While Joel continued his journey toward the southeast—moving further away from both Sir Bennet’s estate and the Kingdom of Palein—Sir Bennet, who had been brought to the capital by the Crown Prince, was consumed with anxiety for his son.
The capital was in complete chaos.
Evidence had surfaced proving that twenty-five years ago, Count Lucas had participated in the Heath Hales rebellion.
The Emperor had no intention of missing this chance to eliminate a political rival he had viewed as a thorn in his side for half his life.
However, his health was still too poor to handle the purge of the Lucas family alone, so he had to summon the Crown Prince.
The Emperor’s health, which had been improving at a remarkable speed, stopped recovering once it reached a certain point—as if that specific level of illness was what the Emperor was originally meant to endure.
In fact, after interrogating the members of the Lucas household, a confession was extracted.
It revealed that twenty-five years ago, the Count had sold his soul to a demon to survive the rebellion, and recently, he had sold the souls of his wife and sisters to curse the Emperor and worsen his illness.
It was the Crown Prince who obtained that confession.
While staying at Count Gray’s castle to investigate Joel’s whereabouts, the Prince had to head to the capital as soon as the Imperial order arrived.
Since arriving, he had been spending frantic days balancing the interrogation of Count Lucas and the search for Joel.
Two weeks had passed, and Joel’s whereabouts remained a mystery.
Unfortunately for the Prince, the security at the border of Count Gray’s territory had been lax.
Furthermore, once one stepped outside the estate, the path was nothing but dense forest with almost no human presence.
Since the testimony of a horse cart carrying someone resembling Joel heading North, there had been no further sightings.
Sir Bennet thought the Prince would soon give up searching for Joel given the pressing matters with Count Lucas, but the Prince remained obsessed with tracking Joel for over two weeks.
Even in a state of extreme exhaustion from lack of sleep, he never missed a single report regarding Joel’s trail.
Moreover, he had brought Sir Bennet, Joel’s birth father, to the capital and was treating him with great hospitality.
Sir Bennet, who was originally of humble status and never dared to enter the Imperial Palace, was restless due to this undeserved treatment.
The more the Prince looked after him, the more his anxiety grew.
The Prince’s obsession with Joel far exceeded his or Joel’s expectations; it seemed that escaping to a foreign country might not be enough.
Sir Bennet was invited to have lunch with the Crown Prince.
Because the Prince was having trouble with digestion, he was only eating a thin soup, meaning the grand feast laid out on the table was solely for Sir Bennet.
As Sir Bennet sat before large cuts of meat, only wetting his throat with water, the Prince spoke with concern.
“Sir Bennet, you have lost a lot of weight. Are you eating properly?”
“Pardon? Oh, yes… I-I am sorry for causing you concern.”
“I know your heart is heavy with worry for your son, but please do not skip your meals. How would Joel feel if he returned and saw his father so thin?”
The Prince, whose appearance was several times more haggard than Sir Bennet’s, expressed his worry.
The vegetable soup in front of him had long gone cold, and he looked as though he wouldn’t pick up his spoon until he saw Sir Bennet eat enough.
Sir Bennet reluctantly cut a piece of meat and put it in his mouth.
The tender meat felt like rubber.
He was worried about so many things: whether Joel was escaping well, and how long he could keep deceiving the Prince.
He felt guilty acting innocent in front of a Prince who cared for him so much.
Sir Bennet couldn’t swallow the meat easily and eventually had to wash it down with water.
Even though he barely swallowed a piece, the Prince was still watching him with eyes full of worry.
He was about to take a second bite when Abe, the Knight Commander, rushed into the dining hall.
“Your Highness! We have captured the man who drove the horse cart!”
“What?”
The Prince’s face lit up as he jumped from his seat.
He immediately approached Abe and began questioning him frantically.
“Where was he caught? Who is he? Is Joel… is Joel with him?”
He didn’t even notice that Sir Bennet had dropped his fork in shock.
“Forgive me, but nothing has been revealed regarding Young Master Joel’s whereabouts yet. However, the carriage transporting the man has just arrived in the capital. If we interrogate him, won’t we learn where the Young Master went?”
“I see. Let us go, quickly.”
The Prince left Sir Bennet in the dining hall and rushed out with Abe.
Left alone, Sir Bennet trembled, his face turning pale.
If the mercenary Jack had been caught, the fact that he had been deceiving the Prince would soon be exposed.
That was one problem, but more importantly, what had happened to his son?
Joel, who was only twenty, had no experience traveling alone.
Furthermore, he was an Omega and was not alone in his body.
Sir Bennet was so worried about his son’s safety that he didn’t even hear the servant nearby saying, “Sir, your son’s location will soon be revealed. If you wait just a little longer, you will see him, so you must eat. If your stomach is upset, shall I prepare some soup?”
If Jack had been captured, the escape was essentially over.
He felt it might be better to run to the Prince now, confess his sins, and beg him to find Joel.
Just as Sir Bennet made up his mind and was about to stand up, the Crown Prince burst back into the hall.
“Leave us.”
The Prince dismissed the servants and maids in a voice that was chillingly cold.
Seeing the Prince’s stiff expression, Sir Bennet instinctively felt that he had missed his chance to confess.
He lifted his trembling hands and placed them on his knees.
Since he had hidden the truth for the past two weeks while watching the Prince worry so much, the Prince must feel a deep sense of betrayal.
Perhaps he would lock Sir Bennet in a dungeon like Count Lucas for the crime of contempt.
Sir Bennet squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the thunderous anger to fall.
However, contrary to his expectation of an outpouring of resentment, the Prince took an unexpected action.
He approached Sir Bennet and knelt before him.
“Sir. The truth is, I have done terrible things to your son in the past.”
The Prince spoke in a voice full of grief.
Sir Bennet was so horrified that the Crown Prince was kneeling before a mere knight like himself that he tried to stand up immediately, but the Prince begged him to stay seated, leaving him no choice but to sit there, not knowing what to do.
“This will be a long story… will you listen?”
“I-I will listen to anything, Your Highness. Please, stand up. What on earth is happening to a lowly man like me…?”
“No, Sir. I do not even have the right to look you in the face.”
Saying so, the Prince bowed his head.
In a heavy voice, he confessed everything that had happened in the past life to Sir Bennet.
He spoke of how he had treated Joel coldly, believing he was on Count Lucas’s side; how he stood by and watched Joel being bullied in the capital; how he had forcibly taken him during his rut; and the winter day when he let Joel die unfairly in the cold snow…
“…So that is why you turned back time.”
When the Prince’s confession finally ended, Sir Bennet, who had been silent for a long time, whispered softly.
After learning the whole truth, he couldn’t say he felt no resentment toward the Prince, but his pity seemed greater than his anger.
“But, Your Highness. My son believed that you knew nothing of the past.”
“At first, I didn’t remember that I had turned back time either. It was a trick by the cult leader John. However, while I was trapped in the underground mansion, I remembered everything. I wanted to confess this vast, unbelievable story and beg Joel for just one more chance. I delayed telling him the truth because I was preparing to propose, so it is only natural that Joel continued to misunderstand.”
Sir Bennet, who hadn’t imagined the Prince was even considering marriage, couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
An Imperial marriage was not something that could be decided solely by emotions.
However, the Prince’s face as he spoke of a proposal was deathly serious.
“While investigating Count Lucas regarding the Heath Hales incident twenty-five years ago, I also looked into how he treated Joel over the last three years. According to the Count’s confession, Joel lived on half a potato and half an apple a day while suffering all kinds of beatings from the Count.”
“Good heavens, half a potato and half an apple? No wonder… I thought that child was strangely thin!”
He had heard from his son that life in the capital was difficult, but Joel had never mentioned being beaten or starved.
As Sir Bennet stood up in a rage, ready to run to the prison where Count Lucas was held, the Prince forced him back into his seat.
“It is entirely my fault that Joel left like this. I failed to give that child trust. And when I pressed the mercenary named Jack, he said he was hired by you to take Joel to the Kingdom of Palein…”
“Yes. In truth, I helped my son escape at his request. I am sorry for keeping my mouth shut even though I saw how much you were worrying about him. I will accept whatever punishment you give me.”
“No. You had every reason to make that choice. The reason I came to you is to ask for your forgiveness. I swear that I will never let any harm come to you or your son again. So please, trust me just once and help me find him. Inside that child’s womb… an Imperial grandchild is growing.”
Sir Bennet looked down at the desperately pleading Prince.
Now that the fact of his pregnancy with the Imperial grandchild was out, it was as if Joel could no longer escape.
Thinking of his son’s face begging not to return to the capital made his heart heavy, but he felt he could trust the Prince just once, as the Prince requested.
Sir Bennet began to reveal what he knew to the Prince.
“I understand. Actually, three months ago, there was a place Joel mentioned he wanted to be sent to…”
