Chapter 267
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
‘G–good heavens… why is he here…?’
Major Felkner was perched on the windowsill, glaring straight at me.
‘Killian, wake up!’
I screamed in desperation—but Killian didn’t stir. I tried to shake him awake, yet my hand wouldn’t move. Only then did I realize I hadn’t actually screamed at all. My lips were sealed, as if glued shut.
‘N–no… please….’
Felkner sneered at my terror, then plucked a half-smoked cigarette Killian had discarded from the ashtray and slipped it between his lips. As he struck a match and lit it, I glared at him and tried to steady myself.
‘No. There’s no reason to be afraid. He’s dead.’
“That’s right. Dead without even closing my eyes. All because I couldn’t drive my baton into your belly and kill you myself.”
Beyond the flame of the match, his eyes burned red, pupils flaring like a demon’s.
Had he come back as a demon? If so, then what I’d just seen wasn’t a memory at all—only an illusion conjured by a devil.
‘Yes. That’s it. It’s nothing but a lie cooked up by that cunning demon—’
Smirk. As if he’d read my thoughts, Felkner twisted his mouth into a grin.
“Rize, Rize, foolish Rize. Your memories aren’t fake. The ‘husband’ lying beside you is.”
Even in death, he couldn’t let go of his obsession. The demon thrashed about, trying to turn his delusions into truth.
“I told you over and over that that con artist wasn’t your husband. See? In the end, I was right.”
‘Disappear back to hell, you demon!’
“A wanton like you can’t chase demons away. Why not ask that holy priest who’s sleeping naked in your arms?”
As I groaned under the weight of the revived memory—or illusion—the demon continued his rant.
“You were always plotting to run, so why did you suddenly lose all will and start acting like a condemned prisoner? You know why. Because you started remembering. And even after that bastard admitted it himself, you’re still pretending not to know.”
‘No. That never happened.’
Tsk. The demon mocked me again, then went on as if I wasn’t even worth arguing with anymore.
“Why would your memories be the problem? Why do you think he hated the idea of you remembering from the very start? Huh? Answer me.”
“……”
“Because he’s not your husband.”
‘Stop spinning your stupid stories….’
“That fraud is terrified of the moment the truth comes out. Because he doesn’t know what you’ll do then. If your husband were dead, you might accept that this is just how things had to be and follow him. But your husband is alive. And he’s coming for you. Rupert. Rupert.”
I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted to cover my ears, but my body still wouldn’t obey me.
“Chasing you down because of treason? Ha. Don’t make me laugh. Since when does a soldier hunting a traitor beg him to leave the woman behind?”
‘No. That’s not it.’
“Then why do you think he told you to leave without him?”
I was too busy trying to think of an answer to refute him. Perhaps mistaking my silence for admission, the demon smiled in satisfaction.
“A rushed marriage because of a mission? That part might be true. But it wasn’t with him. You said there were three spies, right? One woman, two men. The woman turned out to be you. One of the men was your real husband. So what does that make the other?”
“……”
“The priest who’s currently sleeping after getting his fill of another man’s woman.”
‘No….’
“You said he infiltrated Leningen because of you, didn’t you? Following a married woman into enemy territory? He’d been harboring filthy desires for you all along. The priest followed you even into hostile lands, waiting for his chance. Then when you lost your memory, he took it as God’s gift, kidnapped you, and started playing husband.”
‘No! Killian would never do that!’
“You’ve suspected it all along, haven’t you? That’s why you deliberately avoided the truth. Because once you know it, you’ll have to make a choice one way or another.”
‘I didn’t avoid—’
“You want to know, but you don’t want to know. Isn’t that how you always are? Curious, yet cowardly. You were so desperate that you even wished that fake would deceive you perfectly.”
‘That’s…’
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