The interior was smaller than expected. It looked like a log cabin, with only a table, chairs, and a fireplace inside.

As Emilia’s gaze turned to the window covered with black curtains, Alessandro grabbed her chin and turned her to face him.

“Would you know where this is if I told you? It’s a cabin in the forest.”

Forest? If it’s a cabin like this, it’s usually on the outskirts. Could he be trying to leave the kingdom like this? Her dazed mind suddenly cleared and her heart sank.

While kidnapping her out of desire was one thing, given that he told Enrico to cover up the blonde woman’s murder case, it was highly likely he was also keeping her for blackmail.

She tried to take a deep breath to calm her rapidly increasing anxiety. But Alessandro’s unpleasant smile right in front of her was too irritating.

“…I see. I don’t know where we are.”

Emilia swallowed hard and lowered her eyes. Alessandro quietly watched as she fluttered her eyelashes and deliberately avoided his gaze.

“But what do you plan to do now? Surely you don’t intend to stay here forever.”

“Of course not.”

Alessandro’s fingertips traced her delicate jawline up to her forehead. Then very slowly, he stroked her hair past her forehead, chuckling softly.

“For now, it depends on how my damn uncle reacts. Either I return to my position, or I leave this place with you.”

“…What?”

“I sent another warning that I’d safely return you if he handles the case well. Our path will differ depending on his answer.”

It felt suffocating. So he really was using her for blackmail. She had wanted to leave because she disliked being pushed around by Enrico, but at some point, it wasn’t her being pushed around, but Enrico.

It seemed like she was becoming a burden as he got hurt because of her. So she decided to distance herself further from him, but now she was entangled in this incident again.

In the past, she would have asserted that Enrico would abandon her, but now she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know how long his feelings would last, but for now, Enrico seemed deeply mired in the swamp of emotions.

‘Why do things keep getting complicated?’

Her resolve to somehow try to do something on her own seemed futile. In the end, she was just being a burden again without actually accomplishing anything.

At some point, she had unknowingly started biting the inside of her lip, and as her teeth clenched harder, she tasted the metallic flavor of blood.

“It’s such a pity. If that uncle had come just a little later, you could have rested comfortably in my private chambers…”

Emilia felt Alessandro lifting his upper body that had been bent over her. She raised her eyes to follow Alessandro, who was tilting her chin up further, making her tilt her head back.

“You’ve ended up going through unnecessary hardship.”

“…Private chambers?”

“I just created a space just for you where you could rest comfortably. Just wait a little.”

What method could he have used to be so confident that things would go his way? She couldn’t understand where that certainty came from.

Even if Enrico chose her, he would surely find some way; there was no way he would blindly comply with Alessandro’s wishes.

Emilia pressed her lips tightly and swallowed the metallic blood again.

“Once things are settled, I’ll show you right away. You’ll like it too.”

Alessandro cupped one of her cheeks. Then, moving only his fingers, he gently patted her cheek. With a leisurely attitude, his face with a bright smile looked strangely grotesque.

Whether it was because of that darkly gleaming gaze or not, Emilia was at a loss for words seeing his utterly base countenance.

And seeing those half-crazed eyes, she had a feeling that she shouldn’t rashly provoke him any further.

‘I can’t wait for someone to help me. I have to find a way to escape from here somehow.’

Though she was currently tied up, she didn’t want to give up. Emilia took a deep, visible breath as if struggling, slightly twisting her bound torso and tilting her head askew.

As her body moved away from his hand, she noticed a corner she hadn’t seen before.

“Are you in pain? I don’t think I tied you that tightly… Ah, I see you were looking over there.”

Alessandro clenched and unclenched his hand hanging in the air, then followed her gaze. His eyes lit up as if he had discovered something interesting, and he suddenly started heading towards that corner.

Her first thought upon seeing it was that it was a black cloth covering stacked objects. But when Alessandro walked to the corner and lifted the black cloth, she couldn’t help but be shocked.

“Say hello. This is your replacement.”

There sat Christina, tied to a chair just like her, with her eyes closed.

The sky at sunset was bleak. Enrico stared intently out the window where even the stars weren’t visible today. Then he turned his head, sensing someone carefully placing a medicine bottle on the table.

“Just listen for now.”

“Pardon?”

Fabio, who had been waiting, asked back as if bewildered. But he closed his mouth again, hesitating at the sight of Enrico, pale-faced, taking out several pills and pouring them into his mouth.

Enrico frowned after drinking all the water in his glass. Even with painkillers, the time they blocked the pain was getting shorter and shorter, to the point where now they barely had any effect from the start.

If it weren’t for this mere wound, he wouldn’t have let Emilia slip away so easily earlier. Gritting his teeth, he reached for the cigarettes placed on one side of the table.

“You shouldn’t keep taking painkillers like this. Excessive use might cause side effects. Moreover, the main cause of your persistent headache is likely due to losing consciousness after hitting your head, so you absolutely need to rest for a while.”

The attending physician, standing beside him and watching anxiously, sputtered out words mixed with anxiety and worry.

How shocked he had been when he saw Enrico return to the mansion earlier. At first, when Enrico was brought in on the verge of losing consciousness, he had planned to prescribe deep sleep-inducing medication and an appropriate amount of painkillers.

However, he was so startled when Enrico, with a serious face, demanded stimulants or strong painkillers to move immediately, struggling to get up. He simply couldn’t disobey that order.

But that wasn’t enough; Enrico kept taking painkillers like water whenever the pain surged, so his condition was getting increasingly serious.

He even lit a cigarette now and was deeply inhaling the smoke.

That appearance looked so much like someone about to cause trouble that he couldn’t just stand by, fearing Enrico might suddenly leave his seat.

“That’s right. Please take a rest, even if just for a moment. I will find Miss Emilia somehow…”

Fabio, who had been staring blankly at Enrico for a moment, blinked his eyes quickly and agreed with the physician’s words.

However, Enrico, sprawled in the chair smoking a cigarette, murmured lowly as if he had no intention of listening to anyone else, closing his eyes tightly.

“Enough. Just do what that bastard demands.”

“Do you really mean to cover up the incident? His Majesty the King already knows everything. If we retract now, he might hold you greatly responsible, Duke!”

Enrico’s gaze, which had been slowly opening, suddenly pierced sharply at Fabio. Fabio’s shoulders flinched at the chilling purple eyes.

“I’ll handle it myself, so stop and do as I say. Don’t make me repeat the same thing.”

An inexplicable headache kept coming, increasingly unclear whether it was due to the head injury or the shock of losing Emilia right before his eyes.

Given that the medicine wasn’t working despite taking countless pills, he wondered if it might be due to psychological shock from the latter.

Enrico irritably stubbed out his cigarette and straightened his upper body. His face, usually languid and relaxed, was now full of ominous energy, completely on edge.

To think Alessandro would sense something was amiss, station shadows, and threaten Emilia with a gun to leave.

It seemed he had underestimated Alessandro too much. He thought he was just a reckless brute, but he could smell danger quite well, like a beast.

Especially, he didn’t expect him to send shadows for threats. Until now, Alessandro had repeatedly sent shadows threatening to kill the baroness of the Kearnt Kingdom.

Despite capturing and imprisoning those shadows one by one, reducing their numbers, to think he would use them as a discarded card in a situation where every shadow was precious.

He tried pressuring the captured shadows to ask about the hideout, but they all genuinely seemed not to know. It appeared there was no way to find out separately unless the leader of the shadow group appeared.

So he considered pretending to comply with Alessandro’s demands while searching for Emilia separately. However, given that they couldn’t find even a trace now, it seemed better not to create a dangerous situation with unnecessary gambling.

“Finding Emilia safely is the priority. Exclude everything else.”

He had exposed the face of the crown prince, a serial killer, to the king, but if that threatened Emilia, he had to cover it up as if nothing happened, no matter what harm he suffered.

Of course, Emilia keeps pushing him away, saying she wants to leave, and only choosing hurtful words. But for now, it seemed like bringing her back was the only way to clear this suffocating feeling.

“Immediately…”

His words, about to say “bring Emilia before my eyes,” were interrupted by the sudden appearance of someone.

The black-masked figure, who entered with guards from the Michele mansion surrounding him on both sides with raised hands, slowly removed his mask.

“…I’ve come to make a deal.”

It was the leader of Alessandro’s shadow group that he had just been thinking about. Enrico slowly raised one hand, lowering the surrounding guards’ vigilance.

“Is this a different deal from the shadow you sent just now?”

He had a feeling the situation was about to take a new turn. Enrico placed his hand, with blue veins prominently visible, on the table and began tapping in a steady rhythm.

The shadow leader’s gaze fell on his index finger for a moment, but only briefly. With an expressionless face, as if all emotions had disappeared, the shadow leader opened his mouth without hesitation.

“Yes. I will tell you the location of the hideout.”

“…And the conditions?”

“We want the release of the shadows captured in your mansion.”

At that, Enrico clenched his fist tightly.