Chapter 2379

2379 - Break

"Mmm..." Helen's eyes trembled gently, and a faint moan escaped her polished throat. Then slowly, she began to open her eyes, "..."

After staring at the ceiling for nearly a minute, Helen sighed, "Heh~" and finally began trying to move. "Ah..." With great difficulty, she pushed her palm down and slowly started to rise.

"Whew~" Finally, after nearly two minutes of trying to get up, Helen managed to sit hunched over. She couldn't fully control her body to stand or even sit upright. Then she opened her eyes again, looking down at her hands... She could feel the blood trying to surge back into her body's cells, she could feel her nerves activating, she could feel the—

"Ahem ahem—"

"..?!" Helen's eyes flew wide open, and she quickly turned to the side. "...Marshal?!"

Helen's eyes immediately narrowed with a mix of murderous intent and panic, but her body wouldn't cooperate in any way to make a move or add another word.

"Cough, cough," then from the side came another voice, "The Big Jerboa is here too."

".....?!" Helen's eyes flew wide open once more, and she slowly turned her neck until her gaze landed on the source of the voice.

A person wearing a provocative smile unlike any she had ever seen before. "Robin... Burton..."

"Oops," Robin raised both hands, "Does all this skin and flesh make me look strange? Perhaps I should transform into just a head and a heart so you can recognize me—what do you think of that?"

"....." Helen stared at Robin's face for a few seconds, "Are you the one who reconnected my body to my soul? No one knows how bad the situation was more than I do... It was... hopeless."

Robin showed a surprised expression for a moment and lowered his hands, "Yes, at Hedrick's request," then he raised an eyebrow, "Were you conscious all those years?"

"...I was counting the seconds since that day." Helen looked down wearily, the darkness around her eyes making her seem utterly exhausted, "...I didn't know exactly what had happened, but I felt paralyzed—I couldn't even blink, I tried to scream and couldn't, I tried to get up and couldn't. It was... terrible."

"....." Robin's expression shifted from gloating to boredom, "Your body is starting to return to what it was. You're still the Monarch of Ashification because your soul remained intact. Once you regain your strength, take your brother and go to Hedrick's side. Whether he assigns you missions or lets you play for the rest of your lives is none of my concern. He's the one I care about now, and you're part of the agreement."

"We...?" Helen furrowed her brows and began looking around until she finally landed on another coffin beside her. Inside the coffin was a person with white hair and crimson eyes, with a certain aura around him—the aura of the Destra family. "This is...?"

"This is Hydras." Robin pointed toward the sleeping person. "He may wake up soon, or he may take longer. You can stay with him and wait, or head toward your brother Hedrick on the front now. It's your decision."

"Hydras is alive?" Helen turned toward Robin. "And you're healing him?"

"I healed you, didn't I?" Robin raised his head slightly.

"..." Helen stared into Robin's eyes with her weary ones. "Hedrick was already working for you indirectly when the incident happened to me. What changed to make you bring both me and Hydras back? What convinced you to revive an old enemy like me?"

"He works for me directly now." Robin said it clearly and frankly.

"..." Helen nodded weakly. "I figured that too."

"Do you know something else?" Robin raised his hand and slapped Caesar on the shoulder with his wide smile and big eyes. "Your marriage to Caesar was part of the agreement."

"-_-" Caesar sighed and shot a sideways glance at his father, clearly trying to provoke her more, but he had no intention of denying it.

"...." Helen drew her legs close to her belly and hugged them quietly, then spoke in a voice devoid of emotion, "...If that is the agreement."

".....?!"

Robin's smile was wiped away instantly.

Even Glacion and Caesar's expressions shifted, and their gaze toward Helen changed...

Helen Destra... had been broken.

As for Robin, he waited a moment, then glanced toward Caesar beside him, and nodded his head toward Helen twice.

"No!!" Caesar shouted hesitantly.

"You're the loser." Robin shrugged, then turned back to face Helen, "Girl, recover your strength and calm yourself, then carve your way toward your brother. Since you are the sister of my sword, I will hold no grudge against you from this day on. Live the rest of your life as you please, as long as you don't obstruct my plans."

Then he turned toward Caesar and patted his shoulder, "You were saying you had a better place to talk—let's go. Let's give little Destra some space to think."

"Before all those years..."

"..?" Robin stopped again when he heard Helen's muttering voice, turned, and stood quietly.

Pitso had lost his mind when he paralyzed him with Soul Power for a week—but her, how many years had she spent in the same situation or worse? This must have been severe on her, especially for a girl as arrogant as her.

"Before all those years, when my big brother connected the dots and said you were a candidate for that entity, I envied you..." Helen spoke in a low voice, looking down, "I envied you and feared for the situation I found myself in, feared that I had made that entity itself move, and I was astonished by the idea that it moved to save someone like you."

"...." Robin tried to restrain himself from going over and throttling her for those belittling words, but truly, there was nothing he could do at the time.

"...And when I thought about how it was intervening on your behalf in Nihari as well, even before I knew of the planet, my envy grew even more, but I tried to turn that envy into a driving force—to become the strongest Monarch the Universe has ever known, or something like that..." Then she showed a small smile, "How ironic... the person I despised, then hated, then took as a rival and motivation... is the one who saved me from certain death."

"...." Robin's expression shifted into a strange smile, "What do you mean by it intervening in Nihari?"