Ch#72
2023.11.11.
Early in the morning, Herdin woke up.
He had gone to bed at his usual time and woken at his usual time, yet strangely, he did not feel refreshed.
Perhaps he had a nightmare he couldn't remember.
Shaking off the unease, Herdin got out of bed and began his day as usual.
After smoking a cigar and showering in the bathroom, he changed clothes and left his room. Heading down the stairs to the dining hall, he passed Blair's closed door.
Since he had stopped visiting her room, he hadn't seen her for several days. She hadn't even appeared at meals.
Her blatant defiance amused him, but he decided to leave her be for the time being. Provoking her further might cause the fragile woman to collapse in front of the fireplace again or take to her bed with illness.
As he passed her room and descended to the first floor, he spotted Mason speaking with a maid in a grave expression.
It was an ordinary morning scene, but Mason's face was unusually stern. It was rare for him to wear such an expression.
A bad premonition stirred.
Herdin approached them and asked,
"Mason, what is it?"
"Your Grace."
The maid, spotting Herdin, bowed hastily and glanced nervously between Mason and him.
Mason hesitated briefly before speaking.
"The Madam left for the Imperial Palace in great haste at dawn."
Noble households typically kept servants on night duty rotation to respond to their master's call at any hour. The maid beside him must have been last night's attendant.
Upon hearing this, one of Herdin's eyebrows arched.
"At that hour? What could be so urgent?"
Mason signaled the maid with his eyes, as that was information he hadn't heard yet. She mumbled awkwardly,
"It was so early that I suggested waiting until daybreak, but she insisted on going right away."
"Was there no letter from the Imperial Palace yesterday?"
Mason replied to that.
"No, there wasn't."
"Did she say when she'd return?"
"I asked about breakfast, and she said she'd be back before then..."
The maid answered.
Breakfast time was now. But the fact they were bringing this to him meant Blair had not yet returned.
Herdin furrowed his brow.
He had assigned knights to guard Blair, so the gatekeepers would have reported her outing, and the knights would have discreetly followed her.
"The knights likely followed her, so nothing should have happened. Everyone, attend to your duties."
The maid bowed again and withdrew.
Herdin turned with Mason following behind, heading to the dining hall. A question flitted through his mind.
Why had she rushed to the Imperial Palace in the middle of the night? What for?
As Herdin pondered the reason, the entrance door suddenly burst open violently.
Mason and Herdin turned in alarm to see a man bleeding from his head, dragging an unconscious knight with a abdominal stab wound inside.
The man was one of Delmark's coachmen, and the knight was Bain, assigned to guard Blair.
Herdin's eyes began to tremble upon seeing them.
Amid the servants preparing breakfast staring in shock, the coachman gasped,
"Your Grace, the Madam... has been kidnapped by assailants."
* * *
"Ugh..."
Blair opened her eyes with difficulty, her entire head throbbing in pain. Her head hurt, her vision was blurry, her stomach churned, and her hands were bound.
Recalling what had happened to her body, she roughly concluded.
She had been kidnapped again, slamming her head hard against the carriage wall, causing issues. Fortunately, since she hadn't died instantly, it wasn't fatal.
As Blair blinked to clear her hazy vision, the scene before her came into focus.
A forest.
Beyond the large window stretched a forest landscape similar to the one at the Forest Villa she had visited with Mihail.
Thanks to her prior experience, she quickly assessed the situation and tried to sit up when an unfamiliar man's voice rang out.
"You've been groaning since earlier. Did you hit your head badly?"
Blair hurriedly closed her eyes upon hearing the approaching man's voice.
As an unfamiliar shadow loomed over her, a woman's curt voice followed.
"You rode your horse straight into the carriage like an idiot, that's why. Madman."
"What do we do? Will she die?"
"She won't die from that. The pampered princess is just overreacting."
The man's shadow receded again.
From their brief exchange, Blair grasped two things.
They knew who she was and had no intention of killing her.
'Ransom seekers?'
She had heard of bandits targeting nobles for ransom by attacking carriages.
But they were 'mountain' bandits.
She had never heard of them venturing into the heart of the Capital Isle, risking danger, instead of preying on travelers on remote mountain paths.
"By the way, why are these bastards taking so long? We need to erase her memory before the Duke arrives."
The woman grumbled. The man defended those they were waiting for.
"Who could've known? That the princess would move so quickly, and at such an early hour."
"......"
"Don't be so anxious. These Forest Villas are used by nobles for secret trysts, so storming in abruptly would be tough. Worst case, we bolt."
Blair gathered as much information as possible from their conversation.
Even if she couldn't act immediately, understanding the situation was a great help.
After a brief silence, someone stood up.
"Where are you going?"
It seemed to be the man.
"I'm hungry, so looking for something to eat. It's a noble's Forest Villa, so there must be snacks at least."
"You, eating in this situation?"
"What's wrong with the situation? I'm not the one kidnapped."
The man chuckled and left the room.
Along with the woman's sigh-mixed curses came the click of something. The cigar smoke that soon wafted confirmed it was a lighter.
Blair bit her lower lip to suppress the cough triggered reflexively by the cigar smoke. But even that reached its limit soon.
The moment Blair swallowed a pained breath.
Crash!
A loud noise erupted from downstairs. Hearing it, the woman cursed and stood.
"Ah, what mess is that idiot causing now."
The woman stormed out of the room. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway, fading away.
"Cough..."
Blair finally let out the cough she had held. The more she coughed, the worse her headache became.
After several deep breaths to steady herself, Blair sat up.
Her battered head ached, and nausea threatened to make her vomit at any moment, deterring movement.
But the commotion from downstairs simultaneously steeled her resolve.
'No time.'
Scanning the room, Blair spotted a chair and approached it. Fortunately, her legs weren't bound.
Blair carefully toppled the chair and wedged its thin leg between the ropes binding her hands.
After several maneuvers, the knot loosened. Blair untied the slackened ropes with her hands.
The next challenge was escape.
Blair gazed at the dense forest beyond the balcony and large window.
'Flee into the forest.'
There would be plenty of hiding spots, at least better than here.
Knowing they wouldn't kill her emboldened her; rather than fearing failure, various methods came to mind first.
'It's the second floor, so with some setup, it should work.'
As she pondered sneaking to the first floor without them noticing, Blair spotted the curtains half-covering the balcony window.
Seeing them reminded her of her first visit to the Libellus Guild.
Blair placed the chair under the curtains, climbed up, and detached the rod. She tied the curtains into a long rope and secured it to the balcony railing similarly.
Finally, testing both ends of the knot, it felt sturdy.
Completing the final check, Blair tossed the curtain rope over the railing.
"Done..."
Now to climb down to the first floor.
Just as Blair reached for the railing.
"You didn't come to work, you came to play, huh?"
"You ate well too, so why get prickly? Admit it, you were hungry."
Voices of the woman and man bickering up the stairs reached her. Blair's heart sank.
In her anxiety, as she approached the railing again, she froze.
Climbing down now risked slipping and injuring herself or getting caught before her feet touched ground.
Even if she luckily reached the first floor, outrunning them was impossible.
'In that case...'
Blair swiftly changed her plan.
* * *
The two, still bickering, entered Blair's room and halted at the chilling air.
Surveying the room on ill foreboding, they saw the balcony door wide open ahead. And the curtains tied to the railing.
Decisively, Blair was gone.
