Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 283 (Part 2):

Helmut naturally took Alea’s hand and led her forward.

Suddenly, the festival from four years ago came to mind. It was now an old memory.

Alea looked down at his wrist. Something was briefly visible between the cuffs of his clothes.

She remembered something she had forgotten.

“You’re still wearing that bracelet?”

“Because I didn’t lose it.”

Even though he lost his sword, no, they probably didn’t know what that bracelet meant.

Alea placed her hand on Helmut’s bracelet. Her magical power seeped into the bracelet in white.

“It’s still usable. We should be able to communicate over short distances. We won’t be able to project images like we did outside, but.”

“We can at least talk?”

[Yes, like this.]

Helmut, hearing the voice transmitted by magic, asked back.

“Then what about me?”

“You can’t speak to me from your side. The demonic energy in the air is too strong for that function to work.”

“That seems one-sided.”

“Just being able to use it to this extent in the Forest of Roots is impressive.”

Alea raised her eyebrows as if he didn’t understand.

A faint smile spread across Helmut’s lips.

“Still, we won’t be walking the whole way, right? Why don’t you let go? We need to hurry too. The other directions won’t be as problematic.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Alea called for the golem.

The golem, which had been following them somewhat awkwardly, spread its wings wide.

As Alea climbed onto the golem’s back, she said:

“Let me make this clear, I’m not suggesting we go together just the two of us with the intention of having a leisurely date.
Although I said not to push ourselves, it’s still ideal for the Adamantium in all four directions of the barrier to be activated. I can’t afford to fail on my end.”

Her tone suggested that her pride wouldn’t allow it.

“You haven’t changed.”

Helmut followed Alea onto the golem’s back.

He naturally placed his hand on Alea’s shoulder, who was sitting in front.

“…What are you doing?”

“There doesn’t seem to be anywhere else to hold onto.”

“Don’t you see the handgrip in front?”

“I don’t see it.”

Alea briefly turned her head to glare at Helmut, who was responding shamelessly.

However, she soon turned back to the front, as if giving up.

“We’ll fly along the barrier. If no major problems occur, we should be able to arrive within two days.”

“Alright.”

Helmut responded halfheartedly.

Alea’s shoulders were surprisingly small and delicate.

Charlotte was also a woman, but she was lean and firm from sword training, unlike Alea.

Alea, with her magic undone, was tall for a woman, but she was a slender beauty.

Even when she used magic, how could everyone have thought Alea was a man?

Doubt suddenly arose.

“When did you reveal to them that you’re a woman?”

“Just before coming here.”

“…So no one knew at the academy?”

“Of course not.”

Alea was confident, but Helmut felt something was off somehow.

“After I disappeared, did you often hang out with Asuka and Sian?”

“No, we barely even spoke. What reason would I have to hang out with those guys? I just told them to work hard on improving their skills.”

It was a resolute answer, almost cold. Yes, this was Alea. Helmut finally relaxed his expression.

Soon, the golem took off, its new form soaring into the sky. It began to fly along the barrier, wings spread wide.

A long yet short adventure of a few days lay ahead of them, with the goal of leaving the Forest of Roots.

*

Flying along the barrier was a peaceful and quiet time.

Helmut and Alea spent a long time talking.

Surprisingly quickly, the four-year gap in time crumbled away.

Even the slight awkwardness soon disappeared as if washed away.

Although Alea and Helmut might appear to have different personalities on the surface, they fundamentally have rock-solid characters. Even though they had grown, their essence remained unchanged.

Alea, listening to the stories of what had happened, spoke as if teasing:

“Really, you’ve done nothing but train here.”

“There’s nothing else to do here but train.”

“If it were me, I would have had more things to do. Like researching demonic beasts.”

A gleam flashed across Alea’s eyes.

It was a look that somehow suggested she might have captured demonic beasts and researched them by inflicting pain and dissecting them.

Helmut changed the subject.

“More importantly, it seems the temperature is dropping.”

He said this after noticing Alea’s cheeks, exposed outside her collar, turning pale.

In fact, even Helmut, who was insensitive to cold, could feel the air getting colder.

Even though they were flying at a not very high altitude, at some point the wind touching their skin had become chilly.

Frost could be seen forming on the metallic golem.

“Is it because we’re heading north?”

Although he had lived in the Forest of Roots for a long time, Helmut had only grown up in the central region. The north was particularly unfamiliar.

Alea suddenly asked:

“By any chance, do you know about the world map?”

“World map?”

“The map from before the Forest of Roots was created, that is, the ancient map from before the Demon King War. The temple considers it forbidden, but Archmage Antiol had it.”

“Why that map?”

“If you look at that map, there’s a sea north of the Forest of Roots. Inside the barrier, according to the map. Seeing how it’s getting colder, that sea is probably frozen.”

“A sea?”

Helmut pronounced the word unfamiliarly.

He had never imagined a sea in the Forest of Roots. In the Forest of Roots, full of ashen skies and bizarre trees, the word ‘sea’ was as unfamiliar as ‘desert’.

“Even in the Forest of Roots, water isn’t polluted, so the northern sea must be full of clear ice and icebergs. It must be beautiful.”

Alea turned to him and smiled.

“Actually, I wanted to see that scenery with you. Even if leaving the barrier is important, it’s okay to enjoy that much pleasure, right?”

At that bright smile, Helmut was momentarily lost for words. It was dazzling.

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