In Search of Helena

The entire morning quietly passed, and Luo Wei looked out the window to see Saint Callen experiencing a rare sunny day.

Evelyn was still sitting on the floor, silent and ignoring him, seemingly lost in a state of self-imposed isolation.

Seeing this, Luo Wei decided not to provoke her further.

He planned to go out and look for Helena, who had disappeared since he fainted. She was nowhere to be seen around the old mansion, and he had no idea where she had hidden herself.

The early spring air outside was still quite cold. Luo Wei put on a thick woolen overcoat and a cap before heading out the door.

Before leaving, he turned back to look at Evelyn.

"I'll be gone for a while, Teacher. Stay here and wait for me."

Although she seemed completely unmoved and silent, her eyelashes fluttered slightly when she heard him say he was leaving. This small gesture revealed her thoughts.

Luo Wei chuckled to himself.

Indeed... He knew that Evelyn wasn't the type to give up easily.

She was just quietly waiting for an opportunity.

Luo Wei smiled at her, "Without my permission, you can't leave this mansion. I believe you've already tried this morning."

"But I still advise you not to think of any other tricks, or else, you won't just be confined to the mansion, but..."

Evelyn suddenly looked up at Luo Wei.

Luo Wei's smile faded, and he sternly warned her, "But confined to your own Room 101, like being in prison."

"My dear teacher, you wouldn't want to completely lose your freedom, would you?"

"At least you still have such a large area to move around in."

Evelyn let out a cold laugh.

Luo Wei no longer looked at her, opened the door, and turned to leave.

As the door closed, Evelyn watched his disappearing figure and clenched her fists slightly.

...

After leaving the old mansion, Luo Wei first took a telescope and climbed to a high point to observe the area.

This area had once been one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Saint Callen. However, as the city of steam gradually flourished, the urban core shifted from the west to the east where he went to school, and this place gradually became desolate.

Although the surroundings were becoming less populated, and buying groceries required a few kilometers' walk, the tranquility was a blessing. Last night's major incident, where two aberrations battled for three hundred rounds, went unnoticed by the police, making it an ideal location for a "sanctuary."

However, what puzzled him was that his old mansion seemed particularly "lonely," with no neighbors within a radius of a kilometer.

In the game's storyline, it was mentioned that the surrounding land had been bought by a wealthy merchant to build a large factory.

But when he returned to the game four years later, the merchant had "mysteriously" gone bankrupt, leaving the mansion in its quiet state.

Luo Wei certainly didn't want noisy and polluting factories around, and it would make his activities easier to expose. But was this too much of a coincidence?

Was it Helena? Had she done something?

Luo Wei thought it unlikely. If it were Helena, there would have been news of the merchant's sudden death, not bankruptcy.

Helena wouldn't know anything about economics...

So, was someone else helping him in secret?

Luo Wei pondered, wondering who it could be...

...

While pondering, he noticed something unusual through the telescope.

In the direction of the bridge, the tall trees swayed slightly, which was quite strange.

It was Helena!

He quickly packed up and hurried towards that direction.

Arriving at the bridge's underpass, he parted the dense foliage and finally saw the black figure.

Helena's size was much smaller than the previous night, and her human upper body could be faintly discerned. To ward off the cold, she had wrapped herself in layers of tentacles, quietly curled up under the bridge.

It seemed she had made this place her shelter from the wind and rain. Beside the riverbank, there were several dried animal carcasses, which were likely her daily meals.

Although the underpass was better than the outside, it still let in the wind. Each time a gust blew past, the tiny tentacles on her body would quiver slightly, expressing her fear of the cold.

This scene made Luo Wei's heart ache.

He quietly approached the curled-up figure.

The faint sound of footsteps on the grass made Helena tremble like a startled animal, and she instantly spread out all her tentacles.

As a conditioned reflex, she stabbed towards the source of the sound.

Luo Wei stopped, and the tentacles halted half a meter in front of him.

"Brother?"

A voice of disbelief came from under the bridge.

"It's Brother!!"

The voice was filled with excitement and joy. Helena turned around, her bright blue eyes fixed on Luo Wei, who had suddenly appeared.

Luo Wei smiled and waved at her, "Come home with Brother. It's so cold here."

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, her excited expression suddenly changed.

"No... don't go home..."

She panicked and used her tentacles to shield herself, as if not wanting Luo Wei to see her current state.

Her tentacles crowded around her body, ready to flee towards the other side of the underpass.

"Wait! Helena!"

Luo Wei anxiously tried to call her back, "Don't go yet, Brother has something to say to you!!"

The black tentacles trembled.

But she still pretended not to hear, and the black shadow fled further away.

Luo Wei's heart ached as he chased after her.

However, Helena had too many "legs," and Luo Wei, out of breath, could only watch her figure grow distant.

He cupped his hands and shouted loudly, "If you don't want to go home with Brother, then we won't go home! Just stop!"

This shout made Helena's figure stop.

Then she was surprised to see—

Luo Wei kicked the dried animal carcasses into the river.

"Don't eat those things anymore, you might get sick..."

"And these..."

Luo Wei rummaged through Helena's temporary home, found two skinned and cleaned wild dogs, and threw them into the river as well.

"That was hard for me to... to..."

Helena helplessly watched her brother, seeing him dispose of her "reserve food."

Then he took out some items from his backpack.

A thermos of water, bread wrapped in oil paper, and fried steak with sauce...

Her extraordinary sense of smell made Helena immediately smell the enticing aroma of the food, and she unconsciously swallowed.

So delicious...

Luo Wei even laid out a clean napkin in the underpass and smiled at the distant Helena.

"Won't you join me?"

Helena looked at her brother's gentle smile. Although she was very resistant to being seen in this state,

So delicious...

She finally succumbed to her biological instincts.

Luo Wei watched the black shadow rush over in seconds, and several tentacles grabbed the food, which was instantly devoured by Helena.

After eating,

She sat beside Luo Wei by the riverbank, her face filled with satisfaction as she held her stomach.

Her swaying tentacles and tendrils expressed a very happy mood.

Luo Wei chuckled as he stroked her swaying tiny tentacles, "Was it good?"

Helena nodded, "Delicious!"

"Everything Brother makes is delicious!"

"That's good..." Luo Wei looked at her and asked,

"Still don't want to go home? You can eat these things every day at home."

Perhaps because she had eaten delicious food, Helena's defenses finally opened a bit.

She looked sadly at her brother and shook her head, "Want... to go home, but now... can't go home..."

"Why?" Luo Wei looked at her, puzzled.

She remained silent, merely lowering her head and silently gazing at her reflection in the river.

Luo Wei slightly furrowed his brow, wondering if she was afraid that her current state would cause trouble for him.

Thinking this, he rummaged through his backpack once more.

When he pulled out several **Suppression Potions**, Helena immediately tensed and retracted her tentacles.

"Brother... what are you doing?"

"Don't worry, these aren't for attacking you..." Luo Wei quietly recalled the incident that had occurred in the basement.

He gently placed the **Suppression Potions** on the ground.

"Helena, if you wish to return to your original form, you should need these potions."

"And you can always come back, even now."

Luo Wei stood up with a smile and slowly walked away.

"The door to my home is always open for you."

Watching her brother's figure gradually fade into the distance, Helena suddenly felt that the early spring in Saint Callen wasn't so cold after all.