Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 446 (Part 1):

Helmut accepted the fate laid before him. Those who possess power bear a duty.

Especially when the root of that power is steeped in darkness.

That was his original sin.

A sin he was born with, whether he wished for it or not.

Even if the world had rejected him, Helmut would have to fight on the front lines to protect the very world that had abandoned him.

Simply because he was strong.

Yet, even though the world had forsaken him, there were those who had taken his hand and lifted him up.

The moment the Forest of Roots was released from its seal, if the world faced danger, so too would the people within it.

That was why Helmut had to fight.

And he had comrades to stand by his side. The most reliable of them all, of course, was Alea.

“I wonder how the talks in the Empire will go,” she said. “Depending on their outcome, we’ll need to head to the Empire ourselves.”

Surely the Grand Duke would handle the negotiations well enough, but in Helmut’s eyes, the Grand Duke was too upright to be a skilled negotiator.

Still, he responded with optimism.

“The Temple would probably want to borrow even a cat’s paw at this point.”

Having proven their strength by defeating the Temple, they’d likely want to draw the Grand Duchy of Renosa into their fold.

All they could do was await the Temple’s desperation in the face of the word *Demon King*.

Helmut stared intently at Alea.

There was an unreadable glint in his eyes.

“What?”

“…The Root of Rosetta. Don’t you think I might need it too?”

Helmut had considered it after learning of its awakening effect on demonic beasts.

Perhaps it could cause a phenomenon similar to Igrelle’s in him, making it necessary.

It wasn’t that he doubted Alea’s magic, but rather that he was wary of the Demon King’s dominance.

Alea knew her magic couldn’t fully seal the Seed of Darkness.

After all, her spell hadn’t been crafted with an absolute being like the Demon King in mind.

She replied nonchalantly, “It wouldn’t hurt to have it. I’ve already set some aside. I’ll make it into a ring for you.”

“I’ve already… gone berserk in the Forest of Roots once,” Helmut confessed calmly, a fact Alea was already aware of.

“Even the strongest mind struggles to endure betrayal,” she said. “And you—you trusted them even knowing betrayal would mean your death.”

That belief had been built on affection.

The castle of trust had crumbled, and the affection had scattered, becoming a thing of the past, but the scars left by that affection were etched deep within him.

A deeply ingrained wound doesn’t vanish. It merely fades.

If the Demon King were to vividly and starkly revive that faded scar in his heart…

If the Seed of Darkness were reminded of how it once dominated Helmut…

Even an opponent he could defeat physically was a different matter when the attack came from within.

“The problem is that I broke down once,” Helmut said.

The Helmut of then and the Helmut of now were different.

But then and now, he was human. Having broken once, it was only natural to consider the possibility it could happen again.

Alea responded in a gentle tone, “If anyone could break you, it’d be me. But I won’t betray you.”

“I never thought you would,” Helmut replied. “But what if you get hurt?”

The loss of something precious could strike as deep a blow as betrayal.

Despite her limited combat experience, Alea was a skilled mage in battle.

But facing the demonic beasts of the Forest of Roots would be no easy task, even for an archmage.

The same went for Helmut.

Even having reached the realm of a Sword Saint, he couldn’t confidently claim he was strong enough to protect someone. It was an ironic situation.

If he won a war to save the world but lost her in the process, it would be meaningless.

Alea met Helmut’s gaze. Her violet eyes shimmered with a mystical light.

“Do you want me to stay somewhere safe?”

“Yes.”

“What a coincidence. I feel the same way.”

Alea smiled brightly.

“As you said, you might go berserk, so I’d love to lock you up somewhere safe and fight alone. Someone has to fight, and I’m strong enough to do it.”

To her, a crisis felt like an opportunity.

A rare chance to unleash all the magical achievements she had built up.

She was the one taking the situation most lightly.

“Alea.”

“But I can’t just do what I want, can I? So…”

Alea declared firmly, “Let’s fight together. I won’t die, you won’t die, and we’ll win.”

Mages didn’t have the instincts of demonic beasts or the intuition of swordsmen.

All they had were the outcomes born from countless variables.

The only answer Alea knew was this one.

And it seemed Helmut felt the same.

“I was wrong,” he admitted.

“About what?”

“Somewhere in my mind, I still thought of you as someone I needed to protect.”

It had been that way before. In that battle against the Temple’s forces, when they had confirmed their feelings for each other.

Alea had fallen unconscious, helpless, and Helmut had fought, risking his identity being exposed.

“Another coincidence,” Alea said, laughing aloud.

“I was thinking the same thing.”

She added that she felt like a hero who had rescued a princess trapped in the Forest of Roots.

Helmut’s expression turned subtle.

“I’m a prince.”

As the son of the Grand Duke, technically, he was.

Alea stared at him as if he’d said something absurd.

“Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“It’s not a joke.”

To his bold declaration, Alea retorted without hesitation, “It’d be better if it was.”

“…”

“We’ll protect each other. Neither of us should think of it as one-sided.”

Both were assertive, confident in their strength.

Having taken responsibility for themselves their entire lives, they naturally tried to shield the other.

But it didn’t have to be that way. They could fight side by side.

“Good or bad, I’m not sure,” Helmut muttered.

In truth, he preferred protecting over standing side by side. In that sense, he was a bit old-fashioned.

But what could he do? The one by his side was Alea.

That, too, was a fate he had to accept.

And soon after, a message arrived from the Grand Duke.

It was a summons to the Empire.

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