The Beginning Of The End

“Have they still not found him!?”

“Y-yes… We have already assigned half the servants to search for Lord Jonatan, but it appears he is no longer within the estate…”

With Sieg’s birthday party only days away, the butler Paul shrank back and reported the situation while enduring the Duke of Langheim’s rebuke.

Yes… Jonah had vanished on the very morning of the party.

“I am going on a journey. Farewell.”

He had left behind only that single line.

“Good grief… He only just turned eleven… no, it was supposed to be in three days. And for a defective child like that to travel alone—he can’t possibly manage it.”

The Duke of Langheim pressed his temples and shook his head as he muttered this, but what mattered now was finding Jonah before Sieg’s birthday party at all costs.

The First Imperial Princess Patricia and the heads of three of the five great ducal houses—excluding only the Lanberg family—were attending. If the eldest son went missing, it would be nothing less than a disgrace to the Langheim house. That was how the Duke saw it.

“In any case, assign even more servants to the search for Jonah!”

“!? But then the preparations for Lord Siegvald’s birthday party…”

“Guuh…!”

Faced with this hopelessly frustrating situation, the Duke of Langheim ground his teeth.

When he thought about it, to him Jonah had been nothing but a defective nuisance who had caused trouble ever since he was born.

And now, at this critical moment, Jonah had pulled something like this—the Duke felt only anger.

“Anyway, find him no matter what! Even those preparing for the party—send them to search the moment they have a free hand!”

“Yes…”

Paul bowed respectfully and left the study.

“Haa…”

Letting out a sigh, the Duke of Langheim sank into his chair.

Now that he thought about it, Jonah had been acting strange since dinner the previous evening.

Until now, Jonah had rarely joined them for meals, and even when he did, he ate in silence. Yet yesterday, for some reason, he had suddenly spoken in a confrontational manner.

And in the end, he had even addressed his own father formally as “His Excellency the Duke of Langheim.”

“I even hired the renowned doctor from the imperial capital when he was bedridden, and I still provide him a life of luxury now—what more could he possibly be dissatisfied with…?”

Believing that he himself was the one who had bothered to look after the nuisance that was Jonah all this time, the Duke was irritated by what he saw as Jonah’s betrayal.

“My dear…”

“Father…”

The ones who entered the study were Herta and Sieg.

Both wore anxious expressions.

It was only natural—their long-awaited moment in the spotlight risked being ruined because of the defective eldest son.

“Don’t worry about Jonah. He’ll be found soon enough.”

The Duke of Langheim approached them and offered comforting words.

He was just a child, after all. He couldn’t have gone far, so it was only a matter of time before he was found. That was what the Duke believed.

That expectation would soon be betrayed.

Only fifteen minutes remained until the birthday party was scheduled to begin.

They had been searching for more than half a day already, yet there was still no report that Jonah had been found.

“That idiot…!”

Leaning his weight against the backrest, the Duke of Langheim glared at the ceiling and spat the words.

To him, Jonah was nothing more than a nuisance entrusted to him by the dying wish of the woman he loved most.

…No, it would be more accurate to say he was the hateful being who had stolen that beloved person from him.

Jonah’s birth mother, Marta, had passed away six months after giving birth to him.

Marta had always been frail, and the childbirth had further drained her strength; she could not survive the winter.

On her deathbed—

“Please… please take care of my Jonah…!”

She had clutched the Duke of Langheim’s hand and pleaded desperately.

The Duke, who had loved her with all his heart, accepted her dying wish and vowed to raise Jonah honorably.

Yet at the same time, he could not forgive Jonah for taking Marta from him.

Caught between duty and hatred, the path the Duke ultimately chose was to provide only the bare minimum of care and remain indifferent.

However, the Duke had not done so deliberately.

He genuinely intended to raise Jonah as the child of Marta in accordance with his vow—that was why he had hired Günter and had him treat the boy; that was unquestionably his own decision.

Yet the smoldering hatred he could never forgive Jonah for had unconsciously driven him to act that way.

As a result, Jonah had abandoned the Langheim house.

“…Master, we truly cannot delay any longer. Her Highness Patricia and the heads of the three houses, along with many other guests, have already gathered.”

“I know! If any of the guests ask about Jonah, tell them he is bedridden with poor health!”

With Jonah still missing, the Duke snapped at Paul, who had come to the study to whisper the update.

Yet all the guests would surely think the same thing:

That the eldest son Jonah had been usurped from the position of successor by the child of the second wife.

Precisely because he did not want Sieg—and by extension the Langheim name—to be stained by such rumors, the Duke had insisted on Jonah’s attendance.

“Haa… what a nuisance.”

The Duke of Langheim sighed and headed to the party venue, leading the star of the day, Sieg, and Herta.

But he did not know—

That by choosing the fate of being abandoned by Jonah, the Langheim house would walk the path of decline and taste the greatest humiliation of all.