“My lord, what about the meal!”

He stormed up the stairs, ignoring the butler’s shouts. These stairs seemed unusually long today.

He pushed open their bedroom door. There was no sign of life in the darkened bedroom, and the servants followed him upstairs.

“H-heok. My lord…….”

Bjorn was sweating from climbing the steep stairs.

“Where did …… she go?”

Ragnar’s voice sounded unusually calm and collected.

“What?”

It was Hilda who noticed the difference. She looked around the bedroom and paled.

“I, I was sure…… she is in the bedroom…….”

Annette covered her mouth with her hand as she realized what was happening.

“What the hell is this…….”

Ragnar’s voice was still calm.

“When was it?”

“It, it was……. It was after lunch……. Apparently, the Madame said she needed some time alone…….”

Hilda began to cry.

“Oh, she said no one should…… disturb her……. So I was very careful when I went near her room…….”

“So no one knew Christa was gone.”

Ragnar felt anger bubbling inside him; surprisingly, even at times like this, he remained calm. Surely he should have reprimanded these servants for their dereliction of duty right now.

“I will reprimand you for this later.”

But right now, finding Christa was more important than that. Of course, there was no sign of a break-in in the bedroom. The bedding and belongings were in order.

“Find out what she was wearing.”

Hilda jumped to her feet and opened the closet. She was not wearing any jewelry, just simple everyday clothes and a coat.

His anger was uncontrollable. It was as hot as if his whole body were on fire. Unable to contain himself, he turned and left the room.

“My lord!”

Bjorn shouted after him. But it was not enough to stop him as he stormed down the stairs.

“Order a search of the village. See if a horse has gone missing. Give everyone a description and find out if anyone saw a young woman. She can’t have gotten far.”

He had no idea where she had gone. He didn’t even know if she’d left on her own accord or gotten into some sort of accident. His body was hot with anger, and now his heart was suddenly sinking.

‘What if she was in an accident…….’

An ominous image flashes through his mind. Then he remembered Christa peeking under the window the other day. What if he hadn’t saw her then…….

“Send a search party to the water’s edge and the thorny grove below the castle, just in case…….”

Olaf’s eyes widened in surprise as he realized the implications of his words.

“Release all the hounds.”

“Yes, sir.”

Olaf quickly gave the order to his servant. Ragnar staggered to his feet and rubbed his dizzy temples.

Just then, he heard Annette running down the stairs, panting.

“D, Duke!”

Hilda came running up behind her.

“What’s wrong?”

“The, the ring is missing!”

Ragnar’s eyes sparked at the sound of the ring. But he couldn’t help but repeat it.

“The ring?”

“That, the green tin ring she brought the other day!”

Surely Christa had said it before. The ring had been given to her by Prince Eilio.

According to Annette, Christa had never worn it, just kept it in the corner of her jewelry box. But today, she was missing, along with the ring. The circumstances pointed to only one thing.

“Eilio…….”

His face slowly heated up. Emergency signals were ringing in his head. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. An uncontrollable rage burned through him.

“That asshole…….”

That son of a bitch had to have something to do with Christa’s disappearance.

* * *

Christa still sat still in front of Eilio. There were so many things she wanted to ask him, but somehow none of them came out of her mouth.

“Still, you are a person of few words, and your courage in coming here was inconceivable.”

“…….”

For some reason, there was quite a bit of kindness in his voice today, and as if remembering something, Eilio turned to her.

“Oh, by the way, did you like the gift I gave you?”

He was referring to her mother’s ring from the other day. Christa reached into her pocket and pulled out the green tin ring.

“I’ll give this one back.”

She placed it on the table. Eilio threw up his hands.

“No, no, no. It’s not technically a gift from me, but rather a relic of your mother that Baron Palmaril requested.”

He slid the ring back toward Christa. His gentlemanly demeanor was strikingly different than before.

“Besides, the offer I made you still stands.”

“What offer?”

She repeated.

“What do you mean? Have you forgotten already? The offer to be my mistress. Even a married woman can be a mistress.”

Christa felt a flash of shame; she was being asked to betray Ragnar publicly.

“There is no way I would do that!”

She shouted back, quickly and loudly. Eilio paused, startled, and then laughed heartily.

“This is it, huh, you’re firmly in love with Ragnar, aren’t you?”

His laughter was clearly mocking, but she was undaunted. Besides, there was no reason for Eilio to hear this.

“I am, indeed, married to the Duke.”

True, theirs was a contract marriage. But there was no need to reveal that here.

“Therefore, I cannot be your mistress, please understand.”

Inwardly, she feared that Eilio would be offended by this answer, but he only looked at her with a smiling face.

“Very well, that would be desirable indeed.”

He took another sip of his tea, then turned to look at her, his gaze seeming to lick her entire body, from head to toe. It was overwhelming, and she looked away. An awkward silence fell between them.

She wanted to ask him why he had come to the North. But the words wouldn’t come easily.

It was Eilio who spoke first.

“If you have nothing to say, let me tell you a little tale from the past, for I am sure you will enjoy hearing it.”

He set his teacup down on the table.

“So, where do I begin…….”

He made exaggerated hand gestures, like an actor in a play.

“How much do you know of Ragnar?”

The question came out of nowhere and was too inclusive: How much do I know him?

“What do you mean?”

She blurted out, and Eilio quickly changed the question.

“Alas, that was a bad question. I was merely curious as to how much of his essence you grasp.”

Christa thought. Ragnar was a kind and fundamentally good man. He was fair and just, and one of the strongest people she knew.

But she hadn’t thought to tell Elio that. He was still smirking.

“Do you really think you have to be loyal just because you’re married to him?”

“Because that’s the promise of marriage.”

“And of course there should be no lies between a husband and wife?”

Christa was silent for a moment, taken aback by this statement. There were too many secrets she hadn’t told him for there to be no lies between them. But her secrets were not of a nature to be told to others.

“Y, yes.”

And so she left it at that.

Eilio laughed out loud at Christa’s answer. It sounded like he was laughing at her ignorance.

“Let me tell you one of Ragnar’s secrets.”

Christa swallowed dryly. There was a side of Ragnar she didn’t know……. She wanted to know, so she waited impatiently for the next words to come out of Eilio’s mouth.

“He is…….”

He must have read her nervousness, because he sighed once. The longer he paused, the more giddy Christa became. If she waited any longer, she would break down.

The next words came as a bit of a shock.

“He is the murderer of her sister, my betrothed, my crown princess.”

Ragnar killed his sister? Christa asked in shock,

“What does that…… mean?”

“It is what you have heard.”

It was impossible to read anything in Elio’s expression now; he was merely frowning, his brow furrowed.

If he was referring to Ragnar’s sister, he was referring to the girl in the family painting she had seen before.

‘She’s a little far away, so she’s probably doing okay.’

He definitely said that. So Christa had inferred that Ragnar’s sister had been married off to a distant estate.

But it wasn’t true.

“Did he ever tell you about his sister?”

“He…….”

Christa shook her head slowly. Now that she thought about it, it felt like Ragnar had been artfully avoiding answering about his sister all this time.

It wasn’t just Ragnar, but all the servants at Castle Wishus. Sometimes she remembered their vague responses to her questions.

What if everything Eilio said was true now…….

Christa hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to answer. It was hard to say yes, and it was hard to say no.

She rolled her eyes nervously from side to side and twitched the corners of her mouth. Setting aside the truth or falsity of what Eilio said, she had no clue.

All the information she could faintly grasp was enough to make his words feel true.