#74. Is It Somewhere on Your Body?
“Hmm?”
“Before we ask anything else, shouldn’t we first check something?”
Realizing that by “check” Cryer meant verifying the presence of a brand, Olivia let out another sigh and nodded.
“We’ll need consent first.”
To literally “check” whether the child had a brand on his body, they would inevitably have to undress him.
And judging by the way the boy’s whole presence screamed, I’ve got a secret!—gaining his permission wasn’t going to be easy…
“Cryer? Cryer, what are you doing right now?”
Olivia snapped out of her thoughts and flailed a hand toward Cryer, who had suddenly started unbuttoning his shirt.
“Why are you undressing all of a sudden?!”
“You—do you have something like this on your body?”
Before Olivia even finished speaking, Cryer exposed the grotesque brand spread across his collarbone. Suhga’s unfocused eyes snapped instantly into sharp clarity.
The boy reflexively—no, instinctively—clutched at his left ribcage. Neither Cryer nor Olivia missed the motion.
“Now you’re fully awake.”
Olivia’s voice, deliberately cold, and her gaze, even frostier, bore into Suhga. The child’s rattled eyes, which had been fixed blankly on Cryer, jerked toward her.
Folding her arms, Olivia tilted her chin upward and asked:
“Answer me. Do you have something like that on your body?”
Suhga opened and closed his mouth like a fish before finally nodding in resignation.
“Answer properly, out loud. That’s the polite thing to do.”
“Do… do I really have to be polite to kidnappers?”
Even as his shoulders trembled from fear, the boy still identified his situation with startling clarity. Olivia narrowed her eyes, and Suhga instinctively curled up even tighter.
“You’re sharper than I thought.”
Murmuring under her breath, Olivia flicked her gaze toward Cryer. He understood without words—it meant button your shirt back up. As he slowly did so, his eyes drifted toward the spot on Suhga’s ribs the boy still clutched protectively.
Noticing the glance, Suhga tightened his jaw and clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white.
Olivia sighed, shook her head, and the winter-like chill in the air around her immediately softened.
“So you really do have a brand. And judging by how desperately you hide it, you know what it means.”
Suhga, sensitive to the shift in atmosphere, started to shake his head but ended up blurting out:
“I—I don’t know.”
“Then why were you hiding it?”
“Because… because I was told to.”
“You were told to?”
As Olivia leaned closer, Cryer’s hand shot out to stop her.
“He’s not lying. His eye response and heartbeat are unchanged.”
At his words, Suhga unconsciously touched near his eye and chest. Olivia accepted the assessment with a nod.
“So you don’t know what the brand means. Then why were you brought here? Let’s start with that. It’s about your brother.”
“M-my brother? You know where he is? No—my oppa…”
The boy’s voice faltered as he hastily corrected himself, realizing his slip. Olivia chuckled faintly.
“I already know you’re a boy. Call him hyung if that’s easier. Or oppa, if you prefer.”
“No… hyung is fine.”
“Then let’s make this clear. Cross-dressing—is it a preference?”
Going straight to the point, Olivia ignored subtlety altogether. Suhga stared at her with a slightly daunted expression before replying, small but firm:
“I was told I had to dress as a girl.”
“By who? The same person who told you to hide the brand?”
“Yes. My brother.”
“And the reason?”
“Because only then could I deceive them.”
“Deceive who?”
“That… he never told me.”
Cryer nodded, indicating truth again. Olivia didn’t stop.
“What about the deal your family made?”
“I know my family owes a huge debt to the Taren family. My brother works as a servant for them because of it.”
The answer was accurate but not to the question’s intent. Olivia realized the boy was clever enough not to deliberately mislead—so he truly didn’t know.
She gestured to Cryer. He leaned close enough that their breaths mingled.
“Seems like he knows nothing about his family’s dealings—or about the Old God.”
“Right. Every word he’s spoken is true.”
“Then he doesn’t even know… that he’s a sacrifice.”
Olivia spat the word like something foul.
“Looks like all he knows is what we’ve heard. We’ll need to sort this out.”
“If it’s about an Old God that discriminates by the sacrifice’s gender, yes—it needs sorting.”
Cryer’s lips twisted mockingly. Olivia’s expression darkened further.
“This is even more disgusting. But judging by the boy’s words, his so-called brother seems to know something.”
“If he’s the one who hid the journal in that secret space, then yes.”
“But since he went to such lengths to hide the child, maybe he’s not completely rotten.”
“Or maybe he feared if the boy was corrupted by something other than the Old God, then he himself would be taken as the sacrifice. That could explain his desperation.”
“…I hadn’t thought of that. Either way, we need to find him. Sending the boy back home… no, that’s impossible.”
Now that they knew Suhga bore such a deep connection to the Old God, they couldn’t just let him go. Especially since the boy himself knew nothing.
Turning from Cryer, Olivia addressed Suhga.
“Your brother was struggling with debt, then suddenly vanished. You understand that means he’s in danger, right?”
“…Yes.”
“And that makes you the next target?”
“Yes. Then… you didn’t kidnap me, you brought me here to protect me?”
Though he seemed to accept it, his words carried a hidden barb.
“You’re cunning. You want me to promise your safety with my own mouth.”
“Since you’re a princess, you’d know the honor of keeping any promise you make.”
“So you know who I am, yet you dared call me a kidnapper.”
“With hair redder than the sun and eyes bluer than the lake, you could only be Bolscheik… I apologize.”
When Suhga lowered his head, Olivia waved dismissively.
“Fine. I don’t dislike smart children who look out for themselves. But more importantly—we must find your brother.”
“You’ll find him?”
Suhga’s eyes lit with hope, and Olivia had to suppress a bitter smile.
The boy clearly didn’t know why his brother treasured him so much. Whether that man had chosen Suhga as a sacrifice himself, or whether it was the cursed Old God’s taste, was still unknown.
Either way, once they found him, there would be plenty of questions to ask and answers to demand.
“I’ll summon someone to search for your brother. Tell them everything you know.”
Moments later, Isaac—who had earlier fled under Cryer’s intimidating gaze—was forced back into Olivia’s presence by that same piercing stare.
“They say the investigation has already been closed.”
The woman, who had been running about trying to replace the investigator overseeing the incident at the Princess’s palace under Bonita’s orders, lowered her head.
“Closed?”
“Yes. The investigators have dropped it.”
At her words, a faint crack appeared in Bonita’s mask-like expression.
Wasn’t that far too quick? To bury a murder case at the Princess’s palace so swiftly?
Only someone with immense authority within the Princess’s residence could do that—the Princess herself.
Then… did the Princess know something?
It was a sharp suspicion, but Bonita couldn’t extract more. Just as Olivia didn’t know about Bonita’s link to Greta, Bonita didn’t know Olivia had regressed.
Like a blind man groping an elephant, trying to deduce the whole from scraps of clues would only lead to a wrong conclusion. Bonita knew this too—so she refrained from drawing premature conclusions and chose instead to watch and wait.
Greta’s arrival in the Empire had been delayed. There was still time.
“Bring me the investigation report.”
“What I’ve just told you is all that’s in it… Yes, understood.”
The woman bowed under Bonita’s icy gaze.
“What about the servants we’ll send into the Princess’s palace?”
“We are selecting them with utmost caution.”
“Good. Make sure they’re ready to enter the moment a vacancy opens.”
Their plan to kill a palace servant and replace them had gone awry, but there were other ways. Pressure had already been applied regarding the servant issue—an answer would come soon.
After giving a few more minor orders, Bonita dismissed her. But strangely, the woman lingered instead of leaving immediately.
“What is it?”
“It’s about the man you ordered me to take care of earlier…”
“Who?”
“The Taren servant—the one who was luring the palace maids.”
“Ah, that failure.”
Bonita’s voice was flat, emotionless as stone. The woman bit back her words and bowed deeper.
“He’s been taken care of.”
“I see. Then go.”
As always, leaving the suffocating air of the Heindel Marquisate, the woman muttered bitterly under her breath while walking through the night.
“Damn it… I almost got myself killed just by mentioning that he was troublesome to deal with. That look—she didn’t even seem human.”
Recalling Bonita’s face, she shuddered despite the warmth of the evening.
“Well, I said he was already dealt with, so now I have to deal with him. And of course, the bastard had to babble about how touching him would bring down the wrath of some ancient god… tch.”
