Chapter 11
“Thank you for making the time, Duke of Redmond.”
Artif sat across from Leandro, the young Viscount Retel, in the drawing room.
Leandro’s polite voice was like a calm ripple, but his blue eyes—so like Charlize’s—were sharpened to a fine edge.
“Originally, as I wrote in my letter, my father was supposed to come, but an urgent engagement came up so I came instead. I ask for your understanding.”
“That’s all right.”
Artif drank his tea as if nothing were wrong.
The Retel duke probably went to the Wyford territory.
There had been a witness who claimed to have seen a silver-haired woman there, and Artif had just sent someone to check.
“You must be busy as well, so I’ll get straight to the point.”
Leandro set aside the usual noble’s small talk and spoke plainly.
It was oppositional to the gentle, aristocratic demeanor he usually showed.
‘That just shows how much Charlize means to him,’ Artif thought.
He should’ve protected her properly earlier.
“Go ahead.”
Artif kept the spite that wanted to burst out in check and spoke in a bored tone.
“I don’t believe the duke kidnapped Charlize.”
At the moment, the rumor that Artif had abducted Charlize had been accepted as fact.
But nobles who paid attention to information quickly realized that it was just a baseless rumor.
Above all, Artif had no reason to kidnap Charlize.
To snatch the duke family’s daughter merely to divert the crown prince’s attention was far too risky.
Artif was not the kind of man who would do something so foolish.
“But if you continue to be named as Charlize’s kidnapper, the duke will have trouble, that’s true.”
Artif snorted inwardly. He wasn’t believed to be the kidnapper, and yet Leandro’s watchful posture was fierce.
“So I’ve come asking for your cooperation.”
“What kind of cooperation?”
“The cat you picked up from the road—isn’t it the same cat that was found in Charlize’s room?”
“Well…”
Artif answered nonchalantly, holding back the surge of anger rising inside him.
As expected, the silver cat—Shasha—his Shasha—was being eyed as the only lead in Charlize’s disappearance.
‘Shasha could even be Charlize, for all they know.’
“It won’t harm the cat.”
“I refuse.”
There was no point in listening any further. He had been tolerating this only because Charlize was family.
“If the investigation is finished, the cat will be returned.”
“Returned?”
Artif’s eyebrow twitched at the irritating wording.
“We only need to find the cat’s previous owner.”
“Do you really think the kidnapper brought my cat to the scene and left it there?”
“The cat might have followed its owner.”
“How likely is that, by common sense?”
After coming all this way, that’s the fanciful speculation he offered—wasting time that could’ve been used to pet Shasha.
“How likely is it, by common sense, that a noble lady would be abducted from a well-guarded ducal residence?”
Artif watched Leandro’s gaze like a gale blowing through him and thought:
I should strengthen Shasha’s guard.
“And what are the chances that, of all days, the cat found in the lady’s room on the day of her disappearance would be a cat you happened to pick up, Duke of Redmond? If there’s even the slightest chance, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Hearing Leandro’s firm resolve, Artif rose from his seat.
“I don’t think continuing this conversation will be meaningful.”
“Duke—”
“And one more thing: Shasha has only one owner—me. There is no previous owner, so don’t think of touching what’s mine. Unless you want Redmond as an enemy.”
Having delivered the fierce warning, Artif left the drawing room.
Leandro’s face had changed completely in a few days.
He’d lost weight; the pale face no longer held its usual gentle expression.
—Brother…?
“Meow…?”
At the faint meow, Leandro looked back; his blue eyes widened when he spotted me.
But Leandro’s expression quickly froze cold as ice, and he asked Sina, my personal maid who had come with me.
“Is that the cat?”
“Yes. It is! Its fur color was exactly the same as the lady’s hair. It has to be that cat.”
Convinced, Sina’s answer made Leandro step closer to me.
But the atmosphere around him was so different—so unlike my brother—that it frightened me.
“Don’t come any closer.”
Just as Leandro reached toward me, someone appeared.
A man with a long scar across one eye stepped in front of me as if to protect me.
‘Where did he come from all of a sudden?’
Leandro straightened and glared at the man who had blocked his way.
“Did you just get between me and her?”
“I am a man of Redmond. If anyone threatens Shasha, I will stand in their way.”
“You call that a threat—do you think I would harm that little cat?”
The man’s bear-like bulk stood firmly, obscuring Leandro from view.
I slipped forward a little to peek between the man’s legs and check the situation.
“Please leave.”
The man put his hand on his sword hilt and one of the Retel household’s knights, standing behind Leandro, took up his sword in response.
“Step back.”
“But, Viscount—!”
“Enough.”
At Leandro’s stern command, the knight glared but stepped back.
“I don’t want to pick a fight with Redmond. I only want to confirm something.”
“No. You must leave.”
Again facing Leandro’s refusal, I hurried forward.
The man had done nothing wrong.
I understood both of their actions, but Leandro was my brother.
Everything he had done recklessly in another family’s house had been because of me.
—Brother.
I looked up and said “meow,” and Leandro bent his knees.
“Really—the color matches Charlize’s.”
Leandro stroked my head. His touch was soft and warm.
The fear I had felt a moment ago was probably because he was on edge.
—Are you eating properly? You look thin.
“You’re Shasha. If you could give us even the smallest clue, it would help.”
Leandro’s face looked terribly exhausted.
While I was here eating and sleeping well, my family had been unable to do so.
—It’s frustrating, really. Do you think I’d thank you for this?
“Now I understand why the Duke of Redmond has been circling around.”
“If you understand, stop meddling.”
A sharp voice cut through the tender sibling reunion.
Artif came down the central stairs.
“Alcott.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Fixing his gaze on Leandro, Artif spoke to Alcott.
“You’re unharmed. Is that insubordination of orders?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll accept any punishment.”
I gaped, shocked at their curt exchange.
Did he really think that because I was friendly with Leandro, the knights hadn’t been guarding me? To call being unharmed ‘insubordination’—how rude.
“I will lend my support to Redmond at the next nobles’ council.”
Leandro withdrew the hand that had been stroking me and stood.
“Shasha. Come here.”
Artif paid no heed to Leandro’s offer and spoke to me instead.
I foolishly looked back at Leandro and then approached Artif.
As soon as he held me, he seemed about to head back to his rooms.
“Aren’t you troubled by the imperial faction’s agenda? I’ll solve it for you.”
Artif’s footsteps stopped like they’d struck a wall.
“For the sake of the people of the Redmond domain.”
Artif looked at Leandro again.
“Of course, I’m not saying to give me the cat completely. Once we find Charlize, I’ll return her to you.”
A rising anxiety made me clutch Artif’s clothes.
I was glad to see Leandro after so long, but I didn’t want to follow him. Even though my family wouldn’t harm an innocent cat, still—
As long as my family didn’t know I was Charlize, being beside Artif was the safest place.
‘Surely you’re not going to hand me over, are you? Artif, I’m your cat. Who lends out their own cat for a price?’
I looked at him imploringly, but Artif’s gaze was no longer on me; it was fixed on Leandro.
“Put it in a contract. You know as well as I do—if Redmond and Retel join forces, there’s nothing they can’t do.”
Leandro hammered the point home while Artif listened quietly.
