“Why? Are you suddenly planning to play a love game with His Highness the Crown Prince?”

“…”

“After ignoring each other for so long no matter what happened, why are you suddenly acting like this?”

From Duke Granard’s threatening attitude, Chloe could tell that he had participated in tormenting her during her time as Crown Princess.

“Could it be that you conspired with Lady Brooke to torment me?”

Though she knew the Duke wouldn’t engage in petty pranks like Lady Brooke, Chloe asked, testing him.

“Lady Brooke? Are you comparing me to a woman who engages in such trivial acts?”

Duke Granard’s face twisted in displeasure, apparently offended by the comparison to Lady Brooke. Then he smiled again.

“Don’t try to overturn all the effort I’ve built up in an instant. How nice it would have been if you had just disappeared quietly.”

The Duke was smiling, but his eyes were filled with murderous intent toward Chloe.

“What effort?”

“Well, nothing much. I simply took some steps to ensure your relationship with His Highness remained distant.”

Took steps? What does that mean? Surely not…

At that moment, Chloe recalled the times she had harbored unpleasant feelings toward Lucius during her days as Crown Princess.

“When His Highness suddenly told me not to attend the event on the day of… were you trying to drive a wedge between me and His Highness?”

“You could say that. It started as a mischievous prank, but I didn’t expect communication between you two would completely break down.”

“Are you saying you were behind all those times His Highness seemed to act on a whim?”

When Chloe asked with an incredulous look, Duke Granard laughed out loud.

“Do you know how fortunate it was that His Highness had no interest in you? Thanks to that, my actions went undetected. I had prepared various excuses in case I was discovered, which was truly a shame.”

It was a great shock to Chloe to learn that one of the reasons she had come to resent Lucius was not actually his intention.

‘Could it be that Lucius thought I unilaterally refused to attend the event? Ah, so that’s why.’

At that time, some people had criticized Chloe for not participating in the event. Since the facts were never corrected, Lucius might have thought she had acted rudely.

Of course, the fact that Lucius continued to neglect Chloe remained unchanged, but without such interference, their relationship might have been different. Yet someone had deliberately sabotaged them.

“How could you do that?”

Chloe looked at Duke Granard with resentful eyes.

“I merely created the opportunity. Wasn’t it both your faults that you didn’t grow closer? And it was you, Lady Limerick, who left of your own accord. So this time too, leave quietly.”

“I will absolutely not leave.”

Now that she realized she had been manipulated by Duke Granard, there was no way she would leave. He must have known this too. Yet his revelation suggested he had fully anticipated that Chloe would refuse to leave.

‘He never intended to let me go peacefully from the moment I refused.’

Chloe sensed at that moment that danger was approaching her. She suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body.

She tried to think objectively about her situation. She needed to figure out how to escape from this predicament.

The fact that the Duke had entered despite the increased security at the Crown Princess’s Palace, and that it remained quiet outside despite their conversation, meant there were traitors inside the palace.

The soldiers standing outside the door must be on his side. What about the soldiers below the window?

In a situation where she couldn’t trust anyone, Chloe had only one option: to scream and jump out the window.

She could climb onto the tree like before. Then someone would come to help her.

Just as Chloe was about to scream and move toward the window, she was suddenly tackled by two masked men. They must have been hiding in the room.

“Farewell, Lady Limerick.”

They brought a cloth to her face, gagging her, and after inhaling the anesthetic, Chloe lost consciousness while watching Duke Granard’s vile smile.

* * *

“Ugh.”

Chloe’s eyelids fluttered as the hot sunlight shone directly on her face. Her body trembled from the cold floor stealing her body heat. Curled up tightly, Chloe painfully opened her eyes.

Where was she?

As she blinked, she saw a log wall in front of her. Startled by the unfamiliar place, Chloe hurriedly tried to get up but failed. Her hands were tied behind her back, and ropes bound her chest and ankles.

‘Ah, I was kidnapped by Duke Granard.’

Only then did Chloe recall her last memory before losing consciousness. Someone had covered her mouth, and she had fainted. And now it was daylight.

‘I was caught by Duke Granard.’

It had been a mistake to briefly express her opinion to him out of desperation to escape, knowing he was not a man of good character.

She should never have thought of receiving help from others. It felt like she was paying the price for relying on someone else’s help rather than her own strength.

That vile bastard.

Chloe knew well that Duke Granard wouldn’t kill her. If her body were found, Duke Limerick would not leave Duke Granard alone. He would undoubtedly try to destroy his family.

So he must have fabricated evidence that she ran away on her own. That was the only way to deceive Duke Limerick.

To make her disappear from the Nate Empire, he would have no choice but to sell her to human traffickers. The soldiers planted by Duke Granard in the palace would likely testify that Chloe left because she didn’t want to become Crown Princess.

Given her previous escape attempt, no one would find it suspicious that Chloe suddenly left. The obvious conclusion would be that she truly didn’t want to become Crown Princess and left without telling her family.

So Duke Granard, who had previously set traps for Chloe to leave voluntarily, now took direct action to kidnap her. To completely erase her existence from the Nate Empire.

‘Do you think I’ll let you have your way?’

Chloe bit her lower lip. She had no intention of being sold off meekly. To prevent that, escaping from this place was her top priority.

Fortunately, there was no one guarding inside the cabin.

They seem to underestimate her.

It seemed that Duke Granard couldn’t mobilize his family’s knights, and it wasn’t easy to find mercenaries bold enough to make enemies of the Limerick family, so he couldn’t hire many.

Having assessed the situation, Chloe smiled with satisfaction.

What they overlooked was that Chloe had trained to protect herself over the past year. If she could seize an opportunity, she could escape.

She had learned how to temporarily dislocate and relocate her joints when tied up. So the ropes binding her body weren’t difficult to loosen.

Chloe slipped the loosened ropes upward, then untied the ropes around her legs. After that, she carefully walked to check the situation outside the cabin, making sure not to make any noise.

She confirmed that two men were guarding the front door and one at the back of the house.

‘If I do this right, I can escape.’

While knights would have good teamwork, making it difficult to escape their vigilance, these were mercenaries. Mercenaries operated individually, so disrupting just one could create an opportunity to escape.

Moreover, they must have guarded the cabin all night, so they wouldn’t be in their usual condition.

The only problem was that Chloe was wearing a voluminous dress and pointed shoes. It was cumbersome to escape in this state.

Chloe had no choice but to tear the lace on her dress to reduce its volume.

After preparing to escape, she kicked the door hard. The old log door broke with a cracking sound. Simultaneously, the man standing in front of it fell forward with a scream.

Not missing the opportunity, Chloe bent down to pick up the sword the man had dropped, then threw it at the knee of another man rushing toward her.

“Argh!”

The man with the sword embedded in his thigh screamed and fell to his knees. Chloe picked up the sword he dropped. Then she took off her shoes and started running.

She didn’t know where she was, but she needed to reach a nearby village to seek help.

“Catch that woman!”

Mercenaries tasked with searching the area around the cabin were seen rushing toward the sound of screams. Chloe began to flee in the opposite direction.

If caught, she would certainly be sold as a slave to another empire. So even if her feet hurt, Chloe had to run with all her might.

Though her physical training allowed her to run fast, she couldn’t outrun the mercenaries. Complete escape was impossible.

It was better to run in random directions without a pattern to throw them off. Evading their sight was her immediate goal.