After Lady Marie’s threat, I decided that it would be a smart idea to just listen and follow her orders if I wanted to stay alive. I was in enemy territory after all. I dropped the knife to the ground and moved away from the man, Lanzo. He scrambled to get up and exited the carriage shakily, but I did not miss the fury-ridden glare he shot my way before walking away with some other men who I could assume to be other mercenaries.

　　“Get out of the carriage, Cordelia.” Lady Marie monotonously said. I did as I was told and the moment I was out of the carriage, a man came up to me and quickly tied my wrists together with a thick rope. I gave Lady Marie a look to which she only shrugged. “You broke Lanzo’s finger and nose, I cannot risk you going berserk now, yes?”

　　“And here I thought you were not afraid of a puny little omega.” I muttered.

　　“Don’t flatter yourself, my dear.” She scoffed. I then turned to the man, Andrew Wright who was standing a good distance away from me. It must have traumatised him to see me fight back against a man twice my size by the way he was reacting.

　　“Lord Wright,” I greeted teasingly, just wanting to see his reaction. He was a lanky man, with thinning grey hair and sunken eyes. He jolted back when I regarded him.

　　“Well, it would seem that I do not need to waste time introducing the both of you since you know him.” Lady Marie said, snapping her fingers as she turned her heel and walked towards the entrance of the manor.

　　The man who tied my hand shoved me forward, indicating that I should follow Lady Marie. I sighed and walked ahead, with the man following close behind. I looked around my surroundings, noticing how this manor was definitely built with the purpose of being hidden in the heavy forest. There was hardly a path to follow, and even as the carriage rode away, it used a different path from before.

　　I tried to find anything that could pinpoint where this manor was but another shove from this nameless man caused me to glare at him. He just looked back at me, dark eyes unfazed by my annoyed gaze.

　　“Keep moving.”

　　“Touch me again and I’ll personally cut your fingers off.”

　　The man smiled at my words just as I looked away, turning my attention to Lady Marie’s and Lord Wright’s back as I continued to follow them inside the manor. The manor itself was anything but extravagant. It was barely furnished nor decorated, and I could only assume that they hardly used this place, only for when they needed to do nonsense such as kidnapping someone.

　　“Maybe things would have been different if you hid those letters and fake doctor’s reports here instead of at Lord Wright’s personal residence.” I commented. This made both of them stop in their tracks to look at me.

　　I waited for them to have a revelation, even though they must have had a feeling that I was in possession of the letters that could be used as evidence against them, here I was admitting to it. Andrew’s already tense body language grew even more tense at the mention of the letters, but Lady Marie merely looked over to me as though I had just told her something obvious.

　　“Erik.” She called out, the man next to me nodded. “Gag her and take her down to the basement. I shall pay her a visit after I am done with her.”

　　I turned to him only to watch him pull out a cloth from his pocket. I wanted to move away but this Erik was quicker as he forcefully tied the cloth around my mouth. A disgusting taste and smell came from the cloth.

　　“Yes, ma’am.” He said, grabbing me by my arm as he guided me away from Lady Marie and Andrew.

　　He took me down corridor after corridor until we took a flight of stairs that led down to a dark part of the manor. I could hardly see anything due to the sudden shift in light. Erik opened a door and inside there was a wooden crate and on top of it was a dim oil lamp. Nothing else was inside the room. Erik pushed me inside, so harshly that I lost my balance and fell to my knees. I turned around to look at him, only to watch him pull the door shut. As he locked the door, the sound echoed throughout the empty walls.

　　I managed to pull the dirty cloth from my mouth due to how my hands were tied at my front, not a very smart thing to do on Erik’s side but I could not complain since I was not limited in my movements. I pushed myself up, heading towards the oil lamp to try to burn the ropes from my wrists but there was barely any fire there and I opted against it in the fear that opening the lamp might accidentally cut off my only light source.

　　For now, I had to not do anything rash. I sat by the wooden crate, leaning back against the rough wall and stared at the door in front of me. I had to preserve energy, had to preserve my sanity. Everything was going to be alright, I told myself even though I was absolutely frightened.

　　*

　　I was not sure how long had passed but the fire from the oil lamp was flickering out of existence. Soon, I would not even have a light source and was going to be trapped in the dark for God knows how long. The door then clicked, key twisting as it was pushed open. I straightened my posture but looked away when a blinding light shone directly down at me.

　　“I’m glad you have made yourself comfortable, Cordelia.” Lady Marie’s voice called out as she made her way towards me. Her maid placed the bright oil lamp on the wooden crate next to my dying one. Lady Marie waved her off and she disappeared out of the door, pulling it shut behind her.

　　“So nice of you to come visit me, Lady Marie.”

　　She ignored my remark. “Are you hungry?”

　　“I am not.” I lied.

　　“Very well then.” She then looked around the empty room but before either of us said anything, the door was pushed open, and Erik walked in with a wooden chair in his hand. He set it behind Lady Marie and walked away. “I must admit, for mercenaries, some of them are rather gentlemanly, do you not think so?” she asked as she sat down.

　　“They are probably only gentlemanly to those who are paying them,” I huffed, thinking about how Lanzo was about to do something disgusting to me and how Erik seemed to find pleasure in pushing me around.

　　“I suppose you are right.”

　　“Enough of this idle chit chat. Care to tell me what you plan on doing now that you have kidnapped me, Lady Marie?”

　　“Kidnap is such a harsh word. I merely took you out of the situation. When your people get distracted from your sudden disappearance, that would only mean that they would prioritise looking for you instead of focusing on the trial.” She explained. “Although, after getting rid of Laura, I am very well aware that there is no feasible link to Declan’s death and myself, but I just had to make sure you were out of the picture too.”

　　I did not expect her to tell me everything, but it would seem that she was confident she was going to win this that she did not care if I knew about her plans. “So, you did kill

　　Laura and I suppose Declan’s death was your planning as well?”

　　“Declan was dead weight, even Andrew agreed to it. He was more use to us death than alive.” She casually stated.

　　I tried to calm myself, not wanting to show any emotions to her. “Once the trial is over, what then? Do you plan on killing me?”

　　“I would love for you to be permanently out of the picture, Cordelia, but unfortunately, I need you alive for this plan to work. You, see, killing you would only lead suspicion onto me as everyone already knows how I openly oppose your claim to the throne.”

　　“And kidnapping me is better than that?”

　　“No one knows you got kidnapped, if anything, they would just assume you ran away.”

　　“What?”

　　“Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I left a little note behind for Gideon and the others with your signature. They think you have run away from your duties.”

　　“You must be underestimating them if you think they would believe that.”

　　“Ah, but you are forgetting that I am not hoping for them to believe me, I just need them to be distracted, remember?” she smiled. “Do not worry, Cordelia, once everything is over, I shall return you back to the palace, although I cannot promise that you would be in—pristine condition.”