บท 52: Kidnapping Operation

"Go and prepare a carriage for us tonight. Remember, don't tell anyone about this."

"Understood, master Carl", Jack repeatedly bows before leaving the scene.

After Jack left, Carl turned to his fiancee. "Reina, go and make a preparation. We are going to leave tonight."

Reina nods.

She returns to her room on the third floor. Along the way, she tried to act calmly. She didn't want to arouse any suspicion, especially in front of the Count and Countess.

Reina called her only personal maid, Vanessa Viener. When Reina arrives at the Caushilbo mansion, she is alone without any servants. All the servants in Ryntum are not willing to leave the prosperous Bideford for the border territory adjacent to Barlia, not even her personal maid. Under Richard's insistence, her personal maid was forced to follow Reina. Later in the journey, that maid runs away.

She arrives at the Caushilbo mansion without any maids with her. The Countess expresses her question about it. Reina has no choice but to tell the Countess about her runaway maid.

Hearing this, maids at the Caushilbo mansion assume she was a bad noble lady and distance themselves from her. They didn't want to associate with her. Only Vanessa was the one who volunteered to be her personal maid.

She was grateful to her. They often talk and spend time together. Vanessa often talks a lot about her strict superior and about how her superior trained her to death. This is the first time Reina feels a closeness to another girl. Despite having Rachel as a sister, they were never close to each other.

"Milady, what do you need me for?" Vanessa's voice interrupts her thoughts.

She ordered her maid, "Vanessa, I want you to prepare a seven-day food ration for four people."

Vanessa looks at her lady blankly. "Are you going somewhere, milady?" She was taken aback by the sudden instruction.

"Yes, and I want to bring you with me." Reina begins to tell her the escape plan.

Vanessa had mixed feelings when she heard that.

"Don't worry. I will pay your wage accordingly." Reina said after seeing Vanessa's hesitation. It is understandable to her that Vanessa hesitates.

Once, the Count finds out, he probably will find someone to put the blame on. As Reina's personal maid, Vanessa will surely have to take the blame. Her position as the future Countess's personal maid alone is enough to make her co-workers jealous. She has spent a lot of time with her and didn't want this seventeen years old girl to be blamed or punished because of her escape. Therefore, she decided to bring Vanessa with her.

That evening, all the family members of Caushilbo had dinner like always. Nobody suspects anything except Chester of course. Even so, he pretends like he knows nothing and chats with his father and mother.

Meanwhile, Jack is busy feeding the horses in the stable. He needs to make sure the horse has enough energy to run tonight. While he is busy feeding the horse, his roommate approaches him. "Hey Jackson, there is a letter from your grandfather."

He took out the letter and handed it to him.

"Thank you"

"No problem, Jackson. Why are you the one who feeds the horse?"

"Well, I have some free time today."

"I see. Well... I better get going first. See you later."

"Sure." Jack opened the letter as soon as his roommate left. He smiled when he read the content of the letter. His superior has given him a green light. Now, he can proceed confidently with his plan.

"I hope that brat to the job well. I pretty much act on my own accord right now. If this plan fails, that old man is going to beat the shit out of me."

....

In the middle of the night,

Jack opens his eyes and waits for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. He silently moves toward his sleeping roommate. Jack puts his right hand over his roommate's mouth while the dagger in his left hand accurately stabs his roommate's chest.

Everything happens so fast, his roommate dies while he looks at him with widened eyes. Perhaps he couldn't believe he just died at Jack's hand.

To confirm his kill, Jack stabs his roommate one more time.

Then, another one.

Another one.

The body twitched every time Jack stabs it. He then covers it with a blanket.

Jack opens the wardrobe and changes his blood-stained cloth with a clean one. After making sure there was no clue about his identity, he left the room and headed towards the stables.

Jack casually and soundlessly walks in the dark avoiding the guards. He knows their moving pattern and routes after spending two months observing them.

The first thing Jack does when arriving at the stable is to cautiously tie the horse to the carriage. Despite the stable being pretty far from the mansion, he wants to avoid any noise from being produced which can wake the sleeping Count and Countess.

After half an hour of silently waiting in the dark and cold night, he finally sees the figure of Carl, Reina and a maid, Vanessa.

Jack grumbled, "Master Carl, what takes you so long?"

"Shut up!! A mere servant like you should just do as told, not question his master."

Jack clutches his fist but his patient gets his best. He bowed and apologized to Carl. 'Be patient.'

Three of them get into the carriage while Jack becomes a coachman.

The horse neighs and begins to run. The galloping sound produced by the horseshoe and the stone pavement attracts the attention of guards at the gate. They see the horse-drawn carriage approaching them but they didn't do anything, all thanks to Chester.

Once the carriage passes through the gates, both Reina and Carl feel relieved by their successful attempt.

Chester looks at the carriage departing from the mansion through the window of his room.

'Well done, footman. Once my father and his knights arrive at Weymewesto City, you and that maid are dead. Hahaha.'

Chester heads to his father's bedroom. There are two guards standing not far from the bedroom.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Father", called Chester.

There is no answer. Chester knocks on the door again. This time he heard his father grumble from behind the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Chester."

"What do you want in the middle of the night?"

"I have something important to tell you."

"Can you just wai-" Before the Count finished his sentence, Chester interrupted him. "Brother has run away with Reina."

"What!!? The Count suddenly shouts, startling Chester and the two guards. He asked with a high voice, "Did I hear it right?"

"Yes, you did."

"When did they leave?"

"Just now. I heard the sound of a horse galloping from my room."

The Count was enraged and said, "That kid!! I told him that he will no longer be my heir if he did something unnecessary. It looks like he really wants to abandon everything for that woman."

Hearing his father's angry remarks at Carl, Chester is inwardly happy. This is what he wishes for.

The door was open, the Count walked out of the room. He orders one of the standing guards to call his head knight to come here. He can't absolutely let Reina escape. Carl is probably heading toward Bideford, knowing that the only place that can keep his fiancee safe. If so, they must be on their way to Weymewesto City.

Soon, the head knight of Caushilbo, Wilmot Aymer arrived. He quickly greets the Count, "Milord, what do you need me for?"

"Wilmot, gather the knights and go to Weymewesto. Bring Carl and his fiancee back to me!!"

"As you wish, milord."

Wilmot moved towards the knight barracks in haste. He wakes up his sleeping friends, causing them to complain.

Ignoring the complaint, Wilmot said, "You idiots, wake up!! We have a job to do. The Count is pretty angry right now. I don't want to piss him off any further."

Hearing that the count was angry, the knights immediately lost their sleepiness. One of them asks, "What does the Count order us to do?"

"The Count ordered us to drag young master Carl back to the mansion. It seems like the young master has run away with his fiancee. I don't know the details but it must have something to do with the current tense situation in the kingdom."

The knights nodded. They are not ignorant about things that happened around them.

"Now, listen to my plan carefully..." Wilmot stopped for a moment. He wants to make sure he gets their attention.

He continues explaining his plan, "I need a hundred men to go with me. twenty-five men are to check the route to Haugdak and another twenty-five men are to check the route to Harlington. Twenty-five men will search the Weymewesto and the last twenty-five will go to Dunston. We can't ignore the possibility they took a different route. Any questions?"

"How many people are we searching for?"

"The young master and his fiancee run with two other servants. I don't care about the servants, I only want the couple alive. Anything else?" Wilmot sees no one raise their hand. "If there are no questions then get moving now!!"