I Became the Wife of the Hero Who Killed Me - Chapter 169

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 169
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I couldn’t believe what was happening before my eyes.
From the moment I was born until now, the carousel of my memories had remained exactly as I remembered it.
No matter how I thrashed or screamed, nothing changed—and yet the terror of the torture descending upon me turned my vision black, and I couldn’t breathe.
I wanted them to kill me instead.
If you weren’t a demon but human, I wanted to beg for even the slightest mercy.
I was so desperate that I found myself pleading for compassion from the woman I’d hated my entire life.
“Stop!!”
A roar like thunder shattered the dungeon.
The moment I saw the face of the one who’d torn through the iron bars, I thought I must have finally lost my mind.
Duke Lombard’s eyes blazed crimson with burst blood vessels as he stared down the Duchess and her aide.
“Elze.”
Ah, our eyes met.
“Close your eyes for just a moment.”
I didn’t want to obey my enemy’s command.
But he wore the same face as the man I’d loved, spoke with the same voice… even held the same gaze.
Perhaps I’d gone mad. Perhaps this was all a dream, all an illusion.
Yet as though under a spell, I closed my eyes.
The Duke spoke coldly.
“You stole my ring.”
“My Lord, I can explain everything. That woman—!”
Cedric couldn’t finish his words.
A cry of agony, the wet crunch of something being crushed and shattered—and then Cedric’s breathing faded to nothing.
Something fell with a heavy thud, and both the Duchess and Lady Olden screamed.
In the chaos, Edwin spoke quietly.
“Should’ve done this from the start.”
“What—what are you doing?! Your Grace, have you forgotten that I am of the Imperial Family? If you lay hands on me, Lombard will never know peace!”
“Lady Elisia is right. The Emperor His Majesty stands behind us!”
“Ah, no need to worry.”
Of course there wasn’t.
At the Duke’s deceptively gentle voice, color bloomed in the Duchess’s cheeks, and I bowed my head in despair.
Even if my wrists hadn’t been bound, I would have wanted to cover my ears.
But what the Duke said next was entirely unexpected.
“I killed Vittorio long ago.”
“What—aaaahhh!!”
Lady Olden’s shriek was followed by the endless stench of something burning.
Soon after, the Duchess’s frantic footsteps fled past the iron bars of my cell, hurrying away.
Had she run?
But the Duke’s presence too faded from the vicinity, and moments later, a desperate wail echoed down the distant corridor.
I couldn’t make out the exact words, but the Duke seemed to be issuing orders.
Deep voices rang out against the damp stone walls.
“We hear and obey our Lord!”
Among the ice-cold voices of the Knights answering, one was familiar to me.
I hadn’t realized it until now.
When I’d been dragged here, Gareth had been among the knights who stopped Cedric from interrogating the Castle Administration’s officials, saying it violated military law.
Even in my fear and confusion, I found myself smiling faintly at how oblivious he remained—as constant as ever.
How much time had passed?
“Elze, wait just a moment longer. I’ll free you soon.”
“…….”
As his presence drew near, I cautiously opened my eyes.
The Duke was searching frantically for the key to unlock the shackles on my wrists and ankles.
The key was in the dead Cedric’s possession, but I was so dazed I couldn’t speak, only blinked numbly.
After rummaging through the drawers, he returned with a click of his tongue.
“Sorry, I can’t find the key. I’ll make it hurt as little as possible.”
Then he tore through the chains binding my wrists and ankles with raw strength.
They were far heavier and thicker than what Berry had broken before.
The Duke then wrenched off the remaining shackles from my wrists and ankles, deforming them in the process.
Careful that no sharp metal might scratch my skin, he wedged his fingers into the narrow gap and twisted the joint open with force.
“…….”
Freed from my bonds, I struggled to push myself upright, looking up at him kneeling before me.
I must have lost my mind completely.
Unable to endure the brutal torture, my brain had shattered entirely—I was clearly beautifying my wretched past according to my own whims.
My hollow laugh froze as my gaze suddenly fixed on a single point.
“Your arm…….”
Duke Lombard’s left sleeve hung limp and soaked with blood.
Seized by horror, I found myself clinging to his shoulder without thought.
His brow twisted in pain, yet he did not stop me as I fumbled tremulously at the empty fabric.
“I’m sorry, Elze. I came too late, didn’t I?”
“Your arm——”
“Demons took it. Foolishly, they took my left arm—I lost the ring.”
I stared down at the object lying on the floor.
The Duke’s Seal Ring—the one the Duchess had hurled before my eyes, the most crucial evidence of the betrayal that had finally shattered my desperate denials. The symbol that had broken me.
And he said he had lost it.
Nothing made sense.
The Duke—he had betrayed me.
He had entrusted the ring, symbol of the Family Head, to his closest confidant Cedric, and all to conceal Lombard’s shame—even at the cost of my life, even though I was his oldest friend.
That was the man I had known.
“I should have hurried back, but the demonic energy made me lose consciousness.”
“…….”
Edwin’s complexion was haggard.
Features that had once been as finely drawn as divine sculpture, clean and composed, now hung ashen and bloodless.
“After wandering at death’s door for so long, I only barely woke to find everything already over. It’s all my fault. I was so powerless, so complacent—and because of that, you had to suffer so much.”
“What——what are you saying?”
“I was the sinner who should have paid the price.”
One certainty that had been lodged unshakeable in my mind shattered into fragments.
It was a truth I understood in my bones.
The Duke—no, Edwin—had not betrayed me.
He was my friend, whom I had first met by chance when visiting the Castle Keep on an errand for my parents, my cherished companion who had guarded my solitary childhood—
And in growing, my only lord with whom I had dreamed of a better Lombard.
While I lay dying in the Duchess’s hands, he too had been teetering at the edge of an abyss.
Everything I had believed to be truth was a lie.
“What is this?”
They say the eyes are the windows of the soul.
This man, confessing his guilt, looked at me with the same light in his eyes that Edwin had worn when whispering his love.
They were one and the same person.
“What on earth…….”
As I touched his parched eyes, I felt tears spill forth unbidden.
I tried to stop them, but the sobs rising in my throat could not be contained.
Edwin looked down at me pouring tears with such anguish that his body suddenly trembled.
“Ah, now I have only one arm left.”
With his one remaining hand, he gently wiped the tears streaking my cheeks.
As though he were touching something infinitely precious to the world.
“At first, I simply wanted to see you again. That alone. I wanted to watch you living happily. I thought that would be enough.”
“Edwin…….”
“But when I met you again, I found I couldn’t be satisfied merely watching from afar.”
Edwin’s lips trembled visibly.
He bit the inside of his cheek softly, then continued in a wavering voice, slowly and carefully.
“The you I found again was far more dazzling than I remembered——radiant as the sun itself, beautiful beyond measure—and without meaning to, I grew greedy. Distance was not enough; the longing became unbearable. So I dared, forgetting my station, to wish to become your true husband.”
“…….”
“Forgive me, I beg you……. If you cannot forgive me, then just cast upon me the pity or mercy you might show a beggar on the street. Please, don’t abandon me.”
Edwin’s head slowly fell.
He too had begun to weep as I was weeping.
“No—love me……. Elze, if that is impossible, then at least have pity on me. Without you, I cannot endure even a moment. I have no strength to bear seeing another beside you.”

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