Chapter 4…
“Report in detail what happened.”
The Knight of the Dawn, Erios Killiet, was a man easy to serve.
He was always cautious and rational, never quick to anger or prone to showing emotion.
He didn’t use his status to act high and mighty, nor did he burden his subordinates—he believed one should handle their own duties.
There was, however, one exception.
“Are you telling me the child disappeared while I was away from the duchy?”
When it came to his niece, his eyes changed completely.
Even when surrounded by monsters, his voice had remained calm—but now, a violent intensity radiated from him as he glared sharply at the messenger.
The subordinate who brought the report shrank his shoulders and answered nervously.
“N-no, that’s not it, sir.”
Artea had gone missing not outside, but inside the ducal mansion.
Even more shocking, her nanny and maid had been right nearby.
“As she’s still a young girl, we thought she’d turn up nearby… but after a full search, there was no trace of her anywhere.”
They had gone out for a short outing, and while the nanny dozed off for a brief moment, the child vanished.
At first, everyone assumed she couldn’t have gone far, being so young.
But no matter how much they searched, Artea was nowhere to be found.
Only then did they sound the alarm and begin a full-scale search—but she never appeared.
“What were you doing that no one noticed a child disappearing under your nose?”
Inside the ducal estate—without anyone sensing a thing—the duke’s young lady had vanished.
The search was underway, but considering how much time had passed, it was a situation serious enough to fear the worst.
Even more so since Artea was a child who had lost both her parents in an accident.
There hadn’t been a single day when he didn’t worry about her—and now this.
“Shall we make her disappearance public and launch an official search?”
“There’s no need.”
Even in the midst of such a shocking situation, Erios calmly retraced the facts and found what needed to be done.
He decided to end the subjugation mission and return immediately.
Activating one of the empire’s few grand magic artifacts, a privilege reserved for dukes, he began tracking her location.
“Where is she?”
“Well….”
When he heard the name of the place Artea had ended up, Erios frowned.
It was a familiar name.
Fortunately, she hadn’t been taken to some desolate place.
If anything, she was somewhere relatively safe.
But that didn’t mean it was a comfortable place for him.
“Lady Artea is unharmed and safe.”
The woman before him shrugged lightly, her tone utterly devoid of emotion.
“Oh dear, I forgot to greet you properly.”
He knew her.
No—he knew her too well for it to be called mere acquaintance.
“Hello, Duke Killiet?”
The one waiting for him when he rushed over to find Artea—
was his former lover.
Her intelligent eyes seemed even sharper than before, her elegant figure more mature.
Her rare violet eyes glimmered like amethysts.
“Well, I can’t exactly say it’s nice to see you.”
She spoke to him politely, as though addressing a stranger.
“……”
Our dear Duke Erios Killiet’s eyebrow twitched at my greeting—even now, in the middle of all this.
They were handsome, dark brows I’d once thought quite fine, and impossible to mistake.
So much for saying he’d take good care of her. He didn’t even notice when she ran away.
I wanted to make him squirm a bit—he deserved at least that much.
But even I wasn’t cruel enough to use a child as a weapon.
—“Lady Artea is unharmed and safe.”
That was the first thing I told him, before anything else.
Honestly… if he didn’t look like he’d sprinted here in a panic, I would’ve started off with a good round of cursing.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t angry, of course.
He clearly came in a rush, so yelling at him right away felt inappropriate.
His niece had shown up all scruffy and dirty, and her uncle didn’t look any better—
not just disheveled, but splattered with blood.
But even beneath his messy hair, his gaze was cold and razor-sharp.
That combination—refined yet brutal—suited him unsettlingly well.
Quite fitting for the famed Knight of the Dawn, known for swordsmanship so precise it seemed almost inhuman.
Seeing Artea again, it’s striking how much they really do look like uncle and niece. Especially that silver hair…
Had his features grown sharper since I last saw him?
And taller, too?
A strange sense of nostalgia flickered through me before I quickly brushed it aside.
He had once looked more like a noble than a warrior—but now, there was something undeniably masculine about him.
Men really do change so quickly. Women, after adolescence, not so much.
“Well, would you like to sit? I have a feeling we have… quite a lot to talk about.”
My voice rose slightly, my lips curling into a smile—
but the knights who had come with Erios didn’t lower their guard.
No fool among them thought my smile was out of joy.
I simply laughed, pretending not to notice their tension.
“Where’s the child?”
Starting with Artea’s whereabouts was the proper thing to do.
Still, I couldn’t help but think—shouldn’t he have kept her safe in the first place?
I smiled sweetly.
“Tell me, Duke Killiet—how did you fail to notice your niece running away?”
At my question, it wasn’t the duke but his butler who snapped in response.
“The Duke was away subjugating monsters! As soon as he heard of Lady Artea’s disappearance, he came straight here without even stopping by the estate!”
So it had happened while he was away, then.
Given his bloodstained state, I couldn’t deny he’d rushed straight from the battlefield.
Still—interrupting someone mid-sentence? Did I ask you?
“What a loyal butler you are.”
I gave him a sweet smile.
“But tell me—how is it that someone so loyal was of no help in this matter?”
Was it poor judgment? Bad luck? Or simply incompetence?
Whatever the case, none of the interpretations were flattering.
The butler’s face reddened, but he couldn’t say a word.
“You claimed to have reinforced security after the incident years ago, didn’t you?
Then is the problem with the system… or with the people running it?”
“……”
“Well, whether it’s the system or the people, the one responsible for both is the head of House Killiet.”
Despite my words, I already knew from my own inquiries that the estate’s barrier and patrol rotations were flawless.
Which meant the answer was obvious.
If Artea slipped out unnoticed, it was because of someone on the inside.
Whether deliberate or accidental.
“Let’s say you were busy hunting monsters, Duke Killiet. Then what were the rest of your people doing during that time?”
“……”
“That’s a question for the butler, really. The young lady of the house vanishes inside the estate and is later found in the Sortis territory.
While the duke was being summoned from his mission, what exactly were you all doing—playing cards?”
But the butler could not give a real answer.
“We… did conduct an investigation, but…”
“And the result?”
If they found nothing, then it was as good as having done nothing.
I shrugged lightly.
“Loyalty without competence—or maybe even that loyalty’s a lie. Hard to tell which.”
As the butler fell silent, I decided to dismiss him.
“I’d like to speak privately with the Duke. After all this, I find it hard to trust anyone else.”
“……”
“You understand, don’t you, butler?”
I parried his indignation effortlessly, and Erios dismissed his men with a simple wave.
Even the butler, struck where it hurt most, withdrew without protest.
Now then… time to really talk.
When everyone had left, the room grew quiet—just the two of us remained.
Erios Killiet and me.
“You should’ve contacted me the moment you found Artea.”
His first words came out in a low, commanding tone—without honorifics.
I answered in kind, dropping mine as well.
“She didn’t want to go back to your mansion.”
“What?”
“Why would I contact you? Should I hand her back to the very house she ran away from?”
Who’s to say the reason she ran away isn’t still waiting for her there?
