Chapter 13…
‘The butler.’
I narrowed my eyes.
‘Just as I expected.’
The coachman had said the following:
On the day Artea was kidnapped, he moved the luggage to the location the butler told him to—but he swore he didn’t know what was inside.
“There’s no way you didn’t know. You moved cargo from the Duke’s estate without knowing what it was? Didn’t it occur to you that it might be something important?”
“If I displeased the butler, our supply contracts with the Ducal House could be cut off. I swear, I’m innocent. I’m just a coachman—what could I have done?”
“You don’t seem the least bit remorseful.”
My cold expression made the coachman flinch hard.
“All I carried was a wine barrel. How was I supposed to imagine Lady Artea was inside?”
Cargo that could fit a child was limited.
‘As I thought—it really was a wine barrel.’
“A full barrel of wine feels completely different from one with a child inside.”
“I just thought it was packed that way to make it easier to move heavy goods!”
Even if they filled the barrel with other items along with Artea, a coachman who transported cargo daily would definitely know it wasn’t wine.
“You didn’t say a word even after Artea disappeared, did you?”
“……”
“Spare me the fake contrition.”
The coachman had hauled the barrel on the day of the kidnapping but told no one about it afterward.
Even he must have known he bore some responsibility.
Soon, a look of resignation crossed his face.
“His Grace was busy fighting monsters, and the butler practically runs the estate. Even if I thought it was suspicious, what could I have done…?”
With the Duke away for long stretches, it was only natural that people looked to the butler, not the absent master.
“N-no, I didn’t mean His Grace did anything wrong…”
The coachman glanced nervously at Erios beside me, but Erios kept his mouth shut.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘He must have a lot on his mind.’
But I neither comforted nor blamed him. Instead, I brought him along straight to the knights.
‘It’s not just the coachman’s fault. The knights who checked the supply wagons that day are to blame too.’
If the coachman had smuggled suspicious cargo out, the knights should’ve inspected and stopped it.
“The culprit in Lady Artea’s kidnapping has been identified as the coachman.”
“What? That bastard!”
Their shock quickly gave way to anger.
“Don’t bother playing dumb.”
I spoke more sharply than they did.
“You expect me to believe a mere coachman kidnapped a noble lady alone? You must have been accomplices.”
“Never!”
As expected, they hurried to explain themselves.
“Yes, we did let the supply wagon through. But there really was only food inside.”
“You can ask anyone else—on the day of the kidnapping, we didn’t leave our post at the gate.”
I sneered.
“The coachman already confessed. He loaded a wine barrel big enough to hold a child, and you said nothing.”
“B-but… handling the wine is the butler’s job…”
“And doing anything with it without the Duke’s permission is forbidden.”
The cellar beneath the ducal mansion could only be accessed by the butler. Wine was kept under strict control.
“So you knew the Duke was away subjugating monsters, and none of you found it suspicious? As the Duke’s knights?”
“……”
“You sent a wine barrel big enough to hold a child out of the estate without the Duke’s authorization—so why didn’t you speak up when Artea went missing?”
Even if they failed to stop the cargo, they should have reported anything suspicious when she disappeared. But they hadn’t.
“Well… how could we have at the time…”
“We didn’t want to cause confusion in the search over something uncertain…”
They mumbled excuses after a brief silence.
I laughed scornfully.
“You didn’t report it because you didn’t want to be blamed, isn’t that right?”
“……”
“You let the shipment through because it was from a long-standing supplier, and since it belonged to the butler, you didn’t question it.”
“……”
“Then what’s the point of inspection? All the cargo leaving here belongs to people inside the estate anyway.”
The entire kidnapping scheme was laid bare.
The butler had drugged Artea with sleep-inducing incense, hidden her in a wine barrel, and loaded her onto a supply wagon. The coachman and knights, trusting the butler’s authority, hadn’t questioned a thing—effectively helping the abduction.
“If something had happened to Artea, would you still be acting so righteously now?”
I thought of the doll I had given her.
If the sleep incense hadn’t been used, she might have been trapped by strangers whose identities remained unknown even now. If their intentions had been more malicious, she could have suffered a crime that scarred her for life.
Erios must have been eaten up with guilt.
“We’re sorry. But please, understand our situation!”
“We repent and swear never to repeat this mistake! Please forgive us!”
One knight fell to his knees, and the others followed suit, even bowing their heads to the ground.
But then—
“Ha.”
A harsh laugh escaped Erios, who had been silent until now.
The knights flinched.
“You testified as if Artea’s disappearance was the nanny’s fault.”
Ah. So they’d tried to pin everything on the nanny.
“You all thought that if it ended with blaming the nanny, you’d walk free. She hadn’t even been here long, unlike the people you’d known for years. You didn’t even feel guilty.”
The coachman had been the same earlier.
Even after confessing, he’d clung to his innocence, never once showing concern for Artea’s safety.
“She’s a noble lady—surely nothing terrible happened to her! But if we offend the butler, we’re finished…”
Even their “repentance” was just self-pity dressed up as remorse.
“Butler this, butler that.”
“Erios.”
“You were so afraid of the butler. Was I, your actual lord, not frightening at all?”
Erios had left the estate for monster subjugations and appointed the butler as someone he could trust in his stead…
The result was disastrous.
“So the rot started from within the house.”
Erios ground his teeth audibly.
“But there must be more accomplices. Artea woke up in a brick house, after all.”
The coachman had unloaded the barrel in an empty clearing.
He could have moved it to the brick house himself, but he’d already confessed everything else—why lie about that part?
‘Either he just left it in an abandoned house like the butler told him to, or someone else moved her afterward.’
More importantly, Artea had heard voices. But the coachman had been confirmed to be working the next day.
Someone else must have transported her from the clearing to the brick house and kept watch.
‘So who did the butler rope in?’
After the monster subjugation, the Duke’s house held enormous influence, enough to sway most armed groups.
To hire one, the butler would have had to reveal his identity and use the estate’s power.
If he wanted to avoid that, he likely recruited lowlifes who would follow orders without asking questions.
“And that fits—he probably gathered some worthless thugs he could approach without revealing who he was.”
The coachman and knights had both mentioned:
“I-it’s because of gambling debts. That damned butler…”
“When he was in a bad mood, he’d lose everything. When he was in a good mood, he’d boast about his winnings! I even went with him once!”
When they realized they were cornered, they started badmouthing the butler to lighten their own guilt.
‘As expected, once they turn on each other, they destroy themselves.’
They’d tried to pin everything on the nanny, but ironically, their stories now held more weight.
“And gambling dens are perfect for gathering that kind of scum. If you wave money at them, they’ll do anything, no questions asked.”
Recently, he had started demanding more bribes.
Why did he suddenly need money?
‘Even when he pushed to investigate the nanny’s finances—that was just him attacking someone else’s weakness to cover his own.’
When I explained all this, Erios spoke quietly.
“I see. Then I’ll go there myself.”
“You’ll go personally?”
“The butler betrayed us. I don’t know who else might. I’ll handle it myself.”
He was furious and needed to do something.
Well, who could blame him? He had trusted the butler, and rot had spread through the house.
‘But can I really just let him go like this when he’s clearly angry, no matter how calm he looks…?’
Everything was in place now, but if he lost his temper and acted recklessly, things could spiral.
He might look composed and mature now, but the boy I’d known wasn’t always like this.
“Fine. But if you’re going, I’m going too.”
In the end, I decided to follow Erios.
