As the carriage carrying Herena gradually moved away, Kaern, helplessly staring at the distance, soon regained his composure.

Definitely.

He declared that he would prove her innocence as promised to Herena.

He kept his gaze fixed on one spot until the carriage disappeared, and in that moment, a familiar face caught his eye.

Riding a horse and passing by swiftly, the face that sneered at Kaern with a malicious smile undoubtedly belonged to Lucas Acker.

Kaern, contemplating why Lucas Acker was here, quickly recalled that he was a knight belonging to the imperial guard.

Along with the thought that he wouldn’t come to the Duke’s residence for no reason, Kaern became convinced that Lucas Acker was involved in this matter.

‘Now is not the time for this.’

To safely retrieve Herena, there were many things to be done.

He heard the situation from the steward of the Rosentia Duke’s residence and the maid who accompanied Herena like a shadow, and he immediately returned to the Duke’s mansion.

Then, he headed to the underground prison where the still silent assassin was being held.

Behind him, Lieutenant Jace Hayton and Logan Lewis followed closely.

Upon entering the underground prison, the assassin was tied to a chair with eyes covered, and the gag to prevent biting was still in place.
When Kaern sent a glance to Jace, he promptly removed the white cloth covering the assassin’s eyes.

In response, the unwavering gaze, still filled with determination, alternated between the three people in front of him but eventually returned to Kaern.

Today, with the determination to make him speak some words from his mouth, Kaern, too, stared at the assassin with light brown hair with indifferent eyes.

He hadn’t been idle until now.

To uncover the assassin’s identity, he had struggled quite a bit, but eventually, he successfully learned a few facts.

The man’s name was Owen Raymond, traversing the continent as a mercenary leader who took on mercenary work for money.

Owen was not just a mercenary but the leader who commanded mercenaries.

By sheer luck, he had spared the leader of the group that had tried to kill him.

While Owen and his subordinates were wiped out by Kaern and his men, he was skilled, receiving numerous contracts to handle tasks here and there.

So, when Kaern first learned about Owen, he had an idea of why he seemed more inclined to die than open his mouth.

As the leader of the group, he must have felt guilt for being the only survivor and a sense of responsibility and remorse for not being able to protect his people.

However, as he discovered more, he realized it was not as simple as that.
Owen had something that compelled him to keep his mouth shut even in death.

And now it was time to hear what it was through his mouth.

“Owen Raymond.”

When Kaern quietly uttered Owen’s name, his gaze momentarily flickered.

However, that was just a moment, and soon his eyes, devoid of any emotion, stared at Kaern.

It meant that even though his identity had been exposed, he wouldn’t waver.

Kaern smirked and still didn’t take his eyes off him.

And to utter another name, he opened his mouth.

“Sierra Hasper.”

“Ugh! Ugh!”

As the name Sierra Hasper echoed lowly in the prison, Owen, who was sitting powerlessly, began to resist vehemently.

Watching his reaction, Kaern internally smiled with satisfaction.

“Sierra Hasper. No, is it Sierra Raymond now?”

“Ugh! Ugh!”

Under Kaern’s gaze, who seemed to know everything, despair began to fill Owen’s pupils.

“Owen Raymond and Sierra Raymond. The only survivor of the extinct Hasper Viscount family is now the wife of a mercenary.”

The Hasper Viscount family was one of the families in the Empire that no one dared to touch lightly.

Although not explicitly shown, it was known what power they possessed.

Due to fertile lands, the Hasper family effortlessly controlled formidable mercenaries, wandering the continent with immense wealth.
And, utilizing that, he took charge of various dirty affairs, both big and small, in the empire, gaining the Emperor’s trust significantly.

It didn’t take even a month for such a prestigious family to be driven to extinction due to a conspiracy.

Perhaps it was because they held a position similar to those families yet continued to grow in influence.

Greedy nobles who had not witnessed the Hasper family’s gradual expansion plotted a rebellion, and in the end, the Hasper family was falsely accused of conspiracy.

At first, they could withstand the accusations.

However, due to traces of a conspiracy emerging from various places, traces even they were unaware of, the Hasper family ultimately couldn’t endure.

Even the mercenaries under their command couldn’t help.

Most of them had already been bribed by the nobles, and only one mercenary unit fought for the Hasper Viscount.

However, relying solely on them was insufficient to protect the family.

In the end, the Viscount and Viscountess Hasper were captured and executed on the spot without being able to escape, and their only daughter and successor, Sierra Hasper, disappeared with the mercenaries.