Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 241 (Part 1):

“How is life in the palace?”

“It’s…comfortable.”

The Grand Duchess was alone. Judging by the presence she sensed nearby, it seemed she had sent the attendants away.

It was a sign that she wanted to have a conversation.

She smiled faintly.

“I’m glad to see you’re adjusting well. I heard you were a commoner.”

It wasn’t a sarcastic comment about how well a commoner was adapting.

Even Michael didn’t speak to Helmut in that manner.

“I have lived in a noble’s mansion before. I had a noble guardian. Thanks to that patronage, I was able to enter the academy.”

“I heard you transferred to Greta Academy. How do you know this noble guardian?”

“He is an acquaintance of my master.”

Michael hadn’t told the Grand Duchess about his suspicion that Sword Saint Darien might be Helmut’s master.

The Grand Duchess of Renosa never rushed to interrogate. She led the conversation naturally.

Helmut knew that her caution was part of her nature.

She was someone who would never allow her foundation to be shaken.

She had been raised as a noble and lived as one.

The Grand Duchess spoke softly.

“How did you live before coming to the academy?”

“I lived in the forest. Just my master and I. Hunting and learning swordsmanship.”

The Grand Duchess’s gaze, which had been wandering, suddenly focused on Helmut. She asked slowly.

“What about your parents?”

“I was abandoned as a child and became an orphan.”

“I see…”

The two of them had, at some point, started walking side by side.

If there hadn’t been an age difference, it would not have been permissible for the Grand Duchess and Helmut to be alone together like this.

“Do you have any idea where you were born, or who your parents are?”

“I have a guess. But I think they must have had a reason to abandon me.”

“Have you… thought about finding them?”

“I don’t know if that’s what they would want.”

There’s a term called “force majeure.” Being born a commoner or a noble is more absolute than that.

Like Helmut, who was born with the Seed of Darkness and was abandoned because of it.

By leaving the Forest of Roots, Helmut made the impossible possible—he survived in a place where a person with the Seed of Darkness shouldn’t have.

But that was possible by his own will. Returning to his rightful place was another matter.

“I see. Don’t you miss them?”

“I do.”

Helmut replied briefly. Wasn’t it that longing that brought him here?

The Grand Duchess of Renosa closed her mouth. Their steps moved along the wall.

Portraits were lined up on the wall, as if narrating the history of the Grand Duchy of Renosa.

The power of the bloodline was strong. The resemblance was striking in the faces.

Then, Helmut suddenly noticed something and stopped.

“This place.”

There was an empty spot among the portraits. A place where a portrait should have been next to the current Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, beside a youthful portrait of Michael and Charlotte.

Helmut frowned.

“Why is this place empty?”

The Grand Duchess paused for a moment before answering.

“It’s a trace of someone we lost before we could paint their portrait.”

Helmut realized that it was his place.

It seemed like there were no traces of him left in Ratona.

It was as if the fact that a child named Helmut was born had been erased. If he didn’t have the pendant and his mother wasn’t here, Helmut might never have known this was his birthplace.

He was just someone buried in someone’s memory.

The Grand Duchess’s face trembled slightly as she looked at the empty space. She confessed, as if painfully forcing the words out.

“It was my first child, whom I had to let go due to an unfortunate accident.”

Helmut swallowed his words. He didn’t know what to say.

“I sometimes think about that child. It doesn’t hurt as much now that so much time has passed. If that child had grown up normally, how would he have turned out? Following the Renosa bloodline, he would have held a sword and probably become an excellent swordsman. He would have grown up splendidly as the heir to Renosa.”

The Grand Duchess continued with a subdued gaze.

“I was surprised when I saw you, Helmut. You resembled the child I had imagined growing up.”

A sharp pain pierced his heart. Or perhaps it was joy—he couldn’t tell.

Helmut looked at the Grand Duchess. She was also looking at him.

Her eyes held sadness.

And something else. Hope.

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