Ch#75
2023.11.14.
'......Herdin.'
Relief washed over him as he watched her collapse calling his name, only to be swiftly overtaken by another anxiety.
The fear that he might never hear that voice again.
If her intent had been to turn his world upside down, she had succeeded.
Even now, with her breathing steadily before his eyes unharmed, the anxiety lingered.
The coachman said Blair had entered the Empress Palace. And come out with something.
He had so many questions—what it was, why she had gone alone to the Imperial Palace that night.
So......
I hope you wake up soon.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, as if hearing it, Blair's eyelids trembled and she opened her eyes.
Herdin stared blankly as focus slowly returned to her hazy pupils, then belatedly opened his mouth—only for Blair to speak first.
"......Herdin."
Her characteristic low voice flowed through her laboriously moving lips. Herdin waited for her next words.
"You were right."
"What do you mean all of a sudden—"
"Empress Esmeralda wasn't a suicide that day. She was murdered."
Herdin's gaze upon Blair began to waver.
Blair tamped down the surging emotions from that day amid the aftershocks of the returned memories and continued.
"......And she wasn't trying to kill me, but protect me."
"......"
"I'm sorry. It's too late......"
Guilt for turning from the truth for ten years compounded with guilt for failing to save Esmeralda, weighing heavily on her chest.
Her weary eyes were dry without a trace of tears, yet her voice carried an unmistakable tremor.
"Then, you went to the Imperial Palace that night because of that memory?"
At his question, Blair hesitated briefly before confessing.
"......Actually, yesterday I tried hypnosis with Lady Lorellaine."
His expression hardened at the mention of hypnosis performed without his permission.
But the exhausted Blair continued, oblivious to his reaction.
"The hypnosis yielded no results, but that night I had a dream. Not of the day of the incident, but a memory of sometime ago when I saw Empress Esmeralda hiding something in her bedroom."
"So you went that night to find it?"
"Yes. I thought I had to go before Mother noticed. Then...... at the burning Forest Villa, the memories of that day returned."
"......"
"......In the end, I lost the document."
Self-mockery was evident in Blair's downcast eyes.
Anyone else might have blamed her for escalating the situation like this.
But at least he could not condemn her.
He knew better than anyone who had driven the woman who would fall ill for days after a single hypnosis session to this point.
"I could only see the first page of the document because it was dark, but even that......"
"Blair."
Herdin gently cut off Blair, who spoke as if chased by something.
He had no desire to press a woman who had just barely escaped death with talk of unknown documents.
For now, this was enough.
That you breathe before my eyes, speak soundly. Just that alone.
Gazing at Blair's face etched with guilt toward him, apology, and inescapable fatigue amid it all, Herdin covered it with his hand.
"Rest for now. I'll look for the document."
Feeling his hand softly against her face, Blair blinked slowly before letting her heavy eyelids fall. Her weary body succumbed to sleep at once.
Herdin gazed silently at Blair, now sleeping with even breaths.
She had recovered the memories of the incident.
This brought them a great step closer to the truth he had desperately sought for the past ten years.
Yet why did a nagging unease outweigh any sense of relief?
After staying by Blair's side a while longer, Herdin quietly rose and left the room. Russ, waiting outside the door, approached.
"What about those bastards?"
"In the underground dungeon."
The two headed to the underground dungeon outside the ducal residence. The knight captain waiting at the entrance bowed.
Dismissing the greeting with a glance, they descended. Russ offered Herdin leather gloves.
Donning them, Herdin entered the cell.
Inside, the man who had kidnapped Blair was bound in chains. He bore large and small wounds everywhere, evidence it hadn't been an easy capture.
Seeing Herdin, he shrank in fear, the chains rattling.
Small wonder, facing a man radiating overwhelming intimidation with his gaze alone.
"Hello."
The voice slipping through his sharp teeth was honeyed. Eerily so.
Herdin casually swept back his piercing forehair, took a cigar from his pocket, and lit it.
Exhaling smoke, he continued.
"I'm in a pretty foul mood right now."
"......"
"It'd be best if you answered promptly when I ask."
The man swallowed hard. Instinct told him it was no bluff.
"Who?"
The abrupt question was obvious in meaning.
Yet the man hesitated without answering readily.
Herdin, eyeing him coolly amid the smoke, tossed the cigar to the floor and crushed it.
"Guess pulling a few nails feels like a tickle?"
He called the knight captain waiting behind.
Realizing what was coming, the man cried out in panic.
"I, I don't know! I really don't!"
"Not quite ready to answer properly, I see."
"I really don't know! We just do what we're told for money."
Gauging the sincerity in the man's eyes, Herdin signaled the knight captain back. Stepping closer, he asked.
"What were you told to do?"
He knew it wasn't simply to kill Blair.
If death was the order, those idiots wouldn't have scoured the forest after she escaped.
As the man glanced around instead of answering quickly, Herdin's gaze shifted to the knight captain behind.
The man responded at once.
"M, memories. We were told to erase her memories."
"What memories?"
"Memories from childhood......"
"How?"
"With Black Magic—"
The man, answering frantically, realized too late and clamped his mouth shut—but he had already mentioned Black Magic.
Herdin's eyes narrowed, reading the unspoken information.
"You're no Black Magic user, so there's more of you."
"N, not companions exactly. More like a collaborating firm."
Herdin scoffed at "collaboration." Amusing word from filthy criminals.
Taking the laugh as a danger signal, the man spilled voluntarily.
"But we don't know their identities either. We were just told to monitor the Duchess, kidnap her, then contact them......"
"Where?"
The man gave the address of their contact. The knight captain left the dungeon upon hearing it.
'Probably nothing to find there.'
By the man's account, these "collaborators" were meticulous enough to hide identities even from each other.
They had likely approached the villa, caught the scent of fire, and fled—without a trace.
Herdin moved to the final topic.
"The Duchess had a document. Ever see it?"
The man thought briefly on what Herdin meant, then shook his head.
"Don't quite remember...... But we brought the Duchess's belongings during the kidnapping, so probably left at the villa......"
Herdin furrowed his brow at the answer.
The villa had burned almost completely. Anything inside was ashes.
Wrapping up there, Herdin left the dungeon.
He wanted to eliminate the kidnappers who nearly let Blair die in the flames, mistake or not—but they still had use.
Turning to Russ who followed, Herdin ordered.
"Release them tomorrow morning. Tail them. The mastermind or Black Magic user might make contact again."
"Yes."
"And spread word: seal lips inside and out about today's events."
"Understood."
He had a suspect in mind, actually.
No, the moment it happened, one person sprang to mind first.
'......Retired Empress.'
She had noticed Blair recovering incident memories and told her to stop hypnosis.
But it was mere suspicion.
If simple kidnapping, he could publicly name culprits and show what touching Delmark brings—but this was no simple case.
If tied to the incident ten years ago, publicizing without proof was unwise.
A heartless mother discarding her daughter for ambition, and the pitiable daughter used—or a daughter betraying her mother under her husband's sway.
It would feed gossipmongers either way.
The biggest victims would be Delmark and the Imperial family broadly, Katrina and Blair narrowly.
He had no intention of throwing the woman already burdened by her mother's betrayal to the wolves.
Many had seen Delmark knights mobilize today, so kidnapping rumors would spread inevitably.
'But without Delmark publicizing first, it'll just be baseless speculation.'
This incident had to pass quietly. Until solid evidence emerged.
