Chapter 25
Standing there were Mark with a pale face, the knight commander, and the steward of the lord’s castle. For some reason, all three of them were covered head to toe in dust.
“D-Duke! Something terrible has happened!”
The knight commander cried out urgently, his face drained of color.
“The refugees have escaped!”
“What?”
The steward beside him also turned deathly pale and shouted,
“My lord! Those scoundrels… Lady Rosalie…!”
“Rosalie? What about my Rosalie! What on earth happened?!”
“Mark, explain everything in detail.”
As Count Sester’s face turned an ominous shade of white, William urged him on gravely.
Mark opened his mouth with a heavy expression.
“After the three of you went to the meeting room, we were organizing supplies in the courtyard. As you ordered, Duke, I was about to take the refugees into the city to obtain medicine from the clinic.”
“Rosalie! Where is my Rosalie?!”
Count Sester had lost all reason and couldn’t wait for Mark to finish. He rushed toward the door with heavy steps, grabbed the steward, and demanded,
“My Rosalie!”
“L-Lady Rosalie… she was kidnapped by them. I’m sorry, my lord. I should have watched her more carefully. I’m truly sorry.”
At last, Count Sester’s strength gave out and he collapsed onto the floor. William gestured to Mark to continue, and Mark hurriedly went on.
“When I reached the wagon where they were supposed to be, it was already empty. The knights assigned to watch them were all collapsed in the corner. Sensing something was wrong, I searched the castle grounds, and that’s when I found them—already escaping with the unconscious Lady Rosalie.”
The knight commander then added,
“We tried to stop them, but they were far better prepared than expected. To shake us off, they detonated the ground and even used artifacts to escape.”
“What!”
William and Count Sester froze in shock. The loud explosion they had heard during the meeting—it had been that blast.
“And the old refugee left this behind.”
Mark handed William a sheet of paper, crumpled and smeared with dirt.
William skimmed it quickly, his brow wrinkling even more harshly than the paper itself.
“Those bastards…!”
Count Sester, who had been sitting on the floor in a daze, sprang up and rushed toward William. Completely out of his senses, he snatched the paper from William’s hand.
“!”
After reading it, Count Sester’s hand trembled violently as he clenched the paper. Rafaella stepped behind him and looked over his shoulder.
“If you want your daughter alive, bring the deed of transfer for the Sester territory. The count must come in person. Alone. Only then will your precious daughter’s lovely limbs remain intact. Meet us tomorrow at noon on the ramparts.”
Unable to restrain himself, Count Sester tore the paper to shreds. His face reddened as if it might burst with blood as he shouted,
“Mobilize the guards immediately! Hire every mercenary we can get our hands on! Pay them several times the usual fee if necessary! We’ll wage war against those bandits—! No… no. Stop. Do nothing. Nothing.”
After raging wildly, Count Sester suddenly clutched his head and called for the steward. His complexion shifted rapidly from red to blue.
“S-Steward. Bring the deed of transfer. Hurry. My Rosalie will be waiting for her father. She’s such a frail, small child… she must be so frightened right now, all alone… ngh… sob…”
In the end, Count Sester collapsed, letting out a heart-wrenching cry.
Watching him, William felt as though he were going mad with rage and regret. The veins on his tightly clenched fists bulged as if they might burst, and tendons stood out along his clenched jaw.
If only he had listened when Rafaella warned him—if only he hadn’t accepted them.
No, he couldn’t have refused. If placed in the same situation again, he would make the same choice. That was the responsibility of one who bore an imperial title.
Then he should have enforced stricter security. Assigning only a few knights had been far too careless.
This was undeniably his fault.
“……”
William forced his heavy feet forward. He stopped in front of Count Sester and dropped to one knee. He had to confess his mistake and apologize. He had to take responsibility.
Just as William was about to speak in a despairing voice—
“Count Sester…”
Tap—
Someone’s hand rested on William’s shoulder. It was Rafaella.
“Duke. Later.”
“……”
“Right now, we find the child first. That comes first.”
“……”
“You do lose your composure sometimes. Normally, you’d be the one saying what I just did.”
“……Your Highness.”
“Think calmly. Get a grip, Duke.”
William looked up at Rafaella with trembling eyes. For the first time, the face that usually carried a playful smile was completely hardened. To William, she looked incredibly dependable.
Rafaella asked Count Sester,
“Count. You called those guys bandits earlier—are they people you know?”
“Bring the deed… the lordship… the castle… my life, even… just bring it quickly… Rosalie… my daughter…”
“Count, pull yourself together. I need information right now.”
Count Sester looked as though he might lose consciousness at any moment. His eyes were bloodshot from shouting, veins burst, his pupils unfocused.
Rafaella let out a sigh. There was no time, and she needed information. There was only one way.
Smack—!
Rafaella raised her hand and slapped Count Sester across the cheek. Everyone present gasped and turned their eyes toward her. A red handprint bloomed on the count’s thick cheek.
Only then did Count Sester blink and regain focus.
“Y-Your Highness?”
“Listen carefully, Count. I’m going to rescue Rosalie. And I will bring her back safely.”
“W-What?!”
“For that, I need information. So tell me everything you know about those men. Summarize it as much as possible. Quickly.”
“N-No, I must go myself. If Your Highness goes and they harm Rosalie—”
“I’ll bring her back safely.”
“How could Your Highness possibly—”
“There’s a way.”
As she answered, Rafaella bit her lower lip and whistled.
Whiiit—!
A gust of wind swept through the open meeting room door. Everyone looked around, bewildered by the sudden breeze.
Flying in at lightning speed in an invisible form, Perri hid behind Rafaella’s head and whispered,
“Master? You called? You told me never to show myself in front of people.”
“Perri, it’s fine to show yourself.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. It’s fine. Your existence has probably already leaked anyway.”
Perri stopped fluttering her blue wings that had been constantly scattering spirit dust, then gently perched on Rafaella’s shoulder. As her transparent form gradually became visible, the count stared in shock, his mouth falling open.
“Th-That is…!”
“W-What?!”
As the knight commander and steward exclaimed in surprise, Count Sester asked Rafaella with wide eyes,
“Y-Your Highness… surely that is…?”
“As you can see, a spirit. She’s my method.”
“!”
“Now, tell me about those so-called bandits.”
Count Sester closed his mouth as if lost in thought, then finally spoke with shaking eyes.
“They appeared suddenly ten years ago. When they tried to settle in our territory, my clever wife noticed something was wrong and blocked them. It turned out they were thieves who wandered from small territory to small territory, looting them. Sester was to be their next prey. When that plan failed, they targeted my wife…”
He swallowed, unable to continue. Tears streamed down his cheeks, over the mark left by Rafaella’s hand. The steward stepped forward, handed him a handkerchief, and continued in his stead.
“My lady tried to escape rather than be taken hostage, but… she fell from a cliff. Only Lady Rosalie, who fell with her, survived by sheer miracle. Had he lost his daughter as well, my lord would not have endured it.”
“Their numbers? How many?” Rafaella pressed.
Having finally calmed somewhat, Count Sester answered,
“At first, around thirty. Recently, they’ve taken in wandering ruffians and grown to nearly a hundred.”
“‘Nearly’? And you’re the lord, yet you never properly investigated enemies like that lurking nearby?”
“Our remote territory has its limits in manpower. The harbor—our most important asset—was constantly under attack by monsters, so we were always short on personnel. We hired mercenaries from outside, but every time, they hid deep in the mountains and stopped moving.”
As Rafaella frowned in disbelief, the steward spoke up in the count’s defense.
“Thanks to my lord spending even his personal funds to reinforce the guards, they were at least unable to enter the castle. Even when we requested aid from the imperial family, only a few knights were sent briefly, and each time the bandits hid deep in the mountains. After several fruitless trips, the imperial knights stopped coming altogether. It was only after the recent monster attack rendered the harbor unusable that our relief request was finally accepted. My lord truly did everything he could.”
“So, where is their base?”
“Th-That… because they constantly move their hideouts along the deep mountain ranges, we don’t know the exact location. Only that it’s somewhere in the southern part of the Limpim Mountains, which connect Sester to the capital.”
“Tch! Can’t be helped.”
Clicking her tongue in frustration, Rafaella turned to Perri.
“Perri, can you bring some of your idle friends?”
