ERTHMB Chapter 171

A Radiant Person

Helena rushed back to her room, locked the door, and took a deep breath.

Her hands pounded as if she were holding someone’s heart instead of dried paper.

Just as Flam had said, she felt this would truly be the last time she searched for Ian.

Helena placed the case on the table and took out the portrait. The first thing visible was an inscription on the outer surface. Her breath caught involuntarily.

Ian Kamel Aksen de Fevernheim.

Ian Kamel. Could it really be a coincidence that the two names she knew were connected?

Suspicion became certainty, and certainty became truth the moment she unfolded the portrait.

“Ian…”

The man standing proudly in white uniform in the portrait. The Emperor of Rihalt. He was undoubtedly the man she knew.

The very man who had breathed life into her and whispered love to her.

Helena suddenly recalled the day before her execution.

Inside the prison where sticky filth clung to every joint of her fingers, and she was left bound by the ankles. In that place, the only means of gauging time were the light coming through a palm-sized window and the idle chatter of the soldiers standing guard.

Helena listened to their conversations about the world beyond the thick bars.

“Is tomorrow finally the execution day? For that woman.”

“You’ve had a rough time, now your night watch is ending too. By the way… seems like a big ceremony is being carried out in the Western Empire tomorrow too. Have you heard any news?”

“Ah, you mean the Emperor of Rihalt? The rebels finally achieved victory, they say. There’s going to be a massive purge of the imperial family. And this is just a rumor going around quietly, but apparently the rebels’ financier was operating in Instantia.”

“Is that really true?”

“Shh, they say it’s just a baseless rumor, but rumors don’t spread for no reason, so it’s quite suspicious. In any case, it’s a bit unfortunate. It’s been years since the continental war ended, really.”

“Well, wasn’t that throne gained through bloodshed in the first place? It’s nothing but karma.”

The year her neck was placed on the guillotine was, coincidentally, also the year the Western Empire’s emperor lost his life to rebels aiming to usurp the throne.

The same day, the same hour—two executions held on two continents.

‘Ian and I, we died together in the end.’

As Helena realized this, her complexion gradually began to fill with joy.

She knew what this simple fact indicated.

‘Eugene. You said my regression was your fault. No, it wasn’t.’

It was an opportunity.

An opportunity to save Ian.

‘The reason I returned is to love you completely.’

So that no death could separate them.

Helena embraced the portrait with an overflowing heart. She laughed and laughed and then cried a little.

****

“You’re quite diligent these days.”

Eugene blocked Helena’s path as she headed to the forest again today.

Helena lightly acknowledged him and tried to go around him, but her path was inevitably blocked again. Finally stopping and raising one eyebrow at him, Eugene made a proposal.

“Instead of hunting today, have a match with me.”

Even under her piercing stare, he casually shrugged his shoulders. As if serious, a sword sheath was rarely hanging at Eugene’s waist.

Helena’s eyebrow arched higher. However, she didn’t refuse the challenge.

Arriving at the training ground, Helena removed and tossed aside the belt holding her sword, composing herself.

Of all people, to cross swords with that Eugene. It stirred unusual emotions.

“Sir Agyle did recommend the sword to me, but do you know why I decided to learn it?”

At the casual question asked while examining the condition of the sword, Eugene looked at Helena.

Helena murmured, still keeping her gaze fixed on the blade.

“I wanted to become like you.”

“…”

“Your back always smelled of blood. I remained at the estate, seeing you off, just waiting for you to return, praying you’d be safe and unharmed. My heart burned constantly because there was nothing else I could do. Even knowing it was inevitable, the feeling of being left behind was unbearable.”

The reason she first wanted to learn swordsmanship was entirely because of Eugene. She wanted to become like him, to know what the world he saw looked like.

“If I became as strong as you, could I stand beside you, could I follow you? Couldn’t I bear at least the weight of the sword among all the many things you had to shoulder? Then I could understand you a little better. That’s how it started.”

“…Are you resenting me?”

“I’m saying thank you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have even dared to try. Thanks to you, I gained the courage to face things. So when I meet that person again, I hope to be a better version of myself.”

At her added words, Eugene hesitated while drawing his sword. There was only one “that person” Helena called with such eyes.

“Seems you made a promise to meet that bastard again, Helen.”

“No. But I know I will meet him again. I’m preparing for that time. If there was a reason that person had to leave my side, I’ll become strong enough to make even that reason meaningless, and I’ll definitely stand by his side.”

Helena, having taken her stance, lowered her body. The words that followed were the only ones sent to Eugene before she charged.

“That’s why I’m holding a sword now.”

Helena, gripping the sword hilt with both hands, rushed forward. In an instant, they closed the distance, and within Eugene’s range, she swung her arms wide.

As a heavier blow than expected landed, Eugene, who had been about to parry it lightly, put strength into his heels.

Taking advantage of that briefly stopped moment, Helena nimbly changed her movement. Scraping mercilessly against Eugene’s sword as she drove in, she spoke at a distance where their breaths met.

“Do it properly. I’m not someone you can go easy on.”

Eugene, reading her eyes, corrected his stance. As the tendons bulged on the back of his hand, Helena was pushed back significantly.

Immediately, the sound of blades clashing roughly pounded their eardrums. Whether to acknowledge Helena’s sincerity or because he was angry at her answer, Eugene pressed on relentlessly without gaps.

Helena tried to deflect his tremendous force but struggled. With each exchange, her body swayed. Eugene continued to advance with overwhelming power, and Helena retreated like a cornered rat.

Then, when Eugene’s blade cut Helena’s hair. Helena suddenly stamped her foot.

The sword sheath that had been lying on the ground was deliberately caught by her foot. After confirming with a side glance that it had slid between Eugene’s legs, Helena quickly ducked.

Eugene also turned his body following her as she escaped from under his arm. However, it was a somewhat hasty decision. He tripped over the sheath and his body tilted.

Not missing that opening, Helena struck his chest with the flat of her sword. Eugene, his center of gravity shifted backward, finally fell.

Helena pointed the tip of her blade at his throat as he tried to immediately counterattack, signaling the fight was over.

“Did I win?”

The breathless declaration felt refreshing. Eugene looked up at her, his chest heaving.

Under the bright blue autumn sky, the intense midday sunlight pouring down.

The vivid autumn wind made her red hair flutter like a victory banner.

All the dynamic vitality that existed in the world swirled around Helena.

Eugene’s heart began to beat even more wildly.

She was as proud as a valiant knight, as lively as a ceaselessly babbling stream, and as dazzling as the glitter the sea constantly shattered.

Helena was smiling like that.

In front of him, smiling at him. Eugene realized foolishly, in a daze.

‘Ah, this is who you were.’

You were someone who shone so endlessly.

Eugene felt with all his senses that an entire world was being rapidly built up.

And that it was no longer only his world.

****

It was certain that Ian had somehow gotten to his political enemy, Beelzebuth.

Helena came to that conclusion while marking on a map the routes that smuggling ships had mainly used over the past three months.

The outline of Beelzebuth’s forces, which had been difficult to grasp, was finally beginning to take shape. The rumor that his financier was in Instantia truly wasn’t baseless.

‘Ian. Even if you don’t come back to me, it doesn’t matter. I’ll create a path to reach you. I won’t let you die alone.’

Of course, she couldn’t find their headquarters in the vast continent. But if it was a path leading to Rihalt, that was a different story.

Through months of quiet, covert investigation, Helena could finally bring their existence to the surface.

The biggest break was that for some reason recently, the financier had given up hiding and accelerated the pace of smuggling.

Helena felt as though she was walking in step with Ian despite being far apart.

“We completed all agreement procedures two days ago, and paid in full today. We now have exclusive monopoly rights over the Drake Strait for the next three years.”

The Partren Guild’s influence had grown large enough to occupy at least one strait, and Helena chose the area the financier used most frequently.

At least for the time being, she could tie their hands.

And that was enough.

“Meaning, all preparations to go to Rihalt are complete.”

For her to go find Ian.

“I trust only the merchant master. No objections.”

Flam acknowledged Helena with the title he had newly recognized. Then Eugene, sitting across from them, furrowed his brow.

“Why Rihalt of all places, Helena? There are still many nearby kingdoms we haven’t established relations with.”

She had told Eugene it was to expand the guild. That was all he needed to know.

Helena drew a firm line.

“We need to think big. The Western Empire will soon be our stage too. There’s nothing wrong with investigating in advance.”

Eugene’s gaze narrowed as if searching for hidden intentions. Helena turned away from him by concluding the meeting.

****

“My lord!”

Dion ran without even fixing his disheveled glasses.

Only after reaching Ian did he catch his ragged breath. But without even time to steady his breathing, he boldly spread out the large paper he’d been carrying under his arm onto the desk.

Dion’s finger pointed to the waterway between Instantia and Rihalt.

“Beelzebuth’s funding route has been completely blocked. A rising guild that’s been dramatically growing since last year has monopolized the strait.”

Ian’s back stiffened. Both denial—that it couldn’t be, that it shouldn’t be—and a premonition that it would be, came simultaneously.

Though Ian was sitting still, he felt blood rushing to his head just like Dion.

“What’s the guild’s name?”

At the question barely pushed out by moving his lips, Dion hesitated briefly before answering.

“…Partren.”

Thump.

Ian’s heart dropped, and Dion drove in the final nail with his continued report.

“It seems Lady Helena has come to Rihalt.”