Hearing the voice coming through the open door, Kasha momentarily doubted her ears. It was the voice of someone she never once imagined encountering at this time, in this place.

“Why isn’t there an answer? Kasha Lyuschino, are you not there?”

As the voice revealed an impatient temper and turned irritable, she finally became convinced it was indeed someone she knew.

“…Odette Tyrot?”

“What, if you were there, you should have answered faster… I was so anxious, I got scolded…”

The voice shrinking back as if discouraged upon actually receiving a response was rather unfamiliar.

Odette Tyrot. Why on earth was that arrogant and self-centered noble lady here?

Hearing the sound of hesitant footsteps approaching, Kasha roughly guessed the direction and turned her head that way. Seeing Kasha’s figure revealed in the darkness, Odette falteringly asked,

“Why… did you cover your eyes?”

“So that I wouldn’t escape, I suppose.”

At Kasha’s flat reply, Odette clicked her tongue as if dumbfounded.

“How could you possibly escape from a place like this…”

Unable to understand Odette’s intention for coming here, Kasha didn’t reply further and leaned against the wall as if on guard. Then Odette abruptly offered a greeting out of the blue.

“…It’s been a while… hasn’t it.”

“……”

“But why are you imprisoned here? You seemed to be doing so well, achieving great merits in the demon expedition and rising in the world…. Wait, but what is this? My goodness.”

Along with the sound of a sharp inhale, Odette suddenly fell silent.

“What’s the matter?”

Kasha asked, curious about the sudden reaction, but no answer came.

“Odette?”

When Kasha called out again in a raised voice, Odette suddenly reached out and firmly pulled down the cloth covering Kasha’s eyes.

“See for yourself.”

Odette said as she loosely untied the cloth binding Kasha’s hands as well.

Although her field of vision suddenly opened up, the room itself was dark, so for a while, she couldn’t see anything.

Blinking several times, Odette standing before her and the surroundings finally came into view. Kasha was momentarily at a loss for words.

The walls on all sides were entirely decorated with grotesque tools. There were countless types of ropes, rods, and whips.

On top of that, there were even muzzles and leashes used on livestock. Objects that looked like torture devices, their purpose hard to guess, were also laid out abundantly on the shelves.

And Odette was frozen with an expression of even greater shock than Kasha.

“To think the crown prince’s palace would be a place like this… And why is the stench of blood so thick everywhere?”

An anxious and uneasy voice. Kasha turned her head to gaze at Odette intently.

And she was a little surprised. Because Odette looked vastly different from how Kasha remembered.

With sunken cheeks in the span of a few months, Odette was literally in a state of dishevelment. She didn’t seem to be wearing a corset under the dress she had thrown on haphazardly.

It was an appearance that had been hard to even imagine from the Odette of the past, who would tighten her dress waist to the utmost to stand out more than anyone else at a ball.

“Why are you staring like that? Do you think you’ll be much different after giving birth? The belly doesn’t just deflate right away after delivery!”

As if Kasha’s gaze bothered her, Odette suddenly burst out in irritation with a fierce voice.

“You… gave birth. Congratulations.”

Although a little surprised, Kasha offered congratulations in a calm voice. Odette pouted her lips as if it didn’t feel sincere, but she didn’t waste any more needless irritation.

Kasha also found the situation perplexing, but she didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable about Odette.

After dealing with a true villain like Nigel, she had come to find someone like Odette rather cute. Besides… somehow, Odette already seemed to have paid a considerable price, if not fully, for her actions.

Kasha opened her mouth, which had dried up while imprisoned, and warned Odette,

“I don’t have time to explain in detail, but it’s dangerous here. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but leave quickly.”

Soon, Crown Prince Nigel would return, and from then on, it was impossible to even guess how the situation would unfold. The number of unrelated victims had to be minimized, even if by one.

However, Odette stared at Kasha’s face as she said those words and remained silent for a long time.

“…Odette?”

Gazing closely at Odette, perplexed, Kasha was a little taken aback. Because there were teardrops welling up in the corners of Odette’s eyes.

Moreover, even the lips of the woman who always spouted arrogant words were trembling. As if she would burst into tears at any moment.

“Odette, what on earth happened? Say something. Why did you come all the way here to find me…?”

Kasha spoke softly. From her disheveled appearance as if she had given up on everything, to various other aspects, Odette looked extremely anxious.

“Sob, it’s really a blow to my pride… Kasha, you really keep dealing blows to my pride until the very end.”

The grumbling that flowed from Odette’s mouth when she finally spoke was even more perplexing.

Kasha closed her mouth. Even if she didn’t have any major discomfort towards her, she didn’t have the leisure to listen to grumbling.

Then, surprisingly, Odette pulled herself together on her own shortly after. And soon, she was gnashing her teeth and spitting out a remark full of rage.

“Simon… that bad guy.”

Simon? As soon as Kasha heard that name, she was gripped by an ominous premonition.

Until now, she had nearly forgotten his very existence. However, Simon was the main culprit who had trampled on Kasha’s life at Nigel’s command before the regression.

After the regression, she had severed ties without giving him the slightest chance, so there was no occasion to get entangled in his trickery. But Kasha knew well from experience that the tangled threads of fate that had already been tied could not be cut so easily.

Even after Kasha had rejected Simon, Nigel must have pondered ways to continue using him. Although his immediate usefulness had disappeared, Simon was one of the few people who knew about the maseki, so it might have been a waste to eliminate him.

With a grim expression at the bad feeling, Kasha urged Odette,

“What on earth did Simon do? Tell me quickly. There’s no time.”

Odette was already sobbing, her nose running with tears.

“That guy… that brazen and conscienceless bastard… stole my baby. My baby!”

“…What did you say?”

A chill ran down her spine. Looking at Kasha, who had unknowingly shrunk back, Odette continued her lament.

“It’s true. The baby is gone. That guy, for some reason, told me to go for a walk with the nanny, saying he would look after the baby… Sob. O-of course, that jerk isn’t the biological father! But to think he would do something this crazy… Ahhh!”

Odette let out a scream, unable to contain her anger. Kasha calmly stopped her.

“Don’t yell, Odette. Are you certain Simon stole your baby?”

“I-I’m certain. I saw him from a distance, but clearly, getting on a carriage with the baby in his arms as I was returning from my walk. Even when I screamed at him, asking what he was doing, he either heard me or not and just ran away like that. Sob….”

The flustered Odette said she immediately called a coachman and chased after the carriage Simon was riding.

“The carriage he was in was suspicious too. It was pitch-black with no windows, and it passed through the main gate of the imperial palace without even bearing a family crest.”

“The main gate of the imperial palace…? Without inspection, you mean?”

“That’s what I’m saying… The carriage I was in had the Tyrot family crest, but it was stopped at the checkpoint for a long time. Well, it turned out His Majesty the Emperor had passed away, and the palace was sealed off… But then why did they just let that carriage in?!”

Listening to Odette’s story, Kasha became convinced that Crown Prince Nigel was involved in this kidnapping incident.

There was only one reason to kidnap a newborn baby, the heir to the Tyrot duchy at that, and bring it to the imperial palace.

‘Instead of Eve… he intends to use that baby as the sacrificial offering for the maseki Kailum.’

She trembled anew at Nigel’s viciousness.

‘He’s trying to secure a sacrificial offering with a pure soul and, at the same time, completely devastate the Tyrot duchy.’

The Tyrot duchy possessed the empire’s top merchant guild and boasted enormous wealth. However, as much as it had solid power and wealth, it was a thorn in the side that could not be easily swayed even by the imperial family’s authority.

Perhaps Nigel’s influence had also played a part in Simon and Odette’s marriage going as far as it did. With Nigel’s cunning, that would be par for the course.

“That bad guy… I should have known something was up when he kept taking confidential documents from the merchant guild and doing strange things! I must have been crazy to have had a ceremony with a guy like that!”

Odette’s ensuing lament also directly supported Kasha’s speculation.

Nigel, who had tried to use Simon to shake up the Tyrot merchant guild, seemed to have chosen a different method when that didn’t work out.

Odette, having lost her child, would become a wreck, and naturally, her relationship with Simon would also fall apart. It went without saying that if Odette, the only heir, was ruined, the entire duchy would be shaken.

“Wh-what do I do? My baby… I haven’t even been able to name the child yet.”

Odette sobbed, spilling out tears.

“Whenever I kept looking at the child, I felt disturbed… I haven’t even held the baby more than a few times. No matter what, if something happens to that child… I don’t think I could bear it. That child… has eyes just like mine.”

“Calm down, Odette.”

Kasha sighed and lightly patted her shoulder. No matter how much she disliked the woman, seeing her crying like this made her feel bad. Besides, what sin did that baby commit?

Thinking of the baby who was put at risk of becoming a sacrificial offering in exchange for saving Eve, she felt an unavoidable sense of guilt.

At the same time, imagining Nigel laughing at this moment, anger welled up, and her mind actually became calm.

“Now, Odette. Tell me. So, you were stopped at the entrance to the imperial palace, but how did you manage to enter? And how did you find your way here? How did you know I was here?”

At Kasha’s composed questions, Odette answered one by one while sniffling.