“With you inside the castle, it will be easier to make contact in the future.”
“Hehe, is that supposed to be a compliment?”
Helena stepped back, giggling.
“I can’t go back to the guild anyway, so I need a place to stay. So I’m planning to stay here for a while.”
Then, she let out a sorrowful sigh, “Haa.”
“But I have to start in the laundry room first. Washing with cold water in this freezing weather is killing me. Look, my hands are already chapping.”
Helena’s fluttering hands were different from those of a typical maid.
Veins stood out bluish-green beneath the skin, and thick calluses covered them. Those were unmistakably the hands of a swordswoman.
“Plus, it seems a few servants already have a crush on me. They stare so hard I feel like they’re going to burn a hole through my face.”
“Don’t kill them.”
“Do I look like a woman who only knows how to kill?”
Helena pouted and stood in a slouched posture.
“Anyway, what’s my first mission? I hope it’s something fun.”
“In front of the Arsil Orphanage at sunset today. We’ll meet up there.”
“What?”
Helena’s complexion drastically changed.
She had been smiling brightly no matter what was said, but at this moment, her face turned completely icy, making her look like a different person.
The next moment,
Whoosh!
Helena vaulted over the desk and lunged at me. Her hand shot out, aiming for my collar.
Smack.
I stood up from my chair and lightly deflected it. Helena didn’t give up there and this time tried to tackle me down.
Whoosh!
Helena threw her body toward my waist. As I grabbed her wrist to block her,
Thud!
I slammed Helena’s body onto the desk. Then, I pinned her other hand up so she couldn’t move it either.
Sparks flew from Helena’s eyes as both her hands were restrained.
“Let go...!”
A fierce struggle followed. I wrapped my thigh around her wildly thrashing legs and pinned down her bucking upper body with my elbow.
“Ugh...”
Pinned down completely, Helena twisted her entire body. Her resistance was quite fierce, but she couldn’t overpower me in raw strength.
“I said let go...!”
What filled Helena’s eyes wasn’t murderous intent.
“Helena.”
It was fear.
“What are you so afraid of?”
At my heavy question, Helena’s body froze entirely.
Helena glared at me, her chest heaving. Her fiercely drawn eyes were brimming with moisture.
“Do you think I’m going to sell you off to that place like your parents did?”
The blood drained from Helena’s face. Her trembling lips spoke volumes about her state of mind.
“...How much do you know? Did you look into my past?”
In the original story, Helena was quite despairing while locked in prison. She had told Rose quite a lot about herself just to pass the time.
Thanks to that, I knew all about Helena’s past and the guild she belonged to.
“Did you think I would hire someone I didn’t even know properly?”
“......”
“Calm down. The things you’re imagining won’t happen.”
The cat had suddenly tried to scratch me, but I let it slide this time. It was because Helena hadn’t attacked me with genuine murderous intent.
Helena’s ragged breathing gradually calmed down. A somewhat deflated, powerless voice slipped out.
“What are we going to do there.”
“It’s obvious what to do at an orphanage. I’m visiting as a sponsor.”
“Ha.”
Helena let out a hollow laugh.
“You must really know everything? What kind of place that is.”
“On the surface, it runs an orphanage; internally, it runs an assassination guild. It’s a common business model.”
“......”
“I plan to jump into that business too from now on.”
“What? You’re saying you’ll run an assassination guild?”
Helena’s eyes snapped wide open. Her gaze was reprimanding, as if telling me not to spout nonsense.
“Do you even know how much money is on your head? There isn’t a guild in the kingdom that hasn’t received a request to assassinate you, Master. So what—”
“That’s why I’m going to run it. I plan to live less nobly from now on.”
“......”
“Wouldn’t it be quite amusing if a request were sent back to the bastards who made the requests?”
Helena let out a low sigh. She had discovered the brutal malice harbored in my eyes.
“...You’re serious, Master.”
“Do you understand my purpose for visiting the Arsil Orphanage today?”
“I understand. I get it. But...”
Helena lowered her eyes. It was an expression of someone enduring surging pain.
I knew exactly what Helena was afraid of. So, I spoke as if it had just occurred to me.
“Since you passed the test, I suppose I should give you a reward.”
Truthfully, it was a thought I had been harboring since Helena arrived in this room.
“A reward?”
“I plan to take the position of the orphanage director at the Arsil Orphanage today.”
I declared, looking at Helena’s face, which was a mix of anticipation and suspicion.
“I’ll leave the cleanup of the former director to you.”
“......!”
Helena’s lips parted slightly. Cruel ecstasy washed over her face, welling up from her chest.
She had received permission to do as she pleased with the orphanage director—her former master.
“Master, did you know?”
When Helena squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, the girl swallowing her pain had vanished. Instead, only an assassin gleaming with cold murderous intent remained.
“Part of the reason I decided to serve you, Master, was because I didn’t want to go back to the guild.”
“Is that so.”
“But now I want to go back so badly.”
Helena stuck out the tip of her tongue and licked her lips.
“It’s a reward I truly love. I think I made the right decision to serve you, Master.”
“You have a way with words for someone who lunged at me out of nowhere.”
“Heh.”
Helena stuck her tongue out playfully and winked.
“I won’t do it again, Master. But you got to grope my chest to your heart’s content. Let it slide this time, okay?”
“......”
Indeed, the mass of Helena’s specific area felt beneath my forearm was quite substantial.
But my body felt no arousal from it. Unlike when I touched Rose’s body.
I hadn’t even touched it in the first place. I had just pinned her down with my arm to stop her flailing.
“—Right now,”
The moment I just opened my mouth,
“—!”
“......!”
Helena and I changed our expressions simultaneously. We sensed a presence approaching the door.
Knock, knock.
Along with the knock, a servant’s voice was heard.
“Your Grace, the lady has arrived.”
“Wait a moment.”
I shouted the reply toward the door, then separated myself from Helena.
“Make sure you keep your word from earlier.”
“Understood, Master-nim.”
“If we’re done with our business, leave.”
Helena slowly raised her body from the desk. She was smiling brightly again as if she had never had tears in her eyes.
“Why are you in such a hurry? Is it because of the lady waiting outside the door?”
“Helena.”
I stared directly at Helena, my eyes flashing coldly.
“Don’t cross the line.”
“......”
At my merciless order to leave, Helena pouted. But eventually, she gathered the trolley and stepped to the side.
Clatter, clatter.
Her unusually slow movements made me want to rush her, but I held it in. Making a fuss here would only give Helena a handle against me.
“Come in.”
I spoke toward the door after confirming that Helena had lifted the teapot.
Creak.
The door opened, and Rose appeared with a flushed, reddened face.
“Your Grace.”
Rose scanned the room and tilted her head.
“You weren’t alone.”
“Mm.”
Helena was pouring tea with her head down, pretending to be an ordinary maid.
Because of that,
“Excuse me.”
Rose walked toward me, not paying much attention to Helena. She didn’t seem to recognize Helena’s face.
It was understandable since the last time she saw Helena, she was in rags in a prison cell. Besides, it would be hard to even imagine her being here as a maid.
Without letting on that I knew this fact, I approached the sofa in the center.
“What brings you here?”
“Ah, well.”
Rose sat on the sofa opposite me. She clasped both hands together, placed them on her lap, and spoke.
“I wanted to thank you once again.”
“Ah.”
Rose’s face was shining brilliantly with joy. Her eyes were full of gratitude toward me.
“Andersen-nim explained everything to me. He said you put a lot of care into this matter, Your Grace.”
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing. I heard you not only provided the materials but also secured the workers in advance? Thanks to that, I heard the construction finished quickly.”
It was an important place where I would research my cure, so it was a given. I also knew that having her own laboratory was Rose’s lifelong dream.
Perhaps that was why I put even more effort into it.
The squirrel, having found a cozy nest filled with acorns, twigs, and straw, was jumping for joy.
Seeing that sight didn’t feel too bad.
“I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations. I will work hard.”
“Make sure you don’t overwork yourself.”
I nodded, then suddenly thought of Andersen.
“By any chance, while I was away, did Andersen tell you to come in as his disciple?”
“No, not at all.”
Rose beamed.
“Even if he proposed it again, I wouldn’t accept. Because I have something I must do.”
“Mm.”
“So, about that...”
A faint tension settled on Rose’s face. I could instinctively feel that she had visited to bring this up.
“Could you visit my laboratory once?”
“Why?”
“That is...”
Rose swallowed hard and replied.
“I’ll tell you when you come to the laboratory.”
“......”
I barely held back a burst of laughter.
‘She knows how to pull stunts like this too.’
I could easily guess Rose’s ulterior motive for calling me to her laboratory.
It was just that the words she had agonizingly chosen to pique my curiosity without arousing my suspicion felt adorable.
“Then—”
The moment I was about to say when I would visit,
Clack.
A steaming teacup was placed on the table in front of Rose and me.
“Excuse me.”
Helena, having just set down the teacup, smiled at me. It was a dangerous smile.