🌷 Chapter Thirty-Eight –
“You pretended to have changed, but you still haven't forgotten His Highness the Crown Prince and want to harass me as usual, right?
You still harbor love in your heart.”
“No, it's just that I don't want to go against Miss Yvonne.”
Even though Annette knew Yvonne wouldn't take her word for it, she wasn't comfortable harassing the heroine and ruining her life like the villains of novels.
Therefore, she hoped that Yvonne would be convinced by her words.
In order to change the flow of this world and return to her own, Annette must break the love between the two, however, she was reluctant to do so herself because she was the one who witnessed Yvonne and Hugo's love story as a reader of the novel.
“Please get out of here.”
Yvonne pointed firmly toward the door.
This time, Annette nodded.
"And one more thing.
Don't be unjustly kind and don't live your life too kindly.
If you live in a room where you don't have at least ten dresses and you can't pick up a poor animal in the street so you can treat it, your future will be very difficult.
Since I've made this clear to you, I'll go on my way now."
Annette disappeared faster than she appeared.
Yvonne stood confused, unable to understand what had happened.
She was staring into the empty space when the housemaid approached her.
“You should have told me beforehand that there was a guest coming to meet you.
Who will clean up all this mess now?”
The maid's irrational scolding of Yvonne began again.
These words made Yvonne's heart sadder than when she had been listening to Annette's harsh words.
Annette had an excuse to harass Yvonne because she saw her as the woman who stole Hugo, the man she had first loved before Yvonne showed up, but there was no reason for the maid to bully her.
People say that Annette was jealous of Yvonne, but in reality, it was Yvonne who was jealous of Annette.
Rather, Yvonne was jealous of Annette's lifestyle.
No matter what evil things Annette does, the home she eventually returns to is the palace, not a shabby room in the home of her relatives who hate her.
Everyone feared her and did not dare say a word in front of her.
On the other hand, what about Yvonne?
She had come to Lader City from the countryside, but was in a position where she could not respond to the maid's harassment of her.
Others described Yvonne as a lucky woman who captured the Crown Prince's love, but the reality was very different.
Her situation was ambiguous, as Yvonne had not yet even received a promise of marriage from Hugo.
She knew better than anyone that marriage was impossible because of her social status.
But she was greedy.
Hugo used to give her things sweeter than honey when it was difficult for her to find even a piece of sugar in her room to put in her bitter and cold tea.
So Yvonne was fascinated by expensive jewelry and luxuries that she had never seen before in her life, but despite this, her pride prevented her from pursuing those things.
So she continued to feel like she was being stabbed in a painful area.
The moment Yvonne saw Hugo, she had a gut feeling that she had no choice but to love him back, and she did.
However, the more they met, the more they felt strange feelings that they called love.
It was definitely a mutual admiration from the two, but it wasn't pure or desperate platonic love.
(M.M.: Platonic love, in reference to the virtuous city of Plato, the Roman philosopher.
This phrase means virtuous and pure love that is not permeated by any impurities, worldly ambitions, or impure intentions.)
But whatever they had in common, the result was the same.
Yvonne was well aware of the cost of the Crown Prince lusting after a poor woman just for her beauty, which she could lose at any moment.
So the only guarantee was the word love.
For this reason, Yvonne had to appear before the Crown Prince as a pitiful woman who would devote herself to Hugo with a pure heart in order not to lose his temporary interest in her.
Because only in this way will she be able to get out of this hell in which she lives.
As a result of all these thoughts...
...While Yvonne doubted her feelings for Hugo, she desperately denied Annette's love for him within her.
Because otherwise, she wouldn't be able to pursue Hugo because of her principles and morals.
She had thought many times about breaking up with him because of the guilt she felt every time she told him she loved him.
But on the other hand, unlike Annette, who was living a life of luxury, Yvonne could not abandon Hugo and return to her hell.
No, she learned not to give up on him.
Even though she was the daughter of an aristocrat who had lost his status and become a commoner, she did not want to lose her pride and beg for her life.
Her mind, which wanted to live comfortably, and her other mind, which did not want to break her parents' teachings, were fighting every moment.
Yvonne opened the box Annette had left behind.
It had expensive lace gloves.
Annette was like Hugo.
If she didn't like something, she could throw it away in an instant and buy another new fancy outfit, but Yvonne was someone who couldn't have anything even if she liked it.
The grip of the hand holding the glove tightened.
Yvonne thought of Annette, who lived opposite her and only did evil things, but who was more of an aristocrat than anyone else.
Yvonne continued to stare at the beautiful gloves that she would never be able to buy in her life, then looked at the maid who was cleaning the floor, which was not even dirty, while complaining.
“Go to work.”
“Who do you think you are to command me?”
“Is this how you behave with your masters?”
“I don't see any master here.”
“I am also one of your masters.
You must not treat me in such a rude manner.”
Yvonne went out into the street, leaving the maid behind in a state of shock at her first reaction, and ran straight to the clothing store, then put on all the clothes Annette had bought for her and had them tailored to her size.
Yvonne looked up at the sky on her way out of the store after matching her clothing measurements.
Nothing had changed except that the sun had set a little.
"It's really what Her Highness said.
There's nothing wrong with having a few decent clothes."
It was so easy.
Yvonne had believed that the sky would collapse when her pride collapsed, but nothing ever happened to this world.
She learned from her parents that she should always be nice and live a good life.
They told her to be proud of being the daughter of her noble aristocratic father and to maintain this pride until death.
They told her that if she accepted help from the enemy without a reason, she would pay a price.
“Thinking about it, my father and mother are dead now.”
Yvonne's parents lived with this mentality and died after losing their lands and committing suicide.
It was very uncomfortable when she forced herself to confess her love for the Crown Prince, but it became easier when she compromised a little and accepted her arrogant and selfish mind.
Yvonne eventually admitted it.
Her love for Hugo is impure, and she is in fact a selfish woman.
She was jealous of Annette, but she blamed her because she didn't want to break her parents' will and become a selfish and unkind person.
Something began to change in Yvonne's heart.
She didn't even know that Annette had touched her heart, which had already begun to change.
Annette's words affected her in a very subtle way.
Yvonne burst out laughing at her pathetic self in the middle of the street.
The only thing that has changed by living like Annette is her wardrobe, which has become fuller.
But she didn't want to be evil like Annette.
What is the benefit if others respect you in front of your face but are pointed at and tried to get rid of behind your back?
What if Yvonne did something Annette had never done before?
At that moment, a carriage quickly passed in front of the stunned Yvonne.
The moment she just screamed and couldn't avoid it...
“Watch out!”
Someone saved her.
***
The five days that Annette had promised her Aunt Casselia had passed.
It seemed like a long time had passed because the last days had been so eventful, but in reality it had not been that long.
In particular, these five days were an extremely short period of time for the Sheringen to be able to gather all of their blood relatives who were scattered throughout the empire.
At the very least, there were a lot of relatives gathered in the Leader Capital thanks to the social season, so the main characters were able to gather in the meeting hall today.
Many people, whether immediate or distant relatives or even aristocrats with distant ties to the family, flocked to the palace one after another.
As they entered the palace, they stopped in front of the giant eagle tapestry.
The eagle standing on the crescent moon awakened a sense of awe in the outsiders and pride in the hearts of the Scheringen.
The eagle looked into the eyes of those who had been coming and going to the palace for decades.
Also, in the lands of Scheringen, the sound of eagles could be heard day and night in the sky.
Those gathered in groups of three or four laughed at Annette's rudeness or questioned her mental health when she said she would become the new head of the household today.
It was after each of them considered who might become the new head of the family and lined up with him.
“She said that she would inherit the title of Marchioness, but she didn’t even bring the family head’s ring.
I heard that she had quarreled with Lady Casilia over it, but that just shows her lack of ability to head the family before even starting the succession war.”
“The real problem is that a girl decided to become the head of the family.
The previous head of the family, who loved her so much and appointed her as his successor, was an even bigger problem, and I have been against his reckless decision ever since.”
"She had to keep chasing the prince she loved or meekly marry some man.
How dare a girl with nothing special but her pretty face try to stand above us men."
After chatting for a while, when Casselia passed by them, all the whispers calmed down at once.
When Caslea glanced sideways at them, everyone automatically lowered their heads.
Casselia was never better than Annette.
There was a lot people could say about the woman whose husband died suddenly, took her son with her, left her husband's family, and began living on her own.
Now that she was here, the topic of gossip would move from Annette to Casselia.
The eagle on the wall had heard everything about the past, even back then when Casselia cried heartily and her father punished her, angry that she had wanted to become the next head of the family for decades.
“If we had known in advance that Burhart would die young, it would have been better for Casselia to become the head of this family.
Perhaps her husband would have been a suitable head of the family instead of that reckless girl.”
(MM: Burhart is Annette's father's name)
“I remember seeing her screaming when she was little while asking why she couldn’t become the head of the family.
That child’s eyes were filled with hatred, and so were her words.”
Amid the noise of the audience's chatter, the place was quiet for a moment.
Annette has come to the palace.
She got out of the large carriage and entered the palace proudly.
Unlike the other people who were wearing frilly clothes to show off their wealth, Annette was wearing a plain black dress like the one she had worn in the cathedral, so it reminded them of the atmosphere of a funeral.
But this time she did not wear a hijab and her face was completely exposed.
Her innocent features and resolute attitude made her graceful walk stand out.
As she walked with smooth steps, the people who had been speaking ill of her loudly just moments ago were drenched in cold sweat.
She didn't even look at them, but it was like she was yelling at them.
They knew she had something that made them feel nervous like that.
She had eyes like those of a predatory eagle in the sky.
In front of her, everyone swallowed their dry saliva, and they all noticed it at the same time.
Annette was no longer the same difficult little bitch she used to be.
She had become the mature family heiress who could control them with a single glance.
After exchanging glances without speaking, they all ran to the banquet hall.
Their instinct warned them that something very bad would happen if they entered the hall after Annette.