Chapter 72: The Vanished Hostage
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72: The Vanished Hostage
Herdin woke early in the morning.
He had gone to sleep and woken at his usual time, yet he felt strangely unrefreshed.
Had he suffered a nightmare he couldn't remember?
Shaking off the lingering unease, Herdin climbed out of bed and began his day like any other.
He smoked a cigar, showered, dressed, and left his room. As he headed for the stairs to descend to the dining room, his eyes fell on Blair’s closed door.
He hadn’t seen her for the past few days, not since he’d stopped visiting her room. She hadn’t even appeared for meals.
Her blatant rebellion was laughable, but he decided to leave her be for the time being. Provoking her further would only be a hassle, especially if the fragile woman collapsed by the fireplace again or took ill.
Passing her room, he descended to the first floor, where he saw Mason speaking to a maid with a serious expression. It was a typical morning scene, except for the grim set of Mason’s face. It was rare for him to look so troubled.
A bad feeling crept over him.
Herdin approached them. “Mason, what’s going on?”
“Your Grace.”
At the sight of Herdin, the maid quickly bowed her head, her eyes darting nervously between the two men.
Mason hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I’ve just been informed that Madam left for the Imperial Palace in a great hurry early this morning.”
In noble households, servants took turns on night duty to answer their master’s call at a moment’s notice. The maid beside him must have been the one on watch last night.
Hearing this, Herdin raised an eyebrow. “At that hour? What could have been so urgent?”
Since Mason had yet to hear the details himself, he gestured to the maid. She spoke up hesitantly. “I tried to persuade her to wait until daybreak, as it was so early, but she insisted she had to go immediately.”
“Was there no letter from the Imperial Palace yesterday?”
Mason replied, “There was not, Your Grace.”
“Did she say when she would return?”
“When I asked about breakfast, she said she would be back before then, but…” the maid answered, her voice trailing off.
It was already breakfast time. For them to be bringing this to his attention now meant Blair had clearly not returned.
Herdin furrowed his brow.
Since he had assigned knights to guard her, the gatekeeper would have reported her departure, and the knights would have followed her discreetly.
“The knights would have followed her, so nothing should have happened. Return to your duties.”
The maid bowed once more and hurried away.
Herdin turned on his heel, with Mason following close behind. As he walked toward the dining room, a question surfaced in his mind.
Why would she rush to the Imperial Palace in the middle of the night? What on earth for?
Just as Herdin was trying to puzzle out the reason, the front door burst open with a violent crash.
Startled, he and Mason spun around. A man, bleeding from a head wound, staggered in, dragging an unconscious knight with a stab wound in his abdomen.
The man was one of the coachmen for House Delmark, and the knight was Bain—one of the men he had assigned to guard Blair.
At the sight, Herdin’s eyes began to tremble.
While the servants preparing breakfast stared in shock, the coachman gasped for breath.
“Your Grace,” he choked out, “the Duchess… has been kidnapped.”
* * *
“Ugh…”
Blair struggled to open her eyes, a throbbing pain radiating through her skull. Her head ached, her vision was blurry, and her stomach churned. Her hands were tied.
As she pieced her memories back together, she came to a grim conclusion.
She had been kidnapped again. Her body ached because she had hit her head hard inside the carriage. The fact that she was still alive meant the injury wasn't critical, at least.
Blair blinked, clearing her hazy vision, and the scenery slowly came into focus.
A forest.
Beyond a large window lay a dense forest, much like the one she had seen from the villa she’d visited with Mikhail.
Perhaps her past experience had sharpened her instincts, because she quickly began assessing the situation. But just as she was about to sit up, a stranger’s voice cut through the air.
“She’s been groaning for a while. Did she hit her head that hard?”
Hearing the man’s voice approaching, Blair quickly shut her eyes.
A shadow fell over her, and then a woman’s blunt voice spoke. “That’s because you charged the carriage on horseback without any warning, you lunatic.”
“What do we do? Is she going to die?”
“She won’t die from a knock on the head. She’s a pampered lady, just making a fuss.”
The man’s shadow receded.
From their brief exchange, Blair gleaned two things: they knew who she was, and they had no intention of killing her.
Are they after a ransom?
She’d heard of bandits who attacked carriages to hold nobles for ransom, but those were mountain bandits who targeted travelers on secluded roads. She had never heard of anyone taking such a risk in the heart of the Imperial Capital.
“Anyway, what’s taking those bastards so long? We need to erase her memory before the Duke gets here.”
The woman grumbled. The man defended their tardy associates.
“Well, who could’ve known? That the Duchess would move so fast, and so early in the morning.”
“…”
“Don’t be so anxious. A villa like this is only used by nobles for secret trysts. No one’s going to just barge in. If worst comes to worst, we can just run for it.”
Blair absorbed every detail she could from their conversation. Even if there was nothing she could do at this moment, understanding her situation was a critical advantage.
After a brief silence, one of them stood.
“Where are you going?” the woman asked. It seemed the man had gotten up.
“I’m hungry. I’m going to look for something to eat. It’s a noble’s villa, so there’s bound to be some snacks, right?”
“How can you even think about food right now?”
“What’s wrong with right now? It’s not like I’m the one who got kidnapped.”
The man chuckled as he replied, then left the room.
A sigh and a muttered curse from the woman followed. Then came a sharp click. Soon after, the smell of cigar smoke drifted over, revealing the sound had come from a lighter.
Blair bit her lip, trying to suppress the cough that rose in her throat. But she quickly reached her limit.
Just as she swallowed a painful breath—
Crash!
A loud racket echoed from downstairs. Hearing it, the woman cursed and shot to her feet.
“Ugh, what kind of mess is that idiot making now?”
She stormed out of the room. Her footsteps faded down the hallway.
“Cough…”
Only then did Blair let out the cough she had been holding back. The more she coughed, the more her head pounded.
After taking several deep breaths to compose herself, she sat up. Her head throbbed violently, and a wave of nausea washed over her. It took every ounce of her will to move.
But at that moment, another commotion from downstairs steeled her resolve.
There’s no time.
Her eyes scanned the room, landing on a chair. She pushed herself to her feet and approached it. Fortunately, her legs weren’t tied.
Blair carefully tipped the chair onto its side and wedged one of its thin legs between the ropes binding her hands. After wiggling for a few moments, she felt the knot loosen. She worked the slackened rope free with her fingers.
The next problem was escaping.
She looked out the large window, past the balcony, and into the dense forest.
I have to get into the forest.
There would be far more places to hide out there than in here.
Perhaps because she knew they wouldn’t kill her, her mind was already racing with escape plans instead of dwelling on the fear of failure.
This is the second floor. I just need a way down.
Searching for a means to descend without being noticed, Blair spotted the curtains half-drawn over the balcony window. An idea sparked, reminding her of the day she had first visited the Libellus Guild.
She dragged the chair under the curtains, climbed up, and pulled them from the rod. She tied the two panels together to form a long rope, then secured one end tightly to the balcony railing.
Finally, she grabbed the knot and tugged with all her might. It felt secure.
Having finished her final check, Blair threw the makeshift curtain rope over the railing.
“It’s ready…”
Now, it was time to climb down.
Just as she was about to hoist herself over the railing—
“Did you come here to work or to play? Huh?”
“Why are you so cranky? You ate your share, too. You were just as hungry as I was.”
The bickering voices of the man and woman drifted up from the stairs. Blair’s heart sank.
In a panic, she moved toward the railing again but froze. If she tried to climb down now, she could slip and injure herself, or they would catch her before her feet even touched the ground. Even if she made it down safely, she stood no chance of outrunning them.
In that case, I’d rather…
Blair quickly changed her plan.
* * *
Still arguing, the man and woman stepped back into the room where Blair was being held, only to stop short as a chilly draft hit them.
Sensing something was wrong, they scanned the room. The balcony door was wide open. Tied to the railing was a rope made of curtains.
And most importantly, Blair was gone.