The Cold-Hearted Grand Duke Obsesses Over Me After My Death - Chapter 53

Episode 53. Where Is She?

“What?”

Louid rushed to the restroom. Helen ran after him.

“Emilia! Emilia!”

He called her name and searched every corner of the restroom and the surrounding area, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Weren’t you with the Grand Duchess?”

At Louid’s sharp question, Helen flinched and answered, “I was waiting outside, but when Her Highness didn’t come out for a long time, I went to check, and she was already…!”

Helen’s voice trailed off with a devastated expression. She seemed to be blaming herself for whatever had happened to Emilia.

Louid let out a deep sigh and gave an order to the knights standing nearby.

“She couldn’t have gone far. Search everywhere!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

It had all happened in an instant.

Outside, the night was already dark. If someone had taken Emilia, it would be difficult to find her at this hour. The knights began searching the concert audience and the surrounding area.

“Jamie, go to the Grand Duke’s castle and bring the knights and soldiers.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Louid ordered Jamie, who was guarding the concert hall entrance. Receiving the command, Jamie immediately mounted his horse and rode toward the castle.

“The item’s been loaded into the carriage.”

Taking advantage of the crowd gathered at the front entrance, Lina slipped leisurely out the back door of the concert hall. As she approached the carriages parked behind the building, her escort knight Jack emerged from the darkness like a shadow.

“Good work. Let’s leave.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Lina climbed into the carriage with a calm expression.

“Stop right there.”

A knight searching carriages near the concert hall stopped a luxurious one that was just leaving. It belonged to the Marquess of Carrion.

“What’s the matter?”

Jack, disguised as a coachman, asked as he held the reins.

“By order of His Highness the Grand Duke, I need to search the carriage.”

“This is the Marquess of Carrion’s carriage. The young lady of the house is inside.”

When the knight reached for the carriage door, Jack raised his voice sharply.

“What’s going on?”

A loud voice boomed from inside the carriage, and Lina poked her head out of the window.

“There’s word that a suspicious person is inside the concert hall. We’re searching by His Highness’s order. May I take a look inside, Lady Carrion?”

The knight peered cautiously through the narrow gap between the window and Lina’s face. The interior was dark, almost indistinguishable from the night outside.

At his words, Lina’s expression hardened. “You know who I am, yet you still intend to search my carriage? Are you saying you think I’m the suspicious person?”

“His Highness ordered us to search everyone without exception.”

When the knight answered hesitantly, Lina cut him off coldly.

“Do as you wish. But if you find nothing, be prepared to face the consequences.”

“…My apologies, my lady. You may go.”

The knight finally bowed his head.

“Very well. Good night, then.”

The carriage began to move again. Under Lina’s voluminous dress was a large sack the size of a person. She kept her foot pressed firmly on it until the carriage had completely left the concert hall.

Once they left the city, the carriage sped down a quiet country road. Not a single light was visible, and only the sounds of night creatures filled the air. It finally stopped at the base of a secluded mountain.

“Make it look like a carriage accident.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Two men were already waiting at the mountainside. Before handing them the sack, Lina pressed her foot down hard on the body inside one last time. The men loaded the sack onto a small cart.

***

“Ugh….”

Her head and neck throbbed with splitting pain. Emilia opened her eyes slightly and looked around. She had no idea where she was.

She had woken up in a small cabin’s storage room on a mountain slope far from the concert hall.

The cabin was hidden by dense trees, so thick that it would be invisible unless one came very close.

Emilia stayed completely still, pretending not to have woken, and listened carefully to the sounds outside.

“Leave her there. We’ll deal with her at dawn.”

They planned to leave her unconscious in a deserted alley, run her over with a carriage, and make it look like an accident.

“Yeah. Is the carriage ready?”

“Matthew said he’d have it prepared in the village by dawn. Still, they’re searching so persistently. We can’t even move until they finish.”

The village they spoke of was a small one at the foot of the mountain.

“Didn’t the Grand Duke release all the knights and soldiers?”

At that very moment, the knights were scouring every corner of Lot, and soldiers were searching the village below the mountain as well.

“Looks like it. This is bad. It might be trouble even getting to the meeting point. We wanted to make some money, but maybe this job will ruin us instead.”

“Yeah. Let’s wait until dawn for now.”

“Alright.”

“….”

Emilia, who had hoped she might be able to call out for help to someone outside, kept her mouth shut. From their conversation, it was clear they were the kidnappers. But their voices sounded strangely familiar.

‘Where have I heard those voices before? Ah!’

Why did she hear the voice of the skewer seller here? Was she dreaming?

She also heard the voice of the roasted corn seller. They were voices she had heard just a few days ago, so she remembered them vividly.

She wanted to pinch her cheek to see if it was a dream, but her hands were tied behind her back, making it impossible.

Emilia held her breath and listened closely to the sounds outside the door. The kidnappers’ conversation continued.

“But if the search goes on all night, we can’t even leave. Why do we have to make it look like an accident? Why not just kill her right away?”

“How should I know? The client told us to do it this way. It’s boring. Let’s have a drink.”

Emilia recalled the faces of the two vendors who had seemed so kind. They had even given her extra food, telling her to eat more. Now chills ran down her entire body, and she trembled uncontrollably.

‘I have to get out of here. There’s no time.’

Looking around the storage room, she spotted a small window. The window frame was covered in dust, and there wasn’t even any glass in it.

It was just large enough for a small child to squeeze through.

‘I might be able to get out through there.’

Her body was small and slender, so she decided to try.

Emilia struggled to lift her skirt with her tied hands. Pulling it up to her hips, she reached for her thigh.

‘It’s there!’

Fortunately, it seemed the kidnappers hadn’t searched her body. She had secured the dagger Louid had given her to her thigh with a leather strap.

“Hold the hilt tightly.”

Recalling Louid’s words, Emilia drew the dagger, turned the blade upward, and gripped the hilt firmly. Then she began cutting through the rope binding her wrists.

‘Why is it so tough?’

Even after struggling for a long time, the rope wouldn’t snap. Sweat poured down her face.

Summoning every ounce of strength she had, she finally managed to cut through it, her hands trembling violently afterward. But she didn’t stop. She cut the rope binding her legs and loosened the gag in her mouth.

Her body, bound for so long on the cold floor, wouldn’t move properly. She tried to stand, but her legs had no strength. Using her still-weak hands, she rubbed her legs to get the blood flowing.

Then she gritted her teeth and crawled across the floor toward the chair beneath the window. The storage room wasn’t large, but by the time she reached the chair, sweat was streaming down her face.

“Ugh.”

A soft groan escaped her clenched lips. Emilia gripped the chair with both hands and stayed still for a moment, kneeling.

‘I have to do this. I can do it.’

Panting heavily, she summoned her last bit of strength and pulled herself up using the chair. Her legs trembled uncontrollably.

Creak, creak.

Her shaking body made the old chair wobble and creak. If she wasn’t careful, the kidnappers might hear.

Emilia leaned closer to the door and strained her ears.

“How did you know that woman at the festival was the Grand Duchess? She looked completely different from the portrait.”

“There was a woman following her around.”

“Oh, that small girl?”

“Yeah. I heard her calling her ‘Your Highness,’ so I figured it out right away.”

“I see. Nice work.”

Fortunately, the kidnappers were noisily chatting and drinking.

Holding her breath, Emilia slowly pushed her upper body through the window. But because of her voluminous dress, she couldn’t squeeze through.

‘This won’t work.’

She would have to take off the dress. Carefully, she removed it and quietly tossed it outside the window.

Wearing only her undergarments, she pushed her body through again and barely managed to get out. Luckily, the kidnappers hadn’t opened the storage room door yet.

The window frame was narrow, and escaping was difficult, but thankfully, the window wasn’t too high.

After crawling out with great effort, almost upside down, Emilia grabbed the bundle of her dress that had fallen nearby and ran behind the cabin.

“Haa… haa….”

She ran desperately, gasping for breath, until she reached a fork in the mountain path and hesitated for a moment.

‘Should I go up or down?’

In this kind of situation, most people would run downward.

Thinking the kidnappers would expect that and chase her downhill, she decided to go up the mountain instead.

The forest at night was darker than the city. She couldn’t tell where she was. The moon wasn’t out, and tall trees stood densely all around. It felt like drowning in the depths of the ocean.

Clutching her dress tightly to her chest, Emilia was so terrified she couldn’t look to the sides or behind her. She only kept moving forward.