Tension was rising in the quiet Scheringen Palace.
It was because the missing Marchioness had appeared.
As soon as Annette entered the house, she felt a headache because of the attitude of the servants she encountered on the way.
Thanks to their new mistress suddenly disappearing and reappearing for the first time after several months, the servants were busy staring at her intently.
After the death of Marquis Scheringen, changes both large and small occurred in the palace.
First, the palace servants were constantly changing.
As great as the incident of the Marquis's death was, the servants who thought that the Scheringen family was in trouble rushed in and resigned from their positions.
For the same reason, no one wanted to come and work at Scheringen Palace.
Since there was no owner to control the palace, even if there were people who wanted to come and work in it, they could not do so.
The management was very poor as there were no new people coming compared to the number of people leaving.
Hans, who was walking with Annette, spoke in a quiet whisper-like voice.
“The management of this house is very chaotic.
Even if I do not know the original atmosphere of the palace when the Marquis was alive, I can still tell that the actions of these servants are very lax.”
“Exactly.
Even if you don’t know anything about the past, you can feel and realize the great change in an instant.”
Annette frowned as she passed among the servants.
She herself, like Hans, did not know how the Scheringen Palace was in the original life of the Marquis ap Annette, but it was obvious that the atmosphere in the house had changed for the worse.
Instead of being afraid of the appearance of the new lady of the palace, the servants stared fearlessly at her and considered her something interesting.
Those who had worked in the palace before were curious about the great change in Annette's personality, and the new servants looked curiously at the personality of the gossipy lady.
“It seems that there are still issues that we cannot solve through paperwork.”
The marriage and succession of title were arranged with Hans' assistance.
However, the paperwork was successfully completed, but the real-life hatred remained.
When the previous Marquis died, the problems that should have been dealt with were not resolved immediately, so Annette could not properly make the impression of the new owner as she was recuperating in the villa.
Until now, Hans and the butler had been working on the necessary documents in secret, but now it was time for Annette to come to the fore.
First of all, the most urgent thing was the employees' recognition of the new Marchioness Scheringen.
Basically, before Marquis Scheringen's death, since she was a woman, there were many problems and difficulties in her succession to the title.
But now that she inherited the title abnormally, there were more problems.
Annette is not to be ignored by the household servants before she goes to war with her family for position.
She had to quickly gather the servants and show them who the real owner of this palace was.
Now that her health and spirit had recovered somewhat, she had to take care of the matters of the Shiringen Palace as well.
“That person is the butler.”
Hans nodded, pointing to the old man standing in front of them.
The butler was extremely embarrassed by Annette's unexpected appearance at the palace.
“Discipline seems to have disappeared during my absence.”
One word from the new owner made the butler freeze in place.
It was common for nobles to leave their homes empty, so taking care of the palace during that period was the responsibility of the butler, and if something happened during this he would inevitably be reprimanded for everything.
Annette, who had returned with so many rumors swirling around her, was completely different from her previous self and her words were enough to make the old butler nervous.
While trying to restore discipline by making the employees in front of her nervous, Annette's plan failed because someone came to meet her as if he was waiting for her to appear.
“Annette, why are you making such a loud noise by showing up all of a sudden?”
It was Bjorn, Annette Scheringen's uncle.
Björn looked at Annette from the position where the host receives his guests, so the servants noticed him more than Annette, who was standing below.
Apparently, it looked like someone other than Annette would be elevated to the position of Marquis next week.
It meant that someone was enjoying playing king here by taking advantage of the tiger's absence.
“Why did I come home?
Even if I think about it from many angles, don’t you think it’s nonsense for me, Marchioness Scheringen, to ask me why I came to my house?
I think I’m the one who should ask you why you’re here?”
Annette responded lightly to Bjorn's rudeness.
“Guest, I am without a doubt a direct descendant of the Shiringen family, so this palace is also my home.
Do you usually talk like this to adults who work hard to take care of a house whose so-called boss left it empty?”
"If you had the family's best interests at heart, you should have been more in control of the family's affairs.
Only then would it not have seemed as if you were deliberately running this place carelessly to make the employees feel that the head of the family was an inconsiderate person who did not deserve to be feared or respected."
“You completed the succession procedures with only a few administrative papers and never showed your face in this house, but now you arrogantly want me to leave from here?
The Scheringen do not recognize a woman who cannot fulfill her responsibilities as head of the family.”
“This is something that His Majesty the Emperor himself has authorized.
If you object to me being the head of this family, it will be taken as questioning His Majesty’s rule, so I think it would be best for you to back off now.”
When the word Emperor appeared, Bjorn closed his mouth.
“Again, why are you here, uncle?”
“Since the position of family head was vacant, wasn’t it necessary to find someone to replace him to manage the family affairs?”
“Vacant?
I am alive and have taken care of all family and property issues.”
“It's not a family you can protect and maintain with just a few paperwork.
The Sheringen family needs a grown man to protect it.”
“I do not believe that this grown man you are talking about is you, uncle.
The instructions that I, the immature woman, gave with a few papers and a few words were more precise than your direct management of the palace and much better than the decisions of your empty mind.”
Bjorn's face blushed at Annette's words.
“You are an arrogant little girl who thinks that she has a chance to manage everything because of her arrogance.
After the matter of marriage and breaking up with your family, here you suddenly appear and try to pretend that you are the rightful owner of this palace!
The only person who can exploit your beautiful face and sell his body for a cheap price is only a crazy woman just like you.
The Sheringen family does not recognize that you are the lady of this family at all.”
Björn protested vehemently, but Annette's face remained expressionless and very calm.
Björn's verbal abuse had no effect on Annette at all.
The only thing Annette could think about at that moment was that she was worried about losing her hearing because of his loud and annoying voice.
Who doesn't know that Bjorn used to raise his voice to hide his low self-confidence?
“At least my appearance has an impact on society unlike your ugly appearance, uncle.
If you talk a lot like this, it means you are nervous.”
“How dare you!”
“You're too loud.”
Someone stopped Bjorn, who began to threaten in earnest.
“Is my aunt here too?”
While Annette smiled widely, Casselia approached Bjorn.
Then, as if to protect her younger brother, she hid him behind her back, but the eyes with which she looked at him were full of pity for Bjorn and longed to slap him in the face for his intolerable stupidity.
Bjorn paused, looking at Casselia and Annette alternately, then took a step back.
“It's been a while since I last saw you, Auntie.”
“We could have met earlier, but you were the one who delayed this meeting.”
Casselia had been alluding to Theodore kissing the back of Annette's hand in the cathedral that day.
If it weren't for the actions of the lovebirds between the two, Casselia would have spoken to Annette that day.
Judging from her skill in shifting responsibility, Casselia was on a completely different level from Bjorn.
In addition, her talent for putting disdain in her eyes was so good that even covering her mouth with a fan was enough to express the disgust she felt.
Annette thought she wanted to learn such a cold disposition and harsh aura from her aunt.
“I don’t know why my uncle was trying to kick me out of here.
Did I come to a place where I couldn’t come?
This is definitely my home.”
“Is this really your home?
Doesn’t the fact that you secretly married without consulting the family elders mean that you have severed ties with the Scheringen?”
Clack_
Casselia folded the fan she was holding with a quick and graceful movement.
Her movement was more effective and menacing than Bjorn's annoying screaming.
"The trial has not taken place yet.
So even if you become a member of the imperial family, you will not be able to change the outcome.
The Shiringen is not a family without honor enough to make the woman who killed her father the mistress of this family."
Casselia's graceful voice mentioned the murder of which Annette was accused.
This was a direct warning that the charges against Annette had not yet been fully settled.
“For this matter, there is no evidence that I did it, so I was not even put on trial.
That is why there will not be any trial in the future either.”
Thanks to Hans's strength and intelligence, Annette is found innocent in court.
Of course, there were gaps in the evidence, but they were enough to prevent Annet, who became Grand Duchess of the Kleist family, from appearing at court with the authority of Theodore's Emperor's Necklace.
“So I am Mrs.
Scheringen now.
And you both should think carefully about how you speak to the landlady of this house.”
When the word “landlady” was mentioned, even Cassilia couldn’t maintain her composure.
“I am the Marchioness now, so you two should be careful and respectful in dealing with me from now on.”
“How dare you mention the title of Marquis like that?”
Casselia was looking at Annette with a harsh look.
Her eyes were so terrifying that they would have made the maids die of fear if they saw them, but Annette did not even blink.
"If not me, who will be the Marquis?
You, my aunt?
Or perhaps it will be my uncle who is hiding behind you?"
Bjorn, who was hiding in Casselia's shadow, spoke up.
“What can’t I do?
My older brother, who was the eldest son of our family, died at a young age, so it wouldn’t be strange if I took over the title after him as his younger male brother.”
"No.
It's weird.
Very weird."
Annette shook her head pityingly.
“Here I am, the eldest daughter of my father who was the eldest son of this family.
The previous head of the family also appointed me as his heir during his lifetime, so why would it be normal for my uncle, the second son of a distant lineage, to take this title instead of me?”
Annette looked directly into Bjorn's eyes, but this time, it was Bjorn who averted her gaze.
He had a habit of avoiding the eyes of his older brother who had earned the title, so he did it unconsciously in front of Annette, who was looking at him with eyes similar to her father's.
In an instant, a feeling of shame overwhelmed him, and his face flushed and almost exploded from shame.
Even if his dead brother made him nervous enough to look away, he couldn't imagine that his young niece would make him nervous in the same way and not be able to look her in the eye.
After all, this child was just a little girl.
Bjorn thought it was the perfect opportunity for him to seize the position of Marquis when his older brother suddenly died after announcing that he would bestow the title on his daughter.
The opportunity that he thought would not come even if heaven closed on earth came in an unexpected way.
That his eldest brother died due to a pistol shot by his daughter.
It was a good enough tragedy to exploit, so Björn made an agreement with his sister, Casselia, and then sent Annette to a mental hospital.
Since he was the highest-ranking man in the family, he thought that without Annette, the title would belong only to him.
However, in reality, Bjorn felt trapped between two women and could not utter a single word in front of them.
The two women even treated Björn as someone who wasn't even there with them and continued the conversation while ignoring his presence.
Casselia, whether she was aware of Bjorn's shameful mind or not, took a step closer to Annette.
“Even if you are proven innocent, everything is not resolved yet.”
“If you mean the will, I'm sure you've checked it, aunty, and...”
“I mean this family’s ring.”
“……”
At Casselia's words, the room fell into a heavy silence.