TRTVCM chapter 35

‌⁠♡⁩ TL: Khadija SK

✧✧✧✧✧

 

It was clear that she had been lying in bed, but when Annette opened her eyes, she found herself walking in the middle of the street.

 

‘Where am I?’

 

Annette moved her mouth, but no sound came out.

 

She couldn’t even hear the sound of her own breath or the wind moving around her.

 

Confused, she clutched her neck and looked around, then she saw the restaurant she had visited with Theodore during the day.

 

From the dense buildings to the fountains in the square, everything resembled the lively scene she had seen at midday when she went out shopping.

 

But the only difference was that there was no one there, and silence enveloped the place.

 

Annette was wandering through the center of Laider in her nightwear.

 

‘This is a dream.’

 

Such silence was impossible unless she was inside a dream.

 

Annette didn’t know how to wake up, so she had no choice but to keep walking toward the unknown.

 

‘Is someone following me?’

 

Annette quickly turned around.

 

She felt as though an unknown presence was trailing her.

 

It was something terrifying and dark, something that didn’t seem alive like a human.

 

Annette bit her lip.

 

This must be a terrible nightmare.

 

At that moment, the image of the pickpocket who had stabbed Theodore during the day surfaced clearly in her mind.

 

Even though she knew it was just a nightmare, her hands and feet grew cold with fear.

 

Annette quickened her pace and rushed to find someone in this empty place.

 

‘Please, let someone appear. I don’t want to be alone in this terrifying place.’

 

The words she couldn’t even voice twisted around her pounding heart like a snake, squeezing it suffocatingly.

 

Annette ran barefoot on the stone pavement.

 

Her feet weren’t injured because it was a dream, and she wasn’t even out of breath, but the mental agony of not knowing how long she had to run tormented her.

 

She ran non-stop and managed to enter a side alley before whatever was chasing her could catch her.

 

And at the end of the alley, she saw a figure standing tall.

 

‘Who’s there?’

 

Annette opened her mouth to ask for help, but again, no sound came out.

 

The person standing at the alley’s entrance didn’t turn around, as if they hadn’t noticed Annette’s presence yet, so she had no choice but to approach them.

 

She walked toward the person cautiously.

 

The moment she got close enough and reached out to touch them, the shadow-like presence that had been chasing her vanished, and at the same time, the person before her turned around.

 

They were someone familiar, so Annette extended her hand to grab them.

 

“Theodore…”

 

Her voice came out for the first time, but the moment she called his name, she suddenly felt her surroundings begin to disappear, and the scene before her changed.

 

Annette knew everything about the hard bed, the tiny hole in the cracked wall, and the suffocating stench of mold surrounding her.

 

This was her room in Elysia Asylum.

 

She couldn’t even scream at the familiar, horrifying, and terrifying sight.

 

Her body stiffened like stone.

 

Pain struck her before fear did.

 

This was a dream, and there was no doctor chasing her or looking at her with disgust, but the fear imprinted in her brain created phantom pain in her body.

 

Annette unconsciously covered her mouth.

 

She felt as though the doctor would come at any moment and force poison down her throat.

 

Suddenly, she felt nauseous, as if bile was surging up her esophagus.

 

For Annette, her room in Elysia Asylum was a painful place to even imagine.

 

“Are you in pain?”

 

Annette heard a strange woman’s voice behind her.

 

The woman was wearing a long cloak that extended to the ground, covering her face.

 

A terrifying aura flowed from her, similar to the presence that had been chasing Annette moments ago.

 

Annette was so scared that she hadn’t noticed the woman approaching before she spoke.

 

“Who are you?”

 

Annette barely managed to remove her hand from her mouth as she asked.

 

“After resisting for so long, here you are, finally living as if this body is truly yours.”

 

“Do you know who I am?”

 

“What do you think?”

 

“You… You know that I’m not the real Annette Sherringen, don’t you?”

 

“The real one asked me to watch over you.”

 

The real one asked her to watch over me?

 

Could it be that the real Annette Sherringen, the villainess, was nearby?

 

Annette froze in shock.

 

She couldn’t even ask what the woman meant.

 

“You’re doing an excellent job.”

 

“Does this look like a good job to you?”

 

Annette was furious.

 

She didn’t know whether this was a dream or a vision, but coming to Elysia Asylum meant that this woman knew exactly how much hardship Annette had endured in this world.

 

So how dare she simply say she was doing a good job?

 

“Are you the one who summoned me here?”

 

“I only told the real Annette Sherringen the secrets of this world and the way she could fulfill her wish. It was the real Annette Sherringen who summoned you here.”

 

“A wish? What was Annette’s wish?”

 

“I cannot tell you the desires of others.”

 

“I don’t care. I don’t want to know anything about Annette’s desires. All I want to know is how to return to my world!”

 

“If the wish of this body’s true owner is fulfilled, you will return to your world whether you want to or not, even if you don’t desire it. So, accomplish the goal of this body’s original owner. Do not let morals stop you from advancing toward your objective, and do not allow vague sympathy to distract you. Only when you create a fracture in the structure of this world will a hole appear through which you can escape.”

 

“I don’t want to solve riddles!”

 

“That is all I can tell you. Do not forget the anger and the purpose inside you. I came today to give you this warning. Could it be that you have developed emotions for the people here and grown attached to this place?”

 

“This isn’t even a joke.”

 

“Then why do you rely on him? Do you truly think that man could be your husband and support you? He is the one who brought you here, after all.”

 

Annette’s eyes widened.

 

As the woman said, it was Theodore who had brought Annette into this world.

 

But she had forgotten that and had immersed herself in the role she was playing as his wife. As if merely helping him wasn’t enough, she had even begun to feel pity and sympathy for him.

 

Annette must never forget the anger, contempt, and hatred she felt toward Theodore.

 

Only then would she be able to return to her world.

 

She had to kill any feelings of sympathy, mercy, or curiosity toward this false world.

 

After all, this was the life of the villainess Annette Sherringen, not hers—she was merely an intruder here.

 

“I… what must I do to escape Annette Sherringen’s body and return to my world?”

 

“This world is a story inside a book, and if you wish to erase the words already written, there is only one way. You must break the most important pillar of this story.”

 

“Break the most important pillar of this story…?”

 

Annette repeated the words in shock.

 

“You must shatter the greatest law that holds this world together and create a rift in the flow of events.”

 

“I don’t understand. I have no idea what you mean. What the hell are you talking about…?”

 

Annette tried to question her, but the woman suddenly disappeared as abruptly as she had appeared.

 

Annette collapsed onto the ground in frustration.

 

The sheer terror of being back in Elysia Asylum had overwhelmed her again.

 

“I want to get out of here… Please, someone get me out of here.”

 

She sat on the floor, muttering helplessly, when the door to the hospital room creaked open ominously.

 

“I’m here to take you with me.”

 

It was Theodore again.

 

He extended his hand to Annette, just as he had on the day he first came to Elysia Asylum.

 

Annette took his hand weakly.

 

Her grim face didn’t even form a smile, but Theodore’s hand was the only thing that could pull her out of that hell.

 

Even though she knew he was the cause of her misery, she couldn’t help but pity her current situation, where she had no choice but to cling to the very hands that had brought her ruin.

 

Once again, it was Theodore who would take her out of the damned Elysia Asylum.

 

The moment his fingertips touched Annette’s hand, she finally woke up from her nightmare.

 

“Your Grace!! Grand Duchess!”

 

Someone was shaking Annette violently to wake her up.

 

When she opened her eyes, she saw Lisa’s worried face in front of her.

 

She must have come after hearing Annette’s screams during her nightmare.

 

“My God!! Look at this cold sweat covering your body. I was sure you were fine at dinner, but since when did your condition worsen like this?”

 

Lisa, worried, tried to carefully wipe Annette’s sweat, but Annette instinctively slapped her hand away.

 

The warmth of Lisa’s hand against her frozen fingers barely grounded Annette in reality.

 

“Am I not dreaming now?”

 

“You must have had a terrible nightmare.”

 

Annette didn’t even register Lisa’s worried voice.

 

She wanted to go back to sleep and forget everything that had happened, but she wasn’t sure she would ever wake up again.

 

“Where are those sleeping pills I used to take at the villa?”

 

“You should avoid sleeping pills as much as possible. Even the smallest medicine can turn into a deadly poison for Your Grace’s body.”

 

“Still, bring them— No, never mind.”

 

Annette had thought about taking a large dose of sleeping pills, but in the end, she gave up.

 

She feared that if she took them, fell into a deep sleep, and had another nightmare, she might never wake up again.

 

She didn’t want to be trapped in the cycle of that nightmare ever again.

 

“First, I’ll bring you some calming tea.”

 

As Lisa left to prepare the tea, Annette got out of bed and walked to the window.

 

She needed some fresh air.

 

She needed to prove that everything in this world was flowing naturally, unlike the stagnant world of that nightmare.

 

As soon as she opened the window, the cold night wind rushed in, brushing against her sweaty face.

 

It was the beginning of summer, so heat spread throughout the empire, but those winds were bitterly cold on dark nights.

 

Anette lowered her head as she felt the refreshing breeze caress every part of her body beneath her thin nightgown.

 

Who was that woman she saw in the dream?

 

A goddess or a being with supernatural abilities?

 

Or was she the real Anette Scheringen?

 

No matter who she was, she was not on Anette’s side at all.

 

There was no one by her side in this world to begin with.

 

Anette closed her eyes and recalled the contents of the dream.

 

“You must break the greatest law that holds this world together and create a rift in the course of events.”

 

The greatest and most important law in romantic novels…

 

It was love.

 

The woman in the dream had said that Anette could not return to her original world unless she shattered the love between Yvonne and Hugo.

 

It seemed that Anette was finally beginning to understand why she had been reincarnated into the body of the novel’s villainess.

 

In order to survive, she had to become a true villain.

 

And now, she had to become the villain who would succeed in destroying the protagonist, Yvonne.

 

***

 

Lisa came to Theodore’s room early in the morning.

 

She had come to clean the wound on his side.

 

As Lisa checked his injuries and was about to leave, Theodore suddenly felt an emptiness and asked her:

 

“Where is Anette?”

 

“Ah… H-Her Grace, the Grand Duchess, i- is now…”

 

When Theodore asked about Anette’s whereabouts, Lisa was so startled that she dropped the antiseptic on the floor.

 

She still had not gotten used to Theodore’s calm eyes, no matter how he looked at her.

 

“Did I ask you something that warrants such confusion?”

 

“No. H-Her Highness did not tell me w-where she was going, so I… I don’t know.”

 

Lisa answered with great difficulty.

 

Lisa was the one who wanted Anette to be with them the most at this moment.

 

“You don’t even know when she left?”

 

Lisa swallowed nervously when she heard Theodore’s voice turn slightly cold and answered.

 

✧✧✧✧✧

 

T/N: 10 chapters in 2 days? Even *I* am amazed with myself LOL… See you all in a few decades with the rest of the chapters! ^^