“Seriously?! I think you’re the one who needs exorcism right now. Are you even still the same Allen?!”

On a fine weather, the Schwartzen residence received an unusual guest.

The only one that could utter such rude remark right after entering was none other than Prince Kiehl, who was looking at Allen with his deep blue eyes that clearly showed anger.

Meanwhile, sitting on the chair to receive the prince was Allen, who had his arm and leg bandaged. He was evidently injured, and his appearance looked haggard.

 

“I know, I know. It’s my fault,” Allen quickly admitted.

“I still don’t believe it…!!” Prince Kiehl said again.

“My prince, if I may speak…”

A tall knight with a reddish short brown hair who was standing right behind the prince opened his mouth.

“You may speak, Fremont.”

“People make mistakes. And it’s easier to lose your cool when it’s related to someone you care about,” Fremont defended Allen.

“It’s true, but this isn’t like the Allen that I know,” Prince Kiehl sighed.

“He’s been bewitched!”

Suddenly, the knight that was silently standing behind Kiehl, next to Fremont, opened his mouth.

 

“Bewitched… Probably,” Kiehl nodded, satisfied with the other knight’s sentence.

“She isn’t a witch though?” Fremont wondered.

“She is,” The other knight insisted.

“You know her, Miles?” Fremont asked.

“Not really,” the shorter knight that turned out to be Miles—or Mila—shook their head.

“Just in case, should we bring Allen to your little sister so that she could exorcise whatever demon is possessing him?” Kiehl asked.

“Your Highness, excuse me, but I’ll refuse,” Fremont quickly said.

“Why?” Miles asked.

“Didn’t you want to let Laurence meet Allen’s wife and not Allen himself? Rather than having her travel twice, why don’t we just rescue Allen’s wife first and have her meet them later? And Sir Allen’s clearly been possessed with love,” Fremont said with a little bit hint of ridicule as he looked at Allen.

“You seem to be looking down on me for losing my head and are so clear that it’s because of love. Speaking from experience, Fremont?” Allen taunted Fremont back.

“Ridiculous!” Fremont quickly denied.

“Enough. Why must you two fight? Let’s go back to the current topic at hand,” Kiehl said as he extended his hand towards Allen.

 

“The letter,” Kiehl asked.

Allen gave out the letter to Kiehl as instructed.

 

Several days ago, Allen received an anonymous letter addressed to him. When asked, nobody knew who exactly sent him that letter.

However, the letter quickly pointed out how the writer knew where Ann was, and that Ann was injured and required prompt rescue or her life won’t be guaranteed.

Right after reading that, Allen went out to the appointed place, with not much preparation. He didn’t even discuss the letter with anyone and just took his trusted subordinates that were on standby together with him.

First, he was really worried for Ann’s wellbeing and if what’s written in the letter was true, he’d be gambling with her life if he delayed.

Second, even if it was a trap, he was also confident in his skills, as well as his subordinates’ skills.

 

Unfortunately, the letter turned out to be a trap and even if he was confident in his skills as well as in the skills of the subordinates that he brought with him, the enemy could overwhelm them with quantity and it was exactly what they did.

Though there was no casualty on Allen’s side, the enemies managed to escape and Allen and his subordinates were injured.

 

“So that’s why you were so reckless,” Prince Kiehl sighed again after reading the letter on his hand. He then gave it to Fremont.

“Help me investigate this letter,” Kiehl said to Fremont, who quickly put the letter carefully.

 

“How’s your injury?” Kiehl asked as he sipped on the tea that was served.

“They’re only superficial.”

“But the bandages…”

“The doctors insisted. For healing.”

“Makes sense.”

The two men exchanged very brief words.

 

Then, Allen turned his sharp eyes on Miles, who was also staring at him. After trying to intimidate him for a moment, Allen shifted his gaze to Kiehl.

“Why are you bringing this knight too? He seems to be biased against my wife,” Allen said as he emphasized on the word ‘my wife’.

“So that everything will be neutral. You are more biased towards her, after all,” Kiehl shrugged.

“Will he help, though?” Allen doubted.

“Don’t worry. He won’t go against the order,” Kiehl said.

“I can vouch for that,” Fremont said.

Miles only nodded.

 

“Anyway, even if your wounds is only superficial, you’re missing my point,” Kiehl said.

Allen only raised his eyebrow, prompting Kiehl to continue.

“You were so distraught and lost your composure, and ended up falling to a trap. But you know that she has become your weakness, and what if this weakness of yours be exploited like before?” Kiehl asked.

“And if I may add,” Miles raised his hand, Kiehl nodded, giving him the courage to continue, “What if that woman—”

Allen stared dagger at Miles.

“Pardon me, what if your wife were actually pretending all along, exactly to trap you?” Miles asked.

“This again,” Allen sighed.

 

“A—Arlea, she’s also a victim in this,” Allen said.

“I’ve told Fremont about her,” Kiehl noticed Allen’s concern and quickly said.

“Alright. Ann is a victim in this. Miles, was it? You’ve listened to her explanation, right?” Allen asked.

“That’s… It’s still dubious,” Miles said.

“Be as bizarre it is, I believe in her,” Allen said before continuing, “And I’ve learned a lesson from this incident, too. It’s really my mistake this time, and I think I needed this incident to happen to remind me to keep calm and be wary.”

Kiehl nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Allen’s words.

 

“Let’s widen our scope of search, then. But we need to keep it hidden,” Kiehl said.

Allen nodded.

“I’ll contact the other trusted nobles and subordinates in a more extensive area to be on the lookout. Now that a week has gone by without any news, she can be anywhere far away from this place,” Kiehl said.

“Sorry for the trouble,” Allen said.

“Even if you aren’t worried about her, I’d still need to locate her just in case, so no need to apologize,” Kiehl chuckled.

 

“But… Are you sure nobody would notice?” Fremont asked.

“She doesn’t really have any friends, so I doubt it’d matter,” Kiehl said.

But upon hearing Fremont’s words, Allen’s face turned ugly, as if he just remembered something.

“…What? That’s not the case?” Kiehl had a foreboding feeling.

Allen then took out another letter.

 

“This is… A letter from Earl Rubennhelsch’s residence?” Kiehl asked.

“What does it have to do with…?” Miles questioned, but Allen just gestured to open the letter.

When Kiehl opened the letter and scanned the words inside, he heaved yet another long sigh and supported his forehead with his hand.

“The prince said that she didn’t have any friends, but since when did she become friends with Earl Rubennhelsch’s daughter?” Fremont, who was also taking a look at the letter, asked in amazement.

“From Viscountess Vanessa’s party, I guess,” Allen answered.

 

Not too long after Ann’s disappearance, the Schwartzen residence received an invitation sent by Naia, saying that since Naia and Norrad liked Ann, they wanted to invite Ann over to have some tea together.

Allen had responded on behalf of Ann, saying that Ann was currently feeling unwell, so she couldn’t come yet.

However, unexpectedly, the pair of siblings requested that they come to visit Ann out of concern for her.

This was exactly the letter that Allen showed to Kiehl.

 

“…Just say that she’s recuperating in another place,” Kiehl said.

“That’s what I intend to do,” Allen nodded.

Though the two of them didn’t say it, it was clear that they couldn’t let this matter drag on. As unexpectedly, there were people who clearly missed Ann and wanted to see her. If they kept denying that, it’d become suspicious and the news that Ann was kidnapped would start to leak.

 

“There’s no one else that will look for her, right?” Kiehl asked, just in case.

“I think no,” Allen said as he was thinking.

Ann hadn’t been socializing a lot, especially since her previous image was not good. The people from Claritianta residence was surely collaborating with the rebels, so they wouldn’t dare to show their face. There was an attempt to search and question their residence, but it didn’t show any good result.

As for the others that Ann was in good relationship with… The tutor, the doctors…

Basically none…

 

Then, Allen remembered something. His eyes widened in surprise.

“What is it? Anyone else?” Kiehl noticed Allen’s change of expression and asked.

“She’s been regularly volunteering in an orphanage,” Allen said.

“What?” Miles was the one that raised his voice in surprise.

“She does?” Kiehl asked.

“Yes, but undercover. As a commoner,” Allen said.

“That’s surprising,” Fremont added.

“She hasn’t given a notice to the orphanage,” Allen added.

“But volunteers… in orphanage. I think there’s no need to be so formal like that. Volunteers can show up or just not show up without any notice,” Fremont added.

“Yeah. But she seems to be in good terms with the orphanage people,” Allen said as his expression turned colder when he remembered Ann’s male friend at the orphanage, Silas.

“They don’t know that she’s related to this residence, right?” Kiehl asked.

“Nope,” Allen answered.

“Then that’s good. She can explain later when she returns,” Kiehl said.

Allen turned to look at his friend, Kiehl, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

 

He knew Kiehl quite well.

‘She can explain later when she returns’.

By saying such a remark, it meant that Kiehl was supportive of their rescue for Ann and that he was leaning more towards believing that Ann was innocent.

Though he didn’t say it at all, Allen heard his implication quite well, and he felt a little bit of comfort in knowing that his friend was really on his side, despite his status requiring him to be so wary of Ann.

 

After receiving another scolding from Kiehl, Allen sent the prince and his knights off, with the promise of expanding the search force for Ann.