Chapter 54. Scandal
2023.10.24.
Unable to tear his gaze away from the spot where Blair should have been, Herdin dismounted from his horse and asked the knight before him.
"……The Madame."
"T-that is……"
"Speak. Don't make me ask twice."
"……She has not been seen since about an hour ago."
At the knight's report, the blood in his entire body seemed to freeze cold, then boil over once more.
Herdin suppressed his surging anger and slowly closed his eyes. The restrained emotions burned as if they would scorch his throat.
"Explain the situation. What happened."
The knight quickly explained the circumstances.
The child of the Sheldon Marquisate had gone missing, and the noblewomen, including Blair, had lent their family knights to search for the child. And that Blair had disappeared while Rina had briefly stepped away due to an upset stomach.
"……Any witnesses?"
"Everyone was too preoccupied searching for the child, so it seems no one saw anything."
Having heard the entire sequence of events, Herdin opened his eyes. His piercing blue gaze bore into them.
"Since when did you serve the Marquis of Sheldon as your lord?"
His low voice dripped with murderous intent.
At that overwhelming presence, the knights involuntarily flinched. It was the instinct of a beast recognizing a stronger predator. The same as fearing death.
The normally generous lord, they were vividly reminded, was fundamentally a cold and cruel ruler of the North.
The knights could not even dare to utter words of apology and merely hung their heads.
Rina, standing beside them, also trembled under that oppressive aura. But even more terrifying was the fear that her negligence might have led to Blair coming to harm.
In an atmosphere where it wouldn't be strange if someone dropped dead at any moment, a woman's voice interjected.
"I came to give my thanks……. Has the Duchess not returned yet?"
It was Rachel Sheldon.
She was holding a child in her arms. Her nephew who had been lost.
At her words, Herdin furrowed his brow.
"……What do you mean, not returned?"
"I saw her going into the forest with a knight earlier."
Herdin's expression hardened.
A knight.
Could that knight be that bastard Asiel?
"My lady. Do you remember which family that knight belonged to?"
"I was too distracted to notice the family crest. I naturally assumed it was a Delmark knight, but……. Has something happened to the Duchess?"
At Rachel's words, the Delmark knights and Rina also began to stir.
A noblewoman who disappeared with a knight during a picnic.
Though the truth was unknown, it was the perfect picture to spark a scandal.
Sensing this, Rina desperately stepped forward before Herdin.
"N-no, Your Grace! It's a misunderstanding! The Madame is not that kind of person."
Forgetting her earlier fear, the only thought driving her was that she had to assert Blair's innocence.
"She knew I would be back soon, and she would never do such a thing without a word to me—"
"Shut your mouth."
Herdin coldly cut off Rina's defense of Blair. Rina clamped her mouth shut with a frightened expression.
In this situation, strong denial would only fuel suspicion.
Especially before an outsider who was not a member of the Delmark household, giving such grounds for doubt was unacceptable.
His barely maintained rationality cooled his head and began racing through thoughts.
Rina was right.
Even if she truly had a passionate lover, Blair was not someone who would so foolishly expose it like this.
And this wasn't a good time to trigger the scandal she had planned either. They hadn't yet uncovered the truth behind the Empress Palace incident.
'I don't want to cover it up and live in ignorance anymore just because it's hard, just because it's scary.'
Right, she had clearly said so.
But……
'Can I trust her?'
Me, trust that woman?
What if she had already achieved the purpose of this contract marriage? What if she no longer had a reason to maintain this contract marriage?
Regardless of the truth behind the Empress Palace incident, couldn't she trigger a scandal and leave his side?
The only thing proving this contract was that single scrap of paper.
Doubt spread like wildfire in an instant.
'……No, that's not what's important right now.'
First, he had to bring Blair before his eyes. Whoever she was with, whatever she was doing, that came first.
Just as Herdin gathered himself and was about to turn his steps back toward the forest, Rachel, who had been watching him, smiled knowingly and said.
"She'll be back soon. Because the Blair I know is that kind of friend."
"Indeed, our noble Duchess would never do such a thing."
Wesley, who had suddenly appeared, interjected in agreement.
"Ah, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just happened to hear as I was passing by."
Herdin looked at Wesley with cold eyes.
Wesley hesitated for a moment under that gaze, but soon grinned roguishly and added.
"Perhaps the Madame simply went for a short walk and lost her way?"
"Y-yes. That must be it."
Not even knowing who Wesley was, Rina desperately latched onto his words.
As if pleased by her agreement, Wesley patted Rina's shoulder and said to Herdin.
"Since it's come to this, we'll deploy our knights to help as well. We need to find her quickly before things get blown out of proportion."
Herdin gazed at Wesley with cold eyes as the man spoke as if granting some grand favor, then mounted his horse and headed toward the forest.
* * *
Wesley took Herdin's silence as agreement and arbitrarily deployed the Marquisate's knights to begin searching for Blair.
'She should be around here somewhere.'
Leisurely surveying his surroundings as he ventured deeper into the forest, Wesley finally found what he was looking for.
In a place overgrown with untamed trees, there stood a dilapidated abandoned house. Originally, it had been used as a shelter by the forest keepers.
Upon discovering it, Wesley's lips curled upward.
In that abandoned house, Blair—who had been kidnapped under his orders—was likely there.
Wesley had instructed the kidnapper disguised as a knight to bring Blair to this abandoned house. And he had ordered him to stage the situation when the sound of horses could be heard.
To make it look as though the two had engaged in a tryst there.
'I wonder what that noble Duchess will look like.'
And Herdin's expression upon seeing his wife in such a state.
Just imagining it sent such a thrilling sensation through him that he could barely contain himself.
Wesley struggled to suppress the corners of his mouth from curling up further and asked Herdin, who was ahead of him.
"I think I hear sounds coming from that abandoned house. Shall we take a look?"
Herdin dismounted without a word and led the way toward the abandoned house. Wesley followed behind, anticipating the man's reaction.
At that moment, the sound of Herdin's footsteps—who had entered the abandoned house first—came to an abrupt halt.
'Did he see her?'
Wesley stepped into the abandoned house, eagerly anticipating Blair's disheveled appearance and Herdin's expression upon witnessing such a scene.
But contrary to his expectations, the moment Wesley stepped inside, his face hardened.
'What in the world…….'
There was no one there.
* * *
Thirty minutes ago.
Blair opened her eyes with difficulty, as if waking from a deep sleep.
The first thing she saw was a crumbling ceiling embroidered with cobwebs. Sunlight seeping through the cracks in the ceiling reflected off the webs, sparkling.
'Where am I……?'
Blinking to bring her blurry vision into focus, Blair finally realized that a gag had been stuffed in her mouth.
Simultaneously, her last memories returned.
Waiting briefly for Rina, the moment she stepped out of the carriage to head toward where the young Lord Sheldon's wife was. Someone had covered her mouth from behind.
She had been kidnapped.
As reality set in, her heart began to pound frantically.
'Who? Why?'
At that moment, footsteps approached from behind, accompanied by an unfamiliar man's voice.
"About time you woke up, wasn't it?"
Blair quickly closed her eyes before the man could see.
The man strode closer and roughly grabbed Blair's chin, tilting it upward.
"Damn, she really is pretty, isn't she."
"……."
"But just watching is getting a bit boring."
The man's coarse fingers traced Blair's lips. The touch, thick with lecherous desire, made her skin crawl, but Blair desperately endured it.
From the man's words earlier—waiting for her to wake up—and her instinctive intuition, she concluded that she must not let him know she was already conscious.
"Hmm, I should drain some water before she wakes up."
The man stood up and moved away from Blair. Soon, the sound of water splattering could be heard. At that sound, Blair slowly opened her eyes.
The man was urinating in one corner of the abandoned house.
Though he wore a knight's clothing, he didn't seem to be a real knight. The family crest embroidered on the right arm of the knight's uniform looked plausible at a glance, but upon closer inspection, it was quite crudely done.
Blair quickly surveyed her surroundings. Fortunately, her arms and legs were not bound. He must have thought he could subdue a single woman on his own.
And nearby, she spotted a fairly large wooden plank.
'If I hit that man's head with that, would he pass out?'
But what if he didn't pass out in one blow? Then she would be caught by that man.
'He probably won't kill me even if he catches me.'
If he intended to kill her, he would have done so already. Or else he was waiting for the right moment to do it.
Either way, it meant killing her right now would be problematic for him.
Then, it was worth a try.
The sound of water gradually diminished.
Blair held her breath and quietly rose, picking up the wooden plank. It was quite heavy, but she thought she could swing it if she used both hands.
There was only one chance.
Blair swallowed hard and raised the wooden plank.
But the very moment she was about to bring it down on the man's head.
"Oh? You were awake?"
The man turned around with a grin.