‘I shouldn’t have come with just Sakin.’

Currently, Helena was acutely feeling the lesson that she should have come with Ian, that excellent human leash.

“I didn’t expect him to disappear in the blink of an eye…”

Already on her third lap around the same block, Helena gave up searching for Sakin.

Although he’s a terrible sense of direction to the point of being dreadful, he’s not an idiot, so she should be able to see him again at the guild.

‘…Hmm. Surely that’s the case. …Probably.’

She never wanted to experience putting up missing person posters for Sakin next to the lost child flyers. Helena shook her head to dismiss the harsh thought.

How many steps had she taken after that? Suddenly, a strong wind blew from the front.

The pigeons pecking at street debris in the distance fluttered away, and a veil embroidered with intricate patterns flew into view.

Helena instinctively caught it. Looking around, she saw a woman who seemed to be the owner running hurriedly from not far away.

Black skin, black hair, black eyes. A foreigner.

The moment she recognized her, a fragment of lost memory pierced like a flash of light.

⌜I have a son about your age too. I want to return to my homeland as soon as possible.⌟

Helena clutched her throbbing head. The image of the man who said those words flickered in and out of focus in her mind.

‘I’ve… met foreigners before. But when?’

Preterita was an extremely rural village with no exchange at all, and it was even more impossible in the noble world she entered after marrying Eugene, which didn’t allow such vulgarity.

‘Then my memory is…’

The headache didn’t last long. Helena snapped out of her reverie as the woman who had approached snatched the veil from her hand.

The rough sensation of the fabric slipping through her fingers brought Helena back to her senses. The woman hurriedly wrapped the veil tightly around her head before expressing her gratitude to Helena and turning to leave.

However, her already revealed identity caught up with her.

“What? You were a foreigner? And you still had the audacity to try to buy something from my shop?”

“My child’s fever is dangerously high. Please show some mercy.”

“Aish, why are you being so unlucky? Get out of here, you filthy thing! How dare a slave try to buy medicine!”

The woman desperately pleaded, but the shop owner was unyielding. In the end, all the woman got was a red handprint on her cheek and a stinging pain.

The woman, thrown to the ground, sobbed.

“My child, my child is sick…! Please, someone help…!”

The commotion drew the attention of passersby on the street. But that was all.

They went on their way again as if nothing had happened. No one even offered to help the woman up, let alone show a shred of sympathy.

That was the status of foreigners in the Empire of Instantia. Vermin mistakenly born human. A race for whom being branded a slave at birth was the natural order.

Of course, following the changing trends of the continent, Instantia had also abolished slavery and liberated all as free people. But perceptions rooted over centuries did not easily disappear.

‘But they’re still people. It doesn’t make sense in the first place.’

The reality she saw after coming out into the world was much more stark than what she had only read about in books.

Helena tried to relax her clenched jaw. As soon as she approached the woman, Helena first helped her up.

“Don’t beg. Don’t plead. What wrong have you done?”

Unpleasant gazes poured in from all directions, but Helena steadfastly endured them. Compared to the anger gradually rising from deep within her, they were merely irritating.

After taking a deep breath to suppress it, Helena turned sharp eyes toward the pharmacist.

“It’s been 50 years since slave trade was ruled illegal and stopped. What kind of misconduct is this now?”

“Huh, I’ve seen it all now, a woman taking the side of slaves. There’s such a thing as turning a blind eye to the law, miss! It’s crazier not to see them as slaves!”

The owner snorted and burst out in anger. His raised index finger jabbed Helena’s shoulder repeatedly.

Instead of backing down, Helena endured the pain and stood her ground.

“People are above the law. One can’t become a criminal simply for being born.”

“That small pretty head of yours must be just for decoration if you don’t know, but this is Dylon. The lord’s word is law here!”

“Do you like winter?”

“What?”

“You’ll have to start liking it from now on. Pantheon will be your residence starting today.”

Pantheon was a frigid city where the Empire’s largest prison was located. The owner’s face turned red and blue as he understood the meaning.

“What nonsense…!”

He looked about to raise his hand, but Helena pressed on without stopping.

“Since you revere the law so much, let me tell you. Article 17, Clause 1 of the Erbandaum Law. Slavery is prohibited in Instantia and any region under Instantia’s jurisdiction. Article 18, Clause 5. Even the lord’s autonomous law does not apply to this item. Article 18, Clause 12. Anyone who shows any form of discrimination shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 2 years or 1,500 hours of forced labor.”

The owner visibly faltered. It was an aura unbelievable to come from such a small body.

Helena paused to catch her breath and swatted away the finger that had been digging into her shoulder.

“Have a good trip. I’ll be kind enough to send you off with a warm blanket.”

The onlookers stirred. Though the other party was a foreigner, it seemed the shop owner’s reputation wasn’t particularly good either.

One by one, they withdrew their unpleasant gazes and began to voice agreement with Helena’s words.

He raised his fist as the situation unexpectedly turned against him. It was the obvious move Helena had anticipated from bottom-feeders when cornered.

“No, but this miss keeps talking back…! Do you know who I am? Just a few words to the lord and…”

Bang!

Of course, she had no intention of taking the hits docilely like before. But she also had no intention of making the first move.

However, in the brief moment she blinked, the shop owner had collapsed with a short scream.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry.”

It was someone who had leapt in silently like a street cat. Helena hadn’t even been aware of his existence until the man spoke.

As if responding to Helena’s surprised gaze, he narrowed his cold snake-like eyes into a smile.

Did he trip him? It was a swift and flexible movement that seemed almost magical. It brought to mind the distinctive movements of felines.

Helena forgot about the verbal sparring and watched as he proceeded to hit the shop owner…

“Oh dear. It really wasn’t intentional.”

…accidentally bumped into the shop owner.

He continued to apologize while doing things he wasn’t sorry for with an utterly unrepentant face. He pretended to trip again.

Crash!

As expected, the shop owner who was grumbling and trying to get up fell again. A cauldron he bumped into spilled the medicinal water that had been boiling hot inside.

“Arghhhh!”

“My, I thought someone as great as you who’s acquainted with the lord would be able to avoid it. Well, it’s a bit of a shame, but you’ll be fine soon. After all, it’s medicine for treating people, isn’t it?”

He sneered as if he found this situation extremely enjoyable. The shop owner was now clutching his bloody nose and spitting out a loose tooth.

“By the way, don’t you have any herbs to clear the mind so you can’t spout nonsense? That seems more urgent to me.”

“You bastard…!”

As the shop owner staggered to his feet, the man slowly backed away. More precisely, he pretended to back away while pressing down on a thick rope nearby with his toes, pulling it along.

It was a rope connected to the shop’s awning. It was in a loose state where the joint would come undone if he took just a few more steps back.

If it came undone, the awning propped up with bricks would slide down first, and the metal poles supporting it would tilt as well.

‘Then… the shop will collapse.’

It was a chain reaction that would be difficult to trace the cause and effect even if an accident occurred. It was a truly ingenious method where no one could be specifically blamed.

Helena, who had followed the rope with her eyes and grasped the situation, hurriedly grabbed him.

“Stop. That’s enough.”

Just one step. It was a precarious position.

A distance where he could drop a pile of bricks on the shop owner at any time if he shook her off and moved.

Of course, she knew her strength wasn’t enough to hold the man back. But Helena tried to hide her trembling and didn’t let go of his arm.

Then the narrowed snake eyes gradually widened as they turned towards Helena.

Their gazes met in the dusty air.

“…”

“…”

The man’s face became strange. He lightly grasped the hem of Ian’s robe that Helena was wearing.

“Could it be…”

Just as he was about to continue speaking.

“How dare you toy with me!”

The shop owner who had suddenly risen from the corner threw the spilled cauldron with all his might.

The man quickly pulled Helena’s arm to hide her behind him, but he was a step too late. The flying piece of iron hit Helena’s ankle in an arc.

“Ah…!”

Helena grimaced and sank down. The man unhesitatingly kicked the cauldron away.

The shop owner, who received the iron object square on again, finally fainted.

While Helena couldn’t take her eyes off the noisy scene, the man picked her up.

“Hold on tight.”

With the reflex of not wanting to fall, Helena wrapped her arms around his neck. The man moved like the wind. The murmurs of the crowd gradually faded.

After a while, all she could hear was the man’s steady heartbeat.

Strangely enough.

Only after reaching a place where the commotion no longer reached did Elai put Helena down.

Although she should have been quite startled by the sudden move, she was calm. She was even calm enough to think of other things.

“I wonder if that foreigner got out safely?”

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

“Just in case, we should quietly go back and check-”

No sooner had she taken a step than pain pierced through her ankle. Helena, who had been trying to endure it somehow, stumbled.

Thanks to his blocking, she hadn’t been hit too hard by the cauldron. However, it happened to strike where she already had a small sprain.

Talk about bad luck. As she limped along like a newborn calf, stubbornly trying to walk, Elai stepped in front of her to block her path.

“If you move like that now, you’ll be crawling on the ground from tomorrow. The foreigner took the herbs and left safely. I saw it while we were fighting.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Elai answered as if driving in a nail. At the same time, he gently pressed down on Helena’s shoulders to sit her on a log.

Only then did Helena let out the breath she had been holding and slumped her upper body. Elai also knelt on one knee in front of her.

Her ankle was visibly swollen even at a glance. He began to examine the affected area, cradling it as gently as possible. Helena’s body gave a small jump at his touch.

She hadn’t noticed until now because of the commotion, but she suddenly realized that the man in front of her was also a stranger.

Feeling her muscles tense slightly, Elai spoke while still keeping his gaze fixed on her ankle.

“It hurts my feelings a bit when you look at me like that.”

Helena barely managed to straighten her curved spine. She wanted to treat him boldly, but it was difficult as the recent chaos came to mind.

A man who had driven someone into a pit of fire, regardless of the eyes around him.

If he applied even a little force to his grip, her ankle in his hand would be crushed. His violence could be directed at anyone.

Having experienced it firsthand, Helena couldn’t easily relax her tension. Elai could see her stiff expression even from the corner of his eye.

He began to look around for something suitable to use as a splint as he spoke.

“If you’re still afraid of me…”

His vivid red eyes looked straight up at Helena.

“At least let me say that I’m on your side.”