# 3
“...Perfume? You know I hate these things.” His reaction was unusually sharp. He was nervous.
When Helen's eyes met Revan's, he swallowed and looked away.
“Helen, I told you I was tired.”
Revan frowned, rubbing his head. That annoying look again. He always made her take back her words like this.
The strange smell of perfume lingered in her mind, but Helen tried to think positively.
“Well, the perfume could come from anywhere.”
And besides, Revan wasn't the type to betray their trust as lovers.
Helen gathered her mixed emotions and took a step back.
“Okay. Go wash your hands.”
Revan, who was carelessly walking up the stairs past Helen, stopped and turned.
“By the way, Helen.”
“…?”
After a short hesitation, he spoke.
“Arya has arrived in the capital, and will be staying in the guest room for a while. She has nowhere else to stay because she is almost cut off from her family.”
Helan felt a sudden tingling sensation in her fingertips.
Arya Reisen.
Second daughter of Count Reisen and Revan's former fiancée.
Helan wondered for a moment if she had heard wrong.
“Countess Reisen is your ex-fiancée.”
“……”
Helan took a deep breath before speaking again.
“Are you going to host someone you almost married?”
“She is in a difficult situation now. I will explain to her later.”
Revan started to climb the stairs again, but Helen's question stopped him.
“What exactly is the situation?”
“Helen, why are you so stubborn today? This is not your style.”
"What? Are you saying I'm stubborn...?"
"sigh."
Revan let out a long sigh, a tired look on his face again.
“Tell me, what's the situation?”
But this time, Helan did not back down.
“Helen.”
Revan stared into Helan's eyes for a long time before speaking calmly.
“It's not what you think.”
His evasive behavior hurt Helan.
“Wait, did he meet Countess Reisen today? What situation can’t he explain?”
Helan's mind was filled with various speculations.
A feeling of fear came over her.
“Revan, can’t you think from my perspective for a moment?”
Helen tried to approach the conversation as rationally as possible, but Revan stood his ground.
“Don't you feel sorry for Arya?”
“Why do I feel sorry for Countess Reisen?”
Helen couldn't understand him.
Revan looked around, then took Helen's hand and led her into a room.
After closing the door, Revan finally answered:
“I told you, her parents disowned her.”
“……”
“They stopped treating her like their daughter after we broke off our engagement.”
Guilt was evident in Revan's eyes.
“Arya was my childhood friend.”
“…Wasn’t my engagement to the Countess of Reisen broken off because her father broke the agreement?”
It was Arya's father, Count Reisen, who broke the long-standing agreement with House Rata.
"Arya didn't know anything. She's just a poor girl. If it bothers you, I'll make her stay in the annex so you don't have to see her."
Strange complaints and suspicious behavior without convincing explanations.
Now, this is a unilateral decision.
“I understand that Countess Reisen is in a difficult situation due to the break-off of your engagement.”
“……”
“I just don't understand why she has to stay here, and why you have to be by her side.”
Despite her frustration, Helan spoke calmly, trying to convince Revan.
“…Why don’t you stay at the villa? It’s close to the south, so it’s warm.”
But Revan did not accept Helan's proposal.
“……”
He remained silent, frowning.
Helen found his behavior frustrating.
There was no need to be upset with Arya Reisen.
Most importantly, she needed to discuss what happened with Chevilin.
“Let's talk about Countess Reisen later. I want to talk to you about Chevilin...”
“…Chivillin, Chevillin, Chevillin!”
As soon as Helen mentioned Chevilin's name, Revan screamed angrily, tearing off his tie.
"Revan...? What are you doing?"
This was the first time she had seen him in such a state of emotion.
“Don't you have anything to talk about other than Shivalin?”
He seemed very upset. Helen didn't recognize this side of Revan.
“Are you tired of hearing about your daughter?”
“…Is she really my daughter?”
He whispered coldly in a low voice.
"What did you say…?"
“...I crossed my limits. Nothing.”
Whether he said it angrily or not, Revan tried to evade his words.
"Revan, wait. Did you just question her parentage? Are you saying that Shivalin is not your daughter? Have you been thinking about this the whole time?"
Doubt about his daughter's parentage was not a matter to be taken lightly.
Naturally, Helen couldn't help but react sensitively.
Shivalin had asked her about this anxiously before, but Helen did not dare to say it. Revan's doubt was puzzling, it even made her ears ring.
“...I said it was a mistake.”
“No. Explain exactly what you meant by what you just said.”
At Helen's insistence, Revan repeatedly rubbed his face.
" I'm sorry."
Then he apologized.
Things always ended this way.
He thought an apology would fix everything.
He never thought that his words could hurt the other party more.
It was a bad habit that had not changed despite all the time they had spent together.
Helen felt lonely whenever he tried to avoid the subject in this way.
"Not just 'I'm sorry,' Revan. I still don't understand you."
“…”
“I feel distant from you. As if you are not the same person sharing the space with me.”
Helen was tired of these frequent quarrels.
Knock knock.
In the midst of this, a knock was heard at the door.
“I'm really sorry to interrupt, but it's urgent...”
“What's wrong?”
When Revan opened the door, the butler appeared, dripping with sweat.
“Sir, Countess Reisen...”
The butler whispered something to Revan.
Helen did not hear, but it was clear that the conversation was about the Countess of Reisen.
Before the butler could finish speaking, Revan began adjusting his tie.
“Helen, something urgent has come up regarding Arya. I have to go immediately.”
It seemed that he was going to see the Countess of Reisen again.
Revan grabbed Revan's sleeve.
."Don't go. You have to be here now."
“We'll talk later.”
Revan released Helen's hand without hesitation.
“...Revan.”
He turned his back to Helen coldly.
For the first time.
“I might be late, so don’t wait for me. Go to sleep first.”
Revan glanced at Helen before leaving.
The door was closed.
The rain had stopped, but the sky was still dark, overcast with scattered storm clouds. Helen felt suffocated, so she went out for a walk in the park.
She couldn't forget Revan's faint question about whether Chevlin was really his daughter. She bent down and buried her face in her hands.
"What do I do?"
She felt like her insides were burning.
If she wanted to enumerate the similarities, starting with her being left-handed, the round shape of her mouth when smiling, and her habit of holding her hands together while sleeping.
- I would find many similarities between Chevlin and Revan. However, the servants were talking about her because her hair was not brown.
To question Chevlin's lineage is to question Helen's loyalty, which is shameful and insulting to her.
“When Revan comes back and we talk seriously, we will be able to solve this problem.”
Just as Helen was about to go back inside, she heard a noise at the back door.
“The princess is really cruel. She hasn't changed one bit.”
“Aria, you're too excited.”
Out of curiosity, she went to see what was happening, and saw Arya with Revan's arm wrapped around her shoulders.
But…
“She’s...pregnant.”
Despite wearing the robe, it was clear to everyone that Arya was in her final months of pregnancy.
Her observations stopped there. Although Revan was acting agitated today, he was not the type to commit such shameful behavior.
She knew Revan well.
"Revan definitely wouldn't do that."
But Helen froze at the next words that came out of Arya's lips.
“It is enough for the child to be illegitimate before he is even born...”
‘What?’
“...Arya.”
“She just said illegal...”
Then she started to feel pessimistic.
“Isn’t it sad for the child to suffer? How can you, as a mother, be so cruel?”
Meanwhile, Arya was vehemently expressing her dissatisfaction with Helan.
"I didn't tell Helen you were pregnant. I know it's hard, but calm down. It's not good for the baby either."
Revan was busy trying to calm her down.
At that moment, Arya shouted with a look of extreme frustration:
“Calm down? I told you.”
“Arya.”
“That child is not your daughter!”
silence.
A heavy silence fell over them. Helen was the one holding her breath the most.
She stood there, frozen, as if she had witnessed something she wasn't supposed to, staring blankly at them.
As she felt something crash in her chest, Arya's voice brought her back to reality.
Just when she felt something crash in her chest, Arya's voice brought her back to reality.
“Revan, can’t you get a divorce?”