“What item has gone missing?”

“……”

I thought he would dismiss it casually, but I didn’t expect him to show interest. Come to think of it, it was strange that Fredrick approached when there was a commotion. The gleam in his eyes, seemingly inappropriately joyful for the situation, was also unsettling.

……Could this man be the culprit? Lily swallowed her rising suspicions and answered.

“It’s a shoe.”

“You kept a shoe in your bedroom?”

“It was precious to me. I kept it separately, but I never imagined someone would steal it.”

Lily looked at the maids again. The apprentice maid in charge of cleaning the room and the maids who helped with Lily’s preparations to go out were startled and denied being the culprit, while the other maids pretended to be busy, avoiding eye contact with her.

Everyone present knew that regardless of who the culprit was, they would never confess. Touching the belongings of a noble, let alone an employer, was a serious crime. With bad luck, one could even lose a hand, so who in their right mind would confess?

Lily also wanted to know the truth, but she still wanted to find it. Not the shoe, but Herald’s letter. She desperately wanted to recover that letter, which she hadn’t been able to read yet due to her unsettled feelings.

But how to find it? If the servants had stolen it, searching their rooms would suffice, but if Fredrick had taken it, that wasn’t possible. Without clear evidence that he was the culprit, no, even if there was evidence, searching the room of the head of the family was impossible.

Please, don’t let this man be the culprit. I’d rather the servants had stolen it.

Lily desperately hoped, but the more she did, the deeper her suspicion of Fredrick grew. After all, it wasn’t an expensive jewel, and there was no reason for the maids to steal a useless single shoe. They had even less reason to take the letter.

But not this man, right? Lily’s gaze, which had carefully scrutinized the maids pleading their innocence, reached Fredrick. As their eyes met, Fredrick tilted his head and asked.

“Do you want to find the missing item that badly?”

Not the shoe, but the item. He might have said it without much thought, but somehow, she had a strong feeling that wasn’t the case.

“……Will you help me if I say I want to find it?”

Instead of answering, Fredrick smiled faintly and ordered Anna.

“Search the servants’ rooms right now.”

They searched not only the servants’ rooms but also other places like the kitchen and dining room, but found neither the shoe nor the letter. As the innocence of the servants was proven one by one, Lily’s suspicion towards Fredrick deepened.

At the same time, gripped by the anxiety that he might have read Herald’s letter, Lily nibbled on her nails. Not knowing what was written in that letter made her even more anxious.

What if he misunderstands something strange? If he tries to do something weird like that day when he forcibly kissed me, mentioning a child…..

“Haa, haa……”

Just thinking about it made her skin crawl and her breathing quicken. Lily exhaled rough breaths and sank to the floor. Even if she wanted to stand up, her legs were trembling too much to do so.

But she had to move. Wanting to prevent a repeat of that day’s events at all costs, Lily approached the door, almost crawling, and locked it securely. Feeling that wasn’t enough, she blocked the door with the dressing table chair and the dresser.

“It’s okay now……”

No, it will be okay. It has to be okay. If I have to endure such a thing again, I don’t think I could bear it.

Even though it hadn’t happened yet, she was too afraid to calm down. Thinking some fresh air might help, she opened the window wide, but nothing changed. Her mouth was still dry and her heart was still pounding madly.

As Lily paced around the room, not knowing what to do, she suddenly remembered Herald’s letter that she had tucked away deep in the dresser. That kind letter, which was as long as five pages. She had burned the other letters from him right after reading them, but she couldn’t bring herself to burn that one, so she had put it in the dresser.

Surely that hasn’t disappeared too? With this ominous thought suddenly occurring to her, Lily hastily opened the dresser.

“It’s here.”

Fortunately, the letter was still in its place. Deeply relieved, Lily read the letter again. Reading his story, written as entertainingly as a novel, her anxiously beating heart gradually calmed down.

Thanks to this, she regained some peace of mind, but instead felt an excessive thirst. It was a thirst born from shame and disillusionment about doing something improper.

“What am I trying to do…?”

Are you really thinking of becoming that man’s mistress, Liliana?

She should firmly say no, that she has no such intention, but unable to do so, Lily buried her face between her knees. The pale moonlight poured down on her head as if trying to comfort her.

In the deep of night, Herald followed Dillon into the maze-like inner alleys. Carefully surveying the surroundings as they advanced, Dillon stopped in front of an old building.

“It’s here.”

As Herald nodded, Dillon pushed the wooden door, older than the building itself, inward. Creeak, the unpleasant sound automatically furrowed his brows. While scanning the inside of the building, darker than the alley, in that state, Dillon asked.

“Are you really planning to go in yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Do you really, truly think it’s right for you, the captain, to take action personally?”

At this long string of questions, Herald frowned at Dillon with a different meaning than before.

“It seems you’re quite displeased with me taking action personally.”

“To be honest… yes, I am. For you, the captain, to personally enter an illegal gambling den just to catch such a lowlife. I think it’s absurd.”

“He’s not just some lowlife. He’s a murderer who killed his own wife.”

This was the reason Herald had come here. To catch Olben, Megan’s husband and the prime suspect in her murder.

“Do you really think he’s the culprit?”

“Well……”

As Herald smiled as if it was difficult to answer, Dillon let out a small sigh.

“Even if he is the culprit, I don’t think you should take action personally, captain. That’s a job for the capital’s police and investigators. There’s no reason for you to step in.”

“Can’t you think of it as a noble’s deviation driven by a sense of justice?”

“Hardly.”

Dillon snorted as if to say don’t talk nonsense and turned his head away.

It seemed no matter what he said, he couldn’t convince Dillon. Moreover, even Herald couldn’t clearly define why he was going through the trouble of moving personally when he could have just ordered Dillon or someone else to do it, so he didn’t say anything more.

‘It’s not like I don’t know at all.’

Lily. Recalling her image, smiling with sparkling fresh green eyes, Herald’s mouth went dry. He wanted to smoke a cigar, but knowing Dillon would nag if he did, he held back.

“Let’s go in.”

“I’ll go in first.”

Herald willingly let Dillon have his way. As Dillon walked ahead down the dark corridor, barely wide enough for one person, he suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

Even though Herald asked, Dillon looked around as if searching for something, then shook his head.

“I thought I heard a strange sound, but I must have been mistaken.”

“It’s probably noise from the gambling den. The narrow space would amplify even small sounds.”

“That could be it. Ah, the entrance seems to be over there.”

Opening the door at the end of the corridor revealed a spacious and pleasant place that was hard to believe was the same location. It was an illegal gambling den, mainly for card games.

“How may I help you?”

A middle-aged man, seemingly the owner of this gambling den, approached and asked. Though he directed the question at Herald, Dillon answered.

“We were introduced by James.”

“Ah, James introduced you……”

The owner nodded and quickly scanned Herald up and down. Though his attire was plain without any accessories, the fabric was high quality. His appearance was also clean-cut, and the fact that he brought a servant to an illegal gambling den suggested he wasn’t of ordinary status.

In other words, it meant he had quite a lot of money. The corners of the owner’s mouth rose almost to his ears as he finished his assessment.

“It’s an honor to serve such a distinguished guest. Please, come this way.”

As Herald followed behind the owner, he took a sweeping look at the gambling den. There were only six card tables, and barely twenty customers. He thought he’d be able to find the person he was looking for quickly, but no matter how much he looked around, the man he was searching for wasn’t there.

Is he not here? That can’t be. Dillon definitely said he was here.

Herald glanced at Dillon. Like him, Dillon was also looking for Olben and seemed quite perplexed that the target wasn’t visible.

“Are these all the game tables?”

Thinking Dillon couldn’t have made a mistake, Herald asked the owner just in case. The owner hesitated for a moment, then smiled faintly and shook his head.

“No, sir. There are game tables in the inner room.”

“Then guide us there.”

“Pardon? That’s……”

As the owner trailed off as if troubled, Herald glared at him with a frown.

“Do I look too poor in your eyes to enter the inner room?”

“Oh my, how could that be?”

The owner glanced around, then spoke in a voice low enough for only Herald to hear.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding, but the inner room is a place for life’s losers, not for precious guests like yourself.”

“Life’s losers?”

“You know, those addicted to drugs or alcohol, that sort.”

Even an illegal gambling den manages such people separately? Herald laughed as if in derision and looked around the gambling den again. Besides the entrance they had come through, no other doors were visible.

“Here we are. Please sit here.”

Having arrived at the card table in the innermost part of the room, Herald sat where the owner indicated and ordered Dillon in a low voice.

“Find the source of that strange sound you heard in the corridor earlier. That man will be there.”