Living a Scheming Marriage with a Mad Villain - Chapter 70

When Theron and Haben’s secret guild, Anas, began to make a name for itself, and when Reus slowly started to gain the emperor’s trust, they began to search the Silent Forest seriously.

But no matter how much they wandered through the forest, all they saw was the black magic spreading like fog. There was no sign of Rikassen’s heart anywhere.

Even though they thought they could regain their power soon, they had to spend a long time without finding anything.

Then, by pure chance, one of Anas’s guild members learned that the emperor secretly had a magic tool inventor.

Using that information, Theron investigated again and found out that the heart was not just carelessly buried in the forest.

Rikassen’s heart was buried under the Silent Forest along with a device made by the inventor who worked for the emperor.

The device used the magic power flowing endlessly from Rikassen’s heart in reverse. When the magic reached a certain level, it would move randomly inside the forest, making it impossible for anyone to easily find the heart.

Knowing this secret, they were sure they could finally regain their power. But their free movement in the forest lasted only a few days.

Soon after, Reus faced another crisis.

The emperor, who sometimes checked the forest’s situation, felt something suspicious and sent new shadows into the forest.

These new shadows were like living dolls. They killed anyone who tried to enter the forest under the emperor’s orders, without knowing what was buried there, why the forest had darkened so much, or what the black fog was.

There were many shadows, so it would soon be impossible to hide Reus’s identity.

So Theron started spreading strange rumors in the dark alleys across the empire.

[“The Silent Forest, owned by Count Ivelle, is not a cursed land.”
“The count actually hid a precious treasure there.”]

Rumors spread secretly that something buried in the land was either a powerful magic tool, a valuable archaeological relic, or treasure from an ancient kingdom.

Soon, greedy people started coming to the Silent Forest.

Even though they were the emperor’s shadows, they couldn’t kill so many people. They knew too many murders would reveal the secret they wanted to hide, so they started to be more careful.

In the end, Reus and Theron succeeded in dividing the shadows’ attention and were able to move freely in the forest.

They thought they would really regain their power and that the first step for revenge would finish smoothly.

But even after removing many dangers, the heart did not appear. It teased them by feeling close but never showing itself.

If only they had found the family’s secret library that Reus’s father had once mentioned… No, if the emperor hadn’t destroyed it, they could have regained their power and their father.

It was not their fault that they could not find Rikassen’s heart.

But stepping on the land where their father was buried without any result caused Reus pain beyond imagination.

He thought he had no broken heart left, but every day was painful as if it were the first time. He was sure he could not feel more suffocated, but guilt always tightened the breath. Days came when he was afraid to open or close his eyes.

At some point, Reus began to doubt if he was really alive.

When this happened, he often looked back on his life, but all his past felt like today — he couldn’t tell if he was looking forward or backward.

He only realized that his future would be just as painful.

Living felt like a punishment to Reus now.

There were still many days of pain left, but revenge seemed to drift further away.

Reus’s anger, which barely held him up, slowly lost its power. Then, as if it never existed, it completely disappeared.

In its place came another feeling. Ironically, it was the will to live.

But this desperate desire to survive was a feeling that came with the painful life, burning like his bones, so sometimes he was confused whether he really wanted to live or die.

Reus, who had never had hope, had no future to imagine, and the will to live only led to the desire to escape the pain immediately.

Then, in the winter when the order to go on a mission was given, 17-year-old Reus Rochester decided to end his life.

But at the moment the sword pierced his body—

A strange life force, which he had never felt before, spread through his body and instantly revived him.

The power he was sure he did not have—the family power that killed his father—had revealed itself.

Reus, who survived, shed tears. They were not tears of relief.

“I could have been free.”

The tears fell naturally, born from resentment that life’s path had returned.

Then, a laugh escaped from between Reus’s teeth.

“At least I won’t ruin my revenge by dying in vain.”

There was nothing he could control in this world.

Did he really have to be cruelly reminded that neither living nor dying was in his hands?

Reus’s overwhelming helplessness swept away the faint will to survive.

What was left in his empty, hollow life was only the longing for death.

The day Reus met Loelle by chance in the Silent Forest.

That day was just another ordinary day for Reus. It also meant he was in a state of wanting to die, as always.

While searching the forest, he ran into the emperor’s shadows face to face. One of the shadows cursed Reus, trading for his life.

Lately, because Reus wandered the forest so often, it seemed the emperor ordered to completely remove any suspicion this time.

Normally, it would have been easy to avoid the attack.

But that day, everything felt too troublesome. So Reus didn’t dodge the shadow’s attack.

When Reus wanted to die badly, he overcame the urge by suffering a pain equal to death, like that day. It was the most effective way to remind himself that he could not die.

But today was different.

The curse seemed to be a very strong power. The half-hearted healing power, which was only annoying before, now couldn’t save him fast enough because the curse made him near death quicker.

His veins burned, his throat blocked, and his body writhed in pain, but his mind welcomed the death devouring him more than anyone.

Finally. Finally, it’s ending.

The life that made him resent his family every day, the life crushed by ever-growing guilt, was finally coming to an end.

Surely, he thought, and surrendered to the fading feeling.

But then…

“The antidote has not fully worked yet, so you must not push yourself…”

A gentle voice slipped through his cloudy mind. It was strangely warm. But when a pain that seemed to tear his nerves rushed in, that thought quickly vanished.

He lost and regained consciousness several times in pain before passing out completely. Sunlight came through the window and fell on his face.

Morning had come.

“I really thought I could die this time.”

Before he could even resent surviving death’s door, Theron came to tell Reus about what happened early that morning, which Reus did not remember.

“But that woman was Loelle Ivelle.”

The one who saved me was of Ivelle blood.

That cursed Ivelle again. Why was Reus’s bad fate with the Ivelle count family so strong?

Reus hated Loelle for disturbing his rest so much he wished she would die. But because of that event, he learned something unexpected.

For some reason, Loelle Ivelle was trying to get a fake identity.

“She wasn’t someone who came to the Silent Forest knowing something, but one of the people Haven helped. I thought the name was familiar… turns out she is from the Ivelle family.”

Theron said he never thought someone from Ivelle would use his guild, and complained he didn’t understand why Haven pitied such a woman.

But even the enemy’s daughter had her own reasons.

They already knew most of Count Ivelle secrets. But they never expected that the count had disguised his illegitimate child as his real daughter and placed her as the eldest.

Because they didn’t know that, they had no idea until now.

Even after learning everything, Theron said that since the woman had seen Reus, she must be killed cleanly or sent far away to a foreign country so she could never return easily.

It was not wrong, but Reus was caught by a strange belief.

A ridiculous belief that the woman would be the key to revenge.

Even if not, it was clear that she could be very important in destroying Count Ivelle. And if he married her, he might gain control of the Silent Forest.

Of course, gaining control didn’t mean he could get his father’s heart immediately. But at least it would give him a chance to risk being caught by the emperor and gather people to look for the heart.

Still, the risk he had to take was bigger.

But in the end, Reus chose Loelle Ivelle.

Strange coincidence. The enemy’s daughter met in enemy lands. Faint memories of dawn. Gentle voice. All those things that could not be forgotten.

He thought they were telling him to face fate. At the time, fate meant nothing more than successful revenge.

But now he knew. Fate was meant to lead the unlucky him to the woman who would save him.

And from the moment he decided to accept that fate willingly, Reus’s life path began to change completely.

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