Chapter 22
Unable to endure her piercing stare any longer, Wesley tried to rise from his seat.
“If you have nothing else to say, then please leave.”
Helena suddenly grabbed his arm.
In a sharp voice, she asked,
“What are you hiding?”
At her words, Wesley turned both of his trouser pockets inside out. Aside from a few coins, there was nothing there.
“As you can see, I’m hiding nothing. What exactly do you want to ask me?”
Helena realized Wesley had no intention of revealing anything willingly.
So, just as she had done when coaxing the former chamberlain, she decided to throw out some bait first.
“Wesley, I’ll get straight to the point. Come back to the count’s estate. The Isphern family needs you.”
At her words, Wesley’s expression stiffened.
“Did something happen to Count Isphern?”
There was unmistakable concern hidden in his urgent voice.
Whoa. Look at that.
It seemed there really was something between this former butler and Benyamin.
Helena deliberately answered vaguely.
“Well… you could say something happened.”
Wesley asked with a hardened expression,
“Has he passed away?”
Helena’s mouth fell open.
“What? No! He’s not dead!”
At her answer, Wesley sighed in visible relief and pressed a hand to his chest.
“Then that’s fortunate.”
He looked at Helena cautiously.
“Young master, you’re lying to me.”
“…?”
“Everything — that you came from the Isphern estate, that you intend to take me back there — it all sounds like a lie. What exactly are you after?”
“No, all of that’s true though?”
Helena pointed at Aaron, who stood behind her with his arms crossed.
“You don’t recognize him? Sir Aaron Nix, Count Isphern’s right-hand man!”
Aaron nodded pleasantly at first, but then something felt off.
Wouldn’t people normally say ‘right-hand arm’ in situations like this…?
Wesley frowned.
“Fine, let’s say that knight belongs to the count. Then what are you?”
This time, Helena was the one caught off guard.
“Me…?”
After a moment of thought, she opened her mouth.
“You could say we share the same bed.”
At her words, Wesley looked as though his eyes might pop out of his head, while Aaron covered his face with both hands.
Unable to speak for a moment, Wesley abruptly shot to his feet.
“Th-that’s enough! None of it matters anymore! Everything ended five years ago. No… it was decided even earlier that this was how everything would turn out.”
Helena’s mouth opened wide.
Wow. This guy really does know something. About what happened five years ago — and even before that…!
Seeing her expression, Wesley realized he had blurted out more than he should have in his panic.
He raked both hands through his hair and groaned.
Finally, he spoke again.
“The Isphern family is cursed. That’s enough. Everything is over. I will never return there.”
Helena beamed at him.
“No, Wesley. I guarantee it. You’re going back to the Isphern estate with me.”
“…Ridiculous…!”
Wesley stared at her for a moment, shuddered violently, then turned and left.
Considering Helena’s poor stamina, they couldn’t leave immediately that same day. So Helena and Aaron found a reasonably clean inn, left their horses there, and unpacked their belongings.
After removing her fake mustache, Helena asked Aaron, who had brought over a tray of food,
“Sir Aaron, Count Isphern’s right hand.”
“…Yes, Heren.”
“You met Benyamin while living as a mercenary, right? How long have you known him?”
“About ten years. The count made a man out of someone who was barely more than a greenhorn.”
“You know… what exactly happened at the count’s castle five years ago?”
As Aaron arranged the meal in front of Helena, he answered carefully.
“I do not know. If you’re curious, you should ask the count himself.”
Helena glared at him irritably before speaking.
“This inn is pretty expensive. I might decide not to reimburse the expenses.”
“…To explain what happened five years ago, I suppose I should first explain my relationship with the count.”
“Go ahead.”
“When we were in the mercenary company, I knew absolutely nothing about Lord Benyamin. Back then, he never once spoke about his origins.”
Helena listened while tearing bread apart and dipping it into the steaming soup.
“The change began around that time. Six years ago — have you heard about the monsters from the White Sea appearing in the eastern imperial region called Arlia?”
The White Sea was the eastern sea of the Empire, infamous for swarming with monsters. Arlia was a coastal region bordering it.
“Ah, of course I know. You think I wouldn’t? What was it again… some squid monster appeared, right?”
“A kraken.”
Aaron continued while holding his soup bowl.
“For years, Arlia had conducted a ritual offering one hundred living sacrifices annually to appease the kraken. But that year, they chose not to perform the ritual.”
He paused thoughtfully before continuing.
“They had sacrificed lives all that time in the name of preventing catastrophe, yet despite that, the merfolk attacks on fishing boats and small villages only increased.”
“Those monsters had no business ethics.”
“So they decided it would be better not to offer sacrifices at all. But once they stopped… a deep-sea monster emerged.”
Aaron shook his head.
“The kraken was a monster that summoned tidal waves. Half of Arlia sank beneath the sea, and the merfolk occupied the city. The monsters that rose from the deep tasted blood for the first time in ages and rampaged viciously.”
Perhaps the story had ruined his appetite, because he set his soup bowl down.
“Countless knight orders and mercenaries gathered in Arlia to exterminate the monsters. The Arca Mercenary Company, which the count and I belonged to, was there as well. Lord Benyamin distinguished himself repeatedly in battle against the monsters and, in the end, slew the kraken.”
Helena couldn’t believe it.
“Benyamin… killed the squid monster?”
“Yes!”
Aaron nodded proudly.
Helena felt something strange.
I heard about what happened in Arlia too. The monsters of the White Sea invading the continent wasn’t a minor event. Come to think of it, I also heard rumors that some mercenary company defeated the monsters.
As she remembered it, the capital had held endless victory celebrations during that time to commemorate Arlia’s triumph.
People threw sacks filled with grain to burst squid-shaped paper balloons, and clowns wearing squid masks wandered the banquet halls.
Even now, squid remained symbols of fear and disgust in the capital, which showed just how massive the Arlia invasion had been.
Then why didn’t Benyamin come to the capital?
Someone who accomplished such feats should have received proper rewards.
A title, perhaps. Medals.
Helena asked,
“What reward did Benyamin receive?”
Aaron answered proudly,
“The lord of Arlia awarded him prize money.”
That’s it?
It felt suspicious, but since Aaron continued speaking, Helena decided to let it slide for the moment.
“After earning great merit in Arlia, Lord Benyamin was granted leave. And then…”
Aaron’s expression darkened.
“Some time later, strange rumors reached the mercenary company. Rumors that everyone in the Isphern household of Burwood had died, and that Lord Benyamin had become the new Count Isphern.”
Helena forgot even to eat her soup and stared only at Aaron’s face.
“We thought it was a bizarre rumor, but we decided to confirm it ourselves. So we came to the count’s castle…”
Aaron shrugged.
“And the rest is as you already know. The castle had burned into ruins, and only Lord Benyamin remained there. All the servants had already fled.”
Helena looked down at her soup bowl.
The bread she had torn into the soup had swollen and fallen apart, looking too soggy to touch.
She asked quietly,
“What could have happened in those few days?”
Aaron shrugged again.
“I don’t know. There are all sorts of rumors, but I don’t believe them.”
“Then what do you believe?”
“I believe in Lord Benyamin.”
Helena looked at Aaron with pity.
Good grief. Of all things to place your faith in…
Aaron glanced at her nearly untouched bowl of soup and began scolding her.
“Lady Helena, eat more. You barely ate anything today, did you? We have to return to the estate tomorrow, and you won’t make the trip on just this.”
Still deep in thought, Helena suddenly sprang to her feet and stuck the fake mustache back on.
“No, this isn’t the time to sit around eating soup.”
“Then what?”
“I need to investigate more. About that man named Wesley…!”
Helena grabbed her coat and rushed out of the inn.
Aaron hurried after her in panic.
“Lady Helena, what on earth are you doing now…?!”
“It’s Heren.”
“Fine, Heren. But where exactly are you going to investigate…?!”
At that moment, Helena waved toward someone in the distance.
An explosive reaction immediately erupted.
“Ooooooh, young masteeeeer!”
