MDBYF ~ 05

Chapter : 05

“Ha.”

Taking responsibility for this woman?

Clara Thüringen was no ordinary noblewoman. She was as good as a future marchioness, with a wedding just around the corner.

But there was a far more critical truth behind it all.

She was none other than the fiancée of Josef Kirchner—Mikhail’s former superior officer.

A pitch-black sedan pulled up before the entrance checkpoint leading to the Defense Intelligence Command. Soldiers guarding the passage immediately approached the vehicle to verify the driver’s identity and credentials.

“We are from the estate of Marquis Kirchner.”

At those words, the soldiers’ visible tension dissolved. After confirming there were no discrepancies with the credentials, they raised the barrier blocking the lane, allowing the sedan through.

The servant from the marquisate parked hurriedly in front of the main building, only to face another hurdle. Passing the outer gate didn’t mean just anyone could go wandering through the halls.

“I must see the Marquis immediately!” the servant pleaded with the soldier standing at the entrance.

There was only one man in this facility who went by the title of Marquis. Fully aware of this, the soldier replied in a stiff, clipped tone:

“Colonel Kirchner is currently engaged in critical duties. He cannot be disturbed.”

“This is a matter of extreme gravity!”

“State your business to me. I will forward it through the chain of command.”

Rather than broadcasting his purpose aloud, the servant chose to whisper softly into the soldier’s ear. The disappearance of the Marquis’s fiancée was, after all, a strictly personal matter tied to Josef’s private life.

Nodding subtly, the soldier climbed the stairs to report the situation to Josef’s direct aide-de-camp.

“His fiancée has gone missing?”

“Yes, sir. They were urgently searching for the Colonel.”

The aide hesitated for a brief moment, but couldn’t bring himself to turn the servant away. With a mixture of doubt and anxiety, he stepped up to the door of the operations room. Josef was at his most volatile during tactical briefings. The aide had no intention of disregarding that fact, but he couldn’t very well hold back news of a missing fiancée until hours later.

Taking a breath, the aide knocked and stepped inside. The gazes of senior officers gathered around a map-strewn desk shifted instantly toward him.

Leaning in, the aide lowered his voice near Josef’s ear. “Your fiancée has been missing for several hours, sir.”

“Clara?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Missing, you say.”

At the word missing, Josef’s expression darkened heavily. For a split second, he appeared genuinely concerned for his beloved fiancée’s safety. He paused the briefing, offered a brief apology to the room, and stepped outside with his aide.

“Awaiting your orders, sir.”

“Orders? What orders?”

Though he didn’t explicitly display his emotions, the aide instantly caught the edge of fury in Josef’s tone.

“Given that your fiancée is missing—”

“You interrupted a strategic briefing over that? Do you have any sense at all?”

“However—”

“Tens of thousands of lives hang on this single operation. What do you think I have these officers gathered here for? We are at war! I may be sitting at a table drawing lines on a map, but I am a soldier fighting this war all the same. A single misjudgment could wipe out an entire unit. And you pull me out of the operations room over a single woman?”

“…My apologies, sir.”

“To be perfectly blunt, Captain—a fiancée can be replaced at any time.”

“…”

“Go back to your post. Report to me again only if Clara hasn’t returned by the end of the day.”

“Understood, sir.”

Josef turned on his heel and strode back into the operations room, signaling the end of the conversation.

Her head throbbed violently, and pain wracked her entire body. Was this blinding headache from the last lungful of formaldehyde she had inhaled, or from the thick, suffocating smoke hovering in the room? Clara couldn’t tell.

Forcing her eyes open, Clara realized she had been dumped like cargo onto a filthy mattress. Her wrists were bound, and a gag blocked her mouth to suppress any screams.

Nearby, a group of men sat around a table, smoking and playing cards. Who were they? Why had they brought her to a place like this?

Unwilling to draw their attention, Clara lay still, quietly listening to their conversation.

“World’s gone mad, hasn’t it? Even a high-class bitch like this falls right into our hands.”

“We better get a heavy ransom for her.”

“Shit, selling just the clothes she’s wearing ought to fetch a pretty penny.”

“Wait, is she really just a maid?”

“Of course she’s an errand maid!”

“Idiot, her outfit looks a bit too—”

“Hey, not all maids are created equal. The wenches working under the Marquis get three gold coins a day in wages.”

Clara fought with all her might to suppress her trembling. So they were kidnappers targeting her for ransom. What should she do? She scanned her surroundings frantically, but escaping on her own seemed impossible.

“Damn it, lost again!”

“Fool. Don’t you ever step foot in a real casino, got it?”

“Anyway, what do we do with the girl?”

“What else?” The man gathering and shuffling the cards replied nonchalantly. “Sell her off to a brothel.”

“What if she’s damaged goods?”

“We’ll just have to inspect her ourselves to find out.”

With the harsh creak of a chair scraping back, Clara hastily shut her eyes. But her act was far too clumsy; one of the men walked over and slapped her cheek lightly.

“Hey, we know you’re awake. Open your eyes.”

Trembling, Clara obeyed. As her emerald-green eyes met theirs, the men let out sleazy, low whistles.

“Damn, she’ll fetch a high price.”

“Guess the Marquis’s estate picks maids based on their faces first.”

“Hey, little maid. Ever had a lover?”

Expecting an answer, they roughly yanked off her gag. A sudden rush of air filled Clara’s lungs, making her gasp heavily.

“I’m asking if you’re a virgin, in case you didn’t catch that.”

Regret overwhelmed her far more than fear. If only she had a single pistol on her. If only she had possessed a weapon to protect herself, she wouldn’t have been dragged to a place like this!

“Hey! You gonna answer?”

They tapped her cheek mockingly with calloused hands, but Clara kept her lips tightly sealed. She prayed that if she remained silent, they would lose interest and leave her alone.

Mocking her faint hope, the men exchanged sinister grins and began reaching for her clothes.

“Well, if you won’t talk, we’ll just check for ourselves.”

“Let go! Get off me!”

Clara twisted her body to resist, but bound at the wrists, she had no leverage to push them away. Snickering, the men unbuttoned her outer dress, only to grumble in annoyance upon discovering multiple layers beneath.

“How much damn money are these wenches getting from the Marquis anyway?”

Driven by raw greed, they fixated on stripping her down. As they pulled apart her inner dress, her pale neck and collarbones were exposed. In that moment, Clara caught the slick, predatory lust flashing in their eyes.

Please… please…

Let this all be a dream.

I shouldn’t have gone out to buy books. I should have waited for Josef to return to the estate and asked him to accompany me.

‘Why do I ruin everything I do?’

Yet, it wasn’t really a book that Clara needed. Deep loneliness and deprivation had been slowly eroding her, making her crave a breath of fresh air more than anything.

All Clara had wanted was one simple thing:

To escape the oppressive silence, even for a moment.

She had simply wanted to walk freely through the city streets, just as she used to when she was the youngest lady of the Orbitz family.

She had thought it was a small desire. Was even that too much to ask?

Was she suffering like this because she had been greedy?

Would Josef ever come to save her?

Just as those thoughts spiraled through her mind, someone knocked on the door. Or rather, a violent noise rattled the wood, instantly seizing everyone’s attention.

“What the hell?”

Another knock followed—far removed from anything resembling politeness. The men pulled daggers from their waists and crept cautiously toward the door.

Then, suddenly, the knocking stopped. No matter how breathlessly they waited, not a sound came from the other side.

The moment one of the men unlocked the door and peeked outside, a towering figure clad in black burst through, slaughtering them all in a single instant.