♡ TL: Khadija SK
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Theodore and Annette went to the villa’s library.
Theodore sat by the window while Annette took a chair in front of the desk.
He gazed at the view of the sprawling vine trees outside for a while.
During his last visit to this place, the grapes were a light green, but now they were ripe and a dark purple.
As the grapes grew, Annette also shed her previous sickly appearance and returned to her natural form.
Her skin, which had been rough and covered in sores, now glowed, and her previously thin cheeks were a bit rounder.
She now resembled dried grapes, but given her earlier condition, where she looked as if she might die soon, this was a notable improvement.
In fact, when Theodore arrived at the villa, he couldn’t immediately recognize that the woman in front of him was Annette.
Wearing a light blue dress, the atmosphere around her felt very different.
This was not her usual clothing, and it didn’t even fit her body, yet she appeared to be a completely different person once she had bathed properly and put on clean clothes.
If it weren’t for the black dog guarding her, Theodore might have continued on his way without realizing she was someone living in this villa.
As he approached her, the scent of grapes seemed to permeate her body, and he felt a somewhat refreshing aroma emanating from her.
Her exceptionally large pupils resembled the round shape of a grape filled with fruit; yet Theodore felt it would be easy to find this woman’s eyes even if lost in a garden of fresh green grapes.
He could see green everywhere—from the trees to the grass—but there was no color that could replicate the distinct hue of her eyes.
Was it because the girl occupying Annette’s body was strange?
After watching the woman talk to the injured dog that had been released to live in the yard, he impulsively named the dog something random.
The name “Silver” was somewhat amusing even to Theodore, but it was the only name that came to his mind at that moment.
He thought of this name when he saw the sunlight shining on the woman’s head.
In fact, the first name that came to his mind was “Golden.”
That was a name that crossed his mind because of her hair, not the dog.
He called it “Silver” because he felt he should avoid naming the dog anything that explicitly revealed what he was thinking.
Silver, who finally got a name, was originally a loyal hunting dog.
While hunting, he was bitten by another animal and lost one of his legs.
He could have been killed, but Theodore brought him back and raised him in the villa’s yard.
Although he couldn’t run, his hunting instinct remained intact, and he behaved fiercely towards anyone except Theodore.
He was a black and fierce dog, so women usually kept their distance out of fear.
Emma still felt panic every time she brought a meal for “Silver.”
But now this dog acted gently around Annette and even followed her on walks.
This was very strange.
“Can I start reading now?”
The strange woman looked at him, blinking her eyes.
Those eyes…
The large round eyes made him mistakenly think that her face was very different.
Annette’s toxic appearance, which he had encountered at parties, was not reflected on her face at all.
Only her enchanting eyes were visible to him.
Clear, captivating, and contrasting eyes.
“Go ahead.”
With Theodore’s permission, Annette began to read aloud from the book open in her hands.
It was a dull history book, chosen almost randomly from the shelf.
“The history of the royal family in the Odentian Empire spans 500 years. The Clayst family has never been a member of the royal family in Odentia’s history. This is very unusual given the frequent change of dynasties in neighboring countries…”
Annette read the history of the Clayst family.
She did not stumble or falter.
Theodore was internally astonished as her loud voice filled the library.
“Stop.”
He hadn’t known she could read so well.
The slight teasing he had given her had angered her, so he thought she was lying when she said she had only learned to read to cover her embarrassment.
Since she said she had taught herself, he thought it would just be a clumsy, stuttering reading at best, but she had truly learned to read and write very well on her own.
Her clear voice was filled with confidence.
Theodore took the book Annette was reading and set it aside.
Instead, he pushed a sheet of paper and a pen in front of her on the desk.
“Write what I will dictate to you.”
He believed she couldn’t learn to write on her own either.
As expected, Annette’s expressions stiffened.
Theodore wore a triumphant look for a moment.
But…
“I’m still a bit uncomfortable using these liquid ink pens because I’m not used to them.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to write; she complained that the writing tool was unsuitable.
Annette pursed her lips, picked up the pen, examined its tip, scratched it on the paper, and then placed her hand on the desk.
“I’m ready.”
Once she announced her readiness to begin, Theodore opened the book with half confidence and started reading a random paragraph.
“As long as the Odentian Empire exists, the city of Laider will forever remain the capital of this empire.”
The result was another victory for Annette.
She finished her dictation and looked at Theodore with a confident face.
Theodore, who reviewed the answer sheet, had no choice but to acknowledge it.
She was smart enough to learn to write on her own.
Could her slightly reddened face when teased about not knowing the letters have been merely an illusion spun by his imagination?
Well, it was even more surprising that she knew how to be shy.
Although her face was still in front of him, the incident that occurred while walking felt more like an illusion than reality.
Could Annette’s face really flush with embarrassment?
Theodore began to doubt the reality of Annette’s shy demeanor instead of her abilities, then looked around at the stacks of books in the corner of the library.
The villa’s library was a space filled with books of Hans’s taste, not Theodore’s.
Theodore was a dynamic man, his only hobby being hunting.
When he came to rest in the villa, he rode a horse and roamed around instead of reading books, and the library was a place Hans decorated to pass the time and fight boredom.
Therefore, Theodore had no idea about the books in the library.
He noticed a pile of dusty newspapers in the corner of a shelf.
He lifted one of the newspapers with a somewhat mischievous and malicious expression, then picked one up and handed it to Annette.
“Read this newspaper this time.”
Annette seemed to begin feeling a bit bored and tried to read the page she had grabbed.
“That night, the wife went to visit the baron and…”
But she couldn’t read a single line afterward.
Her confident face turned red in an instant, and Theodore was sure that her embarrassment was not an impossible reality.
“You really learned to read by yourself. It seems you read all the difficult words.”
“Stop that. Even if I didn’t read this, I’ve already proven my ability to read.”
What Theodore referred to as just an ordinary newspaper was actually a magazine filled with low-level and vulgar scandals.
The part he pointed out for Annette to read contained obscene content about the affairs of some nobles.
It wasn’t just facts; it was full of explicit expressions and p*rnographic descriptions.
Annette, who read the sentence describing the sexual relationship between a man and a woman, threw the newspaper onto the table and looked at Theodore with angry eyes.
“You read sentences you wouldn’t have understood if your level was beginner. I’m glad I won’t have to teach you to read first.”
“You’re just playing cheap tricks under the guise of exams. The Grand Duke is not a nobleman at all.”
Suddenly, her flushed face turned pale again, and at the same time, the effect of the silly joke vanished.
Those tricks that could make a noble lady faint from embarrassment meant nothing more to her than a moment of awkwardness.
“Did you do everything I told you?”
When Theodore asked her about the future, Annette shared some of what she knew.
The person who would be a danger to him, and the talent he needed to bring by his side now.
It was expected to be direct assistance and not just a vague truth about what would happen in the future.
“It was as you said.”
When Theodore’s expression did not change, Annette became certain that the people she referred to were real.
There must be a problem with the person taking care of the horse, and the person she said he needed to win over must be alive.
Above all, the biggest evidence was that Theodore came and confirmed for himself that Annette could read and write.
If Annette were wrong and did not prove her usefulness, there would be no point in knowing whether she was educated or not.
Confirming her abilities without killing her meant he would continue to use her.
Annette would read and write important documents alongside Theodore from now on.
In other words, everything she said was true and really helped Theodore.
“The person to be eliminated must be dead, but what about the person you need? Have he been appointed to Laider Palace?”
“We haven’t appointed him yet.”
“Not yet? If you leave things as they are, someone else will appoint him soon. It’s better for you to bring him in before he goes to the prince.”
The person Annette recommended had a low status, but he possessed remarkable abilities.
In particular, he was talented in identifying and managing cash flow.
Theodore had a skilled tactician named Hans, but the fair god had not granted Hans the ability to handle financial matters.
However, the goal Theodore aimed for was far-reaching, in a place inaccessible due to poor financial management.
So, first and foremost, Annette recommended someone who could manage and grow assets.
Of course, Annette’s insistence on bringing in Ernest had reasons beyond the fact that he was proficient with money and an expert at extracting wealth from the criminal underworld.
“The strangest thing about him is that he pursues women and tries to charm them whenever he sees a woman with pink hair. For taking care of my estate, I prefer to have someone with a useful title rather than a frivolous womanizer like him.”
“Ernest is not a frivolous womanizer; the problem is that he overflows with innocence.”
And the place that this innocence was heading was where Annette wanted to utilize it.
The woman Ernest passionately loved with all his heart was Yvonne, the heroine of this story.
“What kind of relationship do you have with this man?”
“It seems you’ve forgotten that I’m not from this world. He is someone I’ve never met before, but regarding the relationship we will have in the future, it will be one without positive or negative ties compared to his relationship with His Grace the Grand Duke.”
“Would he have been by my side in the future?”
“No, he would have become your greatest enemy.”
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Thank you for the chapter!