"Your wife ran away?! Rigas, what on earth were you doing?!"
True King Yulian was berating his son Rigas.
He had arranged for his son to marry the daughter of Marquis Round, a powerful noble, to secure his own political base.
Rigas had a girl he actually liked, but he was made to set her aside.
For a noble, one might expect him to endure such things, but having his first love sabotaged, Rigas had already been treating Katarina with a hostile attitude even before the wedding.
This was bad.
Even if the marriage came through, things looked grim from here on out.
So, after the wedding night, while Katarina lay exhausted and asleep, he had a slave collar fastened around her neck.
Of course, he also cast a transparency spell on it so that no one would notice.
And he silenced the court magician who had performed the binding.
Now only he and his son knew about the collar.
As long as no one found out, it would be fine.
So there was no way she could have escaped!
◇◇◇
"I am truly sorry, Father. Before I knew it, she had vanished like smoke..."
"The collar — what about the collar?! It has a tracking function, doesn't it?!"
"That's the thing — I can't track her. I believe she must have removed it."
That couldn't be possible.
He had had the most powerful court magician perform the binding.
It wasn't something that could be removed so easily.
"Rashuan — is the grandchild gone too?"
"Yes."
"Ugh. In hindsight, I should have just threatened to capture Rashuan and put a collar on him..."
He hadn't actually put a collar on the grandchild, of course.
Katarina alone should have been enough.
"What do we do, Father?! If Katarina has gone back to her parents' estate and told them about this, Marquis Round might attack..."
"You should have forgotten about your first love sooner and treated Katarina properly! Never mind — search for her with everything we've got!"
And so Rigas mobilized the "Shadow of the King," borrowed from his father, to search for Katarina's whereabouts.
He even had them investigate the Round estate, where she was most likely to have returned, but she wasn't found there either.
◇◇◇
He unlocked the door, let the bell jingle with a clatter, and stepped into the deserted café.
Shal wasn't there, so following Shal's example, he made himself some coffee and drank it.
It wasn't great.
"So you were here after all."
"Yep."
Without realizing it, the café now held someone who gave off the same vibe as the people who had once kidnapped Shal, and he could sense several more lurking nearby.
They were the ones called the "Shadow of the King," if he remembered right.
But they looked completely ordinary.
He had always imagined intelligence agents as having sharp, intense features.
"If you had a face that left an impression, you'd never make it as an intelligence agent. Now then, Alan — you ignored our warning, and what's more, you took Lady Katarina away with you? The True King is furious. You'd better believe you won't die a clean death."
"I don't want to die."
"You did well enough dealing with the Crimson Empress Leticia, but abducting Lady Katarina was a grave mistake. It's a blunder more than enough to cancel out your previous accomplishments."
What accomplishments? And he had come of his own free will — you couldn't call that an abduction.
"That's why I told you, I'm not an ally of the True King."
"Your personal intentions are irrelevant. What matters is the outcome — whether you serve the True King's Absolute Monarchy Plan or not. Your talent is far too valuable to be wasted here. Won't you come over to our side?"
Why was he being praised by the enemy?
He wasn't happy about it in the slightest.
"I told you before — I have no intention of following anyone. Besides, wouldn't recruiting me go against the True King's wishes?"
"As long as it ultimately benefits the True King, that's all that matters."
"I'll say it again: I refuse. I will never do whatever someone else tells me to."
"Is that so? Then die!"
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Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Fist God] [Spear God] [Scorching Magic] [Frozen Ice Magic] [Clear Storm Magic] [Rock-Iron Magic] [Sacred Magic] [Dark Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Thunder God Blade] [Phantom Thief Gentleman] [Ninja Master] [Seeker of Truth] [Uncanny Strength] [Vedan Sprint] [Pain Dulling] [Complete Status Ailment Immunity] [Dark Spirit's Protection] [Super Intuition] [Heaven's Gate] [Abyss Contractee] [Magic Hand] [Treasure Search] [Temptation] [Incitement] [Telemesmerism] [Eloquence] [Great Luck] [Tenfold Growth Speed] [Growth Limit Break]
Rank: Orichalcum