Chapter 67
At that moment, a black curtain appeared between Helga and Tristan.
It was truly a magical sight.
The soup she had spilled was completely blocked by his umbrella, not a single drop getting through.
It was an incredible reflex.
Under normal circumstances, she might have realized that his movement resembled Blanshe’s, who had dodged Helga’s strike.
But Helga wasn’t in the mood for that.
“Cough, cough…! Ugh!”
Helga coughed, tears and snot streaming down her face.
Her palate was burned by the hot soup, and her nose hurt.
On top of that, the shame of showing such an unsightly appearance in front of the Count made her unable to lift her head.
Helga screamed internally.
It was that girl’s trap after all!
Pretending to be kind, she tricked me.
With an angelic face, but in reality, she was a little devil!
As Helga trembled at Wendy’s scheme, a cold voice reached her ears.
“…I told you not to appear before me again.”
When she lifted her head, there stood her master, Tristan Ruelberta.
The most influential noble in the Empire, a man feared by the citizens for his cruel personality.
However… compared to before Helga was dispatched, he looked quite different.
The once thick layers of fat were now hard to find. His once faint features had become quite sharp.
This appearance was far from the Tristan who was scorned as the Pig Count.
Tristan had changed.
What on earth had happened while she was away?
Through the cold rain, a gaze that seemed to freeze her looked down at Helga.
That look in his eyes was even more chilling than she remembered.
Helga wiped her wet eyes and stood up.
She didn’t want to show him such an unsightly appearance.
“Ugh… I’ve been here all along. It’s just that you appeared before me, Count.”
“Don’t play word games…”
Tristan clicked his tongue and pulled something out from his coat.
It was a blank check. He picked up a pen.
“…You’ve worked hard for me all this time. I’ll give you as much severance pay as you want.”
To some, this might have been an eye-popping offer, but to Helga, it was a cruel story.
“Such…”
The hope she had secretly held in her heart crumbled.
She felt pathetic for having hoped.
Just how far does this man plan to break me?
“Speak. How much do you want?”
“…Enough to buy the seat next to you, Count.”
At Helga’s almost pleading words, Tristan quietly shook his head.
“Don’t act like a child.”
“I’m not a child anymore.”
“No. You haven’t changed since those days.”
Those days. The days when Helga and Tristan had first met.
Tristan was a boy who had just become a Count, and Helga was a frail girl.
For her, it was a turning point in her life, but also the most painful time.
The boy from those memories spoke to Helga.
“You’re still a mischievous and self-centered brat.”
“I…!”
She shouted without realizing it.
“I’ve changed! I’m not that weak girl anymore! I’m not that clueless girl who couldn’t handle a bit of magic power!”
Uncontrollable frustration burst out through Helga’s voice.
“Look closely!”
Helga roughly threw off her military coat.
Then, she tore off the uniform she was wearing with her hands.
Her pale skin was revealed through the rain.
It was a gruesome sight.
Helga’s body, marked with large and small scars, was far from pleasant to look at.
But they were all traces of survival.
Proof that she had survived countless battlefields and life-threatening situations.
Helga shouted with a heart-wrenching voice.
“Look! Count… no! As your childhood friend, I’ll say it! I’m strong now! I’m not afraid of assassins or the Emperor’s Imperial Guard! I’m the only one who can protect you, Tristan! Even if I die… even if it kills me! I will definitely protect you…!”
It was a title she hadn’t used in a very long time.
But Tristan didn’t get angry at Helga’s rudeness.
He simply let out a deep sigh.
“…This is why you’re still a brat. You foolish thing.”
“Why do you keep…! Calling me a brat…!”
Helga gritted her teeth.
“I…! I could die for you!”
“I know.”
“I could stake my life! If that’s not enough, I could even stake my soul…!”
“I already know that.”
Tristan’s face looked somewhat sad as he said that.
He looked at her with an expression as if he had just had a terribly sad dream.
“Helga. I know you could die for me countless times.”
“Then why…!”
“That’s why I can’t take you in.”
“…!?”
What do you mean you can’t take me in? Helga couldn’t understand Tristan’s words at all.
Tristan looked at the scars on her body and spoke.
“You’ve gone to countless battlefields, but you always survived. That must have been to come back to me alive.”
His umbrella shielded her head from the rain.
“But if you’re by my side, you’ll be quick to throw your life away for me.”
“……!”
Helga swallowed her breath.
Only then did she understand why he had kept her at a distance.
She had been harboring a ridiculous misunderstanding.
She felt unbearably ashamed.
If she could erase the petty heart that doubted him, she would have erased it right then.
‘And yet, I dared to call myself his bodyguard knight…’
Helga couldn’t bring herself to lift her head.
Tristan stood so close to her, mere inches away.
The man she desperately adored was right in front of her.
“Oppa…”
Helga’s heart began to pound as if it would burst.
His lips slowly parted.
“So don’t go dying on your own.”
“…I don’t want to. I don’t… My life is entirely yours…”
“If it’s mine, then take even better care of it. Don’t stake your life for someone like me.”
Tristan added indifferently.
“If you can keep that promise, I’ll reconsider your position.”
It was an opportunity.
The last chance given to her.
Helga spoke in a trembling voice.
“…What if you die? What will I do then? I… I won’t be able to keep my promise to you. I’ll follow you in death…”
“I will never die.”
There was no reason or basis for that statement.
It might have been half a bluff.
But there was a strange power in those words.
“So… don’t die without my permission.”
“…Okay.”
Helga could only nod silently.
If he said so, then it must be so.
Since he told her not to die, she could no longer die.
“Understood… I promise…”
“Good…”
Satisfied with her answer, Tristan muttered in a transparent voice.
“My end… you must be there.”
“……”
Helga quickly covered her face with her hands.
Her face had grown hot.
Ah… what should I do?
Not even a few seconds after making the promise, I already want to die for this man.
It was then.
“…!”
In an instant, a gust of wind blew, and the umbrella flew away.
At the same time, Helga’s precariously hanging eyepatch also flew off.
“Ah…!”
She hurriedly covered her eye.
Helga could show Tristan all her scars.
But this one thing, she couldn’t show him anymore.
Because to the stronger her, it was now too pitiful a wound.
The rainstorm soaked her face.
She thought it was really fortunate that it was raining.
Tristan looked at Helga, who had slumped down, and spoke.
“…Are you okay?”
“Yes… I’m fine…”
Please don’t look this way…
Helga desperately covered her left eye.
To her, Tristan simply tossed a remark.
“…Are you crying ‘again’?”
“?!”
It was a remark in such a casual tone.
But those words created a huge ripple in Helga’s heart.
When she lifted her head, the same face as always was looking down at her.
Right… Oppa has been watching me… all along like this…
“…Sniff.”
Amid the cold rain, hot tears streamed down Helga’s cheeks.
Tristan… had known all along.
*
…Did I say something wrong?
Faced with Helga, who had burst into tears, I fell into thought for a moment.
Earlier, Helga, who had choked up, was suffering with tears and snot streaming down her face.
It was pitiful, but I wasn’t the type to wipe away her tears.
So at first, I stayed silent.
But this time, I could at least show some concern. At those words, Helga burst into tears.
‘Hmm…’
In the original story, Helga never showed herself crying.
The woman who had endured countless wounds on the battlefield without shedding a tear was now sobbing.
She was crying like a child.
“Waaah! Oppaaa…! Oppa…!”
Who’s your oppa?
To think of calling Tristan so familiarly as ‘oppa’…
I might have had to reprimand her for her rudeness.
But it was also proof of how much Helga’s heart had been pushed to the limit.
I decided to wrap this up.
“Helga… I’ve thought about your treatment.”
I took off my coat and draped it over her half-naked shoulders.
Startled by the remaining warmth of my body in the coat, her body trembled.
The Deputy Commander of Aslan, who had shown such strength, was now such a weak girl.
I quietly opened my mouth.
“Start over as a knight.”
“Sniff… a, a knight? Sniff…”
Her face, smeared with snot, looked up at me.
That appearance made me wonder if she was really the Helga I knew.
No… maybe she was always like this.
After all, I only knew her from the books.
It was only after possessing the game that I could face her fully.
“Sniff… So, I have to start from the bottom in Aslan again? Sniff… Even so, that’s a bit…”
“No.”
I shook my head at the sniffling Helga.
“The position of the knight guarding me is currently vacant.”
By now, she should have caught on.
“You will take that position from now on.”
