The man rushed to the front of the bed in one go and glared at me with menacing eyes. I shrank back and thought to myself.
The only person who would harbor such hostility toward me that they’d risk being caught entering the Crown Prince’s Palace would be Duke Ridden after all.
At that thought, my body trembled violently.
“How dare a lowly thing like you look down on our family and try to ruin our house’s business?”
I tried to calm myself by recalling the proverb that even if you enter a tiger’s den, you’ll survive if you keep your wits about you. As long as I was a concubine, even a duke wouldn’t be able to act recklessly toward me. I spoke calmly.
“I am merely a concubine who has done nothing at all.”
“You think I don’t know that you’re the one scheming behind Aren’s back?”
Ridden began releasing pheromones. A disgusting smell started reverberating in all directions. Ever since some point, I had become unable to handle pheromones intentionally released by other Dominant Alphas unless they were William’s, and this was exactly one of those times.
I forced my eyes wide open to keep my wits about me and retorted.
“Do you have proof?”
“That’ll come out when we investigate.”
“You don’t have the authority to do that. I am a Dominant Omega and His Highness the Crown Prince’s only concu— Urgh!”
Before I could finish speaking, Ridden’s hand seized my throat.
***
With my eyes covered and mouth gagged, I was dragged to a place that reeked of unpleasant odors. Judging by the dampness, it seemed to be a basement. How many times have I been kidnapped now…? The security within the Imperial Palace, where kidnapping was so easily possible if one set their mind to it, was absurd.
I couldn’t easily understand how William had faced so many life-threatening situations during his childhood, but after being kidnapped several times myself, I thought it made sense.
Someone untied the blindfold that had been covering my eyes. Through my blurry vision, Duke Ridden revealed himself.
“For such a precious duke to personally carry out a kidnapping. You must have plenty of free time.”
It was a criticism of what ungentlemanly behavior this was, but Ridden only smiled vilely.
“Growing up in the Imperial Palace without wanting for anything, you must not know how frightening the world can be. That’s probably why you committed such acts.”
After finishing his words, Ridden roughly kicked my stomach. My body was thrown into a corner. Even while clutching my stomach, I kept my head held high and resisted.
“Do you… think you’ll be safe after doing this?”
“You seem to be acting up without knowing your place, so let me make it clear for you.”
Ridden came closer and crouched down.
“The Crown Prince’s only concubine… You don’t seem to realize that’s exactly why you were captured. How precious you must be to him.”
“That’s why His Highness won’t let you get away with…!”
“Puhahaha!”
Ridden suddenly threw his head back and began laughing loudly.
“What an ignorant little brat.”
…Don’t tell me, he’s planning to make a deal?
Even in my confusion, I struggled to organize my thoughts. If Ridden was planning to hold me hostage and negotiate with William, how would he respond? The moment I thought about it, I got goosebumps all over. If things went wrong, our plan to solve the food crisis by processing and exporting lopeia could all go to waste.
“His Highness will not compromise with you.”
“For a child, you’re quite perceptive.”
Ridden grabbed my hair as if he was going to devour me.
“I’m planning to tell him I’ll release you if he transfers the lopeia trading rights to the Ridden family.”
“Do you think that can be done at will?”
“Of course! Since I know all this stems from the Crown Prince’s affection for you, you’ll have to stay here for a while.”
“That will never happen like that… Aagh!”
This time I was punched in the face.
“You’ll need to play the role of a hostage, so I won’t kill you, but you’d better not think of provoking my anger.”
Ridden released me. When he went outside, darkness where I couldn’t see an inch ahead descended.
However, I couldn’t just sit here doing nothing. Though I had acted nonchalant in front of Ridden, today’s events were without exaggeration the greatest crisis I had faced since coming to this world.
Tomorrow, when William notices I’m gone, instead of finding out why and how this happened, he’ll go into a rampage first. But if I somehow manage to inform him that I’ve been kidnapped before that happens?
Wise William would realize my intention and think of a solution instead of going into a rampage.
Either way, the worst possible outcome would be making William think I had run away. If such thoughts caused him to go into a rampage, all the efforts I had made to turn William into a wise ruler would go to waste.
I had to inform him somehow. But how? Since Ridden said he was planning to negotiate, I had no choice but to use him!
With my thoughts reaching this point, I didn’t hesitate for even a moment and began shouting toward the outside.
“Please call Duke Ridden!”
I shouted, but there was no response. Since they had locked me up here, they must have stationed someone to watch. Were they ignoring me because it was bothersome? Their purpose was to prevent me from escaping from here, so they were definitely ignoring anything else I said.
“If you don’t want to answer, just listen. You know well that the crime of kidnapping the Crown Prince’s concubine is grave. If I die here, it won’t be discovered so there’d be no problem, but the Duke has no intention of killing me, right?”
As expected, no sound came from outside. Regardless, I continued saying what I needed to say.
“You heard the conversation the Duke and I had earlier, right? About him making a deal. I’ve thought of a good idea regarding our deal, but timing is crucial. It’ll be useless if tonight passes, you know? If we’re not careful, the Duke might suffer tremendous losses.”
When I said this much, rustling sounds began to come from outside. As expected, organizational life was all the same everywhere. When you say their boss might suffer losses because of them, they’re bound to be interested. I continued with a triumphant smile.
“So let me meet the Duke right now. If not, something you’ll regret will happen tomorrow.”
After a brief silence, a voice came from outside the door.
“Wh-what kind of matter is it? Tell me first.”
“How can I trust and tell you whether you’re on the Duke’s side or not? Since it’s a top-secret matter that I can only tell the Duke, hurry up and go tell him.”
At times like this, commanding rather than humbly begging would work better. If the opponent seemed strong, they’d think there was something to it. As expected, footsteps began to be heard.
Only then did I stroke my chest in relief.
The most important thing is preventing William’s rampage. Let’s trust William and Aren outside with the escape and lopeia trade matters.
It might seem strange that in this situation I was more concerned with preventing William’s rampage than with my own escape, but my decision wouldn’t be wrong.
William in a rampage is an uncontrollable young tyrant that no one can stop, but a stable William is my Crown Prince who is wiser, more prudent, and more trustworthy than anyone else.
***
William, who had been debating whether to go to Daniel’s room several times, stopped all movement at the sound of tapping on the window. An ominous premonition enveloped his entire body.
When he approached the window, a messenger bird trained for communication between nobles and the imperial family was tapping the window with its beak.
‘A messenger bird? At this hour of night?’
William quickly opened the window and unfolded the note tied to the bird’s leg. It contained a message from Duke Ridden, who deserved to be torn apart and killed, saying he had kidnapped and confined Daniel and wanted to negotiate. The hand holding the note began trembling violently as his entire body boiled with rage.
‘How dare he kidnap my Omega?’
William ground his teeth. If Ridden had laid even a fingertip on William’s body, he felt like he could massacre the entire family.
‘Just let there be a single injury. I’ll kill them all!’
William thought this, then took a deep breath and slowly closed and opened his eyes. When he thought about it carefully, there was something strange about it. Ridden’s purpose was as obvious as daylight and not complicated, but it was suspicious that he had contacted him immediately after kidnapping Daniel.
‘Sending a messenger bird at a time when I wouldn’t even know he was kidnapped?’
Looking at the results, he was maintaining his rationality because he found out early, but if William had discovered Daniel’s whereabouts with his own hands after worrying repeatedly, it would have led to a rampage.
When his thoughts reached that point, no matter how he thought about it, this didn’t seem like something that came from Duke Ridden’s head. It must have been Daniel’s scheme. Daniel, who even while kidnapped was worried about him going into a rampage and kindly sent word of his safety, was admirable.
‘Daniel would prefer me to calmly resolve the incident rather than rage, right? I’ll rescue Daniel first, then get revenge in the most gruesome way possible.’
Time was of the essence. William woke Behern and ordered him to summon Aren immediately.
***
“So what do you plan to do?”
To Aren’s question after hearing the general explanation of the situation, William replied calmly.
“We should comply with all their demands and extract Daniel.”
Aren gasped and said.
“Do you really intend to give the lopeia trading rights to Ridden and take Ellawud as your companion Omega?”
“Of course not. How could I form a marital bond with an Omega from a family that deserves to be torn apart and killed?”
“Then what exactly…”
William looked around and lowered his voice.
“Let’s use the same method we used to deal with Kelton.”
Aren, who had been rolling his eyes and thinking about William’s meaning for a while, slapped his thigh with a ‘smack’ after a moment. It was such an excellent scheme that it was hard to believe it came from a young Crown Prince.
“So Your Highness means to first pretend to comply with their demands to extract Daniel, then use the weaknesses we’ve uncovered in advance as leverage for revenge?”
“Uncle really understands my heart better than anyone else.”
William smiled satisfactorily and added.
“I’ll rescue Daniel myself, so Uncle, please focus on uncovering Ridden’s scandals from now on.”
“Don’t worry. That’s my specialty after all.”
Aren smiled reliably and went outside, while William waited for morning to come.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
