Chapter 23

Although she succeeded in inviting him for having tea, Annette couldn’t force Gerard to open his mouth. As the butler of the Bavarian family, Gerard was definitely not an easy opponent. He dodged Annette’s questions and explained only those things that were not very important. Meanwhile, Gerard’s teacup was almost now empty.

‘What should I do? ‘

Annette frowned, feeling embarrassed. Gerard did not fall for her conciliatory gestures or persuasion. He must have intended to reveal whatever gunpowder he brought only in front of Rafael.

She could not force Gerard, who had come under his father’s orders, to open his mouth. Annette, who now did not belong to the Bavarian family, had no authority to persecute Gerard for giving priority to his orders. She secretly grabbed the hem of her dress in anxiety.

However Gerard didn’t wait for her to come up with a good idea. Finally, after taking the last sip of the tea, Gerard looked at her with a relieved face. The butler’s face, with his blond hair neatly combed back, was as shrewd as she was.

Confident of his victory, Gerard opened his mouth and politely said goodbye. “Then I’m done with the tea, so I should leave now. Thank you for your kindness, Marchioness of Carnesis.”

Annette bit her lips as she watched Gerard get up from his seat. At that moment, an idea flashed through Annette’s mind. She opened her mouth with a calm expression.

“Gerard, I have a favor to ask you before you go.”

Gerard became suddenly alert. Annette, who couldn’t give up until the end, said this to check whether she could still try to get something out of him. She quickly continued talking before he could refuse.

“It’s nothing big, it’s just a personal request. I’m learning vocal music as a hobby these days. But I’m not sure if I’m talented. I can’t let others hear it because I’m very shy. But since you’ve been taking care of me for a long time, I think it would be fine if it was you who heard it. Oh, can you listen to my song? It won’t take long.”

Annette shamelessly used Prince Ludwig’s request on Gerard. At the unexpected request, Gerard hesitated and couldn’t refuse immediately. Although he was following the orders of his master, the Duke of Bavaria, he liked Annette personally. Gerard, who was worried for a moment, nodded in the end.

“….. I think it will be okay for a while.”

Annette smiled gladly at his consent. The smile that made her eyes close, was so similar to that of her maiden days, that Gerard looked at her with an indulging look without realizing it. Noticing this, Annette closed her eyes and immediately started singing.

The petals of the flower that fall in fleeting sheets of time.

If the tragedy of this fall could capture your beautiful eyes for a moment,

All right, I’ll be glad to fall in front of you, for countless times. 

Annette sang an opera that she had recently heard at the court. The song wasn’t really important anyway. Annette, who was singing as far as she could remember, quietly opened her eyes and looked at Gerard. Sure enough, in less than 30 seconds, Gerard fell asleep on the sofa. After seeing this, Annette blinked and admired her ability.

‘I guess this is really my ability.’

However, it was not the time to leisurely admire her abilility. Annette didn’t know how long her ability could keep a person asleep. So, before Gerard woke up, she had to quickly search his body. She might be able to find some clue if she was lucky.

“I’m sorry, Gerard.”

With a small whisper, Annette reached out and began to search his body. There was nothing in the pocket of the jacket that Gerard was wearing, but fortunately she found something in the pocket inside the vest. It was some letter.

Annette carefully opened the letter. Although the sender’s name was not specified, Annette could quickly recognize her father’s exquisite and elegant handwriting. There was a short sentence written in it.

~Gifts are for the recipient, not for the giver.

‘What does this mean?’ Annette pondered over the contents of the single-line letter and fell in deep thought. Allamand, who valued bloodline, was more aristocratic than anyone else. Therefore, he thought it was vulgar to express what he wanted directly. Fortunately, Annette had been his daughter for a long time, so she knew the thought process of her father very well.

‘I’m sure you didn’t like the wedding gift that Rafael sent you.’

So he would definitely send the gifts back to clearly express this. Considering the contents of the letter, it seemed that her father wanted a separate “gift” from Rafael.

Annette then realized why her father kept sending Gerard to contact Rafael. At first, she thought since Rafael was an illegitimate child, he was trying to humiliate him because he hated to accept him as his son-in-law. However, if that was her father’s real purpose, returning the presents last time served the purpose very well. So it could only mean that her father wanted something from Rafael.

‘But what the hell is that?’

Annette frowned. The Duke of Bavaria was Deltium’s most prestigious and wealthiest man. The Bavarian family was a family that didn’t lack power, wealth, or honor.

Rafael, on the other hand, was an emerging aristocrat who had just started his family. Although he had several properties and territories that were awarded to him for his brilliant achievements, they were still not at the level that her father would want to covet. Annette pondered over what her father could possibly want and searched her memories of her previous life.

“Um…”

‘Oh, look at my mind.

At this time, Gerard, who was asleep, frowned his delicate eyebrows and showed signs of getting up. It had only been five minutes since he fell asleep, but Annette’s power seemed to be unable to keep people asleep for a long time.

Before Gerard fully awoke, Annette hurried to put the letter back into his vest pocket . Annette calmed herself down and lightly shook Gerard’s shoulder to wake him up.

“Gerard, Gerard? Wake up. Didn’t you say you had to go urgently?”

When Gerard heard Annette’s voice, he opened his eyes with a disheveled look. The soft eyelids were folded in several layers, and his dark green eyes drooped under the golden eyelashes. Gerard, who blinked a couple of times, looked at Annette and smiled drowsily.

“Miss Annette.”

Gerard, with his eyes slightly lowered, carefully grasped Annette’s hand, which was shaking his shoulders and left a feathery kiss on the back of her hand. It was as if he didn’t know what to do because his girl was so precious.

Annette smiled bitterly when she saw Gerard addressing her as a maiden again. He still seemed to be half asleep. Annette, pretending to be unaware of his mistakes, removed her hands from Gerard and clapped loudly to bring him to his senses.

“Oh my God, Gerard. Was my song so boring? You fell asleep before even listening to the end. I’m a little hurt.”

Annette grumbled, pouting her lips. Only then did Gerard’s eyes become clear and he remembered the situation before he went to sleep. He was very embarrassed and it was quite evident from the look on his face. Gerard himself couldn’t believe that he was so negligent that he fell asleep in this situation.

“Sorry, Miss…. No, Marchioness of Carnesis. That was very rude of me.”

Gerard quickly offered an apology. In response, Annette replied in a lonely voice, making a sad expression.

“No. How can I blame others when it is me who doesn’t have any talent? Thank you for accepting my request even though you were busy. Go back now, you’ll be late.”

“Okay. I’ll get going now.”

He couldn’t make any excuse because he was feeling very drowsy. Gerard felt like he was possessed by a ghost.

‘I’m not that tired, but why did I fall asleep?’

Gerard, who had no idea what to do,hesitated. He eventually lowered his head and left the Mansion of Carnesis.

* * *

That night, Annette eagerly waited for Rafael to return. She went through each and every memory of her previous life, but the relationship between her father and Rafael was very bad. So she didn’t even remember Rafael giving anything to her family.

All she could do now was to ask Rafael directly. He probably knew what her father wanted. Annette held her hands together anxiously and waited for Rafael to return. She was sorry and upset that her own family kept trying to take something from him.

‘Did you marry me off  to Rafael…  because you wanted something? Was it because of this?’

Annette decided to look into this possibility as well. At first, she thought it was a marriage that was settled because of the false charges against her. So she believed that her father had no choice but to give his consent to this marriage.

Anyway Annette, who couldn’t become the Crown Princess, was of no value to him. If he refused the king’s proposal, bad rumors about Annette would have spread and created a great negative impact on the reputation of both Annette and the Duke of Bavaria. It was so bad that her family couldn’t even help her.

‘What if my father had his own plans with this marriage? What if he intended to take something from Rafael by using me, who was already useless to him, as a bargaining chip?’ 

Annette closed her eyes, recalling the cold face of her father who attended her wedding. Her head was spinning with all these new conjectures.

‘How long have I been waiting?’ 

A little after midnight, at last she heard the sound of Rafael coming in. Annette quickly went down the stairs and welcomed him.

“Rafael, are you here? How was your meeting at the palace?”

Instead of answering her, Rafael looked at her with hazy eyes. She smelled a very strong smell of alcohol from his breath. Annette, who made eye contact with him, was nervous without realizing it.