The Duke's Flower is Precarious - Chapter 59

Gregory stood in front of the Grand Duke’s office desk, lowering his eyes with a heavy face. He couldn’t bear the Grand Duke’s gaze, which grew sharper with each passing day like a honed blade.

“…I apologize. There’s still no news regarding Her Highness.”

Aristocratic kidnappings were typically carried out for ransom. While waiting for contact from the criminals seeking negotiation, an unofficial search for the Grand Duchess was also underway. However, they had yet to find even a single clue.

“What about Douglas’s whereabouts?”

“His movements have been unclear since his assets were confiscated. We’ve issued search orders in the eastern region where he mainly operated, as well as surrounding cities, but there’s still no news from there either.”

Meanwhile, the search for Douglas, who was suspected as a person of interest, had been conducted but with no particular results.

Moreover, there was a lack of clear circumstantial evidence that Douglas had kidnapped the Grand Duchess. Relying solely on the testimony based on the memory of young Ena was insufficient to identify the culprit.

“Rather… how about officially announcing Her Highness’s disappearance and receiving reports and information throughout the empire?”

Gregory cautiously offered his opinion. Currently, they had imposed a lockdown on the capital and search orders in surrounding cities, citing other reasons to the public.

Caeron pressed between his brows with a face full of deep contemplation. Officially announcing the Grand Duchess’s disappearance was also something he had been considering as a last resort.

“…Is that the only way left?”

The reason they hadn’t officially announced the Grand Duchess’s disappearance until now was solely for Aidel’s honor and safety.

Especially since they didn’t even know the exact motive for the kidnapping yet. Intensifying the pursuit in this state could potentially endanger the Grand Duchess’s safety by provoking the culprit.

However, as time passed without clear progress, he grew more anxious. The Grand Duchess’s well-being would become increasingly difficult to guarantee in proportion to the passing time.

After a long silence, Caeron’s lips finally parted slowly as he made a decision. Just as he was about to order Gregory to use the final card.

The phone rang in the Grand Duke’s room, cutting through the silence. Responding to the sound, Gregory quickly ran to answer the phone.

“Is that true?!”

Gregory’s face, which had been dark, suddenly brightened at the news transmitted through the receiver. With a voice still trembling with excitement, Gregory relayed the news that had just arrived to Caeron.

“Your Highness, we’ve received word from Maris! They say an eyewitness who saw the Grand Duchess has appeared!”

Maris, the port city within the Grand Duchy! It was an unexpected location.

“From this moment, completely seal off Maris.”

Caeron, who had already risen from his seat when the phone rang, immediately issued the order upon hearing the news. At the same time, he quickly left the office.

Following behind Caeron, Gregory shouted to the servant guarding the front of the office.

“Tell them to prepare a train right away! So that His Highness can depart for Maris as soon as he arrives at the station!”

The train carrying the Grand Duke began to run at its fastest speed. Towards Maris, where news of the Grand Duchess had been reported.

After Dylan took Joy away, Aidel couldn’t sleep a wink, worrying about Joy.

How much time had passed like that? The tightly closed warehouse door opened, and Dylan walked in.

“What did you do with that child? Please tell me!”

Aidel asked about Joy’s well-being as soon as she saw Dylan’s face. However, despite Aidel’s earnest voice, Dylan approached her with an expressionless face, saying nothing.

“Please! At least tell me if Joy is safe.”

“…Instead of asking about such things, you should worry about your own well-being.”

“Joy is safe, right?”

“Sigh, you really don’t listen, do you?”

Dylan sighed and took out an anesthetic and a handkerchief from his pocket. Aidel anticipated Dylan’s next action and pulled her body back. Even so, when Dylan grabbed her shoulder and tried to put the handkerchief to her mouth, she shook her head left and right, refusing.

“You’re resisting now, when you haven’t before.”

“Please! Just tell me if Joy is safe. Then I’ll comply obediently.”

“…That child has gone where she needs to go. Now it’s your turn.”

“Where she needs to go? Where exactly… mmph!”

In the end, Aidel couldn’t escape Dylan’s touch. Feeling the rush of the anesthetic, Aidel’s body slowly faded. Between her gradually dimming consciousness, she heard Dylan’s voice whispering softly.

“That child is safe… so rest assured and sleep.”

She’s safe…

Aidel’s face, which had been full of anxiety and worry, finally relaxed with a look of relief.

‘If Joy is safe… then it’s alright.’

Though still young, she was a smart child who understood her words well. If Dylan had safely released Joy… Joy would have delivered her message as she had instructed.

Even if she couldn’t save all the girls who were captured with her… if her words were conveyed to the security forces in Maris through Joy…

‘Surely he will come.’

Aidel barely moved her increasingly stiffening body and clasped her bound hands together. Her right thumb and index finger habitually caressed her left ring finger as if embracing it. It was something she did secretly whenever she thought of him.

Now the ring finger was empty, but as she recalled the remembered sensation, she softly murmured the name of her beloved.

“Caeron…”

I miss you so much.

All this time, she had been pressing down, enduring, and holding back…

The moment she knew Joy had safely escaped this place, the dam in her heart seemed to break, and her longing for him rushed in like a flood.

At the same time, the drowsy force of the anesthetic completely enveloped her body. Finally unable to resist the overwhelming sleep, Aidel’s eyelids slowly closed. Between her closed eyelids, clear droplets squeezed out and rolled down her cheeks.

It was a pitiful face wet with tears, but there was a faint smile on Aidel’s lips. Containing a firm belief that the one she was desperately waiting for would come soon.

The head of Maris’s security force saluted the Grand Duke with a tense face.

“I greet Your Highness, the Grand Duke.”

Soon after, the security chief respectfully handed a small pouch to Caeron. Caeron opened the pouch and took out the object inside. A small, shining object fell onto his palm.

It was a green diamond ring engraved with the Grand Ducal family’s crest.

“Forgive my presumption, but is this the Grand Duchess’s ring?”

“…Yes.”

Caeron answered in a subdued voice to the security chief’s question. It was the wedding ring that would have been on Aidel’s left ring finger. Caeron, who had been quietly looking at it, closed his palm and tightly gripped the ring.

“Bring them. The one who brought this ring.”

“Well… they collapsed from exhaustion after testifying and are currently asleep.”

A security officer brought the witness before the Grand Duke. Someone was sleeping in the security officer’s arms. It was a female child, still too young to be called a young lady.

“This child came to the security force with the Grand Duchess’s ring.”

The security chief recalled what had happened yesterday.

“She said she came to report that she had been kidnapped along with the Grand Duchess. The ring was the evidence, she said.”

It was an obviously expensive ring engraved with the Grand Ducal family’s crest. Presenting that ring, the child testified about what she knew.

As they listened to the child’s testimony, the security force was shocked, but they immediately contacted the Grand Ducal household. If the authenticity of the ring was confirmed, the child’s testimony would also be certain.

“This is the content of the child’s testimony.”

The security chief immediately handed the investigation report based on the testimony to the Grand Duke.

Caeron read through the contents of the investigation report in an instant. At the same time, his face contorted like a tightly clenched piece of paper.

The content that the child had testified to was a rescue request that Aidel had sent to him. Who the culprit was, what the purpose of the kidnapping was, where this place was, and where they were heading… It contained the information she must have struggled alone to figure out.

How difficult it must have been for Aidel to know her own situation… A numbing pain passed through as if piercing his heart.

‘Baron Douglas… and Marquis Chalet…’

At the same time, as he recalled the individuals who had put her in danger, an unbearable anger welled up, and Caeron clenched his molars tightly. All the muscles and tendons in his body contracted tightly, and his heart beat violently.

‘How dare they…!’

How dare they use and covet his woman!

‘I should never have left any loose ends in the first place…!’

He deeply regretted not having dealt with them properly in the past. As his body trembled, he was overwhelmed by the intense urge to tear their very existence to shreds.

With his eyes reddened by fury, Caeron barely suppressed his surging emotions and asked the security chief.

“…Has Maris port been sealed off?”

“Yes, it has been sealed off since yesterday as Your Highness ordered.”

“What’s the status of the search?”

“We are searching places where the culprit might be, focusing on the area around the port. We’re checking all places that look like warehouses in particular.”

“The fact that you haven’t found them even by the time I arrived in Maris… means there’s a high probability they’re already on a ship.”

Caeron sharply ordered the security chief.

“We’re going to Maris port right now. Search every ship docked there thoroughly.”

The Grand Duchess was still in Douglas’s hands. Considering this, Caeron added an order.

“However, conduct it under the pretext of inspecting ships suspected of smuggling. Don’t reveal that it’s a search for the Grand Duchess.”

Douglas might make an extreme choice threatening the Grand Duchess’s life if cornered. He exercised caution, calculating all possible risk factors and situations that could occur in advance.

“The first priority is the Grand Duchess’s safety. Once the Grand Duchess’s safety is confirmed, then we capture Douglas.”

“What shall we do about Marquis Chalet?”

Gregory, who had examined the investigation report next, asked in an indignant voice.

He could never forgive either Douglas, who carried out the Grand Duchess’s kidnapping out of grudge against the Grand Duke, or Marquis Chalet, who dared to say he would take the Grand Duchess as a slave.

“I will go to Marquis Chalet’s territory myself with Douglas.”

“Understood.”

Gregory immediately bowed his head as if comprehending upon hearing the Grand Duke’s words. Even without detailed explanation, he could fully understand his intention of going to Marquis Chalet’s territory after capturing the culprit.

‘His Highness the Grand Duke…’

It was clear that he intended to deal with those two with his own hands.

Gregory looked at the side profile of the Grand Duke heading towards Maris port. His hair fluttered in the sea breeze, fully revealing his straight forehead and eyes.

Though his face was as cool as usual, his deep blue eyes were burning with a fierce light.