Chapter 75: This Was Enough
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: This Was Enough
…Herdin.
A wave of relief washed over him as she collapsed calling his name, but a creeping dread followed close behind.
The terrifying thought that he might never hear her voice again.
If her goal in causing this whole mess had been to turn his world upside down, she had succeeded spectacularly.
Even now, as she lay breathing right before his eyes, that lingering anxiety refused to fade.
The coachman said Blair had entered the Empress's Palace and emerged carrying something.
He had so many questions. What on earth was it, and why had she gone to the Imperial Palace alone in the dead of night?
So…
Please, just open your eyes.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, as if she had heard him, Blair's eyelids fluttered and slowly opened.
Herdin stared, his words caught in his throat, as focus gradually returned to her hazy eyes. Before he could speak, she called his name.
“……Herdin.”
Her signature low voice slipped past her weakly parted lips. Herdin waited.
“You were right.”
“What are you talking about—?”
“Her Majesty the Empress… she didn't commit suicide that day. She was murdered.”
He stared down at her, his eyes wide with shock.
Suppressing the rush of emotions from her restored memories, Blair forced herself to continue.
“……And she wasn't trying to kill me. She was protecting me.”
“……”
“I'm sorry. It took me so long…”
Guilt pressed down on her chest—the guilt of ignoring the truth for a decade, compounded by the crushing weight of having failed to save Esmeralda.
Though her exhausted eyes were dry, her voice trembled with an emotion she couldn't hide.
“So you went to the Imperial Palace last night… because of those memories?”
At his question, Blair hesitated for a moment before confessing.
“……Actually, Lady Lorellain and I tried hypnosis yesterday.”
Herdin's expression hardened at the news she had undergone hypnosis without consulting him.
But Blair, lost in her exhaustion, didn't notice and continued.
“The hypnosis didn't yield any results, but I had a dream last night. It wasn't about the day of the accident, but a memory of Her Majesty the Empress hiding something in her bedroom.”
“So you went to find it in the middle of the night?”
“Yes. I felt I had to go before Mother noticed. And then… my memories of that day came back in the burning villa.”
“……”
“……Though I ended up losing the documents in the end.”
A self-deprecating shadow crossed her face as she lowered her gaze.
Anyone else might have blamed her for causing such a commotion.
But he, of all people, could not.
He knew better than anyone who had driven her to this—a woman so fragile that a single hypnosis session left her bedridden for days.
“It was so dark that I could only read the first page of the documents, but even that…”
“Blair.”
Herdin gently cut her off. She was rambling, as if pursued by some unseen specter.
He hadn't pressed her for answers just to hear about some documents, not from a woman who had just escaped death's door.
This was enough.
Just having her here, breathing and speaking before him—that was more than enough.
Seeing the guilt, apology, and undeniable exhaustion etched onto her face, Herdin gently covered her eyes with his hand.
“Rest for now. I'll look for the documents.”
Blair blinked slowly, the warmth of his hand a gentle comfort against her skin. She let her heavy eyelids fall, her exhausted body quickly surrendering to sleep.
Herdin quietly watched Blair as she fell into a deep, even sleep.
She had recovered her memories of the accident.
They had just taken a massive step toward the truth he had desperately sought for ten years.
Yet, why did he feel an uneasy foreboding rather than relief?
After staying by Blair's side for a moment longer, Herdin quietly stood and left the room. Ruth, who was waiting outside the door, stepped forward.
“And the bastards?”
“They are in the dungeon.”
The two walked toward the dungeon, located just outside the Ducal Mansion. The Knight Commander, waiting at the entrance, bowed respectfully.
Acknowledging the greeting with a brief nod, Herdin headed down to the basement. Ruth handed him a pair of leather gloves.
Herdin pulled on the gloves as he stepped into the cell.
Inside, the man who had kidnapped Blair was bound in shackles. He hadn't been taken easily, judging by the various cuts and bruises covering his body.
The moment the man saw Herdin, he shrank back in terror, his chains rattling loudly.
He had good reason to be afraid. The man before him radiated an overwhelming, suffocating pressure, as if he could kill with a single glance.
“Hello.”
The voice that slipped past his cold, sharp lips was sweet. Chillingly so.
Brushing back the bangs that fell into his eyes, Herdin pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it.
He exhaled a cloud of smoke and continued.
“I'm in a pretty fucking terrible mood right now.”
“……”
“So, I'd appreciate it if you answered my questions the first time I ask.”
The man swallowed hard. He knew instinctively that this was no empty threat.
“Who sent you?”
The man hesitated, unable to speak.
Watching him with cold eyes through the drifting smoke, Herdin tossed the cigar to the floor, crushed it under his heel, and spoke.
“I suppose having your fingernails ripped out sounds like a tickle to you?”
He gestured to the Knight Commander waiting behind him.
Realizing what was about to happen, the man shrieked in sheer terror.
“I-I don't know! I really don't know!”
“It seems you're still not in the mood to cooperate.”
“I-I really don't know! We were just hired hands doing what we were told!”
Herdin studied the man's eyes to gauge his sincerity, then signaled the Knight Commander to step back. Taking a step closer to the man, he asked,
“And what were you told to do?”
He already knew their mission wasn't simply to kill Blair.
If murder had been the order, these idiots wouldn't have spent hours scouring the entire forest searching for her after she escaped.
When the man hesitated, trying to read the room instead of answering quickly, Herdin's gaze drifted back to the Knight Commander.
Seeing this, the man blurted out immediately.
“M-Memories! We were told to erase her memories!”
“Which memories?”
“Her childhood memories…”
“And how were you planning to erase them?”
“We were going to use black magic—”
The man stopped mid-sentence, realizing his blunder, but the words "black magic" had already slipped out.
Herdin's eyes narrowed, piecing together the implications.
“You don't look like a black mage, which means you have accomplices.”
“N-Not accomplices, exactly. More like… subcontractors.”
Herdin let out a dry chuckle at the word ‘subcontractors.’ Subcontracting for dirty work, he thought. What a joke.
Sensing the danger behind that laugh, the man quickly volunteered more information.
“But we don't know who they really are either! We were only told to keep an eye on the Duchess, kidnap her, and then contact them…”
“Where were you supposed to contact them?”
The man rattled off the address. Upon hearing it, the Knight Commander immediately left the dungeon.
Though they likely won't find anything.
According to the man, these people were meticulous enough to keep their identities hidden even from their own ‘subcontractors.’
They had probably caught wind of the situation near the villa and fled, leaving absolutely no trace behind.
Herdin moved on to his final question.
“I hear the Duchess was carrying some documents. Did you see them?”
The man thought for a moment, trying to recall what documents Herdin was referring to, before shaking his head.
“I don't remember clearly… but we brought the Duchess's belongings with us when we kidnapped her, so they were probably left in the villa…”
Herdin frowned at the answer.
The villa had been reduced to ashes. Any documents inside were now lost to the flames.
Deciding he had learned enough, Herdin ended the interrogation and left the dungeon.
He wanted nothing more than to tear them limb from limb for nearly letting Blair burn to death, but they were still useful.
Herdin gave his orders to Ruth, who followed him out.
“Release them tomorrow morning. Put a tail on them. They might try to contact the mastermind or the black mages again.”
“Understood.”
“And ensure everyone, both inside and outside the estate, keeps their mouths shut about today's events.”
“Understood.”
In truth, he already had a suspect in mind.
It was more than a suspicion; she was the first person who had come to mind the moment this happened.
…The Grand Empress Dowager.
She had caught wind of Blair trying to recover her memories of the accident from ten years ago and had even warned her to stop the hypnosis.
But he had nothing but circumstantial evidence.
If this were a simple kidnapping, he would have exposed the culprits and exacted a brutal retribution, a public display of what happened to those who crossed the House of Delmark. But this was far from simple.
If this kidnapping was tied to the incident from ten years ago, he couldn't rashly make it public without concrete proof.
The narrative would spin out of control: a heartless mother who abandoned her daughter for ambition, and the pitiful daughter used as a pawn.
Or a daughter who betrayed her mother under the influence of her husband.
It would become nothing more than juicy gossip for scandalmongers to tear apart as they pleased.
If that happened, the House of Delmark and the Imperial Family would suffer on a grand scale, while Katrina and Blair would be torn apart on a personal level.
He had no intention of throwing her to the wolves of high society, not when she was already struggling with the truth that her own mother had used her as a pawn.
Since so many people had witnessed the massive mobilization of the Delmark Knights today, rumors of a kidnapping would be impossible to suppress entirely.
But as long as Delmark doesn't make an official issue of it, it will remain nothing more than baseless speculation.
This incident had to be swept under the rug quietly. At least, until they had undeniable proof.