Even If Your Regret Tries to Hold Me Back - Chapter 43

In the meantime, Gelda had become somewhat irritable.

“The newbie should tell you the rest… Damn it, I asked him to fill the water barrel and where did he go again?”

Gelda muttered curses under her breath and quickly looked around.

Just then, two figures were grumbling as they entered through the guild entrance. A small girl and a tall man giving her a piggyback ride.

“Mister is stupid! Stupid mister!”

“Hey you, you can’t say such things to adults!”

Their faces weren’t clearly visible in the tree shadows, but their faint conversation could be heard intermittently.

“Then just don’t be stupid! Do you know how much trouble I went through looking for you? How can you go all the way to the city center when the well is right in front of your nose?”

“How would I know? Maybe the road moved?”

“Good heavens, you don’t think I’d believe that excuse just because I’m a kid, do you? I barely found you by asking people if they’d seen someone carrying a big bucket around! You should be grateful to clever me!”

“Of course, of course, it’s all thanks to our smart Lily. Thank you.”

Helena felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu as they drew closer.

‘Why… I feel like I’ve heard that voice somewhere before.’

What cut short that gradually clarifying feeling was Gelda’s deep sigh.

She pulled out a cigarette from a thick paper case and shouted toward the front.

“Hey newbie! New recruits have arrived, so give them a tour of the building and explain the basic rules! And Lily, I’m leaving the newbie’s training to you, so if he doesn’t do it properly, it’s your responsibility!”

Then she disappeared, saying she had many things to handle. The answers from the man called the newbie and Lily were cut off.

Helena didn’t glance at her as she left. The presence of the man who had now approached within arm’s reach caught her attention instead. Before she knew it, she was pointing at him with her finger.

“Are you by chance the person who got lost wandering in the forest…?”

The old man she’d met on the way had called him ‘some crazy bastard,’ but she swallowed that expression.

He spotted Helena right away too. He smiled as innocently as when she first saw him.

“Oh? We meet again, miss!”

Whether it was because the child on his back had been pulling at it randomly, his tied-up hair was disheveled, the bucket on his arm was dangling, and yet his gently creased eye-smile was beaming.

It was the blue-haired man she’d met in Futuo.

“Ah… um, ah! Master Ian, you were here too!”

“…To be precise, you were here first and I came here.”

Ian and the man were surprisingly already acquainted.

“My intuition was right after all!”

It was before Ian could even ask anything. He rattled off the circumstances of how he came to be here.

“I originally set out from Futuo, but instead of the sea, some forest started appearing, so I thought I’d gotten lost. On top of that, magical beasts kept attacking from all directions, so I couldn’t even turn back, when the guild master here appeared and proposed, ‘I’ll show you the way, so join the guild!'”

At this moment, everyone except him had the same expression.

Ian, Lily, and Helena too. They all looked at him with expressions that said they understood. Helena also heard Lily mutter quietly, “The leader said she picked someone up on the way, but I didn’t think it would be true…”

However, he didn’t mind everyone’s stares or even the dangling bucket, and spread his arms wide.

“So I accepted right away, and lo and behold! To finally meet Master Ian like this! May I offer you a joyful embrace?”

“No.”

Ian leaned his upper body back.

“Yes! Understood.”

The man embraced himself with the arms that had been left waving in the air. He still seemed extremely pleased. He was like a large dog wagging its tail mercilessly in front of its owner after a long separation.

‘…Would that be rude of me to think.’

While Helena was quietly thinking to herself, Ian stepped forward to make formal introductions.

“Since there seems to be an intersection with me, let me sort this out. Helena, this is Sakin, a member of my merchant group. And Sakin, this is… um, my…”

Ian’s lips moved as he couldn’t easily find the right words.

Then Lily, who had been staring at him intently, added a word.

“Lover?”

Lily had a proud expression, pleased with herself for coming up with such a difficult word.

Ian opened and closed his mouth once, then immediately continued speaking.

“Helena, my benefactor.”

Then he naturally avoided Helena’s eyes.

Sakin held onto Lily’s kicking legs and turned his head toward Helena.

“Miss Helena, pleased to meet you. It would have been better if I had known then that you were Master Ian’s benefactor.”

“…I’m glad we found out, even if by chance like this.”

As Sakin faced Helena with his refreshingly creased eye-smile, Ian interjected.

“Ahem, may I ask how you two have met before?”

Sakin and Helena exchanged glances briefly. Since Ian’s gaze was on Helena during this, she decided to answer.

Helena spoke nonchalantly.

“Remember the lost bluebird I mentioned before? That’s him.”

“This guy… is the bluebird?”

Even at Ian’s questioning tone, as if he’d heard something he shouldn’t have, Helena nodded. Soon a displeased, suppressed groan flowed from between his clenched teeth.

The bluebird Sakin, who had now found his way, raised the arm of piggyback-riding Lily toward the two people. Then he imitated a thin voice and waved it.

“This kid is Lily. Hello~”

“I don’t want to be called a kid by a stupid mister!”

Lily, annoyed by the term referring to her, swatted away Sakin’s hand. Instead, she grabbed a handful of his bangs as if holding horse reins and tousled them.

Rather than restraining her, Sakin showed an awkward smile with his cockscomb hair.

“As you can see, she’s a somewhat noisy kid.”

“As you can see, he’s a seriously directionally-challenged mister.”

“That’s true.”

Sakin rolled his eyes upward in response and slowly took a step.

Ian and Helena also matched his pace as they walked.

“You two get along well. Well, you must have a hard time adjusting to her level, Lily.”

“Thank you for noticing.”

When Ian smiled slightly, Lily blushed.

Despite the fact that they were clearly talking about him, Sakin asked cheerfully without offense.

“The guild master entrusted me with introducing the guild, so may I guide you to the dining hall first?”

“Well…”

“Great! Just follow me.”

Ian’s “well” meant refusal, but Sakin, who had no way of knowing this, confidently walked straight ahead.

At that moment, fortunately, Lily stopped Sakin. Lily was indeed using his hair like reins.

“Stop pulling, Lily.”

“Put me down.”

Sakin, who now looked like a chicken that had had a handful of feathers plucked, readily crouched down.

As soon as Lily slid down from his back and put her feet on the ground, she grabbed Helena and Ian’s hands, one each.

“The dining hall is this way. If we follow that mister, we’ll obviously end up offering ourselves as snacks to magical beasts in the middle of the night.”

As Lily led the two in the opposite direction, Sakin scratched his disheveled hair.

“Huh? The dining hall was that way? Didn’t we come from over there just now?”

“Oh my. I’ll do the guild tour, so mister, hurry up and go fill the water barrel.”

No one disagreed with Lily’s sigh.

****

“Your Grace!”

A woman blocked Eugene’s path as if cutting in front of him, along with a shrill voice. She was wearing a light blue cape decorated with fur trim.

Because she had her hood pulled down low, it was difficult to immediately confirm her identity. Therefore, Walter, who was following behind, reflexively drew his sword. However, Eugene’s hand stopping him was faster.

“That’s enough.”

“But…”

Eugene shot a look that said he wouldn’t say more. Walter had no choice but to put back the half-drawn sword and step back.

Eugene grabbed the shoulders of the woman who had crashed into his chest with a somewhat complicated expression and separated her. The familiar build and scent were unmistakably hers.

“I told you to stay put, Natasha.”

As the heavy voice fell, the slender figure flinched. At that trembling, a strand of fine golden hair like thread flowed down from the shadow of her hood.

Until then, Natasha had maintained complete silence, only keeping her head deeply bowed. Her small fists clutching the hem of her outer garment were trembling, so Eugene released the force he had applied to Natasha’s shoulders.

“I didn’t leave you the communication device to follow me around. Whatever urgent matter it is, if you come looking for me recklessly like this…”

At that moment, Natasha slowly pulled back her hood and revealed her face.

As soon as he saw that face, Eugene sucked in a sharp breath. Even Walter, who had been watching Natasha’s presence with discomfort, clearly showed his bewilderment.

“…!”

A jaw bruised black and blue, swollen eyelids, scratched cheeks, and split lips. Looking closely, her right hand was even bandaged.

Eugene put strength back into the hand holding Natasha and asked urgently.

“Natasha. Who on earth did this to you?”

“Even if I tell you, you won’t, won’t believe me.”

“Right now I find it harder to believe your appearance.”

“Your Grace…!”

Natasha’s eyes quickly reddened. Her bloodshot pupils filled with moisture and eventually dropped large teardrops.

“The, the head butler did it. He said I, I didn’t please him…!”

“…Gordon?”

The hand that had been about to comfort Natasha without question stopped at the identity of the perpetrator she had revealed. The Gordon that Eugene knew was absolutely not someone who would lay hands on others under any circumstances.

This was a fact that Walter, who had spent long years at Evergale with Gordon, could testify to like a fingerprint. Therefore, Walter stepped forward with objections before Eugene.

“There must be some misunderstanding, Your Grace. You well know that he’s not that kind of person.”

Then Natasha’s gaze, which had been busy sobbing and crying, turned to Walter. She wiped the moisture from her mottled cheeks and whimpered in a voice that tried to suppress its trembling.

“You, you’ve been suspicious of me since the first day I came to the estate, haven’t you, Sir. Of course I understand completely. It must have looked like I was stealing Madam’s place.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then why do you say such things? I’m just doing my best in my position. Do you think I find it entirely pleasant to fill an empty space? Even when I try my hardest, no one acknowledges it?”