Lottie's Ship Wish

CHAPTER 15

"There are still no signs of her, Your Grace."

A knight reported in front of Anthony. A certain uncomfortable silence enveloped the office they were staying at, the moment he finished the report.

Even Duncan at the side could feel the heavy tension, yet Anthony just nodded and dismissed the knight which he obliged. The moment the knight left the room, Anthony leaned his back on the chair and looked at his substitute secretary.

"You should go to rest too, sir Duncan," Anthony suggested.

Duncan looked at the windows and saw the night sky. They had been awake for a few hours past midnight. "But Your Grace, you are still awak--"

"Please."

Duncan didn't need another word to understand that Anthony was requesting him to leave him alone for a bit. He also bowed down and left the room.

Just like what he requested, Anthony was now left alone, leaning on his chair.

"No sign at all..." He muttered to himself.

"It's been 24 hours...where are you, Charlotte?" His fist clenched at the reports on his desk.

More of less twenty-four hours since his daughter had been kidnapped. Anthony didn't sleep and immediately issued his knights to look for Lottie for the whole day until now. Every hour, he was asking for updates, hoping there would be clues. Going as far to him personally infiltrating parts in the underground society.

However, him being a Blessed makes it very hard to hide and investigate. Mostly, if he was looking for a corrupted who was supposed to be non-existent in their kingdom. Together with this fact and how no one from the city saw Lottie nor her shadow at all made him very...anxious.

He let go of the papers and stared at his trembling hands.

It's been a long time since he felt...scared.

Really scared.

"I am a Blessed yet...I got raped and now...lost my own child..."

His breathing got rougher as his self-pity grew. Coincidentally, Anthony's eyes went to the sofa where Lottie and he ate her cooking.

He remembered how she smiled at him brightly while pouring him a bowl of...unique looking yet tasty soup.

"I couldn't even apologize for the soup..." He regretted, remembering how Lottie's big and shocked eyes directed at him when he pushed her away.

However, all his reminiscence halted when he felt a person lurking near him.

"Who's there?" Anthony stood up quickly and scanned his whole office.

His eyes met with a child sitting on the edge of his big window. He couldn't make out the kid's appearance because his or her features were hidden inside the hood and the light from the moon on his or her back made the kid's face even blurry and darker.

'A kid...? How did he...'

Anthony lowered his guard, but it only remained for a second when the question of how the child got through his windows with no one noticing sank into his mind.

"Who are you?" Anthony asked, fully guarded.

"Why don't you guess?" The kid replied as he or she rocked his feet forward and backwards.

'Is...this child a corrupted?' Anthony observed the young one in front of him. Both of them stayed silent for a few seconds, except it didn't linger long when Anthony teleported to the child's location.