CHAPTER 124: MOTHER

"Lodrick?"

A soft, melodic voice echoed through the grand hall. A young man stood motionless, head bowed, hands clasped tightly behind him as if to brace himself for what was to come.

"Yes, Mother?"

Prince Lodrick’s voice was steady, but there was an unmistakable tension beneath it. It was rare—almost unheard of—for his mother to summon him personally, and he knew exactly why she had called for him now.

"Where is your servant?"

The moment the question was uttered, a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

He had expected this.

He really had.

It had been a month. A full month since Yuriel had gone missing.

At first, he had sought answers from his sister, the very person to whom he had entrusted his servant’s care. But her response had been infuriatingly curt.

"I sent him on the very errand you originally planned to send him on."

That was all she had given him.

And despite countless investigations, despite prying and prodding at every possible lead, the results had remained the same—nothing. No trace of Yuriel. It was as though he had vanished without a trace.

Frustration gnawed at him. No, frustration was too weak a word for what he felt. He was enraged, unsettled beyond measure. Because he knew—oh, how well he knew—just how fiercely his mother had guarded that boy. It was a peculiar thing, the way she doted on Yuriel, how she had always held him close as if he were more precious than her own flesh and blood.

No.

It went beyond motherly affection.

It was deeper.

Darker.

And yet, Lodrick dared not dwell on such thoughts for long. There were things about his mother that one simply did not question.

He forced himself to respond, though his voice wavered slightly.

"I... I have yet to determine his whereabouts, Mother."

A flicker of something unreadable passed across her face. He didn’t dare meet her eyes for too long, lest he unravel beneath their piercing gaze.

As the heavy silence stretched between them, his mind wandered to another source of his turmoil.

Katharina.

He still remembered that day as though it were carved into his very soul—the day his beautiful, untouchable Katharina had confessed her love for Yuriel to him.

Not for him.

For Yuriel.

She had wanted to buy him.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

No—the real pain came from the undeniable fact that she knew how deeply Lodrick had fallen for her. He was certain of it. There had even been a time when he could see the glimmer of reciprocation in her gaze, the unspoken tension lingering between them.

But that all changed the day Yuriel escorted him to her duchy.

Yuriel had been silent throughout the entire meeting, yet Lodrick had noticed it—the subtle shift in Katharina’s expression whenever her gaze fell upon the servant. The quiet, growing interest in her eyes.

And that realization had wounded him in ways he could never fully articulate.

Perhaps, in the beginning, what he felt for Katharina had been nothing more than lust, spurred by her overwhelming beauty. But as he watched her slip through his fingers, watched her longing gaze follow another, that fleeting attraction hardened into something far more dangerous.

Love.

Genuine. Maddening. Desperate.

And it consumed him.

Yet no matter what he did—no matter how hard he fought—she only grew more desperate for Yuriel.

Yuriel.

It was always about that bastard.

Yuriel.

There were nights when he lay awake, his mind poisoned by the same recurring thought: What if he simply disappeared?

He could.

With one command, he could have Yuriel erased. Wiped from existence as though he had never been.

And yet...

A part of him hesitated.

Because despite the boiling jealousy, despite the hatred slowly rotting him from within, there was still something stopping him.

Memories.

Yuriel had been with him since the beginning.

Through victories and defeats, through laughter and sorrow, Yuriel had stood by his side.

A friend.

A servant.

A brother.

And no matter how much he wanted to rid himself of the resentment clawing at his insides, he could not bring himself to truly despise him.

But the cracks were already forming.

He no longer brought Yuriel along when he visited Katharina.

Yet even in his absence, she seemed distracted, lost in thought. And when she finally spoke, it was never to ask how he was doing.

It was always, "Is Yuriel coming later?"

He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms.

He hated that.

He really did.

In fact, it would be a lie to say that some part of him wasn’t relieved that Yuriel was gone.

Maybe now, he could finally win her over without any interference.

But then again... there was still her.

"Find him." Her voice was low, measured—but each word carried the weight of a command. "You have two days, Lodric. If you don’t..." She trailed off, but the threat was clear.

A tense silence filled the room before she finally dismissed him. "You may go."

Lodric bowed slightly before turning on his heel, the heavy doors swinging open as he stepped out.

This obsession his mother had with Yuriel... it was becoming something else entirely.

Sometimes, he was scared to even meet her.

"I have to find him. I have to find that bastard," he muttered through gritted teeth.

His mother wasn’t the only one breathing down his neck.

There was also Katherina—growing more persistent, more desperate by the day. From what he could tell, she was spiraling, slipping further into madness.

And then there was Maria.

He frowned, striding down the long halls as passing maids bowed in greeting.

She was involved in Yuriel’s disappearance. He was sure of it.

And yet, even now, she refused to tell him where he was. Lied to his face with that infuriating composure.

To this day, he had no idea why she hated Yuriel so much.

He should’ve been grateful, should’ve relished the way she toyed with and frustrated him. At least one person wasn’t obsessed with that idiot.

But now, he wished she had never—

...

Watching Lodric leave, the golden-haired woman remained still, her pink eyes locked onto the door.

Silent.

Unmoving.

Her gaze darkened by the second.