Finally, We
“Is your room all right? You don’t have any discomforts?”
In the space where only the two of them remained, Helena quietly nodded her head.
The one who had come to see her was Aida. Someone she knew whom she had unexpectedly encountered after leaving Evergale. While Helena was glad to see her, she also felt uncomfortable and gazed deeply at Aida as if asking why she had come.
Aida lowered her head to avoid eye contact and moved her lips.
“I came to express my gratitude. I thought you had completely forgotten about someone like me… but as soon as you returned, you wrote a recommendation letter to the hotel, and took care of my mother and younger brother… I’m truly grateful in so many ways.”
“If that’s all, you didn’t need to come. That was just to ease my guilt about my younger sibling… I’m ashamed to say.”
“Even so, I don’t mind.”
Aida almost shouted as she blurted it out. Helena’s eyes widened in surprise. Aida also seemed flustered, as if she hadn’t expected herself to do that, but continued speaking.
“You know what? Thanks to you, my lady, my mother no longer just lies in bed. Tom now holds a pen instead of a broom. Would you believe his dream is to become a doctor? Thanks to you, my lady, our family has dreams.”
As if recalling her younger brother, Aida raised her head toward the sky. Just as she said, Aida looked exactly like she was dreaming.
“So I want to repay you now. I really hope you’ll accept it.”
As if the dream had ended, she soon smiled bitterly. Then she took out a small wooden box from her bag and held it out.
With a puzzled expression, Helena received the box and carefully opened the lid. Inside was a medicine bottle containing opaque liquid about the length of a finger.
“Madam Christine gave this to me to feed you, my lady, during the trial period. I heard there’s recently been a new evidence collection method that can extract fingerprints, so it should help.”
“…!”
“It’s a terribly inadequate repayment, isn’t it?”
Aida’s bitter smile deepened. Understanding her intention, Helena closed the box and held it back out.
“You’re saying you’ll come forward as a witness, Aida. I can’t let you do that. You could be in danger.”
“I know. That’s why I actually came and turned back dozens of times before knocking on the door. But… in the end, I had no choice but to stand before you like this. Because you, my lady, did it for me first.”
Aida firmly pushed away the box Helena was trying to return.
“After being kicked out of the Evergale estate, I thought about a lot of things. With no work, my body became idle and my mind only grew more complicated. Strange worries I’d never had before kept coming to me. Then at some point, I realized something.”
“…”
“To them, I’m not a person. I’m just a dog that should naturally wag its tail when given food. Really, every single one of them was like that. Even Natasha who smiled like an angel, and the Dowager who sneered like a demon.”
Helena suddenly realized that her bitter smile wasn’t from fear. Though Aida was passive, there was no hesitation in her attitude and words.
“They only saw my sick mother and young brother as conditions they could use to control me. You know, even among dogs penned together, the ones with good conditions sell quickly. That’s exactly what I was. A dog with conditions attached that couldn’t refuse orders.”
“Aida.”
“But you, my lady, were different. When dealing with you, I felt like I was speaking human words instead of barking. I can’t explain what that feeling is like, but I’ll probably never forget it for the rest of my life. I always savor that feeling and hope to live like a human being.”
Helena put down the box on the table and took Aida’s hand. At the unexpected touch and warmth, Aida flinched and trembled. She raised her eyes to meet Helena’s, then slowly lowered her head.
Aida smiled shyly with both cheeks flushed. She said she finally seemed to know what that feeling was.
“Ah… that’s right, it was hope.”
There was no longer any trace of ominousness about her. Aida stood up from her seat with a face that had completely unburdened everything.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m planning to leave for the south as soon as the trial ends. The Dowager probably never intended to let me live from the start. If I refused the order, she would have killed me and given it to someone else.”
As she prepared to leave, Helena stood up following her and asked.
“When you go to the south… what will you do?”
“First, I’m going to properly educate my brother. Since I’ve already received money meant for killing someone, I should magnificently show them it’s being used to save someone instead. I’ll put him in an academy and won’t let him out until he becomes a doctor.”
So she was indirectly saying she would decline Helena’s support. Moreover, Aida completely dismissed Helena’s concerns, saying that with a scholarship, their situation would be much more comfortable.
Indeed, the south, with its active exchanges with other countries, had numerous academies that even commoners could enter. Even if not specifically to avoid Christine, it was a good place for Aida to make a new start.
Lost in other thoughts while walking, they had reached the door before she knew it. The thick, high-quality carpet muffled footsteps so well that Helena almost bumped into Aida’s back.
Aida silently bowed in greeting, then pulled the door handle. Immediately, large men came flooding in like a tide.
“Whoa!”
Apparently they had been pressing their ears right against the door. Samte, Sakin, and Odyssey swayed greatly and fell one after another, piling up with thuds.
Having dodged early, Aida let out a short exclamation before covering her mouth with her hand and bursting into laughter.
“You’re very much loved, my lady.”
She greeted the knights as well before withdrawing. As soon as Aida’s figure completely disappeared from view, Sakin, who was sandwiched between Samte and Odyssey, suddenly raised his head and showed a joyful expression.
“My lady! The apothecary has been found at the inn where he stayed last night!”
“The hot news that Eden just brought— Ow!”
Odyssey complained as he got hit by Sakin’s hair. Samte, who had been pinned at the very bottom, rose with a groan. Sakin and Odyssey fell off his back and rolled on the floor.
All the news and scenes that suddenly burst in were truly noisy. Stupidly hopeful.
So Helena finally broke her expressionless face and laughed heartily.
****
The next day, Helena had another visitor.
Helena hurriedly hid the wooden box and went down to the hotel lobby to greet him.
“There’s still time until the next trial. What’s the matter?”
Eugene looked around first, without taking off his coat or offering even a brief greeting.
“That man isn’t here. How unusual.”
“What is your business?”
Helena put force into her words, meaning to keep it brief. Eugene sat down at a table as if it didn’t matter to him.
Even the gesture of tilting his head toward the opposite side, as if telling her to hurry and sit down too, was extremely natural. Except for looking quite tired, he was the same as usual.
Helena reluctantly leaned her body against the chair back. Then Eugene dropped a document envelope he had brought onto the table with a thud.
“I know why you’re enduring the trial even while stabbing your most painful spot. Because if the husband’s family is recognized as having significant grounds for fault, the divorce will be approved even without my consent.”
Eugene leaned forward and pushed the envelope toward Helena. Without smoothing her furrowed brow, Helena checked the contents of the envelope. Helena’s pupils contracted immediately.
What Eugene readily gave was none other than divorce papers.
With his name signed on them, no less.
‘Are you determined to save Christine after all, Eugene?’
The name that had been so difficult to obtain was conspicuously clear. Helena felt both a sense of futility and puzzlement as she met Eugene’s eyes. The bright golden eyes were as clear as the name he had scrawled, but she couldn’t discern his intention.
So Helena replied even more defiantly.
“Even so, I won’t stop.”
Christine had to pay for her sins. For the sake of her child who had vanished so carelessly, it had to be so.
Then Eugene stunned Helena’s mind once again with another blow.
“That’s a given. We too— from your and my side as well— I came to tell you that a witness will come forward.”
“…What? Are you now… saying you’ll take my side instead of your mother’s? Why?”
“…”
Eugene closed his mouth with a somewhat dejected air, unlike just moments ago. Then he let out a long sigh while rubbing his face.
He looked exhausted now, beyond tired. For a moment, he even seemed to have a face hoping for atonement. Helena couldn’t gauge whether it felt uncomfortable or tender.
She simply realized she couldn’t get the answer she wanted from him and shifted focus.
“Who is the witness?”
“…”
Eugene paused for a long time again but finally gave an answer.
“Natasha.”
“Are you in your right mind? How could you possibly make that woman my witness—”
Suddenly, the scene of Natasha’s stillbirth that Helena had experienced just a few days ago flashed through her mind.
“Don’t tell me you…!”
As if lending weight to Helena’s speculation, Eugene took something out from his breast.
“Natasha received something like this from Mother…”
As if the word got stuck in his throat, Eugene hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“From Christine. You know what this is too.”
Helena slowly picked up what Eugene held out. She couldn’t not know.
It was tea leaves she had drunk every time she was summoned to the Grand Blue, not knowing it was something that would destroy her body.
To the confused Helena, Eugene drove in the wedge.
“Natasha will be said to have had a stillbirth because of this. Don’t worry about its effectiveness as evidence since I collected it when accompanying the investigator to Christine’s family home. With Natasha’s testimony added, it will be certain.”
“Why… why are you suddenly helping me to this extent?”
Helena’s hollow gaze bored into Eugene. Though his appearance was the same, the words coming out of his mouth were from a completely different person, to the point where she wondered if he had hit his head.
However, Eugene changed the subject as if he wouldn’t open his mouth any further on this matter.
“Have you found the apothecary?”
It was a tone that sounded quite affectionate. Helena thought the sense of dissonance surrounding Eugene was falling off and crawling over her body.
“I think we’ll be able to catch him soon. Whether he’ll cooperate or not, we’ll have to meet him to find out.”
“That’s good anyway. No matter how hard we collect other evidence, he’s the key in the end.”
“Yes.”
“…”
Since no one opened their mouth again, silence filled the space. Rather than making an effort to fill the gap, Helena ruminated on the strange sense of déjà vu she felt from Eugene.
It didn’t take long for Helena to realize what it was.
It was resignation.
Just as marriage couldn’t be done alone, divorce was the same. It wasn’t a tie that would break just because she let go. Eugene also had to give up on her.
And somehow, Eugene, who had seemed like he would hold on to the end, had personally brought the moment of giving up right before her eyes.
‘You and I have finally become “we” at the very moment we speak of divorce.’