Stepmothers Are Not Always Evil

“The Duke of Eaton’s magic crystal mine?”“Yes. It will take about ten days.”Helios answered Lenia’s question lightly.No matter how much he thought about it, the contents of the letter he had confiscated from Duke Eaton’s office were troubling.So, as soon as he finished reporting to the Emperor, he prepared to go to the magic stone mine.“Does the Empress know about this?”“No. I didn’t tell her, because if the Empress knew it, It would reach Duke Eaton ears.”“Then what if something goes wrong?”“I have to bear that.”Helios replied with a faint smile.“Then I will go with you.”“Lena.”“I will go with you. I don’t want to be alone here.”Lenia squeezed Helios’s hand as he looked confused.Helios stood up from packing his bag and frowned.“I don’t know what will happen.”“That’s why I will go with you.”Lenia’s voice trembled softly. Helios thought, biting his lip.After Escal disappeared, Lenia became very depressed.She hardly ate unless he forced her to eat, and sometimes she just stared blankly at the things Escal was using for hours.So Helios didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone.‘Maybe it would be better to be together.’He realized that he might as well be there to protect her, since there was no telling what the Duke of Eton might be up to.“Allright, then.”Lenia smiled weakly at his agreement.That night, a carriage carrying the two of them drove through that place. **** It was five days after Helios arrived at the territory of the Duke of Eaton.From the gate that entered the territory, the soldiers were densely encamped.It’s not even wartime, but it’s extremely unusual for so many soldiers to check in and out of each person one by one.‘There is definitely something.’Helios decided to unpack his belongings at a nearby inn and gather rumors, not wanting to get caught by moving without plan.“Welcome.”The innkeeper greeted them when entering the inn.“Do you have a room?”“Sure. You can use the last room over there.”Helios shook his head and headed to the carriage to unload.Meanwhile, Lenia grabbed the innkeeper and asked.“Excuse me sir, but can I ask you something? Have you ever seen this child?”The innkeeper looked at the portrait Lenia had brought out and shook his head.“Well. I don’t recognize him.”“Look closely. He’s my son, but he disappeared a while ago and I’m looking for him.”The innkeeper glanced around at Lenia’s earnest voice and muttered to himself.“I haven’t seen the kids for a while, and it looks like it’s starting again.”“… Yes?”“Oh, nothing. I don’t know.”The innkeeper panicked and waved his hand.With an unusual behavior, Lenia caught the innkeeper entering the kitchen and questioned him.“Did the kids come here a lot?”“I don’t know.”“You said that a while ago. It seems to be the beginning again.”“What, when am I? You must have heard it wrong.”The innkeeper’s face, trying to be nonchalant, showed a hint of despair.Convinced that he was hiding something, Lenia put some gold coins into the innkeeper pocket.“Please help me. My child, I must find him.”After counting the gold coins, the innkeeper whispered quietly.“You must never tell anyone you heard it.”“Yeah, I won’t tell anyone.”“Actually… About two or thirty children come here once every half a year.”“Children? why?”“There is a magic stone mine behind this estate, they sacrifice children to dig for it.”“……!” **** “Sacrificing children?”Helios, who heard the innkeeper’s words, asked with a frown. Lenia quietly nodded her head.“I think this is where the children Baron Rockefeller stole going.”“Crazy bastard, you took the children for that stone….”Helios spit out a swear word.No matter how valuable the magic stones are, he couldn’t believe they would sacrifice children to mine it.Now he seemed to understand why the huge sum of money had flown between the Duke of Eaton and Baron Rockefeller.“Do you think Escal….”“I don’t think so.”Helios calmed down Lenia, who had been contemplating.“There may be other children, but they wouldn’t have come all the way because of Escal.”But we need to find out for sure.As the innkeeper said, if the Duke of Eaton was really using children to gather magic stones, then we should never let him go.‘I should have brought all the knights.’I regretted that I had brought only the minimum number of people, as Duke Eaton would have been alerted to any movementAs he considered his options, Helios spoke up.“First, we need to secure solid evidence.”“What are we going to do?”“You just need to watch.” **** “There seems to be about 10 guards guarding the mine.”“Not many.”Dustin, who looked around the Magic Crystal Mine, returned to the inn and reported.“There are a lot of monsters in the mine, so the knights don’t seem to be strict.”Even if they break into the mine while avoiding the guards, it is difficult to steal the Magic Stones because of the monsters, so they think there is no need to deploy a large number of magic stones.“Then we only have to lure the guards.”“What are you going to do?”“I came all the way here, so I have to go inside.”“Then what if something big happens?”“It’s okay. Don’t worry.”Helios smiled back. But Lenia is not at ease.“I’d rather have Your Majesty’s permission and formally search the mine….”“Then it takes too long. The Duke of Eaton will destroy the evidence in the meantime.”“However…”“It’s for Escal.”Helios covered her mouth and looked at Dustin.“I’ll check the inside of the mine and come out, so you’ll have to lure the guards.”“I will go in.”“No, it’s better to see it with my own eyes.”“It’s dangerous, sir.”“Don’t make me say one more thing. Did you contact ‘that’?”“Yes. They will be happy to help.”Dustin nodded, and Helios smiled contentedly.“Okay then. Give me a bottle of medicine.”At Helios’ order, Dustin handed him a small bottle with a displeased face. When he opened the bottle cap, I could smell a very bad smell.“What’s this?”“Dragon blood.”Dragons were the only thing that monsters feared. So, when the dragon’s blood was applied, the monster didn’t attack because of the smell.However, it is difficult to obtain, and the smell disappears when the blood dries, so the durability is short.“You must come out before the blood dries, it won’t be effective in half an hour at most.”“30 minutes is enough.”Helios grabbed the bottle and got up.“Can I go now?”“Yes, I can prepare, but… Are you really okay?”“I guess I’m just not good enough.”Smiling bitterly, Helios sheathed his sword.“Let’s go.”**** The Magic Stone Mine was 20 minutes away from the inn. Helios hid himself near the mine and furrowed his eyebrows as he saw Lenia following him involuntarily.“I told you to stay at the inn.”“That makes me more anxious.”“No matter what, never leave.”“Okay.”With that, Helios shut his mouth and waited for Dustin’s signal.The plan was to sneak into the mine while Dustin distracted the guards, and then come out after the investigation.“It’s almost time.The clouds had completely blocked out the moonlight.“Fire!”A loud voice was heard from the other side of the mine.“What do you mean?”“I think there’s a fire.”The guards who had been yawning as if bored began to murmur.“Ah! Someone help me!”The woman’s scream echoed again.The red flames were large and clear enough to be seen from where Helios was.The soldiers rushing back and forth rushed to the place of the fire.Helios, who confirmed that the mine front was completely empty, opened the bottle cap and sprinkled dragon blood all over his body.“I will be back.”“Be careful.”Helios was waved goodbye by Lenia and made his way to the entrance of the mine.As soon as he stepped into the mine, a gloomy energy spread. He moved his steps cautiously.An eerie cry annoyed him. Dozens of lights flashed in the distance. It was the eyes of a monster.‘If I don’t keep my wits about me, I might not be able to survive.’Helios swallowed dry saliva and fixed his sword.I carefully looked around, and as I moved my steps, I could feel something being stepped on.‘What is this?’He bent over and picked up the mysterious stick he had stepped on a while ago.It was a shinbone. Small and slender for an adult.Feeling a chill run down his spine, Helios groped around.Small bits of clothing and shoes lay among the scattered bones.‘Is that really true?’It was clear that children had been thrown as bait for the mining of magic stones.It must be that reason he maintained a close relationship with Baron Rockefeller to procure children, and the fact that he killed him to keep this fact from being known.This would never be forgiven by the Emperor, even if he’s the Empress’s younger brother.Helios was sure that even the Duke of Eaton would never really get out this time.“Kurre-.”While he was collecting the clothes thrown away in the cave, the monsters who were watching him slowly approached him.The dragon’s blood that had been applied to his body was slowly drying out.Helios looked straight into the monster’s eyes and slowly stepped backwards towards the entrance of the mine.Outside the mine, the lights grew brighter.He’d barely made it out of the mine when he saw something.Arrows flew towards his back.