Chapter 64: The Visitors Who Came at Night

Arandel left after uttering a warning tinged with anticipation.

He was probably returning to his office to finish his work.

Now that the mistress of the manor was gone, the busiest person in Helmut was none other than Arandel.

“Hmm, the atmosphere does feel a bit different.”

Uldiran, who had been standing around with them, muttered those words softly.

Even Uldiran, who had seen Arandel in his youth, felt this change. It was only natural that Rihanna, who lived in the same household, would feel similarly.

‘Could it be that cutting down his own wife had its own meaning for Father?’

Rihanna wondered.

What if one day she had to cut down Isaac?

She squeezed her eyes shut at the dizzying thought and shook her head. That could never happen.

On the other hand—

Isaac felt a peculiar sensation as he watched Arandel’s departing figure. If he had to guess, it looked like he was preparing to leave.

As the only one present who knew the truth about his condition, Isaac could only sigh.

‘At any rate, a lot has changed in this situation.’

In the wake of Arandel’s death, the Transcendents had begun their activities. But this time, Arandel himself stepped forward to hunt them down.

Everything was moving in a completely different direction, and Isaac felt certain he had brought out his strongest card to fend off their onslaught.

‘But is Arandel’s illness really natural?’

To be honest, Isaac found himself doubting whether Arandel was truly afflicted. Galenia had dealt with the Transcendents in an effort to save him.

Couldn’t the opposite also be true?

‘This is tricky.’

Isaac decided to focus on the more pressing matter at hand.

Before Arandel dies, they needed to wipe out the Transcendents.

Regardless of humanity or a person’s character, none of that mattered right now.

From the start, hardly anyone expected Helmut to care about such things.

Protection and safety—

Whatever form it took, people wished only for peace.

Isaac hoped they would be able to eradicate the Transcendents before Arandel finally passed away.

“Silverna, let’s go.”

At that moment, Uldiran called out to Silverna.

Silverna hesitated briefly, then let out a heavy sigh and followed him.

“Ahem, there’s something I wanted to say…”

“Don’t. I’m not going to listen.”

“……Why are you acting like a child?”

“I said I’m not listening—!”

All of a sudden, the ground shook with thumping footsteps. Looking back, they saw Uldiran making a clumsy escape with his massive frame, and Silverna hot on her heels.

“What a cheerful household,”

Isaac remarked with a laugh, and Rihanna gave a small nod in agreement.

A faint, bittersweet rose fragrance drifted in. In Helmut’s garden, roses—blood-red to symbolize tragedy or a vibrant red to proclaim resilience—bloomed luxuriously.

Before they knew it, the purple lilacs that had remained long past their season were gone.

That signaled that the time had come for Isaac to leave Helmut.

***

It was late at night.

Preparations for departing to Blackthorn would begin in earnest starting tomorrow, but Isaac himself wasn’t particularly busy.

As though making a final pass through the house, Isaac walked around the Helmut estate—a place filled with nothing but unpleasant memories—alongside Rihanna.

Ironically, even as he wandered through the estate, Isaac felt no particular trauma or anguish. He clearly recognized that the trials and suffering he had endured were now part of his past.

Eventually, Rihanna and Isaac separated and returned to their respective rooms.

“Sleep well.”

“Mm, you too, Isaac.”

Rihanna’s room was on the second floor, while Isaac’s was on the first. Naturally, they went their separate ways.

Rihanna slyly turned her head to watch Isaac.

“…….”

She watched his back until he disappeared into his room without looking back even once. Then, after a moment, she entered her own room.

Once he returned to his room, Isaac began tidying up slowly.

It felt somewhat odd to be preparing to leave, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

‘There’s a bit of dust in some places.’

Although he had carefully looked after Milli’s portrait and the two blades, he felt no particular attachment to the other objects—perhaps because they didn’t feel like his own.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just then, he heard a knock at his door.

Isaac blinked. “Rihanna?”

He wondered if it was Rihanna, with whom he had just been speaking, but the voice that answered from outside was unexpected.

“It—it’s me.”

“Sharen?”

Isaac hastily opened the door.

There stood Sharen, looking somewhat awkward, and with her was the fifteen-year-old youngest sibling, Edel.

Earlier, he and Rihanna had tried to visit them, but they wouldn’t open the door. Now, seeing them appear so late at night, it was clear they must have something they wanted to say.

Isaac invited them inside and had them sit on the bed.

Under normal circumstances, he would have offered something to drink, but he traveled so light that he had nothing of the sort to give.

“I—Isaac…”

They got straight to the point, not expecting hospitality. Both had puffy, red-rimmed eyes that showed how much they had been crying.

Their drawn faces and frizzy red hair seemed entirely unbefitting of the Helmut name.

They had seen their father kill their mother with their own eyes.

It would have been strange if they weren’t scarred by that.

“I… want to go with you.”

Surprisingly, Sharen made a rather bold request.

Her tear-stained cheeks were just that—traces left behind by sadness that had, in some sense, already flowed past.

“You want me to take you? Do you even know where I’m going next?”

“Blackthorn, right?”

“And after that?”

“I don’t know!”

Right, of course she wouldn’t know.

“But please, take me with you.”

“Haa, Sharen. Do you realize what you’re asking—?”

“Please. If you won’t take me, then I’ll have no choice but to go to Silverna.”

“…….”

“I don’t want to stay in this mansion anymore.”

Sharen’s eyes were clouded with emotion, noticeably different from the gentle, naïve girl she had been.

“I want to leave. Could you talk to Father for me? Given how you are now, I feel like he might actually listen.”

“…….”

“I’ve heard you’ll be going to Blackthorn. I—I’ve fought against the Transcendents before, and I’ve also fought Bricalla. So I—”

“Is this just running away?”

Their gazes met. Sharen, as though she had thought about this long and hard before coming, answered without hesitation.

“I want to see Helmut… from the outside.”

“…….”

“The Helmut I saw in the North was different from the Helmut I knew from living in this mansion. And—”

Sharen’s voice shook a little, and she clenched her fists as she confessed:

“My mother, the one I knew, was so different from the mother everyone else knew… I’m so confused.”

“…….”

“That’s why I want to find out. If I stay here, I’ll never be anything more than the same old Sharen Helmut .”

Isaac had seen that look before, in those who broke past their limits and kept forging ahead with the sword. Different people with tangled fates, yet they all shared one thing in common: a will to overcome.

The moment he heard the resolve in Sharen’s voice, Isaac realized he had no choice but to accept her request.

[Too soft. Too soft]

He could practically hear the scolding from his old master, who used to chide him for being “too soft.”

Remembering how he had once recruited more than a few disciples in this manner, Isaac gently patted Sharen’s head, then turned to look at Edel.

Isaac had no real connection with Edel. He had only been pushed around and beaten by the eldest and second eldest sons. With the youngest, he had never even sparred or held a proper conversation.

So he was curious about why Edel had come to him now.

“I’m staying.”

Isaac remembered Edel as a child who used to toddle around in an endearingly clumsy way.

“If Unnie leaves to see Helmut from the outside—”

Edel still had some baby fat in his cheeks, but he would certainly grow up to be a handsome young man.

“Then I want to try changing Helmut from within.”

Seeing such intelligence and bold ambition in this boy took Isaac by surprise.

“I—I know better than anyone that you, brother-in-law, were the one most tormented by us. S-So there’s just one thing I want to ask.”

Edel looked apprehensive as he glanced at Isaac for permission to continue. Sharen gently patted her brother on the back to reassure him.

“Is Helmut… broken beyond saving?”

Why ask Isaac that question?

Probably because he had the greatest hatred of Helmut among them all—or so they believed.

Also because he was the one who would judge Helmut by the strictest standard.

That was why Edel had come to ask him.

“Well—”

At that moment, more footsteps sounded beyond the door.

Then a soft voice, hush-hush as if hoping no one else would hear:

“B-brother-in-law? You’re still awake, right?”

It was the third son, Alois Helmut.

The instant Isaac heard that voice, his eyes grew cold and calm.

He looked toward the door but said nothing. Instead, he silently pointed to the wardrobe with his finger.

Though Edel looked momentarily confused, Sharen obeyed Isaac’s silent command without a word. Together, they crept into the wardrobe as quietly as possible.

‘In a way, this might be the best way to show him the answer.’

Thinking it would be a suitable response to Edel’s question, Isaac gripped his blade forged from Bricalla and opened the door.

Immediately—

A hand wreathed in blood-red energy lunged at Isaac’s throat.

The eyes in front of him were bloodshot, the breathing ragged with a mix of madness and obsession.

This was Alois at his wits’ end, making a final, desperate move before the interrogation from Rihanna really began.

But Isaac had been ready long before opening the door. He simply leaned back with deceptive ease, thinking:

‘I can practically hear the princess collapsing in a fit tomorrow.’

She’d been so shocked just by the prospect of divorce—if she learns about this tomorrow, she might foam at the mouth.

Srrrk!

Isaac drew his blade in one smooth motion.

Its lightning, imbued with Bricalla, destroyed Alois’s blood aura, and the opening created by that tiny gap was all Isaac needed for one swift iai strike.

In that instant—

Bright red blood spattered across the neatly organized room—

“Kyaaaaaaaah!”

Alois let loose a piercing scream.

– – – The End of The Chapter – –

 

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