Chapte 85
“On the day the children disappeared—you said Lady Erzébet of the Count’s household came here!”
“S-she did come! But we kept a close watch and made sure she didn’t go anywhere near the basement. Hey, you there! No one went inside the basement that day, right?”
“Yes! I swear to the heavens—no one entered! And no one came out!”
“Not even an ant could have gone in. We guarded it perfectly!”
The two knights, pale as corpses and trembling, shouted their answers.
They were the ones who had been stationed at the basement entrance on the day the children vanished.
The knights had conspired with Caron to hide the fact that Lady Erzébet rabbit had been snooping around the basement door.
A rabbit couldn’t possibly have taken the children, and they didn’t want trouble where none was needed.
Duke Skya exploded.
“Then where in the hell did the children go?!”
Had they flown into the sky, or sunk into the earth? They’d vanished without so much as a trace.
If Lady Erzébet wasn’t the culprit, then surely the ones guarding the entrance had plotted something.
Convinced of this, the duke barked his order, eyes flashing cold and murderous.
“Beat the truth out of those two. If they die, so be it!”
“We’re innocent, my lord! No one went into the basement that day, truly!”
“Lord Caron!”
With their lives hanging by a thread, the two knights looked desperately to Caron—their accomplice.
But Caron, unwilling to incur his enraged father’s wrath, jerked his head away and pretended not to see them.
“My lord!”
“Please, Lord Caron! Spare us!”
Dragged away, the knights cried out to him in despair.
But when their pleas were met with silence, they finally broke and spilled the truth.
“Lady Erzébet rabbit came here!”
“It tried to run into the basement, so we caught it! It must have something to do with Lady Erzébet!”
“Nonsense!”
Caron shot back immediately.
He was the one who had greeted the young lady at the ducal estate.
If she were the culprit, he would also be blamed for poor oversight—and punished.
“Lady Erzébet was with me the entire day!”
“But the rabbit wasn’t with you, was it?”
“What are you babbling about, Caron?!”
The duke, on the verge of erupting, demanded an explanation.
Caron, brazen-faced and perfectly calm, replied,
“The animal she brought disappeared for a bit, so I went looking for it. Clearly, when those fools were distracted by it, they let an intruder slip inside.”
“That’s not true! Lady Erzébet must’ve used the rabbit to draw our attention and smuggled the intruder in!”
“Isn’t it more likely that the two of you were colluding with the culprit, rather than a five-year-old girl letting an intruder inside?”
“Absolutely not! We guarded that entrance exactly as you ordered, my lord!”
But the momentum had already shifted in Caron’s favor.
It seemed far more plausible that the knights were lying than that Acel had somehow taken the children.
Grinding his teeth, Duke Skaia ordered the other knights,
“Take them away. And if anyone gives
them even a drop of water before they confess, they’ll share their fate!”
“We’re innocent! We truly know nothing!”
They kicked and struggled, protesting their innocence, but it was no use.
The knights were dragged toward the place where the children had been held.
Haa…
Caron let out a subtle sigh of relief. He believed he had narrowly escaped blame for negligence.
But it was far too soon to relax.
The duke suddenly jabbed a finger at him.
“You! Write a letter to the Duke of Monlepe and cancel the duel. Immediately!”
“What nonsense is this?!”
The duchess, arriving late, shrieked.
“Cancel the duel?!”
“How can we proceed without the divine beast?! What else are we supposed to do?!”
“And what of our family’s honor?! You know full well we’ll be the laughingstock of the entire continent if we cancel after issuing the challenge!”
“You think appearances matter right now?!”
“They absolutely matter!”
The duchess—who valued honor above all else—clutched her skirt in outrage.
“Our glorious family name will be dragged through the mud! People will laugh at us. ‘Oh, look at Skya—so bold when
challenging Monlepe’s divine beast, but running with their tails between their legs the moment defeat seems likely!’ That’s what they’ll say!”
“Then what do you suggest we do?!”
“Send Caron.”
“M-Mother!”
Caron shouted, horrified.
But the duchess didn’t even glance at him.
“Caron was supposed to be the one participating in the duel in the first place, wasn’t he? Honor, once tarnished, never returns.”
“Mother!”
“Caron. If you were born a noble, you must live as a noble. Honor is everything to us.”
With that, she turned away.
Caron ran after her in panic, begging, but she wouldn’t budge.
Jaw clenched, the duke commanded,
“Find the children by any means necessary. If they resist, kill them on the spot. A corpse will do—just bring me something!”
“Yes, my lord!”
It was a bolt from the blue.
Under the duke’s terrifying orders, the knights of Skya searched for the children with the desperation of soldiers marching into war.
But days passed without a trace—not even a strand of hair.
As the date of the duel with the Monlepe ducal house drew nearer, anxiety took root in every member of the Skya household.
Most of all, in Caron.
Forced into fighting Monlepe’s divine beast, he became increasingly violent with each passing day.
And he took out his fear on the innocent knights.
“You useless worms!”
He beat them, cursed them, humiliated them.
Their loyalty to House Skya—already shaken after the hunting festival incident—crumbled entirely.
“When they were abusing the children, they didn’t care. Why look for them now?”
“Who knows? Who could understand their twisted reasoning?”
“The duke said even a corpse would do… so it doesn’t sound like the kids need to be alive.”
At that moment, an idea blossomed among the knights.
A few days later, they brought back two charred, unidentifiable child corpses.
“We found them like this… Forgive us.”
“How do we know these are the children?”
“These were near the bodies.”
They presented an artifact belonging to the first Duke of Skya.
In truth, it was something Briden had once pawned, which they’d tracked down with considerable effort.
But unaware of this, the duke became convinced that Lilibet and Briden were truly dead.
“So the brats are finally gone.”
The duchess whispered, her voice gleeful, making sure the knights couldn’t hear.
“Well? Do you sense the divine beast returning?”
“…I’m not sure.”
If the bond had returned to him, the special senses unique to a divine beast’s master would have awakened—but nothing.
He tried hard to summon Aether.
But no matter how he strained, Aether did not appear.
The duchess leaned toward him, anxious.
“Perhaps the bond transferred to Caron.”
At once, she and the duke rushed to find their son.
“The children are dead. Aether must be yours now—summon the divine beast.”
“At last…!”
The thought of fighting Monlepe’s divine beast himself had driven Caron half-mad these past days. Now his voice shook with feverish excitement.
This day has finally come for me!
Eyes gleaming, he looked up at his father.
“How do I summon the beast?”
“…You simply wish to meet it—earnestly. Then the divine beast will answer your call.”
But beneath the duke’s words lurked deep unease.
For how could a rightful master not know how to summon their own divine beast?
Unless…
He forcibly pushed the dread aside.
But ignoring something doesn’t make it disappear.
Caron took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and wished desperately for Aether to appear.
Then he opened them, thrust his hand forward, and cried out with confidence,
“Come forth, Aether!”
But—
No matter how long they waited…
Nothing appeared.
