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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Kidnapped Together
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The villa was thrown into chaos by the news that Karos and Cynthia had disappeared.
Military police and soldiers combed through the interior and searched the surrounding areas.
For a marriage prospect involving Karos, Valeria's reaction was surprisingly lukewarm. She had already witnessed the two embracing, after all.
"Isn't it just a little mishap? They probably went off to spend some quality sibling time together."
As the prime minister's daughter, she had nothing to fear, so she spoke her mind freely.
A few who knew the rumors about Cynthia and Karos exchanged glances.
Helen feigned a worried expression as she sank into thought.
'Edford, maybe, but Brother Karos isn't the type to elope for love. Is there something I don't know?'
Meanwhile, since Masera hadn't shown the note he found in the room to anyone, the soldiers began operating under the assumption of a kidnapping.
Masera headed into the forest with the search party.
'If it's a kidnapping, that means there's an inside accomplice.'
Captain Declan, who had shown strong hostility toward Cynthia in the past, had also been invited to the villa.
'No. I can't carelessly suspect a comrade-in-arms.'
But what should he suspect, then?
Recalling the contents of the note left behind, anger surged and a bitter taste filled his mouth.
Masera shook his head, dismissing unnecessary possibilities.
'Even if by some chance they ran away, I have no intention of letting them go.'
Not yet. He still needed her.
He intended to keep her confined if that's what it took.
Masera climbed the highest hill and gazed into the distance.
Soon, his fixed pupils sharpened on something.
"A wagon pulled by two horses, heading west."
Masera possessed eyesight beyond what ordinary people could imagine. He could discern small movements even in the darkness.
Masera raised his sniper rifle, aimed at a spot, and fired several times, carving a mark into a tree.
"......Toward Kint Village."
A chilling energy jolted me awake.
The musty smell of the basement and the cold stone walls seeped into my entire body.
"Ung?"
I was in a dim basement.
A stinging sensation in my wrists made me look down, revealing that both were bound with rope.
What? I had clearly fallen asleep after taking the new medicine the maid brought.
Kidnapped, then.
In ten seconds, I assessed the situation and spotted a man slumped against the wall, covered with a cloth.
Judging by his clothes and build, it was Karos.
"Hey."
I nudged Karos and pulled off the cloth.
"Ugh......"
He grimaced, regained consciousness, and opened his eyes.
After scanning the surroundings like I had, he looked troubled.
"Cynthia, we've been kidnapped."
"I know."
Probably the work of the Free Society or some other group.
I let out a sigh and said,
"They won't kill us."
"How can you be sure?"
"If they wanted to, we'd be dead already."
They're probably planning to demand ransom as hostages.
I wonder what Masera would say if they asked for money. 'Please just raise her well.' Or something like that.
Of course, he wouldn't.
I pressed my ear to the wall and tapped it lightly.
"What are you doing?"
In response to Karos's question, I silently gestured for him to be quiet.
"Basement level one."
He gave me a look that said, How do you know that?
Explaining would require going back to my past life story, so I decided not to bother.
But how do we get out? No useful tools in sight...
As I brushed back my hair, something caught on my finger. I pulled it out and looked—it was the hairpin I'd lost in the forest.
'The brigadier general must have found it and put it back while I was asleep.'
What a tsundere with a soft inside.
I used the hairpin to untie the rope around my wrists.
Karos stared with eyes saying How did you do that?, but I ignored him.
Anyway, how did Karos end up captured with me? I asked him for the details.
"I went to your room after seeing the note you sent..."
"Why would I send a note?"
He ruffled his hair and furrowed his brow.
"Looking at the situation, we were tricked."
"Did you see who took us?"
"The last thing I saw was a young woman with red hair. She must have disguised herself as a maid and infiltrated."
Apparently, the medicine I took was a sleeping pill.
Judging by the cold night air seeping in, we hadn't gone far.
I looked around the basement, which resembled a warehouse, and said,
"We'll probably be moved somewhere else by tomorrow. Dawn at the latest."
"Where to?"
"Somewhere the military can't find."
With no information right now, a reckless escape was too risky.
"Got any matches?"
At my question, Karos fumbled in his coat with his bound hands and pulled out a matchbox.
'First, I need to gather intel.'
I crumpled up some scattered paper, tossed it on the floor, and struck a match to light it.
Karos, grasping my intent, widened his eyes.
"Are you insane? You want to burn to death trapped in here?"
"No, we won't die. My ransom alone will be enormous."
Soon, smoke rose with the flames.
I took a deep breath into my lungs and shouted at the top of my voice.
"Fire!"
Then I started pounding on the door as if to break it.
"Open up! We're going to burn to death!"
I stood by the door holding the hairpin.
If no one came, it meant no guards, and I'd pick the lock to get out.
A moment later, hearing footsteps approaching, I quickly backed away, pretended my hands were still bound, and sat back down.
Soon, the door creaked open.
"Ugh, smell of burning!"
Three men rushed down carrying buckets of water.
Behind them was the red-haired woman Karos mentioned.
"Why did the fire start all of a sudden?"
"There's a box of fireworks inside, but I don't know. No explosion sound, though."
Listening to their conversation, I glanced at the stacked boxes in the back and swallowed dryly.
Fireworks? That was close to disaster.
Fortunately, it wasn't a big blaze, so one bucket extinguished the spreading embers.
I sobbed pitifully, trembling.
"Please spare me... I'll give you all the money you want."
To induce carelessness with a helpless appearance.
The woman sneered down at me.
"Haha, as expected of a royal raised in a greenhouse. Wait until your husband pays up your brother's share too."
Buy one get one free?
I turned to Karos with bewildered eyes.
After the kidnappers left, I sat calmly, racking my brains.
The cold rising from the floor made me shiver involuntarily. Kidnapped in pajamas, of all things.
Then, Karos draped his coat over my coughing shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks. But how'd you take it off with your hands tied?"
"It was draped over my shoulders. They weren't interested in me."
I primly turned my head away and wrapped the coat around myself.
Wasn't this the classic locked-room cliché?
Somehow sensing Karos was about to get all emotional and serious, I preempted him by shifting the genre to escape thriller.
"From the info I got starting the fire, there are about five or six people here. We need to move minimally to avoid detection."
But Karos sat beside me, trying to change the genre I'd set.
"Cynthia. I understand you're angry with me, but marrying another woman is unavoidable..."
"Let's conserve energy thinking of escape opportunities."
"As I said from the beginning, for us to be together..."
"This seems to be Kint Village, where the fireworks factory is. The box has the factory address on it."
Karos persistently pushed for a serious talk, but I countered in the stern tone of an escape thriller veteran.
"Cynthia, why don't you untie me too."
"No."
What kind of nonsense is that when men and women are different?
How much time had passed?
Around the deep chill of early dawn, the door opened, and someone tossed in a bucket of warm water before leaving.
I stopped Karos from drinking and poured it on the floor.
"Don't drink."
"Why?"
"It's laced with sleeping pills. They're planning to move us soon."
Before sunrise, the darkest dawn is the best time to travel.
I loosely rebound my hands so I could untie them myself, then leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.
"Pretend to sleep when they come."
Karos closed his eyes following my lead.
After a short while, the door opened, and people entered.
"No need to put them in the wooden box?"
"I put in strong sleeping pills. They'll sleep for three hours like this. Just cover them with some cloth."
"Then I'll lock the cargo door."
Amid the chatter, I felt my body being lifted.
Soon, it was dumped into the cargo hold.
In the enclosed cargo space, cold snowflakes seeped through cracks in the wooden walls. Fireworks boxes were stacked beside us.
I sat up and nudged Karos.
"Escape operation begins."
