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Chapter 43
“Was it Rahel?”
If it wasn’t Edelvine’s knights who killed them, then according to the reports, the only ones present at the scene were Vivian, Rahel, and Dias.
But Vivian and Dias were ordinary people without any power—there was no way they could have killed that many people.
The only one with enough power was Rahel.
However, it was also impossible to believe that Rahel, who had never properly learned magic nor experienced combat, had killed that many mercenaries.
“No. All of the deceased were struck by swords.”
The moment Kalts heard this, a face he had seen somewhere before flashed through his mind.
A face that looked somehow familiar.
At the same time, a possibility he had never considered crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside when Owen continued speaking.
“However, Margaret Hayes, who cooperated with the kidnapping, has been detained in the basement.”
Thanks to Vivian’s testimony, Edelvine’s knights were able to catch Margaret as she tried to flee with Sally immediately after the incident.
Kalts went down to the basement with Owen.
Inside the iron cage meant for large beasts, Margaret and Sally were held.
The townhouse and the main residence had proper dungeons, but since the villa didn’t, this was a temporary holding space.
Margaret, who had briefly dozed off despite the uncomfortable basement, woke up at the sound of footsteps. Upon seeing Kalts, she sprang up in surprise.
“Y-Your Excellency!”
Kalts calmly surveyed Margaret, whose appearance had deteriorated over the past few days, and Sally, who was still deeply asleep.
He once believed Margaret was intelligent enough to be entrusted with raising Rahel—but now it seemed laughable.
Margaret knelt and bowed her head before him.
“Y-Your Excellency! In fear, I lost my wits and made a momentary wrong judgment. I beg you to forgive me just this once…!”
“Was it the Emperor’s doing?”
Kalts did not express anger or doubt at Margaret’s betrayal.
He merely asked a question to which he already knew the answer.
Margaret’s heart sank, feeling as though she were being discarded like an object whose use had ended.
“Yes… it was. An inspector sent by His Majesty secretly approached me. I was threatened that if I didn’t cooperate, Sally would be killed, so I…”
She told everything she knew, leaving out only information that was disadvantageous to herself.
Desperately, she tried to prove her worth and show that she regretted her choice.
But the reply she received was coldly indifferent.
“Foolish.”
With that, he turned and left.
Behind him, Margaret’s pleading voice reached his ears, but his steps faltered not a bit.
Owen asked him,
“What should we do?”
Kalts lowered his piercing blue eyes as he considered the fate of Margaret and her daughter.
Margaret had cooperated with the inspector in kidnapping Rahel. It was a capital crime with no room for objection.
But…
‘I cannot kill the child.’
Of course, he suspected that Sally had been subtly jealous of Vivian and caused minor troubles.
But that was hardly a crime deserving death.
He did not want to punish the child for her mother’s sins.
That would be no different from the Emperor punishing Rahel for Leofried’s crimes.
‘If Isela were alive, she would surely want mercy.’
Even knowing the danger Rahel faced because of Margaret, Sally would feel pity for her—simply because she was a mother.
“…Margaret Hayes will be hanged, and Sally sentenced to forced labor in the northern snow mountains.”
Before Owen could nod, Kalts added,
“However, Margaret’s sentence will be postponed for ten years.”
“Understood, Your Excellency.”
Having settled the matter, Kalts went straight upstairs.
He thought he might briefly check on Rahel as she slept, when the child appeared before him.
“Grandfather.”
“You’re still awake. Are you all right?”
Seeing Rahel unharmed, even the faint anxiety he had felt at the foot of the bed vanished.
“I have a request.”
But when he met the determined eyes of his grandson, memories of Isela, now distant, surfaced, and his heart sank.
Isela had looked exactly like that when she refused marriage to Emperor Orphen.
“Please let me return to the estate.”
“…What?”
“I don’t want to hide anymore.”
Since the day she was nearly kidnapped, Rahel had been thinking.
When the kidnappers attacked, they grabbed the hem of her dress.
The clothes she had worn to hide herself and protect herself failed to shield her—it had become a hindrance.
Only when she saw her tattered dress back at home did she realize:
‘This scrap of cloth cannot protect me.’
Hiding alone cannot protect anyone.
Neither herself nor Vivian.
She had to fight now.
“I want to be strong.”
The late afternoon sunlight streamed through the office window.
Kalts, standing by the window, looked out at the garden.
In the scenery, Rahel was playing with Vivian.
Unlike last night, when she had declared her resolve, she looked like a normal child—but her eyes remained sharp.
[I want to be strong.]
Those eyes, reminiscent of Isela.
One of the reasons Rahel wanted to be strong… no, the greatest reason was the presence of Vivian right beside her.
[Father, please protect Rahedis… protect your grandson.]
Until now, Kalts had been protecting Rahel according to Isela’s final wish.
But in the distant future, following the natural order, he would die before Rahel.
Then, who would protect the child left alone in the world?
He could not keep her locked away forever.
The child must eventually fly alone, hunt alone.
Her world was the wild, and she had to survive there herself.
For the first time, he considered a distant future he had never worried about, prompted by the reality of protecting the child in the present.
Facing yesterday’s Rahel, he realized:
‘I was the one not ready to break the shell—not Rahel.’
The child had long been ready to face the world.
Kalts took out a pendant he always carried.
One side bore a portrait of his wife, the other of his daughter, Isela.
“…Isela, you would have made the same choice, right?”
Yes, she would have supported Rahel’s choice without hesitation.
Always wiser, always kinder.
Just as he had finally resolved to break the shell, a knock came, followed by Owen’s voice.
“Your Excellency, Mr. Hessen requests an audience.”
At the mention of that name, Kalts’ expression changed.
He had wanted to see the face of the one who had killed dozens of kidnappers alone.
“Let him in.”
The man who entered bore a striking resemblance to Vivian.
“I should have visited sooner, but I delayed out of concern for your busy schedule, Your Excellency.”
“Did I avoid recognizing you?”
Apart from the glasses hiding a certain cold glint in his eyes, Dias’ carefully maintained outward expression cracked slightly under Kalts’ direct words.
“The second commander of the royal knights, Dane Rouswidh.”
Ten years ago, he had left to defeat the Demon Lord and retrieve its heart under the Emperor’s command, and went missing.
The smile had completely vanished from his eyes, and no glasses could hide it.
“Even as I investigated you, I never imagined that the hero recorded in history would be a traitor who fled after refusing the Emperor’s orders.”
Dias quickly gathered his fleeting emotions from the crack in his composure.
‘Indeed, I went too far after learning Vivian had been kidnapped, acting recklessly without considering the consequences.’
It was not entirely unexpected that his identity would eventually be revealed.
He had hoped Kalts hadn’t noticed, but it seemed a seasoned veteran who had spent half his life reading situations could not be deceived.
“You said I looked familiar, but you bear a striking resemblance to that annoying sister of yours.”
