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In the eerily quiet room after Genise's departure, I asked Cecil, who was collecting her thoughts, "So, when is the Duchess expected to arrive in Philander?"
"His Grace should be entering the palace in three or four days."
"Does Duchess Skaiar think Eddy kidnapped Genise?"
"Well... yes, Your Majesty."
"Why, though? Eddy may be a brat, but he wouldn't do something I told him not to. And Genise didn't seem like someone who'd be easily kidnapped."
"It started as a case of Lady Genise Skaiar running away, but..."
Genise Skaiar. She had been raised as the heiress to House Skaiar since childhood, surpassing her brother and sister, only to run away the day after her eighteenth birthday.
Duchess Skaiar turned her estate upside down looking for her runaway daughter, but by then, Genise had already left the estate and was heading to the central region where she met Edwin somewhere in the west.
