#23
Helmut
Episode 23
In the dark of the night, when the mercenaries had gone to bed except for a few who were on watch, Helmut was finally alone.
After regaining consciousness, I needed time to sort myself out.
The process before and after passing the barrier flashed through my mind in an instant.
‘I wouldn’t be able to do this if I had to do it twice.’
The pain I experienced when passing through the barrier and immediately after passing through it was so severe that it was incomparable to when I almost died after eating Mato. Just thinking about it again is terrifying.
If I had known it would be this painful, would I have tried it?
Helmut answered that question right away.
‘You probably tried. ‘I would have thought it would be bearable before I experienced it.’
People are foolish beings who don’t know anything until they experience it. Helmut narrowed his eyes and placed a hand on his chest.
‘It will take some time to fully recover.’
I need to resume my Vis training soon. Time was on his side.
The body of the trained swordsman, the source of his life, did not collapse. That was the difference of just a piece of paper. The barrier had failed to break him to the point where he could not recover.
That meant that after some time, Helmut would be able to regain his original strength.
‘Am I in a worse state now than when I first started training?’
It was strange that he had become a patient.
Vis cannot be moved yet. The Vis came back to about 30%, but it was better not to use it hastily.
Since the body does not obey your will, you may suffer internal injuries if you force it out.
‘And there are still sprouts of darkness within me.’
Helmut felt its presence inside his heart, radiating faint heat like an ember. It was quiet and smaller than before.
As Vis was surrounded with a shield and consumed, the sprouts of darkness struggled to survive in the barrier. As I was rapidly losing my strength due to the purification barrier.
But it didn’t completely disappear. Like a very thin breath, it succeeded in surviving in his heart.
When passing through the barrier, I expected that if I was lucky, I might disappear. But I think it was too much to hope for that far.
It was a power that had been rooted in Helmut since birth, so perhaps it meant the spark of life.
Perhaps he was able to avoid death because the sprouts of darkness remained. This amazing resilience is the product of the sprouts of darkness.
But there was one thing that was clear.
‘I have to hide its existence.’
And that he got out of the Forest of Pahe.
You are starting a new life with a completely blank page.
Helmut took out the pendant and held it tightly. One day, Helmut will find the owner of the voice that called his name long ago.
There was no need to rush. Because we have just taken the first step.
*
“It’s moving, right?”
These were the words Finn, the boy who had discovered him at dawn, uttered upon seeing Helmut as soon as he woke up. It’s a face that looks like you’ve seen a ghost.
Helmut thanked him in a calm manner.
After some conversation, Finn seemed to accept the fact that Helmut had lost his memory as much as Tanya.
When Tanya asked her to take him to the water, Finn nodded willingly.
“Yeah, you’re not looking bad right now. Isn’t it itchy? Your face is so dirty too. Should I have wiped it off? “But you looked like a corpse and I felt uncomfortable touching it.”
Tanya told me to do it, so I only did the bare minimum. Finn looked at the mottled face of the guy who was taller than him with a dirty look in his eyes.
“But I’m glad you woke up quickly. “We have to leave today, so I thought about what I would do if I didn’t wake up and turned into a corpse.”
Originally, he would have stayed in suspended animation for a while longer to recover his body, but it seems like they found him and woke him up.
It remained to be seen whether this would be beneficial, but it wasn’t a bad idea to gain knowledge about the human world through them.
Finn asked with a grin.
“Your name is Helmut?”
“okay.”
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen years old.”
“really? We’re the same age. “I thought you were older than me.”
Just as Finn looked at Helmut curiously, Helmut also found Finn somewhat curious. It was Helmut’s first time talking to a boy his age.
Finn arrived at the water’s edge and pointed his finger toward a certain place.
“There it is. “You were lying there.”
But Helmut’s gaze did not reach there.
‘This valley.’
Helmut’s eyes darkened as he stared upstream. If you go back along this valley, you will reach Pahe Forest.
‘Elaga is going to be okay, right?’
It would be good if Ygrel told him what she said. Although it is a place you left of your own will, you will never be able to forget it. Memories accumulated since birth.
“Hey, let’s take a quick shower and go back. “I’m cold.”
Finn, who finished washing his face first, fumed. Helmut followed him and bowed his head to the water.
I dipped my hands in the cold water and washed my face and hair, which were covered in sand and dust.
Helmut returned with Finn, who had lost his voice and looked shocked.
Eyes poured in. Everyone opened their eyes and was preparing to leave.
“who is this? “That one.”
“Is that really the same corpse from yesterday?”
“Can a person change like that just by washing?”
“You can’t look like that even if you wash for a hundred days, man!”
“Why is this bastard fighting again! It looks shiny. Are you a noble?”
The cleanly washed face was spotless and white. Her impression was so aristocratic that her old travel clothes felt shabby.
The pitch-black eyes shadowed by the delicate features stood out. The expressionless face, whose true nature was unknown, gave a mysterious impression.
Because I lost a lot of muscle over the past few days, my body became slim.
Helmut, whose appearance was so beautiful that it felt awkward to be in a forest like this, looked more like the heir of a noble family than a swordsman.
Helmut quietly returned to his seat and examined the sword. It needs some grooming, but as expected from a famous swordsman, there didn’t seem to be any major problems even though it had been through a lot of rough times.
“Hey, are you a noble by any chance?”
Finn, who had been fussy just a moment ago, somehow asked politely.
Helmut stopped cleaning his sword blade.
Perhaps he is of noble status, Darian once said. Nobility, the ruling class of humans.
However, mercenaries are mostly made up of commoners. That fact was meaningless unless he could prove his identity anyway.
Helmut hesitated.
“I don’t know. “You said you didn’t remember.”
“What does status matter anyway? “Now he’s just a member of our mercenary group!”
Before we knew it, Tanya came to the side and placed her chin on Helmut’s shoulder! He touched his hand. Helmut, who had noticed her approach, immediately greeted her. My senses were coming back little by little.
“Did you sleep well? “Tanya.”
“So, did you sleep well? My body feels pretty good. “It’s nice that the character has become more clear.”
“Look at how handsome he is and how kind he speaks.”
Perfect! Finn, who was grumbling for no reason, grabbed his head and screamed.
“Ahh!”
“Shut up and go help me get ready to leave.”
Tanya, who suddenly had a kind look on her face, handed Helmut some clothes.
“I need to get better quickly. “It looks like you’re broke, so I brought you some extra clothes.”
The three sets of clothes were of different sizes. All of them were too big for Helmut to wear.
But this alone was a luxury for Helmut. She has been living with less clothes than this. It was extreme poverty that went beyond frugality.
“Do you think your condition is better than yesterday?”
“Yes, it’s getting better.”
“I think we’ll arrive at the village in three days, so just be patient and follow me until then. “I’ll go to the doctor then.”
“yes.”
“If you have anything to take care of, take it too. “We’re on our way to a client, so we have to leave soon.”
“Yes, Tanya.”
Tanya looked happily at Helmut, who answered consistently.
She ran her hands through Helmut’s hair and left, waving her hands.
About 30 minutes later, the group departed.
“Are you okay? How about taking a ride in the carriage? “The pace is quite fast, so it would be difficult to keep up.”
“I think I need to walk to relax my body.”
Normally, I ride a horse, but since I came to the forest path, I chose to walk. Everyone here was a mercenary, so they had strong legs.
If we were to call it a carriage, it would only be a small wagon. It would be easier to walk than to sit crumpled among the luggage lying there.
Recovery is necessary, but in order to return to training, you need to move slowly.
-Hee hee hee!
Helmut walked next to the maroon pack horse. It was the first time since he was born that he had seen an animal that was not a monster. How could such a gentle creature exist?
It was a series of unfamiliarity. The monster also became gentle like a sheep in front of Ella, but its temperament itself was different.
I rubbed the bridge of its nose and the horse snorted happily. At first she seemed wary of Helmut, but her instincts did not seem alive enough to sense the sprouts of darkness.
“I guess you like horses?”
“Ah, I think so.”
‘Seeing as how he likes horses, I don’t think he’s a noble.’
Finn looked Helmut up and down with puzzled eyes. Unintentionally, he was watching Helmut’s every move.
It’s not like he’s particularly elegant or acting arrogant, but his appearance and eyes are out of the ordinary.
I never felt like a commoner boy growing up in a village.
‘Did you receive some kind of training? Understated? That’s what it feels like.’
I was curious as to why he had fallen there. But she said she couldn’t remember, and Tanya didn’t seem to want to pry.
‘Oh, I don’t know! ‘What do you do when you think about it?’
The moment he decided to raise his hands and look at Helmut, Finn saw him stumbling.
“Hey Helmut! what’s the matter?”
A pale complexion. Cold sweat was beading on his forehead.
“What the hell? Did you have a seizure? Do you have a chronic illness?”
