The child, still too young to be left alone, held their own hand tightly with pale fingers and said with a faint breath:
“Elder sister, you don’t need to come anymore. I know the Duke… dislikes you coming here.”
“Basil.”
“I’m fine. Just grant me one request. Later, later… if I die before you… bury me in the Freterita cemetery.”
“…Basil.”
The small child who used to comfort me, the crybaby.
“Grandma Margo from next door is there, and the butcher’s little one, and Mom too. Promise you’ll put me there, okay?”
“…Alright, I promise.”
“Thank you, elder sister. You must be happy. Absolutely.”
The small embrace that hugged me. Now I have no way of knowing how warm that touch was. There’s no one left to tell me.
No family in name only, no lover who promised forever, no mother, no Basil. No one was left.
Everyone was as resentful as they were missed, and as missed as they were resentful.
“If you were both going to leave so quickly, why did you stop me from dying too?”
Why, why. Why leave me behind all alone?
I don’t want to be here by myself. I’m tired of waiting. Take me with you too, Mom. Please, please…
Helena hunched over as if embracing an invisible form. Dry grass was torn between her scratching fingers.
What could they possibly want from her, to make her repeat such a painful life?
Helena remained curled up like that for a long while, as if dead. It was an hour later when she moved from her spot.
She held back her tears and forcibly raised her stiffened body. She prayed that her retreating figure would not appear lonely. But she knew herself.
She was perfectly alone.
[This is the timeline separator]The corridor lined with antique brown arched pillars and softly gleaming ivory marble exuded Evergale’s characteristic neat atmosphere.
As if to add more weight to that dignity, the sound of regular footsteps echoed.
Upon confirming the owner of the footsteps, the mansion’s staff stopped what they were doing and uniformly showed their respects.
When Eugene returned after finishing work, there was usually more bustling movement than usual. The corridor was instantly and neatly parted.
Eugene strode through without hesitation. The butler waiting at the main entrance opened the door in time with his pace and stood by.
As he handed his coat to the butler, he asked:
“Helena?”
“There’s still no news, sir.”
The butler answered briefly with a bow. A faint sneer escaped from between Eugene’s teeth.
“She’s quite the wanderer.”
Without any further instructions, Eugene moved on.
Despite having just returned after going out from early dawn, there was not a trace of fatigue on his face.
Rather, he was in a hurry to find the training grounds as soon as he arrived. There was nothing as excellent as overworking muscles to relieve the tangled up frustrations of the day.
Although he rarely held a sword these days, having been sick of the smell of iron from his time on the battlefield, lately he had been feeling angry like this quite often.
He found it difficult to maintain his composure even over trivial matters he would have overlooked in the past.
Arriving at the training grounds, Eugene unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves while glancing to the side.
A burly middle-aged knight was steadfastly keeping his place. He was a loyal knight who had served Evergale since the time of Eugene’s father, the previous generation.
“You’re ever so constant.”
Turning his head forward again, Eugene chose two suitable swords. Tossing one of them to the middle-aged knight, he asked casually:
“Sir. Do you know Helena?”
“……”
“Sir Argyle.”
“…It’s the first time.”
It wasn’t a question he had asked expecting a particularly meaningful answer, but he hadn’t wanted an answer with incomprehensible context either.
As Eugene’s brow furrowed unpleasantly, the middle-aged knight added:
“It’s the first time Your Grace has asked me about the madam.”
“……”
This time Eugene cut off the conversation. The movement to draw the sword from its scabbard paused for a moment.
Was it the first time?
Yes, it could very well be. There was no need to make an effort to know.
Helena Evergale before Eugene Evergale’s eyes was Helena Evergale in herself.
Always, ever, unchanging.
That’s why Eugene didn’t believe her words of farewell. Instead, he believed in her constancy, which was tiresome to the point of exasperation.
Even if he placed her next to the stuffed deer head hanging in that corridor, he could confidently say she would last longer.
“It’s stranger for a husband not to ask about his wife. It’s like a relationship without trust.”
Eugene said as he moved to a spacious area. The sword tip, forged under the afternoon sunlight, lightly scraped the ground.
“So, how much do you think you know about Helena?”
Though feigning composure, his tone was strangely sharp. After pondering for a moment, the middle-aged knight murmured quietly:
“I’m not sure if my answer will be meaningful. In the end, the only one Your Grace would want to know about the madam is yourself.”
“…I suppose so. I suppose that’s how it should be.”
Eugene exhaled softly as he gripped the sword in the most comfortable form.
“But regardless of what I know, sometimes I… find Helena incomprehensible.”
“…Is that so.”
The conversation ended with a quiet response. The middle-aged knight bowed and took his stance.
From now on, he had to concentrate all his nerves. Otherwise, he might find himself facing the floor in the blink of an eye.
Seeing the tension in the air, Eugene also lowered his upper body slightly.
“I might be a bit rough today, Sir. I’m not in a good mood because the results of this morning’s meeting were disappointing.”
“I understand.”
Eugene moved first.
Soon, sharp metallic sounds filled the training grounds incessantly.
[This is the timeline separator]Eugene returned to his office, kicking the door open irritably. The enclosed space constricted his breath a little, but he forced himself into the chair.
He tried to focus solely on work to soothe his unsettled mind. It wasn’t as easy as he had hoped.
Knock knock.
As he was staring at documents he couldn’t concentrate on, butler Gordon knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Soon, a middle-aged man with neatly combed hair and wearing a monocle stood before Eugene. As usual, a tidy report followed.
The content was the same as always, but there was something added at the end. A man in shabby attire was lurking in front of the mansion.
“Send him away as you see fit. Do I have to deal with even country nobles?”
“Well… he was looking for the madam.”
“Helena?”
Eugene’s eyebrows furrowed as they raised.
After pondering for a moment, Eugene decided to meet with him willingly. He might be a visitor bearing news about Helena’s whereabouts.
Eugene went down to the back garden himself and dismissed the eyes around. Sensing his presence, the visitor who had been standing with his back turned in the distance slowly approached.
He was somewhat different from what Eugene had expected. He was a bit too eye-catching to be an ordinary passerby.
A plain shirt with a solid vest, a long gray robe. His clothes were neat but didn’t look expensive. That made him seem even more out of place.
He seemed to be forcibly putting on a rough act to hide his true appearance. There was a restrained air of authority flowing beneath his free-spirited demeanor.
Eugene asked without hiding his irritation:
“Who are you to be looking for my wife?”
Wife. At that one word, the man’s face wavered for a moment.
It was a subtle tremor, like a crack forming on smooth ice, but Eugene saw it.
Why would he make such a face just because Eugene claimed Helena as his wife? Despite being strangers, the man was quite provocative.
The crack was smoothed over as if it had never been shown. He met Eugene’s gaze with his originally neat face.
“I received a great favor from her when I was young and wish to repay it. I desperately want to see her. Please, I beg you to let me meet her even for a moment.”
Eugene felt beyond uncomfortable, it was as if his insides were twisting. His mouth was more than just bitter.
Not only was he faced with an aspect of Helena he didn’t know, but also time she had spent with someone he didn’t know.
Hadn’t she shared every single hair of her childhood with me? He even felt a bit betrayed.
Suppressing his rising anger, he retorted coldly:
“I’m afraid that will be difficult for the time being. Helen isn’t here. She left.”
“Left? Where to?”
“I don’t think I have any obligation to tell you that.”
“…I see.”
The man backed down more easily than expected. He seemed to have sensed that he wouldn’t get the answer he wanted no matter how much he persisted.
His ability to read Eugene’s expression and mood at a glance, his refined manner despite his appearance, and even his friendship with Helena.
During their brief encounter, Eugene only grew more displeased.
“Do you want me to leave a message that you visited when Helena returns?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll decline. I’ll look for her myself.”
“Yourself?”
Yes, he was truly becoming more and more displeased.
“Didn’t you say you met her when you were young? How will you recognize her?”
“There’s no need to worry. I’ll know her at a glance. She’s that kind of person, someone I could never forget.”
Despite Eugene’s annoyed questioning, the man asserted it as if it were an established fact. His tone was firm, leaving no room for doubt.
Eugene finally realized the source of his displeasure.
He and this man had a gap that was both similar and unbridgeable. They stood at opposite ends, looking at Helena.
Helena. Helena Evergale.
Where are you looking now? Did you really leave to forget me?
You, forget me?
While lost in thought, the man bowed briefly. As he was about to turn away, he looked over the ducal residence once and said:
“It seems the madam left because she had reason enough to leave.”
He dropped those words and disappeared quickly before he could be caught. His exit was as imperceptible as his entrance.
Dark clouds filled the empty space, making it gloomy.
Left alone, Eugene was overwhelmed by an inexplicable sense of defeat. All the time he had been ignoring was now eating away at him.
Eugene remained standing in place for a long while even after the man had left.
It felt as if Helena might appear at any moment, calling his name.
__________
The Merman is a Love-Obsessed Brain (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”