The Husband I Thought Was Dead Has Returned - Chapter 90

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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 090
Late summer had arrived.
As the crops ripened, our lives grew gradually more abundant. And today was like any other day—until, as the sun began to set, Mila came rushing down from her mushroom gathering expedition in a state of urgency.
“My lady.”
“What is it?”
My heart lurched. A startled heart at the sight of a child, startled again at the sight of a pot lid—such is the nature of anxiety. Mila spoke with tension etched across her face.
“…I discovered something strange on the mountain. Would you come and see it yourself? It’s difficult to explain…I think it would be better if you saw it directly.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“It doesn’t appear to be dangerous. However….”
Mila trailed off.
I entrusted Hayden to Yureain and followed Mila up the mountain road. Dorpin accompanied us as well.
Mila led the way, walking swiftly toward places where few feet ever tread. As the trees grew denser, even the crimson moonlight began to fade.
Only after climbing for some thirty minutes did Mila finally stop.
“There it is.”
I fixed my gaze upon the spot Mila indicated.
A clearing nestled between the trees. Medicinal herbs grew here and there, and moss-covered rocks lay scattered about. Mila led us into the space.
Mila pointed to a shallow depression in the earth among the grass. The soil appeared to have been washed away by rain. Something protruded from that spot.
A piece of metal, half-buried in the soil, was no larger than my palm. As I brushed away the dirt, a surface etched with delicate patterns was revealed.
A star-shaped marking inscribed within a circle. It vibrated of its own accord, causing the soil beneath to leap upward in small bursts.
I reached out my hand. It radiated warmth as though alive. The tremor traveled up my fingertips and into my arm.
Dorpin scraped away the soil with his scabbard from beside me. The entire metal object was exposed.
It was no larger than my palm in diameter. Ancient characters that defied decryption were inscribed along its edge, while its reverse side was smooth. It was a compass.
I opened the lid. The needle rotated slowly. My heart sank.
“It appears to be a sacred relic…doesn’t it?”
“I believe so as well.”
Mila murmured in a strained voice.
There were five sacred relics of Saint Urenis: a bell and a chalice, a scepter, sacred scriptures, and finally, a compass. One of them had revealed itself. A sacred relic whose burial place had remained lost, known only through legend.
“Why is it here?”
Mila asked in a tense voice. How would I know? Yet there was a scene in the original work where the compass was mentioned.
「The Divine Compass sleeps beneath the earth and reveals itself only when the Daughter of Saint Urenis appears.」
The Daughter of Saint Urenis refers to the Saint. In the original work, this was the title given to the female protagonist.
If the compass has appeared here, then does that mean the Saint is somewhere nearby?
My heart began to race. When the Saint awakens her power, she will be able to completely seal the Gate of the Other Side. That is why, in the original work, Hayden and the female protagonist joined forces to seal it.
In the original work, the Saint was Hayden’s counterpart, so she would still be a young child now. She would have no power whatsoever, let alone awakened holy power. She wouldn’t even know of her own nature. I believe her name was Artemina.
“Shall we take it with us?”
“Yes.”
I nodded. If it has revealed itself to us, there must surely be a reason for it.

* * *
At that moment.
Cherez stood face to face with the Gate of the Other Side.
A thin Rift suspended five hundred meters above the sea from the Coastline pulsed faintly.
Cherez stood upon a ship rowed by two Knights, with Wills positioned behind him, scanning the Horizon alongside the Knights.
Cherez drew his blade. The steel caught the crimson moonlight, tracing a line of blood-red.
The sea transformed. Cherez kicked off the bow and launched himself upward. The moment he pierced through the vortex, all sound vanished.
He fell endlessly. Violet light pulsed from all directions. Something soft touched beneath his feet. Black lines stretched through the violet haze like veins. And each time those lines pulsed, black masses fell away from their ends.
‘Demonic beasts?’
Cherez’s eyes widened. Demonic beasts wrapped in translucent membranes writhed within. They appeared to be roughly the size of deer. Cherez approached one.
“They haven’t taken full form yet.”
This was the source.
Cherez’s heart thundered. The demonic beasts that had fallen away were being sucked back inward through the Gate of the Other Side.
“What?”
Cherez moved slowly toward the Central Region. Toward where the black veins extended from.
He gripped his blade and severed one of the veins. Black ichor erupted like a fountain. The liquid that splattered across his skin dripped viscously. The severed vein convulsed for a moment, then reconnected.
It moved as though possessed of life. Cherez pressed deeper into the haze. The chain bound at his waist clanked—the lifeline connecting him to the outside.
The vein grew thicker as he ventured inward.
A colossal body revealed itself. The violet epidermis of something unknowable moved with ponderous slowness. Veins extended outward from it.
Cherez’s face hardened. A terror unlike anything he had ever felt surged upward from beneath his feet. It was as though warning lights blazed to life.
Cherez clenched his teeth.
Unfortunately, he had never learned to retreat in the face of fear.
A bracelet on Cherez’s wrist gleamed.
Cherez charged forward at full speed, driving a slash—more refined than before—into the epidermis. Yet the blade penetrated less than a tenth of its length. It was like plunging a sword into stone. The impact sent his arm and shoulder screaming.
Cherez gritted his teeth and twisted the blade. The epidermis tore, black ichor flowing. Cherez withdrew and struck again.
The epidermis convulsed, and space itself warped. Cherez’s body was hurled sideways. The impact was as though he’d been struck by something massive.
“Gack!!”
Cherez’s back slammed against a wall.
In an instant, his breath—which had caught—burst forth mingled with blood.
Cherez muttered a curse. He tried to run again, but his vision wavered. Cherez gasped for breath, bent at the waist. It felt as though something was draining everything from him.
No—the space itself was draining his vitality. Lingering here any longer meant death.
Cherez gasped for breath.
The colossal thing in the center twisted, and then a massive eye opened.
A violet pupil fixed upon Cherez.
[…Human.]
Cherez grasped the chain three times. Those outside began pulling him back. Even as he was dragged away by the chain, Cherez did not avert his gaze from that eye.
[You have returned. Will you succeed this time? Can you send me—back to the Abyss?]
It murmured softly.

* * *
Cherez was dragged outside and plummeted into the sea. But it was only for a moment before the Knights fished him out. They unshackled his body and breathed life back into him.
“Your Excellency!”
As he expelled seawater, blood mingled with it.
Cherez slowly opened his eyes. The crimson moon still hung high in the sky. There was no sensation in his right hand, the one that had gripped the sword.
Cherez gasped for breath and, supported by the Knight, pulled himself to his feet.
“Are you unharmed?”
“…It appears I’m still alive.”
Cherez murmured quietly.
“What did you… see? What was in there?”
The Knight asked in a tense voice.
“From this moment forward, we prepare for true war.”
Cherez declared coldly. This was the moment the prelude to the war that would end all this calamity was rising.

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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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