Chapter 24
Aaron had a sinking feeling that everything was ruined. At this point, there was no way to hide it.
Silently, he raised both hands and pointed toward the door of Plemen.
Benjamin looked up with disgust at the cute lavender-colored door and the sign hanging above it.
<Plemen ♡ ~A Place Where Wandering Night Cats Stay~>
“What in the world is this…?!”
At that moment, Helena’s voice came from above his head.
“Oh my, you came all the way here? Looking for me?”
Helena was leaning out from a window, peering down at them.
With someone in her arms.
The moment Benjamin saw that, he felt every hair on his body stand on end from the surge of anger.
Suppressing his fury with all his strength, he managed to speak.
“Madam, please stop coming to places like this. You’re married now.”
Helena smiled brightly.
“Oh dear, but I can’t resist turning my fantasies into reality.”
A grinding sound came from Benjamin’s jaw as his teeth clenched.
Helena Winston… this shameless woman.
Even in the midst of his anger, an ominous feeling crept over him.
A feeling that he would spend his entire life chasing after Helena’s shadow as it slipped teasingly through his fingers.
Grinding his teeth, he said,
“Madam, return to reality…!”
Helena deliberately stroked the black hair of the one in her arms and answered,
“I think it’d be faster if you came here.”
“I’ll be up shortly.”
“Ohohoho! Be careful on the way!”
Benjamin stormed up Plemen’s staircase as though he intended to smash it beneath his feet.
Meanwhile, Aaron—who had witnessed everything from up close—fidgeted nervously.
“I came looking for the butler… how did this become such a mess…?!”
Then Wesley, the butler in question, approached him.
With a stiff expression, Wesley asked,
“Why are you here?”
Aaron, at a loss for words, merely shrugged.
At this point, it seemed his information gathering had failed completely.
Wesley asked again,
“The man who just went upstairs in anger… was that Count Ishpern?”
“As you saw.”
Wesley stared blankly at Plemen’s lavender door before suddenly heading up the stairs.
“Uh…”
Aaron started to follow but stopped.
His eyes had begun itching again.
* * *
After entering Plemen, Benjamin brushed off even the madam who tried to greet him and strode upstairs.
He could feel people seated at partitioned tables flinch at the sight of his anger, but he paid them no mind.
Approaching Helena, who sat by the window, he warned in a low voice,
“I’m certain I told you before. I never wanted to witness something like this again…!”
Helena turned toward him.
“What something like this?”
In her arms was a plump black cat.
The cat seemed startled by Benjamin’s sudden appearance.
Its wide black pupils narrowed instantly, and it hissed viciously.
“Hiss—!”
Then it leapt from Helena’s arms onto the table.
Helena sighed.
“Ah, I’d only just gotten close to Nero!”
“….”
Benjamin slowly looked around, his reason returning.
The shop was full of cats.
Cats by the windows, on empty sofas, on people’s laps.
Helena, sporting an absurd fake mustache, smiled brightly.
“It seems to be a cat café. Isn’t it fun? I’ve never seen a place like this, even in the capital.”
“Haah…”
“Why are you sighing like that?”
Resting her chin on her hand, Helena narrowed her eyes with amusement.
Looking down at her, Benjamin slowly said,
“You made me worry.”
Helena was genuinely startled.
“You worried? You worried about me? Why?”
“When I heard my wife had gone alone to a dangerous place, who wouldn’t worry?”
Ooooooh—
The entire café’s attention shifted toward the handsome young man and the mustached lady.
Yet the mustached lady herself couldn’t believe his romantic words.
Benjamin Ishpern worried about me?
She stared up at him with green eyes full of disbelief.
Looking closely, his hair was damp with sweat, and his broad chest rose and fell from rough breathing.
Helena gazed intently into his red eyes.
The eyes that had always seemed as cold and lifeless as stone now looked strangely unsettled.
Why?
She couldn’t understand.
Benjamin, you really don’t know me. I’m not someone who takes reckless risks. I value myself more than anyone.
For one thing, she hadn’t been alone.
Aaron had accompanied her.
And if Plemen had been dangerous, she would never have entered in the first place.
And why would you worry about me? You only married me for money.
But she swallowed all those words.
To Benjamin, she had to remain the ignorant woman he married because of scandal and dowry.
If he discovered her true intentions, he wouldn’t leave her free to do as she pleased anymore.
Instead, awkwardly brushing back her hair, she said:
“…Sorry.”
Benjamin held out a hand toward her.
Helena hesitated before placing her own hand lightly atop his.
His hand was large and warm.
Well… this isn’t so bad.
Truthfully, Helena had never liked people worrying about her.
Her father, Adrian Winston, and her stepmother, Mia Winston, expressed concern through nagging.
Her friends found her strange antics entertaining rather than worrying.
So this…
This pure kind of concern was unfamiliar.
Then Benjamin spoke.
“No. Not your hand.”
He leaned toward her.
As his beautiful face drew closer, Helena’s eyes widened.
W-what?
His lips were dry from riding through the cold wind, and the corners of his eyes were flushed red.
There was a strange heat in the red eyes staring down at her—
sweet and bubbling like strawberry jam simmering in a pot.
What would those dry lips taste like?
The next instant, Helena’s eyes widened even further.
She couldn’t believe her own thought.
As if some mischievous fairy had whispered wicked ideas into her ear.
Get a grip, Helena Winston!
At that moment, Benjamin touched her cheek.
His hand, rough with calluses, was large and firm.
It’s just because this feels unfamiliar.
That had to be it.
The strange warmth spreading from where he touched her—
it was only because she wasn’t used to it.
Without realizing, Helena’s eyelashes trembled as she closed her eyes.
Something seemed to brush against her upper lip.
Then—
SLAP!
A burst of pain flashed behind her closed eyelids.
Helena cried out.
“Ow, ow, ow!”
She stared at Benjamin in disbelief.
With an irritated expression, he was holding the fake mustache he had just ripped off her upper lip.
“Where did you get this hideous thing?”
The fake mustache should have been soaked first before removal.
Tearing it off in one motion hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes.
“Uwaaah… it hurts so much!”
Benjamin looked down at her coldly as she clutched her mouth and whimpered.
Then he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.
“Let’s go, troublesome wife. And I won’t be letting today’s events pass without consequence.”
“If you won’t let it pass, then what?!”
A twisted smile curled onto Benjamin’s lips at her tearful protest.
“You may look forward to it.”
Helena’s mouth fell open.
“How petty…!”
“You’d do well to stop there, unless you’d like to experience revenge beyond your expectations.”
“R-revenge…?”
Helena was dumbfounded.
“Did I do something to you? What exactly am I getting revenge for?!”
“Look forward to it.”
“I’m not looking forward to it at all!”
Arguing noisily as they descended Plemen’s narrow staircase, they came face to face with Wesley, the former butler of the Ishpern estate.
Helena greeted him first.
“Mr. Wesley. I wanted to see you one more time.”
But Wesley wasn’t looking at Helena.
His gaze was fixed on Benjamin.
A ripple passed over Wesley’s face.
Cold shock, heavy regret—
multiple emotions swept through him at once.
At the end of it, Wesley lowered his head.
“…Count Ishpern.”
