HSYR 42

Chapter 42

As the sweet-and-sour sauce added its flavor, the greasiness of the meat was masked, making it feel as though she could eat a few more pieces.

Perhaps Benjamin was in a rare good mood, because he went on talking about this and that.

“I had the cook make some prosciutto, so you should be able to taste it in a few months. If you like it… we can make more next year.”

Helena did not like prosciutto. It was because of the sticky texture that clung to her mouth and the musty aftertaste.

She had been about to snap back that she didn’t need it, but she closed her mouth instead.

By the time it’s ready to eat, I might not even be here.

Thinking that way, the prosciutto Jones was making now had nothing to do with her. Even more so next year.

No matter if Benjamin filled the entire smoking room with wild boar legs, it would have nothing to do with Helena.

Without a word, Helena lifted her glass and took a sip of wine.

10. About Him

When the cold wind began to blow through the bare branches after all the dry leaves had fallen, a letter arrived from the north.

[To my heartless stepdaughter.]

The letter, which began this way, was from her stepmother, Mia Winston.

[Heartless girl. How could you go to Burwood and go several months without sending even a single letter? Thanks to that, your father has developed the habit of going straight to his study every morning the moment he wakes up to check for new mail.]

Looking at Mia’s neatly written scolding in her beautiful handwriting, Helena realized her mistake.

After coming to the south, she had been so overwhelmed that she hadn’t managed to send even one letter to the Winston household.

The letter was long, but in short, it said that her father and siblings were very curious about how she was doing and wanted an update.

And there was another main point.

[…But before that, make sure you send your thanks to Her Majesty the Empress. At the regular banquet, Her Majesty asked about how you were doing. How could you get married through the Empress’s arrangement and not even send a thank-you note? I was absolutely mortified.]

Helena let out a groan.

What Empress Clarissa was curious about was surely not Helena’s well-being. There was something else she wanted to know.

The connection between Benjamin and the suspicious group threatening the Empire’s stability…!

Helena pressed her fingers to her brow. She still had nothing meaningful to report.

No. It’s not like I’ve done nothing.

She tried to reassure herself.

I searched the entire castle for evidence.

Using cleaning as an excuse, she had thoroughly searched every corner of the Ishfern Count’s castle.

However, the only thing she gained from all that cleaning was a slightly cleaner and more comfortable life.

That’s still a gain, but it’s not something I can report to the Empress.

In the end, she concluded that she wouldn’t be able to find any evidence this way.

If the evidence were a small slip of paper hidden behind a loose brick, no matter how thoroughly Helena searched the castle, there was no way she could find it.

In that case, what she needed to do wasn’t search the castle—it was to keep an eye on Benjamin.

Fortunately, there had been considerable progress here as well.

After the wild boar incident, the previously stiff relationship between the Count and Countess of Ishfern had loosened slightly.

The biggest change was that Benjamin, who used to leave the castle at dawn and return only after sunset, was now spending more time staying inside the castle.

He still wasn’t particularly helpful, but it was welcome news for Helena nonetheless.

Benjamin Ishfern…!

One early winter afternoon, having finished her tasks early, Helena knocked on the door of the workshop where Benjamin had shut himself in.

It’s about time you gave me some meaningful evidence.

From inside came Benjamin’s indifferent reply.

“Come in.”

When she opened the door, she saw Benjamin quickly pulling his feet down from where he had them propped up on the desk.

Straightening his posture, he asked,

“What is it?”

Helena confidently delivered the answer she had carefully prepared in advance.

“I was just wondering what you were up to.”

Her gaze swept around the workshop before stopping on Benjamin.

He had his long, curly hair—reaching down to his shoulders—roughly tied back, and he was wearing the glasses she was strangely weak for.

That alone would have been fine, but draped over his shoulders was the bizarre gray-green outer coat that Helena had once harshly compared to monster hide.

Pointing at the coat with her finger, she asked,

“What is that strange outfit, anyway?”

Benjamin shrugged.

“It’s a surplus outer coat from a mercenary corps.”

One of Benjamin’s few strengths was that no matter how shabby the clothes, his body was such a good hanger that they usually looked fine on him.

But even Benjamin seemed unable to pull off that coat.

Helena spoke as tactfully as she could.

“Isn’t it a bit too worn?”

Benjamin answered seriously.

“The durability of this coat is no joke. Even if the entire south burned down, these would remain intact.”

“You really think that’s… an acceptable condition?”

“Doesn’t it look fine?”

“It doesn’t look fine at all. Honestly, even a perfectly normal person would look like a monster wearing that.”

Despite her words, Benjamin only shrugged and didn’t take it off.

“That’s why I only wear it here. This room is very drafty.”

Helena glared at him irritably, then stopped.

She hadn’t come here to fight today. If anything, she had come to coax him.

With a voice she had carefully dressed up to sound gentle, she muttered,

“Then you should at least have a brazier brought in.”

At her words, Benjamin looked as though he’d seen a ghost.

With his eyes wide open and one eyebrow subtly furrowed, he asked,

“But why are you here? You didn’t like these pieces, did you?”

Standing in front of the drawers displaying the sculptures, Helena smiled softly at him.

Ah, I came to look for evidence that will send you to ruin. But I don’t have the nerve to rummage through these ominous things alone, so I figured I’d search while you’re here.

Instead of saying that, she casually swept her hair back and gave the prepared answer.

“It’s your hobby. I was curious what all of this was.”

At her words, Benjamin’s eyes widened, then his expression hardened.

Slowly, he stood up, set aside his outer coat, and walked toward her.

“W-What?”

Helena shrank her shoulders in alarm, but he paid it no mind and stepped right up behind her.

Trapped between Benjamin’s broad chest and the drawers, Helena could only roll her eyes in shock.

Did I suddenly act too friendly?

Standing behind her, Benjamin reached out his arm. She felt his firm chest brush against the back of her head.

It was only a light touch. Yet even that faint contact made the roots of her hair stand on end like the fur of an angry cat.

His hand brushed past her cheek.

The hand that had been carving wood with a chisel smelled of metal and sawdust, while his tightly muscled arm carried a warm, pleasant scent.

Without realizing it, Helena inhaled.

He smelled calm yet sweet—like warm caramel wrapped in wax paper.

In that moment, standing with her head lightly leaning against his chest, Helena felt as though a small shutter inside her heart had opened.

But it lasted only an instant.

The next moment, she was staring at a lizard carved from white bone.

The haze in Helena’s eyes vanished in a flash.

The ugly face of the lizard dragged her brutally back from her daze to reality.

Benjamin held out the grotesque carving and said,

“This is the most recent one I made. It’s carved from a wyvern’s horn.”

“Eek.”

Helena nearly screamed in fear but barely managed to hold it back.

Benjamin seemed to mistake her fragile whimper for admiration.

He pointed to a shelf filled with bizarre sculptures that looked as though they might start moving at any moment.

“This one uses a technique I learned from a taxidermist. You cover the carving with hide. It looks quite lifelike, doesn’t it?”

Helena replied in a voice on the verge of fainting.

“It’s too… too lifelike. It just looks like a monster…”

Seeing her expression, Benjamin chuckled softly, then took a wooden sculpture from the lower shelf and placed it in her hand.

“You might like this one. There are small fairies in the forest. Of course, they’re dangerous to you, but they look rather cute.”

Holding the bizarre wooden carving that looked like a cross between a mouse and a human, Helena let out another involuntary whimper.

“Eek…!”