Hoshi banged heavily on the door of Augustus’ house.

“Boss, boss, come out!”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Augustus appeared, scratching his belly. Even though it was afternoon, he looked drunk with sleep.

“Have you been lazily sleeping all this time?”

“Did this bastard take drugs? Suddenly barging in and nagging like a wife?”

As Augustus raised his large fist, Hoshi shrank his neck like a turtle.

“I have something important to tell you.”

Hoshi watched Augustus’ reaction warily but didn’t back down. Seeing Hoshi, who feared being hit more than anyone, act so assertively made Augustus sense something was off. He shouted towards the inside of the house.

“A guest came so I’m stepping out for a bit. Guard the house well.”

There was a sound of something breaking from inside. Hoshi’s eyes widened.

“Sh-shouldn’t you go check on that?”

“That’s the response. Ignore it. My head hurts a bit.”

Augustus tapped his head. Hoshi made a disgusted face and started walking towards the forest. Augustus followed him while yawning repeatedly.

Augustus was really tired. Hoshi thought he had quit the Rose Faction work and just slept all day, but for the past few days, Augustus had been busier than when he was active in the Rose Faction.

As Jexy had said, he had been staking out the Somnium House for several days to kidnap someone precious to Cain.

After concluding this morning that kidnapping was impossible, he had been catching up on missed sleep.

Even that wasn’t proper rest due to Jexy yelling at him to come up with a kidnapping method.

So Augustus was in a very bad mood. If Hoshi was just here to spout nonsense, he was prepared to give him a good beating.

“Where are we going?”

Augustus grabbed the back of Hoshi’s neck. Hoshi’s body tilted precariously.

“Aaaaah!”

When Augustus suddenly let go of the struggling Hoshi, he tumbled to the ground.

“Really, boss!”

“I told you not to call me boss. Someone might hear.”

It would be troublesome if someone reported him as still being a member after being abandoned by the Rose Faction.

Hoshi glared at Augustus, then got up brushing off his backside.

“You know that order you gave me before.”

“What order?”

It was routine for Augustus to give orders to his subordinates. As the boss, he originally liked ordering people around.

“You told me to contact you if I saw Sedric meeting the Duchess!”

Augustus’ eyes flickered sharply. He had been standing crookedly but now approached Hoshi. Sensing the chilling aura in his eyes, Hoshi’s feet instinctively moved backwards.

“Can’t you speak properly? Explain using the 5W1H.”

Augustus got angry at Hoshi, when he was the one who had been ignoring someone trying to speak properly until now.

‘Damn it, if only he wasn’t the boss!’

Inwardly seething, Hoshi followed Augustus’ command.

“Right now, in the printing district, Sedric and the Duchess are meeting and talking. I don’t know the reason.”

“Well done!”

Augustus suddenly smiled broadly and gripped Hoshi’s shoulder tightly. Then he kept looking around restlessly.

“Hey you bastard, how did you get here?”

“I borrowed a pony and rode it here.”

“Where’s that pony?”

“Why? What are you going to do?”

An ominous feeling crept down Hoshi’s spine.

“I’m going to borrow it.”

Before Hoshi could answer, Augustus ran into the house.

“B-boss, I mean Au- I mean boss! I came out while working!”

Hoshi’s shout became an empty echo.

* * *

Jane learned the whole truth. Now there were two things she needed to confirm.

“Is it true?”

“As far as I know, it’s true.”

Jane’s chest swelled and then deflated.

“Does Cain know about this too?”

“Well, I’m not sure about that. But I heard he’s been digging into what happened 7 years ago.”

Jane bit the inside of her mouth hard. She recalled Cain apologizing to her while drunk at the gentlemen’s club.

His pained expression, the apology that continued until Jane’s heart ached, and Cain’s handwriting on the newspaper clipping Jane had picked up.

‘The truth.’

Was this the truth he had been searching for?

The fate of the family changed by the schemes of the previous Duke of Hastings?

“Jane. So I was thinking.”

Sedric spoke up, unable to bear the sight of Jane frozen like a wax figure.

“How about leaving House Hastings? If it’s difficult to leave quietly, I can help. If he has some weakness over you, I can try to resolve that too.”

Sedric still thought Jane was being held captive by Cain due to some major weakness.

There was no weakness, but Jane had made herself weak. Because of her guilt over ruining House Hastings.

But that guilt was an emotion she never needed to feel in the first place.

How wronged her parents must have felt.

If they had even one chance to reveal the truth, they wouldn’t have died so miserably, bearing false disgrace.

She was the guilty one for not even creating that chance in the past.

The harsh criticism of incompetence she had directed at Cain while pushing him away was something she fully deserved.

She had been foolish and incompetent.

She lost her parents through ignorance, and wasted 7 years of her life.

A quiet anger stained Jane’s face, which was marred by shock. Her anger was directed at House Hastings.

“Sedric, I need to go now.”

Jane’s breathing was calm, as if she had never been excited. Sedric stood up awkwardly in surprise.

“Jane, do you really have to go?”

“Thank you for telling me the truth. But I have something I need to confirm.”

“To Lord Cain?”

Instead of answering, Jane gathered the hood she had taken off. Her hands were quick as she put on the hood and hat.

“Jane, I think it’s better to keep this a secret. You don’t know how he’ll react.”

Sedric’s assessment of Cain was terrible. Cain’s outward appearance was just a shell.

The inner thoughts of the gentleman were twisted and gloomy.

You could tell just by how he looked at Jane and wouldn’t let her go.

“I’ll handle the issue with Cain myself. Thanks for worrying about me.”

Her farewell was like drawing a line. Jane nodded slightly and opened the door.

“At least let me escort you to where you can take a carriage.”

“I’ll decline.”

Jane wanted to be alone. She couldn’t bear Sedric’s sympathy. She didn’t even deserve sympathy.

“Jane…”

The regretful call was drowned out by the sound of machinery. Sedric could only watch as Jane walked away.

* * *

Jane took a deep breath as she came out to the printing district. The smell of ink and oil filled her lungs.

The street was the same as when Jane had entered the printing shop.

Workers were busily carrying loads, and merchants with stalls set up kept raising their voices.

Jane had changed, but the world hadn’t. Even though she knew the truth, the place she had to return to was still Somnium House.

Jane looked up at the sky while leaning against a wall to catch her breath. The sky visible through the narrow alley was just that narrow.

Jane rubbed her chest with the base of her palm and took deep breaths, but she couldn’t breathe easily.

Jane gasped like a fish out of water.

She was angry and wronged, but the person responsible was dead, and she was raising a child for someone who was practically her enemy.

But she couldn’t just leave everything behind either.

Because of Joseph.

She had come to know too much about the child. The pain the child would suffer if she left was vividly clear.

Even if she left, she needed to say a proper goodbye to Joseph.

So she had to go back.

Jane tried to only think about Joseph. Joseph, not Cain. Joseph, not House Hastings…

She tried to cover the bad thoughts that kept surfacing with Joseph’s bright smile.

Then she was finally able to breathe.

Let’s go home.

Suddenly she laughed at her own thought.

To call Somnium House home. For Jane, it was a place that better suited the word hell.

She moved her feet slowly. People opened their mouths to say something as they looked at Jane, but she couldn’t hear anything.

Jane’s body, having received excessive stimulation, had shut down her senses in order to survive.

So Jane didn’t notice Augustus following behind her.

That brief moment of inattention put her in danger.

“Mmph.”

Just before Jane could exit the narrow alley, Augustus grabbed her from behind and tightly covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

Augustus dragged Jane into an alley barely wide enough for one person to pass through, with scraps of paper scattered on the ground.

Jane flailed trying not to be dragged away, but strangely her body was losing strength.

‘It’s drugged…’

That was as far as Jane’s memory went. Her limbs went limp and her vision went black.

Augustus loaded Jane into a carriage he had prepared in advance.

“Oh my? You really caught her!”

Jexy, who was in the carriage, made a fuss. Augustus threw a rope.

“You know how to tie hands and feet, right? Tie her up properly.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been tied up a lot so I’m good at this kind of thing.”

Augustus shook his head and went to the driver’s seat, while Jexy picked up the rope.

“The Duke will be really pissed off, right?”

Jexy asked the sleeping Jane as she tied her up, then opened the window to the driver’s seat.

“Should we cut off some of this woman’s hair and send it to the Duke? He probably won’t believe it otherwise.”

“Do what you want. There are scissors under the seat.”

Augustus cracked his whip. Jexy barely kept her balance and found the scissors.

She hummed a tune while thinking about what message to write to Cain.

But there was no need for that.

Just as they were leaving the printing district, Cain received a report that Jane had been kidnapped.