ERTHMB Chapter 145

How to Laugh Last

Though Eric tried to stop her again, Matilda was resolute.

“You frustrating thing, how much do you think we can gather before dawn at this rate!”

Pushing Eric aside, Matilda pulled the cart. Viscount Owen, also unsatisfied with the current size, helped her by pushing from behind.

After letting out a sigh, Eric followed the two.

The place they entered indeed had a giant golden wall. Fist-sized gold nuggets rolled around in front of it.

The Owen family each let out breathless gasps and moved busily. After carrying gold without noticing the passage of time, the cart was soon full.

On the other hand, the lamp oil had run out. At Eric’s urging, Matilda had to reluctantly turn away. The three people hurriedly pulled the cart.

Despite the bitter winter weather, sweat poured down like rain. However, the lamp flickered weakly and eventually went out along the way.

The surroundings became so pitch black that not even an inch ahead was visible. Unable to distinguish the path any longer, Eric burst out in frustration.

“What is this? I told you from the beginning not to go in too deep!”

“Shut up, otherwise we wouldn’t have even filled the cart! Stop complaining and look for something to make a fire with!”

Shouts were exchanged in the pitch-black darkness. The three people crawled around groping the floor and walls, but there was no significant gain. Eric only sprained his ankle after tripping over a stone and falling hard.

Matilda roughly shook Viscount Owen, asking if he didn’t even have the liquor bottle he carried around like his life. Around that time, a faint light flickered in the distance.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Shh.”

Their bodies, terrified it might be a magical beast’s eyes, stiffened rigidly. The light gradually approached and finally came close enough to distinguish its form.

Fortunately, the identity of the light was a person.

“You…!”

Unfortunately, it was a man they were acquainted with.

“We meet again, unluckily.”

The man who, a few months ago, had torn the entire house apart before leaving as soon as they told him the lie that Helena was dead.

They thought he had disappeared forever after that, but he must have stubbornly stuck with Helena. It was obvious he had appeared in this secluded space after humiliating Helena at the assembly hall. Matilda stepped forward as if guarding the cart and snorted.

“You acted so high and mighty, but Helena must have sent you to do some dirty work, right? But you’ve crossed the line. No matter how much you’ve fallen into the role of an obedient dog, following her to a place where the Grand Duke has his eyes wide open. You must have lost your mind!”

While Matilda drew Ian’s attention, Viscount Owen quietly lowered his body. Among the mining equipment scattered at their feet, there were things that could be used as weapons.

While Eric and Viscount Owen each picked up a pickaxe, Ian answered with an unaffected face.

“You crossed the line first.”

Matilda’s brow furrowed immediately. Ian was peculiarly holding a torch instead of a lamp. He slowly closed the distance, gripping it as if it were a well-honed sword.

“I told you last time. The day you see me again, you’ll die. And if you weren’t confident in repenting, you should at least beg heaven like a dog. But it seems your devotion was somewhat lacking.”

Following the torch’s flickering, Ian’s shadow was cast on the cave wall. The Owen family stood rooted in place, watching it undulate with a force that seemed ready to burn them to the bone.

The shadow was not alone. Behind Ian, another shadow had formed. It was terribly large and lumpy for a human’s.

Grrrrr-.

A low, low growl scraped the ground. Instinctive fear surged up. Sweat rapidly cooled and clung to their creaking spines, lowering their body temperature.

The moment alarm bells rang in their heads that they must flee.

“We’ve met again like this.”

Ian threw the torch toward the cart. The flames drew a long parabola through the air. Like a moth chasing light, the shadow leaped after it. Matilda, with a shrill scream, pushed the injured Eric forward.

Hoping it would devour him as an offering before her.

****

Ian hummed a little tune as he headed toward the cave entrance.

The magical beast he had brought in with him was out of his hands. It was a Cerberus whose sensory organs, including its eyes, he had deliberately destroyed.

He had made it so it could only move relying on the afterimage of light and heat, reducing it to the level of a stray dog that even civilians without combat training could handle if it ran away quickly or attacked.

‘So if they abandon the gold, they’ll live, and if not…’

Ian’s lips curled up slightly. That would be a not-so-bad ending in its own way. Ian freely expressed his relieved mood as he completely exited the gold mine.

When he turned his stiff neck, the first thing he saw was the sky brightening faintly from afar. And he could smell thick cigarette smoke in the dawn air. Someone was standing in front of the gold mine.

It was Eugene Evergale.

“…….”

“…….”

Their eyes met. Eugene deeply inhaled his cigar without averting his gaze.

Beside him was a Cerberus wearing a muzzle. It was small in size but had three heads—a creature convenient for throwing three pieces of food to simultaneously.

Ian let out an empty laugh, having caught on to Eugene’s intention.

“What is this? You’re trying to kill all my in-laws.”

“There’s no reason for me to pick up what Helena discarded. You’re the one throwing the parents of the woman you claim to love to a magical beast.”

“Probably for the same reason as you.”

Eugene’s cigar, having waited quite a while, was burning almost to the end. Eugene spat the cigar on the ground and crushed it under his boot.

“Well, thanks to you, I’m spared the trouble of dirtying my hands.”

He drew his sword from his waist and immediately struck down the Cerberus’s head. The magical beast, which had originally been waiting for abundant food, died with its tongue hanging out.

Eugene, who had watched impassively, spoke as he roughly pushed the corpse into the bushes.

“You acted so clean about everything, but in the end you’re no different from me.”

“As such a human being, I only treat fellow humans as such. I have a bad relationship with the Owen family even aside from Helena.”

“You mean from that childhood I don’t know about?”

Eugene laughed self-deprecatingly. Ian only rubbed the spot where the magical beast’s bodily fluids remained with his military boot, covering it with dirt.

No further answer came. But Eugene didn’t care. He simply lit a new cigar. The surroundings had brightened considerably, and the ember contrasted with the blue dawn light, glowing particularly red.

Ian spoke once the magical beast’s bodily fluids had become somewhat faint.

“Whether childhood or married life or the future. You’ll know even less. Helena is no longer the person you knew.”

At that, Eugene’s chuckling laughter grew louder. He collected his laughter, shoulders shaking as if he’d heard an immensely amusing story.

“See, you really are no different from me. Arrogant, not knowing your place, crossing lines.”

Eugene moved toward Ian. The gaze that continued unbroken from the moment they faced each other squarely was peculiar.

It was almost the first time he had faced someone straight on without looking down at them. Eugene felt a sensation that was twisted beyond recognition and even novel.

Even Walter, whose physique was similar to his own, always showed only the top of his graying head.

Eugene pulled the cigar from between his teeth and spoke with an exhaled breath.

“But you and I stand in different positions. My position is as Helena Evergale’s husband, but what are you? A hidden lover? How long do you think a relationship you can’t even speak of openly will last?”

Eugene dropped the cigar he’d taken a last puff from onto Ian’s foot and drew close to him.

Unfiltered inner thoughts mixed with hazy smoke were exhaled onto Ian’s face.

“There’s no line to cross between Helena and me in the first place. No need to know my place.”

Ian wanted to brush off the unpleasant provocation beating against his face but didn’t step back. He simply lowered his eyes to stare at the embers remaining on his shoe, then raised them again.

The golden eyes glaring at him overlapped with those of the magical beast he’d taken into the gold mine. Savage and rough. Ian briefly worried whether his own eyes might look that way to Helena.

But it was only a moment. Ian recalled Helena’s hand caressing his cheek.

And he remembered the voice that said he was the most gentle person she knew. It was a vividness incomparable to the fierce eyes before him.

So he had to let this ignorant man know all the more.

“I understand the desire to turn away from the truth, but you must face reality, mustn’t you?”

That the one who must now observe boundaries had changed.

“I don’t need to know my place either. So I’ll be confident. Because Helena temporarily left for your side for that very purpose.”

Eugene’s leisurely smiling brow furrowed. Irritatingly, there was no lie in his words.

After sending Helena back to her room, Eugene learned that she had formally brought up divorce at the assembly hall.

In her luggage bag, he also found a letter of recommendation for a new residence for Madam Tara, her dedicated lady-in-waiting.

It was precisely as if she were settling things one by one that couldn’t be concluded. Like someone who would completely disappear from him soon.

Moreover, it was he whom Helena had left. Her place was Evergale. Yet this damned bastard said so. That Helena had temporarily left for his side.

‘No, no.’

Eugene had to deny it. Even if he was the only one left in this world to deny it, he had to do his utmost to do so.

Helena had returned to him.

She had returned to cut away the twisted knot and tie it again.

Though she was still wandering, she had returned to him, so eventually, unable to find a perfect savior, she would wander and fall back into his arms.

Even if that moment came only after enduring bone-melting waiting.

So if one had to face reality to live life, Eugene intended to live in a dream until then. What was always hard to believe and fluctuating every moment wasn’t dreams but reality.

“I know how to laugh last. I always have. Always. This time will be no different.”

Eugene was the first to pull back, separating from Ian. Though he’d long since expelled the cigarette smoke from his mouth, his throat still felt bitter.

Eugene blamed the cigar still burning leaves at his feet. He crushed the red wick part with his boot and cast his gaze toward where he’d thrown the Cerberus corpse.

“The cleanup is done enough. From today, this gold mine will be closed for the winter.”

Instead of answering, Ian merely shrugged his shoulders lightly with an impudent face.

Eugene returned to the count’s residence with the sun beginning to peek out behind him.

All the way there, he felt as if morning was passing only by his feet.