“Here is the translated version of the letter from His Highness. Since the original is in code……”

Izer told the soldier in a cold tone.

“Give me the original as well.”

“The original…… here it is.”

The original went to Izer’s hands, the translation to General Schwenn.

Izer began translating the letter onto blank paper. The current military code was a modified version of the code he had learned while preparing for the stenographer exam.

The soldier had made no mistake. The message Izer instantly decoded contained the same tragedy the soldier had delivered.

Click. The sound of Izer putting down his pen sounded to everyone in the tent like the stopping of his heart.

“……”

Celian Chesterfield had been kidnapped. Beth Berienne and Percy Chesterfield were safe. Beth testified that a group of men had burst in with a loud noise in the middle of the night, and Celian had hidden her and Percy in a closet.

And Celian was captured. Soon they heard the men leaving, and a maid who had survived by hiding elsewhere immediately contacted the police. The police, judging the situation unusual, reported to Humingham immediately, Prince Edmond ordered an investigation, and afterward sent people to Fairville where they were……

More than forty-eight hours had passed during that time. Without knowing where she had been taken, or even if she was still alive.

Izer stared at the paper and spoke.

“Ferbien Letters has kidnapped a civilian from Treven’s mainland. This could turn from Fairville’s civil war into a full-scale war between Treven and Fairville.”

His tone was as indifferent, as if he was discussing someone else’s story. However, Jade knew that Izer’s emotions disappeared the more angry he became.

“If it were an ordinary civilian that would be one thing, but as you all know, my wife’s former name happens to be Berienne.”

Though the matter was too grave for a Second Lieutenant’s rank to lead the discussion, no one pointed out his insubordination. The voice of Second Lieutenant Chesterfield, who had never once pulled rank as a duke on the battlefield, resonated through the heavily silent tent.

“His Majesty the King won’t make this incident public. Escalating the war over Marcotti Berienne’s daughter? Treven’s citizens would never accept that. So they probably don’t want a hostage situation or public attention.”

“……”

“But it could cause confusion within the military.”

Marcotti Berienne was tacitly revered within the military. They kept quiet about it only because speaking out could be seen as opposing James III, the military’s supreme commander, but many soldiers agreed that Marcotti Berienne’s end had been inappropriate for someone who had devoted their loyalty to the country.

Second Lieutenant Chesterfield concluded in a toneless voice.

“Only a very few of us should know about this. We need to be careful not to cause unnecessary confusion among the soldiers. I apologize for personal matters getting involved, General.”

Jade barely parted his lips.

“But Second Lieutenant, your wife……”

“I’ll think more about ways to rescue the ‘hostage.’ For now, let’s return to what we were discussing. If you’re going to send an advance guard……” 

 * * *

 The meeting ended an hour later. As soon as it ended, Second Lieutenant Chesterfield left the general’s tent.

His feet sank deep into snow accumulated up to his ankles. He heard another officer muttering to himself.

“We’ll be completely stuck here.”

Toward the end of the meeting, General Schwenn had rejected Jade’s proposal to divide forces for a surprise attack after receiving the weather report. Anyone would have done the same in this weather.

Moreover, a river twenty meters wide blocked the path between the enemy and the castle. It was impossible to cross a river that wouldn’t freeze even in cold weather during heavy snowfall. With the fundamental goal of immobilizing the enemy achieved, the movement of troops was unnecessary.

A snowflake that fell on his eyelashes melted away, unable to withstand his body heat. A small water droplet hanging precariously on his eyelid kept interfering with his vision.

A face appeared in his flickering vision. Izer spoke a name he hadn’t uttered for a while.

“Celian……”

Beth’s testimony, which Edmond had attached in detail, was truly perfect. Her words made it feel as if he had been in the closet himself.

‘Found her! This b*tch!’

‘Let go, who are you to do this! Police…… Aagh!’

The sound of clothes tearing and sharp screams mixed with vulgar talk.

‘Whew, look at those big t*ts. Can’t we have a go at her before taking her? She’s married anyway, it’s not like not getting c*ck for a few days will make used goods new again.’

‘No, if he finds out about that, we’re dead.’

‘Mmph!’

‘Stay still……! Damn, bring the rope quickly. Are there no others?’

‘Looks like just three maids. All dead.’

‘Right, he said witnesses were fine. Let’s hurry. It’s torture just holding onto a woman we can’t f*ck.’

The screams stop. The sound of dragging follows. The men’s voices fade away, and after a thud, probably the closing of a carriage door, silence arrives. Beside him, Percy cries with tears streaming down, and among the corpses of her colleagues, a maid trembling like an aspen calls for Beth.

‘Miss, young master, Miss, young master……’

‘Madam’ wasn’t among the people the maid was calling for. Because there was no room for mistake that she had been taken. That certainly, Celian had vanished.

Celian, his wife……

“Second Lieutenant!”

“……”

“Izer!”

Jade’s face filled his blurry vision. A rough force gripped and shook his shoulders.

“Izer, snap out of it!”

The gun in his hand fired a blank into the air and fell. Jade kicked Izer’s gun away.

“Celian will be fine. If they were going to kill her, they would have done it there. If they want to cause confusion among us like you said, they won’t kill her so easily.”

“……won’t kill her, right.”

“Izer, even as a prisoner, they can’t treat someone of her status carelessly. I saw Beth’s testimony too. There must have been orders from above not to harm your wife.”

Jade swallowed his words. Beth had only heard what happened before Celian was put in the carriage; no one could know what hardships she might have endured inside it.

A curse slipped from Izer’s lips.

“F*ck……”

Just reading Beth’s writing, he could tell how they viewed her. He knew because it was the same look he had given her. He knew their filthy lust best because he had felt it the most himself.

He thought he could hear Celian’s screams. Her pleas to stop, her appeals that she was sorry, her moans of distress from the c*ck forced in her mouth despite her resistance, her screams each time her br*asts were bitten—everything was vivid.

He had thought it was fine if that woman was unhappy. As long as she stayed by his side. He hadn’t cared if she cried every day. As long as she waited for him.

Or so he had thought.

Jade consoled him as he stared into empty space.

“Izer, don’t worry too much.”

“……”

Izer silently acknowledged it. He worried about that woman. Worried she might be hurt, might fall ill in the cold weather, might have her torn heart shredded to pieces.

If something happened to the woman he loved, it was only natural to feel such emotions……

A lightning realization struck his mind.

His ‘love’ wasn’t about wanting her to stay by his side.

He had thought it was fine if that woman was unhappy. Izer had thought it was fine if he was unhappy.

He hadn’t cared if she cried every day. Hadn’t cared if she hated him.

As long as she stayed by his side.

As long as she was safe.

A passing soldier gave the password.

Grace.

The damned God had bestowed his grace upon him in the worst possible way. 

 * * *

 It was rare for Grand Duke Letters to show anger directly. He was a man who maintained his composure even when the front lines were pushed back and surrounded by enemies.

Yet now, an incomprehensibly vile act had occurred. His angry voice was directed at the man crouching before him.

“I don’t remember ordering anything like this.”

“……”

“James III will be thrilled to jump at this. Nothing gives better cause for war than kidnapping civilians. A Duchess, no less—are you in your right mind?”

The shoulders of the man standing opposite Ferbien Letters hunched. But if he lost this battle of wills, he would die. The man laid out his own precise logic in a voice as thin as a mosquito’s.

“Your Highness, Treven won’t be able to rashly reveal who the hostage is. This woman’s significance in that country isn’t exactly positive. It wouldn’t be good if it became known they’re waging all-out war to save just this one woman.”

“Listen here.”

“Instead, it will cause confusion among their military commanders. The reason we’re being pushed back now is because their chain of command is so solid, isn’t it?”

It was a reasonable point. Ferbien stared at the woman trembling on the dirt floor. As if binding her hands and feet with rope wasn’t enough, they had gagged her mouth. Judging by her torn clothes in various places, the humiliation she had endured while being dragged here seemed tremendous.

General Marcotti Berienne’s daughter, Second Lieutenant Izer Chesterfield’s wife. The woman known only through rumors was an extraordinary beauty.

‘She probably never expected to be suddenly kidnapped into enemy territory……’

The woman’s face looked like she might die of strangulation from panic. Ferbien sighed at her pitiful appearance that naturally aroused sympathy.

“Remove the gag. Biting her tongue would only hurt herself. No one’s going to come rescue her even if she screams here.”