HSYR 24

Aaron knew he was done for. At this point, there was no way to hide it anymore.
Without a word, he raised both hands and pointed at Plemen’s door.

Benjamin looked up at the lavender-colored, cutesy door and the sign hanging above it with unmistakable disgust.

<Plemen♡ ~A place where wandering night cats stay~>

“What in the—?!”

Just then, Helena’s voice rang out from above his head.

“Oh my, darling. You really came all the way here? Were you looking for me?”

Helena was leaning out of a window, peering down at them—
with someone held in her arms.

At the sight, Benjamin felt his hair practically stand on end as rage surged through him.
Suppressing his anger with every ounce of willpower, he barely managed to speak.

“Madam, please stop coming to places like this. You’re married now.”

Helena replied with a bright, carefree smile.

“Oh come on. I can’t resist making my fantasies come true.”

A grinding sound came from Benjamin’s clenched jaw.

Helena Winston, this wanton woman.

Even as fury clouded his vision, a strange sense of foreboding crept in—
the feeling that he would spend his entire life chasing after Helena’s shadow as it slipped effortlessly through his fingers.

Gritting his teeth, he said,

“Madam, please return to reality…!”

Helena deliberately stroked the jet-black hair of the person in her arms and answered,

“I think it’ll be faster for you to come up here.”

“We’ll meet soon.”

“Ohohoho! Be careful on your way up!”

Benjamin stormed up Plemen’s stairwell as if he were about to shatter it with his steps.

Meanwhile, Aaron, who had witnessed everything from up close, fidgeted anxiously.

“I came looking for the butler, and what is this mess…?!”

At that moment, the butler in question—Wesley—approached him.

With a stiff expression, Wesley asked,

“Why are you here?”

Aaron, at a loss for words, merely shrugged.
At this point, information gathering or anything else felt like a complete failure.

Wesley asked again,

“The man who just stormed upstairs—was that Count Ishpern?”

“Exactly as you saw.”

Wesley, who had been staring blankly at Plemen’s lavender door, suddenly started up the stairs.

“H-Hey…”

Aaron started to follow, then stopped.
His eyes were starting to sting again.

Inside Plemen, Benjamin brushed past the madam who tried to speak to him and aggressively climbed upstairs.

He felt people seated at partitioned tables flinch at the sight of his fury, but he paid them no mind.

Stopping in front of Helena, who was seated by the window, he warned her in a low voice,

“I made myself perfectly clear. I never wanted to see something like this again…!”

Helena turned toward him.

“Something like what?”

In her arms was a fat, pitch-black cat.

The cat seemed startled by Benjamin’s sudden appearance. Its large pupils shrank instantly, and it let out a fierce sound.

“Hiss—!”

Then it leapt out of Helena’s arms and onto the table.

Helena sighed.

“Ah, I just got friendly with Nero!”

“……”

Having regained his composure, Benjamin slowly scanned the room.

The café was filled with cats—on window sills, empty sofas, even sitting on people’s laps.

Helena, wearing her ridiculous mustache, smiled cheerfully.

“I guess it’s a cat tea house. Isn’t it fun? I’ve never seen a place like this even in the capital.”

“Haaaah…”

“Why are you sighing like that?”

Resting her chin on her hand, Helena squinted playfully.

Looking down at her, Benjamin finally spoke.

“You made me worry.”

Helena froze, clearly not expecting that.

“You worried? About me? Why?”

“You were said to have gone somewhere dangerous alone. How could anyone not worry?”

“Ooooooh—”

The café’s attention shifted entirely toward the handsome young man and the mustached lady’s apparent romance.

But the mustached lady herself didn’t believe a word of it.

Benjamin Ishpern worried about me?

She stared up at him with skeptical green eyes.
Only then did she notice his hair was damp with sweat, his broad chest rising and falling with rough breaths.

Helena stared into his red eyes.

Those eyes, which had always felt cold like bloodless gemstones, now seemed to ripple somehow.

Why?

She couldn’t understand.

Benjamin, you really don’t know me at all. I’m not someone who overdoes things. I’m the most important person in my own life.

First of all, she wasn’t alone. She’d come with Sir Aaron.
And if Plemen had truly been a dangerous place, she wouldn’t have entered in the first place.

And why are you worried about me? You married me for money.

She swallowed those thoughts.

To Benjamin, she had to remain the ignorant woman who married him for her dowry because of a scandal.
If he learned her true purpose, he wouldn’t let her act freely like this.

Instead, she awkwardly brushed her hair back and said,

“…I’m sorry.”

Benjamin extended his hand.

Helena hesitated, then lightly placed her hand atop his.

His hand was large and warm.

Well… this isn’t so bad.

She’d never liked people worrying about her.
Her father, Adrian Winston, and her stepmother, Mia Winston, expressed concern as constant nagging.

Her friends, on the other hand, didn’t worry at all—they found her antics genuinely entertaining.

So this… this pure concern was new to her.

Then Benjamin spoke.

“No. Not your hand.”

He leaned down toward her.

Helena’s eyes widened as his beautiful face drew closer.

W-What?

His lips, chilled by the night wind from horseback riding, looked dry, and his eyes were tinged red.
A strange heat glimmered in those red eyes—sweet, like strawberry jam bubbling in a pot.

What would those dry lips taste like?

The next instant, Helena’s eyes widened to their absolute limit, horrified by her own thought.

It was as if a mischievous fairy had whispered wicked ideas into her ear.

Get a grip, Helena Winston!

Just then, Benjamin placed a hand on her cheek.

As she’d noticed before, his calloused hand was large, rough, and solid.

It’s just because this kind of touch is unfamiliar.

That must be it.

The strange warmth spreading from where his hand touched her was surely just because it felt unfamiliar.

Without realizing it, Helena’s eyelashes fluttered as she closed her eyes.

She felt something brush against her upper lip.

The next moment—

Rip!

It felt like sparks exploded behind her closed eyes.

Helena screamed.

“Ow—ow—ow!”

She stared up at Benjamin in disbelief.

He was glaring at the mustache he had just torn off her upper lip.

“Where did you get such a grotesque thing?”

Fake mustaches were supposed to be soaked thoroughly before removal—ripping it off like that hurt so much she nearly cried.

“Ugh… that hurts so bad!”

As Helena whimpered, clutching her lip, Benjamin coldly grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet.

“Let’s go, troublesome madam. And don’t think today’s incident is over.”

“If it’s not over, then what are you going to do about it?!”

At her tearful defiance, a deeply twisted smile spread across Benjamin’s lips.

“You may look forward to it.”

Helena’s mouth fell open.

“That’s so unfair…!”

“You’d do well to stop there—unless you’d like to experience revenge beyond your expectations.”

“R-Revenge…?”

She stared at him in disbelief.

“Did I even do anything to you? What did I do to deserve revenge…?”

“Look forward to it.”

“I’m not looking forward to it at all!”

Bickering loudly, they made their way down Plemen’s narrow staircase—
only to run into Wesley, the former butler of House Ishpern.

Helena greeted him first.

“Mr. Wesley. I waited because I wanted to see you one more time.”

But Wesley wasn’t looking at Helena. His gaze was fixed on Benjamin.

A ripple passed over his face—
shock, followed by deep regret, and several other emotions washing over him all at once.

At last, Wesley bowed his head.

“…Your Excellency, Count Ishpern.