53 Gone Missing

[Elizabeth POV]

Elizabeth was sitting at her office desk; a surprising amount of paperwork was neatly spread on her desk. Yet, she hadn't finished even one of them even after half an hour of sitting there.

Her mind kept wandering to the outside where the cityscape was in view.

'Was it a good idea?'

She wondered, looking at the main street of the city visible even from her study. The street seemed jam-packed even from her point of view. The people appeared like ants, but there was a swarm of them.

Her heart told her it wasn't a good idea. And it kept telling her so again and again, much to her concern.

But she suppressed those thoughts, trying to stay composed.

'No, I shouldn't worry too much. He's safe. He should be safe.'

When Elizabeth heard her son wanting to go outside, her anxiety soared.

Alex had asked to go out and enjoy the festival. He was quite adamant about it too. It almost seemed as if he had been fed up with staying at home all the time. Strange, since he was not one to want to go outside that much. But since he had asked for it now, she had decided to give in and let him have some fun. Of course, not before she tried to persuade him (for an hour) against it.

Alas, he won. She just couldn't deny her baby boy's request. He hardly ever asked for anything. And besides, he was an adult now. (Not in her motherly eyes. Not yet. Possibly not ever.) She thought it was appropriate that he had some freedom.

So, with reluctance, she agreed and assigned about 15 of the best men from the Knights and Magicians that served the Maximus household.

Still, it didn't feel enough, but any more than that, and it would have started becoming obvious.

While she had faith that her territory was safe to roam around in disguise, she also knew that anywhere outside was never truly safe. For her adorable children, only this place, inside the mansion grounds, was safe. Everywhere else was dangerous.

Sitting idly, she wondered if she could find her son on the street if she looked hard enough.

'Sigh.'

Alas, she didn't have such a great vision to see KMs ahead of her and identify her child as easily. And who was to say if he was even there on the street she was looking at?

Having various thoughts and worries, she kept loitering around some more until she finally gave up.

'I should get back to work. He'll be back in an hour or so.'

And so, mostly to distract herself from the constant anxiety she felt today, she decided it was better to busy her mind with work.

'He'll be fine. He's old and smart enough to stay out of trouble. Besides, there's Sir Erik, Sera, and others who will keep watch over him. Commander Joseph ensured me that he's a very diligent and loyal knight.'

Still with a troubled heart, she tried her best to finish most of her work so she could make time and listen to all of her son's first solo adventures in the town.

She couldn't help but anticipate him just coming home excited, giving her a big long hug, and then telling her all the fun things he did today.

This was also a good way for him to understand how the commoners lived. After all, now that he was 15, he had to start learning about his responsibilities.

'Perhaps it's time I talked to my kids about the heirship.'

Even though there was no drama about inheritance in this house, unlike many other noble houses, she still deemed it proper to talk about it with everyone. But she was sure all her daughters were on-board with the idea of Alex being the next heir. He had grown enough as a person to be worthy of the title. All he needed to do was slowly learn the responsibilities.

…

Exactly an hour passed when she finally got a report about her son. She had finished a fair amount of work, but there were still a dozen or so reports, bills, and other things she had to go through. Good thing she had Laura's wonderful herbal tea to help her.

"Madam, one of the guards assigned to watch over the young master in secret has come bearing urgent news."

Laura stoically spoke, but a hint of urgency was noticeable in her voice.

Elizabeth didn't miss it as her heart started pounding. She couldn't help but dread that the urgent news was bad.

Still, she maintain a calm outer demeanor, even if her insides had started screaming at her, calling her an idiot for sending her precious son outside without enough protection.

'I should've sent the commander after all…'

She grimaced inside. She had originally wanted to do so, but Commander Joseph was already burdened with a lot of things, including the safety of the mansion.

She tried to rope in her worries, persuading herself that she might be worrying for nothing. Still, it was 'urgent news.' There weren't many instances where it was good news.

She hastily ordered.

"Call them inside, immediately."

"Yes, Madam."

Not even 15 seconds passed when the said informant was kneeling in front of her.

"Speak. What's this about the urgent news? Is my baby in any problem?"

Her voice was even, but none of the two other occupants of the room missed the tension her face portrayed. Understandable, since it was related to her precious child, after all.

"No, my lady. He's enjoying his outing without any issues. But there's been reports of missing children in the festival."

'Missing children? So, it's not related to Alex. Phew—'

She barely held back a sigh, realizing the topic was still of some concern. As much as she was a mother, she was also the lord of the territory and it was her responsibility to ensure there was no trouble in it.

"This is concerning. What about the guards on duty? There's supposed to be more security around and didn't I order to make booths around that dealt with this exact problem?"

"Yes, my lady. I wouldn't have come to report on this matter since it doesn't have anything to do with our assignment, but the frequency at which it is happening is unusual. The first report came an hour ago. And it went straight to the booth for finding missing people. But since then there's been 20 more such reports. And all of the missing ones are children and youngsters. The frequency is too high for it to be due to simply getting lost. We suspect there might be a criminal group kidnapping children in the guise of the festival.

The guards and relevant authorities have been made aware of it and they've started searching for the children and their likely kidnappers, but since Young Master is present at the festival, I deemed it important to report it to you, Ma'am."

Elizabeth furrowed her brows, hearing the details of the incident.

"This is very concerning. Tell Erik to end the outing and have my son come back—"

Her words never finished as she automatically turned to look at the window showing the cityscape.

There she could notice hints of smoke coming from a few places on the main street. The dread she had managed to calm down came back immediately, this time with greater force as her mind started racing to think of the possible reasons for the smoke.

But those thoughts were quickly halted as another major thought overwhelmed everything else.

'My son is there!'

"Bring my son back immediately! Ensure his safety! And then send someone to bring me a report on why there's smoke coming from various parts of the main street!"

The informant bowed in affirmation and immediately left to do the same.

Elizabeth felt her heartbeat quicken as many thoughts started haunting her.

'Oh goddesses, I pray that my child wasn't around those places. I pray that he comes back safe and sound. I don't know what I'll do if he got hurt on his first personal outing in the city.'

She was worried for her son's safety, but she knew that he'll come back soon. He had to. She didn't want to imagine a scenario where he didn't.

"Laura."

"Yes, Madam."

"Call for Commander Joseph. I want him on this. Who dared to ruin my son's first outing, I need to know. I want them arrested as soon as possible."

Her face was expressionless, but one could tell from her voice that she was very angry. And there weren't many instances where Elizabeth K. Maximus got angry. This was, after all, an incident that related to her family and she never compromised for her family's wellbeing.

…

An hour later, Elizabeth was now in the main hall. Olivia was also sitting there silently.

Sitting straight on a sofa, she and Olivia heard the report from the guards assigned to protect her son during his outing with pale faces.

It took her a little while to absorb the news, but when she did, her heart seemed to shatter as the reality of the situation hit her like a giant boulder.

She slouched on the sofa as tears began to form in her eyes, which soon started traveling down her cheeks and fell on her dress.

She stayed silent, wondering if what she just heard was a mistake.

"Oh, my goddess…"

Her eldest daughter's aghast voice woke her up from her stupor. Then she shouted.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALEX IS MISSING?!"

The kneeling guards all lowered their heads in shame, not daring to speak.

"ANSWER ME, before I have your cleaved heads hanging on the streets!"

A furious growl from her prompted one of the knights to finally speak.

"F-Forgive us, my lady… We were escorting the young master to the carriage after the sudden bombings where upon reaching it, he refused to enter and instead called for a search. Following his orders, we found that he was indeed right with his intuitions. The carriage contained a mana bomb…"

Elizabeth's heart sank hearing that her son was so close to dying in an explosion.

Not noticing the reaction of his lord, the knight continued with his head bowed.

"Furthermore, we found out that the carriage driver was a heretic, and he had a strange tattoo on his left forearm. We managed to detain him before he could escape or do any harm to Young Master, but… the accursed man somehow killed himself in an explosion."

Elizabeth's heart jumped from the pits of her stomach to her mouth in an instant as she struggled to utter any words.

"D-Did he hurt my son…?"

Her frail voice displayed her extreme nervousness and despair to the people present in the hall. Imagining her son near a suicide bomber choked her throat, making it hard to breathe.

"No, madam! I managed to shield him from the direct impact. The protective charm on him also shielded most of the residual impact. But it did cause most of our guards, including me, to scatter and fall from the explosion. The Young Master also, unfortunately, was thrown away from the impact. But rest assured, he didn't sustain any serious injuries. We quickly stood up one by one, when…"

She waited impatiently and dreadfully to hear his next words.

The knight clenched his fist and she couldn't see it but heard his teeth grinding as he spoke, trying his best but failing, to show his anger and frustration with his next words.

"I was still in a daze from the explosion and couldn't stay focused on him for an instant. When I opened my eyes and turned to look for the Young Master, he was missing. I swear it was only for a few seconds that my eyes had left him, but in that brief instant, he disappeared."

The knight didn't speak further.

Elizabeth clenched her fists as imaginable rage raged in her mind like wildfire, only to be drowned in the flood of depression and fear that came soon after.

"M-My son… My poor child… How could you let that happen? You were assigned to protect him…. Oh, goddess Theona, why did this happen? Why my poor innocent child?"

She wailed as she grieved at the tragic and devastating news. Her eyes now pouring tears like rain.

"W-Why didn't you search for him more?! There's no way he just disappeared like that!"

Elizabeth heard her oldest daughter cry. She was also just as shocked as her, judging by her equally pale face, and had a few tears pouring down her cheeks.

Elizabeth gained a moment of clarity.

'No, this isn't the time to grieve. I must find my child immediately!'

"Where's Sir Erik? He was assigned to be with Alex at all times. Why don't I see him anywhere?"

"That… we found him unconscious near the stall he went to bring refreshment for the young master."

"Why the hell did he leave Alex to go bring it on his own?! He could have sent someone else to do it!"

An angry growl captured everyone's attention. From the gate, a red-haired and red-eyed girl barged in angrily as she shouted to the kneeling knight. Emma had come back from her training and incidentally stumbled on this, hearing the news of Alex's disappearance.

The knight didn't answer.

"Is there more? What could you find out about Alex's disappearance."

"We… we don't have much of a lead. But we think that the carriage driver wasn't alone and had some involvement with the people behind the bombings. And they are likely the kidnappers who took away Young Master during the brief interval when we were stunned and dispersed. But we don't know how they did it. I swear it was only for a brief moment that my eyes drifted away from him."

Elizabeth took a deep breath to get a hold of her swirling emotions.

"I want the entire knight force and city guards looking for him. Tell Commander Joseph he has an urgent mission: To find my son and bring him back. Lock the city and put a heavy watch on all the suspicious places and the outer gates. Search every inch of this city if you have to. Find leads. Do whatever you want. I want my son back. And I want him back immediately! I swear to the goddess if even a scratch appears on my boy, everyone… and I mean EVERYONE responsible for it will pay dearly.

Now go! Bring my son back!"

""Yes, ma'am!""

The knights left immediately to convey the message to the commander and the rest of the knights.

Elizabeth couldn't help but lament in fear.

"I shouldn't have let him go outside…"

[End of Elizabeth's POV]

***