🌷 Chapter 10 –
“There is no person in this empire who does not know that Annette is in love with His Highness Crown Prince Hugo.
I really want to know when this child who had been blindly following the Crown Prince until a few months ago fell in love with the Grand Duke.”
“Annette realized that it was time to change her mind because she could not spend her life chasing after someone who did not love her just because she fell in love with him.
So she decided to accept my love for her.”
Theodore skillfully escaped Cassilia's interrogation.
Looking at her appearance, Casselia's heart was confused.
Theodore had answered her question logically, so she had nothing to say in return.
Besides, Theodore was not someone who would do something meaningless.
The fact that he had met two of the Scheringen in a public place like this salon meant that he had proof that they had harmed Annette, but Casselia couldn't even guess what that proof was.
Theodore was good at hiding what he held in his hand, whether it was a weapon or a weak point, so no one could carelessly touch it.
However, she could not simply admit that she was the one who hid Annette in that remote sanitarium.
“Anette and I love each other very much, and I will do everything in my power to protect my legal wife.”
Theodore looked at the necklace as if to say that there was clearly nothing he couldn't do.
Why on earth would an important man like Theodore be interested in Annette, the Creator of Hell?
Rather…
Didn't Theodore despise Annette?
Casselia thought about the truth about the relationship between Annette and Theodore, but she did not arrive at a convincing answer.
While she was thinking, Casselia's stupid younger brother added fuel to the fire.
“If you have proof that I imprisoned Annette, you should present it first.
Who knows if you are trying to deceive us or not.”
“Do you mind if I reveal it here?”
Theodore pointed with his eyes at the people opening their eyes and ears with interest.
People around them were paying attention to them while pretending to be something they were not.
“I'm not afraid of anyone.”
Casselia wanted to shut her brother's ugly mouth, but it was too late.
“You have that.”
Theodore took out the contents of the bag he was carrying one by one.
Several papers emerged from an envelope with the name Elisia Psychiatric Hospital written on it in large letters, and it contained patient data, including the woman named “Anita,” along with the symptoms of her illness and a hospital stay agreement signed by the hospital director and guardian.
There were also fake IDs and documents made to admit Annette to the hospital, and two familiar people who signed them as Anita's guardian and conservator.
Those signatures were none other than those of Bjorn and Cassilia.
“Anita.
Couldn’t you have changed her name more faithfully?”
Theodore said as if he felt pity for them.
Bjorn sweatdropped as he looked at his signature, which he still had a habit of scribbling the last letter.
He felt his head starting to turn white, but he tried to make an excuse somehow.
Right after Marquis Scheringen's death, they were in a hurry to lock up Annette in the Elysia Sanatorium, so they chose the quickest way possible and not the safest and safest way.
He didn't mean for it to be this obvious, but he didn't expect it to come out so quickly either.
“You are misunderstanding something.
This is for the treatment of one of the children we are taking care of, Anita is...”
“Stop it.”
Casselia gritted her teeth and stopped her brother from speaking.
The documents presented by Theodore were made by putting money into the hands of Sir Walter, the director of the Elysia Hospital.
If these documents that should have disappeared immediately were placed on the table, it meant that Walter’s mouth had already been opened.
That man is useless.
Casselia had given him the money but he didn't seem to have any talent, and he was an idiot who didn't even know that keeping that secret would have kept his life safe.
Casselia realized that there was no way out, and then, instead of denying it, it was necessary to act helpfully.
"Annette killed her father.
It wouldn't have been a sensible thing to do anyway.
It was said she had committed a crime deserving of the death penalty, but she was still my niece too, so I wanted to protect her.
I did it because I couldn't bear to see a child like my daughter put her head on the guillotine."
Casselia instead decided to cover the situation up under the pretext of love for her family.
It's an emotion that no one would believe, but it's hard to deny the intentions of someone who confesses the truth after being caught.
If a situation cannot be resolved by reason, it must be resolved in the most irrational way, which is love.
Doesn't Theodore also insist in unbelievable words that he is madly in love with Annette?
If Theodore wanted to claim love, he would also have to acknowledge Cassilia's affection for her niece.
But the results she expected were not good.
“How dare you...”
Theodore growled in a terrifying voice.
“How dare you treat the Grand Duchess like a murderer.
You even insult my wife, Annette.”
Theodore couldn't contain his anger.
The thick papers in his hands began to shrink helplessly due to his grip.
That deadly force was directed towards Casselia and her brother, but his eyes made the people around them fearful.
“How dare you accuse the Grand Duchess of being a murderer?”
“This is not an accusation, it is a fact.
She had a gun in her hand with which she shot my brother.
Otherwise, what was the reason for her running away without attending her father’s funeral?”
On the day that Marquis Scheringen died, a gunshot was heard in the Marquis's room.
The surprised servants ran and found the master dead without closing his eyes, and next to him was Annette, holding a pistol, covered in blood.
No one saw Annette shoot, but everyone assumed she was the culprit.
"She was carrying a gun.
What reason would a noblewoman have such a dangerous weapon?"
“The gun is mine.”
"What did you say?"
“Annette expected that Marquis Scheringen was in danger and consulted with me, so I gave her a gun because of her trembling anxiety.
Annette did not kill the Marquis, she was trying to protect him.”
“No...that's impossible.”
“Why are you so determined that it is impossible?
Sir, you act as if Annette had reason to be the culprit.”
“This is not...”
When Bjorn stuttered, Casselia intervened.
“Is that weapon really yours?”
"If you took it to the workshop where I keep my pistols, you would find out right away.
I gave it to her because I expected this kind of danger, but I didn't know it would be evidence against my wife."
“If you expected the assassination, you should have informed the Scheringen and stopped it instead of giving Annette a gun.”
“I would have been treated like crazy if I had just told you that without clear evidence.
It still is.”
Secret glances passed between Theodore and Casselia.
Even if it is forced reasoning, it must be recognized as true, and if there is a gap in the truth, it will be extracted as a lie.
“My poor wife may have acted a little strangely because she was so frightened by the sight of her father’s death, but that was because of the shock of losing her father, not because of her madness.
Rather… if she had acted normally in such a situation it would have been strange.”
Theodore looked directly into Casselia's eyes.
Even when he was sitting quietly, his eyes looked at Casselia – who was middle-aged – with a condescending and arrogant look.
This was a warning from him to back off at this point.
"Don't make me put another gun in the Grand Duchess's hand.
The next one I give her may not be for self-defense, but for attack."
Casselia admitted that her plan to hide Annette had completely failed, with disastrous results.
“Now Annette’s legal guardian is me, her husband.
If she needs a guardian, I will play that role, so you shouldn’t try to get close to Annette in the future.”
Theodore rose from his seat with a final warning.
***
Theodore got into the carriage that was waiting for him outside the salon.
Then Hans, who had been asleep for a while inside, woke up.
He looked particularly tired.
“I was the one who dealt with those dark-hearted people, so why do you look so tired?”
Hans looked at Theodor with displeased eyes.
“It is much more difficult to acquit a guilty person than to convict an innocent person.
I do all the hard work.”
“I'm paying you a lot of money to do this.”
Hans was running day and night trying to find out who had admitted Annette to the hospital.
No one in the Shiringen family was on Annette's side, and with so many enemies, it was difficult for him to identify the mastermind.
Of course, Bjorn and Casselia were likely the ringleaders, so they were the focus of the investigation.
Bjorn wanted to take over the position of Marquis himself in place of his deceased brother, and Cassilia saw an opportunity to bring her son into the Scheringen family.
Hans found all of Annette's enemies and identified the culprit, while at the same time searching for evidence of her innocence.
It was his responsibility to falsify evidence convicting Annette as a murderer, including suppressing the servants who witnessed the incident.
Hans threatened Walter with withdrawing the hospital's license as bait and made a lot of effort to find out the truth about the papers that imprisoned Annette.
But his master, as always, did not appreciate his hard work.
Hans sighed as he touched the dark circles under his eyes.
“I still haven't taken that money yet.
And this Miss Annette, what in heaven's name have you done to get the position of Grand Duchess?”
“I'm the one who got it.”
"so what?"
Hans felt frustrated and wanted to beat his chest.
This was the first time, since he had worked with Theodore, that his master had done something like this without giving any reason.
He wanted to hear a good reason as to why he had to risk his life for Annette Scheringen.
It was obviously not an ordinary reason, but Theodore did not open his mouth at all, instead, the strange requirements only increased.
“What about the thing I asked you to look for?”
“Here he is.”
Hans's tired eyes suddenly lit up.
“It was as you said.
Where did you get this information?
If you find someone other than me bringing the information, please let me know quickly.”