Chapter 71

“If you take his side too much, you’re going to spoil her,” said Arsenio.

“How come you’re so cold-hearted? Have not raised you right?” said Helena.

“Cold-hearted? I did just…”

“You want to say you just did your duty? Okay. Pick up where you stopped working and go ahead. Where is the grand duke’s party?”

Arsenio, who had been cut off by Helena, made an embarrassed look. But she couldn’t beat the cardinal and sighed.

“His party is waiting in the front courtyard.”

“It’s not our custom here in Roshan to keep them waiting. Let’s go!”

Helena hurried ahead. Arsenio and Hilde hurriedly followed her. The three left the main hall and went down the stairs toward the front courtyard.

In the front yard, three knights, including Grand Duke Christopher, were waiting after they got off the horses.

“We’re honored to see the witness of great divinity, the holy chief priest, Your Eminence Cardinal!”

Grand Duke Christopher showed his manners politely.

In terms of the worldly rank, the cardinal was as honorable as the emperor. In particular, when they saw the cardinal, the god’s disciple, it was the established law even for the emperor to show his manners politely.

“Please stand up, Grand Duke!”

While talking to him, Helena took off her hood. Her forehead with her light azure hair over it was clearly marked with gold-plated butterfly-shaped scars.

The butterfly pattern, called Renato, was god’s stigma that only cardinals could obtain among many priests. The use of butterflies in seals representing the Roshan Temple was also part of the established customs originating in cardinal stigmas.

“I was waiting…”

Her golden pupil glanced at the knights standing behind him.

“When I see a nice group of knights like you, I’m worried rather than happy. I hope my prediction is not right, but let me ask. Did the emperor have an accident by any chance?” she asked with a gentle voice. She guessed the emperor’s misfortune exactly. She already knew that a messenger with a sign of trouble would come, and she instantly felt that something ominous happened to the emperor because it was unusual that the messenger was a grand duke.

“You’re right.” Christopher replied bitterly.

“Oh, I sensed it when even the embers looked like a disaster in fire…”

Helena shook her head, clicking her tongue.

To some extent, the tragedy had been predicted. She was informed of the pre-notice that the emperor’s party was coming to Roshan to proceed with the emperor’s engagement.

But only the grand duke and three knights who looked haggard came on the promised date, not the emperor. Even the maids of the temple without any divine power could easily guess that the emperor’s schedule was messed up.

But Helena foresaw much more than that. The dizzying constellations last night, the nightmares of dawn, and the buzzing noise of the embers burning in the fireplace indicated a clear disaster. The ominous energy of all this turned into a sharp spear and pierced her crown.

“There were wagon accidents on the way here. His Majesty, Lady Marianne, and one horseman went missing after falling down the Benoit Falls. Most of the people that followed were injured, big and small.”

“Oh, God!…” Helena lamented.

She crossed herself, putting her dry hand on her forehead.

“What is the condition of the injured?” Arsenio asked with a serious look.

“Fortunately, there were none who suffered life-threatening injuries.”

“God helped you,” said Aresnio, who also crossed her chest with a solemn expression.

Christopher turned to the cardinal again and said, “We divided the Knights into several search teams to find out the emperor’s party, but we are short-staffed. I asked headquarters in Milan for support units but I couldn’t wait…”

“Don’t worry, grand duke. Let me help you.”

Helena quietly wrapped Christopher’s hands.

“Let’s make a search team composed of those priests who are familiar with the geography of the area. Is there anyone who remembers exactly where the accident happened?”

“Well…yes. The knight who has been to the scene of the accident should know.”

“Good. Please mark that spot on the map. If we know the location, we will be able to figure out which tributary they would have drifted into.”

“Okay.”

Christopher beckoned to a knight standing behind him. He quickly took out a portable map from his pocket. Arsenio helped him spread the map on the floor.

“Are the wounded staying at the official residence?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let me send three teams of healing priests to the residence and include the remaining priests in the search team. If the condition of the residence is poor, you can carry those who can move to this temple for treatment.”

“Thank you for your wise and compassionate consideration.”

Christopher bowed to her once again, but he let out a deep sigh.

“Grand Duke, don’t worry too much,” said someone cheerfully, as if to comfort him.

Christopher turned his head towards the voice. Standing behind Helena, a girl holding onto the hem of a robe was staring at him intently.

“Hilde!”

Arsenio, who took the map that the knight gave, shook her head and called her name as if to stop her. But Hilde shook her head, sticking out her tongue.

“Why? I can see it. Your Majesty’s star is still twinkling, though the light has become a little weaker…”

Christopher frowned at that a bit. It was still broad daylight with the sun shining. As the sunlight was so strong, the stars could be seen.

“Your Majesty’s star?” asked the grand duke.

“Yeah. It was the star born when His Majesty was born. I can see his partner star next to it. Well, it looks like two. Hummm…it may not be two…I wonder if it’s a shadow.”

Her clear voice hesitated for a moment. She tilted her head to the side a bit.

Hilde continued, “Anyway, the two are holding hands like this. Both are sparkling side by side. But the light is disappearing little by little. It hurts. It’s falling over the ridge over there.”

Glancing at the empty sky, Hilde kept babbling. Golden eyes that exactly resembled Helena’s flashed slowly as if a huge night sky and numerous constellations were spread ahead.

“But he will be fine because you are going to go there to save the emperor. Right?”

She looked at the grand duke and smiled brightly.

“… Sure. I’ll go and escort the emperor safely,” Christopher replied after hesitating for a moment.

Although he couldn’t believe what she said and took it as a 15-year-old girl’s babbling,

it was full of hope and confidence, strangely enough.

“Well, Hilde. You should help sick people, too. Follow Arsen.”

Stroking Hilde’s black hair, Helena slightly pushed her shoulder.

Hilde responded readily and left the place, holding Arsenio’s hand.

Innocently, she even dared to say goodbye to the grand duke by waving her hands.

“Grand Duke, Hilde is a star child born of the blessing of the goddess. Although she is clumsy, she has pure power. What she said is far from nonsensical, so don’t worry too much like she said,” Helena whispered as she watched Hilde’s back.

“… I also hope that God has not forsaken us.”

Grand Duke Christopher quietly prayed. It was his desperate pray.

**

The cool wind swayed through the leaves.

Eckart, who lay on his side, opened his eyes. His blue pupils slowly looked over the nearby scenery. The river was rippling through the gravel on short trees, yellow dresses, ivory capes, blood-stained golden cloaks and white cloaks spread like flags, reflecting the sunlight. On one side of the shadow of the rock was his bedside with some of the ruins of his wagon.

‘I can’t go through this once more.’

Eckart sighed, remembering his struggle a moment ago.

Eckart and Marianne, who lay like a lump along the river, washed their wounds with running water in a hurry. While looking at every corner of his body to see if he had any further injuries, she was fortunate to find a jackknife in his coat pocket.

Compared to women of her age, she was very good at improvising. She pulled off the cotton drawers she was wearing. She didn’t like its length, so she tore it with the knife and tied both ends.

“What are you doing now?”

“Stay still. I’ve never done this before.”

Soon, she wrapped it around his back and tightened it to stop his bleeding temporarily.

As the wound was squeezed, he felt pain when he was breathing, but his blood mixed in the river soon diminished. She made a quick and wise judgment to stop his bleeding.

As she succeeded, she became more ambitious. The gravel road with the water flowing along his back was not a good place for him to stay long. The sun was so warm. After he was in the water for long, however, his body temperature began to drop. They needed a place to spend the night in case the rescue team couldn’t find them today.

At that moment, he found a shady which was deep and flat like a cave nearby.