Chapter 16
She spoke in a firm tone.
“Mr. Kurt, we don’t need the Count’s permission for something like this. Just leave that fool to keep hiding socks under the bed. The count’s estate doesn’t belong to Benjamin alone.”
She clasped Kurt’s wrinkled hands tightly as she continued.
“For hundreds of years, it couldn’t have been only the people of the Isphern family who protected that castle. It would have been impossible without the people of Burwood, and the retainers who devoted themselves to the Isphern family.”
Sparks seemed to fly from Helena’s green eyes.
“At this rate, Burwood’s pride will disappear. Mr. Kurt, I need your help to raise the count’s family back to its feet.”
It seemed her passion had reached the old man as well.
Kurt stared quietly into Helena’s blazing eyes, then finally clasped her hands back and revealed what had been in his heart.
“…You are right, my lady. The count’s family was the pride of all of us…!”
The corners of the old man’s eyes grew moist.
“Everyone said the family was already finished, but I knew that wasn’t true. Of course… unless God Himself abandons Burwood…!”
Overwhelmed with emotion, the old man could not continue for a moment.
“When the Count said he would marry a noblewoman from the north, I worried greatly about what kind of lady would come here. Everyone said that anyone who saw the estate in this state would run away. But to think you would be someone with such a strong spirit…!”
At the mention of running away, Helena gave an awkward smile.
Truthfully, if it were not for her grand ambition to uncover Benjamin’s secrets and strike him hard in the back of the head for it, Helena would have fled long ago.
“…Oh ho ho, I suppose I am that kind of person.”
Kurt watched her with immense satisfaction before beckoning the blond boy over with a gesture.
“Joe, the time has come.”
Placing a hand on Joe’s shoulder, Kurt spoke.
“My lady, as you can see, I am old. And I am a man of the past, one whose time has already set. The Count would never tolerate the people of the old count’s family appearing before him.”
The old man slowly closed his trembling, wrinkled eyelids.
“No—even if the Count were generous enough to forgive it, I myself could never do such a thing.”
Helena wondered what nonsense the old man was talking about.
“But this child will be fine. He is my adopted son, Joe. I have passed all my knowledge and experience on to him.”
Kurt looked into Joe’s face as he spoke.
“Joe, from now on, this lady is the one you will serve. Do you understand?”
Joe lifted his clear light-green eyes and looked at Helena.
Within the boy’s transparent gaze and confident smile, Helena could sense a small ambition.
‘That’s a good look. The eyes of someone who grew up watching the back of a great person and wants to become like them.’
She had seen many people with eyes like that before, and she knew exactly how to handle them.
Looking at Joe, Helena smiled meaningfully.
It was roughly the kind of smile that said, What you want is in my hands, so try and take it if you can.
It was impossible to know how much of her meaning he understood, but Joe bowed politely.
“My name is Joe Wilton. I will do my utmost.”
Helena nodded.
“From now on, you are the head steward of the Isphern count’s family. Well, though it’s a castle without even a single servant.”
In an obedient voice, Joe replied,
“If you grant me three days, I can gather enough people to run the castle modestly, at the very least.”
Helena narrowed her eyes with a smile.
“Three days? Do I really have to wait that long?”
Seeing the look in her eyes, Joe smiled brightly back at her and corrected himself.
“Now that I think about it, one day should be enough. By tomorrow morning, I will have everything prepared.”
“I’ll look forward to tomorrow morning.”
Helena left Kurt’s estate with a confident smile.
Aaron, who had silently watched everything unfold from behind her, stared at her with a look of disbelief.
“…What was that? What exactly just happened?”
“What do you mean?”
Mounting her horse, Helena replied,
“The castle was a mess and had no steward, so I came to find one. And I found one.”
“I understand that, but… my lady, this is your first time in Burwood, isn’t it? How did everything happen as if it had all been waiting for you…?”
From atop the horse, Helena pointed her riding crop toward Kurt’s garden.
“Look.”
“Hm?”
“It’s small, but it’s arranged exactly like the count’s family garden.”
She turned to Aaron.
“It’s not that everything appeared as if it had been waiting for me. It’s that so many people truly were waiting and hoping for the count’s family to rise again.”
“…!”
The way Aaron looked at Helena changed slightly.
Whether he did or not, Helena simply turned away and thought to herself:
Ugh, now that wretched dump of a house might finally become somewhat livable. Honestly, so much work, so much work…
That evening, Benjamin returned from the construction site in the frontier territory and was greeted by something absurd.
“…What is this?”
A pile of filthy shirts and socks sat huddled together on the bedroom floor.
They looked like his things, but where they had come from was a mystery.
For the moment, he called a maid and had her clean them away.
“What a strange thing.”
In irritation, Benjamin pulled off his dirty shirt and was about to throw it into a corner when he suddenly paused.
He looked at the wrinkled shirt in his hand and then at the direction it was headed.
Straight under the bed.
“…”
He quietly carried it to the bathroom instead.
Feeling an indescribable exhaustion, he ordered a servant to fill the bath with hot water.
After dismissing the servant and remaining alone, Benjamin sank deeply into the water and muttered,
“I’m tired.”
He truly was tired.
He was not used to living in such a clean room, nor sleeping in a proper bed.
Originally, he had never intended to hire people to take care of his personal affairs.
Before leaving Burwood, however, he had temporarily hired workers and instructed them to prepare the annex for his wife’s arrival.
Somewhere along the line, something must have been misunderstood, because the workers had cleaned his room instead.
No, the other things were still tolerable.
What he found hardest to endure was Helena herself—the fact that, the previous night, she had fallen fast asleep while facing his side, breathing softly with one small hand tucked beneath his waist.
As a result, even after finally returning to a place that should have felt like a base of operations after a long journey, he had failed to get any proper sleep.
‘Come to think of it, I forgot to order the annex cleaned today. No, even if they started now, it would take several days…’
Running a wet hand through his hair, Benjamin sighed.
‘Do I have to sleep like that again tonight?’
At that moment—
The bathroom door suddenly burst open.
“…!”
Standing boldly in the open doorway was Helena.
“Benjamin Isphern.”
She spoke confidently.
“Give me money.”
Inside the bath, Benjamin hurriedly covered himself with both arms and shouted,
“W-What are you doing?!”
“What do you mean? I’m asking for my dowry money. It came from my father and Her Majesty the Empress anyway, didn’t it? Surely you weren’t planning to spend it all by yourself?”
Benjamin’s neck began turning red.
“Y-You…! C-Close the door!”
“Oh, should we talk with the door closed?”
As Helena stepped one foot into the bathroom, Benjamin shouted again with a flushed face.
“You leave too, and close the door!”
Helena was genuinely astonished.
“Oh my, are you actually embarrassed right now?”
Most men she knew were strange creatures who would seize any opportunity to rip off their shirts and flex their chest muscles proudly.
Even little Henry had once stripped off his sauce-stained clothes in front of Penelope and proudly exposed his puffed-out little belly while trying to impress her.
Believing all men in the world were like that, Helena could not help but admire Benjamin’s unexpectedly modest behavior.
Stepping back, she said,
“Give me money. And matters inside the estate are under my authority now, so there’s no need for me to ask your permission, right?”
After speaking and reaching her own conclusion, Helena nodded to herself.
“Then enjoy your bath!”
Bang!
The bathroom door slammed shut.
Left alone, Benjamin sat curled up in the bath for a long while, hugging his shoulders tightly with both arms and pressing his back against the tub.
He could not believe what had just happened to him.
Much later, Benjamin buried his head between his knees and let out a long sigh that sounded almost like a groan.
“Haaaaaaah…!”
