Chapter 008
“What’s the test I have to pass?”
“First, tell me three things—potentially useful to me—about the future you know. Then we’ll see how valuable your information is.”
Theodore demanded knowledge of the future with pride.
He was a man accustomed to striking others and demanding what he wanted, so he always spoke to others in a commanding tone.
Annette was choking with anger at the man’s arrogant attitude, but she somehow endured it.
“Did the owner of this body—the original Annette—tell you about this book?”
“No.”
“Nushaan. That’s the title.”
“Nushaan?”
Theodore openly expressed his curiosity, likely realizing the meaning of “coffin.”
“One Emperor, one Empress. That means the two people: Crown Prince Hugo and his lover, Yvonne.”
The plot of Nushaan was extremely cliché.
It was merely a trivial story meant to showcase the grand love between Hugo and Yvonne.
A simple tale with an unexciting ending where the two main characters wear the imperial crown and kiss each other.
All characters—except the two protagonists—were used as tools to grant them love and honor.
When Annette and Theodore schemed, they did nothing but polish the protagonists’ crown to make it shine brighter.
After all, villains were merely beings who sacrificed themselves for the main character.
There were obstacles in the protagonist’s path, but they were designed to be overcome.
There were trials in their lives, but they proceeded smoothly.
The ordeals and tragedies were merely a means to fuel the love between them.
“Do you understand now how far-fetched your words are when you say you’ll take the crown in a world created for the protagonist to become Emperor?”
“Are you saying I should give up?”
“I’m saying don’t be arrogant. Know that without me, you can’t change the ending.”
“So, you’re a holy spirit who will grant my wish?”
“I’m not a holy spirit, but I’m the only one who can make your wishes come true. So treat me as I deserve.”
Theodore’s lips curled as if mocking Annette’s words.
His rising anger at the fact that his fate was already determined led him to ridicule Annette.
Accepting that he was born for Hugo’s love story was harder than enduring the scornful looks he received as an illegitimate child when he was young.
Why, in the Creator’s name, should someone exist for another person’s love story?
Why didn’t others have value in their existence?
Should he be grateful at least for the fact that he had a key to change the world?
Theodore burst into laughter at the realization that this dying woman was the only key to changing his fate.
“You said you wanted to know three things about the future. I’ll tell you, so listen carefully.”
Annette carefully listed what Theodore needed to eliminate, what he needed to keep, and what he needed to take.
“If you can do what I told you, you’ll at least realize I’m a qualified fraud.”
Annette offered a product, and whether to buy it or not was up to Theodore’s choice.
Theodore stared into Annette’s eyes to see if what she said was true.
Those who looked directly into his predatory eyes would be frightened and tell the truth.
Yet, only Theodore’s face was reflected in Annette’s eyes, not fear.
Annette never trembled because she wasn’t afraid of Theodore, and he couldn’t read her true intentions because she was utterly unaffected by him.
Instead, Theodore felt trapped in Annette’s gaze.
Her eyes were a dazzling light green, like the leaves of ripe trees bathed in strong sunlight on a warm summer day.
She had been confined in a moldy room, her skin cracked, and her body wasted away, but her eyes never lost their brilliance.
She was borrowing Annette Cheringen’s body, but those eyes, at least, belonged to the soul within that body.
The soul opened its mouth and issued a stern warning.
“I won’t let you get away with it if you deceive me. Return me to my world at any cost.”
Annette’s determination to survive and return to her world was anything but weak.
* * *
After Annette regained consciousness, Theodore returned to his palace.
Now, only the servants remained in the villa.
Since the personal guards stayed out of Annette’s sight, the only ones she directly met were Lisa, the nurse, and Emma, the maid.
Lisa easily identified the poison Annette had ingested and created an antidote for it.
This proved she was a qualified nurse.
However, regardless of Lisa’s skills, the detoxification process was harsh.
As the poison was drawn out of the body, the pain intensified.
As the senses killed by the poison returned one by one, the side effects increased.
Annette suffered from fever and chills, and even drinking water caused intense nausea in her stomach.
She vomited everything that entered her stomach until foam came out of her mouth.
She was still struggling to live, and Lisa was endlessly amazed.
The fact that Annette was the Grand Duchess and her persistence toward life were utterly strange.
To be honest, Lisa had thought it impossible for Annette to recover and that it wouldn’t be surprising if she died immediately.
Yet, Annette persevered with her frail body.
“Do you think I’ll die soon?”
“Oh, no, Your… Your Highness, the Grand Duchess.”
“It’s fine to call me comfortably. No, if that’s uncomfortable, you can call me uncomfortably. But please don’t call me Grand Duchess as much as possible.”
Annette shook her head in displeasure.
“If I go to the ducal palace, I’ll get tired of hearing that title, so I don’t want to start hearing it now. Just call me Annette.”
“How dare I call Your Highness, the Grand Duchess, by…”
“I really hate it.”
It was a genuine look of disdain.
Annette had become the coveted wife of the royal family, but she wasn’t happy about it at all.
Lisa wondered why she had become the Grand Duchess in the first place if she hated it so much.
When Lisa first heard that Annette was the Grand Duchess, she thought it was a lie.
However, there was no reason for the imperial family to stage a play just to deceive a nurse, so it meant they were truly married, but the two didn’t get along well.
Both were beautiful in a way Lisa had never seen in her life, but each was so full of intensity that they didn’t match at all.
Annette was too small and fragile to withstand Theodore’s lethal strength.
But of course, when Lisa saw Annette brimming with life, her thoughts changed 180 degrees.
If her eyes were like spring buds, her vitality was like the green summer grass swaying in the wind.
She had a powerful energy that seemed to pierce through Theodore’s cold blue eyes.
If Theodore was ice, Annette was fire.
The reason they were attracted to each other and avoided each other was that they were opposites.
“I can’t die like this. Even if I die, I want to return to my world and die there.”
Annette sometimes said things Lisa couldn’t understand.
The place called “my world” didn’t refer to the ducal palace of Kleist or the Cheringen marquessate.
Lisa didn’t know what kind of place it was, but it was clearly the reason Annette clung to life.
“Even if the detoxification is complete, I won’t be fully normal, will I?”
“You won’t have the same body as before. But fortunately, this isn’t a disease. As long as you don’t ingest the poison again, you can live a normal life.”
“I’m glad if that’s the case.”
Annette spoke to herself and laughed with self-deprecation, a habit of replacing her lament with laughter.
Annette’s smile was bright, but the moment the hidden sadness reflected in her eyes, a terrifying energy flowed from her.
“Still, I’ll live less than my original lifespan, won’t I?”
“If you manage your system well, you’ll live like others. It’s a poison that can lead to death if taken for over a year, but if taken for only about three months, you can overcome it.”
“I won’t die within a year or two?”
“Yes.”
“That’s enough.”
“What do you mean by ‘that’s enough’?”
“It’s time to prepare to return to my world.”
Annette looked at her thin hands.
She clearly felt pain as if they were her own hands, but she also felt they belonged to someone else.
Her resolve to return didn’t seem to waver, which was fortunate for her.
It was unfortunate for Lisa, who was doing everything to save her, but Annette didn’t care if the body’s lifespan ended or not.
It was enough for her to exhaust everything, leave this place, and return to her world.
She didn’t care about the fate of a body that meant nothing to her, which she would leave behind after discovering the damned way to put Theodore on the throne and return to where she belonged.
Even if Annette, the villainess, was the culprit who brought her here, the death of her body would be good revenge.
Annette gritted her teeth and swallowed the porridge.
It was food that didn’t require chewing, but she chewed it; this was her way of expressing her will to survive no matter what.
She had to eat and live.
From now on, Annette had to tear apart the novel’s protagonist, chew them up, and throw them to Theodore instead of this watery porridge.
The protagonist’s life would end happily no matter what happened, so her path to victory against such a life was tough.
Annette reviewed what she needed to do in the future.
First, she had to build a relationship with the protagonists who would become her enemies to monitor them.
She had to face the criminal suspicion surrounding her and clear the charges against her.
At the same time, she had to use the rumors portraying her as a brutal murderer who could kill her father as a strength and leverage them to her advantage.
She had to deal with her relatives aiming for the Cheringen marquessate title and use her family’s position to increase Theodore’s power.
There was much to do to die and return in peace.
Annette quietly regained her health.
In front of the villa, the small vineyards growing day by day stretched endlessly.
As the farmer planted and tended to the grapes, Annette tended to herself.
As the summer sun grew stronger, Annette regained her will and health.
The season grew hotter, and the grapes, which weren’t fully ripe when Theodore first brought her here, took the shape of fully ripened fruit.
Theodore never visited the villa, even as the grapes changed color, and Annette restored her body’s health, using her resentment as motivation to keep going.
It was a summer where they met in different places.
»»» ♡ «««
Translator’s note:
Nushaan is the dual form of the Arabic word “na‘sh,” meaning a bier or the bed of the dead, named for its elevation. If there’s no corpse on it, it’s simply a bed. It can also refer to a coffin if it has a lid, making it a rectangular box.
