“Y-Your Highness!”

Gregory, who had gone to make a call with the attendants to check on the Grand Duchess’s return time, came running breathlessly to the Grand Duke. Though Gregory was usually fond of making a fuss, unlike his usual self, his expression and voice were urgent as if he was about to faint.

“What on earth is the matter?”

At Gregory’s appearance, Caeron’s face instantly hardened coldly. His sharp intuition, which had been on edge all along, told him that something was amiss.

“T-That… Her Highness…”

“Speak quickly.”

It was indeed news about Aidel. Caeron snapped at Gregory, who was stumbling over his words in confusion, as if telling him to get a grip.

“S-She has disappeared…!”

“…What?”

“She went to the industrial area in the eastern part of the capital and disappeared…!”

Caeron’s mind went blank for a moment upon hearing the news. With a face of utter disbelief, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Disap…peared?”

“Yes…! They say she disappeared alone, leaving behind Prince Rainien and her maid who had accompanied her.”

As soon as Gregory finished speaking, Caeron immediately burst out of his office. It was completely different from the Grand Duke’s usual unhurried gait, which never showed even a hint of haste.

Calling out ‘Your Highness!’, Gregory also hurriedly followed behind the Grand Duke.

“Go to the eastern part of the capital immediately. As fast as possible!”

The Grand Duke’s urgent shout echoed through the entrance hall.

The coachman, who had been resting with the carriage parked in front of the entrance, startled at the Grand Duke’s sudden order and jumped onto the carriage. Gregory also boarded the carriage following the Grand Duke.

“Your Highness…!”

“Report everything that has been determined about the situation so far.”

Inside the moving carriage, Caeron tried to remain as calm as possible. Yet when his hands began to tremble slightly, he clasped them tightly together. His thick knuckles stood out white, just like his pale face.

Gregory also took a deep breath, trying to calm his startled heart. Having regained some of his composure, Gregory began to explain the information relayed from the attendants to Caeron.

“…So when they returned after wiping up the spilled dye, Her Highness and the child named Ena had already disappeared. Her Highness had left a message with the waiter saying she would briefly meet with the dye factory manager along with the child and return.”

“What about the situation after that?”

“When Her Highness didn’t return for nearly thirty minutes, Prince Rainien and the maid Bien, worried, went to the dye factory. However, it was confirmed that neither Her Highness nor the child named Ena had ever come to the factory.”

“How was the Grand Duchess’s disappearance confirmed?”

“Judging that the meeting place with the factory manager might not be the factory itself, while checking the surrounding area, Her Highness’s cloche hat was found in an alley.”

At the mention of her disappearing without her cloche, Caeron was reminded of their first meeting. The image of her running away startled to avoid him.

In that moment, Caeron exhaled roughly and gritted his teeth.

‘Who on earth dared…!’

The Grand Duchess was usually so graceful that even her walk never wavered. It was easy to imagine that there must have been an urgent situation for her to drop her cloche.

Caeron’s entire body trembled with worry for Aidel and anger towards the unknown person who had threatened her.

“Has the dye factory manager been identified?”

“The attendants are currently searching for him, I’m told.”

“What about the child named Ena?”

“They are also searching for traces of the child, just like Her Highness.”

“Hah…!”

While the Grand Duchess’s disappearance was confirmed, nothing else had been determined yet except for the cloche she had dropped.

“What’s the estimated time of the Grand Duchess’s disappearance?”

“She met with the child at 5 o’clock, and considering the travel time after that, it’s estimated to be between 5:30 and 6 o’clock.”

Caeron pulled out his pocket watch and looked at it. It was already past 7 o’clock by the time they were en route. The longer the search for a missing person took, the more dangerous it became. If they missed the golden time within 12 hours…

Gripping the pocket watch tightly, he glared out the window where darkness had already fallen.

“If we can’t find the Grand Duchess before sunrise today, you go straight to the Imperial Palace.”

“To the Imperial Palace…?”

“Inform Pascal about the Grand Duchess’s disappearance and tell him to issue an immediate lockdown order for the capital.”

“…Understood.”

Gregory’s eyes wavered in surprise at the mention of a capital lockdown, but he soon nodded and accepted the Grand Duke’s order.

A capital lockdown was only enacted during national emergencies such as war, civil unrest, disasters, or epidemics. Because it halted all human and material movement in and out of the capital, it was not a decision that even the Emperor could make lightly.

However, Caeron’s resolve in issuing the order was firm. To the Grand Duke, it was as if the Grand Duchess’s disappearance was an event of that magnitude.

‘Your Highness… Please be safe.’

The Grand Duchess’s existence was precious to Gregory as well. He truly cared for her wellbeing. But for him, the more important existence was the Grand Duke.

‘Your Highness…’

Even during the civil war in the Kingdom of Rathland a few years ago when they had participated, he had never seen such an expression on the Grand Duke. The man who had always been relaxed and confident, as if foreseeing victory even in the midst of war, now looked precarious, as if he might collapse at any moment due to the Grand Duchess’s disappearance.

‘Your Highness said it was merely a contractual relationship, but…’

As Gregory had anticipated and hoped for, and on the other hand worried about, the Grand Duchess’s existence had grown large enough to shake the Grand Duke.

Feeling keenly the Grand Duchess’s presence that had already taken deep root in the Grand Duke, Gregory prayed to God for the first time in a very long while.

That the Grand Duchess would safely return to the Grand Duke’s side.

“It’s all my fault. I should have stayed by Her Highness’s side no matter what…”

As soon as the Grand Duke arrived at the scene of the Grand Duchess’s disappearance, Bien immediately knelt before him. Her face was swollen from crying so much, and even after shedding so many tears, she continued to weep.

“…I have no excuse.”

Rainien, with his disheveled appearance, also bowed his head with a grief-stricken expression next to Bien. His usual neat appearance was gone, probably from running around frantically. With his pale blue eyes clouded over and the area under his eyes reddened, he seemed to be barely enduring the situation.

“I will gladly accept punishment for failing to properly ensure Her Highness’s safety. Please punish me.”

The attendants of the Grand Duke’s household also knelt down in unison. Although they had not accompanied her at Aidel’s insistence, their faces were darkened with regret that they should have secretly followed her anyway.

“…Everyone, stand up.”

Caeron’s low and chilling voice resonated. Following the Grand Duke’s command, Bien and the attendants who had been kneeling rose unsteadily to their feet.

“Instead of wasting time like this, find even one more trace of the Grand Duchess.”

At his cold order, not only the personnel already searching but also those who had come to beg forgiveness from the Grand Duke became busy trying to find any clues related to the Grand Duchess’s disappearance.

“This is the cloche that Her Highness left behind.”

Bien handed Aidel’s cloche to the Grand Duke with trembling hands. It was a cloche with Aidel’s name engraved on the inside.

Caeron took Aidel’s cloche and brought it close to his face. As her faint scent permeated his nostrils, his hand holding the cloche involuntarily tightened.

As he smelled the familiar scent, the emotions he had been barely containing welled up from deep within his gut. He tightly closed his eyes. The veins in his hand holding the cloche, and even down to his neck where his lips were firmly pressed together, bulged.

Just as the taut string inside him seemed about to snap, an attendant approached and hurriedly reported news.

“Your Highness! We’ve found the factory manager and the child named Ena.”

“Bring them here immediately.”

At this news, Caeron’s eyes flashed open as he spoke through gritted teeth. His gaze, blazing like that of a wild beast, turned towards the man and child being dragged in by the attendants.

“L-Let go of me! Why are you doing this?”

A thin man with a nervous disposition struggled against the attendants holding his arms, demanding answers as he thrashed about.

“I-I didn’t do anything wrong! *Sob* *Sob* Please let me go!”

The young girl who had supposedly followed the Grand Duchess was also busy pleading to be released while crying.

Their clamor ceased when they felt the Grand Duke’s gaze upon them.

“C-Could you be… the G-Grand Duke, Your Highness?”

The factory manager’s mouth gaped open in surprise. The Grand Duke’s imposing presence in person was overwhelming, making his legs tremble involuntarily.

“Are you the manager of the dye factory?”

“Y-Yes, I am.”

“Where did the woman you met here with this child go?”

“A woman I met here?”

“Yes. The woman wearing this hat.”

The factory manager looked at the cloche in the Grand Duke’s hand with startled eyes. He shook his head urgently.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding there might be… but I-I never met anyone! I wasn’t near the factory since the afternoon.”

As the man cried out his innocence, Caeron’s gaze turned to the attendant who had brought him. Understanding his intent, the attendant bowed his head and spoke.

“We found this man at a tavern and were bringing him here. Before bringing him, we confirmed his whereabouts, and as he says, he had been inside the tavern since around 4 PM. The tavern owner and employees testified to this.”

“Is that so…”

If this factory manager had not met the Grand Duchess… there was only one witness left.

“Speak. Tell me where she went, the woman who came here with you.”

As Caeron’s razor-sharp gaze fell upon her, Ena’s small body trembled as if having a seizure. Overcome with extreme fear, Ena couldn’t even shed tears and just collapsed on the spot.

“I-I…”

Ena’s lips and chin quivered so much that words simply wouldn’t come out. She was supposed to say she didn’t know, as instructed by the middle-aged man with a mustache, but under Caeron’s pressuring gaze, it felt as if every muscle in her body was freezing up.

Caeron’s gaze was icy cold as he stared at Ena, who had slumped to the floor and was trembling while curled up as small as possible. He slowly bent down to meet the terrified child’s eyes.

“It would be better for you to tell everything you know without the slightest lie.”

It was a stern voice devoid of any trace of compassion.

“Unlike the Grand Duchess, I show no mercy just because someone is young.”

His piercing gaze, as if seeing through everything, fixed on Ena. Under that sharp stare, Ena’s complexion, which had turned ashen, now became deathly pale.