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Chapter 53
These days, Helena was truly busy beyond all measure.
She had already been swamped just handling the repairs of the count’s castle that were originally underway and the duties she was supposed to perform as the mistress of a noble household. On top of that, she also had to oversee the urban reorganization of Goha, as well as prepare for a bazaar and a masquerade ball.
If she had been alone, it would have been impossible.
For matters inside the count’s castle, the chief attendant, Jo, was helping her greatly, and when it came to Goha, the butler, Wesley, was providing substantial assistance. In addition, Arisa, who had joined not long ago, was already pulling her own weight.
As expected, the one who was of absolutely no help was Benjamin.
Because Benjamin had issued a high-handed order to the workers who were just about to start cleaning the annex, telling them the annex didn’t need cleaning and that they should start with the towers around the main castle instead, the cleaning of the annex was postponed yet again.
As a result, Helena’s plan to lightly tidy up the annex with a small workforce during this particularly busy period was completely thrown off.
Naturally, this led to a fight between Helena and Benjamin.
“Think about it for a moment. If you start cleaning the soldiers’ quarters at a time this busy, what do you think will happen?”
Despite Helena’s plea for him to think things through, an utterly thoughtless reply came straight out of Benjamin’s mouth.
“What’s the difference between cleaning the annex and cleaning the soldiers’ quarters?”
Helena suppressed the anger boiling up violently in her chest.
“All right, listen carefully. The annex is a space no one uses, so if things get too busy, we can stop cleaning it for a while. But the soldiers’ quarters are spaces the soldiers are using right now, aren’t they? Let’s say we’re replacing a broken floor. Then we have to clear out everyone using that room and all the belongings inside it. But if we stop the work halfway because we’re busy, what do you think happens to the people who were using that room?”
Benjamin, who had been frowning and thinking, finally spoke.
“Can’t we just tell them to sleep somewhere else?”
Hey. You crazy bastard!
Helena desperately swallowed the urge to scream that out loud.
“Madam, those guys aren’t that picky. They’re the type who could sleep just fine by climbing a tree even in a forest crawling with monsters.”
That was the moment Helena finally exploded.
“Do you think that’s something a person should say?”
No matter how one tried to dress it up with kind words, Benjamin was a walking disaster.
Even with city reorganization, if she sent him alone, he would always come back having caused some sort of incident, so she had to go with him and step on his foot every time he was about to do something reckless.
Thanks to that, Helena’s foot-stomping technique was becoming sharper by the day.
Now, they could practically communicate just by stepping on feet.
For example, lightly grinding down on the front of the foot was a warning that meant, “That’s enough.” Stomping hard with a sharp heel meant something like, “Are you insane?”
But no matter how much petty venting she did like that, Helena’s stress only grew day by day, snowballing without end.
Benjamin had a habit of handling everything in such a self-willed manner.
At times, he would carelessly schedule meetings at the same time, putting several people in difficult positions, or he would roughly and arbitrarily select goods that needed to be carefully sorted and place orders for them.
The problem was that within the castle, Helena was the only one who could stop Benjamin.
Jo and Wesley, when it came to this issue, had nothing they could do beyond grasping the situation and then going to find Helena.
As a result, Helena had reached the point where just hearing someone shout, “My lady, the Count has…!” was enough to make her stomach turn in a kind of neurosis.
It was the same right up until the day before the masquerade ball.
Wesley approached her carefully and spoke.
“My lady, the Count has closed off one of the small banquet halls inside the grand banquet hall.”
The small banquet halls inside the grand hall were areas whose purposes had already been decided, such as being used as card rooms or tea rooms.
Helena, who had been clutching her head while checking the final guest list, lifted her bloodshot eyes to look at Wesley.
“Closed it off? Why? Did a rat get in or something?”
“Of course not. There was nothing wrong with the room. But the Count suddenly took the key, locked the door of the small banquet hall that was to be used as a card room, and told us not to use that room.”
Helena had a feeling she knew exactly which room Wesley was talking about.
That small banquet hall had suffered the most damage from the fire.
Everything had been burned black and rotted away, which had actually made it easier to clear everything out completely and renovate it from scratch.
Helena had decorated the room to be cozy and luxurious. She had even brought in an extremely expensive marble table designed specifically for card games. It seemed Benjamin had locked the room the same way he locked his workshop.
“Haaahhh….”
Helena muttered as she let out a sigh that bubbled up and boiled over.
“I should make him a necklace out of kidney stones.”
At her muttered words, which were filled with very specific resentment, Wesley, who had been waiting for a response, flinched.
He slid a white-gloved hand over his lower abdomen and quietly retreated.
In the end, the only one who could confront Benjamin was Helena.
Leaving the guest list behind, she went to find him.
Despite arbitrarily closing off an important room on the very day before the banquet, Benjamin was utterly calm.
He was standing in the corridor in front of the grand banquet hall.
By the wide-open window, he was admiring the now neatly arranged garden, which had been tidied up to some extent by the new gardener Helena had tracked down and hired.
Seeing his relaxed, almost melancholic demeanor, Helena felt something snap inside her head.
Sensing her presence, Benjamin looked at her. Helena, too, glared at him with bloodshot eyes as she stomped toward him.
Then she shouted.
“How could you do something like that?”
Benjamin let out an irritated sigh.
He, too, was exhausted from dealing with an unfamiliar workload and enduring Helena’s constant scolding. Naturally, his retort was anything but gentle.
“What is it this time?”
“The small banquet hall. Why on earth did you close it? Hand over the key.”
“I won’t.”
Helena glared fiercely at Benjamin as she spoke.
“I told you, didn’t I? When you do something, either think first—or if you don’t want to think, ask me before you do it!”
“Madam, I am not a child. I have never once acted without thinking.”
“Hngh…!”
Helena covered her flushed face with both hands.
“Please, stop tormenting me already…!”
“For the record, I’ve never tormented you.”
“I’m sick of it now, and I’m exhausted. So please, just stop!”
Helena was so irritated that she felt on the verge of bursting into tears.
Benjamin stared at her and sneered.
“Who told you to do all this? Isn’t it all something you’re doing because you want to?”
Helena felt the tears that had been about to spill suddenly retreat.
She lowered her hands from her face and shouted, glaring at Benjamin with blazing eyes.
“Do I look like someone doing this as a hobby right now? I’m doing this for the Burwood and Ishfern County, and for you!”
Benjamin twisted his lips into a crooked smile.
“Madam, don’t say such nonsense. No one in the Burwood and Ishfern County—including myself—has ever asked you to do any of this.”
“What…?”
“Aren’t you doing it because you want to? Then don’t get angry at me and just keep doing it.”
In that moment, Helena experienced for the first time what it felt like to hate someone enough to want them dead.
“Benjamin Ishfern…! You…!”
I’ll drag you down with me.
Down into the abyss.
The abyss!
Helena had to swallow those words with superhuman patience.
I’ve transcended. I just transcended humanity…!
Helena shut her eyes tightly and steadied her breathing.
Someday, she would definitely find Benjamin’s weakness.
And when that happened, Benjamin and that bizarre group of his—whatever that suspicious organization was—would all be tied up together and thrown into an imperial prison.
Of course, during the transfer, Benjamin would be bound with a rope behind her carriage and forced to walk all the way to the capital.
Imagining Benjamin shedding tears of repentance as he desperately chased after the carriage made her anger quickly subside.
What filled her instead was an exhaustion with no end in sight.
At last, Helena spoke again.
“You… you don’t feel anything at all, even seeing me struggle this much, do you?”
When Helena, who had just moments ago been hopping mad with rage, spoke in such a weary voice that she looked as though she might collapse at any moment, Benjamin finally flinched.
Helena said, her voice dripping with disgust.
“I know you hate me.”
Benjamin furrowed his brow and muttered,
“I don’t hate you.”
“Don’t lie. You do hate me. I heard it all.”
“Heard what, exactly?”
“The day before the wedding. In the garden.”
“…?”
“You were talking loudly with Aaron, like you wanted everyone to hear.”
Helena sneered.
“What did you say again? That I was promiscuous? Oh, right—you said I was a pathetic woman who went around dragging men behind her and acting like she was some kind of queen.”
At last, something seemed to click for him.
Helena saw Benjamin freeze on the spot.
“And what else did you say? Oh, yes—if I ever asked for a divorce, you said you’d send me away with nothing, didn’t you?”
