“The delicious smell keeps coming. Lirin and Blanche will eat well too.”

I was heading to the room where the children were, carrying the soup made in the kitchen. Lady Lehre commented on the aroma wafting from the soup.

‘I hope they eat well and get better soon.’

I walked carefully so as not to spill the soup.

‘I’m sure I left it open when I came out, why is it closed?’

But the door to the room I arrived at was closed. Since I had left it slightly open when I came out, I entered with a sense of puzzlement.

The spot next to Lirin, who was making soft snoring sounds, was empty.

‘Did the child close the door when she left?’

I seemed to understand why the door had been closed. There was no sign of the child in the room. It looked like she had gone outside.

“Oh my, where did Blanche go? Lirin. Wake up. Have you seen Blanche?”

“Mmm… sleepy.”

Lirin pushed away Lady Lehre’s hand that was trying to wake her, finding it annoying.

The child usually came out looking for me when she woke up and I wasn’t there.

“Lady Lehre. Just leave Lirin be. She probably woke up and went out looking for me.”

But the strange thing was that she always cried at those times, yet now there was no sound at all.

Even when I went outside and listened carefully, there wasn’t even the sound of footsteps.

I searched for the child, calling out with Lady Lehre.

‘Where on earth did this child go…’

We looked all over the villa but couldn’t find her. Just in case, I went back to the beach, but not a single strand of hair was visible.

“Is something wrong? I heard you calling for Blanche outside?”

Viscount Carsen, who had been upstairs, came down and asked.

“Blanche… is missing. I put her to sleep with Lirin and made soup in the kitchen with Siona, but she disappeared in that time.”

I barely managed to answer, suppressing the rapidly rising feeling of anxiety.

“Did you look everywhere? She didn’t come upstairs at least. I was walking the corridor for a while putting Diel to sleep, but I didn’t see her.”

At Viscount Carsen’s suggestion that the child might be hiding somewhere because of her small size, we started searching again.

As time passed, my heart ached more and more because the child had a fever and was sick.

“Count, there’s a different smell on the rabbit doll.”

Lirin, who had opened her eyes at some point, came to me holding the rabbit doll.

“A different smell…? Where was this, Lirin?”

This rabbit doll was the one the child had been holding while sleeping.

“It was on the floor…”

It was on the floor?

‘There’s no way she wouldn’t have taken it when she left.’

I took the rabbit doll from Lirin and smelled it. The doll had the child’s scent and a fragrance that seemed familiar from somewhere.

‘She never lets go of it, why did she leave it behind?’

A chilling sensation swirled in my head.

It was a feeling that was hard to express, one that came in an instant.

It was certain that someone other than the child had touched the rabbit doll.

It was strange.

There were no servants in this villa. Viscount Carsen had gone upstairs to put Diel to sleep, and above all, it wasn’t her scent.

‘Lady Lehre was with me in the kitchen the whole time…’

Who could it be?

The person who touched this rabbit doll.

And where on earth did the child go?

“Do you know whose scent this is?”

I held out the rabbit doll for Lady Lehre and Viscount Carsen to smell.

“Well? It smells like it’s made from freesia.”

Viscount Carsen shook his head saying he didn’t know, and Lady Lehre furrowed her brow.

“This is the perfume Sharlin often uses, isn’t it?”

“Sharlin? Why would she come here? How did she know we came today?”

Viscount Carsen had an out-of-the-blue reaction when Sharlin’s name came up. He said she hasn’t been in contact lately and hasn’t been coming to gatherings, so there’s no way she would have come to the villa.

“Actually, I, I contacted her. I told her we were going to the villa and to come if she had time…”

“…Is that true, Siona?”

“The person who said she would come in the evening and surprise us was also Sharlin…”

Lady Lehre, who had said she contacted Sharlin about going to the villa, sobbed.

“Then, are you saying Sharlin took Blanche now? Why would she?”

Viscount Carsen expressed his doubt, unable to understand at all.

While circumstances were suspicious, the only evidence was the freesia scent on the rabbit doll.

This alone was ambiguous to definitively conclude that Sharlin had taken Blanche.

“Did something happen with Sharlin?”

At Viscount Carsen’s question, I recalled recent events. Sharlin had come with a full-term pregnancy and asked Jade to adopt her child.

When that was refused, she harbored resentment.

‘I really hate you.’

The look in Sharlin’s eyes as she left those words came to mind, making me shudder once again.

“There was friction with Sharlin. Marquis Rowe treated Blanche well. She seemed to resent that.”

Only then did Viscount Carsen nod with a face of understanding.

“Come to think of it, didn’t Blanche act as a flower girl at the wedding? You were Marquis Rowe’s partner at Princess Cassandra’s birthday banquet.”

“…Yes.”

“Sharlin was obsessively attached to Marquis Rowe, her fiancé. I don’t know why they broke off the engagement, but she might want to take out that anger on you and your daughter.”

Lady Lehre, who had been quiet, bit her lip.

“Even so, would Sharlin go as far as to kidnap Blanche…”

“The rabbit doll smells of Sharlin’s perfume. She also knew we were coming. There’s room for suspicion.”

“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have contacted her…”

Lady Lehre believed in Sharlin but was confused because of the smell coming from the rabbit doll.

My head felt like it would explode from the complexity while listening to their conversation.

If it really was Sharlin who took the child.

If there was any intention to harm, the child was in danger.

Moreover, the child was sick.

There was no time to be like this now.

‘Jade is Blanche’s father, so of course I should tell him.’

I had to tell Jade and ask for help to find the child.

“I’ll go first.”

I hurriedly left Luxembourg and headed to the Rowe mansion.

When I arrived at the Rowe mansion, the night had turned pitch black.

“Jade! Where are you, Jade.”

Worried about the child, I urgently searched for Jade. The butler followed me, informing that he was in the bedroom.

I went up to the bedroom and opened the door.

“…Larien?”

Jade, who had been lying in bed, got up and approached me when he saw me.

“What’s wrong, what happened?”

Tears that I had been holding back burst out at his comforting touch as he worried about me.

“Larien. Why are you crying? You have to tell me. Hmm?”

“Blanche, Blanche…”

“Did something happen to Blanche?”

Jade had said that.

Since Sharlin was a sorority classmate, it would be better not to go to the villa.

I took that advice lightly and went to the villa, and this happened.

The guilt of not properly protecting the child.

The anxious heart worried about the sick child.

All sorts of emotions mixed together at the thought that I had lost the child because of me, and I couldn’t speak properly.

“It’s okay. Larien. Breathe, and tell me slowly. What about Blanche?”

Jade hugged me, stroking the back of my head with one hand and patting my shoulder with the other.

I barely exhaled the breath I had slowly inhaled as he said.

“Blanche, she’s gone. She disappeared while I was away for a moment at the villa, and no matter how much we searched the villa, she’s nowhere to be seen…”

“…What?”

“She had a high fever, what if something happens…?”

Tears kept mixing in as I spoke.

“So, are you saying Blanche left the villa alone?”

“She’s so timid, there’s no way. If that were the case, I would have kept searching at Luxembourg instead of coming here…”

“Then, you’re saying someone took the child.”

I told Jade, who quickly made a guess.

That the rabbit doll the child had been holding smelled of Sharlin’s perfume.

“Sharlin Winst is now at the Hamel Count’s mansion, her parents’ home. That’s the only place she can hide. I’ll go check the Winst Count’s mansion and the Hamel Count’s mansion first.”

“I, I want to go too.”

I grabbed Jade’s arm as he was grabbing his jacket.

“You stay here. Even if she’s there, if we visit officially, they’ll obviously say she’s not there. In that case, it’s better for me to go secretly and look around.”

Jade was right.

He was right… but was it okay to just wait here quietly?

“Don’t worry. Larien. I’ll definitely bring her back safely.”

“…Okay. Please.”

Perhaps reading my anxiety, Jade kept reassuring me.

‘Where is this…?’

Blanche looked around slowly as she opened her eyes.

It was an unfamiliar attic. A stuffy, closed space full of old dust, with unpacked luggage piled up, where it was suffocating to breathe.

She had definitely fallen asleep next to Lirin before closing her eyes…

‘Where is this? Where is Mom?’

Even when she shook the handle to leave the attic, it wouldn’t open.

Mom, where are you?

Why is Shu Shu here?

Her voice wouldn’t come out, so what if Mom couldn’t find her?

Her vision was blurry and she felt dizzy, and a sense of sadness welled up.

At that moment, a woman who entered by opening the door put down a hard piece of bread and cold milk. It was a face she had seen somewhere before.

It was the woman who had been talking with the Marquis and yelled at Mom.

“Are you awake?”

“…”

Blanche stepped back and leaned against the wall.

‘Shu Shu, I miss Mom. I want to go to Mom.’

She barely opened her lips to convey this to the other person.

Then, a sneer was planted.

“Your mom abandoned you. She’s not coming.”