Early in the morning, Herdin woke up from his sleep.

Despite going to bed and waking up at his usual times, he oddly didn’t feel refreshed.

Perhaps he had a nightmare he couldn’t remember.

Shaking off the unpleasant feeling, Herdin got out of bed and started his day like any other.

He smoked a cigar, went to the bathroom to shower, changed his clothes, and left the room. As he headed towards the stairs to go down to the dining room, he saw Blair’s closed door.

He hadn’t seen her for the past few days since he stopped visiting her room. She hadn’t even come out for meals.

Her apparent rebellion was laughable, but he decided to leave her be for now. It would be troublesome if that weak woman collapsed in front of the fireplace again or fell ill from further provocation.

As he passed Blair’s room and descended to the first floor, he saw Mason talking seriously with a maid.

It was a typical morning scene, but Mason’s expression was unusually grave. It was rare to see him with such a look.

Herdin had a bad feeling about this.

He approached the two and asked, “Mason, what’s the matter?”

“My lord.”

The maid who saw Herdin quickly bowed her head, then glanced nervously between Mason and Herdin.

Mason hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“It seems the madam left urgently for the imperial palace in the early hours of the morning.”

Most noble houses had servants on duty in shifts, ready to respond to their masters’ calls even in the middle of the night. The maid beside them must have been on duty last night.

Hearing this news, Herdin raised an eyebrow.

“At that hour? What could be so urgent?”

Mason hadn’t heard the details either, so he gestured to the maid, who nervously began to speak.

“I tried to persuade her to wait until daybreak, given the early hour, but she insisted she had to go right away.”

“Was there no letter from the palace yesterday?”

Mason answered, “No, there wasn’t.”

“Did she say when she’d return?”

The maid replied, “When I asked about breakfast arrangements, she said she’d be back before then…”

Breakfast time was about now. But judging by the fact that they were discussing this in front of him, Blair had not yet returned.

Herdin furrowed his brow.

He had previously assigned the knights to guard Blair, so the gatekeeper would have reported her departure, and the knights would have secretly followed her.

“The knights probably followed her, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Everyone, back to your duties.”

The maid bowed again and walked away.

Herdin turned, with Mason following, and headed towards the dining room. Questions raced through his mind.

Why did she rush to the palace in the middle of the night? What could be the reason?

As Herdin was pondering this, suddenly the front door burst open violently.

Startled, Mason and Herdin turned to see a man with blood on his head dragging in an unconscious knight with a stab wound to his abdomen.

The man was one of the coachmen working for the Delmarks, and the knight was Bain, who had been assigned to guard Blair.

Herdin’s eyes began to waver at the sight.

As the servants preparing breakfast all turned to look in shock, the coachman, gasping for breath, said:

“My lord, the madam… she’s been kidnapped by assailants.”

* * *

“Ugh…”

Blair opened her eyes with difficulty, feeling a throbbing pain throughout her head. Her head hurt, her vision was blurry, and she felt nauseous. Her hands were also tied.

As she tried to remember why she was in this state, she came to a rough conclusion.

She had been kidnapped again, and her body was affected after hitting her head hard against the carriage. Fortunately, it seemed she hadn’t died instantly, so it probably wasn’t too serious.

As Blair blinked and her hazy vision cleared, she saw the scene before her.

A forest.

A forest view similar to the one she had seen at the villa with Mikhail stretched out beyond the large window.

Just as Blair, who had quickly assessed the situation thanks to her previous experience, tried to get up, she heard an unfamiliar man’s voice.

“She’s been groaning for a while now. Did she hit her head badly?”

Blair quickly closed her eyes upon hearing the approaching man’s voice.

As an unfamiliar shadow loomed over her, a woman’s curt voice was heard.

“It’s because you recklessly charged at the carriage on horseback, you madman.”

“What should we do? Will she die?”

“She won’t die from that much. That woman’s just a pampered princess, so she’s probably exaggerating.”

The man’s shadow moved away again.

From their brief exchange, Blair gathered two things:

They knew who she was, and they had no intention of killing her.

‘Are they after ransom?’

She had heard of bandits occasionally attacking carriages for noble ransoms.

But they were ‘mountain’ bandits.

They usually targeted travelers on secluded mountain paths, not risking coming into the heart of the capital.

“Why aren’t those guys here yet? We need to erase her memory before the duke arrives.”

The woman grumbled. The man defended the people they were waiting for.

“Well, who would have known? That the princess would move so quickly, and at such an early hour.”

“…”

“Don’t be so anxious. Places like this villa are used by nobles for secret meetings, so it won’t be easy for anyone to barge in suddenly. We can always run if we have to.”

Blair listened to their conversation, gathering as much information as possible.

Even if there was nothing she could do right now, understanding the current situation would be a big help.

After a moment of silence, someone stood up.

“Where are you going?”

It seemed to be the man who had risen.

“I’m hungry, so I’m going to look for something to eat. It’s a noble’s villa after all, there should be some snacks, right?”

“How can you think about food in this situation?”

“What’s wrong with the situation? It’s not like I’m the one who’s been kidnapped.”

The man chuckled and left the room.

Along with the woman’s exasperated curse, there was a clicking sound. The cigar smoke that followed revealed that it had been the sound of a lighter.

Blair bit her lower lip, trying to suppress the cough that reflexively rose due to the cigar smoke. But it soon reached its limit.

Just as Blair was swallowing a painful breath.

Crash―!

A loud noise came from downstairs. Hearing it, the woman cursed and got up.

“Ah, what kind of trouble is that idiot causing now?”

The woman left the room. The sound of footsteps in the corridor gradually faded away.

“Cough…”

Blair finally let out the cough she had been holding back. The more she coughed, the worse her headache became.

After taking several long breaths, Blair finally caught her breath and sat up.

Her head, which had received a strong impact, was throbbing, and she felt so nauseous that she could barely move.

But at the same time, another commotion from downstairs helped her gather her thoughts.

‘There’s no time.’

As Blair looked around the room, she spotted a chair and approached it. Fortunately, her legs weren’t tied.

Blair carefully tipped over the chair and wedged the thin chair leg between the ropes binding her hands.

After a few movements, the knot loosened. Blair untied the loosened rope with her hands.

The next problem was escape.

Blair looked at the dense forest beyond the large window and balcony.

‘Let’s escape into the forest.’

At least there would be more places to hide than here.

Perhaps because she knew they wouldn’t kill her, instead of worrying about failure, she first thought of various methods to try.

‘This is the second floor, so I just need some kind of device.’

As Blair was looking for a way to sneak down to the first floor, she noticed the curtain half-covering the large window of the balcony.

Seeing it suddenly reminded her of the day she first visited Guild Rebellus.

Blair placed a chair under the curtain, climbed up, and separated the curtain from its rod. She then tied the curtain to make a long rope and fastened it to the balcony railing in the same way.

Finally, she tugged on both sides of the knot, feeling it securely tied.

After a final check, Blair threw the curtain rope over the railing.

“It’s done…”

Now it was time to climb down the rope to the first floor.

Just as Blair was about to hang onto the railing, she heard:

“You came here to play, not to work, didn’t you?”

“Why are you being so prickly after we ate well together? Honestly, you were hungry too.”

The voices of the woman and man bickering as they came up the stairs could be heard. Blair’s heart sank at the sound.

As she anxiously approached the railing again, Blair hesitated.

If she went down now, she might slip and get hurt, or be caught by them before her feet even touched the ground.

Even if she was lucky enough to reach the first floor, it was clear she had no chance of outrunning them.

‘In that case, rather…’

Blair quickly changed her plan.