Collector’s Cage - Chapter 47

Ever since a maid’s mistake while cleaning had left a scratch on a beloved statue, managing the collection vault was only permitted directly under Froy’s supervision.

The butler immediately ordered the entire mansion staff to begin the search. He added the reminder to watch their feet, given the fairy’s small size.

Froy paced restlessly, unable to leave the vicinity of the bed. He half-expected Hermie to pop out from somewhere and call for him.

‘Did she run away? She couldn’t have gotten far yet.’

He tried to soothe his anxious heart with that thought. What had gone wrong? Should he have heeded the mage’s warning not to open the cage door?

The thought that Hermie might have run away made him seethe with a rage that twisted his insides.

‘Why?’

Why would Hermie, who clung to him saying she wanted to be by his side, run away? No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t fathom a reason.

But what if Hermie hadn’t run away? What if someone had kidnapped her?

This was a mansion filled with expensive collectibles. For this reason, the Ozette Marquis’s estate boasted security as tight as the imperial palace.

Few could penetrate the mansion’s formidable security. And to take only Hermie, leaving everything else untouched? That wasn’t an action that made logical sense.

Yet, Froy’s heart began leaning towards the kidnapping theory. Because the thought that Hermie had run away of her own volition was unbearably painful, feeling as though his chest were being torn apart.

‘Hermie wouldn’t have left me.’

Hermie had told him she loved him, that she liked him, that she wanted to stay by his side forever. He refused to believe the child who had expressed her love with her whole being had abandoned him.

Utterly incapable of sitting still, Froy burst out of his room.

“Summon the guards!”

He intended to check if there had been any intruders into the mansion. He also inspected for any other missing items.

There were no missing items, and no thieves had entered the mansion. Then…

‘The mage.’

Froy’s suspicion settled on one target. That mage scum who had come saying he would retrieve Hermie. That bastard was suspicious.

He immediately sent someone to the Magical Tower. He planned to go there himself.

If he caught the culprit who kidnapped Hermie, he would not grant them a clean death. He would make them deeply, bone-chillingly regret ever daring to covet what was his.

Blood vessels bulged in Froy’s eyes. Passionate rage coiled around his entire being.

Once the wave of anger passed, the next emotion that arrived was worry.

Was Hermie alright? Surely nothing bad was happening to her? Worry made him anxious and unsettled, and then a wave of longing crashed over him.

Hermie should be within arm’s reach, but her absence left a gaping hole in his heart. The emptiness left by her vacant space shook his spirit.

He missed Hermie. With Hermie not where she should be by his side, an hour felt as long as a day.

‘I have to find her. Quickly.’

That thought filled his mind to the brim. He couldn’t think of anything else.

***

A week had passed since the Ozette family mansion had been turned upside down. The servants, following Marquis Froy’s orders, had to comb through every corner of the estate as if searching for a needle in a haystack. They raised a greater commotion than during a deep cleaning, only settling down after several days had passed.

The servants, having been thoroughly harangued, finally saw Marquis Froy go into seclusion. As the Marquis grew visibly more haggard by the day, the butler’s worry grew larger each passing day.

It had been a very long time since they had seen the Marquis so sunk in sorrow. It was a sight unseen since he had been diagnosed with paralysis in his lower body.

Even when the previous Marquis passed away, and when Froy had cast out his stepmother and half-siblings, he had not shown his grief.

While others pointed fingers, calling Marquis Froy a cold-blooded man without pity or tears, the butler, who had long been loyal to the family, understood him.