🌷 Chapter Forty-Five –
“Of course, I'm planning to hire some property from the Scheringen estate to do this.
I've been given the title of Marchioness, so I should do it as the new boss.
But since I'm not here for work today, I'd prefer you call me Annette.
I haven't been called by my first name lately.”
“It's the fate of a married woman.
I'm about to even forget my name, ha-ha.”
“So, shall we call each other by our first names today?”
"great."
When the women agreed here and there, the enthusiastic atmosphere returned again, while Lasisya fell silent again.
“May I call you by your first name, Lady Lasisia?
Please feel free to call me Annette as well.”
Annette subtly expressed her desire for friendship, but Lasisia's response was ambiguous.
“Doesn't your husband call you by your first name often enough at home, Marchioness?
Rumor has it that you two are on good terms.”
“Oh my god~”
When Theodore's name came up, some of the women let out muffled cries of admiration.
Annette smiled as if their reaction was funny, but she was also staring at Lasisia inwardly.
I felt a strangely sharp aura.
She couldn't decide whether Lasisia was simply referring to the relationship between the two or whether she was telling her not to call each other by their names.
Annette didn't know which was the right answer, but it wasn't a bad start to the social season that was famous for draining nobles' blood and balancing each other's intentions.
While exchanging silent glances with Lasisia, the other women approached Annette excitedly.
“How did you meet His Highness the Grand Duke?”
“Tell us how you got married.”
After all, Theodore, who belonged to the royal family and had a handsome face, was the main attention among women.
Instead of feeling sad that he had become another woman's husband, they were eagerly waiting for the opportunity to ask someone about him and reveal the truth behind his secret marriage.
And that person was Annette.
“Our first meeting was very natural.
I never thought I would fall in love with him one day.”
When Annette opened her mouth, the women focused their attention on every word she said as their eyes sparkled with excitement.
They enjoyed talking to her.
While Annette was engrossed in talking, she suddenly heard a scream from somewhere.
People's eyes naturally gathered towards the source of the sound.
It looks like someone has spilled black tea on Yvonne's dress.
But the scream belonged to the person who spilled the tea, not Yvonne.
Next to her sat Hugo.
Shortly after, the lady-in-waiting came running and helped Yvonne up and took her somewhere.
Yvonne was steadily going through the heroines' ordeal without Annette's interference.
It seems that some women who were Hugo's fans spilled the tea on her.
This was the role of the original Annette.
Is this the fate that continues to keep events moving steadily even without the villain herself?
So, what will be the fate of the villains Annette and Theodore?
Annette, who was watching the scene from afar, clenched her fists and felt extremely anxious.
As the woman said in the dream, the flow of events in this world had to be changed, but the life of the main character Yvonne was still going as planned.
If fate has already been determined by the development of the novel's events, then Annette has no hope of returning to her world.
But she couldn't give up though.
Everything needed to change.
The most dramatic change is the reversal of the roles of the main character and supporting characters.
Annette wondered what would happen if the villain acted like the main character.
When Annette looked at Yvonne, the women looked sideways at each other.
They were wondering how Annette would react when she saw Hugo and Yvonne.
Annette was sorry that she couldn't live up to their expectations, and didn't pay any attention to the main characters today.
It's not time to get close to Yvonne yet.
If Yvonne falls into the trap that Annette set for her earlier, she will be easy to deal with.
It seems that that day will not be far away.
Annette felt sorry for the main character, but she did not abandon her role as the villain.
***
“Good evening, Mrs.
Sandberger.”
“Hello.
What a nice sunny day.”
Hugo and Cassilia met.
This was not a coincidence.
Since the two people were heading towards the same place, they met here as if it was a coincidence.
“Congratulations on the Sheringen’s new beginning.”
“I appreciate your interest in family matters, Your Majesty.”
“The Shiringen family has been supporting me for a long time, so my interest is natural, right?”
“I have nothing to do with the Scheringen yet, Annette is the boss.”
“I love that big heart you have, lady.”
The conversation seemed meaningless to others, but the meaning of their words was correctly conveyed to each other.
Originally, the Scheringen family was Hugo's ally.
But instead of treating this family's daughter with respect, Hugo ignored her, behaved coldly with her, and humiliated her in front of everyone.
Casselia thought that Hugo's attitude towards Annette was disrespectful towards the Scheringen.
In the midst of this, his friendly behavior now was only because he was dissatisfied with the loss of his ally and not out of love for them.
“You don't seem happy talking to me.”
This time it was Hugo who got straight to the point.
Casselia hated Annette very much.
So Hugo was surprised by Casselia's resentful attitude towards him and wondered if his past actions towards her niece, whom she hated, were worth this overreaction.
“The honor of the Scheringen is my highest priority under any circumstances.”
“So I also hope that Sheringen will remain a strong support for me in the future in order to not lose this honor.”
Annet's succession to the title and marriage to Theodor would change the relationship between the Scheringen and Hugo.
However, if it had been Casselia who had become the head of the family, she would have sided with him without hesitation.
The smile slowly faded from their faces.
Just because you have the same enemy doesn't necessarily mean you're on the same side.
So the two gritted their teeth in resentment.
Hugo did not want to sever ties with the Scheringen family, which supported him with huge sums of money, and although Cassilia was not the head of the family, she had great influence within the family.
Casselia also wanted a man strong enough by her side to be able to defeat Annette and Theodore, and the only person with that level of power was Hugo, the Crown Prince of this empire.
However, both Hugo and Cassilia were people of strong influence in aristocratic society.
Even if they wanted the same thing, it was not easy for them to put their hand in each other's hand.
If they don't trust each other but have the same enemies, they can become on the same side even without mutual trust.
It is enough only if they benefit from each other apart from their personal feelings towards each other.
The two were hesitant about their relationship, but they had a hunch that sooner or later they would hold hands in order to fight a common enemy.
***
Among those gathered at the hunting festival, the lord in charge of the area where the hunting grounds were located and his assistants were also present.
Ernst, the primary aide to the Crown Prince in the novel, was one of them and was responsible for the finances of the Dillberg district.
As usual, he had to collect taxes in the territory.
However, the lord was lured towards a hunting festival and came to this distant capital.
This was because of his first love who suddenly disappeared.
‘If the rumor that she lives in a house near Lider City is true, then she may have come with her family to the Hunting Festival.’
In order for the lord to agree to attend this festival, Ernest had to resolve a dispute between the district of Dillberg and neighboring lands.
Dying was hard, but he could handle it once he had the chance to find Yvonne.
Some people say that Ernest is a perverted man who loves any woman with pink hair, but this was completely unfair.
There was only one pink that Ernest liked in this world.
Yvonne's hair is pink, so soft and so beautiful.
She had a soft pink color like the hair of the woman standing there……what?
"What?"
When Ernest rubbed his eyes and looked again, he saw Yvonne walking in front of him.
He didn't expect it to be so easy to find here, but he did find it.
Yvonne was very different from what he remembered, but he wasn't stupid enough to not know about his first love.
"Hey-!!!
I'm here...I'm here."
Ernest prepared to run towards Yvonne.
“Ernest!”
But unfortunately, someone called him by his name.
“Did you call me?”
In the blink of an eye, Yvonne disappeared from the scene without a trace.
Because Ernest lost his first love, which he found after several years of searching, right before his eyes, he went into a violent tantrum.
Instead of his beautiful lover, he had to meet another woman.
There were many beautiful women in the world, but Ernest never had many of them.
He thought that there was only one woman who could attract his attention with her beauty, and that was Yvonne.
But who was this woman?
Her appearance was really very attractive.
Annette's beauty was somewhat shocking to Ernest.
“I want you to guide the lady around the Dillberg grounds.”
A tour guide in this busy time?
Seriously, fate was never on Ernest's side during his short life.
“After I inherited the family, I became very interested in business.
I heard that Dillberg had many things worth investing in.”
What Annette wanted, surprisingly, was not a city tour.
For some reason, this strange woman took an interest in Dillberg's financial and tax problems.
The bastard lord didn't know anything about her words and couldn't answer her questions, so he summoned Ernest to deal with her.
“So, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to first invest in repairing the road between Lieder and Dillberg?”
“You're right~”
Ernest was amazed.
A vixen appeared out of nowhere and began to charm and seduce the Lord with her sweet words.
There was no reason for Marquis Scheringen, a prominent and central nobleman in the capital of the Laider Empire, to show interest in this small and poor region.
That vixen disguised herself with a beautiful smile to hide her true feelings, but his stupid master didn't notice this at all.
“So I would like to make some investments in road works.”
“Miss...no, I mean we welcome any investment from you, ma’am~”
Ernest clenched his fist at his master's ready answer.
It was clear that this cunning woman wanted something in return.
So even he needed to keep his mind sharp and try to figure out what she was after.
“However, it is impossible to invest without sufficient information about the region.”
“I will give you all the information you need~”
You stupid-!
The Lord agreed with everything that cunning vixen said.
“But I don’t want to waste the time of a noble and trustworthy master like you.”
“Oh, what a nice compliment.”
“If you can appoint someone from Dillberg to help me, I will be able to trust you and invest in your lands.
Oh… You said earlier that this person is in charge of the region’s finances, right?”
Annette pointed at Ernest and smiled.
Her smile conveyed a clear and simple meaning to the Lord without any concealment or falsification.
Ten minutes after Ernest met Annette...
When Ernest came to his senses, he was already in her hands like a toy.