The Strongest Magician Can Only Love His Dead Wife — After I Reincarnated, My Cute Younger Husband Turned Yandere - Chapter 13

Arsenio Silva was a cursed child.

Born with a baleful eye containing immense magical power, he killed his mother with an out-of-control surge of that power almost immediately after his birth.

His mother, a devout follower of the Encarnita faith, had absolutely refused to acknowledge the existence of the “ill-omened baleful eye”—particularly the fact that it had emerged from her own womb.

Thus, she attempted to gouge out Arsenio’s eyes, and lost her life to the runaway magical power that sought to protect its host’s body.

They say Count Fiero, who had doted on his only daughter, was overcome with terrible grief. Had those around him not stopped him, he might have gone to kill Arsenio as his daughter’s murderer.

Arsenio learned these facts through the servants’ gossip.

Shocked, Arsenio confronted his father.

He believed he was certain. His father would deny it.

But the truth his father revealed was cruel. The grave words his father spoke to the stunned Arsenio remain unforgettable even now.

“Your power will become a blade that harms others. You must learn to control your magical energy as soon as possible.”

His father begged Jeremy, who was then still the second son of the Rosario ducal house, to become Arsenio’s magic instructor.

But that likely wasn’t out of love for his son.

Whether out of hatred for Arsenio who killed his mother, or out of fear, his father rarely set foot in the mansion after that.

They say he died facing a giant evil dragon.

Until the very end, his father tried to be a proper mage who protected people.

When Arsenio heard the news, and during the funeral, he didn’t shed a single tear. Seeing this, those around him whispered, “As expected of the baleful eye,” and “His parent’s death means nothing to him.”

Arsenio’s life was terribly empty for that of a young child.

This was likely closely related to Arsenio’s emotional deficiencies.

Arsenio was decisively lacking something.

He lacked the kindness and compassion that most ordinary people possess, and particularly the capacity to grieve for anything.

Unable to receive parental affection, feared by the servants, and subjected to malicious rumors by the common people. In such circumstances, expecting him to possess human emotions might have been cruel.

Only Jeremy treated him normally, but that was only because Jeremy was a stronger mage than Arsenio. Because he was in a safe position, he could interact with Arsenio without fear.

That was all it was.

Given this, when his political marriage was decided at age eight, he felt no particular emotions about it either.

His partner was a princess of the southern Tark clan, eight years his senior. Surely, she too would be trembling at Arsenio’s rumors, unable to defy the imperial command, coming to marry him in tears.

But contrary to expectations, she was different in various ways. One might even call her eccentric.

Even now, remembering their first exchange makes him think she was rather strange.

“Pleased to meet you, Your Excellency! I am Rubia, daughter of the Tark clan head.”

“I’d like to say welcome but this marriage wasn’t my wish. Out of deference to the king’s command, I’ll treat you as a duchess, but don’t expect any love from me. …Hey, are you listening!?”

“My apologies, Your Excellency’s eyes are so beautiful, I was captivated! They’re as beautiful as stars.”

“Huh!? You… aren’t you strange!?”

For Arsenio, who had been exposed to much malice since birth, deflecting the malice directed at him was effortless.

Indeed, even when those around him spoke ill of him, he only felt as bothered as by buzzing gnats.

But Rubia was different.

She gazed straight at the baleful eye that everyone shunned, her own eyes sparkling as she praised Arsenio’s eyes with the innocence of a child before a special gemstone.

Never averting her gaze from Arsenio’s eyes that everyone said “will curse you if you meet their gaze.”

Rubia was a special person.

Gentle, good-natured, somewhat carefree and airheaded. But Arsenio found her easygoing nature appealing.

Time spent with her was always peaceful, and her words always moistened Arsenio’s dried-up heart like clear water.

Since Rubia’s arrival, Arsenio keenly felt that he had changed from before.

Talking with her instantly disrupted his usual pace, and his emotions fluctuated more dramatically than ever before.

Moreover, the atmosphere in the mansion changed too.

The servants, who had always been fearful, now watched Rubia and Arsenio’s interactions with amused smiles and greeted them cheerfully.

Though initially bewildered by these changes, he didn’t find them unpleasant.

Rubia’s smiles and behavior brought positive changes to people. They transformed the atmosphere into something brighter.

She had said she wasn’t very good at magic, but Arsenio thought that perhaps this was her true magic.

When Rubia was alive, Arsenio nearly lost control of his magical power only once. It happened when a maid mocked Rubia as an “upstart native.”

Perhaps accustomed to such backbiting, Rubia gave a wry smile, but she couldn’t have been unhurt.

Rage made his blood boil throughout his body, and before he knew it, his magical power was running wild.

“I’m not afraid. Your Excellency is a kind person.”

While everyone else fled in panic, at the center of the ominously swirling black magical energy, Rubia gently took Arsenio’s hand.

“Everyone fears me. You’re a fool!”

He genuinely thought so.

While everyone feared Arsenio as the cursed baleful eye. Even when there was a possibility of being killed by his runaway magical power, calling him “a kind person” was madness.

“If fearing Your Excellency makes me a fool, then I’m perfectly happy to be one.”

Faced with the first hand ever extended to him in his life, Arsenio felt like crying.

Were human hands always this gentle? Were human words always this warm?

If there is such a thing as the moment one falls in love, he later realized it must have been then.

He was still just eight years old, a small child.

But Arsenio was undoubtedly in love with Rubia.