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“Brother, go in now. I called out all the wizards in a hurry so don’t worry.”
Peyton pulled out his magic tool next to Rashid, who didn’t say a word. He just finished sending it to the wizards, and there was still a blue light.
“I was still in the city, chasing after Roam, so I also told him the description of the Duchess. In black mourning——-”
“Stop saying that.”
“…….”
Rashid’s voice was as feisty as his first statement.
However, without looking back at him once, his eldest brother’s eyes appeared like twin blue pools seemed bottomless. Just like the lake he was seeing, a quiet wave shot up his eyes.
“Find her.”
“There’s no lead, of course, but I’m still going to look for her———-”
“Find her. Now.”
What he meant was so clear.
That was it. There was nothing more to say than this.
“…….”
The more he did, the darker Peyton’s face became. He looked fine on the surface, but he was already exhausted just by bringing Rashid here.
“Do it or I’ll find her myself.”
“Please go back to the Winter Palace. If you step up, it’ll only get more complicated. All the aristocrats in the North already know that you’re here, and if you are doing this in the city, the aftermath will be unbearable.”
“Aftermath?”
He laughed as if he had heard something funny. As soon as the dry, emotionless smile stopped, the temperature seemed to have fallen down a notch.
“What on earth can their ‘aftermath’ do to me?”
“Big brother.”
“Shut it.”
His red eyes turned to the rain. Upon closer look, he appeared like he was on the verge of losing all reason. For Peyton, who had been on the battlefield with him before, his gaze was unrecognizable. Having swallowed a sigh, he was forced to come up with a last resort to hold Rashid down.
“This aftermath won’t only come to you. It’s going to be harder for the Duchess——-”
It was such a delicate insinuation that he couldn’t even get angry.
“How dare you?”
They were supposed to go back to the Winter Palace but they were walking along the path around the lake toward Duke Evendell’s mansion, instead. He had clenched his fists as he looked at the house, which had no lights on as if it was uninhabited.
“Your Majesty! Third Brother! You’re here!”
“Tenon!”
Peyton was more than ever welcomed by Tenon, who was riding his horse over the hill. He didn’t come all the way here. Tenon also got off the horse with a grim face even though he found it first.
“Your Majesty. I thought you were at the Winter Palace, so I looked for you there for a long time, but Viscount Dion————”
“Did you find her?”
“…….”
Rashid’s dangerous chuckle added to Tenon’s silence.
“Whoa! What the hell is this woman———-”
“The road outside the city to the border has been blocked, just in case. Instead of releasing soldiers to create a disturbance in the city, we only searched around them but——-”
“Please continue.”
“A few people had told me that they had seen the Duchess. I didn’t realize it at first because I was walking around like a crazy person in the rain, but on second thought, it was definitely the Duchess———-”
“Whoa!”
Rashid, who raised his head, slowly swept his face down. Tennon, who was upset even though it wasn’t his fault, scratched his cheek for no reason. This was definitely an awkward story to tell in the future.
“She even jumped into a running carriage. Then, the witness said he just cried and laughed because it was clear that she was the Duchess from the description alone.”
“This woman of mine———”
“…….”
“No matter how alert both of you are, how can you?”
Rashid’s anger flared and the two princes could no longer stop it. At this rate, the Emperor would still explode even if the Duchess returned. Even if they met their eldest brother in this state and get away with it, unscathed, they wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences.
“Catherine. Catherine.”
Her name, which he chewed on word for word, contained feelings that he couldn’t understand. Tenon looked at Peyton as if asking about what to do but there was no other way to handle this. In the end, Payton carefully recommended it.
“You should go back to the palace now, brother. Tenon and I will go out again and look around.”
“She really went too far this time.”
“Your Majesty.”
“I’ve had enough.”
He was so desperate to death. The mallard, which had fallen down with a rope tied to its leg, got weighed down by its life and flapped its wings again. It didn’t seem easy to pretend he was dead.