Theodore and Annette went to the villa's library.
Theodore sat by the window and Annette sat in the chair in front of the desk.
Theodore looked at the view of the vine trees spreading outside the window for a while.
The last time he visited this place, the grapes were light green, but now they were ripe and dark purple.
While the grapes were growing, Annette also got rid of her previous sick appearance and returned to her normal appearance.
Her skin, which had been rough and full of sores, became shiny, and her thin cheeks became a little rounder.
Her appearance now resembled dried grapes, but considering her previous state where she looked like she was going to die soon, this was a notable improvement.
In fact, when Theodore arrived at the villa, he couldn't immediately realize that the woman standing in his sight was Annette.
Wearing a light blue dress, the atmosphere around her was very different.
These weren't her clothes and they didn't even fit her body, but she looked like a completely different person once she had a good shower and put on clean clothes.
If it wasn't for the black dog guarding her, Theodore might have continued on his way without thinking that she was someone living in this villa.
As soon as he approached her, the scent of grapes seemed to permeate her body, and he felt a somewhat refreshing scent emanating from her.
Her exceptionally large pupils resembled the round shape of fruit-filled grapes; But it seemed to Theodore that it would be easy for him to find this woman's eyes even if she was lost in the middle of a vineyard full of fresh green grapes.
He could see green everywhere – from the trees to the grasses – but there was no color that could match the distinctive color of her eyes.
Is it because the girl occupying Annette's body is strange?
After watching the woman talk to the injured dog that had been released to live in the yard, he impulsively named the dog a random name.
The name “Silver” was a bit funny even for Theodore, but that was the only name that came to mind at that moment.
This name came to his mind when he saw the sun shining on that woman's head.
In fact, the first thing that came to his mind was “Golden.”
(M.M.: Golden means gold or the golden color in the English language.)
It was a name that came to his mind because of Lou's hair, not that dog.
He named him “Silver” because he felt he had to avoid calling the dog things that frankly revealed what he was thinking.
Silver, who finally got a name, was originally a loyal hunting dog.
While hunting, he was bitten by another animal and lost one of his legs.
He would have been killed, but Theodore brought him and raised him in the courtyard of the villa.
Even though he couldn't run, his hunting instinct remained intact and he would act ferociously towards anyone except Theodore.
It was a black and ferocious dog, so women usually did not approach it out of fear.
Emma still panics every time she prepares a meal for Silver.
But now this dog is being nice to Annette and even following her for a walk.
This was very strange.
“Can I start reading now?”
The strange woman looked at him while blinking.
Those eyes...
The big round eyes made him mistakenly think that her face was very different.
Annette's venomous appearance, which he met at parties, was not reflected on her face at all.
Only her charming eyes were visible to him.
Clear, attractive and contrasting eyes.
“Begin.”
With Theodore's permission, Annette began to read aloud from the open book in her hand.
It was a boring history book picked almost at random from a bookshelf.
“The history of the royal family in the Odentia Empire has been going on for 500 years.
The Kleists have never been members of the royal family in the history of Odentia.
This is very unusual considering the frequent change of dynasties in neighboring countries...”
Annette read Kleist's family history.
She didn't stumble or stutter.
Theodore was startled inwardly as her loud voice filled the library.
“Stop.”
He didn't know she could read so well.
Little Theodore's teasing made her angry, so he thought she was lying when she said she had learned to read just to cover up her embarrassment.
Since she said she had learned it on her own, he thought she would just be a clumsy, stumbling reader at the best of circumstances, but she actually learned to read and write very well on her own.
Her clear voice was full of confidence.
Theodore took the book Annette was reading and put it aside.
Instead, he pushed a pen and paper in front of her on the desk.
“Write what I will dictate to you.”
He thought she couldn't learn to write either on her own.
As expected, Annette's expression hardened.
Theodore put a triumphant expression on his face for a moment.
But…
“I'm still a little uncomfortable using these fountain pens because I'm not used to them.”
It was not that she did not know how to write, but rather that she complained that the writing instrument was inconvenient.
Annette pursed her lips, picked up the fountain pen, noticed the tip of the pen, scribbled it on the paper, then put her hand on the desk.
“I'm ready.”
As soon as she announced that she was ready to begin, Theodore half-confidently opened the book and began to read a random paragraph from it.
“As long as the Odentia Empire continues to exist, Laider City will forever remain the capital of this empire.”
The result was Annette's victory once again.
Annette finished her dictation and looked at Theodore with a confident face.
Theodore, who reviewed the answer sheet, had no choice but to admit it.
She is smart enough to learn to type on her own.
Could it be that her slightly red face when he teased her about not knowing the letters was just a figment of his imagination?
Well, it was even more surprising that she knew how to be shy.
Even though her face was still in front of him, the incident that happened while walking was more like an illusion than reality.
Could Annette really be blushing?
Theodore doubted the reality of Annette's shy face rather than her abilities, then looked around the books stacked in the corner of the library.
The villa's library was a space filled with books in Hans's taste, not Theodor's.
Theodore was a dynamic man whose only hobby was hunting.
When he came to rest at the villa, he rode a horse and wandered around instead of reading books, and the library was a place that Hans, who came with him, decorated to kill time and fight boredom.
So Theodore had no idea what books were in the library.
Theodore noticed a pile of dusty newspapers in the corner of the bookshelf.
He held up one of the newspapers with a slightly malicious and mischievous expression, then picked up one of them and gave it to Annette.
“Read the newspaper this time.”
Annette seemed to be getting a little bored and tried to read the page she immediately grabbed.
“That night the wife went to visit the Baron and...”
But she couldn't read a single line after that.
Her confident face turned red in an instant, and Theodore was sure that her shyness was not an impossible reality.
“You really learned to read on your own.
You seem to read all the difficult words.”
“Stop it.
Even if I don’t read this thing, I’ve already proven that I can read.”
What Theodore said was just an ordinary newspaper, was in fact a magazine containing low-level and salacious scandals.
The part he indicated for Annette to read was written with obscene content about the case of some nobles.
It wasn't just facts, it was full of explicit expressions and pornographic descriptions.
Annette, who had read the sentence describing the sexual relationship between a man and a woman, threw the newspaper on the table and looked at Theodore with angry eyes.
“I made you read sentences that you would never have understood if you were a beginner.
I'm glad I don't have to teach you to read first.”
“You are just playing vulgar pranks under the pretext of exams.
The Grand Duke is not a gentleman at all.”
Suddenly, her flushed face turned white again, and at the same time, the effect of the trivial joke became nil.
Those pranks that could make a noble lady faint with embarrassment meant to her no more than a moment of embarrassment.
“Did you do everything I told you?”
When Theodore asked her about the future, Annette told him some of what she knew.
The person who would be a threat to him, and the talent he needed to bring alongside him now.
This was expected to be a direct help and not just a vague fact of what would happen in the future.
“It was as you said.”
When Theodore's expression did not change, Annette became certain that the people she was referring to were real.
There had to be a problem with the person taking care of the horse, and the person she said he had to win over must be there.
Above all, the biggest clue was that Theodore came and personally made sure that Annette could read and write.
If Annette were wrong and did not prove useful, there would be no point in knowing whether she was literate or not.
Confirming her abilities without killing her meant he would continue to use them.
Annette will read and write important documents alongside Theodore from now on.
In other words, everything she said was true and really helped Theodore.
“The person to be eliminated should be dead, but what about the person you need?
Has he been assigned to the Leader Palace?”
“We still haven't hired him yet.”
“Not yet?
If you leave things as they are, someone else will appoint him soon.
You had better bring him in before he goes to the prince’s side.”
The person Annette recommended was of low status, but had extremely impressive abilities.
In particular, he was gifted at identifying and managing the flow of money.
Theodore had a talented tactician named Hans, but the just God did not grant Hans the ability to handle financial matters.
However, Theodore's target was inaccessible due to poor financial management.
So, first and foremost, Annette recommended someone who could manage and grow assets*.
Of course, Annette's insistence on bringing Ernest in had other reasons besides the fact that he was well versed in money and an expert in extracting wealth from the underworld.
“The most strange thing about him is that he follows women around and tries to woo them whenever he sees a pink-haired woman.
To take care of my palace, I would rather have someone with a useful title than a playboy like him.”
“Ernest is not a playboy; the problem is that he overflows with innocence.”
And where this innocence was headed was where Annette wanted to use it.
The woman Ernest loved passionately with all his heart was Yvonne, the heroine of this novel.
“What kind of relationship do you have with this man?”
“You seem to have forgotten that I am not from this world.
He is someone I have never met before, but as for the relationship that will bring us together in the future, it will be a relationship with no positive ties or bad connections compared to his relationship with His Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Was he going to be by my side in the future?”
“No, he would have become your greatest enemy.”
✨Explanations section:
In business and accounting, assets are the economic resources owned by a business or company.
It is any tangible or intangible property suitable for repaying debts that can be considered an asset.
Assets, in simple terms, are things of value that can easily be converted into cash.