Chapter 29
The prima donna had certainly been charming. But she could not become so captivated by the actor opposite her that she forgot her own role. She, too, had to protect her stage.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Meriel finally spoke.
“…You truly are shameless.”
Slowly shaking her head, she continued,
“But insisting won’t create a place where there wasn’t one to begin with. Something rather serious seems to have happened inside the castle just now, and I frankly don’t have the courage to step in there. I suppose I have no choice but to accept Countess Ispheren’s offer.”
“Thank you for your generosity, Duchess Lucel.”
“But.”
Meriel fixed Helena with her vivid blue eyes as she added,
“I will not forget what happened today.”
After saying that, she glanced sideways at the expressions of the other noblewomen.
‘This should satisfy them too.’
At that moment, Helena spoke again.
“Of course. Although we have no choice but to send such honored guests away today, I cannot allow your memories of Burwood to remain merely disappointing ones.”
Countess Bryce seized the opportunity and quickly interjected.
“And what exactly do you plan to do about that?”
“Once preparations are complete, I will invite all of you back to Burwood.”
“Hehehe, preparations complete? In the near future? Is that even possible?”
“Certainly.”
Helena nodded confidently before turning to Meriel.
“If I may ask, Duchess, what does your schedule look like?”
“…I had planned to remain in Lillow until the end of this month.”
“In that case, please visit the House of Ispheren again on the final day of this month.”
Helena smiled.
“I’ll make your visit to Burwood into an unforgettable memory.”
* * *
The moment the luxurious carriage carrying the duchess’s party passed through the castle gates, the cheerful smiles on Wesley and Joe’s faces vanished.
Wesley spoke in despair.
“We’re doomed.”
Joe’s face had gone pale as well.
“Countess Bryce is one of the leading figures of southern high society. And Duchess Lucel too…!”
Helena looked back at them calmly.
“What do you mean doomed? We still have one more chance.”
Wesley looked devastated.
“My lady, that’s even worse. If we disappoint Duchess Lucel twice, there’ll truly be no way out for us.”
“We still have ten days.”
“My lady, even if we overturned the entire castle day and night, there’s no way we can restore it enough to host a banquet in ten days.”
Pointing toward the garden, Wesley continued,
“Especially the garden. You may think those trees look like old deadwood that can simply be chopped down, but each and every one of them is a precious ornamental tree that must be handled with extreme care. We can’t recklessly tamper with them just because we’re in a hurry.”
Helena waved dismissively.
“The garden will be handled well by our new gardener, so don’t worry about it. You’re already doing a fine job—just keep things going as you have been.”
Joe asked with a deathly pale face,
“My lady… will everything really be alright?”
“I told you, it’ll be fine.”
Just then, a loud crashing sound came from inside the banquet hall.
Without a word, the three of them rushed toward it.
The banquet hall, now occupied by the collapsed chandelier, had erupted into another commotion.
One of the workers approached Helena with an apologetic expression.
“My lady, the pulley holding the chandelier broke.”
Things just kept getting worse.
* * *
Hogg, the supervisor of the construction site, came running over and handed over a letter.
“My lord, it was left at the inn.”
Benjamin’s face showed little reaction.
But there was unmistakable urgency in the way he snatched the dirty envelope from Hogg’s hand.
Tearing the envelope open almost violently, Benjamin sat down atop a pile of lumber near the edge of the construction site. A yellowed sheet of parchment slipped from the tightly sealed envelope.
His unsteady gaze swept across the words written upon it.
[My beloved Benji.
As always, my answer remains the same. We cannot meet again.
I want you to forget me and live your own life.
You must find your own happiness.
— Isabella.]
“……”
He clenched the parchment tightly in his hand.
‘Why?’
There had only ever been one thing he wished for—that his beloved Isabella could live a more peaceful and comfortable life.
Now he was a count. The vast territory of Burwood belonged to him.
If Isabella wished to remain unseen by others, he could create for her a land even quieter and more secluded than before. That was exactly what he had been striving toward.
“……”
After sitting there motionless for a while, Benjamin finally rose.
Walking over to the bonfire, he tossed what he held into the flames.
The blazing fire seized the parchment and reduced it to ashes in an instant.
Only the parchment had burned, yet Benjamin felt as though everything he had worked toward had crumbled into ash and scattered before him.
‘Why? Isabella, you said you wanted to live beneath the bright sun. Do you still think Burwood isn’t safe? Or perhaps…’
Within the scarlet flames, like a hallucination, he heard the voice of his dead mother.
‘You are cursed! In the end, you’ll ruin everything. Who could ever love someone like you?’
‘…You really never want to see me again?’
Suddenly, a sharp stinging sensation ran down his back, snapping Benjamin out of his thoughts.
He looked around. Shouts from nearby workers rang through the air.
Benjamin immediately ran toward the commotion.
Hogg, holding a hammer, was pushing the laborers back.
“It’s a monster! Anyone without armor, fall back!”
Grotesque-looking monsters were smashing through the outer fences of the construction site.
Their massive bodies resembled huge boulders. Atop them sat heads with razor-sharp beaks, while beneath the rocky mass protruded thick birdlike legs.
The monsters were tearing apart the fence with those powerful feet.
One soldier thrust his spear forward and shouted,
“You damn beasts! What do you think you’re doing?!”
With a yell, he drove the spear straight into the monster’s body.
Benjamin roared,
“Get back!”
The thunderous shout startled the soldier enough to make him release the spear and stumble backward.
The next instant, the monster’s neck shot outward, and its sharp beak pierced the exact spot where the soldier had just been standing.
Seeing the neck extend nearly two meters, the soldier screamed.
“What the hell is that?!”
Cunningly, the monster had concealed its snake-like neck inside its massive body.
A flash of white light sliced through the elongated neck.
It was Benjamin’s greatsword.
He shouted,
“It’s a cockatrice! Watch out for the venomous fangs!”
The monsters were cockatrices—creatures that disguised themselves as mud and stone while hiding their deadliest weapon: their long necks.
Chaos briefly erupted.
However, the soldiers at the construction site were already quite accustomed to such situations.
Working in pairs, one soldier would engage the monster with a long spear while the other struck down the extended neck with a blade.
The monsters were swiftly subdued. And, as always, the one who slew the most was Benjamin.
“……”
Once all the monsters lay dead, Benjamin turned around while catching his slightly ragged breath.
The ruined construction site came into view.
The giant monsters’ rampage had destroyed large portions of the painstakingly erected fence.
Worse still, during the chaos, the bonfire had toppled over, and the flames had spread to the collapsed fencing. The dried wood was now burning enthusiastically.
Hogg stood in front of it, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Fire! Put out the fire!”
Water would have been best, but at a construction site where even drinking water had to be rationed, there was no chance they possessed enough to extinguish the blaze.
Everyone hurriedly removed their coats and began smothering the flames with them. Benjamin tore off his own cloak and joined them.
Fortunately, the fire was extinguished quickly.
Hogg grinned through his soot-covered face.
“This is fortunate, my lord! At least half the fence survived.”
But Benjamin could not share Hogg’s relief.
He looked around with a weary expression.
Since the monsters’ blood emitted a terrible poisonous miasma, the soldiers were dragging away the corpses without even pausing to rest.
Benjamin spoke.
“Extract the magic stones, then gather the bodies together and burn them.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“What about the injured?”
“One is seriously wounded, and two have minor injuries.”
“Poisoned?”
“Yes. We’ve administered emergency treatment for now.”
“Cockatrice venom causes petrification. Give them every antidote we have, then send them to the village and have a priest examine them.”
“We’ll do so.”
After giving instructions regarding the wounded, Benjamin dropped heavily onto a stack of lumber.
Hogg approached him carrying a waterskin.
