“Celeste is missing?”
A problem had arisen during the brief moment—barely an hour—he had stepped away to verify some documents. Rubbing his stiff neck, Karl asked again.
“When? Where?”
Clovis, speechless and unable to lift his head, felt crushed by guilt. He had been told to stay close to the Grand Duchess, but it seemed the moment the order was given, something had gone wrong.
“She said she wanted to look around the castle walls…”
“It’s not strange to want to see the outside. However, how could Celeste possibly disappear alone if you were supposed to be right next to her, Clovis?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I was reckless. The Grand Duchess expressed her desire for a brief solo walk… I should have remained by her side, and I didn’t think it through.”
“You were reckless. Very much so. No matter how safe this place is, if you remember why we brought the procession this far, you wouldn’t have left Celeste on her own.”
“I apologize, Your Highness.”
“This is a refuge brought about by threats. We didn’t come here for a leisurely outing.”
Leaving the Grand Duchess alone, even temporarily, was unacceptable. Moreover, wasn’t their journey to bring Celeste and the Count’s family here to escape lurking dangers?
Karl couldn’t understand why Clovis, usually so competent, had made such a mistake.
Of course, as Clovis said, being inside the Grand Duke’s castle was considered one of the safest places, so it seemed unlikely that she would encounter danger during a quick stroll.
But that justification could only be offered if Celeste returned safely from her walk. What good would it do to emphasize the safety of this place now? Ultimately, the Grand Duchess had vanished without a trace! Karl’s expression darkened.
“I’ve divided the knights into three groups and initiated a search. We will not stop until we find the Grand Duchess.”
That was the least he could say. Karl glared sharply at Clovis; there was no excuse that would suffice in this situation.
“Your punishment is…”
“I will accept any punishment, Your Highness.”
“That’s a matter for later. First, find Celeste. As quickly as possible!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Clovis bowed low enough for his nose to touch the ground before quickly rushing off to fulfill his duties. He would likely be running so hard that even apart from the knights searching the castle, he would be dripping with sweat. As Karl watched Clovis’s retreating figure, he let out a deep sigh.
“Huh…”
A mysterious headache had started about an hour ago. He tried massaging the back of his neck and taking deep breaths, but nothing seemed to alleviate it.
Feeling overwhelmed by heavy workloads, he thought it unusual that he should experience physical strain, considering he had always led such a busy life. It meant he hadn’t been particularly busier lately. Yet, he couldn’t understand the sudden onset of an unfamiliar headache.
Although the knights were searching for Celeste, he couldn’t just sit idly by and wait. Pushing aside his aching head, Karl also began to move around in search of her.
He focused on areas where few people had ventured, except for the gathering of knights and Countess Louisette’s staff. As Karl busily walked around the castle, he eventually reached a familiar spot.
“Why are you here?”
Two years ago, it was the very place where he first met Celeste when she sought him out. It was a shabby side entrance, directly opposite the main entrance of the Grand Castle.
Karl stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t intended to come here; he had simply wandered until he found himself here. But at that moment, as he looked at the door, memories from two years ago rushed back to him.
Bad weather, sudden downpours. The sky flashed, followed by thunder, and amidst it all, a stranger’s voice cut through.
“It’s raining, come inside.”
Celeste spoke to him as if they were old acquaintances. Karl had found it quite strange even then because up until that point, the Celeste he knew had been cold, arrogant, and taciturn.
The suddenly appearing Celeste acted like a completely different person.
He interrogated her for details on how she found his secret hideout and came alone, but Karl received no satisfactory explanation from her.
Her claim of loyalty sounded plausible, yet it was hard to accept at face value.
Moreover, she had vanished without a trace afterwards. That day, Celeste was indeed filled with peculiarities. Despite his promise to thoroughly question her about that day when they met again, the Celeste he faced after two years claimed to have lost all her memories.
“…You’re pretty.”
Suddenly, a fragment of memory from the past brushed against Karl’s mind, halting his steps. What he remembered from that day was up to the moment he prepared a suitable meal for a starving Celeste.
For some reason, she had made him drink, and he lost consciousness thereafter, leaving his memories blank.
Was it because he stood in the same place? No matter how hard he tried, the memories that had eluded him now flickered through his mind.
“You’re pretty, you.”
He realized he was in no condition to digest even a sip of alcohol.
I dislike the feeling of not being able to control myself. I had never even touched alcohol, but on the night of my coming-of-age ceremony, I was tricked by Clovis into drinking half a glass of wine. That was when I discovered I simply couldn’t tolerate alcohol in my body.
Using the memory of that time, which felt like a blank cut out, Clovis would sometimes tease me.
“I never knew the Grand Duke Your Highness could be so cute!” or “They say alcohol reveals a person’s true self. So, Grand Duke, you must have been a really loving person, longing for affection like that.” He would throw out such remarks jokingly.
Putting his words together, it seemed that when I was drunk, I became incredibly cute, endearing, and filled with love. I never thought that could be true.
But that didn’t mean I would ever drink again to prove it wasn’t. So, the gaps in my memory caused by alcohol were only two instances: one with Clovis and one with Celeste.
“But what is this memory…?”
Suddenly, the memory of Celeste resurfaced, from two years ago. I stood frozen in place, concentrating all my efforts to grasp the memory.
In my blurry vision, there was Celeste with a surprised expression… No, it wasn’t just that she was there; she was lying down.
Celeste, seemingly lying on the floor, looked up at me with her already large eyes even wider… Wait, she looked up? I gasped and quickly raised my head.
“Karl, focus. I don’t know why this is happening, but….”
The face of memory’s Celeste gradually came closer. But Celeste remained still.
“…Huh.”
Memories that I could not recall suddenly flooded in. I realized that Celeste’s increasingly approaching face meant I had drawn closer to her.
“What a madman.”
That was a curse directed at myself. In that memory, I had definitely told Celeste she was pretty before lowering my face. Followed by this realization, I gasped as I remembered I had even kissed her. I hastily covered my mouth with my hands. Crazy, I’m crazy!
Our lips had touched, soft and unlike anything I had felt before. My face was hot, and my mind was hazy. I felt as if I were floating, like I was riding on a cloud, and the beautiful woman before me became irresistibly charming.
It was a completely unfamiliar sensation. Without realizing it, I traced her lips, and my hand, which held her face, began to caress her jaw and neck, moving downward.
“Oh, no. Stop! You madman!”
Now, I wrapped my hands around my own head. But no matter how much I cursed myself now, I couldn’t stop the past from unfolding.
If this was going to happen, it should have stayed buried! But those memories, which had eluded me before, now refused to be suppressed.
After drinking, Celeste appeared before me in the darkness, and I thought to myself how beautiful she was. In this dreamy, hazy state, I just wanted to caress the woman in front of me, and then…
“Hah.”
At the moment her warm breath filled my mouth, Karl completely let himself go. The hand that had brushed down his neck and shoulder moved lower without hesitation, driven by instinct.
“…It was me.”
Karl, who firmly believed that Celeste had fed him alcohol and done something wrong, knelt before the truth revealed in his own memories.
It wasn’t her; it was me.
The shameless one was me!
