—Did he say when he would return?—I asked him what we would do with breakfast and he said he would return sooner…The maid answered.
Breakfast time was now.
But judging by how they were telling him this, Blair hadn't returned yet.
Herdin frowned.
He had assigned the order of knights to escort Blair, so the gatekeeper would have reported her departure and the knights would have secretly followed her.
“The knights will have followed her, so nothing will happen.” Return to your tasks.
The maid bowed her head again and walked away.
Herdin resumed his steps with Mason following him.
As he headed to the dining room, a question crossed his mind.
Why would he have gone so urgently to the Imperial Palace in the middle of the night?
What could be the reason?
Just as Herdin was trying to guess the reason, the front door was violently flung open.
Mason and Herdin, surprised, turned around and saw a man bleeding from the head dragging an unconscious gentleman with a stab wound to the abdomen.
The man was one of the coachmen who worked in Delmark, and the gentleman was Vane, who had been entrusted with escorting Blair.
Herdin's eyes began to tremble when he saw it.
While all the servants who were preparing breakfast looked at them in shock, the coachman said panting: "Your Excellency, the lady...
has been kidnapped by some thugs."
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—Ugh...Blair opened her eyes with difficulty, feeling a sharp pain that ran through her entire head.
Her head hurt, her vision was blurry, she felt nauseous, and her hands were tied.
Going through her memories to understand why her body was in that state, she came to a rough conclusion.
She had been kidnapped again, and after hitting her head hard on the carriage, her body had been damaged.
Fortunately, not having died instantly, it did not seem to be something serious.
As she blinked and regained her blurred vision, the landscape in front of her became visible.
A forest.
A forest landscape similar to the one she had seen in the villa she went to with Mikhail stretched beyond a large window.
"He's been complaining for a while, hasn't he hit himself hard?" Blair, hearing the voice of the man approaching, closed her eyes urgently.
When an unknown shadow loomed over her, a woman's harsh voice could be heard.
"Could it be because you suddenly jumped on horseback against the carriage, idiot?" "What now?" Will he die?—You don't die with that.
It's just that the little princess, raised in cotton, is exaggerating.
The man's shadow moved away again.
Blair deduced two things from that brief conversation alone.
That they knew who she was and that they had no intention of killing her.
"Could they be bandits looking for a ransom?" She had heard that there were sometimes bandits who held up carriages to demand ransom for nobles.
But they were "mountain" bandits.
They stalked travelers passing by on lonely mountain roads, but she had never heard of them risking going into the heart of the capital.
"Anyway, what's taking these guys so long?" We have to erase his memory quickly before the duke arrives.
The woman complained.
Then, the man defended the person they were waiting for.
“Well, who knew?” That the princess would move so quickly, and also at such an early hour.—…—Don't be so nervous.
These villas are places that nobles use for their secret rendezvous, so it won't be easy for them to barge in just like that.
If things go wrong, we're out the door.
Blair listened to their conversation and gathered all the information she could.
Even though I couldn't do anything at that moment, knowing the situation was a great help.
There was a brief silence, and then someone stood up.
"Where are you going?" It seemed that the one who had gotten up was the man.
"I'm hungry, I'm going to see if there's something to eat." Even if it is a noble town, won't there be any snacks?—Do you have the stomach to eat in this situation?—What's wrong with the situation?
It's not me who's been kidnapped.
The man chuckled and left the room.
The woman sighed and cursed, followed by a metallic click.
Blair bit her lower lip to contain the cough that was struggling to come out as a reflex against the cigarette smoke.
But that too soon reached its limit.
Just as she sucked in an anguished breath.
Cataplam!
A roar came from the floor below.
Upon hearing this, the woman cursed and got up from her seat.
“Oh, that idiot, what other trick is he doing now?” The woman left the room.
The sound of their footsteps echoing in the hallway gradually receded.
"Cough, cough..." Only then did Blair let out the cough she had been holding back.
The more he coughed, the more the headache intensified.
After repeating several deep breaths, Blair, who had barely caught his breath, rose to sit up.
His head ached from the strong impact, and the nausea was such that he did not dare to move.
But at the same time, another commotion from downstairs helped her calm down.
"There's no time." Blair, who was looking around the room, discovered a chair and approached it.
Luckily, her legs had not been tied.
Blair carefully tipped the chair over and inserted the thin leg of the chair between the ropes that tied her hands.
After several movements, the knot loosened.
Blair undid the loosened ropes with her hands.
Blair looked at the lush forest beyond the window and the balcony.
"I'll flee to the forest." At least there would be more places to hide than here.
Maybe because she knew they had no intention of killing her, instead of thinking about what would happen if she failed, she first thought of several ways to try.
"This is the second floor, so a little ingenuity will do it." As she looked for a way to escape.
Going down to the first floor without being seen, Blair discovered the curtain that half covered the balcony window.
Seeing her, he suddenly remembered the day he first went to the Rebellus guild.
Blair placed a chair under the curtain, climbed up, and separated the curtain from the bar.
Then, he tied the curtain to make a long rope and tied it in the same way to the balcony railing.
Finally, he pulled on both sides of the knot to check it, and felt that it was firmly tied.
After the final check, Blair threw the tied curtain rope outside the railing.
“Done… Now all that was left was to descend to the first floor using the rope.
Just when Blair was going to grab the railing.
“Hey, are you here to work or have fun, huh?” “If we've had a good meal together, why are you so fussy again?” Just so you know, you were hungry too.
Voices were heard coming up from the stairs, arguing among themselves.
Blair's heart sank at the sound of them.
Her heart racing, Blair approached the railing again, but stopped.
If she went down now, she could slip and hurt herself, or be caught before her feet hit the ground.
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The two individuals, who entered the room where Blair was arguing, stopped short when they felt the sinister atmosphere of the room.
With a bad feeling, they looked around the room and saw the balcony door completely open.
And the curtain tied to the railing.
And, to make matters worse, Blair had disappeared.
The woman took the cigarette out of her mouth and burst into anger.
“Damn it…!” Where has the princess gone?—Oh...—What are you amazed at?!
It's your fault, idiot!—Bah, we'll find her.
How far could that little woman have gone?
And also, he hit his head.
“Save that calm for after you find her!” The woman unceremoniously threw the cigarette into the trash, hit the man on the back, and ran out of the room.
The man followed her, cursing in turn.
In the place from which they both rushed out, a gloomy breeze from the forest came through the window and floated.
That breeze reached the ember of the cigarette that the woman had carelessly left near the ashtray on the table.
The ember, fanned by the wind, caught on the tablecloth.
Then, the small ember grew rapidly, devoured the tablecloth and began to burn furiously, now consuming the table and the adjacent sofa.
As if mocking the voices of the man and the woman that echoed in the nearby forest.
The fire, which had quickly gained strength, burned the wooden furniture and generated smoke.
That smoke filled the room with a dense fog and seeped into the closet in the corner.
It reached Blair, who was hiding inside.
"Smoke...?" Blair smelled the characteristic acrid stench of something burning and frowned.
At first he thought it was his imagination because he was inside a closet, like that day of the fire, but…—Cough, cough…His lungs inhaled the smoke and he coughed instinctively.
His eyes and throat stung immediately.
Furthermore, now he also felt the heat.
It wasn't his imagination.
"Outside, there's fire..." The mere thought that a large fire was near triggered extreme fear; Her heart raced and she was short of breath.
"I have to...
get out quickly." Blair twisted to get out of the closet.
At that moment, a throbbing headache attacked her and a blurry memory surfaced.
"No, concentrate.
Please…” Blair tried not to let herself panic, but her body and mind wouldn't obey.
His breathing, increasingly labored, prevented him from distinguishing whether it was due to the smoke or the trauma.
Just when his consciousness began to slowly fade due to respiratory distress.
"Blink, slowly."
Herdin's voice, which she had once heard, rang in her ears like a hallucination.
In her hazy consciousness, Blair instinctively followed that voice and blinked slowly.
"Breathe slowly too."
"Alright".
Just as she said, the fear gradually subsided and her breathing became normal.
Although her hands still trembled when she thought of the fire that was waiting behind the door, she couldn't continue being locked in there.
It was time to get out of the closet.
Blair, who had barely managed to calm her breathing in the midst of the acrid smoke, composed herself.
And he kicked the closet door.
Pam!
…To be continued