own impatience and spoke with quiet determination.

“If you want revenge, then do as you wish. But I will not let that person wander free at your side.”

“Excuse me?”

“He’s not the only blade that can take blood in your place.”

Balak spoke with solemn authority.

“Use me freely, Bella. If it’s to protect yourself, use my name, my family’s name, and command people as you see fit. You are allowed to do that.”

“I… I cannot trouble you like that.”

Balak spoke firmly to Sebelia, who was shaking her head.

“That’s what family is. Acting as you please, causing trouble, then boldly raising your head and asking if I’m going to abandon you. I cannot replace blood with anything else, so you huff and snort at me daily, and that’s normal.”

Sebelia stared at him, incredulous, then glanced at Dehart and Shateian standing behind him. When she looked at them as if asking if it were true, both men nodded.

“See?”

While Sebelia struggled with the unspoken agreement, Balak made up his mind.

I need to make this absolutely clear now.

He decided that Sebelia, who had never experienced the tight, frustrating unspoken rules of family, needed to learn them. Soon, he would need to leave Belkram briefly to visit Rossel.

“And to be frank, Bella, if a situation arises where you must use my name, it will almost certainly be due to someone else’s malice.”

“…”

“If the Empire suffers, it suffers. Neither I nor the Ashrent family should have to bow. Am I wrong?”

Sebelia had no response. She gave a small, helpless laugh and nodded, and Balak stood with a relieved expression.

“Good. Then that’s enough for today. We’ll meet again.”

Sebelia got up from the bed to see him off. Shateian left alongside Balak, leaving only a cryptic remark behind.

[I’ll make sure the first stitch of revenge is sewn properly, as payment for hearing such a tearful family story.]

The next morning, Sebelia would fully understand what he meant.

Early that morning, Prince Shateian collected testimony from the illusionist Bella Appenz and handed Nathan over to the Imperial Security Bureau—a sudden announcement that caught everyone off guard.

The investigation proceeded rapidly. Nathan now faced charges not only of Bella Appenz’s kidnapping, confinement, and attempted murder but also of assault and serial killings.

Nathan was brought to trial in a place beyond Silas Wheddon’s reach.

The proceedings were unusually swift and exceedingly straightforward.

The Wheddon family protested fiercely, but with the servants’ confessions and the successive discovery of corpses, Nathan could not escape guilt. Amid the chaos, the First Queen’s faction quietly stepped back and observed.

And the news even reached Gren, who had been desperately searching for the missing Roden.