“Sir Dashner, please go get Sir Stephen.”

“Of, of course.”

The entire mansion was in chaos because of the duchess’s sudden disappearance.

However, Carl tried to stay calm and gave an instruction to Dashner who was on the night watch duty.

He regretted excluding Stephen, the best knight they had, from the guard duty. Maybe, whoever had done this had been waiting for that.

“And for Mr. Minos and this… gentleman, please follow me. I will take you to the duke.”

Minos was quite impressed to see Carl remain so calm. He was doing what he was supposed to do as the household’s butler.

Carl took the two to the duke’s office. The door was opened before he could knock on it and Edgar came out, his forehead beaded with sweat as if he had a nightmare.

“Where’s Rubica?”

He was indeed a nymph. He was beautiful in every way, including his voice. Minos touched his wrinkled face. Why did the gods make all the creatures look different from one another?

Anyway, they had been sleeping separately, so Minos could see why Edgar hadn’t been able to notice when Rubica was kidnapped.

Ios had been so confident that she was on some sort of game that Minos lost his judgment for some time, but he thought coming to the duke right away had been the right choice.

“Your Grace, how did you know?”

“Something has happened to her, then. What is it?”

“If you can feel it, she must have left this mansion already.”

As soon as Minos said that, he was grabbed by the collar and raised up in the air. He tried his kindest smile to those sets of piercingly glowing blue eyes. Still, it couldn’t stop the dangerous energy that brought the chills to his bones.

“What are you?”

“What do you think you are? You can’t mess up with Minos without my permission.”

Ios grabbed Edgar by his collar. That was something he never experienced before even if he had done it to others many times.

Of course, it was due to his high rank, but he was also stronger than most knights. However, the moment he looked at Ios, he was so surprised that his hand lost strength and let go of Minos. The one who suffered the most was the goblin who was suddenly dropped to the floor.

“What on earth are you?”

Edgar wasn’t scared by Ios’s golden eyes and golden luster that fell from him. He grabbed him by the collar as well.

That boldness made the dragon falter for a moment. He couldn’t see how this man could do this to him. He would have torn out his arm at the very least if he hadn’t been the spouse of a nymph who was even more powerful than he was.

“Your Grace, we don’t have time for this. We must go to find your wife now. It will be impossible to track her if we hesitate longer.”

Minos pleaded and it brought Edgar to his senses. He had been woken up by this feeling of something precious leaving him, and that hadn’t been an illusion.

“Has something happened to Rubica?”

“Lord Ios here saw her being abducted by two men.”

Edgar let go of Ios at hearing that. The dragon thought he was about to see Rubica being humiliated in front of her husband, and it made him feel a lot better, so he let go of Edgar as well.

“Two men took her?”

“Yes. They bound her hands and feet and put her on a horse.”

Ios got excited and even imitated how they tied Rubica. Edgar then turned deadly pale and asked Carl, “What happened to the guards?”

“Nobody noticed anything before these gentlemen came.”

Before Edgar could ask what on earth the guard captain had been doing, Dashner came and urgently yelled, “Sir Stephen is gone, and so are the two fastest horses we have.”

Edgar quickly went back to his office, and there was only one thing missing: the most important document about Stella.

He had been doubting Stephen for some time, thanks to Rubica’s hints. He just hadn’t been able to get rid of him right away as the king advised it would be better to know how the spy moved and find out who was behind him.

If Edgar had known Stephen was planning to take Rubica, he would have kicked him out a long time ago.

“Carl, contact Baron Moreau right away.”

Edgar had ordered Baron Moreau, one of his subjects, to organize a group of professional trackers in secret in case he was ever abducted. However, he hadn’t known he would be using it for Rubica.

“And prepare a horse.”

And it was Stephen, the best knight the king himself had chosen among his royal guards. He was a great swordsman, and he was also great at hiding. Carl was surprised more than anyone else at seeing Edgar was about to go after them himself.

“Your Grace, no!”

The sun was going to come up in a few hours. Edgar knew why he was objecting, but he couldn’t back off. Of course, he wasn’t any better than his well-trained knights. But it was Rubica, he just couldn’t sit down and do nothing just because he wasn’t an expert in this.

“Bring me the fastest horse.”

He gave another order to Carl and opened his private safe in his office. In there, his personal weapons for emergencies could be seen.

He quickly got changed and put a small gun he could use with one hand in his pocket. It was small, but it was as strong as a canon.

Then he also picked two kinds of portable ammunitions. Taking more would only slow him down, so that much was just right.

“Is it ready?”

He got out from his office and stretched out his hand, expecting his butler to hand him a whip. However, Carl hid his hands behind him.

“Carl!”

“Your Grace, please calm down. You cannot go yourself. It’s too dangerous. If the sun comes up…”

“Shut up!”

Edgar, with his bloodshot eyes, cut him short.

“I forgave you more than once, and I also warned you. Carl, pack your things and leave this mansion.”

“Your Grace!”

Carl knelt down, but Edgar just coldly looked at him.

Minos rolled his eyes at the tense mood. He had been watching for some time, and it seemed like the duke had some kind of secret.

And, what was that ‘If the sun comes up?’ Maybe it had something to do with why the duchess had come back in time. Maybe he could get more hints if they talked more, so Minos was going to use his goblin curiosity and concentration to deduct more information.

“Hmm, how about I take you there? It will take, like, five minutes.”

Unlike Minos, who was particularly interested, Ios found the fight between Edgar and Carl quite boring and irritating.

He just wanted to see Edgar find out about the nymph’s weird hobby so that she would be humiliated, preferably quickly. Of course, Minos silently cursed the dragon for messing it up.

“You can take me there?”

“Yes. She’s too far away anyway. You can’t catch up with them by horse.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“I know the direction and I know her smell. I can just follow the land’s energy.”

The suspicious man with a strange eye color whose hair kept shedding golden luster was saying something really suspicious. Edgar found that idea quite appealing, but Carl turned pale and yelled, “Your Grace, we can use one of our mana stone carriages!”

“It will be seen easily and will startle them. What if they kill Rubica?”

Edgar seemed enraged, but he was thinking about how to rescue Rubica safely. Instead, he wasn’t paying any attention to his own safety at all. Then, he didn’t hesitate to take Ios’s arm.

“Let’s go.”

Carl was surprised by what he said while Ios was surprised by what he did. Most humans were supposed to suffer severe pain when grabbing his arm.

However, this man seemed to be perfectly fine.

‘Maybe he is different from the ordinary humans after living with a nymph for so long.’

Iber had told him a story when he was still a baby dragon.

Nymphs had the power of transforming their spouses into nymphs. Of course, there was a condition to be fulfilled, but at least they had a chance. She sadly said she envied them for that, and she fell into a deep sleep not long after.

At the time, Ios hadn’t asked about that condition as he wasn’t that interested. Moreover, his brain didn’t enjoy deduction and imagination, so he just concluded nymphs’ spouses had to be similar to nymphs.

“We must go through the ground to get there quickly, so it will be a little hard and messy.”

“I don’t care.”

Ios moved before Minos could stop him. The windows were shattered with a great sound, and a second later, Minos and Carl were alone in the room.

Minos didn’t know what to do, so he tried a desperate smile followed by a joke.

“Haha, I guess Ios forgot about this little man he carries around instead of his not so working brain.”