I Became the Tutor of the Royal Twins

As Helios closed the door of Sera’s room behind him, there was still a dark cloud over his expression.

He closed his heavy eyes for a moment and opened them once more, rubbing his pounding forehead. Then, he heard Jean calling out to him.

“Heli.”

Jean had been waiting for him in front of Sera’s bedroom until now, leaning against the hallway with his arms folded over his chest. He soon stood straight and strode towards Helios.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

Unfamiliar with the lack of a smile on Helios’s disposition, Jean closely observed the worried man.

Jean was about to reach for his sword’s hilt as a habit, but Helios reached up and firmly gripped his shoulder.

“As I said before, I’m fine. It was Miss Popo who had gotten hurt.”

Urging his friend not to worry, Helios gave him a small smile and patted Jean on the shoulder.

“Firstly, it seems like Miss Popo is fine.”

Haa. Jean sank to the floor as if the tension he had been enduring until now had dissipated all at once.

“When I saw Miss Sera in your arms, at first, I could only think of the worst. And I thought that my heart was going to drop when I heard she was bitten by a snake. And then, a curse? I thought of the worst again.”

“I know.”

“What a relief, really. Either way, I’m glad you’re both safe.”

Jean let out a huge sigh, indicative of how enormous his worries had been thus far.

The quiet hallway was filled with Jean’s deep sigh.

“By the way, Jean. What about the task I asked you to do?”

As he was relaxed until now, Jean’s eyes suddenly sparked with a sharp glint. He straightened his posture and kneeled before Helios.

Soon, a complicated expression arose on his face as he shook his head.

“I went to the location you told me about, but there wasn’t much I could glean.”

As expected.

Helios nodded. He already had a feeling that this would be the case.

“And about the second task, I’ve already arranged it. Miss Sera now has an escort knight assigned to her for when she returns to the capital.”

“Thank you, Jean.”

“And, here.”

Jean took something out of his chest pocket and presented it to Helios.

It was Helios’s dagger, which was the only trace on the sandy beach to indicate the horrid thing that happened there.

“There can’t be any traces left that can be used as evidence since the dagger got submerged in the waves, but I brought it back just in case.”

Helios’s gaze was fixed on the blade that had cut the snake’s head.

“Heli, as you said, if the person behind this could wield magic well enough that the snake completely disappeared after the incident, then it’s more than likely that its blood still would have disappeared from the dagger, too. We wouldn’t have a means to figure out who the culprit is either way.”

As if noticing Helios’s futile regrets, Jean tried to console him.

Helios received the dagger with a smile that looked weak.

“Yes.”

Helios latched his dagger firmly back onto his belt.

“It’s quite the incident. Here I thought that dagger’s just going to be for decoration until the end of time.”

Jean tried to joke a little to lighten the heavy atmosphere. This time, Helios smirked and smiled properly.

“Me, too.”

After answering, Helios patted Jean on the shoulder once more.

Then, turning around, Helios grabbed the knob of Sera’s bedroom door. Just as he was about to go in there to watch over Sera again, Jean caught him.

“You’re not going back to your room?”

Slowly, Helios turned to look at Jean.

“I feel like I should stay here and observe her condition. Why do you ask?”

A little flustered by Helios’s sound reasoning, Jean rubbed the back of his neck.

He felt the same thing this afternoon on the train, but for some reason, Helios’s actions…

“It’s not that… you’re not allowed or anything, but… I’m asking this just in case. Towards Miss Popo, do you—”

“This is my fault. I was the one who invited her to come with us here.”

As if to dismiss the curiosity painting Jean’s features, Helios cut him off and answered as such.

Helios knew that there must be a mixture of remorse, anxiety, guilt and all sorts of emotions apparent in his expression, but Helios was not ready to face that yet.

Turning the doorknob, Helios then entered Sera’s room, which darkness had already enveloped.

* * *

‘Is this… a dream?’

Saruvia dimly recognized the scene before her as a faint memory from when she was very young. It was of a night that was long ago, one that she couldn’t actually remember quite well.

As always, the beginning of this dream started with her standing at one corner of the cold balcony, shivering.

The snow-laden palace she was in was ever so bright and ever so beautiful, but it was so exceedingly cold.

In the first place, her parents never tried to seek her out, so maybe that’s why this day was especially hard on her. Even now in the present, as Saruvia had already become an adult, she still thought the same thing.

‘It’s cold.’

The young Saruvia rubbed her red, tingling hands over her thin dress.

The voice in her head that always disturbed her made added to the pain she felt that day too. No place served as a quiet solace to her.

She realized that she must have come to the imperial palace for a banquet that day. A banquet like that was nothing but agonizing as she had to stay for a long time.

Today’s banquet was held to celebrate the crown prince’s birthday, and it seemed like she had been given an invitation to attend as the crown prince’s peer of the same age.

‘Saruvia.’

Once again, the voice began to speak. She clasped her ears with both hands.

“Don’t talk to me, please.”

The foolish child prayed over and over even though she knew that it was useless.

‘Don’t feign ignorance now. I know you can hear me.’

The voice in her head constantly provoked her, enticed her.

Now that Saruvia was an adult, such a thing did not matter to her anymore. However, whenever she experienced it in dreams, it always felt so painful.

The hot tears that flowed down her cheeks froze right as the drops went down.

And, she always heard the voice that would come out around this time—the voice that she always waited for.

Today’s dream remained unchanged. So Helios, the main character of the banquet, appeared.