Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 19
Helios Perry Augustine.
There was no love in his life, not even the love of his parents, which he was entitled to at birth. In a world dictated by destiny, his parents, unable to fulfill their fates together, abandoned the newborn Helios at a distant palace.
Until he turned five, Helios believed he had fallen straight from the sky. The parents who brought him into this world never came to see his face. The caretakers he followed and trusted as his parents begged to be killed whenever he called them ‘mom’ or ‘dad.’
Then, one day, the consort Demyr Lucille appeared. She claimed to be his ‘mother.’ At that moment, Helios was foolishly overjoyed. He hoped that having parents would grant him the love he had only seen in fairy tales. What awaited him, however, was the relentless and harsh education meant for a royal heir.
In that process, he came to learn of the tragic story of his father and mother. He was merely a byproduct of a broken wheel of fate. His own life seemed like nothing but scraps.
Yet, Helios shone. With the excellent mind inherited from his parents, coupled with outstanding looks and an innate diligence, he earned the Emperor’s trust with his remarkable swordsmanship skills.
‘You should become the Crown Prince.’
The Emperor had no children, and the pressure to designate a successor weighed heavily on Emperor Terman. Pressed by those around him to find an heir quickly, he made Helios the Crown Prince.
Then one day, the Empress Priscilla Ariana bore a child of her own, and went on a rampage. Assassins stormed into Helios’s palace, and dozens of letters filled with accusations against him were delivered to the Emperor’s aides every day.
But Terman blamed Helios, not Priscilla.
‘How can you rule an empire when you can’t even protect yourself? What do you think, my Queen?’
‘Well, he’s still quite young.’
Despite being a Happy Pair, the Emperor and his consort never got along, yet when it came to reprimanding Helios, they were in harmony.
‘You’re just like your mother in your incompetence.’
Demyr’s words ignited a fire in Helios’s heart. He had no love for his mother, but he knew her enough to feel sorry for her.
Helios’s mother, Bailey Liche, lived a wretched life. She imprinted on Terman, and Terman became a happy pair with Demyr. As fate would have it, Bailey died shortly after giving birth to Helios.
Helios was a man devoid of love, yet he knew how to sympathize with the pitiful. Bailey was pitiful. That pitiful woman wanted Helios to live. And so he did.
Empress Priscilla never dared to overstep her boundaries as he grew in power, seizing the position of the Commander of the First Knights based solely on merit.
‘Quite remarkable indeed.’
The moment he became the resolute heir of the empire, misfortune struck. He fell ill with an incurable disease.
At first, he put in considerable effort to survive. Ironically, each time he did, things got worse and worse. Faltering constantly, he relinquished his position as the Commander of the Knights, and soon, the nobles who once bowed before him turned their backs upon hearing rumors of his impending death.
Priscilla was the one waiting for Helios, having lost everything. It was Priscilla who tried to hasten his demise.
It was then that Rienna appeared.
‘I will save you, even if it means my own death!’
She had been saying strange things since the beginning. She was obsessively fixated on healing Helios. She was a pebble thrown into the calm waters of Helios’s life. Rienna recklessly shook Helios’s barely held emotions, filling him with unreasonable expectations.
‘I will completely cure Your Majesty’s illness, just trust me.’
And it made him want to believe in people. It made him hope that he could live.
I want to live.
Helios remembered the moment he felt that desire. It was the night when Rienna gently caressed his head. It was also a night plagued by relentless nightmares. Dreams where letters turned into swords and spears charged towards him. Every time he had that dream, he’d feel feverish and filthy. But he could never escape that nightmare by himself.
The only one who could pull him out of it was Rienna.
