When he opened his eyes, everything was pitch black.

Seeing his hands and feet bound while lying on his side, he realized he’d been kidnapped, and from the jolting motion of his body, he figured out he was in a carriage. 

His head throbbed, suggesting he was injured. Recalling how he’d been drinking wine when there was a thud and his vision went dark, it seemed someone had broken in and struck his head.

The ropes binding his hands were surprisingly enchanted with magic, and the inside of the carriage was also covered with a barrier. 

Seeing that expensive magic had been used to kidnap him, a mere guard slave, Raiden wondered if his identity had been discovered, but then changed his mind upon seeing the shoddy magical restraints – that couldn’t be it.

He easily untied the enchanted ropes and dispelled the magic on the ropes binding his legs as well. Befitting a royal from a country more magically advanced than the Kadelai Empire, he had learned various magics since childhood. 

So breaking mere barrier magic and binding spells was child’s play, and if they knew he was the Tarecus prince, they wouldn’t have thought to contain him with just these magical barriers.

Having easily dispelled the ropes and magical barrier inside the carriage, Raiden carefully observed the situation outside.

‘The luggage compartment attached to the back of the carriage?’

Raiden confirmed his location. He looked around, roughly counted the number of heads sitting inside the carriage, and checked if there was anything in the luggage compartment that could serve as a weapon.

Though he didn’t know the destination, he felt he needed to end the situation before arriving, so Raiden moved lightly and leaped onto the carriage roof from the luggage compartment. His movements were so light that they made no sound, and the people inside the carriage had no idea Raiden was on the roof. 

This was partly due to the rattling noise of the carriage, and partly because they thought he couldn’t possibly break the magical barrier and escape. They had trusted in just one magical barrier and left Raiden alone in the luggage compartment.

Raiden carefully crouched and walked across the carriage roof. He could see the coachman driving and a man sitting beside him. Raiden carefully walked behind the coachman and instantly twisted his neck. 

Then, before the man beside him could draw his sword in surprise, he grabbed the hand holding the sword and slit his throat with it. It was a soundless execution.

But he had no intention of k*lling the guys inside without a sound. Raiden pulled the reins to stop the carriage and jumped down to the ground. Due to the sudden stop, six men inside the carriage came rushing out.

“Gasp! It’s the hostage!”

“No, how did that b*stard!”

“Daern and Kadel are down! Get him!”

Seeing Raiden and their two dead comrades, the six shocked men quickly drew their swords to attack Raiden, and without batting an eye, Raiden instantly beheaded five of them. 

Then he pointed his sword, red with his comrades’ blood, at the throat of the one man he’d deliberately spared. He’d kept alive the one who seemed most cowardly among the six to uncover who was behind this.

“Sp-spare me…!”

“If you tell me who ordered this.”

The man trembled. The mouth of a commission house employee, whose life depended on secrecy, wouldn’t open easily. But humans could do anything when faced with death.

“I won’t take your life.”

Raiden’s lips curved up coldly.

* * *

Rihana tried to find Raiden, who had suddenly disappeared. She had drunk with Letia until almost dawn and collapsed asleep.

“Count…!”

As she was groggily seeing off Letia and turning around, a servant came running urgently. Her eyes snapped open at the news that the bedroom window was open, there were signs of intrusion, and Raiden had disappeared. 

When she ran frantically to the bedroom, her vision filled with broken wine glasses that hadn’t been cleaned up yet and wine stains that had dried on the floor.

Though there were no signs of a struggle, there were bloodstains mixed with the wine, making her certain something had happened to Raiden. Whether it was Raiden’s blood or someone else’s, the fact that there was blood in her bedroom and Raiden had disappeared was proof that someone had broken in.

But finding Raiden wasn’t an easy task. Though the Empire’s slave status was very easy to verify, slaves received no protection. It meant no one cared if they suddenly died.

Raiden was at least a guard slave, which was among the higher grades of slaves, and fortunately, if someone’s guard slave was suddenly killed or kidnapped, the Empire’s security forces would intervene. Though the County’s manpower wasn’t negligible, it was better to have more people for kidnapping cases. More eyes would make it easier to search every corner.

But no matter how much time passed, not a trace of Raiden emerged. The time to leave for the frontier was approaching, and despite all her efforts to find him, Rihana couldn’t locate Raiden, so she finally had to send a messenger bird to Duchess Pellentes.

While searching for Raiden, she couldn’t properly eat a meal or drink a sip of water, gradually growing thinner. Casian tried both comforting and scolding her upon seeing her condition, but Rihana seemed not to see Casian at all, focused only on finding Raiden.

Casian, who had finally exploded after holding back, was yelling at Rihana in the office, unaware that Melissa had personally come to the County estate because of his recent habit of showing up there. It was good that she had told the servants not to announce her arrival. The conversation between Casian and Rihana contained things that would shock Melissa.

“What’s so important about one missing slave that you’re going on a hunger strike?! Did you really give your heart to such a worthless thing?! Did you?”

“What business is it of yours?”

Because Rihana spoke indifferently without taking her eyes off the commission requests to find Raiden, Casian’s voice rose a bit higher.

“Why isn’t it my business! You’re my fiancée!”

“Aren’t you going to break the engagement? I thought you’d started preparing.”

“What? By whose decision?! Do you think I’ll let you go?”

“…”

“You may have started it, but I’ll decide how it ends. If I say I’ll marry you, you naturally have to. Why? Because the one who chose me was Rihana Ariella – you.”

“But with Her Highness the Princess…”

“I’m doing nothing with Her Highness the Princess! The person I’ll marry is you! Don’t you understand yet?!”

“…”

“…Sigh, Rihana. You won’t have to stay at the frontier very long. Come back after a short while and we’ll get married.”

“…”

“I’ll handle the preparations here. The Empire may be chaotic, but I have no intention of postponing our wedding.”

“The Empire will become chaotic…?”

Could he have turned to the rebels’ side? Rihana unconsciously clenched her fists.

If even her fiancé had joined the rebels, the Emperor would have nowhere left to stand. She was about to ask if her being sent to the frontier was connected to the rebellion, but then kept her mouth shut. She couldn’t speak about the rebellion. Her relationship with the Duchess was like that, and her job protecting the Emperor was like that.

“There are such things. I’ll tell you when you return. So stop looking for that d*mn slave and get proper sleep and meals first.”

While Casian spoke to Rihana with a voice full of worry, outside, Melissa was trembling with clenched fists. She was shocked by Casian’s words about marrying Rihana. Though her sense of betrayal was indescribable, even if she burst through the door right now, the relationship bound by imperial law wasn’t between her and Casian, but between Rihana and Casian.

Melissa blinked her bloodshot eyes a few times, then turned around. She told her guard that no one should speak about the fact that she had come here.

* * *

She immediately headed to the imperial palace to meet the Emperor. It was to demand the annulment of Casian and Rihana’s engagement, but before meeting the Emperor, she first encountered the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince told Melissa that a rebellion would soon occur.

“A royal that His Majesty the Emperor banished is hiding in the neighboring country. He’s our uncle. The rebels are plotting to put him on the throne. His Majesty the Emperor’s life won’t be safe either.”

“Such…!”

“Fortunately, this uncle is quite generous and promised to let you and me continue living as imperial royalty.”

Though Melissa was confused and bewildered by all this, remembering the karma her father had accumulated, she thought rebels could certainly arise. But the Princess had a closer relationship with the Emperor than the Crown Prince. 

Though the Emperor was strict with the Crown Prince and other princes, he was an affectionate father only to the Princess. Therefore, the Princess disobeyed her brother’s order to keep quiet and went straight to the Emperor to tell him about the coming rebellion.

“The rebels are planning to put our uncle on the throne! At this rate, Your Majesty’s life will be in danger too!”

The Emperor was greatly enraged by Melissa’s words, and his right-hand advisor said they should use this situation now that it had come to this. Since it wasn’t certain when the rebellion would occur but it didn’t seem too late yet, the advisor suggested kidnapping and bringing the Tarecus Kingdom’s only prince, making Melissa’s eyes sparkle.

Though putting the Empire’s Emperor’s life and the Tarecus prince’s life on the same level was absurd, at least the Tarecus Kingdom wouldn’t be able to help the rebels attack the Emperor. 

Also, if the Tarecus prince was in their hands, future dealings with Tarecus would go more smoothly, the advisor said, and the Emperor nodded.

Watching the Emperor and advisor, Melissa suggested they entrust the task of kidnapping the Tarecus prince to Rihana.

Having pieced together what she’d heard from the Crown Prince and what Casian had said at Rihana’s mansion, Melissa realized Casian’s entire scheme to hide her at the frontier. 

Instead of sending Rihana to the frontier, she thought to send her to the much more dangerous Tarecus royal palace. Whether she brought back the prince or failed and died there, either would be fine.