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Chapter 26
The narrow tower had no windows, making it pitch black inside.
As Rosaline ascended the spiraling staircase, an indescribable certainty welled up in her.
“He’ll be at the very top.”
Cassis.
“Why on earth… why would he be up at the top of this tower, as though exiled?”
The truth would soon be revealed.
At last, the staircase that seemed to stretch to the heavens came to an end.
Rosaline stood before a worn wooden door.
“A padlock.”
A fist-sized lock barred her way, as though declaring this place forbidden.
Her unease swelled, just as much as her certainty.
Rosaline pulled a pin from her sleeve.
“I only brought this on the off chance….”
A strange, restless feeling overtook her.
Perhaps it was because, in her previous life, she’d caught criminals who picked locks—yet now she herself was the one doing it.
“Please… let there be nothing inside.”
Though she had bulldozed her way this far determined to find Cassis, part of her wished she wouldn’t.
That was how ominous this felt.
Her instincts whispered she was right.
Creak…
The old hinges groaned unpleasantly.
At the top of the tower, still without a single window, darkness choked the room.
Rosaline lifted her lantern to peer inside—and froze.
Why is it that ominous premonitions are never wrong?
At the tower’s summit, inside a room locked with a heavy padlock, sat Cassis.
And he was in a miserable state.
His lips were cracked and crusted with dried blood, as though he hadn’t had a sip of water in days. His face was deathly pale.
The eyes that looked up at her were clouded.
“Who…?”
It wasn’t Cassis’s fault he didn’t recognize her.
Her once-golden hair was dyed jet black, and with makeup, her features looked wholly different.
Rosaline offered no explanation. She only stepped closer.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
When she tried to lift him, Cassis stiffened—not from resistance, but from fear.
“N-no, we can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because…”
Cassis furrowed his brow, struggling to think.
He looked utterly lost, as though he couldn’t even grasp how much time had passed.
When he finally spoke, his voice was unlike his usual tone.
“You need to leave. If they catch you, it’ll be dangerous….”
“You mean you?”
“No… you.”
With what little strength he had left, his hand weakly pushed Rosaline away.
The boy whose body had once been as strong as stone now pushed no harder than she could withstand.
“Have they starved him since the day he was summoned?”
That would make it three days—humanity’s limit without water.
And the one who would dare treat the young lord of Ainderth this way could only be the Duke himself.
“So he really is that cruel.”
Rosaline recalled the Duke’s faded platinum hair and cold face.
“Even if he isn’t his blood son… this isn’t discipline—it’s torture.”
She gently clasped Cassis’s trembling hand, lowering it softly.
“You’re safe now.”
Her voice was calm, warm.
At the gentle tone brushing his ear, Cassis frowned faintly.
“Everything’s alright, Cassis.”
Rosaline didn’t stop there. She drew him into her arms, steadying his shoulders.
The voice sounded oddly familiar. Cassis tried to recall, through the haze in his mind.
But before he could piece it together, Rosaline spoke again.
“Here, drink this first.”
She had brought a canteen—just in case, along with her pin.
Her expression twisted with mixed emotions.
“I feared the worst, but I never thought I’d actually face this.”
That the Duke of Ainderth, the Empire’s greatest noble, had imprisoned his adopted son—
It was outrageous.
Rosaline tilted the canteen to his lips so he could drink with ease.
Thankfully, Cassis did not refuse the water.
After ensuring he drank enough, she extended her hand to him.
“Come with me.”
Though hesitant, Cassis eventually placed his hand in hers and followed.
No one was permitted to approach the punishment room unless the Duke himself opened the door.
So who was this woman, breaking the Duke’s strict rules?
Was his punishment already over?
Fragmented thoughts drifted through his mind, disordered and fleeting.
When Cassis next came to his senses, he was at the estate’s lake.
The mysterious woman knelt at the water’s edge, unconcerned that her dress hem soaked through. She cupped water into her hands and wiped his face clean.
He was long past the age of needing someone to wash him, but he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
After days shut in a pitch-black tower without light, food, or water, his mind was too clouded.
Once she finished washing his face, adjusting his hair and clothes, Rosaline sighed.
“Just look how gaunt you are.”
“……”
“To think such a handsome face could be ruined like this.”
Her words were sincere.
Cassis’s beauty was like that of a finely carved statue.
That was precisely why his haggard state struck her even harder.
Rosaline suddenly turned her head.
In the distance, far from the lake, the manor loomed.
One by one, lights flared to life, piercing the darkness—
They must have noticed Cassis’s disappearance.
Rosaline quickly met his eyes.
“Listen carefully.”
“……”
“No matter what happens tonight, do not leave my side.”
In the dim glow of distant light, Cassis’s crimson eyes glimmered like jewels.
Staring into those gemstone-like eyes, Cassis suddenly remembered a face.
“…Rosaline Hayes?”
“You recognize me now? The captain was missing, so I had to track you down myself.”
“…You said you didn’t want to.”
Rosaline brightened at the response, absurd as it seemed.
“So, you’re coming back to your senses?”
She had feared for his life when she found him half-dead.
“Earlier, you looked so lifeless I almost mistook you for a corpse.”
Cassis frowned.
But Rosaline’s expression lit up with joy, as if something wonderful had happened.
“Thank goodness.”
“……”
Silence descended.
His muddled mind was slowly clearing, yet Cassis still didn’t know what to say.
Rosaline spoke steadily.
“I won’t ask what happened.”
“……”
“But tomorrow, I have to go back to work to log my volunteer hours. So tonight, just do as I say.”
It was impossible to tell if she was joking or serious.
It wasn’t the time or place for such words, yet Rosaline said them as calmly as ever.
“And tomorrow, I’ll make sure you can go to work with me, Sir Cassis.”
Her voice was light, almost playful.
But her eyes, fixed on the blazing manor in the distance, were heavy.
“Duke of Ainderth….”
First, she had to get Cassis out of this mad house.
