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His head turned sluggishly, as if he had drunk a great deal of alcohol.
Who, sent what?
Agnes sent a weapon? To him?
They were merely a string of very simple words.
Yet it took quite a while to understand their meaning.
On Lionel’s face, which had been nothing but cold like the thin ice covering a lake in midwinter, ripples began to form.
The small oval ripples gradually swelled in size like waves.
However, Adrian did not notice such a change in Lionel.
“D-do you have any idea how much I suffered because of that?”
Still overwhelmed with a sense of betrayal toward Chloe, he remained agitated, busily venting his resentment as if he were a complete victim.
In conclusion, Adrian’s behavior was the worst possible choice that could worsen the situation the fastest.
“There were so many places willing to buy weapons at higher prices, but that sly Agnes kept diverting them to the North every time—do you know how much money I lost because of that!”
Seizing the moment when Lionel’s grip loosened slightly, Adrian desperately tried to pull his body free.
“Do you think it was only weapons? Medical supplies and food too. It’s not like she’s some philanthropist, just doing whatever she pleases! Whenever she gets the chance, to the North—ugh!”
At that moment, Adrian felt the surreal sensation of his body lifting into the air.
The instant he felt the brief floating sensation, his body plunged back toward the ground.
Crash—!
From the tremendous pain transmitted to his back, Adrian realized that he had fallen backward along with the chair.
“S-spare me! Please spare me!”
Only then did Adrian realize the severity of the situation, and as he screamed like a madman, Kalt and the knights burst through the door.
But by then, Lionel was already straddling Adrian’s upper body, gripping the back of his neck with one hand.
Lionel mercilessly pressed down on the carotid artery that throbbed beneath his hand.
Adrian’s face flushed bright red, then instantly turned pale blue.
Adrian’s pupils dilated greatly.
Lionel’s face, cast in backlight, could not be seen clearly.
However, even in the darkness, his vividly shining blue eyes clearly showed that he had already crossed the boundary of reason.
Adrian trembled from the chilling sensation that froze his spine.
“Slowly.”
The voice that soon came from Lionel was so low that it barely sounded human.
“From one to ten, tell me everything without leaving anything out.”
“Ugh… th-that…”
Adrian’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
For the first time, genuine fear settled in his eyes.
This man might truly kill him.
To avoid dying, Adrian moved his tongue and spat out the truth.
“R-rumors. The rumors about that child are all—kgh— all lies!”
“……”
Gasping, Adrian frantically struck Lionel’s hand.
At that, Lionel’s grip loosened slightly.
Just enough for him to barely produce a voice.
“Then the rumor that Agnes diverted weapons to the South to enter the Imperial Dance Troupe?”
“Y-yes! Not to the South— even then, Agnes sent the weapons to the North! It’s just that something happened in the middle, so it seems they didn’t reach Your Grace—kgh! The train, yes, that train—she never even boarded it in the first place!”
As he was about to mention the accident where Agnes’s carriage fell due to the explosion, Adrian quickly shut his mouth.
If he spoke about Agnes’s accident here, it felt like his neck would snap on the spot.
That was how half-mad Lionel’s gaze looked.
Kalt, too, froze like a statue as he listened to the truths pouring from Adrian’s mouth.
A brief silence settled in the interrogation room.
In the twisted stillness, Lionel’s broad shoulders subtly rose and fell, as if he were taking very deep breaths.
“……Her biological father.”
Lionel’s gaze pierced through Adrian.
His voice remained calm and elegant.
However, there was not a single trace of reason left within it now.
“Does Agnes know that Raul Herben Guten is her biological father?”
“H-how does Your Grace know that…!”
Adrian’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.
Blinded by greed, the fact he had hidden so carefully until now was revealed through someone else’s mouth—his expression was truly a spectacle.
“I asked if Agnes knows.”
When an answer did not come immediately, Lionel’s grip tightened again.
Under the suffocating pressure, Adrian shook his head desperately.
“C-cough…! She doesn’t know! A-Agnes… she knows nothing about her parents! I never told her!”
Lionel’s molars ground against each other with a chilling sound.
Every word Adrian babbled repeated a single truth even at this very moment.
The Agnes in the rumors was entirely false.
Then what had he been seeing all this time?
What had he been believing?
What… what on earth had he been hating so much?
Lionel’s eyes shook violently.
Clearly, it was Adrian whose airway was being blocked, yet Lionel felt as if his own breath was being cut off.
A wave as large as a house instantly collapsed the wall of hatred Lionel had built so firmly.
All truths and lies overturned in a single moment.
It was wrong.
To the point that it was frightening to even calculate where it began and how far it went.
Utterly, completely wrong.
☆☆☆
Bang!
The door burst open as if it would break, and the knight order stormed into Rebelt’s base.
“Search every corner! Under any circumstances, the Duchess’s safety is the top priority!”
Immediately after extracting even the location of Rebelt’s base from Adrian, Lionel led the knights there without a moment’s hesitation.
From the moment they stepped inside, a heavy silence had already sunk into the base.
On the walls, only torn pieces of paper and empty frames swayed, as if someone had roughly swept through.
“There’s no one here. It seems they’ve already left.”
Kalt’s low voice echoed through the space.
Lionel slowly scanned his surroundings.
The base had a structure like an anthill, with the ground and underground tightly connected, and the knights split into two groups, searching stairs and corridors one by one.
As if someone had already raided the place, bloodstains and traces of hurried movement remained on the floor.
However, no clues related to Agnes were found among any of those traces.
Time continued to pass helplessly.
The cheers and songs of the eve festival heard from afar gradually grew quieter, and the lights of the city went out one by one.
Yet the search did not stop.
Until dawn’s light slowly began to spread beyond the windows, the knights continued their search as if they would overturn every structure.
But despite all those efforts, the result was discouraging.
“She’s not here, Colonel.”
“We questioned the people gathered at the festival, but we gained nothing from that side either.”
Reports came one after another from the knights who had split into two groups to investigate here and the plaza.
Lionel leaned against the doorway with his eyes closed.
The cold air of the desolate base settled on the tips of his shoulders.
In the dim dawn light, he took out a cigarillo and placed it in his mouth.
Click—
Just before lighting it, the hand holding the lighter suddenly stopped.
Due to the excessive force in Lionel’s fingers, the metal of the lighter creaked.
At that small movement, the knights all swallowed nervously at once.
Outwardly, Lionel still appeared cold and composed.
But those who had been with him for a long time all knew.
Right now, Lionel was like a fuse that would explode at the slightest touch.
Especially the knights who had witnessed the chaos in the interrogation room firsthand were careful even with their breathing due to the tension.
Because they had clearly seen with their own eyes that Agnes was no longer the enemy who drove their superior’s younger sister to death.
Lighting the lighter again, Lionel slowly inhaled the cigarillo’s smoke.
“Seal off the entire area near where Agnes was kidnapped.”
Along with the hazy smoke, a dangerously cracked low voice slipped out from Lionel’s lips.
“We start the search again from the beginning. Even the smallest clue—bring me anything.”
“Yes! Understood!”
At the command, the knights scattered all at once.
The cigarillo, its tip glowing red, quickly shortened and dropped ash onto the floor.
Lionel took out a new cigarillo and placed it between his lips.
If he failed to find Agnes like this…
That assumption continuously disturbed his mind.
However, Lionel forced the anxiety away and whispered to himself as if brainwashing.
No. He could find her. He would make it happen, no matter what.
Yet, as if betraying that arrogant resolve, the reports from the knights did not change afterward.
Even after searching not only the capital but also the outskirts as if combing through them, the words Lionel heard were always the same.
“We’re sorry, Colonel. We cannot find any trace of the Duchess anywhere.”
