BXBX NOVEL Chapter 58 – Regret (2)
Chapter 58 – Regret (2)
Creak—
With a loud metallic sound, the door to the interrogation room opened.
“Lady Luna, please get up.”
Luna, who had been lying with a disheveled face, slowly opened her eyes.
The person who entered was none other than the priest who had initially confined her here.
Luna blinked and then got up.
Having barely slept and been on edge for several days, her entire body felt creaky and sluggish.
‘…I’m tired.’
Choosing to refuse food and stay vigilant, cutting down on sleep.
It was all her choice, but she didn’t particularly regret it.
— Isabel Yustia, you don’t know what that woman might do to you, so refrain from eating for a day or two.
— Sleep as little as possible, and stay vigilant.
Hadn’t Kyle earnestly advised her just a few days ago?
Luna had no intention of ignoring his precious advice.
“You skipped your meal again today.”
The priest clicked his tongue at the untouched food.
At that moment, Luna let out a faint chuckle.
“How could I eat that, knowing what you people who only seek God when it’s convenient might have done to it?”
“…”
“Get to the point. If you have nothing to say, shut the door and get out.”
A hint of contempt flashed in Luna’s eyes.
It was an overt condemnation, but the priest merely smiled wryly.
Everything Luna said was true.
“The interrogation is over.”
“…What?”
The priest walked over and opened a window to ventilate the room.
“You are free, Lady Luna.”
The priest’s face was expressionless as he calmly declared her freedom.
“Free?”
Luna asked again, a beat late.
“You heard correctly. Duke Winfred is waiting for you. Once you are ready, you may leave.”
Luna was inwardly surprised.
She knew she would be released without much trouble, but she hadn’t expected the sharp conflict between the divine and the secular to end so quickly.
Luna stood up.
Then she slowly began to walk toward the priest.
“I’ve heard the stories.”
She smiled brightly.
“The Royal Family wanted Kyle to enter the Imperial Palace, didn’t they?”
Then she saw it.
The priest’s face twisted for a split second.
“And the Saintess rather harshly rejected the imperial decree.”
The priest’s breathing gradually quickened.
Luna kept walking.
“And now you’re letting me go…”
The Royal Family wanted Kyle, and Isabel had refused.
That was natural.
Isabel loved Kyle.
That’s why Isabel had confined her here.
To monopolize Kyle while she was gone.
So no one else could get close to Kyle.
“What could it be?”
There was no way that woman Isabel would release her without a reason.
Surely, she had some heinous ulterior motive.
Perhaps she had made a deal with the Royal Family for some reward, or…
“He’s missing.”
…Missing?
For a moment, Luna’s thoughts froze.
“What?”
“Your younger brother is missing.”
“Kyle… is missing…?”
She couldn’t believe it.
Kyle, my beloved brother.
Gone so suddenly? Without saying anything to me?
“Tell me more.”
“Well, all his belongings and the knight who always accompanied him are gone too. It looks like they fled in the night.”
The priest’s cold gaze brushed Luna’s cheek.
Luna glared at him, then tilted her head slightly.
Her jet-black hair fell messily, and she stared at the priest with a chilling expression.
“Where is the Saintess now?”
“She left for the Eastern Continent the previous day.”
The Saintess left for the Eastern Continent while Kyle was missing?
The woman who had groveled like a beast to ask for Kyle’s forgiveness?
That couldn’t be.
Isabel’s love for Kyle was genuine.
But… Kyle wouldn’t have voluntarily followed Isabel.
Because Kyle hated Isabel.
Then what?
Where could Kyle have gone, leaving me behind…
Could it be…
Did he seek Isabel’s help to avoid being dragged to the Imperial Palace?
“…”
Luna raised her hand to cover her face.
And muttered in a low, eerie voice.
“…Isabel Yustia.”
Again.
It’s Isabel again.
She must have done something.
She either coaxed Kyle with her silver tongue or made some ridiculous threat.
Yes, I knew this would happen.
My beloved brother wouldn’t have left me for no reason.
A thick vein bulged at Luna’s temple.
She felt sickened by Isabel’s relentless obsession with Kyle.
I should have killed her that day, without hesitation.
Luna’s rationality began to crack.
“…”
The priest, watching her, swallowed deeply.
He kept silent, as if she had hit the nail on the head.
Only then did Luna’s half-vanished sanity return.
It’s still okay, for now.
Kyle had accepted her as family.
He had promised to stay with her.
— I’ll come with you.
— Sister.
With that radiant smile.
In that sweet voice.
“Ha.”
Time is on her side.
So, she had to be even more cautious.
The days of disappointing Kyle were long gone.
She never wanted to upset Kyle again.
How much time had passed in silence?
Instead of letting out her boiling anger, Luna closed her eyes and smiled.
And then she spoke.
“Lead the way.”
The priest glanced at Luna’s face.
Then he sighed deeply and turned around.
“Follow me.”
Luna calmly followed him.
The blazing anger gradually subsided.
At the same time, she made a resolution.
To find Kyle as soon as possible.
And to show him how she had changed.
****
Meanwhile,
In a room of the Imperial Palace adorned with all sorts of luxuries and golden decorations.
“…”
A suffocating silence settled.
The attendant, who had just finished his report, waited anxiously for the response of the woman sipping her tea.
After a moment of silence.
“Is it true?”
Princess Rudine Eckhart.
She asked in an elegant voice.
“Yes, Your Highness. It is absolutely true.”
Rudine gently placed the teacup on the side table.
She sighed in displeasure and flipped through the documents she had received.
“Hmm.”
The contents of the documents could be summarized in one line.
Kyle had suddenly gone missing.
Specifically, the day before the Papal See departed for the Eastern Continent.
“He is missing.”
Rudine skimmed through the documents nonchalantly.
Had he fled in the night?
Or did the Duke play some trick?
Though she had anticipated strong resistance, hearing the news of his disappearance didn’t make her feel any better.
“This is strange.”
Rudine couldn’t understand it.
In the past, maybe, but there was no way the current Isabel would be so careless as to let Kyle escape.
And what was even more strange was that no one in the Papal See noticed Kyle’s disappearance.
That should be impossible.
There’s no place as structurally easy to monitor as the Papal See.
And above all.
“The Saintess left for the Eastern Continent the day after Kyle went missing?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
It was a very peculiar situation.
It seemed as if she wasn’t concerned at all about Kyle’s disappearance.
At that moment, Rudine’s eyes widened.
Like someone who had discovered something fatal.
Rudine put down the paper she was reading irritably.
Then she slowly turned her head toward the attendant.
“There’s something strange in the Duke’s report.”
“What do you mean?”
When Rudine gestured, the attendant quickly walked over to check the documents.
“The number of carriages that departed from the Papal See.”
“…”
“It says a total of twenty carriages were deployed…”
Rudine slowly tilted her teacup.
And asked.
“Do you know what that means?”
“I’m not sure… Please enlighten me.”
The moment the attendant met Rudine’s eyes, his breath became shallow and trembled.
He felt his back stiffen.
“It’s strange.”
Rudine’s brows narrowed.
Seeing the Princess’s anger for the first time, the attendant’s adam’s apple bobbed nervously.
“The envoy dispatched to the Bihakan Kingdom reported that a total of eighteen carriages arrived.”
If that’s the case.
Where did the two extra carriages go?
“And the Saintess has not yet appeared in the kingdom.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“But the Duke reported that he saw the Saintess leave in a carriage with his own eyes, didn’t he?”
Rudine’s sharp observation pierced the attendant.
The suffocating tension made his skin tremble.
“Kyle suddenly goes missing. The Papacy suddenly departs for the Eastern Continent. The Saintess acts as if she doesn’t care about Kyle’s disappearance.”
The attendant blinked.
Throughout Rudine’s words, his mind was dazed.
He had no idea what conclusion she would draw, so he only watched her lips.
Only those lips.
And then.
“It’s as if he was kidnapped.”
That conclusion was shockingly unexpected.
“It seems to be the case, doesn’t it?”
Rudine smiled.
At that moment, the attendant’s breath stopped.
“Where do you think they took him?”
Their eyes met.
The deep darkness in her pupils swallowed the attendant whole.
“Every land transaction conducted in the Bihakan territory recently.”
Rudine commanded quietly but firmly.
“Bring them all to me without missing a single one.”
The attendant immediately bowed his head.
Then he staggered out of the room.
Rudine turned her gaze to the window and rested her chin on her hand.
She suppressed a sigh.
“…I didn’t expect this.”
Rudine muttered irritably, her face contorted.
A look of distress.
“Kyle… kidnapped…?”
She murmured to herself.
Then she picked up the teacup with trembling hands.
“After all…”
Rudine glanced down.
Then she tilted the teacup and drank the last sip.
“Should I just kill her?”
Her bright yellow eyes glinted.