When Theodore was taking care of all the matters in Lider City, Annette only had one task…
Survive.
Annette continued Lisa's treatment without a word and she slowly came back to life.
She ate and vomited, but then ate again and then walked around gasping for breath.
Then her health gradually recovered.
But that didn't mean she could move as freely as before, but at least she no longer fainted right after getting out of the chair.
She ate a little more each time than the time before and vomited less as time went on.
She also gained some weight, so her body looked like that of a very skinny human girl rather than that of a skeletal skeleton suffering from starvation.
For others, it was a subtle change in her appearance, but for Annette, it was a significant development.
She was confined to a small hospital room where she couldn't walk even 10 steps, but now she walks more than 11 metres.
Annette walked through the vineyards every day and breathed the fresh air.
When she went out for a walk, a black dog always followed her.
He was a lame dog who walked on three legs who grew up in the villa's yard.
The dog's normal lame gait equaled Annette's maximum speed.
Annette talked to the dog that was following her today as well.
"Why doesn't anyone know your name?
I want to call you by your name."
The black dog didn't have a name.
Annette was the only one curious about such trivial matters.
When Annette asked Emma his name, the maid only looked at her embarrassedly and said:
“It's the dog the owner brought, but he didn't give it a name.”
It was so unexpected that Theodore had brought the dog himself.
'I don't think that man is the type who would treat a dog with love and affection.'
Annette never thought Theodore would be the type of person who would take pity on a crippled dog, so she decided to just ignore him.
He's not the only lame dog in the world, and his owner is so careless that he doesn't even realize he's here.
Even the way he treated Annette was the same as the way he treated this dog.
The season had changed and it was almost time for the grape harvest, but Annette was still being neglected.
Theodore never came here, and all he did was send his assistant Hans to check on her condition.
Sometimes, Annette felt like wine ripening in a wine cellar.
When Hans asks Lisa about her health, Annette feels as if he were checking the wine for spoilage and how sweet it was.
Of course, she would have hated it more if Theodore had shown direct interest in her, but the neglect was also annoying.
So the presence of the dog here was questionable.
Why would a person who doesn't care about everything in the world, except becoming an emperor, bring a dog that can't even run into his villa?
If that man loves animals, this will be the end of the world.
Annette shook her head and dismissed these frightening thoughts.
She decided to stop asking questions she couldn't find answers to and instead asked questions to the being that was listening.
“What's your name, dog?”
“Silver.”
(M.M.: Silver means silver or the color silver in English.)
Annette suddenly heard an answer from behind her, so she flinched and stiffened in place.
The man's voice behind her was unfamiliar, but it was a voice she had heard before.
Annette slowly turned her body, which had become stiff with tension, and then saw the person whose identity she guessed from the tone of his voice.
It was Theodore.
Annette checked whether the person standing in front of her was real or just an illusion, but she did not feel comfortable, but rather her feeling of strangeness increased more and more.
Theodore was the type of person who was most wary of strangers.
So it was ridiculous for him to answer her question as naturally as if he were walking with her, while they were talking about a normal topic, when he had not set foot in this place until the season changed.
But Annette struggled to remain calm, and it took a great effort not to show hostility towards him.
“The dog’s name is Silver.”
“Why would you name a black dog with a name that means silver?”
The dog recognized his owner, who had appeared after a long time, and quickly threw himself into his arms, wagging his tail.
Only then did Annette become certain that the dog was really Theodore's.
Thinking that the only friend Annette had in this world that she truly loved belonged to Theodore made her feel a little betrayed when she saw the dog leave her arms and go happily into its owner's arms without saying much to her.
“It's a black dog, so why do you call it Silver?”
“I just chose this name, so I don’t know why it came to my mind.”
“Didn't you give him a name when you brought him here to raise him?”
“If I give him a name, I will have to take responsibility and take care of him seriously.”
Annette clicked her tongue in exasperation at this conversation that had no context.
However, Theodore's attitude of not giving his dog a name made her feel at ease.
It was a relief to know that he was a man without feelings or conscience.
It was sad to see the dog happy to meet his owner because he seemed to really like him.
“If you want to name it, call it whatever you want.”
"No, I don't want to.
If I give him a name, I'll always have to stay by his side."
Annette blamed Theodore, but in reality, she felt the same way.
It wasn't necessarily a story about dogs.
When you give a name to a relationship, spend time with someone, and then have memories together, it becomes meaningful.
Once it has meaning, it is difficult to get rid of it.
For Annette, the world in the book is a place she must escape and a world that must remain meaningless, so she did not want to let a single dog associate her with this place.
For this reason, Annette did not want to create a relationship and name a dog that had not been given to it by its owner.
Theodore seemed to have read her mind.
"It's okay to give it a name.
If you don't like people, you should at least give your heart to the dog, because that will give you the courage to move forward and not give up."
"I don't want that.
I'm not even the owner, so why give it a name?
I'm the one who's leaving this place anyway."
Annette seemed to discover her true feelings, so she lowered her body and scratched the dog's chin.
The dog closed his eyes and enjoyed Annette's touch.
Then Theodore watched them calmly and then asked an unexpected question.
"What is your name?"
“Annet Scheringen.
Did you have amnesia or what?”
“No, not that.
I mean your name in the other world.”
"My name is...I don't know.
I forgot."
Annette's hand stopped stroking the dog's head.
The dog opened its eyes and began to wave its broken hand, and then, as if asking for more touch, began to press its face into Annette's arms, but her hands remained motionless.
Annette was clearly embarrassed.
“While I'm here, I'm just Annette.
So don't get too curious about me and don't ask me anything about me.”
“What if I said that this was not just curiosity but genuine interest?”
“Don't lie to me.”
“Don't believe it if you don't want to.”
Annette looked very embarrassed, but Theodore's expression did not change at all.
In the first place, there is no way Theodore would be interested in the person occupying Annette's body.
What mattered to Theodore was not the feelings in Annette's heart, but the future she knew in her head.
Knowledge that would pave the way for him to become Emperor.
Annette, who had been sitting cross-legged, stood up on her feet.
Even when she got up, the height difference between her and Theodore was no different than when she was squatting next to the dog.
This was because Theodore was tall and Annette was underweight.
The appearance of the two characters was similar only in their beauty.
“Does the fact that His Highness personally came to meet me mean that it is time for me to go to Laider?”
“It's almost time to do that, but there are still some things I need to solve.
It's unfortunate, but there are challenges we need to address first.”
“Challenges?”
“You need to study.”
"the study?"
“I heard it from Hans.
He said you couldn't read letters or even write them.
A girl who was going to be named Marquis shouldn't know how to write her family name.”
Annette blushed as if she was going to explode in an instant.
Life in this villa was very boring, as Annette didn't have to meet people and couldn't go out, so she needed a hobby that she could do alone.
Given the amount of books in the library, it seemed like there was a way to pass the time, but the moment Annette picked up a book she liked by the cover and opened it, she realized something very dangerous…
She couldn't read the letters of this world.
In contrast to the skill of speaking and understanding, she did not know how to write and read.
This was normal since she had never learned this language, but the fact that she did not know a single letter was extremely embarrassing.
Ignorance is ignorance, so Annette was more embarrassed by that fact than she would be if she stood naked in the market square.
It was a shame to realize once again that she had fallen into a world different from her own.
Her face was red like a tomato and did not return to its original color no matter how hard she tried due to embarrassment.
She didn't care if it seemed illogical, but she didn't want to admit that her intellectual incompetence had been exposed.
“…I know how to read now.”
Annette tried to cool her feverish face.
“But Hans said you can’t even sign the papers because you can’t write your name?
In fact, I was a bit surprised that you know the future but don’t know how to write.”
“It's not my language, so it's impossible to know the letters without studying them.”
“But you are very good at talking?”
“I don’t know how I can understand you or talk to you, but the letters are different.
Also, now I can sign books and read them.”
"how?"
“I learned how to read when Mr.
Hans came last time.”
“You mean you studied alone?”
Annette nodded.
When Hans came to the villa, Annette asked him to teach her how to read.
Fortunately, the letters were not difficult.
The symbols were different, but reading and writing were similar to the Roman alphabet.
After converting the letters Hans provided to her into Korean, learning how to pronounce them, and making a board to organize and sort them, Annette was able to read the book within days.
However, Annette's ignorance of writing and reading left Hans in great shock.
Originally, Hans was tasked with teaching Annette to imitate the Maquis' daughter's signature and had her practice it to imitate Annette's original handwriting, but he never imagined that she wouldn't know the letters themselves.
At the same time, this became an opportune opportunity to make Annette extremely suspicious in his eyes.
“Master Hans must have noticed that I am not the real Annette.
Because he is a very intelligent man.”
“I don't care if Hans finds out.
I was thinking of telling him sooner or later.”
“Do you trust Mr.
Hans that much?”
“He has a reason not to abandon me.”
Annette stared blankly at Theodore, as if to ask him why, but Theodore looked away from her, as if he did not want to say anything else.
“So should we test whether Hans taught you to read correctly?”
Theodore motioned with his head for Annette to follow him and then walked away.
His long legs moved very far in one moment and then Annette and Silver's legs followed suit.
Theodore stepped forward a little, then stopped, turned around, and frowned slightly.
He could hear the sound of the dog sticking out its tongue and panting, however, Annette's footsteps were not even close, as they were much slower than the dog.
Annette was panting hard from being chased after him, but her pride prevented her from asking him to wait.
Theodore noticed this fact, and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
While he could hear the woman's stubborn breathing behind him, he kept a small distance from her to avoid her seeing his smiling face.
Then he went ahead without turning around.