However, it was just infuriating. It would greatly hurt Hertian.

“Once you died? When did something like this happen?”

Habel yelled but quickly closed his mouth seeing a buzzing bug.

The more I saw him, the less dignified he seemed as the commander of the knights.

“Won’t such incidents continue to happen?”

“Why would Your Grace continue to suffer… I’ll report this to His Majesty.”

“No. I can’t put His Majesty in a difficult position.”

“Then what will you do?”

Habel asked with a serious face.

“If there’s no clear way, our Tiamo will step in.”

“What’s Tiamo?”

“I’ll tell you if you ever need us.”

He clenched the badge on his chest.

“Thank you. But, please pay more attention to Princess Violet. She’s lonelier and more isolated than me.”

Now is not the time to worry about me.

Serdis is a lost cause.

If you want to salvage anything, be nice to Violet now.

“She doesn’t particularly need me or my brother, so it’s fine.”

“What are you talking about? It may look that way because you’re not showing any interest.”

I chided his indifference.

“Seriously, she’s locked in her room every day. Even during meal times, it’s hard to see her face.”

“She might be uncomfortable. If you ask her to eat together, she’ll come out.”

“Hmm, understood.”

“Promise me. Say you’ll ask her to dine together before you meet me next.”

“Although I’m not interested, I’ll try. Now, promise.”

Habel shyly extended his pinky finger.

‘Is he asking for a pinky promise?’

I burst out laughing at the sight that others might find amusing.

“So even knights make promises by locking pinkies.”

“Quick, do it!”

I was about to lock fingers when—

“Your Grace.”

A palace servant, whom I didn’t notice when he arrived, called me. I turned my head before our fingers could lock.

“What is it?”

“Your Grace, an invitation has arrived for you.”

An invitation sealed with gold.

Without opening it, I already knew who had sent it.

‘The Empress has personally called me.’

“I will attend. Inform them.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”
Shall I take a look at how grand of a party they’ve prepared?

(This is a time marker.)

Tap. Tap.

Late at night.

I immediately drew the curtain at the sound knocking on the palace window.

Eleanor was standing below.

It wasn’t polite for her to enter my bedroom, so she waited for me outside.

I hastily put down the book I was reading and went out.

“Eleanor!”

“Your Highness, I apologize for visiting so late.”

“Why apologize when you’ve gone through the trouble?”

I inspected her body to see if Eleanor was hurt, and then looked at her face. Her expression was dark, unsettlingly so.

“Last night, a massive carriage apparently left the palace.”

“A carriage? You mean Hertian was in it and sent somewhere?”

Eleanor nodded.

That means Hertian was kidnapped.

“Where did the carriage go?”

“That would be… the hunting grounds.”

Eleanor handed over something she was holding.

It was a round pill inside a white paper bag.

“This is what you gave to Hertian, isn’t it? I saw you give it to him when we were in the north before.”

“Yes, it’s what I gave him.”

It was an antiarrhythmic drug.

Since Hertian seemed to have difficulty drinking herbal water, I ground the herbs to make a pill.

“But why would it be in the hunting grounds…”

A bad thought momentarily flashed through my mind.

Leaving Hertian in the hunting grounds meant…

“Did they kill him? Like cutting his flesh and throwing it as prey…”

I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

‘I knew there was something odd when Serdis easily received the combat orders!’

Because they were planning to kill him anyway.

Without a doubt, they threw Hertian as prey without leaving traces of homicide. Osen and the knights must have buried him alive with the prey. Cruel people.

My hands were shaking and my eyes were moistening.

Even so, how could they kill him?

“Let’s find Hertian’s skull right now…”

“That’s the thing; it seems he isn’t dead.”

Looking at me shedding tears, Eleanor seemed at a loss for what to do.

“Please calm down first.”

“A whole day has passed. If he’s not dead, why hasn’t he come back?”

Hertian is a resilient warrior.

A warrior who survived roaming through battlefields at a young age.

He wouldn’t be struggling against a few pieces of prey.

“The wheel tracks of the carriage stopped at the entrance of the hunting grounds. They wouldn’t have killed people where many gather due to hunting season. It seems they’ve hidden Hertian somewhere in the hunting grounds.”

As Eleanor said, the capital often hosted hunting festivals when warm spring arrived.

If they hid Hertian where people gathered, there had to be a good reason.

The underground dungeon and the western tower were places Hertian could easily escape from.

A place to tie Hertian down for a while. And a place where he could possibly die.

‘There is just one such place.’

“I think I know where the Duke is.”