HSYR 37

Chapter 37

Helena spoke in a strained voice.

“Blood is blood, what else would it be. If you’re awake, go take off the sheets. I figured this might happen, so I put on spare sheets—just take off the top layer.”

Benjamin, frustrated by her words, shook her arm.

“Are you injured?”

Helena felt like she would go crazy from how dense he was.

“You don’t know?”

“What is it that I don’t know?”

Helena shouted with very clear enunciation.

“My period!”

“……?”

“Period, period, pee–ri–od! So now let go of me!”

Benjamin truly didn’t know what it was.

But because Helena’s expression didn’t look normal, he had no choice but to let her go.

Helena slammed the bathroom door shut right in front of his nose and even locked it, so Benjamin had to meekly return to the bed.

He took off the spare sheet on the bed… and wanted to shove it under the bed, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that in front of an angry Helena, so he carried it to the laundry room.

After leaving the sheet there and drinking some water in the kitchen, he ran into Wesley, who started work earlier than anyone else in the castle.

Coming down to the kitchen for a cup of tea, Wesley immediately bent slightly at the waist and greeted the Count of Ishpern.

“My lord, you’re awake.”

He looked at Benjamin—who was repeatedly gulping down cold water—with eyes full of emotion.

Benjamin gestured for Wesley to come closer.

“……My lord.”

Wesley took a deep breath first, then approached and tried to choose his words.

Should he start by thanking him?

‘Thank you so much for allowing me to return.’

Or should he apologize first?

‘I’m sorry.’

Maybe he should skip the messy parts and get straight to the point.

‘From now on, I will devote my loyalty to my lord and the lady.’

Wesley decided it would be best to start with an apology, then express gratitude, then say what he truly wanted to say. Just as he was about to open his mouth—

Still blankly rubbing his chin, Benjamin looked at him and asked,

“Steward. What is ‘period’?”

“Loyalty to… I’m sorry. What?”

“Ughh.”

After putting on an oiled pad and changing into new nightclothes, Helena returned to bed.

“Huuuugh.”

A sharp pain pierced through her abdomen as if a knife were digging inside, and she stood at the edge of the bed, holding back the pain.

When the pain subsided a little, she slipped back under the blankets.

“Haaaah…”

The blankets, which had become cold in the meantime, felt miserable, but she had no choice.

Helena curled up inside the cold bedding and endured the pain.

Her menstrual cramps were severe, so once her period started, she had to spend a few days lying down, unable to move.

As she endured the chilling pain that felt like a sharp blade was carving out her insides, Helena thought:

‘At least it happened after the banquet. Thank goodness for that.’

At that moment, the bedroom door opened and someone walked in.

Helena opened one eye and confirmed that it was Benjamin.

Annoyance flared instantly.

‘That man disappears at dawn every day, so why, of all days, is he crawling back in instead of leaving today?’

Benjamin didn’t seem to have any particular reason to be there.

Seeing the man—who usually moved as swiftly as a water bird—wandering aimlessly around the room made her anger surge.

In the end, Helena spoke.

“What?”

That expression of his that screamed I don’t know what to do made it obvious he had gone somewhere to ask what a period was.

‘How does someone not know that?’

She wanted to snap at him for being so oblivious and ignorant, but she didn’t even have the strength.

Helena muttered weakly.

“Just… leave me alone…”

Benjamin had not known that women experienced periodic bleeding called menstruation.

According to Wesley, it varies from person to person, but most feel quite severe pain.

And since the Helena he knew was frail, she would surely hurt more than others, not less.

“Huuu…”

Helena’s face, buried in large pillows and blankets, looked extremely pale.

Sometimes she let out a faint whimper as if unable to bear the pain, and that thin, wavering sound felt like a saw cutting across Benjamin’s nerves.

Standing at the edge of the bed with his hands hanging uselessly at his sides, Benjamin finally spoke.

“What should I do?”

Helena, eyes closed, replied in a voice so faint it was about to disappear.

“It’s fine.”

“Medicine, or something—”

“There isn’t even a healer here.”

“There is one in the nearby village.”

“I don’t want to show my body to some healer I don’t even know.”

Helena murmured, pulling the blanket higher.

“Just let me rest for two or three days. Then I’ll be fine…”

Then she buried her face in the blanket as if she didn’t want to talk anymore.

Benjamin quietly looked down at her, and when she showed no more signs of moving, he left the bedroom.

He changed clothes and, as usual, ate breakfast in the dining hall with the castle workers—soup, freshly baked bread, and boiled vegetables.

After filling his stomach, Benjamin realized something.

Since coming to the count’s castle, Helena had eaten with him only once—one dinner, long ago.

He approached the cook who was boiling vegetables.

“My wi…fe, where does she eat?”

Cook Jones’ eyes widened.

He had been the only servant in the count’s castle for a long time, but this was the first time the count had spoken to him since hiring him.

Flustered, he answered,

“My lady does not eat breakfast.”

Benjamin frowned.

“Why?”

Jones flinched.

“P–pardon?”

“She eats nothing until lunch?”

“S–she said so. Instead, she drinks a lot of tea.”

Jones almost added with pastries, but held back.

Instead, he continued:

“For lunch, she usually has eggs and vegetable dishes. For dinner, fish or meat. I prepare the meals and send them to wherever the lady is.”

Benjamin silently listened, then placed soup, bread, and freshly boiled vegetables on a tray and returned to the bedroom.

Helena was still curled under the blankets, groaning.

He pulled the small table beside the bed and set the tray down.

The smell of food made Helena open her eyes weakly.

“What.”

Benjamin silently stuck a spoon into the soup and held it out to her.

The strong scent of the soup made Helena groan.

“Oh, please.”

“I heard there is blood loss. If you lose blood, you must replenish it with food.”

“You replenish blood loss with food? How can you be so simple-minded?”

Ignoring Helena’s words, he continued to hold out the soup.

“Eat.”

Helena closed her eyes again and shook her head.

“No. I don’t eat breakfast.”

“From now on, change that habit.”

“No…! And this soup—this is fish soup! I don’t eat fish that’s been drowned in water!”

Benjamin barely held himself back from saying Don’t be picky. Instead, he took the soup away and brought bread and boiled vegetables.

“Then eat this at least.”

Helena kept her eyes closed, resisting.

Benjamin held the plate out, resisting just as stubbornly.

Normally, Helena wouldn’t care if his arm fell off while he stood there.

But she was exhausted. All she wanted was to get rid of this madman so she could rest alone.

“Agh…!”

In the end, Helena forced herself upright.

“You’re not a husband, you’re a tormentor.”

Glaring at Benjamin as though he were her sworn enemy, she scooped up vegetables with a spoon and ate them.

No matter how she glared, Benjamin simply cut warm bread, spread butter and jam on it, and held it out.

“Eat this as well.”

Helena scrunched her face, chewing the bread extremely slowly as if she might die from how much she didn’t want to eat it.

“My stomach hurts, and if I get indigestion on top of that, it’ll be your fault.”

“You won’t get indigestion from that little.”

“I’ve gotten indigestion from drinking water before, you know?”

At her words, Benjamin gave a smile that looked almost mocking.

“Don’t say absurd things.”

It wasn’t sarcasm; it was the tone of someone who believed such a thing was impossible for any human being.

Annoyance welled up inside her, but Helena held it in. If she got any angrier, she felt she might faint from it.

Helena put down her half-eaten bread.

“I ate enough, right? Let me rest now.”

Suddenly Benjamin reached out and placed his hand on the top of her head.

Her eyes instantly sharpened into triangles.

‘I said leave me alone…!’

She was just about to scream when he gently stroked her hair and said,

“Good job. Now rest.”

The gentle touch threw Helena into a confused state where she didn’t know whether to get angry or what to do.

While she was lost in that confusion, Benjamin put the plates on the tray, picked it up, and left.

Helena muttered,

“What is with that man…?”

Still, after eating something, she did feel slightly—just slightly—better.

“Whatever.”

Helena ran her fingers through the hair Benjamin had mussed, then hugged her pillow tightly and closed her eyes.