Chapter 24

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: I Will Come For You
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Aileen remembered her childhood quite well. Her memories with Cesare were especially vivid. They were all happy moments.
But among them, one memory stood out with exceptional clarity.
“Aileen.”
The pitch-black darkness parted, and a voice called out to her. Aileen, who had been crying, looked toward the light.
Once her eyes, trapped in the gloom, adjusted to the brightness, she saw Cesare standing there.
In that moment, twelve-year-old Aileen felt the most complex and overwhelming emotion of her short life. Unable to coherently organize the words surging within her, she ended up asking him a strange question.
“Why did you come…?”
Not a word of thanks, but a “why did you come.” It was truly a witless question. In response to her nonsensical query, Cesare slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“I wonder.”
He gazed at Aileen intently. His look was one of someone observing an incomprehensible being. His calm, deep-set red eyes shimmered with an emotion the young Aileen couldn't possibly understand. As if he couldn't comprehend it himself, Cesare murmured.
“Why did I come?”
After looking down at Aileen for a while, he silently bent his knees and knelt. He untied the ropes binding her and pulled her into his arms. Aileen hugged Cesare back with all her might.
Having been tied up for so long, she had no strength in her hands. With trembling fingers, she clutched at the hem of Cesare's clothes. She thought she was gripping it tightly, but in reality, her nails were merely scraping against the fabric.
Cesare took her small, slipping hand in his. He massaged her convulsing fingers and said nonchalantly.
“Let's go back.”
The Prince was said to be at war, so how did he get here? Neither her parents nor the police could find her, so how did he manage it? Was she so precious to him that he would come running at a moment's notice?
She had so many questions but couldn't bring herself to ask a single one. She had fainted, and by the time she regained consciousness, she was already home.
She heard that Cesare had returned to the imperial palace before going back to the battlefield. She worried if it was alright for him to wander around during a war, but the soldiers wouldn't explain when she asked.
With her questions left unanswered, Aileen recorded the day's events in her diary, drawing a detailed picture. A picture of the Prince, like a star that had illuminated the pitch-black darkness.
“Your Highness…”
Aileen murmured as if in pain and opened her eyes. But the world was a complete blur. She blinked several times to clear her vision. Gradually, her surroundings came into focus.
It was an old house. It seemed to have been unused for a long time; the furniture was covered with white cloths, and a thick layer of dust coated the floor. The only light came from the moonlight streaming through the window and a small oil lamp placed some distance away.
Aileen touched her forehead with her hand. She was feeling a faint dizziness. She had learned from medical books that pressing on the carotid artery could cause someone to faint, but experiencing it firsthand was unbelievable.
As she touched her forehead, she felt that her face was bare and fumbled around her eyes. Her glasses were gone. They must have fallen off somewhere while she was being dragged here. It felt as if the shield that had hidden her, even just a little, had disappeared.
Her chest tightened with tension and fear. Just then, the door opened with a clamor of voices. Nearly ten men crowded into the small house.
“Awake, are we?”
A man who seemed to be the leader of the group smiled at Aileen. With a vulgar appearance, he approached her and looked down arrogantly. Aileen, still sitting on the floor, looked up at him and began to speak.
“…I don't know what you want.”
She struggled not to stutter, enunciating each word clearly.
“You must be well aware. His Excellency, the Grand Duke, is a cold man. He won't negotiate and accept an absurd loss, not even for the woman who is to be his Grand Duchess. He would sooner take another woman as his wife.”
To what was clearly Cesare's enemy, Aileen stated her own worth.
“I am a worthless hostage.”
The man sniffled loudly. He stood with his weight on one leg and said.
“I thought so, too, but I'm starting to think otherwise.”
He said something she couldn't understand.
“They say the reason Cesare deserted was because of you.”
Deserted?
Her eyes widened at the news. But the man offered no kindness in the form of a detailed explanation for her. He just kept sniffling as he continued.
“Truth is, I don't want to gain anything. I just want to screw him over.”
The man bent his knees and squatted down. He spat a thick glob of saliva on the floor.
“My life is about to be ruined because of that bastard. It's only fair he loses something, too.”
His eyes, seething with malice, were already consumed by an abnormal madness.
“What if, Aileen.”
Aileen thought of Cesare. Of what he had taught her after her kidnapping at age twelve.
“If you are ever captured by someone and it seems like something bad is about to happen to you. Don't resist. Stay still.”
He had told her that provoking her captor could lead to something more dangerous. Something worse than a “bad thing.” For instance, being killed. Or suffering irreparable physical harm.
But contrary to his frightening words, Cesare had concluded with a tone that was both gentle and firm.
“But I promise you. That won't happen.”
“If you wait quietly, I will come for you.”
He had told her to wait for him quietly, not to resist rashly on her own, because he would arrive in time to prevent anything bad from happening. Aileen, trembling all over, repeated Cesare's words in her mind, over and over.
He would definitely come.
If she waited, he would come and save her.
But despite her firm belief, her body was already completely consumed by terror. The man shoved the trembling Aileen, knocking her backward, and began to unbuckle his pants.
The man stopped unbuckling his belt and cursed. He looked Aileen up and down and grumbled in dissatisfaction.
“Hah, fuck, how am I supposed to get hard with this? That bastard Cesare must have a strong stomach. To fuck something like this.”
He gestured to the other men and ordered.
“Get that hair out of her face. I can't get turned on at all.”
At that, two men approached and grabbed Aileen's arms on either side. They forced her into a sitting position and, with a rough hand, swept aside the bangs covering her face.
“…”
In that instant, silence fell upon the old house. Aileen immediately turned her head aside, but a brutish hand seized her chin.
The man stared at Aileen in disbelief. He stood there dazed, as if his soul had left his body, then suddenly muttered.
“So there was a reason he kept you hidden…”
The movement of the hand gripping her chin changed strangely. It slimily caressed her cheek and rubbed the shell of her ear. The man gave a lecherous smile.
“Don't cry, hmm? Since it's come to this, let's just enjoy ourselves.”
Aileen bit down hard on her lower lip and glared at the man. Just in case—though it was impossible—on the one-in-a-million chance that Cesare couldn't come to save her.
She would never say or do anything that would bring him dishonor. She would not give them the satisfaction of having defiled the Grand Duke's woman.
Aileen suppressed the urge to scream and clenched her jaw. The man let out an excited groan and was about to press his lips to hers.
“Aileen.”
A voice, like an auditory hallucination, reached her. Aileen called out to Cesare with all her might.
“Your Excellency…”
She called to him just as she had as a twelve-year-old girl. The call that escaped her terror-constricted throat was small and faint. But it was enough.
Bang!
A gunshot shattered the silence of the night. With each successive shot, the kidnappers fell one by one, like scarecrows.
The old house filled with horrific screams. Those who had been shot in the legs thrashed on the floor, splattering blood everywhere. The men who had been holding Aileen on either side were no different, writhing on the ground like insects.
The only one who hadn't been hit was the man directly in front of Aileen.
“Shit…!”
He frantically grabbed Aileen as a shield and stumbled backward. The gunshots soon ceased, and the sound of footsteps followed.
Crash! The door, already riddled with bullet holes, was kicked off its hinges. A long shadow stretching from the doorway fell over Aileen and the man.
The owner of the shadow was Cesare, standing with his back to the moonlight.