Chapter 19

Seeing Annette suddenly stop talking and panic, Ludwig’s gaze averted to where she was looking. He inadvertently opened his mouth after looking at the box.

“Isn’t that the box you were holding? Looks like its lid is broken, but don’t worry I’ll order the attendants to….”

Ludwig couldn’t finish the sentence and his face hardened. It was because he realized quite late what the contents that came out of the box were. There was a sudden silence in the Palace that was earlier full of heartfelt atmosphere. It was a very, very heavy silence.

Annette closed her eyes silently. At this point, she thought it would have been better if it was an illegal aphrodisiac. If that was the case, she could have at least made some excuse saying it was a perfume or a lotion. But at this moment, she didn’t know how to explain the choker and whip.

Amidst this silence, one of the attendants standing behind Ludwig, carefully approached them. With great professionalism, he picked up the box from the floor, gathered its contents and silently put it back in the box. Then, after placing it on the bench, he stepped back as if nothing had happened and returned to his original position.

Meanwhile, Annette closed her eyes and prayed that the world would somehow perish at that moment. Of course, the world did not perish, and the time for explanation came. Before she knew it, Ludwig stood up from his seat and looked at Annette with quivering eyes. He stutteringly asked, not even knowing what he was asking.

“Your… no way, Rafael does that sort of thing to you…. ?”

“No, no. Absolutely not!!”

A frightened Annette spoke with an unusually strong, shrill voice. Feeling a sense of crisis stronger than ever, she spit out whatever that came into her mind. It was the first time in Annette’s prudent life that her words were ahead of her thoughts.

“Well, that’s because we have a dog in our house! It’s really almost the size of a house, and I’m sure Your Highness probably hasn’t seen such a big sized dog. I wanted to educate myself about how to tame such a fierce dog, so I placed a special order… Because it’s a really big dog.”

Somehow, the more she spoke, the more uncomfortable she felt. It was obviously an excuse that she made up, but strangely enough, she felt as if she was indirectly cursing Rafael. Feeling guilty, Annette closed her eyes tightly. At the end of her long, lengthy excuse, Ludwig accepted it with a trembling look, as if he had been pushed by some momentum.

“Well, I see.”

“…Yes.”

Annette replied absentmindedly. She hoped the world would perish now, but unfortunately, Annette did not have the ability to make things happen as she wanted. In fact, she wondered whether she had any special abilities.

Another awkward silence passed between Annette and Ludwig. Ludwig, who was standing in an awkward position, soon offered her a seat.

“Let’s sit down for now… Let’s sit down and talk.”

He tripped over his words. Annette sat on the bench silently, just wanting to die. She just wanted to pick up the box and run away, but leaving without permission in front of the royalty was an insult and a punishable crime.

Fortunately, Ludwig seemed to want to change the subject too. He was desperately worried about something, and soon opened his mouth.

“I was composing a new lute song the other day, do you remember? I just finished that song a few days ago. Would you like to listen to it?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Now whatever it was, it was fine. If only she could escape from this awkward atmosphere, Annette nodded soullessly.

When Ludwig beckoned, one of the servants behind him ran and brought a lute. Ludwig, in his position, tried to calm his mind and began to play the lute. Even in this situation, Ludwig’s lute performance was remarkably excellent.

Annette closed her eyes and listened to the lute and tried to calm herself down.

From Ludwig’s delicate fingertips, a beautiful melody like a celestial song filled the air. Ludwig, who finished playing, opened his mouth with a more relaxed expression than before.

“This reminds me of old times. When I played the lute, you would sit by my side and listen like this. Do you remember?”

“Of course I remember it.”

Music certainly had the effect of softening the mood. Thanks to that, Annette also felt a little nostalgic. As she reminisced her memories, Annette’s beautiful face, with her eyelashes down, looked deep in thoughts. Ludwig looked at her with admiration and suddenly opened his mouth.

“Annette, I have a request for you. Will you please listen to my request?”

Annette, who looked up at Ludwig, did not readily accept his request. ‘Don’t tell me, he would again say something controversial like you are my one and only queen’. Annette was a little nervous about what would come out of his mouth, but fortunately Ludwig wasn’t greedy.

“If it’s okay, please sing along to my performance just like old times.”

Under Ludwig’s long silver eyelashes, blue eyes resembling that of Rafael’s gleamed brightly. Annette, who was worried about his unexpected request, agreed, since it wasn’t a difficult request.

Ludwig was very afraid of his father. And King Selgratis didn’t like the sight of Ludwig playing musical instruments. For this reason, Ludwig used to use Annette to play his favorite lute. They closed the doors and windows tightly under the pretext of chatting, so that Ludwig could play the lute, without his father knowing

The rumors that Annette threw herself at Ludwig to become the Crown Princess must have started because of this. Well, it would be obviously misunderstood if a grown man and woman were doing something alone in a closed room. They probably would think they had that kind of relationship.

Annette clicked her tongue with disapproval at her foolish past self. So she added one condition to Ludwig’s request.

“Of course. Since it is only one song anyway, let’s just play it here. But after that, I really have to go. It’s already very late.”

“I understand. Thank you for listening and agreeing to my request, Annette.”

Before he started playing, Ludwig looked at Annette with sorrowful eyes. When this performance would be over, she would go back home. To her husband and the house where Rafael is. And after that he and Annette would become strangers forever.

Ludwig bit his lips. He had firmly believed that he would be Annette’s husband, and he still wanted to be. Not Rafael, but him. He  should have  been Annette’s husband. But it seemed that Annette had already acknowledged and accepted Rafael as her husband. So Ludwig felt indescribably bitter.

‘Not only the father’s affection but also Annette… he took away everything.’

A dark shadow passed over Ludwig’s blue eyes. But now was the time to focus on Annette. Ludwig composed himself and soon began to play the lute. Just like the memory of those days, when he believed that he would put the crown of the Crown Princess on her blond hair himself.

Annette gently closed her eyes and hummed to the tune. It was a song that she had already sung several times in the past. At first, her humming, which was nothing but a melody, soon turned out into a song.

The tip of your sword is the color of the cold winter.

The roars of the boiling battlefields are the color of the lava.

Loyalty to the royal family is the color of the first leaves of evergreen trees.

When the world goes round and round and all these colors melt together,

I’ll stamp my feet once and leave freely.

Annette liked to sing. Of course, she didn’t have much skill because it was just a hobby, but the voice itself was soft and gentle. So it was worth listening to.

Whenever she went in and out of the royal palace, she often joined Ludwig like she did today. Although her singing ability was not as good as before, it was still fun to sing like this after a long time. So Annette didn’t realize that the lute had stopped playing at some point.

I will leave freely..

After finishing the last verse of the song, Annette opened her eyes and she was startled. This was because Ludwig, who was playing the lute a while ago, was lying on the bench with his eyes closed.

‘Wait, did you really faint? Was my singing so terrible?’

Frightened, Annette hurriedly got up from her seat and shook Ludwig’s body. She thought Ludwig, who often had seizures, collapsed again. Or he might have hit his head with his hand while playing the lute. That was possible because Ludwig was terribly clumsy.

“Your Highness, Your Highness! Get a hold of yourself. Are you sick?”

“Um, Annette?”

Fortunately, Ludwig quickly opened his eyes. She didn’t know if he fainted or fell asleep for a while, but at least it didn’t seem there was anything wrong with his body. Ludwig’s eyes blinked for a couple of times and he yawned drowsily.

“Well, I guess I was so tired that I fell asleep for a while. I’m sorry, Annette. Why am I suddenly so sleepy?… That’s really weird. I guess I’m not feeling well. I’m ashamed that I fell asleep after holding you back to talk to you. Go back home and please be careful on your way.”

Ludwig said goodbye to Annette, speaking gibberish with his eyes half closed. His delicate eyelids had several wrinkles, although he was in a deep slumber. Annette was bewildered by the unexpected situation, but she had hoped for it anyway, so she quickly said goodbye to Ludwig.

‘That’s weird.’

Annette tilted her head as she looked at the back of Ludwig disappearing in the distance. Ludwig was very sensitive, so he did not sleep much. But still, he fell asleep while playing the lute, which he loved so much. It was not something that Ludwig would do.

But there was something more surprising. Annette turned back without thinking and found the four attendants waiting a little further away. It was a burden for her to walk alone with Ludwig, so she had requested for the attendants to accompany them.

Apparently just a moment ago, they were standing upright, but now they all fell asleep while leaning on each other. Just like how Ludwig did.

‘What’s going on here?’

Annette stood still in place, with her mouth hanging open in surprise.