♡ TL: Khadija SK
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At the moment her toes slowly rose from the ground, Anette stood upright, and her warm lips pressed against Theodore’s forehead.
Was there ever a time when her beautiful face was so close to him and so prominent as it was in that moment?
Despite Anette’s mischievous smile, Theodore couldn’t smile back at her.
He didn’t even know how to react to Anette’s strange actions.
He also didn’t understand why he couldn’t respond to this small gesture of hers.
If Anette hadn’t spoken first, Theodore might not have regained his composure anytime soon.
“I will do my best to defeat you thoroughly.”
“Are you going to cheat?”
“No, I’ve been training a lot. So I will give my best to bring down my prey.”
“Then I don’t have to worry about myself.”
Theodore didn’t think that Anette Sheringen would fail in her task, but he was equally convinced that she wouldn’t defeat him.
***
The carriage carrying the Grand Duke and his wife headed toward the hunting festival grounds.
Only the monotonous sight of trees kept appearing outside the window.
Anette was leaning against the window while looking out of the carriage with boredom the entire time she was inside.
Theodore, on the other hand, was reviewing the papers regarding the matters Anette had mentioned about this world.
How long did this last?
After entering a narrow path, a long branch struck the window.
Anette startled and raised her head, perhaps slightly scared by the sound of the impact as sleep stole her eyelids for a moment.
Then their eyes met for the first time after entering the carriage.
Theodore placed the papers on the seat.
“Is there anything interesting outside?”
“A forest full of trees I’ve never seen before, a road I’ve never walked on before, or perhaps a rattling carriage that I can’t get used to no matter how many times I ride in it? The last one might seem a bit boring, but what’s more boring is motion sickness.”
Anette’s weak body suffered from motion sickness easily.
“I can’t even sleep comfortably because this carriage is uncomfortable.”
Sometimes, when the carriage moved quickly, Anette would hit her head against the walls.
No matter how soft the cushions she leaned on, the sensation of the carriage’s hardness never went away.
At the same time, when she hit her head against the ceiling three or four times, Anette started looking at Theodore with eyes like those of angry, evil spirits.
“Don’t worry, when we return, we’ll ride a horse.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I want.”
Anette looked at her husband with disdain.
Theodore knew the hidden desire in that look, but he pretended not to know anything and reopened the papers, starting to read them again.
Anette hated Theodore ignoring her, so she stood up, sat beside him, then snatched the papers from his hand and threw them on the floor.
“Why do you act so disrespectfully with your husband?”
“I don’t want to respect a husband who ignores his wife’s wishes. Can’t we just buy a car?”
“No.”
“Why?!”
In the end, Anette shouted at Theodore.
This was the first time Anette had looked into Theodore’s eyes since they got into the carriage, but despite her stubbornly continuing to glare into his eyes, Theodore never answered her question.
“It’s more convenient than this worn-out carriage, but I don’t understand why you don’t want to buy it. It’s not that you don’t have the money to buy it. Look at it this way, if you had a car, you wouldn’t have to care for the horses and spend huge amounts of money on their upkeep, and it’s also easier and more comfortable to travel. If you don’t want to pay the money, I can spend the amount from the Sheringen family’s treasury, what do you think?”
A few days ago, Anette discovered that cars existed in this world.
She thought the only means of transportation here were carriages and horses, but she happened to see a car pass by on the main street.
Of course, the cars here were steam-powered and a bit outdated compared to the modern cars in her world, but they had a similar structure to her world’s cars, unlike the annoying horse-drawn carriages.
Excited after seeing that, Anette suggested buying a car, citing the great wealth of the Sheringen family, but Theodore refused.
“Cars are not aristocratic at all.”
“That’s not a valid reason.”
Theodore sighed when he saw Anette’s frowning complaints.
“You don’t want to own a car, you want to drive it yourself.”
“Why not? I can’t ride comfortably in the carriage, so a car I can drive myself is much better than this mess.”
“What kind of lady drives a car or anything herself?”
Anette raised her hand like an eager student in the classroom.
Her facial expression was so serious that her eyes were firm and confident.
Theodore couldn’t even laugh at the sight of her, so he rubbed his forehead in exhaustion.
“The road will get rougher soon, so sit quietly before you break your head like a walnut.”
Theodore pulled Anette close to him and finally seated her on his lap.
It happened so quickly that Anette needed several moments to realize what had just occurred while she was already in his arms like a little child.
“What are you doing?”
It didn’t stop there; Theodore grabbed her hair, which was between their faces, and moved it from over his chest to the other side of her neck, carefully arranging it over Anette’s shoulder.
In a moment, Anette was caught and found her face buried directly on Theodore’s chest, with his chest muscles before her eyes.
“This way, you won’t hit your body or your head with the carriage. So close your eyes and sit still for the rest of the way.”
“But…”
“If you say another word, we will return in this very carriage to the Floris estate.”
Anette stopped speaking and quickly shut her mouth.
Unfortunately, his chest and arms were incredibly comfortable.
Besides, if she raised her head, her shy face would be exposed to Theodore.
So Anette looked down to hide her face, but she suddenly saw his waist…
“Wait a moment, but you are still injured…”
“Should I take that as an expression of your wish to return to the estate in this carriage?”
“Don’t mix things up. You’re injured. Lisa said you need to move very carefully, but here I am sitting on your lap with my full weight.”
The stab wounds on his body were still fresh.
Anette had no intention of sitting comfortably on a sick person’s lap.
However, Theodore held onto Anette tightly, who was struggling to get off his lap, and embraced her firmly.
Anette had no choice but to sit as carefully and quietly as possible.
This stubborn man wasn’t willing to let her return to her seat, so she had to be as cautious as possible so as not to aggravate his wounds.
“I will sit quietly now.”
Theodore lifted the corner of his mouth as Anette became compliant.
After barely restoring peace between them, the carriage suddenly came to a stop.
As Theodore had said, the carriage wheel jolted violently due to a rock, and Anette’s body leaped into the air.
However, thanks to the strength of the grip on her body for a moment, Anette didn’t hit the ceiling as she usually did.
It wasn’t like when she fluttered around the carriage like a paper doll when she was sitting alone.
Anette looked out the window carefully.
This wasn’t a place where a carriage would stop.
“We’re not in danger, are we?”
Anette hugged Theodore’s neck tightly and looked at his waist.
Could the real killer have arrived this time?
The abandoned forest road seemed like an ideal place to commit murder.
Theodore looked at Anette and said:
“I promised you before. I’ll show you all the cards I have up my sleeve. So now, I’ll introduce you to the most important chess piece I’m hiding and plan to use in the future.”
“In a place like this?”
Theodore stepped out of the carriage first and helped Anette down.
There was another carriage outside.
The pattern drawn on the carriage was familiar.
“This….”
The door of the other carriage opened, and a man stepped out.
He was a nobleman with gray hair in his middle years, but he was still in good physical shape.
Anette used the knowledge she had gathered from the aristocratic calendar books she read to figure out who he was.
Anette, who had finally remembered the family crest, looked at Theodore with wide eyes in astonishment.
It seemed to her that the slightly raised corners of his lips screamed that her guess was correct.
Anette greeted the man who approached them, confident in her own conclusions.
“Hello, Lord Wilhelm Stadler. I didn’t expect to meet you in a place like this.”
It was Wilhelm Stadler, the man who was supposed to be Theodore’s father-in-law.
He was the father of Paula Stadler, who passed away on her wedding day.
“Just call me Wilhelm. There’s no need for the person I’ll be serving in the future to use titles with me.”
“Serving me?”
Anette looked at Theodore, demanding an explanation.
“I don’t think you’ve told her anything about me.”
“If I had told her anything about you without her meeting you face-to-face, she wouldn’t have believed me.”
“Doubt is a good trait for taking precautions and avoiding being deceived. She seems like a wise woman.”
Theodore smiled broadly when he heard Wilhelm’s praise of the Grand Duchess, but Wilhelm’s face remained expressionless.
“I have decided to stand by His Grace and become the one who supports him in secret. Now that you are the Grand Duchess who will accompany him on this journey, I will also serve you.”
“I… don’t quite understand what’s going on. This…”
“Don’t hesitate to ask me anything. I’m sure you’re wondering if I blame His Grace Duke Theodore for the death of my daughter, aren’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Wilhelm knew what Anette feared asking him and answered her question first.
“Yes, everyone thinks we’re enemies. That’s why we have to meet in secret in places like these to communicate without drawing attention to ourselves. If an accident happens where our carriages collide, we have no choice but to get off and have a conversation on the road, and that way we can offer an excuse if anyone sees us.”
After the dreadful wedding, the Stadler family closed its doors and didn’t communicate with anyone afterward.
Of course, Wilhelm and Theodore didn’t meet either.
And it was well known to people that the two were enemies.
But that was an official stance, anyway.
The reality was very different.
“You’re preparing for revenge with… my husband?”
Anette made her voice as confident as possible, but she couldn’t hide the shock in her tone.
Wilhelm had chosen the path of betrayal to avenge his daughter’s death.
“The criminal who killed lady Paula is a member of the imperial family.”
“And this person from the imperial family is a scoundrel called the Emperor who treats me like a dog, exactly.”
There was disgust in Wilhelm’s voice.
It was filled with the resentment of a father who had lost his daughter.
The current emperor, Philibert, killed Paula Stadler.
It was because she was about to marry his half-brother, Theodore.
Wilhelm’s beloved daughter’s death was the price he paid for his lifelong loyalty to the imperial family and his acceptance to marry his daughter upon the request of the late Emperor Dominic.
Everyone had watched at the wedding as his daughter, like a flower, died from the poison hidden in the bouquet of flowers.
The true death of his daughter was a warning to prevent anyone from standing by Theodore.
Emperor Philibert, Theodore’s half-brother, considered Wilhelm nothing more than a dog who wouldn’t do anything even in the face of his beloved daughter’s death.
So Wilhelm decided to stand by Theodore to show the emperor that dogs can also bite their masters.
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