How To Escape From A Devilish Husband - Chapter 70

Delphine opened her eyes late in the afternoon of the next day.

As she raised her aching body, she could see the red sunset outside the window.

‘The people… they must all be safe, right?’

Only now did such thoughts occur to her.

To forget justice and comrades while falling into ecstasy. She was disgusted with herself.

“You’re awake.”

At that moment, Ioan entered through the open door of the chamber.

In his hand was a silver tray with some simple food.

Suddenly realizing she was naked, Delphine covered herself with the white blanket.

Surely he wasn’t suggesting they eat in bed in this state?

Her suspicion turned to certainty as he walked towards the bed with an nonchalant expression.

“…I’ll get properly dressed and go down to the dining room to eat.”

Ioan gently pointed out in a concerned tone.

“It might be difficult for you to go up and down the stairs.”

At those words, Delphine’s face turned bright red.

Seeing her reaction, the man’s expression changed dangerously.

Delphine pulled the blanket up to her chin in alarm.

No more, really.

She needed to ask about her comrades, and… above all, her body was no longer in a state to endure him.

Fortunately, he seemed to realize this too. He moistened his lips slightly with his red tongue before speaking.

“…Of course, if you wish, my lady, I’ll escort you to the dining room.”

Delphine didn’t stop him from washing her body and helping her change clothes.

She was truly in a state where it was difficult to move even a finger.

Thus, she was finally able to leave the chamber after a full day.

However, as Delphine walked down the stairs to the first floor, she soon noticed something strange.

She had worried about facing the other servants, but the mansion was eerily quiet.

As if there was no one else but them.

“…Ioan. Where are the others?”

“Ah. They’ve all been dismissed.”

He replied in a casual tone.

The languor that had enveloped her overworked body suddenly disappeared.

“…Dismissed? All the servants?”

“Ah, I’ll be taking care of all your needs from now on, my lady, so don’t worry about that.”

He answered brightly.

Delphine’s lips trembled, not knowing how to respond, before she finally managed to speak in a shaky voice.

“But y-you won’t be able to help me put on dresses. And my hair…”

He replied in a languid tone without even looking at her.

“…Well. I don’t think you’ll have any reason to go out from now on.”

A chill ran through her for a moment.

Right.

She thought it had been too easy.

All this time, she had deceived him and plotted rebellion behind his back, and even her words of love were lies.

She thought he had been too lenient about it all.

This man, he doesn’t intend to let her leave this place.

To prevent her from deceiving him again, from going out and doing dangerous things.

He intended to keep her imprisoned in this mansion forever.

Delphine trembled slightly, her face turning pale.

“Oh my, Del. Are you cold?”

His thick arm wrapped around her slender waist.

“Shall we go back to the bedroom? I could have fed you bite by bite while you sat in bed.”

Imprisoning her in the smallest prison in the world, he buried his face in her nape and whispered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fulfill all your needs. Here, forever…”

#Chapter 6. Upheaval

“Just now.”

In the underground dungeon deep beneath the imperial palace.

Lin, who had been sitting up all night unable to sleep, opened his eyes wide and whispered.

“I felt some kind of disturbance.”

Immediately, Veli, who had also been awake, asked.

“What do you mean?”

Marianne, who had regained her senses in just a day, also quietly listened to his words.

Lin murmured, just quietly enough not to be heard by the guards.

“The power of the black crystal wavered. More precisely, it seems to have been neutralized for a moment.”

“…!”

What could this mean?

In this empire built by that devil, for the power of the black crystal to suddenly be neutralized…

As always lost in his own thoughts, Veli muttered softly.

“Hey, friends. What do you think happens when a child of god and a devil mate?”

Lin, understanding what those words implied, frowned painfully.

In place of his silence, Marianne quickly asked.

“Then Delphine and that man…? You think the black crystal’s power was neutralized because of that, Veli?”

“It’s all hypothetical… What’s happening in this empire now is probably something that’s never occurred in the world before…”

“My god. That man probably didn’t expect this to happen either. Considering he put the three of us together. …But damn it!”

Marianne cried out as if she couldn’t be more frustrated.

“Lin doesn’t have any posium!”

She kept uttering harsh curses and lamented.

“If only we had posium, we could escape right away!”

“Ah, about that.”

Veli suddenly took out a transparent crystal from his mouth.

It was posium, small but emitting a clear light.

Lin and Marianne exclaimed in shock.

“How on earth…?”

“I hid it inside my body. Please don’t ask for details.”

Veli answered playfully.

“I’d like to maintain some dignity as a human being, you know.”

“Damn! You really are brilliantly smart!”

Marianne hugged him tightly and kept exclaiming.

“If only you’d share those brilliant thoughts in that damn good head of yours!”

“Lin. How is it now? Is the black crystal still unable to exert its power?”

Veli quietly asked as he handed the posium to Lin.

Lin closed his eyes calmly as he took it in his hand.

Soon, a magic circle emitting a wavering light began to appear beneath them.

“…It worked!”

Veli exclaimed, his eyes shining sharply.

“Just in case, let’s go to the safe house in the east first, not the headquarters.”

White light surging from the magic circle enveloped their bodies.

The underground dungeon where neither magic nor force could penetrate.

The guards, who had been lazily chatting with each other while leaning against the wall, approached the iron bars upon seeing the light.

“Hey, you guys. What was that light just…”

However, what they found was an empty cell with no trace of people left.

“…Damn it.”

They looked at each other with pale faces.

“We’re dead now.”

“Let’s report it first! To His Majesty… no, to the Marquis!”

“They escaped, you say.”

In the study of the Pryde mansion.

Walter straightened his back with a tense face at his superior’s expression, more subdued than ever.

“We thoroughly investigated but couldn’t find the escape route. As you know, that place…”

“It’s where witches and wizards were imprisoned during the witch hunts.”

So magic doesn’t work there.

Being in the deepest underground of the imperial palace, other physical escapes are impossible.

Then how on earth did this happen…

“Regarding this, my lord.”

Walter quickly continued his report, gauging his reaction.

“There are testimonies from His Majesty and Veritas members that they couldn’t use the power of the black crystal for a whole day yesterday.”

“…The black crystal?”

Yesterday would be the day he and Delphine first joined bodies.

…Oh no.

Some realization flashed through Pryde’s mind.

For the first time, he showed emotion as his face contorted.

It wasn’t difficult to infer the correlation of events that occurred yesterday.

Brainwashing, that is, the devil’s power, didn’t work on Delphine alone.

Probably because she was a descendant of the saint.

Then, does this mean that while he’s mating with her, the devil’s power he contracted is neutralized?

Pryde gritted his teeth so hard that the muscles in his jaw stood out.

The power he obtained solely for her sake, he loses it when he’s loving her.

Could there be a greater irony in the world?

But what frustrated him the most was the thought that he wanted to embrace her again even at the risk of such tremendous danger.

No, he will definitely embrace her again.

Now that he had experienced this fantastic ecstasy and happiness, he could never go back to how things were before.

“…Find those missing rats. They must have stolen the posium from the headquarters, so they won’t be able to use magic freely.”

Pryde ordered coldly, then added after a slight hesitation.

“Also, deploy additional troops around the mansion.”

A look of puzzlement appeared on Walter’s face.

Wasn’t the man before him the strongest man in the empire?

From his perspective, it seemed nothing in the world could harm this man.

Then why did he need so many troops to guard his mansion?

Walter couldn’t imagine that it was to prevent escape from the inside rather than invasion from the outside, as he knew nothing.

However, Walter didn’t voice his doubts.

For a soldier, questioning a superior’s orders was unthinkable.

Walter simply saluted sharply and carefully left the study.

The corridor was empty.

Today, there were strangely few people to be seen in the Pryde mansion.

Only from beneath one door, presumably the couple’s chamber, did a faint candlelight seep out.

‘…The lady, is she alright?’

Walter worried, knowing how twisted his superior had looked before carrying out yesterday’s operation.

But then he immediately recalled how preciously that same superior had carried his wife out of the basement.

‘Well, she must be fine.’

They must have just had a rather grand marital spat.

Once again simplifying things with a soldier’s characteristic straightforwardness, Walter calmly left the quiet mansion.