"Father, what's wrong?"
Hibbert looked at Earl Hall, who stood motionless, looking as though he had aged ten years in an instant, and felt momentarily bewildered.
But when he noticed his father's bloodless face and slightly trembling body, his heart sank, and a terrible premonition washed over him.
"Phew..."
Earl Hall did not answer immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to force down the panic in his heart.
"Come with me."
Ignoring the servants passing through the corridor, he turned and strode back to the study.
Hibbert followed close behind.
Only after locking the door and ensuring they would not be disturbed did Earl Hall turn around and hand his eldest son the telegram he had crumpled slightly in his grip.
"Alfred... something has happened to him."
"What?!"
Hibbert froze, then snatched the telegram and scanned it anxiously.
Urgent telegram. Colonel Alfred Hall went missing last night after leaving the Sadingk Town garrison with fifty soldiers...
The telegram was brief, primarily describing Alfred's disappearance.
"H-how could this happen?!"
Hibbert's hands began trembling uncontrollably after he read just the opening. He looked at his father in disbelief. "The telegram says he took an entire squad of fully armed elite soldiers out, and not a single one returned? Who in the Southern Continent could make an elite squad vanish without a trace?!"
Earl Hall's face was frighteningly grim. As a father whose son's fate remained unknown in a foreign land thousands of miles away, he was undoubtedly wracked with worry and anguish.
But the family was currently at the center of a storm. As the man at its helm, he had to force himself to remain calm and not lose his bearings.
"Then hurry and send someone to find him!" Hibbert urged anxiously.
"The telegram says