I Became the Wife of the Hero Who Killed Me - Chapter 168

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#Chapter 168
* * *
Time flowed past like wind.
Once I learned to speak, I uttered the word “mother,” took my first steps, and soon was running on steady legs, playing with friends and learning about the world.
Even as my parents were consumed by work, they would take my hand on weekends and we’d venture into the mountains and fields.
The cabin that had always been wrapped in silence filled with laughter and the warmth of a living home.
I was happy.
It felt like compensation for all those lonely, desolate years.
But tragedy arrived with memory.
“Filio? You’re in the middle of class—why just you……”
“I’m afraid your parents have met with an accident.”
I tried to change it.
I thrashed desperately to save them, but my mouth and body betrayed my will and moved of their own accord.
Even at the funeral, I wanted to stop the relatives who were ransacking the house and taking anything of value, but my body only hung limp against my parents’ coffin.
Like a star locked in its predetermined orbit—
From that moment on, the Lantern of Past Lives became my punishment.
I couldn’t escape it even if I tried, and though I wished I could simply close my eyes, my body refused to obey.
I passed the examination with top marks and became an official.
Enduring the fierce power struggles within the Castle Administration, I devoted myself day and night to official duties to build a better Lombard.
A collateral princess from the Imperial Court came to Lombard as a bride and became Duchess.
I noticed that Lombard’s secrets were being leaked to the Imperial Court.
Before I could even report this, the Great Earthquake toppled the Northern Wall and the Duke marched out with the Grand Army.
‘Stop.’
I thought the castle in chaos was my chance.
If I missed this, there might not be another.
In the end, I slipped into the forbidden sections of the Castle Administration as I had before, and uncovered the identity of the spy feeding information to the Imperial Court.
I stepped on their tail, but at the same moment, they stepped on mine.
‘I hate this.’
Countless soldiers poured in and reduced our home to ruin.
They found every piece of evidence I’d gathered and burned it to ash, while soldiers held both my arms and beat me without mercy.
The one who had commanded the knights was Sir Cedric, the Duke’s Chief Advisor.
The Duke’s right hand. His closest confidant.
Above all, undeniable proof of betrayal.
Yet I denied reality. I am not a traitor, I insisted with stubborn pride that wouldn’t die, demanding they bring the Duke, that I would only speak before him.
Sir Cedric looked down at me and let out a low chuckle.
“You should stop struggling pointlessly. Your Lord has already abandoned you.”
“That can’t be true.”
“Did you really believe a lowborn commoner could be friends with the Grand Lord of the North? You don’t know your place.”
Before his words had even finished, Cedric struck me across the face.
When I regained consciousness, I found myself collapsed in the Underground Dungeon, the last place of my life.
Within the Lantern of Past Lives, I screamed as I had before. Unable to accept my friend’s betrayal, I cried out foolishly for the Duke.
The Duchess, cradled in Cedric’s arms, looked down on me like filth and whispered softly.
“Let me tell you a secret? Your resentment—direct it not at me, but at him. It was he who threw you away for me—”
Then she drew a branding iron glowing red-hot from the brazier and turned to face me.
With the hissing metal in her hand and a smile bright as sunlight.
‘Ah, please stop.’
Please.
* * *
The moment Edwin crossed the threshold of the gate, his vision went black.
The distinction between up and down, left and right vanished, and there was nothing but pitch darkness—no way to tell where anything began or ended.
“Elze!”
Yet Edwin didn’t stop. He had to do whatever it took to find her.
How much time had passed?
At some point, the weight of gravity began crushing his limbs.
Then came a pain that felt like his chest was being torn apart.
“My Lord, are you alright?!”
“The demons—they’re tearing at my arms……!”
Cries of alarm erupted from all sides.
In that instant, Edwin understood.
‘Ah.’
It was the day he had always regretted. Losing consciousness and collapsing in that moment had been the genesis of all tragedy.
If only time could be reversed, if he were granted even one more chance―
Yet no matter how many lives one repeated, a human could never turn back the clock.
“Where is Cedric?”
“Ah, he has not yet returned. We assumed he was with you, Your Grace…….”
The ferocious battle had raged for more than twenty days.
Without proper food, without washing, without sleep, his body had been driven to its absolute limit. He was on the verge of losing consciousness altogether.
‘But I will not regret again.’
Edwin drew his sword without hesitation.
When he thought of all that would unfold, of the desolation to come, his present suffering felt almost a small price to bear.
“Your, Your Grace!”
“What are you doing?! You cannot!”
Edwin severed his left arm—the one consumed by Demonic Energy—without a moment’s doubt.
His body, already driven beyond its limits, convulsed without anesthetic, but he clenched his teeth against the agony.
Blood erupted from his neck.
“We return to the castle at once. Anyone who speaks of my movements will be put to death.”
Terrified cries rose from his subordinates behind him.
Yet Edwin, with blood dripping steadily from his shoulder and his wound hastily bound in bandages, mounted his horse without the slightest hesitation.
Ah, it should have been this way from the start.
Whether this was a dream or a vision mattered not.
If he could but once atone for his crimes, if he could set right what he had done, he would have sold his very soul.
Though pain blurred his vision, his grip tightened on the reins with the strength of one arm alone.
After crossing the treacherous mountain ranges without rest, Edwin at last arrived at Lombard Castle.
The Duke’s sudden appearance—when he should have been at the Northern Wall—split the crowd’s reactions into sharp, opposing camps.
Some went pale at the sight of his missing left arm; others gasped in alarm and bolted in various directions.
Edwin cut down one of the latter without hesitation and rushed toward the Underground Dungeon.
‘Let me not be too late.’
Let me save you this time.
Descending the endless spiral stairs, Edwin prayed to the God he had hated all his life, again and again.
Layers of regret and self-recrimination, resentment against a fate gone awry.
All of it gnawed at the edges of his mind.
If he failed to save you again, if all he could do was cradle a cold corpse and weep―
He would sooner see this world annihilated along with himself.
Then, the Duchess’s voice rang out, brimming with triumph.
“Shall I tell you a secret? Direct your resentment not at me, but at him. For it was he who threw you away to begin with―”
“Silence!!”
Edwin’s thunder-crack roar tore the iron bars from their hinges with his bare hand.
The first face that met his eyes was that of his former Chief Advisor, Cedric, looking up at him in shock.
Behind him, he saw the Branding Iron in the Duchess’s grip, glowing an angry red-hot.
She met his gaze and stammered in excuse.
“Your, Your Grace! This is—that is, this woman was engaged in espionage…….”
But Edwin’s eyes had already passed beyond the Duchess, fixing instead on the woman collapsed on the cold stone floor, drenched in blood.
In that instant, fury consumed Edwin’s reason entirely.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————