My Husband Thought I Was Dead And Became A Tyrant! - Chapter 1

Asha and I received contact from the palace a day after our wedding.

The knights were rushing to get me there as soon as possible, and in the end, I decided to leave that day.

“Hadel. As expected, I think I should go with…”

As I was about to board the carriage, I heard the young Asha’s worried voice. I slowly turned towards her, the sound of her soft voice making my heart beat quickly.

“Asha.”

I know that if I leave now, I won’t be able to see you for a while.

That’s why I really don’t want to, and my feet don’t want to move.

I slowly reached out my hand towards her.

I couldn’t see, but it didn’t matter.

Asha took my hand extended midair and brought it to her cheek, as she always did.

My heart raced and I felt excited at the touch of her warm, soft skin.

“I’m really okay. The palace is a dangerous place. I’ll go first to assess the situation, then call for you.”

“It’s because it’s dangerous that I have to go with you, don’t you think?”

Asha’s voice, which had always been strong, was tinged with anxiety.

What kind of expression is on your face right now?

Are you about to cry, or are you so worried that your eyelashes are bent downwards?

Just imagining this makes me feel like I have the entire world, so if I were to actually see your face, I think I might die on the spot.

“Asha. Don’t worry too much. I’m stronger than you think.”

“But…”

I covered Asha’s lips with my finger lightly before she could say any more.

At the soft feeling, my heart became ticklish once more.

“Asha, I want to see you.”

I want to see you.

I want to see what you look like.

Unfortunately, I had never seen Asha’s face before.

This is because I was born with bad eyes.

So, why is the palace looking for me now, when they threw me away before?

With a message that I should rush to the palace, and that they’ll fix my eyes for me?

“However, if you’re ever in danger, I’ll give up that dream.”

Although I yearned to see my beloved wife, her safety was more important to me.

Asha paused for a second at my firm words, before opening her mouth.

“Okay. I’ll trust you, Hadel.”

Although it seemed like she wanted to say more, she wordlessly put a hand on top of my head.

Because I liked the feeling of her fingers slowly brushing through my hair, the sides of my mouth went up subconsciously.

Feeling insatiable, I pulled her hand down and kissed the back of it.

“Hadel, will that be enough?”

“Hm?”

I was about to ask what she meant by that when suddenly, Asha grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in.

Then, I felt something quickly touch and leave my lips.

Seeing that I was so shocked I could only blink, she laughed quietly and wiped my lip with her thumb.

“Since we don’t know when we’ll see each other again, we should do this at least.”

“Huh? Uh…. huh?”

I had to say something, but I was so startled that I couldn’t form proper words.

Then, as if she had also become shy, Asha pushed me into the carriage.

“Y-you should leave now. I’ll wait for your message!”

“Ah, okay. Ah, what I mean is– Ugh.”

Bump. Bump.

As I got onto the carriage, I bumped into things here and there.

My other senses were sharper because I didn’t have sight, and I hadn’t bumped into anything in a long time, but for some reason, it felt like my world had been flipped upside down.

Seeing how my body was swaying out of control, Asha’s worried voice came from behind once more.

“Hadel! Be careful, and be even more careful!”

And just like that, the door of the carriage slid shut and the carriage started off.

I opened the window and shouted towards Asha. “Just wait for a bit. I’ll return as soon as my eyes are fixed. I really want to see your face!”

What did you reply when I said that, again?

[Okay. I’ll wait for you, darling.]

Asha’s last words which had vanished into thin air were always repeating in my memory.

To not leave the ducal residence.

No, to not leave Asha behind.

I screamed and screamed again, but there was no point.

Those words were already a thing of the past, and Asha no longer lived in this world.

* * *

“Sir Derrell! I-it’s from His Majesty!”

Derrell, who had just been promoted as the exclusive Grand Chamberlain for the Emperor, clutched his pounding head.

This was because he had finally had a moment of respite after assigning some servants to attend to His Majesty, only to hear that he’d been called again.

How was it that he couldn’t rest for even a minute?

“What now?”

“His Majesty has, again…!”

Seeing the servant who couldn’t finish his sentence, Derrell stood up from his seat and opened the medicine cabinet.

Although there was no telling what His Royal Majesty had done so that the servants were like this, one thing was certain.

He would need to take some stabilizers himself before he went to the emperor’s bedchambers.

“Let’s go!”

With a deft flick of the wrist, Derrell tossed the pills into his mouth before heading into the center of the storm.

The emperor’s chambers are located in the most inner area of the royal palace.

It is a room that has amazing soundproofing, and the quality of its furniture is unmatched.

It is a place filled with items that are so precious that no merchant would dare name a price for them.

These are the quarters of the sun of the great Sierria Empire.

Derrell’s eyes widened in shock as he arrived in front of the door.

This was because the door, which was definitely made of very strong marble, was partially destroyed.

“Y-your Majesty.”

With a shaking voice, Derrell took one careful step at a time before putting a foot into the bed chambers.

The floor, which was supposed to be shining, was covered with dust, and there were holes in the walls, wind blowing into the room.

The rare and precious vase gifted from the East was shattered in pieces on the ground.

“Y-your Majesty…?”

Shake shake shake shake. Looking at the state of the ruined chambers, Derell approached the bed while shaking uncontrollably.

Pink eyes with the gaze of a wild animal stared at Derrell from the inside of the ripped curtain.

A low voice that sounded like it would explode at any second.

“Get out.”

“Eek! …Hic!”

Under that murderous, icy gaze, Derrell’s body froze. He inhaled, covering his mouth to block the hiccups that were coming out.

Seeing him like that, the Emperor growled once more.

“Right now. Get out of my sight.”

Crack.

Despite the voices of many people calling after him, Derrell escaped the bedroom without looking back.

If he had waited even a bit longer, a sword would have been pointed at him.

An ever-simmering quiet rage and the chill that comes from knowing the feeling of having lost everything was gathered in one person.

That was the current crazy tyrant emperor Lahadelt.

Derrell waved his hand when he saw the junior staff  anxiously waiting outside.

“You can’t right now. It would be best to stay far away.”

He skillfully took the servants to a corner of the Sun Palace.

When the Emperor was acting like this, the only way to survive was to hold one’s breath as long as possible and make as little noise as possible.

Hadel briefly watched Derrell’s quick retreat, then lifted his head and released the breath he had been holding.

He felt frustrated, like there was something blocking his chest.

At the same time, his heart kept tingling and aching.

These have been ongoing symptoms for the past decade.

It happened whenever he thought of Ashella. And when he did, he couldn’t control his emotions no matter how hard he tried.

Nothing could soothe him. Only the desire to destroy everything arose.

“Sigh…”

Hadel slowly closed his eyes and then opened them. The feeling of the cold jewel in his hand gave him a brief moment of sanity.

“Asha.”

The blue necklace in my hand had become duller, but still shone with a strange yellow glow.

It was the present I had sent along with my letter for Ashella as soon as I had gotten my eyes fixed at the palace.

At that time, I had no doubt that she would soon appear in front of my eyes with it around her neck.

But in the end, what I saw was only this necklace while everything else was burnt to ashes.

“When I can finally see you for the first time.”

So why aren’t you in front of me anymore?

Hadel’s eyes welled with tears.

Without a sound, the teardrops fell onto the blue gemstone.

“Just wait a little bit, Asha. Now, really…”

There’s not much time left.

For your revenge.

* * *

Sometimes there are days like that.

The day passes quickly and everything goes as you wish.

Today was like that.

After finishing all of my tasks as a maid, we gathered in a group to play a game, and there had been no problems thus far.

“Serienne, you’re as ruthless as ever,” Aimee said, sighing as she moved her bishop.

“Ugh, I want to beat Enne just once!”

“How does she think of moves like that?”

The maids who had clustered around us all chimed in, watching the board intently.

The chessboard, covered systematically in black and white.

And the chess pieces, fighting ferociously on top of it.

On days where we finished our work early, we sometimes enjoyed a game of chess like this.

Today we had finished our tasks, and I was in the middle of a game with Aimee.

It was just an ordinary day like any other.

It was at an ordinary moment when I had been considering which move to make next.

“Enne? It’s your turn. You’ve basically already won, so what are you thinking about like that?” Aimee asked, confused. However, at that moment, there was no way I could focus on the chessboard in front of me.

“…Hadel.”

The memories that I had lost for the past decade.

The memories of my family and my husband whom I had loved so much.

The memories that I had tried so hard to recover came back so easily and so suddenly to me.

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

“…Ah.”

I could not give a response to Aimee, who asked once more.

I became overwhelmed with emotion.

I thought I would start crying in that instant.

How could I have forgotten all of this for 10 whole years?

After the floodgates had been opened, my past memories kept tumbling over each other, throwing my head into chaos.

“I-I need to go rest for today.”

“What? In the middle of a game?”

I stood up unsteadily amidst the others’ confusion.

I needed a quiet place and some time to organize my thoughts.

“Enne? Serienne!”

Leaving Aimee’s shouts behind, I ran from the lounge.

The memories streamed into my mind, causing the hallway to my room to feel especially longer than usual.

Hadel, who had been called to the palace. And the letter that had come from him a few days later.

The contents read that he would soon arrange for a carriage so I could go to the palace.

I had prepared to go meet Hadel accordingly but had an accident with the carriage on the way there. Soon after, thieves attacked.

I had run and run away until I fell off a cliff, and upon impact, I had…

Lost my memory.

And that’s how the next 10 years had passed.

Although I tried endlessly to recover my memories, it had all been for nothing. No matter what I did, my memories did not return.

The doctor had told me to forget and just live.

He told me that the more I obsessed over remembering them, the farther away they would get.

And that all of my memories could return at any time.

Who would’ve thought that would happen as I was playing a game of chess?

Clack.

I had returned to my room before I knew it, and after closing the door, I slumped to the floor.

“Hadel, Hadel. What should I do? I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Hadel…”

Uncontrollable tears poured endlessly down my face.

My vision turned blurry, and amidst my endless cries for Hadel, I suddenly regained my senses.

Hadel is a royal.

Even if he’s a half-blooded royal, there’s no way the palace would chase him out. And although they had pretty much cast him aside to our family, my last memory was of the late emperor calling him to the palace to fix his eyes.

…The late emperor?

“No way.”

During the 10 years after I had lost my memory, I had collected new ones as I lived the life of ‘the maid Serienne.’

And those memories included how the emperor, Hadel’s father, had passed away.

The new emperor’s name was Lahadelt.

He was the last remaining royal of the empire who had been mocked for having a lady-in-waiting as his mother and thus a half-blooded royal.

I did not know much about him.

All I knew was that he was a tyrant thirsty for blood.

But…

No matter how I think about it, the new emperor must be my husband Hadel.