If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 172
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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As the dust settled and the vision cleared, Ethan finally spotted Cain. His shirt was nowhere to be seen, and Cain was swinging a wooden training sword, his body soaked in sweat, exposing his raw, hard muscles.
Around him, five or more knights were already sprawled out on the ground, having been knocked out.
Ethan helped the fallen knights back to their feet. After giving them a moment to drink some water, he approached Cain, who was still puffing with frustration.
“Commander, don’t you think it’s enough for today?”
“Enough? Go drink some water, and then come back and run twenty laps around the training grounds. Twenty laps.”
The knights, who had been trying to catch their breath, groaned in resignation as they stumbled toward their water bottles.
“I just came from the Imperial Guard Headquarters. I went to confirm the arrest warrants for Stella Calvino and John Calvino.”
“And any progress with the investigation?”
“It seems there’s no new information yet.”
“Did you find the knights who were on duty at that time?”
“Well, our knights should have been the ones on duty, but, unfortunately, it happened to coincide with the changeover time with the Imperial Guard. Our knights had already been relieved, and the Imperial Guard was just about to take over. We still haven’t figured out who exactly visited Stella Calvino.”
“There’s no way our knights would have let anyone lay a hand on her. The culprit is someone who could influence the Imperial Guard, someone with enough power to have gotten Stella Calvino out.”
“Yes. I spoke to Administrator Christian but I didn’t get any solid answers. Even if he’s involved in this, he won’t say a word—after all, it’s a matter concerning his mother and younger brother.”
“He might not be involved. Christian Calvino cares more about his own advancement than his family.”
“Yes, I think that’s true, but we can’t completely rule him out just yet.”
Cain wiped the sweat from his face with the back of his hand and asked, “What about the Grand Duke?”
“Nothing unusual there. From what we’ve gathered, the Grand Duke has been sending people south quite frequently.”
“Sending people south? For what reason?”
“We haven’t figured that out yet. But we know that a convoy with Grand Duke Norfolk’s seal has headed south over ten times this month alone.”
“…It’s probably a bribe for Count Schuck.”
Cain clenched his fist as he mentioned the name of Count Schuck, who controlled the entire southern region.
With the Emperor’s watchful eye on him, Grand Duke Norfolk could not expand his influence in the capital, so he had been making efforts to bring Count Schuck, the wealthiest man in the south, into his fold.
The Grand Duke had probably offered the displaced Amasril refugees to him as part of these efforts. He was already overflowing with wealth, it would have been pointless to try to lure him with treasures.
Instead, Grand Duke Norfolk must have decided to offer something rare, something that could not be bought with money.
The thought of his mother, who had been ruthlessly exploited by such a beast, made Cain’s eyelids twitch.
“What did he give away this time?”
Having purchased Calvino’s debts, Cain had recently seized the Count’s estate, citing the debtor’s failure to meet obligations. From there, he had been able to recover much of the wealth that Stella had smuggled away from Kristin’s possessions, including war-related documents left by the late Duke.
Reading through them, Cain began to wonder if the true enemy who had brought his family to ruin wasn’t Duke Kristin, but Grand Duke Norfolk. The reason being that when Duke Kristin violated the empire’s laws to secretly smuggle Amasril refugees and give them to the nobility, it had brought him no benefit at all.
In fact, thanks to having pushed the Amasril royalty into servitude, Grand Duke Norfolk had gained significant influence in the south. Meanwhile, Duke Kristin had met a suspicious death…
The doubts kept mounting. But they were all just speculation. Without concrete evidence, such thoughts were powerless.
Cain placed his wooden sword back in its stand.
“Human trafficking is forbidden. Could it be that the Grand Duke has once again broken the law?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. The Grand Duke is someone who thinks lives can be bought and sold for money.”
Such scoundrels, they were almost too much to bear. But now wasn’t the time to let his anger get the best of him. Cain roughly wiped his face.
“Of all places… in the south…”
He stopped speaking and glanced at Ethan. It bothered him that his wife, who had been in Arta, had headed south.
Although Esther had claimed she didn’t know where Agatha and her group had gone, Cain remembered that Agatha had often expressed that she missed the maid she had left behind and frequently reminisced about her childhood.
It seemed clear to him that she must have gone to find her nanny.
Charlotte Borgia. Cain was certain that Agatha, who was now pregnant, had gone to find her nanny, who had been like a mother to her.
The Borgia family was based in Pahel, a region at the southernmost tip of the empire. Cain and his knights had spent three full months there, but even after all that time, he had found no trace of Agatha.
