The scent of blood, unable to fully mask the body odor, wandered above Elise’s blindfold and fell.
“I wish you would keep wearing the blindfold.”
The words spoken in a suppressed voice were neither a suggestion nor a command. It was tenderness towards Elise.
“…Don’t get hurt.”
Karan took in the words that anyone would laugh at quite seriously.
“Alright.”
Karan, who answered obediently, stirred up the wind and disappeared.
Elise stood still in her place, imagining his movements.
She had seen him fight from a great distance.
In a battle against monsters where they were outnumbered, the atmosphere changed just by his appearance.
And he dominated that battlefield.
Saying he fought well was not enough. Ruler, there was no better word than this.
Now, he would roam around like then, become one with the sword, and punish those who tried to kidnap Elise.
As soon as she felt safe, Elise’s blurred reason gradually returned.
‘Don’t make things worse.’
Thinking of the kidnappers who pulled Regina out and slapped her cheek, she didn’t want to stop Karan.
But she couldn’t let him cause trouble in a place that wasn’t Tetris.
‘Murder is a serious crime. That must be prevented.’
Elise clenched her dress tightly.
“Karan.”
And she called out to him, who could be anywhere.
Elise believed that he would hear her voice from somewhere.
Her faith was not betrayed.
“Elise, did you call me?”
After a few breaths, he appeared. She felt the heat from his body. Elise reached out towards the heat.
Something damp touched her hand. Her fingers reflexively curled up.
A viscosity different from water, and a more intense stench.
Elise struggled to keep her composure and opened her mouth.
“Please help.”
“…..”
“When I said not to get hurt, I wasn’t just talking about your body, Your Highness. I want you…to remain unscathed. In every way.”
“Elise, I am not an emerald. I’m closer to a stone.”
Emeralds are notoriously difficult to manage. They get easily damaged and melt even with a little heat.
Karan was saying that Elise was making a fuss over something.
“No. You are a gem to me. A gem like an emerald that I want to protect delicately. So, Your Highness, please don’t kill them.”
Karan’s cloudy eyes cleared. Light seeped into his eyes, which were nothing but darkness.
He sheathed his sword. And he took off Elise’s blindfold.
“I understand, Elise.”
For the first time in his life, Karan declared a retreat from the battlefield.
At the command of Elise.
****
Instead of killing them, Karan captured them all.
Elise, kneeling in a small warehouse, counted the heads huddled together and opened her mouth.
“There are fifteen.”
More people were mobilized than she had thought for her kidnapping.
“I expected at most five.”
“We needed people to clean up the surroundings in case of an emergency. Thanks to that, I made good use of it.”
Before coming to the warehouse, they cleaned up a carriage accident and wiped up the blood their colleagues had spilled.
While doing that work, the will of those who were secretly trying to escape was broken.
Even without Karan’s intimidation, they obediently followed him to the warehouse and tied each other up with ropes.
It was easy to see from this alone. These people are not those who move with a mission, but those who move with money.
“Who ordered it?”
Elise stood in front of a man who had lost one arm. The man who had pulled Elise out of the carriage.
Thanks to Haltbin’s emergency treatment and the narcotic painkiller he had injected, he was sweating cold sweat, but he did not lose consciousness.
“I, I don’t know.”
The operation failed. To keep the down payment, he could not reveal the identity of the client.
“If the client succeeds in kidnapping me, they would have promised quite a lot of money. I’ll give you twice as much.”
The man’s eyes widened. It was clear to the eye that the man was calculating hard in his head.
Whether Elise would really give the money, he must be guessing.
Elise took out the ring she was wearing on her hand.
The top-grade diamond ring was one of the few valuables Elise had.
“If you sell it, it should cover a family of four’s living expenses for a year.”
The man’s pupils trembled uncontrollably. He was tempted by the money.
But he was scared. Not of Elise, but of the man standing next to her. His gaze met Karan’s.
“There’s no guarantee you’ll spare us.”
“If you tell me who the client is, we won’t retaliate against you anymore. It’s something someone else made you do. But if you don’t tell the name, it becomes your doing. If that happens…”
Elise left her sentence hanging, driving the men into fear. The men all gasped for breath at the same time.
“Captain, just tell her.”
“We’re not people who uphold honor…The captain’s arm is crippled, and if we take the blame, how are we supposed to live in the future?”
The men who walked over to the captain on their knees whispered in a much lower voice.
“She’s also giving us money.”
The captain of the brats was wavering. He, who had been looking down by pulling his chin, raised his eyes.
“Leave the ring here.”
Then he stuck out his tongue. The tongue coated with white foam moved up and down.
Karan raised his eyebrows.
“Where’s this dirty tongue…”
It was when he reached for the hilt of his sword.
Elise elegantly took off the ring and dropped it onto the captain’s tongue.
The captain swallowed the ring with his tongue. He got the ring, so it wasn’t a loss.
“I’ll tell you in good faith. The person who commissioned us is…”
****
“Is it someone you know?”
Elise was heading to the mansion in Karan’s carriage.
Regina was being carried by Haltbin.
“Elise?”
Lost in thought, Elise missed what Karan had said. When he wrapped his arm around her elbow, she turned her head away from the window.
“What did you say, Karan?”
“I asked if you know him.”
Should she say she knows him, or should she say she doesn’t?
Elise, who was pondering, answered by nodding her head.
“What should I do for you?”
Karan asked, his gaze on her disheveled hair.
Seeing her tired face, he felt like he wanted to go and cut that guy’s throat.
And he certainly would.
But didn’t Elise say he was a gem? She said she would treat him as precious as an emerald. She told him not to get hurt.
So he had to protect himself.
If she wants, the situation will change. Karan asked again in a subtly hopeful tone.
“Should I meet him?”
Elise shook her head.
“I want to meet him, Your Highness. Can you let me meet him?”
***
“Huff! You, huff, who are you!”
Karan was really fast.
Not even two hours had passed since he parted with Elise, and he brought the person Elise wanted to meet to the room.
And he did it without anyone noticing.
[Can you wait without sleeping?]
It was good that she didn’t ignore what he said when they parted.
Elise closed the book she was reading and got up.
“Viscount Richter Vermont.”
“A woman? Who, who?”
When Richter, whose name was called, tried to get up, Karan pressed his shoulder.
A groan slipped out of Richter’s mouth due to the intense grip.
“Be polite. And lower your voice.”
Richter bit his lip.
Before arriving here, Richter realized that the man who caught him was not an ordinary person.
He consistently spoke in a gruff tone about the service he could provide for Richter.
It was a vivid description of torture, not service.
It didn’t feel like bluffing. Richter couldn’t even spit out the famous ‘Do you know who I am!’.
Because it seemed like the service the man talked about could become a reality.
And the place he was dragged to was a warm room.
When he heard the crackling sound of burning wood and smelled the soft and cozy scent, courage raised its head.
The man might be crazy, but the one who controls him might be able to have a conversation.
Richter swallowed his saliva. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down greatly.
“Tell me what you want. I’ll grant anything.”
“Who ordered it?”
“What do you mean…”
Elise looked at Karan. Karan, as if he had guessed the words in advance, took off Richter’s blindfold.
Relying on the faint light that could barely distinguish objects, Richter confirmed the figure in front of him.
Soon, the blood drained from his face.
“Eh, Elise Warton?”
He looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“It seems you were quite desperate to meet me. You could have sent a letter, but the way you invited me was quite aggressive.”
Elise rolled up her sleeve and showed her wrist.
There was a blue bruise on her wrist.
It was a bruise that occurred when the captain of the brats violently dragged her.
“That, that’s because I never ordered a kidnapping.”
Elise’s eyes sparkled.
“I never mentioned the word ‘kidnapping’.”
Richter, who was stabbed in the stomach, bit his lip.
“Miss Elise, what I mean is…”
“Who ordered it? What do you want to do by kidnapping me?”
The person who would harm her. Elise thought of two people.
She met Richter to find out who it was.
“I didn’t do it at someone’s request. I did it on my own. I had no intention of harming you, I just wanted to scare you.”
“Why?”
Elise’s question was very natural.
There was no connection between Richter and herself. The same was true for the Vermont family.
Richter was not a particularly noteworthy nobleman. He was just one of the people who followed Iris quite passionately.
‘In the past, he even caused a suicide fuss because of Iris.’
When she thought of that, the outline of who threatened her became clear.
‘The person who can move Richter voluntarily is.’
“It’s Iris, right?”
Thanks for the chapter!❤️🔥