I was equally startled by the sudden sound of a child crying.

If the child hadn’t cried, I would have chanted a spell to bind the man.

“Waaah, waaaah.”

I thought it strange that the child had fallen asleep faster than usual. It seems they hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep and woke up right away.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Just a moment. The child is crying.”

I stood up, asking for understanding. Of course, I didn’t really care for the man’s comprehension.

The child’s crying sounded unusual, as if they had been greatly startled by something. In my haste to climb the stairs, I failed to notice the bewilderment and shock that colored the man’s face.

I hurried up to the second floor and rushed to the bedroom. Opening the wooden door, I saw the child turn towards me with a reddened face.

“Waaaah!”

Recognizing me, the child burst into an even more pitiful cry, waving their chubby maple-leaf hands. It meant they wanted to be held.

“Shh, shh. I’m here. Don’t cry. Hush. Shh.”

“Waaah. Waaah. Mama.”

It seems the child woke up and was considerably startled not to see me. They had pushed away even the pillow I had placed to prevent them from rolling off the bed, and now sat in the middle of the bed, looking at me with a pitiful expression.

I picked up the child in my arms and looked down at them. The child’s face was already covered in tears.

“Shh. Good baby. Hush.”

“Mama. Mama.”

“Huh…?”

And at that moment, as I faced the child, I finally realized the source of the strange feeling I had while looking at the man’s face downstairs.

Deep sea-blue eyes. They were exactly the same as the man sitting downstairs.

* * *

The Swabian Ducal House, one of the four great noble families of the Empire.

It was just two months ago that the young duke, who had inherited the title less than ten years ago, was found as a cold corpse.

The cause of death was shock due to acute drug poisoning. It was murder by poisoning.

Given the importance of his position, the Imperial Palace immediately formed an investigation team to uncover the truth of the incident. The name of the Swabian Ducal House was too prestigious to leave the matter solely to the capital’s security office.

Perhaps because it was a family where heirs were scarce, the Duke of Swabia passed away without leaving a successor. His father and grandfather had all been only children without siblings, so finding an heir to inherit the title and property was a major issue.

The imperial investigation team was divided into two groups, each with their own mission.

The first group’s mission was to find the culprit who assassinated the duke, while the second group’s mission was to find an heir to succeed the duke’s title. Archduke Carl Ludwig Johann Albrecht was appointed as the overall leader of this investigation team.

With his outstanding intelligence and unwavering composure, he was evaluated as a capable sword of the current imperial authority, and there were expectations that he would brilliantly solve the murder case of the Duke of Swabia.

As soon as he was assigned the new mission, Karl headed to the Swabian ducal residence. The ducal territory was so vast that its boundaries were not visible, but in contrast, the mansion itself had a surprisingly modest appearance.

‘The first principle in estimating murder suspects is to find out who benefits most from this person’s death.’

Karl ordered the investigators to find the person who would gain the most from the Duke of Swabia’s death. And ironically, this overlapped with the mission of the second investigation team.

The person who would become the heir to the Duke of Swabia would, paradoxically, be the one who would gain the most from the duke’s death. In other words, the person who would gain enormous benefits only if the duke died. That was the heir to the ducal house.

When Celeste’s name first came from the investigators’ mouths, Karl doubted his own ears.

He hadn’t expected her to be connected to the Swabian Ducal House in this way.

At this unexpected name, Karl recalled a certain night two years ago and was at a loss for words for a while.

And after about a month, Karl succeeded in tracing Celeste’s whereabouts.

In fact, he had been making efforts to meet her for the past two years. But he had been struggling because Celeste had been staying secluded in her viscounty residence.

He had been at a loss due to her sudden disappearance a few months ago.

He had been having difficulties because he couldn’t freely use people due to the many watching eyes, but now he had found her through unexpected manpower.

“Celi…”

The last place where Celeste’s whereabouts were discovered was in the southern granary region. It was also a place where transportation routes to the entire southern region converged.

Intuitively realizing that Celeste had hidden in the south, Karl headed straight there without a moment’s hesitation.

He didn’t know why she had suddenly left the capital and gone into hiding. But Karl had to meet her. He had something he wanted to ask her.

They tracked down and visited all the villas owned by the Louisette Viscounty in the south, but Celeste was nowhere to be found. As the number of villas visited exceeded two digits, the investigators began to tire gradually.

Then, here in Urentum, Karl finally found traces of Celeste’s life.

Urentum, located at the very end of the south, was such a small village that privacy was not guaranteed to the extent that neighbors knew each other’s household affairs thoroughly, which was actually a great advantage for the investigation team.

The residents of Urentum readily told him about the purple-haired woman who had suddenly appeared in the village about six months ago, even things he hadn’t asked about.

In fact, there was nothing more to hear from the description of a beautiful woman with long purple hair. Purple hair was practically the symbol of the Louisette Viscounty.