“Your Highness, I’ll bring it personally.”

“Don’t disappoint me.”

Suharto, who had roughly pushed the lid closed, nodded as if giving one last chance. With his permission, Baron Vulti hurried out, followed by the jewelry merchant and the aide. Left alone, Suharto picked up his wine glass again as Viscount Tozille approached from the side.

“Do you really believe in the baron?”

Viscount Tozille’s question implied whether Suharto believed Baron Vulti could overcome the Grand Duke, and why he was still waiting here instead of leaving.

“Could he even cause a small scratch on the Grand Duke’s body even if he sacrificed his life?”

Suharto coldly belittled Baron Vulti.

“He’s just a moth flying into the fire.”

“But why do you treat him so generously? Even coming to his trading company in person……”

To them, Baron Vulti was no different from a commoner. There was no particular reason to look after him, and not questioning him about his mischief in the previous matter with Count Jellisto had been the greatest consideration given to him.

Suharto put down his wine glass and rested his chin on his hand.

“Having formed a bond, I don’t easily abandon it.”

What could his words mean?

Just then, Suharto’s knight, who had secretly followed Baron Vulti, returned.

“The baron was knocked unconscious and loaded into a black carriage.”

Suharto smiled with satisfaction as if he had expected this. He shook his clothes and stood up, trying to escape the stench that seeped out even with the lid closed.

“Follow Baron Vulti. You may kill him if necessary.”

At his command, the knight bowed and left. Viscount Tozille, who still couldn’t fully grasp Suharto’s intentions, pushed the box to a corner.

He took care to minimize any traces of the crown prince’s visit to the trading company.

Meanwhile, Suharto, seemingly satisfied with his stomach warmed by alcohol, rubbed his chest a couple of times.

“Baron Vulti dies as punishment for opposing the Grand Duke. That needs to be strongly emphasized. We must make them aware that if the Grand Duke becomes emperor, not only their interests but also their lives will be threatened. To increase opposition against the Grand Duke.”

Only then did Viscount Tozille understand why Suharto had encouraged Baron Vulti.

“But won’t the Grand Duke know that?”

“I also know he’s not one to bend his principles because of others’ glances. He’s not one to use other methods either, so Baron Vulti will not survive.”

Rudfelix, who despised Baron Vulti for being filled with selfish greed from beginning to end, would not let him go unharmed.

“His straightforward character becomes the knife aimed at my heart.”

As Suharto was about to leave the room, he looked at the box placed on the table.

“I regret losing that necklace. It would have been perfect for building friendly relations with the kingdom.”

Where could it have gone?

* * *

Elena, who had obtained information about the night market, Spark Trading Company, and Baron Vulti from Wei, visited Spark Trading Company.

[I stole the double ledger that was hidden deep in the night market.]

Wei didn’t hide that he had stolen it and asked if it was enough as payment for the deal.

Although she wondered if someone who had once betrayed the baron might abandon her too, Elena was concerned about Wei’s terms for the deal.

[I want to live like a human without hiding. I need a family. And I think you won’t just see me as a money-making pouch, Miss.]

If nothing else, at least those words were sincere. She had left him behind as he shouted that he would gladly be bound as tightly as needed if only she wouldn’t send him back to where he was.

“Where is Baron Vulti?”

Elena came looking for him, showing her face openly.

“He hasn’t come here today.”

“I’m coming from the baron’s residence. I was told he was here?”

“He’s not here.”

When the clerk looked troubled, Elena gazed at him with a puzzled expression.

“Do you know where he is?”

“Well, I don’t really……”

How could he tell an outsider that the baron had rushed out and suddenly vanished?

“Aaaaargh!”

In a basement where not even sunlight entered, a man screamed in agony.

He struggled to untie the bindings on his hands and feet, but only succeeded in stripping his skin and exposing bone; the thin metal wire wouldn’t release him.

“What justification do you have for holding me like this?”

Baron Vulti glared at his captor with bloodshot eyes.

“No matter how much of a Grand Duke you are, you can’t do this to me.”

Then, a man emerged from the darkness, his face slowly revealed by the torchlight.

“Didn’t you create the justification yourself?”

Rudfelix’s cold gaze swept over Baron Vulti.

“You spread word everywhere that you would openly attack me, and yet you didn’t expect this?”

“Even so, an outright kidnapping? What kind of Grand Duke are you with no noble pride? You’ll earn the resentment of others.”

“Worry about yourself.”

Rudfelix forcibly lifted his chin to make him meet his eyes.

“Was your reason for trying to destroy Jellisto Trading Company simply to take profit?”

Baron Vulti snickered. If he would engage in conversation rather than immediately bringing in a torturer, that wasn’t bad for him.

“Of course there are other reasons. The trading company master’s daughter has such tender flesh that I want to devour her, but since her father keeps her so close, there’s no way to take her.”

He was referring to Elena who had entered as an aide. He deliberately tried to provoke Rudfelix, and it worked perfectly.

Rudfelix’s fist struck Baron Vulti’s face hard. For a moment, everything flashed white before his eyes, and when his vision returned, Baron Vulti coughed and tried to reduce the pain.

When the usually gentlemanly and elegant Rudfelix used his fist instead of a sword, a hidden wild energy flowed out. And although it was just one blow, it inflicted unbearable pain on his opponent.

“Cough, cough. Urgh.”

“Provoking me like this won’t get you anything.”

“Kuhehehe. Is that really so?”

Baron Vulti hid his anxiety and grinned, showing all his teeth. If it were him, he would have immediately separated the head from the body of his captured prey, but this was indeed a Grand Duke. A few dozen punches instead of a sword didn’t matter. As long as he stayed alive, Suharto’s men would find him.

To steer the current situation to his advantage, he grinned and provoked Rudfelix.

“You were trying to hide in the grand duchy to avoid me, weren’t you? Then go ahead. But leave that Jellisto girl behind.”

“You seem to want something. Then try to endure without dying.”

A coldness permeated Rudfelix’s low voice.

Just as he raised his fist again—

“Your Highness.”

Elena rushed in and grabbed Rudfelix’s fist.

“Stop this.”

Her eyes shone stubbornly as she stood in front of Rudfelix to block him.

* * *

Before finding Rudfelix, Elena had heard about what happened to Baron Vulti from an informant she had previously planted.

“Kidnapping? What is this……”

Baron Vulti had reportedly been kidnapped in broad daylight. More than two people had witnessed him being hit on the back of the head and collapsing.

Since Rudfelix was the only one who had recently publicly classified him as an enemy, Elena frantically searched for him.

She went to the restaurant, heard from Jace that Rudfelix hadn’t come, immediately left and went to the mansion. Without even going inside, she confirmed from the knight guarding the main gate that he hadn’t arrived, then returned to the vicinity of Spark Trading Company.

“Finding a needle dropped in the middle of the market would be easier.”

At least that wouldn’t be hiding.

Since she hadn’t yet fully identified how many private mansions the Grand Duke had in the capital, she couldn’t think of a suitable place to go next.

Even pulling at her hair didn’t help her think, and Elena lost her composure in her impatience.

There wasn’t enough time to ask someone else to find him.

“I need to find him before something happens to Baron Vulti.”

If he killed Baron Vulti, things would spiral out of control.

Elena stood in the middle of the street and closed her eyes.

‘Stay calm. I can’t find him by searching everywhere. I need to remember somehow.’

A place where he would take someone.

The surrounding noise, which she thought would be distracting, actually helped her concentrate.

‘But did he ever subdue someone in that way?’

Suddenly a fundamental question arose. Thinking about what Grand Duke Rudfelix had been like until now, kidnapping didn’t suit him at all.

At the very least, he would draw his sword to face an attack head-on, but he didn’t possess the cowardice to attack from behind.

That was his biggest failure even when he raised his sword against the imperial family but couldn’t defeat the crown prince.

Though he was the villain, she had simply considered him stupid for not going to kill the crown prince when he was alone.

She hadn’t realized that he never did such things because they went against his principles.

“Haah.”

Elena had been holding her breath while thinking about him.

Her eyelids rose slowly as her mood became calmer.

“Grand Duke Rudfelix……”

She recalled what he had done as she slowly uttered his name. Him contemplating whether to select her as his aide. Him granting Count Ephraim’s request. His gaze following her in the imperial library.

“This isn’t his doing.”

The hypothesis that he wasn’t the one who initially kidnapped Baron Vulti formed.

“The Grand Duke actually rescued him after he was kidnapped.”