#241
Helmut
Episode 241
“What is life like at the palace?”
“It’s comfortable.”
The Grand Duchess was alone. I can feel the presence of people on the other side, so it looks like they’ve bitten someone.
It meant that they wanted to talk.
She smiled faintly.
“I’m glad you seem to be adapting well. “I heard you were a commoner.”
It wasn’t a sarcastic remark about adapting well to commoner topics.
Not even Michael spoke to Helmut like that.
“I have lived in an aristocratic mansion. I had a noble guardian. “I entered the academy under guardianship.”
“I heard you transferred to Greta Academy. “How do you know the noble guardian?”
“He is a friend of my teacher.”
Michael did not tell the Archduchess of his suspicion that Sword Saint Darian was Helmut’s teacher.
A few words were exchanged about him.
Grand Duchess Linosa was never in a hurry to ask questions. It leads to conversation naturally.
Helmut knew that caution was part of his mother’s personality.
My mother was someone who would never want her feet to shake.
Because I grew up as a noble and lived as a noble.
The Grand Duchess continued speaking softly.
“How did you live before coming to the academy?”
“I lived in the forest. Together with Master. “Hunting and learning swordsmanship.”
The Grand Duchess’ eyes, which had been avoiding her, immediately fell on Helmut. she asked slowly.
“What about my parents?”
“I was abandoned at a young age and was an orphan.”
“Well… … .”
The two were already walking side by side together.
If there wasn’t an age difference, the Archduchess and Helmut wouldn’t have been allowed to be alone together like this.
“Can you guess where I was born and who my parents are?”
“I guess. But I also think there must have been a reason to throw it away.”
“I’m thinking of finding… … “Isn’t there any?”
“I don’t know if they want it.”
There is a saying called force majeure. Being born as a commoner is more absolute than being born as a nobleman.
Just as Helmut was born with a seed of darkness and was abandoned because of it.
By leaving the Forest of Pahe, Helmut made the impossible that humans with sprouts of darkness could not survive there become possible.
But it was possible through his own will. Getting back into place was a different matter.
“okay. “Don’t you miss it?”
“I miss you.”
Helmut responded briefly. Isn’t it because of that longing that he came here?
Grand Duchess Linosa closed her mouth. Their steps were moving along the wall.
There were portraits lined up on the wall, as if telling the history of the Grand Duchy of Linosa.
The power of lineage was strong. These were faces that had striking similarities.
Then suddenly Helmut noticed something and stopped.
“This place.”
One spot in the portrait was empty. A place where someone’s portrait should be placed, following the current Grand Duke and Grand Duchess.
It was right next to the twin portraits of Michael and Charlotte, who had younger faces than they do now.
Helmut frowned.
“Why is it empty over there?”
After a moment of silence, Grand Duchess Linosa opened her mouth.
“It’s a sign that he was sent away without even being able to draw a portrait.”
Helmut realized that was his place.
There seemed to be no trace of him left in Latona until now.
As if even the fact that a child named Helmut had been born had been erased. Helmut himself had the pendant, and if his mother had not been here, Helmut would never have known where he was born.
Because he was just a being buried in someone’s memory.
The Grand Duchess’ face trembled as she looked into the empty space. She confessed with difficulty.
“This is my first child who I had to send away in an unexpected accident.”
Helmut swallowed his words. Because he didn’t know what to say.
“Very occasionally, I think of that child. Now that many years have passed, he is not so sick. If that child had grown up well, how would he have grown up? As he was of Rinosa’s lineage, he would have wielded a sword and he would have probably become a great swordsman. “He will grow up well as the successor to Rinosa.”
Grand Duchess Linosa continued speaking with sunken eyes.
“I was surprised to see Helmut. “Helmut was like the kid I imagined growing up.”
A sharp pain arose in my chest. No, I couldn’t tell if it was pain or joy.
Helmut looked at Archduchess Linosa. She too was looking at Helmut.
There was sadness in Grand Duchess Linosa’s eyes.
And one more thing. hope.
“Just as I would not have let my child go of my own will, Helmut’s parents would not have sent him away of their own will.”
The situation of commoners is different from that of nobles.
And unlike her, there are countless parents who abandon their children of their own will, whether because of poverty, to protect their own lives, or because the child was not supposed to be born.
However, Grand Duchess Linosa ignored that possibility and spoke.
As if he was just saying what he wanted to say.
“That’s why I believe that if Helmut, who has grown so well, comes back, I won’t abandon him.”
As if he would accept his first child as long as it came back.
Those words moved Helmut.
The wall that had been blocking him was torn down. Helmut immediately opened his mouth.
“I heard that I look a lot like your Highness the Archduke. “It was the same with the Grand Duchess.”
It was a word that could sound impure. How dare a commoner say that he resembles the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Linosa?
However, Grand Duchess Linosa did not reprimand his rudeness. She rather nodded her head.
The strange atmosphere between them made it possible.
“Yes, Helmut appears to be of Linosa blood. “In my eyes too.”
“I am… … Born in Linosa. “Maybe here in Latona.”
Helmut looked directly into the archduchess’ eyes. It was as if he was confessing that he was the Archduke’s illegitimate son.
But the archduchess realized that was not what she meant.
Blue eyes trembled. she asked quietly.
“Are your parents still here in Latona?”
Helmut nodded calmly.
“yes.”
“Evidence or a sign… … If you have it, I might be able to help you. “You can probably find it.”
The Grand Duchess’ voice trembled for the first time.
“There is a mark. “This is what I had with me when I was abandoned.”
“What is that?”
But before Helmut could reply, someone’s voice from the other side interrupted their conversation.
“You are here, mother.”
Both of them were equally shocked.
Even Helmut didn’t notice him approaching because he was so absorbed in the conversation.
It felt as if the scene of a secret meeting had been interrupted.
“Michael.”
“I heard you were headed here.”
The blonde boy with an angelic smile gave Grand Duchess Rinosa his gaze first.
It’s as if Helmut’s existence is being deliberately ignored.
He probably didn’t hear the conversation between the two people.
There was a distance, and if he had come that close, Helmut would have noticed his presence first.
“But you were talking to Charlotte’s senior.”
“Yes, I was talking about Charlotte.”
The Grand Duchess laughed softly. It was a lie. Helmut realized that she did not want Michael to know the content of this conversation.
It was the same for Helmut.
“It’s a portrait of the Grand Duke of Rinosa… … .”
Michael’s eyes stayed on the empty space where the Grand Duchess was looking for a moment. Michael was not unaware of its existence.
“Wow, it’s already been so long. I had work to do. “I have to go now.”
Confirming that she was no longer in a position to talk further, Grand Duchess Linosa expressed her intention to leave first.
“Please feel free to look around. Michael, I’ll see you later.”
She greeted Helmut with calm eyes again and left.
The saboteurs Michael and Helmut were left alone.
It was Michael who was consciously looking for Leon and neglecting Helmut.
He, who thought he would leave right away, opened his mouth to Helmut.
“Helmut, how are you?”
“yes.”
The smile on his face deepened at the short answer.
“Aren’t you missing your mother by any chance? “Because you are still young and beautiful.”
“It’s not like that.”
Helmut was particularly careful about speaking in front of Michael. It was because I felt like I was going to let things go without realizing it, just like I did with Hyde.
“But why do you seem to show your emotions in front of your mother?”
“It must be an illusion.”
Helmut flatly denied it. I’m pretty used to lying now.
Michael laughed out loud without realizing it. But his expression soon became cold.
“Then you’d better be careful. “Now that the Grand Duke is away, there may be unnecessary misunderstandings.”
“It was Her Highness the Grand Duchess who was looking for me.”
Helmut pointed out the facts succinctly.
In any case, he met many noblemen at the Gretan Academy, and did not bend to any of them.
The same was true outside the academy.
If the other person is his younger brother Michael, it doesn’t go well anyway.
No matter how much he is the Grand Duke of Rinosa and is wary of himself.
“That way of speaking is really arrogant. So it’s like you. “I liked that, though.”
Michael had a strange expression.
I like it. But not now.
It seemed like such denial would have to follow. But strangely, he couldn’t get the story out.
Although his head defined him as an enemy, strangely enough, his heart did not treat Helmut as an enemy.
The sense of disconnect was strange.
It was a phenomenon Michael had never experienced before.
