“Can you assert your innocence?”

Under Heradin’s chilling gaze, seemingly confident in his guilt, Wesley swallowed hard. However, he hadn’t left any evidence behind that he was the mastermind of this incident. The man to whom he had entrusted the crime had also disappeared.

In this situation with no evidence, confessing to the crime would be foolish.

“I’m being treated unfairly! I only wanted to help, considering I caused trouble for Your Highness and the Lady.”

As Wesley pleaded, he met Heradin’s gaze and faltered. It was a penetrating stare that seemed to see through everything.

The instinct of a beast bending to the strong was telling him to avoid that gaze, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the right choice.
Wesley endured the gaze as if he were truly innocent.

Having observed him for a moment, Heradin, accompanied by a cold sigh, dismissed Wesley as if pushing him aside.

Boldwin’s knights quickly supported the staggering Wesley.

Heradin approached the Boldwin knights who still had their swords drawn, and he uttered, “Step back.”

With a single glance and word from him, the knights, who were momentarily overwhelmed, hesitated and withdrew.

As Heradin, who had come out of the mansion, raised his head to look at the sky, the sunset was gradually spreading through the dense trees.

It was still early spring, so the day was not exceptionally long. When the sun sets, the temperature in the mountains will drop sharply. It was almost like winter.

Suddenly, thoughts of his wife came to mind.

A frail woman who coughed due to weak lungs, living in fear of fire, clinging to life in the cold valley.

“Knights.”

Delmarche’s knights gathered at his command. Heradin spoke again, issuing orders.

“Search. As quickly as possible.”

The omitted object of the sentence was evident without asking.

????????????

Night fell swiftly in the forest.

Blair, shivering in the penetrating cold through the gaps in her clothes, wandered around, unsure of her whereabouts.

‘Where am I?’

Having been brought to the man while unconscious, she had no memory of the path she had taken.
Driven by a single determination to escape from the man, Blair had walked aimlessly in the opposite direction, but the entrance to the forest was nowhere in sight. She felt like she had been circling around similar places for some time.

Meanwhile, the gradually descending darkness of the forest pressed down on her menacingly.

To escape from the darkness, Blair briskly moved her feet. It was painful, as if her breath was being cut off, and her legs felt like they would cramp, but stopping seemed like she would be consumed by the darkness of the forest.

“Haah… Haah…”

The gasping breath produced visible white vapor. Her body began to shiver.

“It’s cold…”

In Blair’s eyes, gradually freezing, something appeared.

“A cabin?”

Similar to the abandoned mansion where the man had kidnapped her, it was a forester’s cabin scattered throughout the forest.

However, this cabin also seemed untouched by human hands for a long time, with moss covering the roof and walls.

Then, in the distance, the howl of a wild beast could be heard.

After hesitating for a moment, Blair entered the cabin.

As expected, there were no traces of human presence inside the cabin. Rusty pots, broken chairs, and the like were scattered randomly.

Blair decided that staying inside the cabin was better than wandering in the forest.

It was too cold outside, and due to the shoes that couldn’t be taken off, her heels were all blistered, making it difficult to walk any further.

“If I wait, someone will come looking for me by now.”

Surely, someone must be searching for her by now.
Blair searched the cabin for a blanket large enough to wrap around her body. Due to not wearing an outer layer when she was kidnapped, she was currently dressed in only a thin underskirt and a spring dress.

The only meaningful find was a worn-out blanket with holes so large that light could shine through. Disappointed, Blair covered herself with it and went to sit in a secluded corner of the cabin, away from the window. In that moment, something was pressed under her legs.

“What’s this…”

Under her legs was a lighter. Seeing the faint crackling sound, it seemed there was still some oil left.

Inside the cabin, there was also a fireplace, broken wooden furniture that could be used as firewood, and crucially, Blair had a lighter in her hands.

But…

“Fire…”

Ironically, the most important thing, fire, couldn’t be ignited. Just thinking about it made her breath catch, and everything before her eyes became distant.

Blair clenched the lighter with her trembling, cold hands.

As if wrapping the unusable item in her hands would somehow make it warm.

In the gradually fading consciousness, the memory of a night from some time ago came to her.

A warm winter night when she fell asleep feeling the heat from the fireplace after a long time, the face of the man who silently stayed by her side.

“If you light the fireplace alone, you won’t be able to sleep.”

Unconsciously recalling that voice, Blair sighed.

The first person that came to her mind in this situation happened to be Gran. Finding herself in such a state, she found the irony amusing and chuckled.