It was inside the underground interrogation room. Water poured over the restrained prisoner, sitting tied to a chair.

“Ugh!”

Douglas, with a scream, opened his eyes. It was Cha, who had lost consciousness after enduring intense interrogation.

“Are you awake?”

“Your, Your Grace…!”

Douglas, noticing the person in front of him, momentarily flinched. The gaze of the Duke looking down at him felt colder than the ice water pouring over his body.

“Seems like you wanted to see me again since the last trial. Planning such a sinister scheme.”

“You brought this upon yourself! I lost everything because of you!”

Ever since he was discovered and captured after being exposed in the secret chamber, Douglas was in a state of complete self-destruction. With the last act of rebellion, he screamed in desperation.

“If only you had targeted me.”

“I’ve lost the Duchess, whom you cherish so much, so I can feel the same way you lost everything!”

Douglas laughed bitterly. Kairon resisted the urge to immediately strangle Douglas, who seemed to have already given up.

This man was just a chess piece. Kairon needed to find out who was behind him. Kairon, with a sharp gaze, questioned Douglas as if piercing through his inner thoughts.

“Who is it? Who manipulated you into this?”

“This, this was my plan! I didn’t receive orders from anyone!”

Douglas stammered, seeming bewildered by Kairon’s interrogation. Looking at him, Kairon sneered with a cold gaze.

“Do you want to die, burdened with all the guilt alone?”

“…!”

“Aiming for me, the Duke, and plotting to kidnap the Duchess to sell her off, that’s a grave crime. It’s immediate execution.”

Douglas’s face turned pale as Kairon declared his immediate execution. He had expected death, but the instinctive fear overwhelmed him now that the death sentence had been pronounced.

“Moreover, you won’t be the only one receiving the death sentence. Your entire family will share the guilt.”

“W-What?”

“Even during the last trial, although titles and assets disappeared, lives were spared. But this time, not only the titles and assets but lives will be lost.”

“T-That can’t be!”

The terror that had already settled in intensified, and Douglas’s face contorted with agony.

At that moment, Kairon’s low voice pierced through his despair.

“However… If there is someone who gave you all these orders, there might be room for mercy.”

“R-Really?”

Douglas, who felt a glimmer of hope in Kairon’s words, quickly changed his demeanor. Looking up at Kairon with pleading eyes, he spoke.

“Yes. If you reveal everything about who orchestrated all this. If there is someone who deserves mercy.”

“That, that’s impossible!”

Katrina threw away the newspaper she had been holding. Her newly strengthened voice echoed in the reception room. Rosaline, beside her, looked at the newspaper headline thrown on the table with an anxious expression.

⌜Viscount Chale, revealed to be involved in slave trafficking with former Marquis Douglas! Arrested and detained immediately!⌟

“Chale and Douglas both arrested! Could it be that the Duke has learned everything?”

Rosaline asked with a frightened face, looking at the headline on the thrown newspaper. She trembled all over, feeling as if the Duke would appear at any moment.

“…That’s not likely.”
Katrina, as if calming her angered self, brushed aside her disheveled hair and spoke in a composed voice.

“If that were the case, neither you nor I would be here right now.”

It was a stroke of luck that they had thoroughly established a proxy for the plan with Douglas. Since the proxy had been dealt with, even if the Duke interrogated Douglas extensively, he wouldn’t be able to trace back to her involvement.

“Whew… What a relief.”

“A relief? Even though the plan failed?”

Looking at a relieved Rosaline, Katrina questioned with an irritated voice. The fact that Douglas had been captured meant their plan had failed.

Although the disappearance of the Duchess had not been officially acknowledged, the arrest of both Douglas and Viscount Chale indicated otherwise.

“There’s a high chance the Duchess is safe.”

“How on earth! It was a perfect abduction. How did you find the Duchess, whom we couldn’t locate all this time?”

Rosaline exclaimed with an unbelieving expression in response to Katrina’s words.

Observing the recent developments, Katrina and Rosaline had been more than willing. The continued lockdown and checkpoints were evidence that the Duke hadn’t found the Duchess.

They believed all that was left was to patiently wait for news. Douglas was supposed to go to Viscount Chale’s territory, hand over the Duchess, and complete the entire plan.

However, today’s news reported the arrest of Viscount Chale and Douglas as if everything had been resolved. Moreover, the lockdowns in the capital and checkpoints in major cities were lifted, making it seem like everything had been resolved.

“I’ll send someone to investigate in detail.”