Dale's brow furrowed at the sight.
“So……do you two have a secret?”
“Something like that.”
Cassion stood between Enya and Dale.
Cassion looked at Dale and smiled.
“I was just doing something fun with your wife.”
The sarcasm made Del stare at Cassion coldly. جفل Caseyون للحظة من البرد، ثم تحرك بشكل طبيعي.
“O princess, your husband terrifies me.”
"Dale?
Dale is incapable of doing something like that, don't frame him."
“……Huh?”
نقر Caseyون بلسانه ورمق إنيا بنظرة منزعجة.
“Your wife was curious about what your childhood was like, and I was just satisfying her curiosity.
I hope she didn’t get the wrong idea.”
عند سماع كلماته، احتضنت إنيا الورقة بين ذراعيها بإحكام.
Dale turned his head towards Enya.
“Is what he says true?”
"that it……."
أظهرت له إنيا الورقة بتردد.
The paper she held was a photo of Dale as a child.
It was his picture.
“……!”
Dale's face visibly hardened.
تجعد جبينه بشدة وهو يحدق في Caseyون. بدت نظراته القاتلة وكأنها قد تخنق Caseyون في أي لحظة.
Cassion's smile slowly faded.
حدق في عينيه كما لو كان على وشك الموت.
“I asked to see it.”
نظرت إنيا إلى ديل بتعبير اعتذاري عميق.
عند سماع صوتها، انخفضت نظرات ديل. اختفى الوهج الفاتر، وحل محله القلق.
“Dale doesn’t talk about himself much, so I was wondering what his life was like that I didn’t know.”
“Was Enya okay?”
سأل ديل وصوته يرتجف وهو يأخذ ذراع إنيا برفق ويتفحص بشرتها.
“Did the picture make you feel nauseous, or give you a headache?”
“Looking at a picture of young Dale?”
Enya stared at him blankly, but quickly shook her head.
“I always thought handsome men were different……?”
“Hah…….”
Dale let out a deep sigh, as if he had finally relaxed.
“You look worse than me, Dale.”
"I'm fine."
Dale took one last look at Enya's face and let her go.
“أريد أن أتحدث مع سعادة الماركيز.”
“Of course, among friends.”
أجاب Caseyون بخفة، وتبع ديل إلى أعلى الدرج وإلى مكتبه.
At that moment
There was a thud!
Dale grabbed Cassion by the neck and pushed him towards the door.
He pressed Cassion with a cold look that he had never shown Enya before.
The force of the moment pushed Cassion hard against the door, and he let out a muffled groan and a short gasp.
“Why are you provoking Enya Lockhart?
You know that bringing up old memories will only cause her pain.”
Cassion, who was watching Dale's anger, spoke.
“I will take responsibility.”
His voice strengthened Dale's grip on his clothes.
“The fact that the princess doesn't remember you is, in a way, because of me.”
“…….”
Dale roughly let go of Cassion's throat.
Cassion breathed a sigh of relief, holding his throat where the handprint remained.
“Huh……, so I will help you, Your Majesty.”
Cassion looked at Dale, his face hard.
“As a friend.”
There was no trace of hurt in his eyes now.
* * *
The palace, nestled in the evergreen forest, was luxurious enough to be compared to a picturesque castle from a fairy tale.
The huge greenhouse and sunlight were befitting the family's status.
Duke Lockhart's Palace, the largest and most beautiful aristocratic residence in the capital, was quiet as usual.
It had been three years since the disappearance of Enya Lockhart, the eldest daughter of the Lockhart family, but it was an ordinary day nonetheless.
A huge carriage stopped in front of the palace.
The face of the man who got out of the carriage and climbed the stairs was cold.
A chiseled, handsome man with silver hair and blue eyes.
He was in his forties and approaching fifty, with a beauty that belied his age.
He stopped in front of the door and stared at the closed door.
“Open it, please.”
Hearing the man's low voice, the servants actively opened the door.
A gentle breeze blew and the curtains fluttered.
The man's name was Marcus Lockhart.
He was Lord and Duke of House Lockhart, the Emperor's right-hand man and private father of two adult children, Enya and Daniel.
“…….”
The room was empty.
The room was empty, a space long devoid of human warmth.
Marcus stared for a long time at Enya's desk, then at the stuffed animal that was Enya's constant companion.
“Enya…….”
Duke Lockhart muttered the name of his daughter who had run away from home.
'Why are you getting into trouble?'
His affectionate tone quickly calmed down.
Duke Lockhart pressed his forehead as he held out the papers of the land that had been sold.
The land had been given to Enya when she was a child, a gift from her grandfather, the Great Patriarch.
But it was already sold out.
Marcus Lockhart didn't find out until two years after the sale.
Thinking about his daughter was making his head swim.
When she ran away because she refused to marry the Emperor, he was devastated.
He thought she was just complaining because she didn't like the idea of marriage, as was the custom of nobles, but he didn't realize that she hated it.
As a father, he was certainly responsible for ignoring his daughter's wishes.
So he didn't actively seek out Enya.
But now he wonders if it's time to start looking for her again.
'She may be my daughter, but she has some serious ways.'
As a father, he was thrilled by his daughter's intelligence, but he was also worried.
He thinks no news is good news.
‘The Emperor is calm and the Imperial Palace is at peace.
“It is as calm as the earth before a storm.”
Times like these were the most frightening.
Marcus Lockhart knew this from decades of experience.
He was once a battlefield prosecutor.
When the enemy and their barracks were quiet, it meant that they were planning an operation.
Whenever there was an uneasy calm, this was the case.
How did Enya manage to escape the eyes of the Lockhart household?
In his years of experience, there is only one possibility in such cases.
Internal work.
"Emma.
Are you there?"
“Sir, I have called.”
One of the maids bowed respectfully at Duke Lockhart's call.
Marcus looked at the books left in Enya's room and spoke quietly.
“It's been a long time since Enya ran away.”
“I just hope you're safe.”
“You were the child Enya helped in her childhood.”
Duke Lockhart's eyes narrowed, and Emma bowed her head silently.
“It's a bit of a shame, don't you think that Enya, who has been in and out of the duchy and the capital all her life, has been gone for three long years, staying in a place where I can't even find her?”