The most likely candidates had been raided and interrogated, and the problem was that nothing had surfaced.

Hah……

He felt a twinge of regret for having stood by and watched as the Daily Minerve had thrown the reputations of so many nobles into the mud without restraint.

At least Miss Riley should never have been drawn into this.

Or he should have spoken up when His Highness was visiting 1 Meymond Street far too frequently.

While Alfonso was drowning in regret and turning the problem over in his mind, another dangerous order fell from Andrea’s lips.

“Pull from the royal knight order and search the Radonel comital household and a few more of their properties.”

Andrea went on to list several more families to be searched before rising from his seat.

Alfonso tried to push back, realizing how dangerous the situation would become since every family on the list was influential in the capital, but Andrea swept past him, leaving only cold air in his wake.

Alfonso picked up the newspaper Andrea had left behind and let out a long sigh.

Laying hands on the Radonel comital household, with its broad connections across society and its centrist leanings, would send tremors through the entire central nobility.

More than tremors. The parliamentary noble assembly, already gathering its private armies, and the royal house might genuinely come to civil war, and that war might find its justification.

He felt a throbbing headache beginning and turned back to the serialized novel.

That day’s chapter ended at the point where an artist was being prepared to paint a n*de portrait of the kidnapped female protagonist.

But if the next installment truly featured the protagonist’s n*de……

Alfonso pressed a hand to his forehead.

His Highness may truly lose his mind.

He felt the blood draining from his feet.

What was to be done.

Whoever had planned this revenge understood exactly what would bleed Andrea dry.

Alfonso turned to one of his subordinates.

“Have they found the publisher?”

The daily magazine, named after a famous courtesan called Tallone and distributed each day, had not yet been traced to its source or distribution route. The enemy was operating more intelligently and systematically than before.

One of his men bowed his head in apology.

“I’m sorry. It’s distributed in irregular locations at irregular times.”

Alfonso rubbed his tired face and snapped with uncharacteristic irritation.

“Then increase the search teams, set up surveillance, and catch them.”

“Yes, we did catch some, but every one of them had been hired that same day and knew nothing. They also used street vagrants at times. We are currently tracking a description of the person who paid them.”

“Have a portrait made and distributed.”

Alfonso knew.

Even if they caught the intermediary hired to do the work, there would be another link behind that one, and another after that. There was not enough time to trace each connection carefully.

But knowing that did not mean he could stop pushing.

“Set up surveillance on every major thoroughfare, day and night, and catch anyone involved. If Miss Riley’s n*de portrait is actually distributed, none of us will come out of this unscathed.”

The order, delivered like a threat, sent his subordinates scattering quickly.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Bellon was locked in the small room with Riley again today, to draw her.

There were no windows to let in light, so a lamp had been provided for the work, and beside it sat white paper, pen nibs, and ink.

Today, however, he was in a genuinely terrible position.

The serialized novel’s plot had reached the point where the female protagonist’s n*de portrait was to be leaked to the world.

That meant he was supposed to draw Miss Riley’s n*de today, in keeping with the story.

He was about to knock on the door and tell the mercenary watching them that he absolutely could not draw this particular installment, but he stopped.

The mercenary visible through the bars happened to be wiping the blade of a gleaming longsword with a cloth.

Saying he could not complete today’s assignment looked like a one-way trip to the afterlife.

……What do I do.

Bellon turned away and rubbed his face with dry hands, thinking hard.

He did not want to frighten the poor lady any further. How could he do something so awful to a woman already struggling to endure this confinement.

Whatever the circumstances, he had no desire to be on the side of the villains.

But my life is on the line too……

What to do…… Was there any way around this?

He dragged himself to the desk with the look of a man facing execution, and Riley called out to him in a small voice.

“Hello, Mr. Bellon.”

He returned the greeting quietly, asking if she was all right.

Riley had come to rely on Bellon, who visited every day.

He had told her he was seized by strangers on his way home one evening, out of nowhere.

Riley was not naive.

Reading the situation, she had concluded that she was the real target and Bellon had been taken secondarily, since someone had needed a person to draw her.

Even so, this kind painter had been gentle with her when she was frightened and had tried to reassure her. He kept saying there would surely be a way out.

There will be a way out soon. Even if I don’t know how, your family must have reported you missing by now, and a search party will come for us.

Hearing that plain, clumsy reassurance made her want to believe there really was hope.

But today Bellon sat down at the desk and did nothing but sigh heavily. Riley, huddled in her corner, felt her own fear rise, and she asked carefully.

“Um…… what happens in today’s chapter?”

Riley knew he submitted an illustration each day to match the serialized story. She also knew that the female protagonist in those illustrations was her.

From what she could piece together, she had fallen into the hands of some powerful figure who bore a grudge against her.

Bellon noticed Riley’s face going darker than usual and quickly lied.

He simply could not bring himself to tell her that today he was supposed to draw her n*de.

“I, I haven’t actually been told the exact details today, so I don’t, don’t know the plot yet.”

He even added a well-meaning lie on top of it.

“I…… caught a glimpse, and it seemed like the female protagonist gets released in a few days.”

Riley believed him, and her face lit up with relief.

“R, really? Do you think they might actually let us go, following the story?”

She seemed to genuinely believe, in her innocence, that once the revenge of serializing the story using her face was over, they would be set free.

“Y, yes. This might just be a kind of incident meant to frighten you and the people who care about you.”

Hearing that, Riley thought of Andrea.

Some powerful figure who had discovered her connection to Andrea, trying to frighten him……

She felt she understood the motive behind all of this, at least in broad strokes.

His Highness must be looking for me by now…… or has he given up?

If the story was now saying the female protagonist would be released, maybe it was safe to believe it.

Bellon saw a thin thread of hope rise in Riley’s expression and quickly bent his head and began to draw.

Of course I can’t tell a lady I’m drawing her n*de. A knight has his honor, and so does an artist.

He rationalized his lie and moved his hand.

I can just draw the n*de from imagination and make it work somehow.

It was fortunate that they did not check on the actual work in detail.

Bellon recalled the memory of the one and only time he had scraped together enough money to hire a n*de model and drawn a full female figure. He dredged up that memory as best he could and began drawing a full, rounded body beneath Riley’s face.

He had been focused for some time when a bell rang somewhere in the distance. He had heard it occasionally since being locked up here, but today it rang with unusual clarity and caught his attention.

The resonance is particularly strong today……

Perhaps it was because the rain had cleared and the air was clean.

Come to think of it, a bell that rang like this was the kind used for mass at a large monastery.

The thought drifted through Bellon’s mind without much intention behind it, and then something flashed behind his eyes.

A monastery……!

The memory of being brought here surfaced. His eyes had been covered, but he had distinctly heard the cry of seagulls, and he had smelled the salt of the coast.

There’s definitely a shoreline nearby.

One good thought led to another like lightning.

A monastery and a coastline together, could that not narrow down the location? The journey here had taken roughly two to three hours, so this could be a coastal village not far from the capital, Tennetcy.

If the purpose of this kidnapping was to use the serialized novel to threaten the people close to Miss Riley, then perhaps he could use his illustrations to send them something in return.

Anyone with a sharp enough eye might combine the clues of a monastery and a coastline and work out where this place was.

That’s it!!!

A beam of light seemed to cut across Bellon’s vision.

He finished the figure beneath Riley’s fresh, still-youthful face, an ill-matched body, and muttered sheepishly.

“It’s…… a bit of a mismatch, but it can’t be helped. It’s the only reference I have.”