Hugo pondered. No way. It couldn’t be. Not like this — broad daylight, just as I happened to think of it… Arthur couldn’t have been kidnapped again. That’d be too much of a coincidence. Arthur still had Solivair’s weak spot in his hands. Solivair might not have the nerve to make a move on him; he knew exactly what Arthur meant to Hugo — and he knew that if anything happened to Arthur, Hugo would hand over every piece of evidence he had. And that evidence held the Tremo family’s entire future. Would Solivair really risk the downfall of the entire Tremo family for the sake of his daughter? Hugo wasn’t sure. He’d seen Solivair’s obsession with his missing daughter firsthand — even Hugo had been stunned by how deep it ran. Hugo prayed silently. Please let Solivair still have some shred of reason left. Don’t let him destroy everything for the sake of a daughter whose fate is still unknown. Hugo tore through Arthur’s dorm, calling his name while checking every corner. But after a full sweep, there wasn’t a single sign of him. Suddenly, Hugo’s eyes landed on the room next door — Taylor’s. He didn’t even think; he rushed out and ran straight there. The door was closed, but no matter how many times he yelled Taylor’s name, no one answered. It wasn’t locked. Hugo pushed it open, scanned the room in seconds — no one there either. Now he was officially panicking. His phone had been dialing nonstop — Arthur’s number, Taylor’s, Ashley’s. No one picked up. Just that morning, a family issue had come up on Hugo’s side, so most of the security detail had been temporarily reassigned. He hadn’t thought twice about it; the school had been peaceful for so long, with no threats or incidents. He figured they’d be back soon. And now, just like that, Arthur, Ashley, and Taylor were gone. Hugo dashed to the security room, urgently pulling up the surveillance footage. At the same time, he was already calling for backup, rallying everyone he could. On-screen, he finally saw them. Arthur, Ashley, and Taylor — all being taken away by a group of people wearing black face masks and baseball caps.Something was off. They weren’t walking — they were being carried. They’d been drugged. No wonder no one heard anything. They hadn’t gone through the front gate. They’d scaled the wall from an unguarded section of campus. That meant the kidnappers had studied the security layout ahead of time. As Hugo reviewed the footage again, one figure in the group caught his eye. How familiar. "Stop," Hugo said sharply to the security guard. "Rewind. Right there." "Yes, sir!" The guard stammered — it was Hugo, after all. The last time he’d come to check the cameras, Arthur had been in danger. And now — again. What kind of curse is on this kid? Why does he keep getting kidnapped? And who knows if it’s even the same group this time… After a closer look, Hugo recognized the figure immediately. Zac. Of course. I knew it, that scumbag came to Governance University with bad intentions from the start. He’d wormed his way into the school, gotten familiar with the layout and the guards — all so he could snatch Arthur again. Everyone had been so busy with everything else, they hadn’t even noticed what he was up to. Because Finley was still at the university, they’d all assumed Zac was here to support him. But in the end, they’d overestimated Finley’s value to Solivair. He wasn’t even part of the kidnapping this time. Just the thought of Finley made something flicker in Hugo’s eyes. He stepped out of the security room and gave a quiet order to the guard beside him. "Go get Finley. We’re taking him to the station." The guard looked surprised, but nodded respectfully. "Yes, sir." Not long after, at the campus gate, two guards dragged a limp Finley into the back of a vehicle. Hugo was already seated inside. In a half-finished, abandoned building, Arthur groggily opened his eyes. All he could see was darkness.It took a while for his vision to adjust; finally, through the faint light slipping in through a cracked window, he could just barely make out the space around him. This wasn’t his first time being kidnapped — he knew the signs. Here we go again. "Ashley? Taylor!" The moment his mind cleared, Arthur remembered who had been with him before he blacked out. Using what little light there was, he strained to look around. In the gloom, he spotted two motionless figures lying on the ground — one on each side.