Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 241 (Part 2):
“Just as I didn’t send my child away by my own will, your parents probably didn’t send you away by their own will either.”
Commoners are different from nobles.
Unlike her, there are many parents who abandon their children out of necessity, whether it’s due to poverty or to protect their own lives, or because the child wasn’t supposed to be born.
But the Grand Duchess dismissed those possibilities. She spoke as if saying what she wanted to believe.
“That’s why I believe that if Helmut, who has grown up so wonderfully, were to return, they wouldn’t reject him.”
As if she would accept her first child if he returned.
Her words moved Helmut.
The wall that had been blocking him crumbled. Helmut spoke immediately.
“I’ve been told that I resemble the Grand Duke a lot. The same with the Grand Duchess.”
It was something that could be taken as disrespectful. How could a commoner dare to compare himself to the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Renosa?
But the Grand Duchess didn’t rebuke his rudeness. She nodded instead.
The peculiar atmosphere between them made it possible.
“Yes, Helmut looks like he belongs to the Renosa bloodline. Even to my eyes.”
“I… was born in Renosa. Probably here in Ratona.”
Helmut stared directly at the Grand Duchess. It was almost as if he were confessing to being the illegitimate child of the Grand Duke.
But the Grand Duchess realized that wasn’t what he meant.
Her blue eyes trembled. She asked quietly.
“Are your parents still here in Ratona?”
Helmut nodded calmly.
“Yes.”
“If you have any evidence or mark… I might be able to help you find them.”
For the first time, her voice wavered.
“I do have a mark. Something I had with me when I was abandoned.”
“What is it?”
But before Helmut could answer, someone’s voice interrupted their conversation from a distance.
“There you are, Mother.”
Both of them were startled.
Absorbed in their conversation, not even Helmut had noticed his approach.
It felt as if their secret meeting had been interrupted.
“Michael!”
“I heard you were heading this way.”
The blond boy with an angelic smile first directed his gaze to the Grand Duchess of Renosa.
As if deliberately ignoring Helmut’s presence.
He probably hadn’t heard their conversation.
There was a distance, and if he had come any closer, Helmut would have noticed him first.
“So, you were talking with Charlotte’s senior.”
“Yes, we were talking about Charlotte.”
The Grand Duchess smiled gently. It was a lie. Helmut realized she didn’t want Michael to know the content of their conversation.
Helmut felt the same.
“The Rinosa Grand Duchy’s portraits…”
Michael’s gaze lingered briefly on the empty space the Grand Duchess had been staring at. He wasn’t unaware of its existence.
“Oh my, it’s already this late. I have things to do. I must be going now.”
Seeing there was no further opportunity for conversation, the Grand Duchess expressed her intention to leave first.
“Feel free to look around. Michael, I’ll see you later.”
She calmly bid farewell to Helmut with a gaze and left.
Michael, the intruder, and Helmut were left alone.
Michael, who had been consciously ignoring Helmut, suddenly spoke.
“Helmut, are you doing well?”
“Yes.”
His short answer made Michael’s smile deepen.
“You’re not falling perhaps for my mother, are you? She’s still young and beautiful, after all.”
“It’s not like that.”
Helmut was especially careful when talking to Michael. He feared he might slip into casual speech, as he had done when dealing with him as Hyde.
“Then why do you seem to show emotions in front of her?”
“You must be mistaken.”
Helmut firmly denied it. He had become quite accustomed to lying now.
Michael laughed out loud unconsciously. But his expression soon turned cold.
“In that case, you should be careful. With the Grand Duke away, you could cause unnecessary misunderstandings.”
“It was Her Grace the Grand Duchess who sought me out.”
Helmut succinctly pointed out the fact.
After all, he had met many nobles at Greta Academy and hadn’t bowed to any of them.
It was the same outside the academy.
Especially if his opponent was his brother Michael, it was even less likely to happen.
No matter how much Michael was the Grand Duke’s heir and wary of him.
“That tone, it’s really arrogant. It’s very much like you. I liked that about you, but.”
Michael’s expression became strange.
He liked it. But not anymore.
It seemed like a denial should follow. But strangely, he couldn’t utter those words.
While his mind had defined Helmut as an enemy, his heart strangely couldn’t treat Helmut as one.
That discrepancy was peculiar.
It was a phenomenon Michael had never experienced before.