The Husband I Thought Was Dead Has Returned - Chapter 72

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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 072
I lifted my heavy eyelids and turned toward the window out of habit. Every morning, I checked the sky as naturally as breathing. The velvet curtain beneath my fingertips felt unusually cold and heavy.
The moment the curtain parted, what flooded into the room was not the dazzling morning sunlight—but a vivid crimson aura pooling across the sky.
It almost seemed alive, writhing. Ugh, how repulsive.
The aura had grown far more intense than yesterday. Moreover, the crimson light known as the twilight of the Other Side was deepening as well.
A red warning light that appeared before the Other Side consumed reality.
Once the Red Moon rose, the gates of the Other Side would open, and a nightmarish time would begin.
I could see with perfect clarity that the seal was weakening.
Then, I heard rustling behind me.
“Da, dada!”
Hayden, freshly awake, was pulling himself up by the crib railing. His hair stood in wild tufts from sleep, and his small body carried the comforting scent of milk.
Hayden looked at my face and broke into a smile.
“Mama, dadada!”
He stretched both arms toward me, waving his tiny fern-like hands.
“Did you sleep well? What happened to your hair?”
One cannot help but smile at a child. I lifted Hayden into my arms and nuzzled my face against his soft cheeks.
“Dadadada! Pah! Da!”
Hayden swung his outstretched hands and smacked my face with surprising force. In his eyes, the crimson sky gleamed like precious jewels.
“Da!”
Hayden delighted in it as though it were fireworks. To his innocent eyes, this was not a harbinger of destruction.
The child’s innocent, weighty warmth forcibly suppressed my anxiety.
“That’s right, Hayden. Everything will be fine. Because our Hayden is so precious and lovely.”
I murmured words without context and buried my face in the child’s hair. The promise that everything would be fine was a blatant lie. When this crimson light consumed the world, demons would pour forth and turn the earth into a sea of flame.
Yet I would protect this child safely.
“Trust only me.”
“Dadadada! Pah-pya! Mama!”
Hayden opened his mouth, drool glistening on his lips, and grinned, revealing his few teeth. I truly cannot believe you are the male lead. I should photograph this face and show it to the female lead later.
“That’s what they call a dark history.”
“Dadadada!”
“What would you know? Come on, Hayden. We have much to do today.”
I adjusted Hayden in my arms and stepped outside.

* * *
Feeding a one-year-old who had begun expressing his own opinions was never an easy task, as always.
“No, I’m telling you I’ll feed you today?”
“Bleh bleh bleh bleh! Pah! No!”
Moreover, he had recently started using the word “no,” and honestly, it was infuriating.
I clenched my teeth and spoke.
“No, don’t do that.”
“No! No! No!”
He shook his head while drumming his fists on the table, and I felt frustration accumulating in my chest.
“Sigh. Fine, then eat quietly. Promise me.”
“Bleh bleh bleh bleh! Bleh!”
Of course, the moment the plate fell into Hayden’s hands, it tipped over. When Hayden seized hold of you without a moment to indulge in sentiment, an hour would slip away like water.
Good grief.

* * *
While Linnen looked after Hayden, I packed our belongings together with Yureain.
When war broke out and the Red Moon seemed likely to persist for more than three days, the Southern Nobility would evacuate far from the coast.
To the Red Moon Palace at the northernmost point of the Southern Territory.
By now, other households must be hurrying to pack as well.
Large leather trunks already gaped open in the bedroom.
Yureain and I had devised a plan to deviate from that evacuation route and head to Carencia. We had carefully verified every detail of our movements.
“Dorphin has completed his reconnaissance of the mountain road. He has also confirmed all the points where we will break away from the evacuation procession and head toward the Northern Secret Base.”
As Yureain spoke, she methodically folded Hayden’s undergarments and placed them in the trunk.
“No matter how many times I check, I still feel anxious. We haven’t been discovered, have we?”
“Who did you tell? I haven’t told anyone. Not even Butler Oliver.”
I nodded.
“I haven’t told anyone either.”
Yureain and I locked eyes and burst into quiet laughter. We both knew our worry was unfounded.
I double-checked the room-temperature baby food ingredients and dried snacks. I had already pared everything down to the minimum, yet the trunk had already swollen to the size of a moving shipment.
My dear little male lead hates going hungry more than anything.
If Borgus were to arrest the Liansherus Society and protect the bell, then the probability of Cherez returning alive would increase dramatically.
But I also had to consider the possibility that Borgus might fail to stop them.
“Hmm, should I pack this too? Yes, I think it’s better to bring it along.”
I abandoned my deliberation and stuffed everything I was holding into the trunk.
But our resolve crumbled helplessly before the powerful interference of one small being.
Linnen had been unable to overcome Hayden and brought him along.
“Hayden! No, that’s already done!”
Despite my cry, Hayden’s plump bottom wiggled as he charged toward the trunk. He placed his hand on the carefully stacked pile of his own towels, then swung his arm and scattered them into the air.
Ah.
“Bleh! Kyaaaa!”
The culprit—clearly delighted with himself—waved both hands and burst into laughter. Then he turned his attention to the bundle of diapers, systematically dismantling the carefully arranged stack as though toppling dominoes.
Hayden flopped down onto the pile, seized a diaper, and began tearing at it.
“What on earth are you doing? You little troublemaker.”
The moment I reached to snatch the diaper from Hayden’s hands, he shook his head.
“No!”
“No? Give it here at once! If you keep this up… the goblin will come and take you away! He’ll give you a proper scolding!”
“No!”
I clenched my teeth. Yureain began reorganizing the luggage again, her face brimming with barely suppressed laughter.
I exhaled deeply and started gathering the clothes Hayden had scattered about. But for every piece I picked up, he threw down two more. Then he grabbed my skirt and began a tug-of-war.
“Now, young master, you mustn’t do this! Show the dignity befitting the heir of the Bereidan Household…!”
“Hami! No!”
Yureain’s eyes widened. Had our precious little one just uttered a new word?
“Hayden, say it again. What did you just say? Hami, yes? Grandmother?”
“Hami! No!”
Yureain’s breathing grew ragged. She promptly withdrew a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
“I could die happy right now.”
“Over something like this?”
“Ppa-ba-ba! No!”
Eventually, I stretched my legs across the chaotic luggage. Hayden crawled onto my lap and plopped down with a soft thud. I felt the solid weight of the child.
“Fine, you’ve won.”
I gazed out the window while gently playing with the child’s soft hands. Though the sky remained ominously crimson, this room—filled with the child’s laughter—possessed a strangely serene peace.
This too must be the peace that Cherez is protecting.

* * *
The Beach Knight Order.
As the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, the horses sensed the ominous presence and whinnied, stamping their hooves.
And from the Spire, where a Knight had been watching the horizon and sky, his lips moved slowly.
“…It opens!”
A deep crimson moon hung above the horizon as a rift tore through space and time.

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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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