The Husband I Thought Was Dead Has Returned - Chapter 120

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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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The Husband Who Should Have Died Returns – Episode 120
Cherez swept his wet hair back carelessly and exhaled. His mind was still being torn apart by that terrible voice.
[Why do you struggle so? If you just gave up, things would be easier. Let me have your body. Humans are far too complicated. Must you stake your entire life just to get what you want?]
The Demon Lord sneered inside his head.
Cherez sighed and gripped the window frame in the corridor. The frame shattered and fell away with a sound like tearing wood. His eyes widened, trembling with unease.
“Stop.”
The Demon Lord had a ghostly way of excavating the deepest desires buried within Cherez and eroding them from within.
[You don’t even like humans that much. Sometimes you find them repulsive, don’t you?]
Cherez clenched his head tightly. Vivid blue veins bulged at his temples. If he could, he would have torn his own head apart.
But what was far more terrible was that the Demon Lord’s words were not wrong. The humans who had taken his family, relentlessly driven him and the Bereidan Family to the brink, and poured endless expectations upon him—they were suffocating. Unbearably suffocating.
Cherez had already lost so much. A family that died young, freedom, his will, his dreams, his hopes. Yet people still demanded more from him.
The Imperial Court pushed Bereidan to the edge of a cliff, while Hejest was desperate to devour them. Those ungrateful wretches gnashed their teeth shamelessly, trying to consume him.
Perhaps it was not the Demon Lord who was eating away at him, but humans. The thought sent a chill down his spine.
Cherez found everything unbearably repulsive. Just as the Demon Lord said, an impulse rose within him to obliterate them all. Leave nothing behind.
“Cherez?”
That was when a voice rang out like a clear bell—infinitely pitiful and lovely—and held him back.
Cherez slowly turned his body. The woman standing with darkness at her back smiled beautifully.
“You were worried about Hayden and heading to check on him, weren’t you? Did the banquet wrap up well?”
Cherez gazed at Roana. She was a woman with round, gentle eyes that matched her name. Roana’s smile seemed to spread softly through the corridor.
“…Yes.”
Only then did his sense of reality return. He remembered what he had been about to do, where he had been heading.
Cherez forced a smile back onto his face. In this moment alone, even the things in his mind seemed to fall silent in rapture.
Whether he had been drawn into the emotions Cherez felt, or whether he had been bewitched by Roana without understanding his place—
Roana approached him. The scent of water drifted from her, tickling his nose. The subtle floral fragrance mingled with her natural scent was delicate and refined.
Cherez reached out his hand to Roana, who was gazing at him blankly. Often she looked at him with such an expression. It was the gaze of someone who seemed to have lost all thought.
He could see Roana’s throat move.
“What are you thinking about so intently?” Cherez asked softly. Had she noticed something? Was Roana seeing another shadow within him? His eyes deepened.
[…If I’m discovered, you die too. Do you think you could separate me from yourself? Don’t be foolish.]
The Demon Lord chuckled.
[I’m curious what expression that woman would make if she knew of my existence. She would despise you. She would leave you first. That would be quite a sight!]
The Demon Lord writhed in his mind as if it had found an opening.
The moment Cherez clenched his teeth, Roana murmured.
“…You’re so handsome.”
Cherez’s eyes flew open. Roana’s lips trembled.
“Walking around with a face like that, looking like that is really… Ah!”
Roana covered her mouth. Her expression showed she hadn’t even realized what she was saying. Roana swallowed hard and laughed awkwardly.
Thump-thump.
It sounded like that sound was actually happening. Pressed close against the wall, Roana spoke with a flustered expression.
“You said you were heading to see Hayden, didn’t you? Let’s go together, Cherez. Hayden must be waiting for us. We should hurry, shouldn’t we?”
“You said it was the way to Hayden, right? Let’s go together, Cherez. Hayden must be waiting for us. We should hurry, shouldn’t we?”
Roana laughed awkwardly as she quickened her pace. Though she seemed hesitant at first, her steps grew faster and faster, and Cherez pursued her.
Cherez’s mind caught up with him just as belatedly. Only after replaying what he’d heard several times over did the meaning truly sink in.
“Roana. Was my appearance to your taste?”
The voice in his head fell silent. Cherez barely suppressed a laugh. In the corridor that he’d thought was plunged in darkness with not a single light to be found, light began to seep in, one by one. Following Roana, illuminating the path she walked.
As if guiding Cherez himself.
Cherez willingly followed in Roana’s wake.
“Then why didn’t you say so sooner? Do you prefer my hair down? Or up? What kind of clothes do you like me wearing?”
Cherez asked in a playful voice. When he was with Roana, reality seemed to recede, leaving only him behind. Cherez Bereidan—still a young man, after all.
Roana fled from Cherez, covering her ears.
Only when cornered did Roana, who had been running as if she could hear nothing, cry out.
“I like you just as you are now! Right now is my favorite! Is that enough?”
Roana breathed heavily. Her face flushed, she glared at Cherez, then opened the bedroom door and slipped inside. There, she burrowed in beside Hayden and pulled the blanket over her head, rubbing her face frantically.
She didn’t even know why she’d said such a thing. The words had tumbled out before she could think.
Roana held Hayden tightly. Whether it was because of Hayden or the warmth radiating from her, her skin felt like it was burning.
She felt Cherez lie down across from her with Hayden between them. She felt his arm reach across Hayden to pull her into an embrace.
She was enveloped in his thick, solid arms.
Cherez gently pulled down the blanket covering Roana’s head.
In the darkness, their eyes met. Cherez smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. He leaned closer.
They drew near enough to feel each other’s breath. Roana’s eyes widened. Cherez whispered softly.
“…You’re supposed to close your eyes at times like this, Roana.”
At his words, Roana obediently squeezed her eyes shut.
Cherez drew her in. Their lips met softly, growing warm and wet.
A sensation of freezing spread through her to her fingertips, and Roana curled into herself, gripping Cherez’s arms tightly.
In this moment, everything truly seemed to fade away.
Cherez breathed her in fully, truly for the first time without restraint. He wanted to possess even her soul. He wanted to forget that Roana had a home to return to, a family waiting for her. He wanted only to believe that she would never leave him.
That Roana would remain by his side forever.
That she would always illuminate him.
Roana was the sunlight that brightened Cherez, drowning in darkness—his beacon.
Cherez rose once more, using Roana as his anchor. Then he whispered against her ear, his voice crumbling.
“…I love you, Roana.”
In that brief confession lay everything of Cherez.
His life, his soul, his freedom and will, even his future.
Even if the Demon Lord would ultimately consume him and he would be lost, he wanted to protect Roana. If he had to die.
Only he would.
He vowed to bear all this weight.
Mutual destruction with the Demon Lord. That was the end Cherez had envisioned for himself.

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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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