Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 257

257―――――

How to Befriend Beasts

“Are you sure I received the correct information?”

“Yes, you received it very accurately.”

“But, why….”

Helen couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

She thought Sion had called her to request information or necessary supplies for the current situation, but what he presented was something she couldn’t have imagined.

‘What on earth is he thinking?’

A man who always surprised her with unexpected things.

A nobleman, but one who baffled everyone with his un-noblemanly ideas.

But in the end, he was a man who always proved himself right.

“…You probably anticipated that I would express these doubts, and there must be a reason and a desire behind your current request, right?”

When Sion nodded, Helen subtly calculated the items he had requested.

Due to the recent festival, a large quantity of the items Sion wanted were concentrated in the royal palace.

Of course, most of them were used up during each festival, but the remaining items were sold cheaply to the people of the royal palace, and what was left was dried or smoked for preservation.

‘But what the Young Master wants isn’t ordinary, but high-grade.

No, he might want top-quality items.

Looking at the quantity he’s requesting, it seems like it’s meant as a gift….’

Helen thought so, then tilted her head again.

Sion Clauser was the heir to the Clauser Frontier Count territory, a veritable great noble of Hispania. [Hispania is likely a fictional kingdom in this context.]

It was known that the Lichten Frontier Count was usually frugal, but that was only when viewed from the standards of a great noble, and in the end, Clauser also enjoyed a certain level of luxury for the sake of the family’s pride.

There was no way that the heir to such a Clauser family would ask her for help because he couldn’t afford to give such a gift, which meant he wanted her to prepare it secretly so it wouldn’t be known to the outside.

“You’re not planning to receive it from the royal palace, are you?”

“Correct.

Did you notice?”

“If it were these items, you could have obtained them yourself without going through me.”

“You’re right, Helen.

There must be a branch of the Haines Merchant Guild in the western part of the kingdom, right?”

“Of course.”

“I want you to receive the items there.

With the freshest and best-prepared items.”

“It goes without saying, but in a way that doesn’t attract the attention of others.”

At Helen’s words, Sion smiled as if she was excellent.

At his praise, Helen blushed for a moment, then shook her head and continued.

“With this quantity, it might be inconvenient for you to move around after receiving it, are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Don’t worry about that.

I have workers coming from another place.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

Getting the items wasn’t difficult.

In the first place, the Haines Merchant Guild was the largest merchant guild in the royal palace.

They could easily obtain the items Sion requested.

In particular, the western part of the kingdom had many pastures, so they could pay in the royal palace, receive the items directly from there, and deliver them to Sion without any difficulty.

“Originally, I could have just gone to the west and bought some items, but unfortunately, it’s an unofficial schedule, not an official one.

I’m trying not to make it obvious that I’ve moved.”

“Which means….”

“That’s why I’m planning to leave behind my escort knight, Rishikida, and Lucia, who is outwardly working as a magician in Clauser.”

“You’re going to the west secretly without any escort?”

“Yes.”

“…May, may I ask why?”

Helen’s last words were a personal question.

It had nothing to do with what Sion had requested, so she was avoiding his gaze as if she would understand even if Sion said he couldn’t.

‘There’s no need to hide it.

In the first place, Helen is now a comrade on the same boat.’

The fact that she had told him the location of the fairies she knew was enough to show how much she trusted him.

Sion, recalling the saying that the best way to repay trust is with trust, and money with money, said without hesitation.

“To meet the beastmen.

Most of the beastmen living in the kingdom are concentrated in the west, right?”

“Beastmen, you say?

Ah… now that you mention it, I understand why you’re leaving behind your escort knight.”

Even if not as much as the fairies, the beastmen also didn’t look favorably on the human race.

Unless they were invited by their own kind in some special case, they would give a clear warning not to approach their territory, and if they still approached, they would attack without hesitation.

And unless they were skilled, they could end up seriously injured and chased away, or even lose their lives, by the beastmen rushing in from all directions.

‘But Young Master Sion has Lia, a Myo-eun beastwoman, by his side, so there’s nothing to worry about.’

Moreover, the Myo-eun man she had encountered before was none other than the leader of the clan, a big shot whom the Myo-eun people called ‘Great King.’

If Sion was close to the daughter of that Great King, he would be treated almost as one of their own, even though he was human.

“If you’re taking Lia with you, I’m relieved.

If you’re going to greet the Myo-eun Great King, I hope you have a good outcome….”

“There’s a beastman tribal council meeting coming up soon where the Myo-eun, Wol-rang, and Hobi tribes will gather.

Let’s just say I’m going there for some business.”

“…?”

A beastman tribal council meeting was a secret among secrets for the beastmen.

Sion might have heard about it from Lia, but why was he telling her that?

When Helen looked at him with a puzzled expression, Sion shrugged.

“I just answered because you seemed curious.

Is there a problem?”

“No, there’s no problem, but….

I think it would be better if only you knew about such matters….”

“You and I are not just any ordinary acquaintances, so it’s not difficult to provide this much information.”

He wasn’t just saying it, he meant it sincerely.

Helen had almost accurately remembered the locations of the villages, which was no different from betraying her own kind, and told Sion, who handed it over to Kim Yoo-hyun, resulting in the fairies being utterly destroyed by Kim Yoo-hyun.

Of course, from Helen’s point of view, the fairies were the ones who had abandoned her, so she didn’t have any particular affection or guilt, but in any case, she had given out the information she had without hesitation.

So Sion thought that he should show her corresponding sincerity so that this desirable relationship would continue in the future.

“Then these items you requested from me….”

“It’s a gift.

A gift full of sincerity to ask them to look kindly upon me.”

In fact, it was closer to a bribe than a gift, but neither Sion nor Helen brought it up.

It seemed better to bring something than to go empty-handed!

“I’ve answered all your questions, so now I want to ask you a few things.

Will you answer?”

“Of course.

Ask me anything, Young Master Sion.”

“It’s been almost a week since Kim Yoo-hyun returned.

I know you hate the fairies, but you said you’ve kept some lines open, right?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s the reaction been like since then?

Have the fairies approached you to ask you to find out anything?”

At Sion’s question, Helen thought for a moment and slowly shook her head.

Helen, who had some connections with the relatively moderate fairies as well as the radical fairies who followed the will of the Celestial race.

The words she received from those fairies were always when a small village was attacked and some were taken away, and it was to find a likely suspect who had committed such an act.

But they didn’t have any reaction this time either.

To be more precise, they didn’t think that the ones who had invaded with the purpose of wiping out large villages with at least hundreds of inhabitants at once and capturing the fairies, not with the purpose of capturing them, were humans.

“It seems they don’t think it was done by slave traders or anything like that from within.

They don’t think humans would dare to do such a thing.”

“That’s right.

All those big villages disappeared in less than a day.”

“Those who believe they are noble don’t even know that they are being defiled by the mud right beneath them.”

“···.”

“You might think it’s a bit strange for me to say this, but I don’t think of them as my own kind.

There’s no way they would treat their own kind so cruelly.”

Helen had clearly experienced terrible suffering at the hands of humans.

When she barely escaped from there and returned to her own kind, what she received was not comfort and pity, but gazes as if she were looking at dirty trash.

To the fairies, Helen was just a disgrace to the race whose body had been defiled by humans.

That’s why she didn’t have good feelings towards her own kind, the fairies.

Even if it wasn’t to the extent of the infinite animosity she had towards the Kashgar County family or the slave traders, she treated the fairies more coldly than ordinary humans.

Her involvement with the radical fairies was for revenge, and her connections with other fairies were only the efforts of a merchant to provide them with information and receive money or their goods in return.

“Do you know what they thought of me?”

“…I don’t know.”

“They see me as a woman who is filling the honor of the race that was defiled by my body with my body.

Atoner who mixes in the world of humans on their behalf and does all the hard and dirty work.”

“···.”

“It was absurd.

What did I do wrong?

I was just captured by slave traders, suffered terrible things, abandoned, and then returned home.

Suddenly, I became a trash who betrayed my own kind.”

Helen’s eyes, which had always maintained a calm aura, began to shake violently.

That’s how shocked and stressed she was by the way her own kind treated her, and it meant that there was nothing different now.

“So I changed myself as they wanted.

In a form that is a fairy but not a fairy.

Not human, but more like a human.

Since they don’t think of me as their own kind, I’ve decided not to think of them as my own kind either.

I won’t care how many of them die.”

It was a word that instantly eliminated Sion’s worries, which he had been having just in case.

He wondered if she would feel guilty about the fairies who had been killed by Kim Yoo-hyun, but Helen was rather a woman who would shout, ‘They deserved to die!’ to those of her own kind, no, to the fairies.

After taking a breath for a moment, Helen realized that she was too excited and had only talked about herself.

“…I’m sorry, Young Master.

I was too excited.”

Helen said so in a cautious voice, bowing her head.

But Sion had no intention of blaming such a woman.

Rather, to be honest, he wanted to get up and dance right away.

‘Of course! Helen sincerely told me that she has no affection for the fairies! Now I can work with Helen to destroy the fairies without guilt.’

Of course, Sion hid this true intention thoroughly, and waved his hand with a light smile as if it was nothing.

“I’m sure I told you?

If you help me, I’ll watch your back until the end.

Your own kind abandoned you for that reason, but I have no intention of abandoning you even if you’ve experienced something worse than that.”

“…I have no intention of betraying Young Master Sion or disappointing you either.

You’re the only one who believes in me and cares for me.

It’s all thanks to you that I can sleep comfortably like this and wake up to a new morning without having nightmares.”

“That’s a relief.

It makes me think I can use you even more!”

At Sion’s joke, Helen smiled softly and replied, ‘Anytime.’

“Then how should I pay you?

Should I pay you right away like last time?”

“…I’d like to say it’s just my gift and do it for free, but Young Master….”

“I told you.

I like free things, but I don’t live by always taking them without conscience.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world, and you may have to pay a corresponding price in other areas.

I’m just more comfortable settling the score for the right price.”

“Really, you’re someone I can’t figure out.”

After answering that, Helen hesitated for a moment, fiddling with her hands.

There was something else she wanted to say, but could she really do it?

She was worried that she might say something unnecessary and become estranged from the man who was at least on her side.

“Don’t be afraid to speak.”

“Ah….”

“I told you.

I’m on your side.

Since you’re helping me, you have the right to ask for a corresponding price.”

At that, Helen’s lips opened and closed momentarily.

She wanted to say it, she wanted to ask, but she was too scared when she thought of the past.

She wanted to approach, but the nightmare of the past kept coming to mind and made her nauseous.

She hated her body that had been defiled in the arms of that monstrous man, and her heart that couldn’t approach because of it.

Creak―.

At that moment, Sion got up from his seat and approached Helen.

Then, as if telling her to stand up, he held out his hand and looked at Helen with eyes more beautiful than those of most women.

“···.”

When Helen reached out her hand without realizing it, he lightly lifted her up.

Then, he hugged Helen very carefully and patted her back.

Feeling each other’s warm body temperature, but not hugging completely, but keeping the line and whispering as if not to approach the old nightmare.

“You’re free now.

You’re liberated from the past.

Don’t keep clinging to it.”

“···.”

“If there’s anything you’re still scared of or afraid of, tell me.

I’m not such a bad guy that I can’t even break that much.

Okay, Helen?”

“…Yes, Young Master Sion….”

Helen reflexively hugged him and tried to resist the temptation to feel more of the warm warmth in his arms, and answered in a small voice.

Instead, she wouldn’t give up this warmth until he let go himself, and Helen didn’t push Sion away, saying that she would feel this warmth as much as she wanted, at least at this moment.

―――――――Afterword―――――――

Are you going to get angry if I don’t bring Helen’s illustration…?