2 Right under the nose

The crumbled paper placed on King Leonardo's desk was mocking him, coercing him to confront his incompetency. He had failed once again. It was time to give up. But he would never give up. 

Giving up meant losing and Callum Facci could afford anything but another defeat. It was yesterday when he was a weak defeated boy, but today he is a man and he had abandoned the notion of losing a long time ago.  

"His Majesty, I have failed you," Callum said, accepting his fault. It had been more than one whole year and he couldn't bring about the desired result. 

Calliope Wilding had disappeared from the face of the earth. There was no nook or no junction he hadn't searched in hopes of finding her. Hell, he had even raided the whole underworld for her. But Calliope wasn't there. 

And how could she be there? 

Underworld belonged to Hades and his people and she wasn't one. 

She was a ghost. A ghost that was hell-bent on ruining his future and becoming the cause of his nightmares. 

If she dared to stop him from relishing the fruits that his hard work had finally borne, he wouldn't mind becoming another Hades just to teach her the lesson. 

The day she killed William Joseph she had owed everything including the breath she took to Ronan Joseph. 

"Have you talked to her family?" King Leonardo asked him, bringing a certain dazed man from his soul-consuming thoughts. 

Callum inwardly scoffed as the memory of meeting Calliope's family for the first time surfaced in his head. While investigating his family, he had come across a middle-aged woman named Janet Malik. From his explorations, he discovered that the middle-aged woman was the Duchess's family's housekeeper. 

When he had inquired about the duchess's whereabouts, he was questioned fearlessly by the middle-aged woman why he was invested in Duchess of Orin's life? 

If not for the confidentiality of the matter, he would have announced how her mistress was a murderer on run but only if he could. 

But there was something in that woman's calm gaze plainly taunting that he wouldn't be able to find Calliope, at least in this lifetime. 

And he, Callum Facci, only held one desire-- To find the duchess who was sitting on his happiness and future as an eclipse. 

"Your Majesty, do you have any idea that Duchess Calliope Wilding had a son with her late husband?"Callum could not help but ask once again. 

It seemed like they were missing an angle. How could no one know that the Duchess and her late husband had an heir? 

And the boy was ten years old this year. 

As much as he was told, the Duchess's husband died nine years ago when she was barely twenty years old. And they hadn't been married for more than one year and a few months.

Where did that boy appear from? 

Before her disappearance, Calliope Wilding had passed on her title and whole wealth to her son. And it had shocked the entire noble society. 

The rumoured cursed Duchess had a son with her late husband? 

It was the most favourite topic of people of the Maisean Empire to talk about over tea. 

"I haven't fathomed that Calliope Wilding would surpass her late father in intelligence. The old man always looked down on her for being a woman," King Leonardo said with a rare smile gracing his regally handsome face. 

Personally speaking, Calliope was an enigma to Callum. He had never paid any attention to any noble family but her. She was a mystery whose face was not known by a living human. 

"I haven't heard of a Wilding couple having an heir," King Leonardo added after a while. "Or you can say I never paid that household any notice after the late Duke passed away. A boy with the title of the duke at such a young age. Her mother sure left him a huge fortune behind. But too bad we need her, not her fortune or especially that boy. " 

"How about we convince Ronan Joseph to ask for something else?"Callum suggested. From his experience, he could tell Ronan was a mad man in need of therapy. 

"Do you think I didn't try to persuade him? He is as stubborn as his dead father. He wouldn't accept until he eats my country and its innocent people,"  King Leonard said with apparent frustration. "Unfortunately, he is a bit different from his father. He asked for no political benefit but a woman. A woman who disappeared from the face of this earth." 

"Your Majesty, the finance minister, wished for an urgent appointment," King Leonardo's personal assistant informed. 

It was Callum's cue to leave. After greeting the king, he turned back to leave his study. But he heard the last spoken words of King Leonardo all too well. 

'The elections are coming…'

He was on the way to exit when he came across Princess Beatrice of all the people. She was coming towards King Leonardo's study with a frightening expression on her face. He could decipher that the princess was not in a good mood.  

"Your Highness," Callum greeted her and Princess Beatrice stopped to look at him. Her scowl was replaced by a calm smile. 

"Uncle Callum," the seven years old princess said with a smile. Originally, he used to be called Mr Facci by the princess but ever since Nash married and settled down in this country, he became the universal Uncle Callum. All his best friends aka brothers kids called him Uncle Callum. And he took great pride in being the favourite Uncle of all the kids. 

"Have you seen Santiago?" She asked him. 

Ah, he understood the problem now. 

Apparently, Santiago Reynolds ditched the princess's study session to watch military training once again. Little princess's obsession with another blued eyed and dark-haired Santiago reminded him of another couple. 

It couldn't be a coincidence that Princess Beatrice too had wild dark red locks? 

"I have not," He truthfully replied. 

"We checked the whole Palace but we didn't find Mr Reynolds, Your Highness, " Beatrice's maid said much to the princess's increasing anger. 

"You know what, Uncle Callum? Sometimes we move heaven and earth to search for one single person but in the end, that person is hiding right under our nose, " Princess Beatrice said with an arrogant scoff and turned towards her maid,"Have you searched Military ground? Santiago is right under your nose but still you failed to search him." 

Callum glanced at Beatrice and offered a kind smile before running at a startling speed.