CBH 30

Chapter 30 ….

“Your Excellency, are you all right?”

“……”

Hogg let out a rough chuckle.

“There’s no need to worry. This much happens all the time, doesn’t it?”

“……The fact that it happens all the time is the problem. It seems there’s still a habitat of magical beasts nearby that we haven’t discovered yet.”

“We’ll find it soon enough.”

Benjamin did not respond to Hogg. He rubbed his forehead roughly with one hand.

Isabella’s letter kept resurfacing in his mind.

[As always, my answer is the same. We cannot meet again.]

He couldn’t understand.

Why wouldn’t Isabella agree to see him?

[I hope you forget me and live your own life.
You must find your own happiness.]

‘How could I possibly do that? When I know you’re enduring each day in misery…’

He was cursed. Tainted. A man like him was not permitted to live his own life or seek happiness.

If that was so, then at the very least he wanted that for Isabella—the only person in his entire life who had ever shown him warmth.

But—

Through the smoke that blanketed the clearing, a voice echoed once more.

‘Benjamin, you are a monster. Who would ever call someone like you family?’

It was the voice of the former Count of Ishpern, Damon Ishpern.

Perhaps they were right.

He had been born with ill omen clinging to him. Perhaps it was better to endure misfortune than to endure him.

Maybe that was why even Isabella refused to see him ever again.

It felt as though the ground beneath his feet had suddenly collapsed.

Hogg, who had been watching him, lowered his head and quietly stepped back.

When Benjamin returned to the castle, Helena was standing before a massive sweet osmanthus tree, speaking with the gardener.

“If it grows a little colder, the camellias will bloom, but in this season, this is the only tree that bears flowers.”

“Then at least make this one presentable.”

“Yes, my lady.”

In truth, she did not like sweet osmanthus. Its fragrance was too strong, and for someone as sensitive as she was, it brought on headaches.

But that was only in her case. Most people loved the scent of sweet osmanthus carried on the wind.

Besides, in this desolate jungle, it was the only tree that offered both blossoms and fragrance. It had to be properly tended.

Letting out a light sigh, Helena turned her head—and locked eyes with Benjamin, who was walking along the garden path.

“……!”

She was startled.

‘Where on earth did he roll around to end up looking like that?’

Benjamin looked like a beggar. His face was smeared with soot, and the cloak tucked under his arm reeked of something burnt.

Moreover, his armor was splattered here and there with an unidentified black substance that looked sticky as tar.

He looked exactly like the castle had when she first saw it.

‘Is it his hobby to turn everything into that state?’

The moment that thought crossed her mind, the anger she had been too busy to feel until now began to boil up inside her chest.

‘What is wrong with that man? Why does he make me this furious?’

If one looked at it closely, everything was Benjamin’s fault.

It was Benjamin who had let the castle fall into such a shameful condition, and it was because of Benjamin that she had been humiliated today in front of the Duchess of Roussel and the noble ladies of the South.

‘The castle is in quite a state. What do you think will happen if guests arrive?’

She had never imagined that the question Benjamin had casually dropped a few days ago would return in this form.

‘Did he really create this entire situation just to mess with me?’

He was the one who had ruined the castle. He was the one who had concocted this half-baked scheme. Yet she was the one running around trying to clean up the aftermath.

The anger in her chest was no longer just about overwork. A profound disgust for the very person that was Benjamin Ishpern began to steadily pile up.

Why he had done this was obvious.

‘He said he’d take revenge. So this must be his revenge.’

A few days ago, Helena had gone to the trade city of Goha alone with Aaron to meet Wesley.

It wasn’t as though she had told Benjamin to worry, nor had she imagined that he would.

Who could have predicted that he would foam at the mouth like a dog deprived of a bone and chase her all the way to Goha?

And once he had arrived there in that state, he had declared he would take revenge, as if the whole thing had been unbearably unjust.

But she hadn’t expected this to be what that “revenge” meant.

Grinding her teeth, Helena muttered in a low voice,

“……Are you actually insane?”

Benjamin stared at her in silence.

‘That look again.’

That gaze—as if he were looking at the most pitiful creature in the world.

‘Maybe I should just stab those eyes out.’

Helena stepped forward and spoke again.

“So this is your revenge for your wife stepping out for one day to look for a former head steward, saying she’d somehow try to make this castle fit for human habitation.”

Was it because of the sweet osmanthus scent?

Her head throbbed, she was exhausted—and she hated Benjamin. So, so, so much.

“Thanks to you, the castle’s been turned upside down. Benjamin Ishpern. How does it feel, humiliating the people who are trying to rebuild this castle and this family?”

Benjamin, who had been quietly looking down at her, furrowed his brow and closed his eyes.

“……What on earth are you talking about?”

“The guests!”

Even amid his confusion, Benjamin had a vague suspicion.

Since becoming count, prominent figures of southern high society had occasionally sent him letters requesting acquaintance. Benjamin had ignored them all.

But a few days ago, in front of Helena—who had said she felt like hitting him—he had impulsively sent a reply out of wounded pride.

It had been nothing more than a curt, “By all means.”

He had assumed any sane person would ignore such a response, and he had forgotten about it.

But apparently, some insane individual had taken that letter seriously, shown up, and thoroughly scratched at Helena’s nerves.

There was no excuse.

“……I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Oh, I’m sorry too, but this isn’t something that ends with a single apology.”

Helena blocked his path and gave him a frigid smile.

“This is the picture you wanted, right? Me being humiliated in front of the noble ladies of the South, maybe shedding tears in front of the duchess or running away.”

She let out a scoff.

“And then thinking, ‘No matter how hard I try, it’s useless,’ and locking myself up in the annex, crying my eyes out. That’s what you were hoping for. Right?”

“……”

No.

He had thought of teasing her, of pricking at her pride because he resented how she despised him. But not that far.

Yet even to his own ears, any denial sounded pitiful.

Looking at the silent Benjamin, Helena wiped the cold smile from her lips and glared at him.

“Please, just stop. Even if you don’t do things like this….”

I’ll leave you someday.

She had almost said it.

But not yet.

‘Benjamin Ishpern, I won’t stoop to petty revenge. I’ll uncover your most fatal secret and one day drag you into the abyss. Leaving will come after that.’

After drawing in a heated breath, she spoke again—her mind now as cold as ice.

“……I already hate you enough.”

Compared to what she had truly hidden in her heart, those words were almost gentle.

But Benjamin Ishpern’s reaction once again exceeded her expectations.

He lowered the hand that had been covering his eyes.

At her words, his wounded red eyes looked so utterly empty that even Helena felt her heart drop at the sight.