ERTHMB Chapter 144

Permission

Viscount Owen fell hard on his rear. The sound of the bottle falling from his grasp and rolling across the floor was raucous. The Viscount made an even greater fuss, shrieking that his bones were broken.

It was an extremely grating metallic sound, but it didn’t properly register in Helena’s ears. The words Walter had just uttered only echoed around her like a reverberation.

[My daughter.]

Currently, all Helena could see was Walter’s broad back. A back that had been consistently upright, steadfast, and dignified in every moment she remembered.

Walter, who had personally approached Viscount Owen, asserted once more.

“So don’t you dare lay a hand on another man’s precious daughter. If you move even one more step from there, there’ll be nothing left attached above that neck of yours, which is worse than a beast’s.”

It was a voice she’d never heard in her life. It was eerie and chilling, as if she’d fallen into a sheer ice cave. As if it truly wasn’t a joke, Walter placed his hand on his sword hilt.

Viscount Owen floundered like an overturned beetle with a pallid complexion.

Meanwhile, Matilda was frantically looking around. She seemed to be searching for Christine, but naturally she wouldn’t be visible.

Sensing that the situation was turning strange somehow, she rapidly switched tactics and began clinging desperately.

“He, Helena…! Isn’t family about sharing both sorrow and joy? Please help us. We have no one but you, we were just so desperate. You know well from being cornered yourself!”

Helena looked at her through tears that were coldly drying up. The image gradually became clearer. It was Matilda’s face, grotesquely distorted.

It was an unfamiliar expression, but yes, she knew it well. That when cornered is when one’s true nature comes out.

Emboldened by Walter, Helena composed her emotions and regained her cold demeanor.

“Then can you die in my place?”

“Wh-what?”

“You say family shares both sorrow and joy. Then you should willingly share my death as well. If you’re grabbing onto me without even that resolve, you’ve truly made a mistake, Viscountess Owen.”

Helena called Matilda as if she were a stranger’s name she’d never heard before.

Unfortunately, Matilda was someone who hardly knew how to suppress things. In the end, she couldn’t contain her anger and bristled up.

“You, what did I do so wrong…!”

“Then what did I do so wrong? What mistakes did I make and how many, that you denied my very existence and abandoned me? I wasted a lifetime trying to find that damn reason you never taught me. So at the very least, you should come groveling with your lives as payment before I’d even consider listening!”

Helena spat out her throbbing past without even wincing. Now the surrounding murmurs didn’t even graze her ears.

“I won’t mock the gutter life you’ll live for the rest of your days. I won’t curse that wretchedness, nor will I harm you.”

Overwhelmed by her intensity, Matilda tried to help Viscount Owen stand up but sat back down. Eric, who approached with an anxious face, tried to help the two up but his feet got tangled and he fell with them.

Helena looked down at them as if watching a ridiculous comedy.

“I’ll just laugh. I’ll live each day laughing, forgetting even the fact that you existed in a corner of my life.”

“Helena…!”

“So the more miserable you are, I hope you think of me. Remember every moment how happily I’m laughing. Spend nights tossing and turning, unable to sleep from frustration. Meanwhile, I’ll live very happily like that.”

With those final words, Helena turned around. Immediately, Eugene was before her. His tightly pressed lips looked extremely rigid.

Before Helena could open her mouth to say anything, Eugene grabbed her wrist and led her outside. Helena’s nonverbal protests were ignored.

The pulling force was so strong that Helena had no choice but to be dragged along helplessly.

The scene gradually changed from the dazzling ballroom to the outdoor garden, and Eugene’s muttering could be heard intermittently.

“That’s an opportunity, Helena. Opportunities are given to people. Those things…”

Eugene didn’t stop until they reached deep into the garden. Now the only noise heard was the chirping of insects. In the frozen silence, he seated Helena on a garden chair.

“Are you okay?”

When Eugene knelt on one knee before her and tried to examine her face, Helena turned her head away. Eugene firmly grasped her chin with a resolute touch and fixed it toward himself.

“Look at me. Are you really okay?”

Eugene pressed his face close and insisted on checking.

Reluctantly raising her gaze, Helena saw a faint flash bursting from the bushes behind Eugene. Soon after, she heard a small click as well.

She shifted her focus to look at Eugene, but he seemed too concentrated on her condition to detect anything. Perhaps both were her imagination, Helena thought as she opened her mouth.

“I’m fine.”

“Don’t just stubbornly say so with words.”

“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have had the presence of mind to shake you off.”

“…Right. That’s true.”

Eugene, who readily admitted it, released Helena and lowered his head. A breath close to a sigh was exhaled long. Soon he stood up, running his hand through his hair, his expression perfectly composed.

“Your family—”

“Not family.”

Helena attached the answer firmly. Instead of being flustered, Eugene laughed. It was a sneer mixed with relief and strange elation. The corner of his mouth visible in the darkness was quite bloody.

She couldn’t understand why he was laughing like that. Helena simply trembled finely. It was because of the cool tension surrounding Eugene.

It was as if the taut leash of a fighting dog had finally snapped.

As if mistaking it for cold, Eugene took off his outer coat and wrapped it around her.

“Right. They’re worse than strangers. I’ll handle the Owen family matter myself. You just go back to your room and rest.”

“I’m really fi—”

“You’ll allow it, won’t you, Helena?”

Eugene firmly patted Helena’s shoulders with the hands that had wrapped the coat around her. For asking permission, it was somewhat coercive.

Sternly dismissing her, Eugene shifted his gaze to behind Helena. Soon Walter appeared and whispered to him. It seemed he was conveying the situation at the ballroom.

When Eugene nodded, Walter helped Helena to her feet. Helena turned and took a couple of steps, then suddenly stopped. She kept having a strange feeling.

“Eugene.”

Helena turned back and called Eugene.

Eugene was still in place. The moon shadow of the tall bushes made him even darker. From that blackened figure emanated the urgent leisure of a starving beast toying with prey right before its eyes.

Feeling that Eugene was listening, Helena asked.

“You’re okay too, right?”

For some reason, it felt like something she had to confirm. However, Eugene didn’t answer the question.

He simply thrust his hands into his pockets and tilted his head toward the mansion. It was all Helena could discern from his silhouette.

“Go inside.”

****

The moon rose higher, and the lights of the mansion gradually went out.

In the unsettled atmosphere, the ball came to an end. The people in the ballroom passed the shocking news Helena had dropped from mouth to mouth, then scattered in all directions when midnight came.

The clamorous space fell silent like the darkness that had descended. In the dead of night where only the dark outlines of objects could barely be perceived, there were three shadows crossing the path connected to the mansion with hurried steps.

“What a windfall, I’m glad we came after all. Living diligently brings unexpected fortune rolling in. Well, the Grand Ducal family has its dignity, so even if they’re saying farewell, they should do it befitting their status.”

“As long as we keep the time before dawn breaks, we can take out as much as we want, right? The Grand Duke really said that, right?”

“I told you so, let’s pack up a good haul and go back. This time we’ll finally have a chance to completely crush that old codger Jeff’s nose.”

Matilda snorted excitedly, Eric wore a dubious expression but quickened his pace ahead, and Viscount Owen was already deeply immersed in imagining winning at the gambling table.

The three nearly ran through the forest and arrived at the gold mine entrance. As Eugene had said earlier, the barrier was deactivated. Additionally, lamps filled with half a day’s worth of oil and a large cart were prepared.

The Owen family recalled about an hour ago. Even when the Grand Duke had called them to his private space, they thought they’d crossed an irreversible river. But the words Eugene Evergale threw out were an opportunity and heavenly fortune that would never come again.

[Fill the cart to the brim or overflowing, I don’t care. But only until dawn when the workers start their work. If you do so, everything you load on the cart is yours. It’s a gift in the sense that I hope never to see your faces again. If you delay even slightly, I’ll confiscate it all, so I hope you pack wisely.]

What could be a more certain pass than the Grand Duke’s permission? The Owen family hurriedly pulled the cart into the gold mine.

After walking for about ten minutes, they saw crates lined along the wall. At the vivid golden color that caught their eyes, Matilda let out a cheer.

“My God… There’s no other heaven! We’re going to be rich, Eric!”

Eric, who had been unable to shake off an uneasy air, also began laughing with joy. The three people carried and loaded crates onto the cart indiscriminately.

The cart gradually grew heavier, and just as Eric was letting out strained groans, Matilda suddenly stopped. She was about to toss a fingernail-sized gold nugget onto the cart when she snatched the lamp from Viscount Owen.

“These tiny sizes won’t fill up what we want in time. We need to find bigger lumps.”

Quickly looking around, she soon began to take the lead.

“Time is tight. Hurry and follow, Eric!”

“But Mother. Look.”

Despite Matilda’s urging, Eric hesitated, letting go of the cart. Where he pointed was a sign that read ‘No Entry.’

The thick red border clearly meant a warning, but Matilda snapped as if pathetic.

“Didn’t you hear what the Grand Duke said properly? He said beyond the sign is the work site. There must be a large, unmined vein there.”

“Wait, just wait. Let’s think carefully for a moment. This is near the hunting grounds… What if magical beasts really appear? It’s dangerous, so let’s just look elsewhere.”