The Duke hurriedly crossed the palace garden. Though he had been with her all last night, he found himself wanting to see her more, not less.
Before completely leaving the garden, he encountered a familiar face.
“Good afternoon, Your Grace.”
Seeing the secretary behind him, the reason for his visit to the palace seemed obvious.
“I suppose you’ve been summoned for this new project.”
“Yes. Drought is always a problem in the West, so it seems they want to use the Northern project as a model for regional development.”
Louis, who had attended the banquet in his place yesterday, looked haggard.
“Did you enjoy the banquet yesterday?”
At this uncharacteristic question from the Duke, Louis briefly studied his face.
His expression suggested he was wondering if there was some intent behind the question. It was natural to be suspicious, given the sudden order to hold the banquet.
But the Duke revealed no emotion on his face. He didn’t particularly want to reveal his thoughts to this person.
While working together, he had judged Louis’s abilities and character to be not bad, but that made him an even less desirable confidant.
“It was a banquet not much different from any other.”
Unable to discern the Duke’s intention, Louis gave a generic answer.
“Do you know a person called Bain?”
Louis hesitated. This wasn’t someone the Duke would normally know about.
The only other connection would be Carol.
“Yes, I do know of him.”
“Did he come yesterday?”
Though he had ordered someone else to observe closely, the Duke decided it was better to ask here than to go hear the report.
“Yes. But he usually comes early to such banquets, yet yesterday he was particularly late.”
“…Is that so.”
Though it was nothing special, Louis diligently answered even about this minor change.
“You know about Bain not because of work, but because of Carol, right?”
“Yes. You knew about this too?”
“So you did know. That the way that man looks at Carol is unsettling.”
This was news to the Duke. He had expected to hear about the child, but the sudden mention of Carol made him frown.
“…What?”
Though he had never seen the man’s face directly, he had read documents about him. He was old enough to be almost Carol’s father.
“If I’ve overstepped, I apologize…”
“No. This is something I didn’t know about.”
To think he had missed this part. He had intended to let Carol handle it, but if that man had futile feelings for Carol, it changed things a bit.
“Uh, excuse me, but…”
The secretary who had accompanied the viscount, summoned by the palace, interrupted their conversation. As both men turned their gaze to him, the secretary’s face turned pale.
“It may be nothing, but I heard that Mr. Bain went to the port this morning for work. If I’ve spoken out of turn…”
Though it wasn’t a big deal, the secretary had mustered the courage to mention someone who rarely came up in these two men’s conversations. Fortunately, the Duke showed interest in the secretary’s words.
“When was the original schedule?”
“As far as I know, he wasn’t supposed to sail for at least two weeks.”
The Duke and Louis’s gazes met in midair.
If it was nothing, it was nothing. But a suspicious person suddenly changing their schedule in a hurry? It didn’t sit well.
“I knew that man for a child abuse case.”
“What?”
“For such a man to suddenly leave for work on the weekend, it reeks of suspicion.”
The Duke realized it was time for him to act.
“Send someone to the Duke’s Mansion immediately. Have them contact us to search that man’s residence.”
“What? But…”
“I’ll explain to His Highness personally that you had urgent matters to attend to.”
“Understood.”
The Duke quickened his pace. Louis followed right behind.
“May I come along?”
“…Very well.”
If it turned out to be nothing, they could apologize for overreacting. But what if they weren’t overreacting?
He hoped nothing would happen to make Carol sad.
The two headed straight for the tutoring center where Carol was. They planned to explain the situation to Carol before taking action.
But before they could knock on the tutoring center’s door, it opened.
Creeak.
“…The door is open.”
Louis said with a grim face. The Duke pushed past Louis and flung the door open.
Carol was already gone.
“…..”
The Duke felt a sinking feeling he had never experienced before, not even when he had become a monster.
****
A musty smell of stagnant water stung her nostrils.
Wasn’t the room she had been in with the Duke just moments ago so fragrant?
As consciousness slowly returned, the memories of what happened after came flooding back.
She had taken the Duke’s carriage and made a final stop at the tutoring center.
Creeak.
[Teacher Bianca. Did you forget to lock the door?]
It was unlike her, but it was also a mistake anyone could make, so she hadn’t been suspicious.
But the state of disarray, with nothing tidied up, struck her as odd.
Did she have some urgent matter? Knowing Bianca well, Carol couldn’t imagine she would have left things like this on purpose.
And this wasn’t just untidiness – it looked as if someone had ransacked the place.
Worry suddenly gripped her.
Thinking it would be quickest to call her siblings, she had intended to head home first.
Rustle.
It was the moment she turned around at the sound from behind, where there should have been no one.
Thud.
With a dull pain, her body swayed. In an instant, she collapsed to the floor. Her head hurt so much she couldn’t muster any strength in her body.
[So who told you to deceive me like that?]
The eerie voice she heard before losing consciousness was her last memory.
Of course, criminals don’t kindly announce their crimes beforehand, so it’s natural for them to suddenly shatter ordinary life, but she couldn’t get her bearings properly.
Just moments ago, it had been a sweet reality, but now it felt like a terrible nightmare.
As the memory of the moments before the attack came flooding back, her head felt like it was about to split open.
“Ugh…!”
Thanks to the pain, she could be certain this wasn’t a dream. It was dark, perhaps a basement. Carol blinked rapidly to adjust her eyes to the darkness.
Fortunately, after a short while, the outlines of her surroundings became faintly visible.
As Carol looked around, she tried to stand up abruptly when she saw a figure.
Thump.
“Oof!”
Only now did she realize her arms and legs were bound, due to the pain in her head. Pain shot up her tailbone.
“Teacher Bianca? Oh my God, Benjamin!”
Two people lay tied up and collapsed before her eyes. At Carol’s cry, Bianca’s body twitched.
“Teacher Carol?”
Bianca seemed to have regained consciousness too, calling Carol’s name.
“Yes, it’s me.”
Bianca was startled by Carol’s confirmation.
“My goodness. Teacher, why are you here?”
“I should ask you the same, why are you here?”
Bianca told her about what happened yesterday.
“He followed you yesterday?”
“He seemed to know when and where you went.”
Carol was shocked by Bianca’s words. A chill ran down her spine.
“That bastard. To think he’d end up kidnapping Teacher Carol too.”
Bianca muttered in a fierce voice.
“Were you alright during the night, Teacher?”
“That bastard. He seemed to come once at night but left again quickly.”
“Let’s try to see if we can escape on our own first.”
Carol could escape by herself. Even in a basement, there should be at least one small hole to slip through. But that was only possible if Carol was alone.
****
The people the Duke had sent returned without any results.
One had gone to where Bianca lived, the other to Bain’s mansion.
“We confirmed that the teacher from the tutoring center didn’t return home yesterday. But it seems this happens occasionally, so her family wasn’t particularly worried.”
The Duke sighed at the first knight’s words, then asked the knight standing beside him.
“What about that man?”
“The servants said he last visited the mansion yesterday evening.”
Bain had already left the mansion.
“Any other places he might go?”
To prevent embezzlement, the secretary had been tracking assets in the background, so they had a list of houses owned under his name.
“There are three properties owned by the Bain family in this area.”
“…I see.”
“And there’s one more thing to report.”
The Duke asked at the determined words of the knight who had gone to Bain’s mansion.
“What is it?”
“Everyone seemed particularly tight-lipped, but a maid working in the laundry room secretly testified that when she was doing laundry last evening, there were bloodstains on a sleeve.”
“This is maddening.”
It felt like his insides were burning up.
“Could it be the child’s blood?”
The Duke didn’t immediately affirm Louis’s speculation.
“It might not be.”
The Duke came up with another possibility.
“The fellow teacher might not have simply stayed out overnight, but could have been kidnapped as well.”
“….”
The atmosphere around them grew cold at the Duke’s words.
YESSSS-
👀👀
Who said that?