Chapter 003
Theodore was inwardly impressed by Annette’s performance.
He had told this woman to pretend to love him, and she grasped the situation perfectly in mere moments.
Her acting, too, exceeded his expectations.
The woman he had thought was merely a living corpse with an empty head had instinctively found a way to survive and clung to it fiercely.
As Theodore silently applauded Annette’s flawless performance, the people around them were shocked to see the two embracing.
“Did the word ‘wife’ just come out of His Highness’s mouth?”
“Has anyone read an article about the Grand Duke’s marriage again?”
“Instead, is he married to that crazy woman Annette? It was said she killed Marquis Cheringen and fled. I can’t believe what my eyes are seeing right now!”
The Grand Duke had come to Elysia Asylum to search for his dearly beloved Grand Duchess.
Everyone doubted that short sentence multiple times.
To begin with, the term “Grand Duchess” itself was questionable.
Theodore was the Grand Duke, but he had never had a wife.
There had been news of his marriage a few years ago, but the bride died on the wedding day shortly after the ceremony began.
At the time, the newspapers were filled with heated debates about whether the marriage should be considered legally valid or not.
As a result of the exhausting arguments, public opinion settled on the marriage being void since the bride died before the couple could share the vow’s kiss.
So, if the Grand Duke had truly found the woman who would be his wife, the place she should have gone to was a graveyard, not a mental asylum.
Moreover, people wondered about the place of the word “beloved” in this context.
Theodore had never known the meaning of love.
He had grown up receiving boundless favor from the previous Emperor, but due to his cruel and arrogant nature, he never learned how to give the love he received to others.
To him, love and affection were as meaningless as a sigh in the air.
Yet, this same Theodore was searching for his beloved wife and had gone so far as to come to a remote village like Elysia to find her.
The most intriguing point here was that the person he claimed as the Grand Duchess was Annette.
Everyone, except the prince, knew that Annette was madly in love with the prince.
The onlookers couldn’t decide which part was more astonishing, so they kept staring at Theodore standing before them with wide, shocked eyes.
No matter how much they thought about it, Theodore wasn’t someone with a heart capable of holding love, even if that love—as he spoke of it—meant tearing the other person’s heart to pieces.
Such a person was now…
“I’m sorry for being so late.”
Theodore embraced Annette tenderly, trying to soothe her.
The nurses covered their mouths in shock as the hand that had broken the doctor’s nose gently caressed Annette’s cheek.
They felt as though they had seen something they shouldn’t have.
The scene before them was more scandalous than the daily tabloid stories about Theodore’s exploits.
Annette, aware of the onlookers’ gazes, buried her face deeply in Theodore’s hand.
‘I don’t know what’s happening right now, but I have to become this man’s loving wife and go along with his act. So let’s think about the next scene in this play.’
Annette pretended to be a lover consumed by the flames of passion.
She had thought she’d given up her will to live, but when this opportunity arose, she wanted to seize it.
In fact, she wanted to live too.
So much so that she decided to take Theodore’s hand, despite knowing better than anyone how devilish and wicked his character was.
“How did you find me here?”
“The people who locked you up here forged your identity. They admitted you to the hospital under a name other than Annette Cheringen.”
“As expected, someone deliberately imprisoned me.”
“I’m sorry for leaving you alone in a place like this.”
“It’s alright. After all, what matters is that you found me in the end.”
His strong body embraced her frail frame, and Annette looked sad and emotional, like the heroine of a tragic novel.
The two appeared as passionate lovers reunited after a desperate, tragic story.
But the reality was entirely different…
They were busy sizing each other up.
Who is this man?
Who is this woman?
Why are you pretending to be my husband?
Why are you obediently playing along with my act?
Why did you suddenly appear and tell me to cooperate with you if I want to live?
How could she understand what I asked of her so quickly despite my sudden appearance?
Yet, this was not the moment to get acquainted, so they decided to focus on their performance for now.
“No one believes we’re truly married.”
“Is it because of our secret wedding? If only they knew our love story, no one would doubt our relationship.”
“It seems hard for you to speak, so don’t strain yourself with too much talking.”
Annette muttered a curse inwardly.
On the surface, he appeared to be concerned for her, but in reality, his actions suggested the complete opposite.
If Annette, who didn’t know the script Theodore had concocted to reach this place, kept talking, she might say something that contradicted the story he had told them.
His words meant there should be no gaps in their act, so he was telling her to keep her mouth shut and stay quiet.
The opportunity for her survival had come, but the moment she made a mistake, her escape plan would fail here.
Annette had no choice but to give him the response he wanted.
“Yes, you’re right.”
It was an improvised play, but the audience was fooled because their acting was excellent—they truly looked like a married couple.
As the fabricated emotions heightened in their performance, a man rushed into the room.
“I offer my warmest greetings to the noble Grand Duke. I am Walter Rogner, the director of this asylum.”
As soon as the staff summoned him, it was clear that Walter, who arrived late to the room, was utterly shocked by the scene he witnessed.
As the director of a mental asylum, he typically dealt with street vagrants.
For someone who rarely interacted with the wealthy, let alone nobles, the Grand Duke was far too lofty a figure for him.
Theodore was the half-brother of the current Emperor and the uncle of the crown prince of this empire.
After vying for the throne, he became a nuisance to the Emperor and an enemy to the crown prince, but this meant Theodore was a person with enough political standing to dare covet the throne.
Why, in the name of the Creator, was such a person searching for his precious wife in a rundown hospital like this?
Walter saw his son bleeding and unconscious against the wall, but he couldn’t protest.
“Are you the director of this asylum?”
“Yes, yes, yes. I am the director.”
“I want you to explain immediately why the Grand Duchess has been mistreated in a place like this.”
“I’m sorry, but I was unaware of her identity and hadn’t heard about Your Highness’s wedding…”
“Do I look like a fool who can’t get married?”
“No-! That’s impossible. It seems I was too lazy to read the news published in the papers.”
The director gasped and waved his hand, trying to clarify the situation, but Theodore ignored him and called out to the person standing outside the door.
“Hans.”
At Theodore’s nod, the lawyer Hans handed a document to the director.
It was a document proving the marriage of Theodore Kleist and Annette Cheringen.
“I delayed announcing the wedding due to unavoidable personal circumstances. And just when I was about to reveal this truth to the public, the Grand Duchess suddenly disappeared.”
“This is insane… It’s impossible to believe… When did you two get married…?”
“Would you believe me if I stripped naked now and lay with Annette?”
“N-No… I didn’t mean that.”
“I believe the explanation that we’re married has been settled at this point.”
“Y-Yes.”
“Explain.”
“Pardon?”
Theodore’s voice sent a shiver down Walter’s spine, but the latter couldn’t discern the purpose of that cold question.
“Explain why my wife, who disappeared overnight, is here.”
“That… What exactly should I explain?”
“To the extent that I’m satisfied with your explanation.”
Walter thought to himself, I’d rather bash my head against the wall and pass out, but now was the time to use his brain to come up with an excuse, not to hit his head.
He would have to explain to the Grand Duke that they had imprisoned Annette in exchange for a large sum of money from those vying for the Marquis Cheringen’s position.
But admitting that he had mistreated the Grand Duchess in front of the Grand Duke was no different from committing suicide with his own hands.
It was Annette’s voice that stopped Walter from taking his own life.
“Darling, I’m so scared.”
Annette sobbed and clutched the collar of Theodore’s shirt.
“Can we leave first? It’s too hard to stay here.”
“I’m sorry, Annette. I didn’t think of that because of my foolishness. It must be terrifying to be here—let’s get out quickly.”
Swish—
Theodore gently ran his fingers through Annette’s hair.
Their performance was excellent, but there was no script for them to follow.
So, to avoid being exposed while improvising in this play, they had to align the details of their script behind the scenes.
Theodore was pleased with Annette’s intelligence, as she had cleverly provided them with a reason to leave at the perfect moment.
She was truly a woman worth searching for.
Theodore had a feeling he would recoup the money, time, and mental effort he had spent searching for her.
Theodore carefully lifted Annette’s skeletal frame into his arms.
Some people gasped in admiration at his smooth movements, making it hard to tell whether his strength was immense or Annette was weightless.
Didn’t the knight rescuing the princess from the demon’s castle in legends look like this?
As Theodore, carrying Annette, passed through the iron gate, the stunned Walter made a loud noise in protest of his actions.
“Patients can only leave here with permission from the attending physician…”
“Annette is not a patient. And even if she were, she deserves treatment in my home, not in this pigsty. Besides, I am legally her guardian as her husband.”
Walter shut his mouth, frustrated by the forcefulness of Theodore’s response.
For the sake of the money he had received, he tried to hold onto Annette and keep her here, but there was no way to do so.
Theodore passed by Walter, carrying Annette in his arms, then paused for a moment.
“There will be a thorough investigation into the case of my wife’s kidnapping and confinement in this place.”
“We didn’t kidnap her!”
“You confined someone here by force, and that’s not considered kidnapping?”
“We never confined her by force. Her family brought her and left her here, so I don’t know anything about…”
“Her family? That means someone from the Cheringen family instigated this kidnapping. I’ll deal with them too.”
Walter shut his ugly mouth.
“Hans.”
“Yes, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Please inform the asylum of the complaints and various legal actions we will send them in the future.”
“I’ll inform them of everything, Your Majesty.”
Hans bowed his head sincerely.
While the director stood frozen, unable to move, Theodore left the asylum.
A carriage was waiting for him in front of the wide-open door.
Theodore, who had been carrying Annette like a precious treasure in his arms, placed her on the seat and closed the door.
At that moment, their acting masks were removed, and their faces returned to their natural expressions.
They looked at each other but didn’t open their mouths.
Only after the horse neighed and the carriage began to move did their lips part…
“Who are you?”
“Why did you save me?”
These words were hardly fitting for the image of a couple who, just moments ago, had been calling each other with passionate affection.
