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Chapter 17: I Simply Won’t Go In

“Charlie, I need you to give me a reasonable explanation.”

Fude’s tone was very grave.

Although he had fought alongside Charlie before, this matter concerned the face of House Gray.

As the head of House Gray, Fude had to become serious.

Hearing Fude’s words, Charlie, who had been staring blankly, gradually came to his senses.

Charlie took a few deep breaths, nodded to Fude, and said nothing.

They hadn’t found any information yet, and rambling explanations would only lead to more confusion.

He then began searching inside the carriage for any details or clues about Adele’s disappearance.

As soon as he began looking, he discovered an envelope hidden in a cabinet under the small side table.

Charlie quickly took out the letter inside.

He immediately began to read it.

“Father, I’m leaving with Harlin, for he is my true home; he is kind, brave, and just.”

“Compared to that scoundrel Rein, Harlin is like an angel, and although Rein won the duel with Damon, it still couldn’t change my feelings toward him.”

“I know my doing this will burden the family, but please allow your daughter this one act of willfulness, so she can freely seek her own love.”

“Love, your Adele.”

After reading his daughter’s letter, Charlie seemed to lose all his strength and collapsed in the carriage, muttering, “Adele… you… oh, how foolish.”

Watching Charlie emerge from the carriage in a daze, Fude stepped forward to inquire.

“Charlie, did you discover anything?”

Charlie handed the letter in his hand to Fude and said, “Lord Fude, please take a look.”

As Fude began reading the letter, Charlie stood by and started explaining the circumstances.

“I don’t know when that Harlin started seeing Adele, but it’s been at least a few months, and I looked into him.”

“That Harlin is a mercenary with a not insignificant reputation, but his character is questionable… he’s one thing in public and another in private… so I had long warned Adele that he wasn’t a good man, yet she wouldn’t listen.”

“Ever since Lord Jonas came to discuss the engagement a few days ago, I placed Adele under house arrest so she couldn’t see that Harlin.”

“But I never expected the normally obedient Adele to actually…”

After listening to Charlie’s explanation, Fude passed the letter to Leila, and after reading it she also furrowed her brow.

They hadn’t expected the always well-behaved Adele to do something like this.

“Charlie, I’m very disappointed in you… it seems the calm life in the capital these past years has dulled the vigilance you once had in the Knights.”

Hearing Fude’s words, Charlie lowered his head.

Indeed, allowing a Rank 1 warrior like Adele to slip away under his very nose was his mistake.

Leila looked at Fude and Charlie and said.

“The urgent matter now is to find Adele quickly; if Adele is still pure, the engagement can continue, but if she’s not…”

Upon hearing this, Rein immediately protested, “Still continue, Mother? You know how mercenaries are; they’re never picky about women.”

“Even if Adele is still pure, if she’s been seen and felt all over, isn’t she still pure? Wouldn’t I be the fool here?”

“And everyone says… ‘I simply won’t go in’; those things aren’t unheard of.”

Rein’s words gave Charlie no face at all and were extremely blunt, leaving even Fude and Leila deep in thought.

Charlie quickly waved his hand.

“No, Young Master Rein,” he said, “Adele carries several Aetheric Devices, and that Harlin is only a Rank 1 warrior; he couldn’t touch her.”

“But what if Adele took off her Aetheric Devices herself?”

Rein’s next remark immediately left Charlie without a rebuttal.

The few of them fell silent, standing in place.

In the end, it was Leila who ordered a city-wide search for Adele, insisting that they find her first, whatever it took.

The guards and covert operatives of House Hill and House Gray immediately sprang into action, sweeping across the capital like a tide.

Such a large-scale operation by House Gray naturally required reporting to His Majesty the Emperor, so Fude and Charlie set off for the palace at once.

And so Rein and Adele’s marriage engagement was called off.

With Fude and Charlie gone, the now-unbetrothed Rein naturally felt as light as air.

He scooped up Cecily at his side and headed toward his room.

“Eve, are you coming too?” Rein said flirtatiously over his shoulder to Eve behind him.

Eve’s cheeks flushed slightly as she said, “No, Young Master, I must still keep watch over Miss Adele’s situation; Cecily alone is enough to serve you.”

“Of course… but if you’re not satisfied, you can come to Eve anytime.”

By evening, in Rein’s room on the second floor, he looked at Cecily, who had fallen asleep with faint tear marks on her face, and gently kissed her cheek, causing the maiden to murmur twice.

With light steps, after getting out of bed and changing clothes, he exited his room and immediately saw Alice and Ellie standing at the door, their faces already flushed.

Seeing the strands in their eyes, he knew they had been eavesdropping for quite some time.

Rein wrapped his left arm around one and his right around the other, drawing them close to his embrace.

“Ellie, where is Eve?”

“Young Master, Sister Eve is in the room next door,” Ellie’s sweet voice came from Rein’s embrace.

Seeing Ellie’s softness made even Rein, who was in sage mode, feel a bit tempted.

Feeling the Young Master’s hand sliding up from her waist, Ellie let out a small “eep.”

When he pushed open the door to the adjoining room, he saw Eve holding a notepad and looking at something on the desk.

The sound of the door opening gradually snapped the focused Eve out of her thoughts.

Eve put down the documents in her hand and reported to Rein.

“Young Master, Miss Adele still has not been found, and my lord and the others even suspect she’s left the city,” she said.

Rein raised an eyebrow; they still hadn’t found her after all this time?

“Did you use tracking magic or a tracking Aetheric Device?”

“We did; my lord immediately had mages use tracking magic, but it had no effect,” she replied.

Rein, with the two girls, sat down on the bed, and he narrowed his eyes as he listened to Eve’s report.

If even tracking magic didn’t work, there were only two possibilities.

First, Adele had already left the city and was far away.

Second, that Harlin might have a tracking-resistant Aetheric Device.

“Do you have portraits of Adele and Harlin?”

“Yes,” Eve rummaged through a stack of files by the desk and produced two sheets of paper, unfolding them for Rein.

Looking at Adele’s portrait, he couldn’t help but comment, “Tsk tsk… she is indeed a little beauty, but….”

After committing both of their faces to memory, Rein leaned back, holding the two of them as all three fell onto the soft bed.

“Eve, I’m hungry; go have the kitchen make something for me,” Rein said, rubbing his slightly sunken stomach.

“Very well, Young Master; what would you like to eat?”

“Anything will do.”

“Very well.” Eve rose and headed down to the kitchen.

Before long, Eve rolled a food cart into the room, and under Alice and Ellie’s service, Rein devoured the steaming dinner that had just been prepared.

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