Chapter 45: In Someone’s Palm

—At the same time, inside the royal castle’s office—

“Haa…”

Gripping his violet-tinged silver hair tightly in his right hand, the king—Sirius Lus Garcia—let out a heavy, weary sigh after hearing the urgent report just delivered by a knight.
After dismissing the knight and ordering everyone else out, the office was left with Sirius alone.
According to the report, his son Bernhard’s fiancée, Faustina Vitkenstein, had been found and taken into protective custody at a southern inn called Piccolino.
It also said the group responsible for abducting Faustina had been captured.
However, the key figure, Cain Fuchs, was nowhere to be found, and one member of the group had committed suicide.

The incident of a duke’s daughter being abducted without anyone noticing had been resolved with remarkable speed.
That part was fine.
There were countless questions and mysteries left, but at least she was safe.

The one thing Sirius took issue with was who had found her.
It was his half-brother, Siel.

Though a half-brother, they were the same age.
Siel had simply been born later than Sirius.
Their father, the former king, had been notoriously fond of women.
Despite stuffing the inner palace with countless women, the only child born outside the queen was Siel, which in itself was fortunate.
If there had been more, unnecessary succession disputes would have erupted.
Siel had understood that and renounced his claim to the throne early on.

Sirius’s mother, the former queen, feared any interaction between her son and his half-brother.
As a former duke’s daughter and the legitimate queen, her pride would not allow it.
Obeying his mother’s wishes, Sirius never tried to engage with Siel.

If there were a way to go back to the past, he would use it.
He wished he had interacted with Siel, even if it meant sneaking around his mother.

“…Regretting it now won’t turn back time, will it.”

The way he had treated Siel was hardly commendable.
Every year, he sent messengers asking him to come to the castle, only to receive refusals time and again.
Perhaps Siel was the only one who could reject the king’s request without incurring his displeasure.

Sirius had made a mistake at the very beginning.
He thought that simply obeying his grieving mother would keep the peace.
Who could have imagined that choice would later become an eternal source of regret?
After that first misstep, he never knew how to correct things.
Even when he tried, Siel continued to treat him exactly as Sirius himself had once wished.
That had not changed, even now.

“Stop it…”

If he kept thinking about Siel, he would only wander endlessly through a maze with no exit.
Shaking his head as if to drive the thoughts away, Sirius opened a drawer.
He took out fine parchment, dipped his pen in ink, and quickly wrote a letter.
After folding it into thirds, he called out to someone waiting outside.
He instructed the knight who entered to deliver the letter to Duke Vitkenstein immediately.
The knight accepted it, bowed, and left.

Alone once more, Sirius leaned back against his chair.

Siel had said he would bring Faustina back the next morning.
That meant Bernhard, who had forcibly followed along, was with him as well.

When word came that Bernhard had followed Siel to Faustina’s location, Sirius had clutched his head.
That it had already happened was Siel’s way of provoking him.
And also a way to save time.
If permission had been sought from Sirius, it would have taken time, and he never would have allowed it.
What king would permit an eight-year-old crown prince to step into a den of criminals?

Siel surely understood that perfectly.
And yet he had still taken Bernhard along, likely because Bernhard’s desire to confirm his fiancée’s safety with his own eyes was just that strong.

When Sirius learned that Cain Fuchs, the one who had abducted Faustina, was an Arva fanatic, a chill ran down his spine.
Arva was the cousin of Duke Vitkenstein, Citryn.
From childhood, her inhuman, bewitching charm had captivated countless people.
By the time she reached her debut, it had only intensified, leading to numerous engagement annulment scandals involving young noblemen.
Arva herself was shy and timid, always hiding behind her elder sister, but the jealousy she drew from other noblewomen was extreme.

And it was not only noblemen who were enamored with Arva.
She enjoyed overwhelming popularity among commoners as well.

After Arva’s parents sent her to their territory, the uproar subsided to some extent.
Arva herself felt guilty for causing such chaos in the capital and was frightened by the attention her innate charm attracted, so it had been the right decision.

Sirius had not known what happened after she was sent away.

—Not until eight years ago.

“…!”

Letting out a pained breath, Sirius stood from his chair and moved to the window behind him.
Countless tiny stars dotted the night sky.

For a moment, he considered riding to the church at dawn.
That would force Siel to meet him, whether he liked it or not.

But he stopped himself.
Siel would surely read his intentions and depart even earlier.
If that happened, they would simply miss each other.

Siel had said he would come in the morning.
Sirius chose to believe his words as he gazed silently at the night sky.

—Unaware that even these thoughts had already been read by him.

Meanwhile, at the Vitkenstein ducal residence—

“Haaahhh…”
“M-My lord…!”

After reading the letter delivered from the royal castle, Citryn collapsed into his chair as though all strength had drained from his body.
Seeing the butler rush into the office, Ludmila sensed something was wrong and followed him inside.

Now—

Ludmila hurried to Citryn’s side.
The deep dark circles formed over two days testified to his exhaustion.
From the moment Faustina’s abduction was discovered, he had been moving nonstop for twenty-four hours.
Even a young man had limits.
Citryn looked terrible, but Ludmila was hardly better.
To keep Cain and Elvira from worrying, she had hidden her fatigue with heavy makeup, but even that could not fully conceal it.

When Ludmila timidly asked about the letter’s contents, Citryn showed a gentle expression for the first time in two days.

“It seems Fana has been safely rescued.”

“!!”

Ludmila immediately sank to the floor, covering her mouth with both hands.
Her vision blurred with overflowing tears, but she did not care.
She did not care that her makeup was being ruined either.
Faustina had been found and protected far sooner than expected.
And she was uninjured and healthy.

Just after finally feeling she had acted like a proper mother on Faustina’s eighth birthday, the abduction had occurred.
When she first heard the news, she thought it had to be a mistake.
The estate was guarded by soldiers around the clock, in three shifts, with regular patrols.
Nighttime was no exception—if anything, it required heightened vigilance.
What had the guards been doing?
Why had Faustina been abducted so easily?
Her room showed no signs of disturbance.
She had been taken straight from her bed.
There were no reports of suspicious individuals, no tampering with the gates or walls, and no valuables were touched.
The kidnappers’ sole target was Faustina.
And from the moment her disappearance was discovered, one butler had also vanished.

Ludmila had felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
And it had proven correct.

The missing butler, Cain Fuchs, had served the ducal house for seven years.
Though taciturn, his earnest and diligent work had earned even Ludmila’s high evaluation.
Why would such a model servant commit kidnapping?

At first, everyone wondered the same.
But as information about him was gathered, the truth was chilling.

Cain was an Arva fanatic.
His room contained a diary filled with entries bordering on madness, all devoted to Arva.
It even detailed the method and schedule for abducting Faustina.

Faustina resembled Arva.
Her love of flowers, her habit of running about outside, her radiant smile that outshone any jewel or blossom.
Knowing this, Ludmila had rarely taken Faustina to tea parties, unlike Elvira.
She had also limited her outings as much as possible.

She allowed her to admire flowers in the garden, but avoided letting her go outside.
Telling herself it was because Faustina would one day become crown princess, she had steeled her heart and treated her more strictly than normal.

Only recently had she come to regret that deeply.
She never imagined that merely receiving an indifferent look from her daughter would shake her so violently and pierce her with pain.
She was barely holding herself together now, and did not know when she might falter again.

“Ludmila.”

Citryn gently touched Ludmila’s trembling shoulder as she sobbed in relief.
The tension that had held her together must have finally snapped.
Citryn turned to his butler Cracker, who stood nearby wiping tears from behind his monocle, and said, “Go and inform them.”
Without needing to ask who, Cracker answered, “Y-Yes!” and rushed out.

…However, there was something Citryn did not tell.
Something that, if spoken, would only give rise to unnecessary suspicion.
He wanted his wife to know only that Faustina was safe.

In a room filled with plush toys and cute knickknacks, Elvira sat on her bed, clutching her favorite teddy bear.
Her complexion was terrible.
Not because her sister had been abducted two days ago.
But because the nightmares she had been having intermittently since then had grown worse.

“Why do you ask for help?
I’m treating you properly.”

“What can you even do, now that you’re the one left behind?”

“It’s fine.
Someone empty-headed like you is perfect for this.”

Even without seeing the other person’s face, even without understanding exactly what was being done to her, she could sense that something unimaginable was happening.
She hugged the teddy bear tightly.

Those around her believed she was terrified because Faustina had been abducted, and that suited Elvira just fine.
She had no idea how she would explain it otherwise.

At the end of every nightmare, the other person always said the same thing.

“This is your fault.
Because you couldn’t hold on to him until the end, this happened.”

Even when she wanted to scream and ask what she had done wrong, her dream-self could not speak.
No—her voice was coming out, but she could not understand a single word she was saying.

“Bernhard-sama…”

Strangely, thinking of Bernhard eased the fear left behind by the nightmares.
If she could see him in person, that sense of security would surely grow stronger.

She had collapsed twice, and now there was the abduction.
Elvira had secretly overheard Citryn telling Ludmila that continuing Faustina and Bernhard’s engagement would be difficult.
A faint, shadowy joy stirred within her.
If Faustina disappeared like this, the engagement would be annulled, and she could ask Citryn to make her the next fiancée.
And yet, at the same time, she felt an ominous premonition, as if something terrible would descend upon her if Faustina truly vanished.

Caught between two opposing feelings, and plagued by those nightmares—

If the engagement truly could not continue, then it would be the same even if Faustina returned.
So she wished Faustina would hurry back and dispel this unease gnawing at her chest.
The atmosphere in the estate would return to normal as well.

But if she herself were to end up in Faustina’s position—

“……!”

Fear seized her completely, leaving no room for calm thought.
She would only scream, thrash, and try to escape.

Faustina had been placed in such a situation on the night of her eighth birthday.
If Elvira truly realized that Faustina had been thinking these same thoughts in her place—
Just imagining it sent a chill through her.

This was wrong, she told herself, burying her face into the teddy bear.

Please come back soon.
Bernhard would surely come once he heard Faustina had been rescued.
She would be able to see him.

See him, and be freed from these nightmares—.