ERTHMB Chapter 67
Finally Dawn
‘What’s that sound?’
Helena stopped abruptly on the side path ahead, her diligent steps coming to a halt.
The side path was shrouded in pitch-black darkness. This was an area where hardly anyone lived anymore due to the recurring disasters that had hit hardest each year.
‘But I definitely heard it.’
There had been a human voice flowing from the dark gloom. Though it was mixed with the sound of rain and hard to be certain about, it wasn’t a sound that could be ignored either.
‘But I can’t drag the group along based on this one slim possibility.’
Helena’s gaze looked toward the increasingly distant lights. The group currently heading to the square was struggling to evacuate with the injured.
‘What should I do?’
Though conflicted, Helena eventually stepped onto the side path after hesitating. It wasn’t a very wide area, so if she hurried, she could catch up quickly.
Even if it turned out to be a waste of effort, she couldn’t weigh that against the chance to save someone’s life.
Helena walked along the path without hesitation. She sharpened her hearing and waited for another sound to guide her.
Grrrumble—
As if warning her to turn back, a low thunderous sound like a beast’s howling rumbled. The air, consumed by natural terror, became even more oppressive. Helena continued to listen intently as she cut through it.
And then.
“It’s okay, just hold on a little longer!”
Finally, a clearly audible voice drew near.
“Almost done, don’t be scared, okay?”
It was a voice that seemed to be suppressing tears. It was gentle as if comforting someone, yet desperate.
Listening more carefully, she could also hear a young child crying out.
“Daddy, daddy!”
Her already quickening pace became frantic. The farther she followed the sound, the higher the water rose to her calves. The splashing of water was so loud that even her own rough breathing was barely audible.
When she finally reached her destination, lightning mercifully struck. The brilliant flash illuminated a horrific scene.
‘Dear God.’
The house where the child was clearly trapped was already significantly tilted. Debris that had been swept down was heavily pressing down on the roof.
From how sunken it looked, there was no telling how much more weight it could bear.
In front of it was a man frantically digging through a pile of dirt that had hardened after mixing with stones.
“Just wait a little longer, my daughter, daddy’s almost done, almost…!”
Fresh blood continued to flow from the man’s hands, which had long since become bloody, and tears mixed with rainwater streamed down his face.
“I’ll help you!”
Helena immediately went to his side and began digging through the dirt pile. Before long, Helena’s hands looked similar to the man’s.
But tragically, the roof sank down further. The man’s comforting voice, meant to reassure the child, gradually turned into intermittent sobs.
Rumble crash!
Above their efforts, the sky laughed savagely.
As if this were the end, the roof collapsed once more with a thud. The child’s cries for help also grew fainter. Hope was running dry like a parched mouth.
The man finally stopped what he was doing and collapsed.
“What a worthless father… I… got greedy trying to earn a few coins and brought this punishment upon us. I should have protected the house today… I should have stayed by her side…!”
“What sin is there in living earnestly? There’s no punishment in this world worth trading for a child’s life, so get up quickly!”
Helena scolded him harshly, or perhaps desperately, but the man didn’t get up. He just buried his face in his badly cut and torn, tattered hands.
The bloodstains in his palms consumed him. Now he was shedding tears of blood.
Helena had to desperately swallow her own rising tears.
‘Still, I can’t give up.’
She had always been such a stubborn person anyway. A woman who didn’t know how to let go even when facing obvious results, repeating herself stubbornly.
Helena picked up the long wooden fragment that had almost pierced through her palm earlier.
How desperate would she have to be for this piece of wood to become a sword and embrace aura?
‘Don’t try to dominate with anger, make it respond.’
Taking a quick breath, she steeled herself while recalling what Ian had told her before. Of course, it was terribly difficult. Everything around her was chaos and confusion.
No matter how continuously she struck, the wooden fragment only left slight scratches on the pile of stones before falling away repeatedly.
Like an unbreakably solid wall. Like that person who had been like a wall.
‘Anger, domination? Don’t make me laugh. All I ever wanted was an answer.’
Thwack!
‘When I was with you, it would have been enough if the voice that came out wasn’t just mine alone.’
Crack!
‘I was always in the same place. So answer me.’
Thwack!
She instinctively knew that only seconds remained before the house would completely collapse. The blood flowing from her grip gradually soaked into the fragment.
Thwack! Crack! Thwack!
Her vision spun and became distorted. Her legs trembled mercilessly as if they had been crushed.
The chaos swirled and became one. Within it, Helena swung her final blow with a desperate cry.
Answer me.
Answer me. Please.
“Answer me!”
Was it the sword demanding an answer, or was it him, or was it herself?
And at that moment.
CRASH!
Blue light finally exploded from the wooden fragment that had become a sword.
The wall that had seemed like an iron fortress finally cracked.
At the same time, the jaw of the man who had been sitting collapsed dropped. But only briefly—stumbling as if about to fall, he hurriedly got up, grabbed the child crouched by the door, and escaped from the house.
The house reached the end of its life by a hair’s breadth and collapsed. The man embraced the child and freely let out the tears he had been holding back. His sobs, stained with blood, mixed with the sound of rain.
In front of them, Helena gasped for breath that had risen to her chin. Heat burned through every nerve in her body as if on fire.
When she raised her head toward the sky, the rain struck her face. Rain that had become thinner and no longer hurt.
“Hah…”
When she closed her eyes and exhaled, her strength left her. The wooden fragment fell with a thud from her blood-stained grip. Blue energy that hadn’t yet been contained still swirled around her entire body like a veil.
“Helena.”
As soon as she finished her task, Ian appeared before her, drawn to her as if by instinct. He too was busy catching his breath after running frantically.
Helena slowly turned her gaze from the sky to meet his eyes.
A gentle smile spread across her entire face. It was irresistible.
“We meet where the storm has passed.”
Ian’s lower lip trembled finely as he stood in the middle of that place.
Ah. What was he to do?
They say seeing is believing, but sometimes there are things in the world that you can’t believe even when you see them. Ian thought that what was now captured in his eyes was just that.
It was truly absurd how unknowable it was.
Whether the sound ringing noisily in his ears was the laughter of the sky withdrawing its anger, or the sound of his own heartbeat.
He felt like he had become a fool. His paralyzed brain refused to cover his true feelings with pathetic excuses any longer.
‘Damn it.’
He who couldn’t become a fool had to acknowledge it.
‘I think I like you.’
I always think of you.
I cherish you.
I want you.
I’d gladly become a shadow chasing the sun. I like you that much.
‘I like you, Helena.’
But looking at her pale face approaching him, Ian felt something was lacking. This wasn’t an emotion that could be contained in merely saying he liked her.
It was far too insufficient for that. No matter how much he cut away and suppressed it, it seemed it would overflow. It was an enormous surge.
He needed something bigger that he could handle. A moment later, Ian finally realized what that something was.
‘Dear God. I… you…’
Before he knew it, Helena had approached right in front of him. Her red hair shone lovingly like luscious rose petals. Ian deliberately tried to compose himself.
Dawn was breaking from the distant sky. Pale daylight began to spread through the air.
Finally, it was dawn.
****
“Ugh, I knew this would happen from the time she made that deal with that pig.”
“Don’t be so hard on the poor thing when she’s already struggling. Thanks to her, even with such a huge commotion all night, there wasn’t a single casualty.”
“Well, what can you do? She looks like she’s about to become a casualty herself.”
“Even when you talk, you’re so…”
Don’t mind it and sleep more. Along with a gently soothing voice, she felt a similar touch on her head.
Helena expressed small gratitude to Flam in her heart. And also to Gelda, who, despite her gruff words, frequently dabbed her lips with cotton soaked in lukewarm water.
Both had rough but extremely careful touches. Thanks to them, she felt a little more comfortable.
Though there was nothing she could do about her head feeling like it was filled with thick, stinging fog.
“Hah, hah…”
As soon as she struggled to open her mouth, only gasping breaths came out. Even those were completely dried out and sounded like unsightly metallic breathing.
Moreover, there must have been lead weights on her eyelids. Otherwise, there was no way they wouldn’t budge like this.
Actually, it wasn’t just her eyes that wouldn’t budge. Every bone in her body felt horrifically heavy as if weights were attached. She might soon crash through the floor and fall deep underground.
But what tormented her most of all was the heat that boiled as if she were submerged in lava.
[This might not sound helpful, but it’s a natural phenomenon. Aura is something that can be overwhelming even when gradually increased. Since you suddenly squeezed it out, your body, unable to withstand that wildness, reached its limit. You were already overexerted in the rain and then shocked it again, so you’ll inevitably have a fever for a while.]
As Ian had calmly explained, the fever that started just a few hours later had not subsided for three days now.
It was an extremely hot fever.
So Helena deliberately thought of Eugene while she was sick. Ridiculously, when she thought of him, it felt like insignificant pain.
‘…It’s like that day when I waited for you endlessly in the rain.’
The current heat was nothing compared to the burning in her chest from that day.
Waiting for you when you had gone to meet another woman—that was always such pain.