ERTHMB Chapter 121

Cut Spider Legs

Ian wanted to know what expression Helena had on her face when she nodded back then.

But the opportunity never came. Helena hurriedly disappeared because her brother came looking for her, shouting loudly.

A few minutes later, a spider dropped onto Ian’s head with a thud. Soon after, a girl’s scream was heard.

“Get away, brother! Let me go…!”

With vibrations from bumping around, several more spiders fell.

The gaps in the old floorboards were wide enough for dust and insects to pass through. Wide enough that if you stared intently, you could tell whose shadow was moving back and forth.

However, Ian didn’t bother to look up. He just stroked Heidi’s forehead as she slept on his lap again and muttered.

“What hope indeed.”

With his eyes closed, the thumping vibrations and commotion gradually subsided. Ian was starting to feel drowsy too.

Ian opened his eyes again and pinched his thigh. Ian’s thighs were mottled with whip marks and bruises he had made himself. The longer the tiring days stretched on, the darker the bruises became.

Ian couldn’t fall asleep. Beelzebuth’s words were right. Ian would never be able to forget that day. Beelzebuth came to him even in his dreams.

Unable to strangle himself, he plunged a knife into his mother’s chest instead. Then the mother would cough up blood and say she loved him, and Beelzebuth would command him to bark while drinking that blood.

Thirteen years of sleepless nights passed like that. The past memories of having his heart carved out no longer hurt as much as they used to. It was thanks to someone who had painted over the time that had almost remained as an eternal nightmare.

Everything was gloomy and damp, but just because she was in those scenes, it became love. Ian could willingly embrace his memories.

Hair fluttering in the night wind, blue eyes, the scent of wet earth brushing against his nose, the cramped and damp basement.

Everything was you and his complete love.

So surely he would remain with her too. Even if she couldn’t remember, at least a trace would exist.

Ian had to be there the moment Helena reclaimed that. He had to carve the same time, the same space, and the same memory.

Ian slung his travel bag over his shoulder and went to find Gelda.

“I need to take some time off.”

“…I suppose even someone like you has something to look for.”

“I think I can keep it this time.”

“Weren’t you going to look for Helena?”

Gelda had been the first to know that Helena had left without a word, yet she hadn’t told Ian.

Of course, it would have been a choice made out of respect for her decision. Though he understood, Ian was somewhat hurt and mumbled his answer evasively.

“I’ll find her and keep her. There’s an old promise.”

****

The place where she now stood was Praeterita’s old mansion. It was just an old basement covered with wooden planks and dust. Helena repeatedly told herself that it was nothing more than such a meaningless reality.

No matter how much violence Eric had inflicted in the past, no matter how he had put insects he’d collected for three days into her clothes. She repeatedly told herself it was nothing more or less than a musty old space.

Overcoming the memories embedded in a space required this much effort. Of course, even that was hard to maintain once the trigger was pulled.

“Huh…!”

Perhaps it was too much to handle alone after all. Helena covered her mouth and crouched as much as possible in the corner.

A furry spider was hovering about a step away, as if it might approach or might not.

Eight black legs moved this way and that. The sensation of crawling up her skin from that time was instantly dragged to the surface.

Helena closed her eyes as if that hideous thing would disappear if it wasn’t visible to her. Trembling like that, as if she might stop breathing at any moment, she kept muttering.

[Don’t do it, brother, please, don’t do it…!]

At that moment, she sensed a presence on the stairway landing. And then a voice she shouldn’t have heard came through.

“-Helena?”

“…!”

Like a poorly oiled gear, Helena’s head turned stiffly in that direction. Then someone who shouldn’t be there was standing before her eyes. Her breathing became even more rapid.

“Well, well – what a fine figure you cut? After we so heartlessly drove everyone away, you’ve been living quite comfortably on your own, haven’t you?”

It was Eric. The poisonous spider who had been her most fearsome nightmare in childhood.

“You’ve always been exceptionally good at leeching off others to make a living. I should have corrected that habit more thoroughly when you were young…”

Eric approached with a smirk. Like a spider descending a thread, he was suspicious and persistent. Helena hurriedly used the wall as support and staggered to her feet. As soon as she had barely straightened her crouched body, Eric was right there.

“You missed me too, didn’t you? That’s why you came all the way to this damn shack. Isn’t that right?”

A hand stealthily extended and groped around Helena’s waist area. Helena gasped and shouted.

“Don’t touch my body!”

Eric’s hand, roughly pushed away, sliced through the air. Eric caressed his reddened hand and looked at Helena with a fishy gaze.

“Why are you being so cold to your brother after such a long reunion? You used to stay still so well in the old days.”

“That was because I was young…!”

“What, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your role just because you played duchess for a while? You know better than anyone that was just a shell, Helen.”

“Shut up. Back off if you don’t want to get hurt.”

“How cute you are when you resist. How did you know I have a taste for rebellious women?”

A vulgar whistle cut through the damp basement. Eric continued to corner Helena in a mocking tone.

“After throwing it all away without being able to see even an inch ahead, how is it now, Helen? Now that you have no husband or stepfather to protect you, what are you going to do?”

Eric suddenly thrust a large spider in front of Helena’s face – when had he picked it up? Helena had a fit and pushed Eric away.

“Kyaaah!”

The spider thrown to the floor flailed its legs and then crawled up the wall with a rustling sound. Eric grinned as he watched Helena tremble and break into a cold sweat.

“You’re still afraid of spiders.”

His dark lips curled in a chilling way. He smacked his lips and sighed.

“Ah – what a waste. Back then I should have put something else under your skirt instead of spiders. Then you’d know this brother is like heaven to you now.”

Helena squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She hoped it would disappear like a dream if she denied it, but unfortunately this wasn’t a nightmare. Reality was always more cruel than that.

And what was more cruel than reality was the fact that a future would only come if she overcame this. Until now, what she was best at was enduring, but now that wasn’t enough.

Now that she knew, Helena had to confront it even knowing her body would be crushed by the cruelty.

Helena exhaled a breath that churned her insides and opened her eyes. Coincidentally, there was something within reach of her fingertips. It was the sword at her waist.

At this moment, she was neither Eugene’s wife nor a member of the Owen family. She was a proper swordsman of Partren. The hearty laughter of Gelda and Flam seemed to brush past her ears for a moment.

[You’re a child with at least that much courage.]

It felt as if Gelda’s invisible hand was pushing her back. Helena blinked her sweat-stained eyes several times. Her vision gradually cleared.

At the edge of her vision, she finally saw the drawing covering the basement wall. The lines were unorganized and haphazard, but she could tell what was drawn.

Finely rising waves with a sun floating above them, and yellow marigolds.

The moment she recognized it, an indescribable power began to surge. There was a tension that pulled her taut. Helena followed that strength that stood out like sinew, raised her head, and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

‘Don’t cry, Helena. You should know tears are precious.’

She hadn’t come here to repeat memories. She had come to finally face them and overcome them.

Helena placed her fingers on the sword hilt and spoke.

“You know what. Since your damn mother never properly bought you even one fairy tale book or read to you, I realized something from childhood. Reality is never as soft as a child’s eyes. And that was right.”

Her voice trembled when she first spoke, but gradually the nausea subsided. Even after finishing speaking and looking at Eric, her stomach no longer churned.

“Reality isn’t a fairy tale, so there are no little fairies, no pirates with hooks for hands, no people who remain children forever. Do you understand?”

“I don’t know what kind of nonsense you’re trying to get out of this situation with-“

“Eric. You’re still a blockhead.”

Eric stopped moving at the tone that seemed to throw his own words right back at him.

“…What did you just say?”

“No matter how empty-headed you are, you should have expected at least this much. I’m no longer the little kid you used to trample on at will.”

Helena drew her sword.

“For your sake, I’ll hold a sword instead of a hook.”

The sharpened blade pointed at Eric. He couldn’t come any closer and reflexively raised both hands.

“Are you serious, Helen?”

Eric tapped the sword point aimed at his throat with his finger and smiled. He feigned a careless laugh, but his tension was clearly evident.

The corner of his mouth twitched. His stiffly raised cervical spine also spoke the truth.

Only then did Helena also form a thin smile on her lips.

“I’ve always been serious.”

“-Aaaahhh!!”

Helena finally swung the sword she had been pointing, and Eric screamed. Cutting off a spider’s leg was easier than expected.

The fight she had been sharpening for over ten years ended anticlimactically. As soon as Eric’s index finger fell off, he fled in panic. Helena watched him repeatedly fall pathetically as he escaped the basement.

In less than ten seconds, Eric completely disappeared from sight. Helena immediately slipped and sat down in place. The spider that had crawled up the wall was still wandering around inside the basement.

But Helena didn’t panic. Instead, she crawled toward the drawing. As she slowly brought her fingertips to the wall surface, a voice burst like lightning.

[Come to where the sun rises first. I like the sound of waves.]

‘…That’s my voice.’

It was what she had said. It was a promise she had made first. A vow that must not be forgotten.

Her lower lip parted in blank realization. Helena sprang up from her spot.

‘You remembered me. So now it’s my turn to remember. To remember, you.’

There was only one step left before pulling the last thread. Helena immediately went outside and lightly mounted the saddle. As she lightly kicked with her feet, the horse began to run.

Her destination was Futuo.