CH 4

A sharp energy flowed through the carriage.

“If someone comes to visit you and asks who I am, what answer should I give?”

“You say you love me to the point of tears, and you knew I would come looking for you, but do you pretend not to know?”

“Your Highness the Grand Duke threatened me to pretend to love him. I played my part to get out of the hospital. Must I continue acting?

“Others reacted as soon as they heard my name like they don’t know who I am.”

“Are there nobles who did not know Grand Duke Theodore?”

Annette’s expression did not change one bit. Theodore watched with interest the process of her refuting his words.

“You, what is your true identity?”

“I am Annette Scheringen.”

“No, not something as trivial as a name. I know for a fact that this face is the woman Annette.”

Theodore lifted his index finger and pointed once at Annette’s head and then once at her chest.

“I’m asking who you are in this.”

“I have no idea what Your Highness is talking about.”

Theodore moved to sit next to Annette. Then he grabbed her chin and made her look at him.

“Listen to me very carefully. From now on you will not act in front of me. It’s not me you have to fool, but the others.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Who you are. I mean what is your true identity inside Annette Scheringen.”

“What does that mean, inside……..”

Annette could not finish her question. Because Theodore turned her face from side to side as he observed her.

“You really seem like a different person. Have I gone crazy?”

Theodore remembered Annette, who had come to the hunting grounds in the rain.

“Would you believe me if I told you that this world is the world in a book?”

She told him the secret of the world and suddenly walked away.

Annette had not been seen since the day she visited Theodore. She stopped attending any parties or social gatherings and went into hiding.

Later, a murder took place at the Scheringen’s mansion.

“The next time we meet, it won’t be me.”

Indeed, the Annette he met again was different.

The fact that she dared to talk back to Theodore was the same, but her aura was distinctly different.

“Perhaps you are twins? But I have never  heard of the Marquis having a child out of wedlock.”

Theodore lifted Annette’s chin. Annette didn’t shake it off, but she didn’t hide her displeasure.

She was like a ferocious cat baring its claws, ready to strike.

“What about a dual personality? I heard that term used recently in a paper by some guys who study psychiatry or something.”

Thump. Finally, Annette shook off Theodore’s hand.

“I am Annette Scheringen. I am not a twin and I have only one personality. Let’s not play word games anymore, because questioning my father’s private life is very uncomfortable.”

“No, you are not Annette. You said so with your own mouth.”

“I said that with my mouth?”

“Rain, hunting ground, and guns.”

Annette tried to figure out what “rain,” “hunting ground,” and “guns” meant, but couldn’t think of anything. That was what the villain Annette had said outside the novel, so there was no way for her to know.

“The fact that you don’t know anything after hearing those words proves that you are not Annette.”

The fact that Theodore said the words in code, which naturally should have come to the woman’s mind, was collateral evidence that she was not the Annette who had visited him at the hunting cabin.

“You said you were an out-of-this-world being and you knew the future because you read the ending of the book.”

Annette clenched her fists to suppress her discomfort.

Theodore had already gone over everything that had happened to Annette at the hospital. And how did he know, he also knew who Annette was.

“That …… because the doctor treated me like a crazy person, so I acted accordingly. I don’t think Your Highness knows this, but it’s very boring to spend time locked in a room with no sunlight.”

Annette bit her lips and found an excuse. She thought she should  deny it, but she knew that a half-hearted excuse would not work.

She didn’t think that the words she threw out randomly, thinking she was going to die, would come back to her like this. She didn’t expect anyone to take seriously the words a crazy person spoke.

Of course they were true, but she didn’t want anyone to accept them as they were.

“You told me that you and I were the villains.”

“Villains?”

“That’s what you said before you became someone else. You said this world is a book and the main characters are Hugo and Yvone.”

Each time Theodore opened his mouth, Annette found it more and more difficult to hide her agitated mind. She bit the inside of her mouth to hide her astonishment.

That was what Annette said before she became someone else?

Then, it meant that Annette in the book knew in advance of her possession.

How on earth was that possible? She was too busy being surprised to even try to hide her true identity from Theodore, but she had no lips left to do so.

“I don’t know who told you that, but I didn’t think Your Highness would believe it.”

“That’s what Annette Scheringen said. If you ask me if I believe it…. … I honestly don’t trust her, but it would be interesting to be fooled for once.”

Theodore was a man who doubted even his own mind. He was not so pliable as to believe all at once in the words of Annette, whose reputation in social circles was terrible.

So when Annette came to visit him at the hunting cabin, he thought she was just a crazy woman wanting to walk in the rain.

However, the series of events that happened  after that couldn’t be dismissed as nonsense.

The Marquis of Scheringen was murdered and his daughter was named as the murderer. A trial was scheduled to take place, but the defendant, who was to be questioned, disappeared.

“She foretold that she was going to leave this world. She even wanted to play hide and seek, asking me to find her.”

Theodore had no interest in people, but Annette’s bullsh*t was so plausible that he became curious.

And even though he tried to ignore it, he had no choice but to get involved.

The gun that killed the Marquis, found at the scene of the murder scene, was the one that Annette had taken from Theodore at the hunting cabin. Annette had somehow set up a device to get Theodore involved in this case.

So he had no choice but to order Hans to do it.

“Find this person.”

It seemed like he was crazier to find such a woman than the crazy  woman herself, but he had no choice.

Pandora’s box had been opened. Theodore eventually found traces of Annette.

“There is a crazy woman in the Elysian Asylum who claims she knows how the world ends.”

He never thought the woman would be talking about direct evidence with her own mouth.

After hearing about her life in the asylum, his disappointment was widespread. A woman who could not even hide her true identity was not likely to have any special abilities.

Still, the reason he came all the way here to find her was because he could not forget the look in Annette’s eyes at the hunting grounds.

His relentless personality resolved a curiosity that bothered him.

“You were told to find me, but I didn’t expect you to go so far.” Annette opened her mouth in desperation.

“If I were from another world, what would change?”

“Usefulness and value.”

“I was falsely accused of being a murderer, and even before that, I have the worst reputation in social circles. Furthermore, if Your Highness is right, I  come from another world and am ignorant of what is going on here. Where do you intend to use me?”

“I will use you for my own good.”

Theodore’s eyes flashed with a different color. His eyes were like the eyes of a ravenous beast that had its prey in front of it.

His aim was certain.

“ Annette Scheringen.”

He looked at her as if he was assessing her, a look of a full-blooded predator on his face.

“Use what you know of the future to place me on the throne of the emperor.”

“What do I gain as a result?”

“Dare you make a deal with me?”

How dare I? It’s a job to make you emperor, so mustn’t I have something to gain as well?”

It stung his ears how clearly Annette pronounced the words. She was the first woman who dared to ask Theodore for anything.

“Isn’t the fact that I got you out of hell enough of a reason?”

“If you saved someone who was going to die, you have to take responsibility.”

“I will return you to your original world.”

“What did you just say…?”

“I know how to get you back to where you were.”

Annette stared at Theodore without blinking. For the first time, the woman who had maintained an indifferent attitude all along could not hide her bewilderment.

She didn’t think there was a way back.

Since she didn’t know why and how she was possessed, she guessed there was no way to go back to her original world.

However, how on earth would a villain who was destined to be doomed and unable to save his own life know how to send her back?

“I know how you can return, and you know how to make me emperor. I suppose that is enough reason to proceed with the deal.”

Annette remained silent. Therefore, only the rattling of the carriage could be heard loudly.

After a few moments, she took a determined breath. She held her hands tightly to hide her trembling fingers, then parted her dry lips.

“I’ll ask Your Highness one thing.”

“What is it?”

If this man really knew how to get her home, she could hypothesize one thing.

“Did Your Highness have anything to do with why I came to this world?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know. Your Highness said you know that my words are true or false, but I am the one who knows your future and your death.”

Theodore’s mouth dried every time he conversed with Annette. He wanted a willing mouth to answer him in this situation. He expected to see that mouth spewing lies and venom at the Crown Prince.

“Answer me. I asked if it was Your Highness who brought me into this world!”

After Annette’s furious pursuit, the answer finally came.

“Yes, it was me.”

“Bastard.”

Profanity spilled out of Annette’s mouth without hesitation. She was trying not to cry.