CBH 24🔐

Chapter 24 …

Aaron thought all was lost. There was no way to hide it now.

He silently pointed with both hands at the door of Flemen.

Benjamin looked up at the cute lavender-colored door and the sign hanging above it with a look of disgust.

<Flemen♡ ~Where Wandering Night Cats Stay~>

“What is… this…!”

At that moment, Helena’s voice came from above his head.

“Oh my, you came all the way here? To find me?”

Helena was leaning out by the window, looking down, cradling someone in her arms.

Seeing this, Benjamin felt a surge of anger that made every hair on his body stand on end.

He clenched his anger with all his might and barely managed to speak.

“Madam, please stop looking for me in places like this. You’re married now.”

Helena smiled brightly.

“Oh, I just can’t resist bringing my fantasy to life.”

Benjamin’s teeth ground together with a soft grind.

Helena Winston, this wanton woman.

Even as rage clouded his vision, a strange premonition gnawed at him—

that he would spend his life chasing after the shadow of Helena, slipping through his fingers like this, always.

He clenched his jaw and said,

“Madam, let’s come back to reality…!”

Helena stroked the black hair of the person in her arms and replied teasingly,

“I think it would be faster if you came here instead.”

“I’ll be there shortly.”

“Oh hohoho, be careful on your way!”

Benjamin thundered up the stairs of Flemen, pounding each step as if he were going to break them.

Meanwhile, Aaron, watching the scene unfold right before him, fidgeted nervously.

“Came to find the butler, and this is what happens…!”

At that moment, the butler in question, Wesley, approached him.

With a stern expression, Wesley asked,

“Why are you here?”

Aaron was at a loss for words and shrugged.

At this point, all his information-gathering efforts seemed to have failed.

Wesley asked again,

“The person who just stormed upstairs in anger… was that Count Issufern?”

“Yes, as you saw.”

Wesley, staring blankly at Flemen’s lavender door, suddenly started up the stairs.

“Uh….”

Aaron hesitated to follow him. His eyes had started itching again.

Inside Flemen, Benjamin ignored the madam who tried to speak to him and roughly climbed to the upper floor.

People sitting at partitioned tables flinched at the sight of his anger, but he didn’t care.

He approached Helena, who was sitting by the window, and warned her in a low voice.

“I’ve told you clearly—I don’t want to see this with my own eyes again…!”

Helena turned her body to face him.

“What ‘this’?”

A black, plump cat was nestled in her arms.

The cat seemed startled by Benjamin’s sudden appearance. Its large pupils shrank instantly, and it let out a fierce hiss.

“Hissss—!”

Then it leapt out of Helena’s arms and onto the table.

Helena sighed.

“Ah, I finally became friends with Nero!”

“…….”

Benjamin, having regained his composure, slowly looked around.

The shop was full of cats—by the windows, on empty sofas, even on people’s laps.

Helena, with her strange little mustache, smiled brightly.

“So this is a cat café, I guess. Isn’t it fun? I’ve never seen a shop like this even in the capital.”

“Sigh…!”

“Why are you sighing like that?”

Helena propped her chin on her hand and squinted at him with a grin.

Benjamin slowly spoke as he looked down at her.

“You made me worry.”

Helena was taken aback by a comment she hadn’t expected at all.

“You… worried? About me? Why?”

“You went to a dangerous place alone. Who wouldn’t worry?”

Ooooh—

Every gaze in the café turned toward the noticeably handsome young man and the mustached madam in a sudden romance.

But the madam with the mustache couldn’t believe this romantic remark.

Benjamin Issufern… worried about me?

She looked up at him with distrustful green eyes.

Upon closer look, his hair was damp with sweat, and his thick chest rose and fell with his rough breathing.

Helena stared into his red eyes.

The eyes that always seemed cold as unmoving stone now looked as if they were throbbing. Was it just her imagination?

Why?

She couldn’t understand.

Benjamin, you really don’t know me. I never push myself too far. I care about myself most of all.

She wasn’t entirely alone.

She was accompanied by Sir Aaron, and if Flemen had been a truly unsafe place, she wouldn’t have gone in alone.

And why would you worry? You married me for money, after all.

Yet she swallowed all her thoughts.

To Benjamin, she had to be the naive woman who married for the dowry because of a scandal.

If he learned her true motives, he wouldn’t allow her to do as she pleased like this.

Instead, she awkwardly brushed her hair back and said,

“…Sorry.”

Benjamin reached out his hand.

Helena hesitated for a moment but then placed her hand lightly on top of his.

His hand was large and warm.

Well, this isn’t so bad.

She had never liked anyone worrying about her.

Her father, Adrian Winston, and stepmother, Mia Winston, always expressed worry as nagging.

Her friends didn’t worry about her antics; they genuinely found them amusing.

So, in a way, this was the first time she had felt such pure concern.

Then Benjamin spoke.

“No, not the hand.”

He tilted his head toward her.

Helena’s eyes widened as she saw his handsome face drawing closer.

W-what…?

His lips, chapped from the cold wind, and his reddened eyes, glowed with a strange heat. Like strawberry jam bubbling in a pot, it seemed sweet.

I wonder what those dry lips would taste like…

Her eyes grew impossibly wide. She couldn’t believe the thought she’d just had.

It was as if a mischievous fairy had whispered something naughty into her ear.

Snap out of it, Helena Winston!

Benjamin then placed his hand on her cheek.

As before, his calloused hand was large, rough, and firm.

It’s strange because I’m not used to such a hand.

Of course. The strange warmth spreading from where his hand touched was simply because it was unfamiliar.

Helena unconsciously fluttered her eyelashes and closed her eyes.

Something seemed to touch her upper lip.

Then—

Snatch!

It felt like sparks ignited behind her closed eyes.

Helena screamed.

“Ouch!”

She looked at Benjamin in disbelief.

He glared at the fake mustache he had ripped off her upper lip.

“Where did this hideous thing come from?”

The fake mustache, which should have been soaked in water before removal, was ripped off in one swift motion, painfully enough to bring tears to her eyes.

“Ahhh… it hurts so much!”

Benjamin, watching her clutch her lips in pain with cold eyes, grabbed her arm and forced her to stand.

“Let’s go, you troublemaker. And today’s incident is not going to be let off easily.”

“And what if I refuse to let it go!”

At her tearful defiance, a twisted smile spread across Benjamin’s lips.

“You can look forward to it.”

Helena’s mouth dropped open.

“That’s unfair…!”

“You’d better keep it at that. Unless you want to experience revenge beyond your expectations.”

“Re-revenge…?”

Helena was incredulous.

“What did I even do to you? What could I have done to deserve revenge…?”

“Just wait and see.”

“I have no expectations at all.”

As they bickered down the narrow stairs of Flemen, they came across Wesley, the former butler of the Issufern household.

Helena greeted him first.

“Wesley. I’ve been waiting to see you again.”

But Wesley didn’t look at Helena. His gaze was fixed on Benjamin.

A ripple of emotion passed over Wesley’s face—chill surprise, deep regret, and more.

Finally, Wesley lowered his head.

“…Count Issufern.”