* * *
“Sir Nertian must have fed him well before bringing him here.”
“Yes. The knight insisted on it, hehehe.”
Playing along with their tone, Sylvian began to speak cautiously.
“How old are you?”
“Fif… fifteen.”
His conscience stung.
Elizabeth suppressed a laugh in front of him.
As long as they could catch the kidnapper, this much was bearable.
As “Roze,” Sylvian quickly became close with Elizabeth’s maids.
Sigh.
Sylvian flopped onto the bed after entering the bedroom.
‘Karl will come looking for me again.’
He’d already installed a teleportation circle in the bathroom connected to the incinerator — it was clearly illegal.
He had timed his escape well.
He hadn’t expected Elizabeth to be so willing to help.
If she had shown any strange signs, he’d planned to fake cooperation and flee again.
The day flew by in a whirlwind.
Having been on the move since morning, he was dead tired and ready to fall asleep.
‘She wouldn’t betray me.’
‘Now, I just have to get the evidence on Karl.’
Even as consciousness faded, he thought about how to screw Karl over and shake up Zeroth.
“What happened to the Count’s estate?”
“The servants have been interrogated all night.”
Karl clicked his tongue after finally confirming the report that Sylvian had escaped.
“When did the hostage disappear?”
“She hasn’t emerged yet.”
The organization member needed to be freed, but the knight order was still questioning him.
No one knew when the Duchess, the hostage, had escaped—or where she had gone.
“Tch.”
He had to find the Duchess before Zeroth Graham did.
He remembered the face that had looked lost, unsure whether to believe his lies.
“Maybe I should have just embraced him instead.”
The memory of that tear-streaked, pleasure-struck face made his conscience ache.
The wrongdoing was Zeroth’s — Sylvian had done nothing wrong.
Even so, he couldn’t stop his body from acting on impulse, just to hurt Zeroth Graham.
“Pathetic.”
‘Can’t even pull off a proper revenge.’
[Karl really seemed like a righteous man.]
Sylvian’s face, once beaming brightly as he spoke to him, suddenly came to mind.
“Have you checked if anyone suspicious was coming and going around there?”
“It’s hard to track. Just one alley over, it’s a busy street with lots of people.”
The servant glanced at the Marquis cautiously.
He had heard that the mansion had been discovered, but since there was no news of the duchess being found, he had immediately sent people out.
They had no idea who had come and gone, and with a carriage stop nearby, it would have been easy to flee.
Even when they asked the coachmen if they’d seen a beautiful man fleeing alone, none claimed to have seen the duchess.
They offered a gold coin and asked if they’d seen anything suspicious, but all shook their heads.
“It wouldn’t have been easy to run away with no money and no warm clothes. Search the nearby houses.”
“If even the Duke’s knights couldn’t find her, how are we supposed to—”
Bang!
The Marquis slammed the desk.
“There’s bound to be a hidden space in every mansion. Find it. No matter what.”
The servant had no choice but to bow and end the communication.
If he were helping the duchess, it would have been more beneficial to inform the Duke right away.
The Duke had placed a reward of ten million gold.
Mercenaries blinded by money and several guilds were out searching for the duchess.
No one would dare hide her in this situation.
“Ah, miss! You can’t go in there!”
Crash!
The butler’s flustered voice came from outside as the door to Karl’s study burst open.
“You’re perfectly fine, huh?”
“What now.”
Charlian, dressed in a vibrant red gown the same color as her own hair, stormed in and examined Karl.
Her slender wrists and waist were exposed, prompting Karl to click his tongue and drape his cardigan over her shoulders.
Though she looked annoyed and tried to take it off, one glare from Karl that clearly said either wear it or get out made her quietly keep it on.
“They said you were hiding like a rat, so I came to see for myself.”
“Hiding? Who?”
“You. I was wondering which idiot was funding the resistance—turns out it’s you.”
Charlian brought up what she had said at the Duke’s banquet.
Her eyes, darker than the duchess’s, scanned Karl’s face.
“You look fine. So it wasn’t a pointless move, was it?”
“That’s something you do. How long are you going to keep playing around like this?”
Annoyed by her sharp tone, Karl scowled.
He’d had enough of her antics since childhood.
“Hmph. It suits me. Why do you care?”
Charlian pouted at Karl’s cold response and glanced around the study.
His usually immaculate desk was slightly disorganized.
‘Something must’ve bothered him.’
“You’re not the one who caused that mess the other day, are you?”
“…Why would I cause a mess?”
Karl responded calmly to the suspicious gaze.
Charlian’s lip curled when she noticed the awkward twitch in his left eyebrow.
“Whatever it is, I’ll fix it. Just trust me.”
“I didn’t do anything, so stop talking nonsense and get lost.”
Charlian’s persistence finally made Karl furrow his brow.
She grinned and jabbed his forehead with a slender finger.
Tap.
“Don’t—touch me again.”
Karl was about to call her filthy but changed his words.
Charlian caught on and her smile widened.
“You didn’t do something irreversible, did you?”
“I don’t do things like that.”
She asked on a whim, and his answer was firm.
From his faint discomfort, she figured he had done something wrong, after all.
“So, where are you hiding the duchess?”
“?!”
At her question, Karl sprang to his feet and shoved her out of the study, telling her to get out if she was going to spout nonsense.
“…Are you okay?”
Yuri hesitated, watching Martius, who hadn’t been himself for days.
“Leave me alone.”
He was sharper than usual, eyes glaring.
Still, he was the one who had stopped Yuri from losing control when he’d nearly lost it—and for that, he was grateful.
He’d felt stifled by the Duke’s refusal to let his knights assist in the duchess’s disappearance investigation, but Martius had accompanied him anyway, saying he’d help.
“About the other day—”
“I said I was sorry. Don’t bring it up again. I just saw someone who looked similar and lost it.”
Yuri had been furious when Martius reappeared late, right after he’d found his brother.
Martius had barely managed to come up with a plausible excuse.
He’d gone as far as buying identical shoes and clothes to cover up what he’d given to Yuri’s brother.
Yuri, believing Martius had chased someone who looked like his brother, now wore a face full of guilt.
“It’s not your fault, so stop whining like a constipated dog.”
“What?! I’m worried about you, and this is what I get? Ugh.”
He was supposed to be returning to the academy soon but had even filed a leave of absence.
The Count and Countess of Holt said it was the right decision given the circumstances and supported him.
‘Even though it wasn’t really his fault.’
Yuri was a victim too.
The real criminal was the kidnapper, not the unconscious Yuri.
But Yuri couldn’t seem to forgive himself for not protecting his brother.
* * *
