ERTHMB Chapter 100

The Bond of Married Couple

Helena couldn’t stop stealing glances. Even when she tried to look ahead, her gaze kept wandering sideways. Eugene was there.

‘How long does he plan to follow us?’

He was silently traveling on horseback. He wasn’t someone who would easily bend his stubbornness, so why was he being so docile?

He hadn’t said a single word to her as she sat in the same saddle with Ian. He had left the soldiers to Walter and simply rode alone beside them, pulling the reins.

‘I didn’t expect him to bring Sir Agyle along too… He must have had other important matters besides me.’

She never thought the day would come when she’d hope to be last on his list of priorities. The attention she had so desperately craved now felt uncomfortable.

Helena waited for the guild entrance to appear soon. She prayed to be able to part ways with Eugene.

‘Ah, home.’

After enduring a bit more of that time that felt like sitting on thorns, the familiar log fence finally came into view. Ian guided his horse near the entrance and stopped.

Helena stole one last glance.

But the upright figure that had been sitting straight gradually began to tilt. For someone just changing direction, he was tilting far too much…

Thud.

He collapsed straight off his horse.

“Eugene!”

Helena reflexively jumped down from her horse. Walter, who had just returned from dismissing the soldiers, rushed over to support him.

As he wrapped his arm around Eugene’s shoulder and helped him up, blood flowed from his split forehead. The eyepatch that had slipped off revealed the deeply sunken eye socket underneath. Helena gasped in shock.

“Why, why is he like this? What happened? And why is his eye like that?”

“He hasn’t slept for days and has been pushing himself too hard, so fatigue seems to have overwhelmed him. The eye… I was shocked too.”

Walter tried to carry him but seemed to struggle with the weight, letting out a strained groan. Walter himself didn’t appear to be in perfect physical condition either.

Helena looked up to ask for help. Ian was right there in front of her. He lifted Eugene onto his back without hesitation and stood up. Not far away, Gelda threw open the main gate wide and shouted.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and bring him in!”

****

A fresh breeze flowed through the slightly opened window. Lying in bed and quietly feeling it, he could even hear cuckoo calls. But Gelda wasn’t shouting loudly as usual.

When he felt around his nape, he could sense the texture of neatly wrapped bandages. His arms and legs with minor bruises were the same. The guild doctor’s skills, who spoke in a hearty dialect, were quite competent.

“Ow…”

Of course, there were no painkillers. The pain that came after the intense emotions that had acted like drugs disappeared was severe.

Helena ignored each joint crying out in pain and turned to lie on her side. Even the old wooden board creaked.

Moreover, the medical room beds were arranged closely together with very narrow spaces between them. If you stretched out your arm, you could immediately touch the person in the next bed.

Helena watched that person like a frozen scene. Occasionally, a gentle breeze caught and played with his black hair. Instead of his usual neatly combed style, the disheveled appearance with hair falling over his forehead was unfamiliar.

‘He’s still a handsome person, though.’

Helena’s finger touched that disheveled strand. When she carefully brushed away the black hair, the sunken eye socket became more visible. So did the torn forehead from falling off the horse.

Her stomach churned. Her hand that had been arranging his hair lightly brushed near his eye. Helena hastily withdrew her hand as if stung by a sharp needle.

Eugene didn’t move at all. He just slept like the dead. The breath she had been holding was finally released.

‘How on earth did it come to this?’

He was a man who had never tolerated even a hair-thin crack of gold. Seeing Eugene’s powerless state was so unfamiliar. It went beyond just being strange—it made her feel guilty. She felt like she shouldn’t look anymore.

Helena turned her body again and closed her eyes. Dust particles floating in the streaming sunlight sparkled like stardust. It was a pleasant afternoon with cuckoo calls occasionally tapping at the window.

So unbearably difficult to endure.

****

“I won, didn’t I?”

Elai grinned smugly. Eden sighed and tossed him a gold coin. Elai neatly caught the flying bet reward and turned his eyes forward.

Sakin was skillfully explaining the guild’s layout. Of course, more than half—almost all of it—would be wrong explanations, so Elai and Eden didn’t bother to listen.

“The dining hall is to the left from here, and the training ground and courtyard are back the way we came, then turn right! And beyond that brown roof…”

Next to Sakin, who was excitedly giving his enthusiastic introduction, stood Ian. He had his arms crossed, leaning back against the building’s exterior wall.

He was glaring intensely at empty space.

Elai left the other knights with Sakin and approached him.

Odyssey, whose eyes were sparkling as he looked around the temporary quarters, and Samte, who was quietly nodding along, made excellent audiences. He could pride himself on being quite an excellent audience too, at least when it came to his lord.

“What’s troubling you so much this time?”

Ian responded with a sigh as soon as he caught sight of Elai.

Then he fixed his gaze on empty space again. It was the sky that dark-haired man Eugene had brought when he appeared. It was clear without a single cloud. The blue heavens looked only spiteful.

Without looking at Elai, Ian casually asked.

“…Do you really think fate exists?”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Then why, of all the possible connections, does it have to be the bond of married couple?”

“I think it would be most comforting to blame the lord’s bad luck.”

Even to the sudden question and complaint, Elai answered quite well.

Ian finally moved his fixed gaze. It was toward the medical facility on the opposite side.

He looked beyond the window where Helena and Eugene would be. So close, with such thin doors. It was a space he couldn’t dare to enter.

The gesture of Helena brushing Eugene’s hair just moments ago flickered in his mind. Ian could only quietly turn away from that scene.

He couldn’t step the mere three paces that would have reached them. Ian rubbed his temples as his emotions stirred up again.

“What’s so special about being married couple that makes it so persistent?”

That was just a mutter to himself, but Elai responded refreshingly this time too.

“Well, I wasn’t from a particularly harmonious family either. You’d better ask Sakin or Odyssey about that.”

Elai also gazed at the medical facility as he added.

“For now, whether it’s a mistake or not, they say it’s a connection bestowed by heaven. In the East, they say seven thousand kalpas of connection must accumulate before one can finally become a married couple.”

Perhaps due to the fresh sunlight, Elai’s red eyes momentarily looked like blazing fire.

“Your benefactor seems to have built up quite a thick layer of solid kalpas.”

Ian glanced at him lightly.

“Instead of such frustrating words, try comforting me.”

“Then I have nothing to say.”

Ian’s sigh deepened at the bland response.

“Ugh, I hate it, I hate it…”

Even his hand repeatedly rubbing his dry face felt heavy. Ian closed his eyes and stayed in the dark world for a moment.

But suddenly, the surroundings became quiet. When he looked up at the strange atmosphere, Helena was walking over from the opposite side.

Sakin, who had been chattering with Odyssey, immediately ran to her side.

“Miss! Are you alright?”

Helena answered that she was fine, but she didn’t refuse Sakin’s supporting touch.

Eventually reaching Ian, she looked at the new faces and finally looked at Ian.

“Are you okay? Your stomach?”

Her first words weren’t “Who are all these people?” or “Thank you for earlier,” but concern for him. Ian’s sunken mood was immediately lifted to the sky.

“How could it not be okay? You so earnestly put it in my mouth… ugh.”

Helena hit Ian’s stomach to stop his words.

“You’re right. You look very fine.”

Ian grimaced and placed his hand on his abdomen.

“It hurts, Helen.”

“Not there, to the right.”

“…”

Ian’s hand slowly moved. Ah. This was where he was hurt.

Elai chuckled beside them. Helena’s gaze moved to him. Elai nodded slightly, giving a small greeting. Helena pointed at Ian and Elai alternately.

“You’re also in league with this person.”

“Did you know?”

“No. I just found out.”

“For just finding out, you don’t seem very surprised.”

“I am surprised.”

For strangers, their conversation flowed quite naturally. Ian’s eyes narrowed.

What’s with you two? He was about to probe into their acquaintance when someone came running from afar, flailing like a cart with broken wheels.

“My lord! My lord!”

Ah, I wondered when he’d come. A second deep sigh escaped Ian’s lips. Elai burst into a second chuckle.

“That’s what being truly surprised looks like.”

The man who came running while scattering tears stumbled and fell right in front of Ian.

But he didn’t seem to groan in pain or think about getting up. Dion grabbed onto Ian’s trouser leg and clung to it.

“sob Really, really my lord, sniff, it’s really the master… sob…!”

Ian looked down at him crying unsightly with a disgusted expression.

“Get up.”

“Do you know how much I’ve been looking for you? sob Of course you don’t know, you heartless person…!”

Even when Ian shook his leg, Dion stuck like a leech and wouldn’t let go. Helena’s eyes finally showed a slightly surprised expression. Ian informed her of the leech’s harmlessness.

“Not the most pleasant scene, but let me introduce him. This is my aide, Dion.”

Only then did Dion swallow his snot and look up. His face was messily streaked with tear marks. Dion looked at the people looking down at him alternately and made a sound of realization.

“Ah, this person is that first wi… ow!”

Did he bite his tongue while being overwhelmed by such intense emotions? Surely that person smiling so nicely couldn’t be the culprit.

Helena looked puzzledly at Dion, who was groaning while letting go of Ian’s trouser leg.

Dion covered his salty lips and fumbled around the ground.

“First, my first toothbrush that I used, have you seen it? I definitely put it here, this is strange…”

“Look carefully, it must be somewhere.”