♡ TL: Khadija SK
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Annette looked at her clothes.
She was wearing a long dress that stopped at her knees, fluttering in the breeze.
Its length was short compared to long dresses, but since her knees weren’t visible, Annette had no idea what was wrong with wearing it.
Looking at the clothes she used to wear before entering this world, this dress was on par with the regular clothes she used to wear every day.
“All my original clothes were much shorter than this, so I don’t see any issue with wearing it.”
“Anything shorter than this is considered underwear. No, even this dress is considered underwear too.”
“But not in my world. It’s more proper than the dresses I used to wear on regular days. What’s wrong with it?”
“Are you saying people in your world walk around in their underwear?”
“I’m not saying that, but according to my standards, this dress isn’t underwear. It’s a regular dress we wear in our daily lives.”
Annette let out a small sigh, approached the mirror, then lifted the hem of her dress with two fingers, revealing her tights.
“The length of the dresses in my world was exactly like this. And there were large decorations of green and light yellow leaves… I mean, there were printed decorations on the dresses.”
Annette looked at herself in the mirror and explained something Theodore didn’t know.
It was as if she could see a warm scene of a summer day in her world reflected in her eyes.
A summer with a woman who wasn’t the same woman standing in front of him today, but the woman she used to be in her past life in her world.
It must have been a beautiful memory because a soft smile appeared on her lips.
Somehow, Theodore felt unhappy when he saw Annette’s relaxed expression. This was because it was the first time he had seen it on her face since they met.
This woman seemed ready to leave at any moment whenever she thought of her original world.
Her face was adorned with expressions that made her seem like a living person only when thinking of another world besides this one.
She was like someone who didn’t even want to breathe beside Theodore.
However, Annette continued recounting her memories as if she hadn’t noticed the displeased expressions on his face.
“Most of the dresses I owned were bright in color, so when I wore them by the sea in the summer, they looked fantastic in photos, which is why those became my favorite clothes.”
In Theodore’s world, photographs were black and white, but in her world, it seemed that photos could also contain bright colors.
If it were a dress with light green and yellow leaves, it would look exactly like the current Annette.
If we turned her into raw material with her shiny blonde hair and light green eyes, she would become a dress fluttering freely in the wind.
That’s only if we did this with the Annette standing in front of him now, not the woman from the other world whom he didn’t know or understand how she looked.
Theodore recalled the memories Annette had seen in the mirror with her.
He tried to imagine her as much as he could, but it was impossible to know whether his imagination was accurate.
The two worlds were too different to be discovered by imagination alone.
Theodore stopped guessing and returned to the feeling of reality.
He felt sorry for himself as he imagined a world where the dress Annette was wearing now wasn’t considered underwear but an elegant dress worn every day.
A world that had nothing to do with him anyway.
“What kind of world did you come from, for God’s sake…”
Theodore clicked his tongue as if Annette were pitiful, then picked up a green gown that was lying on the floor and handed it to her.
Theodore didn’t want to let her reminisce about the past while looking at her underwear.
“For now, this is your current world, so dress according to our rules. If you go out wearing this dress in the alleys of Laider, you’ll get a one-way ticket back to the Elysia Asylum, so keep our customs and traditions in mind.”
Annette shrugged indifferently, but she took the dress from Theodore without much resistance and put it on over her “underwear.”
She wasn’t completely naked, but seeing a woman change clothes in front of him made him sigh in annoyance and prepare to scold her again.
However, Annette didn’t allow him a moment to sigh and said something even more brazen.
“If the dress I was wearing was so outrageous that it deserves a scolding, then doesn’t that mean His Highness has entered a room where a woman is only in her underwear? How do you think you’ll appear in the eyes of others, Your Majesty?”
Her provocation was dirty.
It was somehow revenge on Theodore for getting on her nerves, hinting that she was now in a bad mood because of him.
“I must look like a loving husband who personally came to take his Grand Duchess wife for dinner together.”
“In that case, it would be better for us to look more intimate, in line with Your Highness’s efforts, wouldn’t it?”
Annette gracefully slid to Theodore’s side, fully dressed, and clung to his arm.
Her movements were so natural that he didn’t have time to stop her.
Then, with a smile on her face, she captivated him entirely.
Theodore felt strange when he looked at the woman smiling at him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m playing with my Grand Duke husband, pretending to be a loving couple. Remember? It would be wonderful if Your Majesty could show me some love in your eyes as well, but it seems that’s too much to ask.”
There was no joke in her natural words; she clung to his arm intimately but maintained a business-like demeanor.
“Please escort me to the dining room. Even if I’m just a pawn for you, outside, you need to look like you live for me.”
Annette was sure that Theodore had never accompanied any other woman but her anywhere in the entire Odentia Empire.
If the countless women who had tried to get close to Theodore but failed, without him caring for them, saw what was happening now, what would their reaction be?
Annette was very curious about that.
“Do I need to act in my own home too?”
“To make us look like a couple in love, we must deceive the servants more than anyone else. They love talking about their masters. The only place we can act naturally around each other is behind closed doors. Don’t tell me you can’t do that?”
Annette had a talent for talking about love with such dryness.
“We already made a promise.”
Annette’s expression changed in an instant.
Her face became cold and harsh, completely different from the one she had before she started acting.
“Don’t forget, I’m not here because I fancy you.”
Annette stared at Theodore with intense coldness while still holding onto his arm so intimately, then issued a warning from the lips that had spoken of love so casually.
“If you truly want to become Emperor, there’s only one thing you need to do.”
“I can’t wait to hear what that is.”
“Don’t fall in love with me. Just pretend to love me.”
“Love? What a ridiculous word to come from you all of a sudden.”
It wasn’t a word fit for this situation; it wasn’t even a word appropriate to be mentioned in front of Theodore in the first place.
This was because he was someone who didn’t fit at all with soft emotions like love.
“Pretend you love me so much that others will see me as your weakness.”
“Are you saying you want to become a vulnerability that my enemies could use to bring me down?”
“That’s right. You didn’t love anything in the book, Your Highness, so people didn’t even think about negotiating with you. They were only trying to get rid of you.”
It seemed that Annette was recalling something about Theodore. She didn’t say what it was, but it must have been something quite miserable.
Instead, the cold smile on her lips told him the terrible end he was about to face.
Perhaps Theodore would die in the future without Annette’s help.
“So…”
Annette tightened her grip on Theodore’s arm and leaned closer to him.
“Hug me, touch me, and whisper that you love me in front of everyone. Be convincing enough that I believe your love is real, to the point that others, including myself, will believe that you are someone who can fall in love and that I am someone important to you.”
Annette whispered softly, but Theodore could read the truth hidden in her sharp tone.
Pretend you love me and make me believe you love me enough to give me power.
Make me believe that the power you possess is mine.
In exchange for bringing me into this world, let me enjoy all of it.
Annette boldly demanded love, and her words were far from pathetic begging.
But that was possible for one reason…
Annette hated Theodore instead of loving him.
She demanded love, but whether he hated her or not didn’t matter, so she had no reason to feel embarrassed or ashamed.
But Theodore didn’t like this situation.
Love makes people weak.
His heart would be a perfect target for enemies to attack through. But since the love between Annette and Theodore wasn’t real, it wouldn’t pose a real danger.
However, if the enemy were fooled by it, it would become a great trap that Theodore could exploit.
If his enemies misunderstood the situation, thinking his love for Annette was a weakness and tried to use it, while in reality, there was a solid defensive wall protecting him, they would fall into Theodore’s hands, and he would control them as he pleased.
In simpler words, this meant that if Theodore pretended to be madly in love with Annette, he would set his heart as a trap and eliminate the enemies who would try to reach it.
In this era, a man’s love was a woman’s power.
Annette would gain power through his love, and with that authority, she would cut down the throats of those who stood in Theodore’s way.
If the price of pretending to be in love was the emperor’s crown, he was willing to give up his heart.
“I’ll give you everything you want, my dear goddess.”
“Not a foolish love, but a genuine love from the heart.”
“When a woman who was just naked a moment ago talks about love, I feel a strong sincerity in her words.”
“You… despicable man!”
Annette pulled away from him in disgust, but at the same time, Theodore grabbed her hand and pulled her into his embrace.
If the price of the love he would dedicate to her was the throne, there was no reason for him not to give it to her.
“I will do everything you want, my dear goddess.”
Annette tried to escape, but when the door opened, she straightened her expression and leaned on Theodore’s arm.
Theodore recalled the feeling of Annette gently wrapping herself around his arm.
The servants waiting outside saw that the two appeared affectionate toward each other.
Looking at them without thinking it was just an act, everyone was convinced of the genuine love that seemed to bind them, just as Annette had wanted.
It appeared that the cold and distant lord had finally found love.
***
Rumors quickly spread that Annette had come to Theodore’s palace after a long period of isolation.
This was only natural, as the situation had been quite turbulent in the past.
Everyone wanted to ask whether the marriage between the two was real or not, and about the truth of the murder that took place in Marquis Scheringen’s mansion, but there was no way to communicate with the people inside Floris Palace, which was tightly closed.
Annette had prepared well to face the eyes that would be cast upon her the moment she left the palace.
The real Annette did not possess a particularly good character, but thanks to her upbringing in a noble family, she was an aristocratic woman who knew how to maintain basic etiquette.
The current Annette couldn’t quite reach that level of elegance, but she had to imitate it.
So, Annette learned everything quickly.
It could have been perfect if she had more time, but the time available was limited, so the two decided to embark on the first phase of the actual battle and face the world together.
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