🌷 Chapter Thirty-Four –
"...What the hell?
Why did you do that?"
After a period of silence, Annette answered belatedly, doubting whether she had heard Theodore correctly.
A mother tattoos a slave on her son's back, which carries the blood of the imperial family?
“She did this in order to become the Empress.
All in order to become the official wife of my father, who was already dead, and have her name recorded in the history books.”
“What empress is she talking about?
She has only made herself a despicable person.”
After the death of Empress Eleanora, Maria forcibly dragged her son Theodore and threw him at the feet of the new Emperor Philibert before the former Empress's funeral had even ended, then made him kneel with her in front of his half-brother.
Next to him stood his son Hugo, looking down at him.
"I will raise this child as a mere foolish slave so that he will never become an obstacle in your Highness's life nor in the life of your venerable son.
I will not let him know anything about his worth or status.
I will not give him any of the education that the royal family deserves, nor the rights that those of imperial blood demand, for I know that these things do not belong to this thing and he does not deserve them in the first place."
That scene was still clear in Theodore's eyes as if it had happened only yesterday.
The image of Maria teaching her 10-year-old son obedience and servility next to her was clearly visible to him.
“I will never allow this child to become Emperor.
Instead, place me in the position of Empress so that my name and His Majesty’s name will be written in the history books and we will be together forever.”
Instead of protecting her son's life and future, Maria chose to become Empress for a dead man.
“Should I still love my mother after everything she did to me?”
Theodore's eyes, remembering the humiliation he had suffered that day, lost focus and lost their focus in space.
The word anger was too light to express what he felt in his heart.
At that time Theodore did not even know what the word emperor meant.
He was only 10 years old.
Time passed, but he did not forget anything about the events of that day, including the smell of the burned flesh of his back with the nature of a hot tattoo and the pain that left him unable to feel his body for days.
But the most painful thing was Philibert's looks at him and his mother with eyes full of arrogance and satisfaction, and Hugo's nod as he naturally admitted that Theodore had become a slave at his feet.
What was imprinted that day was not the slave tattoo on his back, but the loser's stigma on his fate.
Annette covered her mouth with both hands.
There was nothing she could say to someone who had been exploited by his mother when he was young and had never grown up since.
Time stopped for Theodore in those moments, and he is still stuck in that spiral of memories.
Annette was upset with herself for making him come up with such a painful story, and she also found out where his inferiority complex came from, and she also knew why he wanted to become Emperor so badly.
His goal was not simply to become emperor, but he wanted to make those who took that position for granted know the value of his existence and never again despise him or consider him something contemptible less than themselves.
Annette saw in front of her a little boy who must have cried himself out of breath as he held on to his burned back without anyone to comfort him.
Aside from her hatred for him, she felt sorry for him.
Annette couldn't hold her feelings anymore because she felt sorry for the person who couldn't be sad or angry while saying such things.
Theodore was a man who did not know what kind of feelings to feel and grew up alone without anyone around him.
“I'm sorry.”
Seeing Annette's confused expression, Theodore's concentration returned little by little, and then he picked up the shirt he had thrown away to put it back on.
“Well, I didn't mean to make you feel sorry for me and I don't want an apology from you because you weren't the reason I…”
Suddenly, Annette lunged at Theodore forcefully.
The shirt fell from his hand again.
"What do you do?"
“Hold your ground.”
Annette hugged him with all her strength.
Theodore looked at the small body that rushed towards him and wrapped his limbs around his body.
She was too young to hug him.
Annette buried her face in the back of his neck, trembling as she tried to wrap her hands tightly around his body.
But she couldn't even hug half of his muscled body.
“Do you sympathize with me?”
"Don't get me wrong.
I'm not hugging you, I'm hugging the boy who was 10 years old at the time.
You are now a villain who deserves death to me, but 10-year-old Theodore is an innocent child who needs someone to hug him and make him feel safe."
Annette said she wouldn't cry, but her voice was shaking.
She had the audacity to try to calm him down when she was clearly shaking and needed someone to calm her down.
Theodore laughed when he saw this woman taking pity on him.
Annette was hugging Theodore now.
But she may not have realized that the bird that hatches from the egg for the first time attaches itself to the first person it sees as its mother and follows it everywhere.
More than that, Theodore, who was human after all, might remember the warmth of the first person who embraced him with real, unfake affection throughout his life.
How can she do something that will remain a lasting memory for the rest of his life when she lives relying on his words that she will walk away with when she achieves her goal?
If you hug a 10-year-old who has never been hugged before, that person will never forget it and will be attached to it forever.
Unaware of this fact, Annette tried to hold back her tears as she hugged Theodore tighter.
Theodore's eyes softened softly as he watched her.
This was the first time he had calmed down easily after remembering Maria's story.
Speaking of his mother, Theodore usually went fishing after talking about her to quench his anger.
But he may have become so calm thanks to the painkillers he took while the wound was closed.
Okay.
completely.
His calmness must have been due to the medications he had taken and not Annette who was now hugging him.
His calmness should never be the result of those feelings that made his mother become madly attached to his father and lose her mind to the point of hurting her son because of them.
Very strangely, the pain from the place where he had been stabbed with the knife disappeared.
Theodore had never gone a single day without pain since he endured the burning pain of his back as a ten-year-old while screaming so hard his vocal cords nearly severed.
But now he was strangely at ease.
Theodore hesitated to raise his arms and hug Annette's little body, but he put her down again and surrendered.
He was an immature husband who was rude to his wife, but instead of apologizing, he received an apology from her in return.
He made her undergo unnecessary tests and selfishly exploited her for his own gain, but instead of feeling ashamed of her, he began to feel comfortable with her.
Her maturity touched Theodore's pride, which had never matured since his mother sold him as a young child.
“You're not going to cry now, are you?”
“…why should I cry for you?”
Nothing flowed, but hot tears welled in Annette's eyes and she tried to rebel in order to run down her cheeks.
It was a story she hadn't read in the novel, so she couldn't help but react in this way to the hidden setting of the villain's past.
Annette sometimes sympathized with the situation of fictional villains in other novels, so how could she not be affected when the person who was breathing right in front of her confessed his inner wounds?
Even if he was a villain from a hackneyed novel, his pain was real and conveyed an irresistible power to Annette's tender heart.
Theodore moved Annette's body away from him very carefully and with a careful touch in order not to hurt her with his strength.
He felt sorry for her body that easily moved away from him when he grabbed him and pushed him away a little.
It had not been long since Annette had hugged Theodore, but she had already managed to hold back her tears and return to her calm face.
She had a useless ability to quickly control her emotions.
“When you finish this drama, go down and look under the bed.”
“...Excuse me?
Did I do something wrong that makes me have to kneel down and beg for him?”
Theodore laughed lightly at her silly words.
"Behind the bed is a false wall, and beyond it there is a passage that leads to the floor under the bed.
Of course, there is a passage like this in the Grand Duchess's room as well.
I don't know if it will open for you with your weak fist, but if you try your best, you will be able to open the secret door enough that you can escape through it and hide underground until help arrives."
At that time, Annette got down on her knees and looked under the bed.
I thought it was a normal wall, but the part hidden under the bed had a subtly deceptive shape.
When she got down to the floor and looked under the bed, Annette saw something very strange lying there.
“Could this be a gun?”
The gun was mounted where Theodore could reach it if he extended his arm while lying on the bed.
“Is there one in my room too?”
“Not yet.
You don’t even know how to shoot, so what are you going to do with him?
Come here.”
When Annette obediently followed him, Theodore touched the head of the bed, and then a small knife protruded from a metal pinned above the bed that she had thought was just an ornament.
“But this knife is in your room too.”
The peacock statue, which I thought was placed there to indicate that the couple was living a happy married life, had a knife hidden inside it.
Annette felt somewhat frightened and sat on the bed.
“Is there anything else that would surprise me?”
“Okay.
This is all routine for me, so I don’t know what you might be surprised by.”
Annette turned around and saw Theodore's face looking at her.
He was a fair-skinned and handsome prince, but he was filled with all kinds of ugly and dark experiences inside.
Despite his hunting hobbies, his fair skin, bearing a few scars from the past, was merely a form of protection to hide the disfiguring burns on the inside.
Annette couldn't even guess what kind of life he had lived so far.
They were all scars from those people who don't even know it……
That an evil monster and an innocent child lived together behind that handsome face.
Since the weak child could not defeat the cruel monster, others would only see his evil and shameless appearance.
Annette could understand why this hateful man had dragged her to hell.
Since he was living in Hell, the only place he could bring her to was Hell.
Annette closed her eyes as she tried to stop the hand that was about to stroke his hair and pat his head.
She can't sympathize with him anymore.
You should maintain a reasonable distance from him before getting too attached to him.
“I thought you blocked all the hidden paths while clearing the servants’ passage.”
“Officially, yes.
But I am not a servant.”
When Theodore assumed the title of Grand Duke and undertook extensive construction of the Floris Palace, all corridors intended for hidden use and in which people could hide were removed.
But in fact, Theodore built many other roads as compensation, so there were new corridors through which he could escape if he was in danger.
“Is it okay to tell me all this?”
“If you have the same corridor in your room, then you are in the same danger as me.
We are in this together so you have the right to know.”
together.
Annette thought about these words that Theodore had said.
His “together” won’t end with “they lived together happily ever after.”
Instead, it is likely to be the opposite.
“Does this mean I might have to crawl under the bed too for my life?”
“You understood my words well.”
“Please make sure I sleep on top of the bed and not under it.”
When will Annette really die?
She had no idea about this.
This is because she is living a life where she does not know who will kill her or where she will die.
* * *
Was it because she was shocked to see the blood flowing from Theodore's waist?
Annette had trouble sleeping that night.
She walked around the room a little and played with the bed decorations for no reason, then took out the knife several times and put it back in its place before lying on the bed again.
She tossed and turned for a long time in her bed, unable to sleep comfortably even after lying down.
Then she could barely sleep, but she immediately woke up again.
Then...
Annette saw an incredible sight before her.