Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 284

284―――――

Stepping Forward

—I know you don’t want to, but please keep in contact with the fairies.

We need to know what’s going on over there to react flexibly here.

Please, Helen.

—

Helen smiled as if she were stating something obvious.

Even without the request, she would have gladly followed the words of Zion Klausen.

Zion was the one who completely changed her life, which had been nothing more or less than the head of Heiness Merchant Group.

Unlike those who used her for revenge and eventually tried to abandon her, Zion willingly participated in her revenge and gave her a revenge more satisfying than any she could have achieved on her own.

‘What right do you have to forgive them?

What makes you beg for forgiveness there?’

A person who genuinely got angry for her sake.

‘Welcome, Helen.’

And a person who sincerely reached out to her.

Even though her already broken body and mind were rotting, she couldn’t give up, couldn’t forgive, and he let her let go of everything she couldn’t let go of.

‘Let’s get out.

From that hell, from that miserable past.’

To Helen, Zion Klausen was the ‘light’ itself that the fairies spoke of.

To her, he was salvation, a unique haven, and her only ally.

For him, she could give up everything she had achieved without leaving a single grain, and if that would bring her closer to him, she would.

Helen could even swear to such a being, whether it was light or a god.

—Figure out the atmosphere in the royal palace and let me know.

I think I’ll be very busy, so keep it brief.

—

A few days before the war between Nudia and Hispania began, Zion Klausen left with the main force.

He came to Helen and left those words, and two days later, he headed to the battlefield.

Helen decided not to worry too much, seeing him take care of his people rather than fearing the war, even though he was heading to such a dangerous place.

She thought that was how to trust the man named Zion, and she firmly believed that nothing would happen.

However, a little later, Helen was approached by a secretary who wore a very cautious look.

“Madam, Head of the Merchant Group.

A secret message has arrived from the eastern front.”

“···A secret message?”

“Yes.

I think you should know, Madam, Head of the Merchant Group.”

“What makes you say that?”

“It seems that Duke Zion Klausen has been killed in action.”

“···Huh?”

She clearly heard the words, but her mind couldn’t process them, and her heart couldn’t accept them.

Because of this, Helen showed a blank face in front of her secretary, something she had never done before.

“Madam, Head of the Merchant Group?”

“Ah, yes.

Sorry.

Can you tell me again?

I think I misheard something.”

“···That, Duke Zion Klausen, I mean… The hero of the kingdom and the one who often visited our merchant group.”

“Yes?”

“It’s almost certain information… It seems that Duke Zion has been killed in action…”

Crack!

At that moment, Helen felt as if something inside her shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions like a handful of dust.

Her chest suddenly felt empty, and her mind, which had never stopped working while running the merchant group, completely shut down. Strength drained from her body, and she began to sweat coldly.

“M, Madam, Head of the Merchant Group?

Are you alright?”

“···Horse.”

“Yes?”

“Prepare a horse. Immediately. Pr, prepare it immediately.”

“Madam, Head of the Merchant Group?

What do you mean all of a sudden…”

“Prepare a horse right now!

Can’t you hear me?”

At Helen’s scream-like shout, her secretary, terrified by the sight of her employer that she had never seen before, answered, ‘Yes, yes!’ and quickly left Helen’s office.

She didn’t know why, but she had a strong feeling that if she delayed even a little, the fairy woman in front of her would tear her apart and kill her.

And a little later, a woman got on a horse and began to ride wildly to the east.

‘No, no, no, no!

Why him, why him of all people?

I just barely, really barely met him.

He was the only one who took my hand and lifted me up when everyone in the world trampled on me and looked down on me.’

‘Why him, why Duke Zion of all people!

No, no.

Absolutely not!’

It must be false news.

Yes, it can’t be.

It’s all a lie.

I have to see it with my own eyes.

That he is alive and well and active.

Yes, he said he would successfully drive out Nudia and rest for a while in Klausen, so if I go there, he will surely be sitting in his usual place, reading the information I sent him.

He will greet me with a slightly surprised look, asking why I suddenly came here.

Staying on standby at the merchant group and constantly watching the news from the east.

Doubt the wrong news and deal with it more carefully.

Helen couldn’t make any rational judgments.

She just wanted to rush to Klausen as soon as possible and see Zion Klausen’s unharmed appearance with her own eyes.

She wanted to be held in his arms, just like the day he achieved her revenge, the day he hugged her.

It takes more than a week to get from the royal palace to Klausen, even using the main road.

Helen traveled the long distance without eating, drinking, resting, or even sleeping.

Tears flowed from her eyes incessantly, and as she ran madly through the rain, dust piled up on top of her, making her beautiful face and appearance look suspicious to anyone who saw her.

“Please, please.

Please say it’s not true.

Don’t leave me alone.

Why are you taking it away again?

Please.

Please.”

The horse had already collapsed from exhaustion, and Helen, who had been riding it for almost a week without eating or drinking, was in the worst possible condition.

If she hadn’t been discovered by Klausen’s scouts who had come out to scout far away, something terrible would have happened.

“···Stop!

···Where are you from··· Answer···.”

“Fairy··· But the appearance··· To the castle first···.”

“···Duke Zion··· Could this woman··· be···.”

“Get Lucia quickly···.”

At the end of the intermittent voices, the voice she had desperately wanted to hear was heard.

Helen vaguely felt that her body was being held by someone and heading somewhere.

Originally, she would have remembered the past and struggled even while losing consciousness in shock.

But now, as if she didn’t need anything, as if she didn’t care, she gave up everything.

‘I really hate this world.’

It took away everything that should have made her happy and even took away the last remaining hope.

Now, Helen’s heart was filled with the thought that she really didn’t want to live this miserable and unhappy life anymore.

“What on earth··· Why here···.”

“···To the room first···.”

She just wanted to die like this, so she didn’t want to face this terribly heartbreaking situation anymore.

Helen thought so and let go of the last bit of sanity she was barely holding on to.

‘···Ah.’

Suddenly, Helen felt that, unlike just a moment ago when her body and mind were cold.

For some reason, she felt like she was being held in something very warm and cozy.

A road she had traveled for a whole week without resting, eating, or drinking.

A road where she jumped off the horse and ran herself when the horse got tired.

‘Wh, what have I done···.’

It was hard to move even a finger, but Helen struggled to open her eyes.

When she first heard the news of Zion, she remembered running out like a madwoman without thinking, just to see his unharmed appearance with her own eyes.

She scolded herself for being foolish and foolish, for having to judge and act rationally, leaving open the possibility that it could be a false rumor, but when she came to her senses, she had lost consciousness and woke up.

She rebuked herself for doing such a foolish thing, but soon she shook her head.

What does it matter?

If he was really taken away, I wouldn’t….

“You foolish thing.”

A warm energy reached her heart, which had been hardening coldly.

A voice that made her heart flutter more than any sweet music she had ever heard.

Helen forced her stiff body to turn and tried to look at the source of the sound.

“It’s a good thing the Klausen scouts were nice.

What were you going to do if you had been caught by the Nudia army?

Did you even think that I would take revenge and catch all the guys who were bothering you?”

A man who was looking at something while clicking his tongue.

“···Ah.”

If her eyes were not mistaken.

If she wasn’t really dead and there was an afterlife.

It was definitely Zion Klausen sitting in front of her, looking at her.

“Judging by the time, it seems like you ran all the way here from the royal palace without resting.”

“···.”

“If there was an urgent problem, you would have sent a messenger bird or requested a magical communication [a form of long-distance communication using magic] if it was more urgent.

At least, that’s what Helen, the wise woman I know, would have done.”

“···.”

Creak―.

He gets up from his seat and approaches the bed where Helen is lying.

Then, he pressed the fairy woman’s forehead with his index finger, who was staring blankly at him, and continued.

“I’m a little disappointed.

I thought you would be able to figure out whether the rumor was true or false.

I didn’t think you would run here recklessly to see me unharmed, did I?”

“···.”

“What if something happened to you?

Were you such a clumsy woman, Helen Heiness?”

“···Then.”

A voice hoarse with fatigue and cracked with despair flowed from Helen.

Perhaps it was because she had already shed more tears on the way here than she had ever shed before.

Helen opened her mouth, looking at Zion with trembling eyes that no longer shed tears.

“What, what on earth can I do?”

“You shouldn’t have.

You should have trusted me and waited.”

“How?

Me?

Sir Zion.

How could I maintain my sanity after hearing the news that Sir Zion had died?

Even the monster who coveted my body abandoned me, and even my own kind called me a dirty bitch, but only you reached out to me and saved me.

How could I there···.”

She was saying this, but.

Helen knew that the man in front of her, all of this, was not a dream or an illusion.

So she felt life returning to her coldly hardened body and tears flowing again.

“Still, still… it’s not a dream.”

“How can you be sure?”

“If this were a dream… I don’t think Sir Zion would scold me like this.”

“···.”

“I’m glad.

That the rumor… wasn’t true.”

Barely lifting her trembling hand, Helen made a very desperate gesture.

As if asking him to hold her hand, as if asking him to protect her as before.

“···You’re being scolded because you did something wrong, you foolish woman.”

Zion sat down next to Helen, holding her hand tightly with one hand.

With the other hand, he carefully stroked the woman’s face, which Lucia had neatly washed, restoring her original intellectual yet subtly delicate feeling.

“I’m not dead.”

“Yes.

I knew it.

I thought so.”

“Then why did you run so madly?”

“Because I wanted to see you.

I just wanted to see this side of you.”

Zion did not miss the fact that Helen’s hand was trembling as she said that.

It seemed that she was so exhausted that she wouldn’t be able to sleep again right away, and at the same time, she was feeling a sense of relief as the tension was released, but she seemed to be trying to endure it.

“Take a nap and we’ll talk about the rest later.

Lucia said you were extremely tired and exhausted.”

“Just a little, just a little more.”

“I’m not running away.

There’s no way I’ll close my eyes and find out it was all a dream, or that I’ve disappeared.

It’s a ‘request,’ so please sleep. Helen.”

“···.”

Helen was unmoved no matter how much Zion spoke.

The woman, who had always seemed so cold and intellectual, suddenly became a child and was afraid that if she fell asleep now, this situation would never come again, so she was refusing to fall asleep.

‘Suddenly she’s being so girlish… Ah, come to think of it, it’s about that time.’

Since she is a fairy woman, humans would see Helen as being in her prime, a mysterious woman.

Considering when Helen was kidnapped by slave traders, it was difficult to say that was the case.

Helen is a woman who was caught when she was still a girl who only knew the bright side of the world, suffered all kinds of hardships, and lived a miserable life, but barely escaped from that hell, but was abandoned here and there and lived only for revenge.

On the outside, she only shows a cold and intellectual appearance, but inside, she is covered with all kinds of wounds and scars, and she is still very scared and intimidated, stopped at the time of a girl.

Thinking about it that way, it was understandable that she, the owner of the Heiness Merchant Group, completely lost her mind at one rumor and ran on horseback for a week to get near Klausen.

‘I unintentionally gained another burden.’

The first priority is to put this woman to sleep first.

Zion looked down at Helen and continued to stroke the woman’s cheeks and forehead as if to reassure her, as if nothing would change even if she opened her eyes, making her relax, and finally induced her to fall into a deep sleep as she felt extremely tired.

Helen was not a monster like Zann or Ekaterina, so she had to rest in order to recover from the shock to her body.

And a little later, Helen finally closed her eyes.

Zion, who confirmed that she was sleeping with a much more stable and even breathing than when she first fainted, sighed and left the room, even softening his footsteps so as not to wake her.

“How is she?”

“Nyaang.”

The other women did not listen to Zion’s words to rest and were waiting.

Lucia and Ria, who had spent quite a lot of time with Helen, seemed to be subtly worried about her.

In particular, Ria remembered Helen looking at her with affectionate eyes a long time ago, so she seemed to be even more concerned.

“She’s sleeping.”

Zion answered without saying anything else and groaned.

Originally, he was going to lift the mood with Kim Yoo-hyun and immediately call Marquis Volko, Margrave Lichten, and the executives to discuss the next steps, but an unexpected guest came and the schedule was slightly delayed.

“Ria, please keep an eye on her so she doesn’t wake up again and do anything strange.

I have something to do right away, so.”

“Nyaang.”

“If it’s okay, can I stay with you too?”

Zion nodded at Lucia’s question.

Lucia, who has always been particularly sensitive to taking care of people, seemed to be very concerned about the fairy woman named Helen.

“Master.

The others have all gathered in the conference room.”

Rishikida, who came up a little later, delivered the news.

At that, Zion muttered, “Shall we go?” and took the first step into the work to determine Hispania’s future course.

―――――――Author’s Note―――――――

Recommendations are always welcome!