“I have been like the doormat of an aristocratic family.
If the little boy who will become the heir of the baron family makes a mistake, I will be flogged instead.”
Hans overcame his hesitation and began to recall his past.
These were memories that he desperately wanted to erase from his memory but he could never forget them.
Hans grew up in an orphanage, so he loved it for a while when the Baron came to adopt him and told him he would have a place to live in his house.
But after being flogged several times, he realized that he was just a toy in the hands of the noble family.
So Hans had to spend his days painfully enough that he became nostalgic for the days when he lived in an orphanage.
The boy from the baron's family was not interested in studying, and because of the stupid boy, the bruises on Hans' legs never went away.
Hans, who was afraid of the pain, offered to teach the boy who was always scolded for not being able to keep up with the teacher.
That was just an innocent idea.
But from that day on, Hans knew that the thing that was more frightening than the stick was the noble boy's spite.
The young master expressed his dissatisfaction, saying that shoes and the like should not dare to ignore him and try to teach him this way.
He said that Hans was arrogant and that he had intentionally made the noble boy miss the exam, so Hans was beaten again.
In the end, the boy tried to expel Hans by accusing him of being a thief.
“It was the first time I suffered from such injustice.
When I was in the orphanage, they used to hit me on the palm of my hand to discipline me, but the Baron’s family used to hit me on the face, stomach, and legs because they were easier to hit than the palms of the hands, and those places caused more pain when hit.”
Hans' eyes sank deeply into the darkness.
Then Annette straightened her shoulders, which had shrunk at the horror of those words.
“I was thrown out into the street naked.
They even took away the rags I was wearing the first day I went to the baron’s house, so I couldn’t even go back to the orphanage because of the shame.”
After that, Hans lived a stubborn life as a homeless child, taking on all kinds of menial jobs from shining shoes to sweeping shops.
The only thing Hans thought was very good about that house was that he would stand at the back of the classroom while waiting to be reprimanded instead of the boy who was taking the class, and he would concentrate in the class harder than the boy, so he learned everything the teacher said by heart.
Although he was sent away empty-handed, he walked away with a head full of knowledge that was more valuable than money.
So Hans studied hard with the idea of taking revenge one day and becoming a talented lawyer.
Then one day, Hans accidentally met the noble boy who became a young master.
It was in a hunting ground where the nobles gathered.
It was a meeting that Hans attended at the invitation of a gentleman who was responsible for teaching him law at the time.
Hans felt embarrassed, humiliated, and on top of everything...
He was afraid.
Childhood imprints were strong, so they opened up an old wound that swelled like a monster over the years inside his heart.
So Hans growled at the young master, trying to forget his fear.
But the young master was still the same, and when Hans said a few right words, he tried to kill him.
It wasn't just a threat, he actually held a gun to Hans' head at the hunting ground.
But Theodore then intervened and stopped him.
Theodor succeeded in subduing the most terrifying creatures to Hans.
From then on, Theodor became the most powerful person for Hans, and his presence was irresistible.
“If it weren't for him, I would have died that day as a noble's toy instead of a deer.”
Hans made an unfunny joke.
“You are very kind, Mr.
Hans, despite your cruel past.”
“Me?
I’m not nice at all… I… I’m just reticent to hold myself back only in front of Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”
“Ernst always calls me Mrs.
Rascal just because I give him so much unfinished business.
On the other hand, Master Hans still respectfully calls that scoundrel Young Master.
Your words are very kind, Master Hans.”
“So what should I call him?”
Annette thought for a moment before opening her mouth.
“In my own opinion, I might call him #_#.”
"#_# … What?"
(M.M.: Annette said an insult in Korean that belonged to her original world, not the language of her and Hans’ current world.)
“#_# and @$#$.
It means that he is a very disgusting, contemptible and immoral person as well, a shameless man.”
Hans thought about the unfamiliar words Annette had just said.
“These strange words seem to be insults, but they are not intelligible at all.
They are an expression that can let others know how I feel while they cannot understand them.”
“Exactly~ They're not intelligible words, so there's no need to feel guilty saying them.”
“It's an expression that suits young master.
The#_#.”
Hans laughed a little, covered his face with his hand, and then laughed again.
His expression seemed casual, as if he was very comfortable next to Annette.
Annette, who had only seen his frowning expression all day, thought his smile was a little strange.
Neither of them cared that Annette had said something out of this world.
“This is why I don’t hate Her Highness the Grand Duchess.
I knew you wouldn’t have any negative reaction even if I told you about my childhood.”
This was the best possible expression of Hans' great pride and respect for Annette, as he could never say that he cherished anyone in his life.
Just like at the hunting ground that day.
“I will help you become emperor.
Your revenge is my revenge.”
Hans swore allegiance to Theodor because he really wanted to make him emperor.
Theodor decided to show that an illegitimate child could also become an emperor, and this was an excellent revenge for Hans, so Hans continued to play pranks on the nobles all his life.
At least once, Hans wanted to see the situation these nobles were so proud of collapse.
If possible, he wanted to participate in that collapse with his own hand.
He followed Theodore because he wanted to see how the faces of the proud nobles would crumble the moment someone they had been ignoring and mocking rose to the top.
Theodor was the only one who could avenge Hans.
“I didn't know that His Highness the Grand Duke had a good side for saving people.”
“Actually, the young master was participating in a plan to assassinate the Grand Duke.
So His Highness was going to move sooner or later to eliminate him, but in the end, His Highness saved my life by chance.”
“….”
Theodore was such a person.
A person who recklessly saves another person's life by doing something selfish for themselves and not with good intentions.
“Do you know the real reason why he wanted to become emperor?”
“……”
“So you know.”
This was a story Annette heard in the garden of the Flores Palace on the day of the wine party.
It was a story I heard from someone who leaned on her in the dark after she was afraid the light bulbs would go out.
But she buried that memory inside her.
“He said that he would abolish the inheritance law for legitimate children only.
I thought he was crazy at first.
Sure, it is crazy, but it is not the kind of crazy I was thinking.
No matter how crazy his idea was, the laws of the imperial family could really be changed by someone who inherited imperial blood like him.”
Hans expressed passionately the absurdity he felt.
“The Empire of Odentia has survived to this day because it was a state based entirely on its principles.
But for such words that would shake the foundations of the state to come out of the mouth of a member of the royal family?
Do you know how funny and amazing that was at the same time?”
Hans burst out laughing.
“That is why I bear his wrath and serve him despite his hot temper.
He is such a person.
If someone has an ideology similar to the thinking of chosen people like me, then His Highness is the kind of person who would make even a cowardly person follow him valiantly into the abyss.”
“I don’t know why you suddenly started praising him, but it’s a bit surprising that His Highness has accepted Mr.
Hans as his assistant.
He’s the kind of person who doesn’t want anyone on their side.”
“He knows that I am willing to take advantage of him in return for him taking advantage of me.
Haven’t you noticed that there are many broken people everywhere around the Grand Duke?”
Annette understood very well what Hans meant.
Theodore was surrounded by people who lacked something:
Orphan Hans, a deaf maid, and a dog missing a leg.
Annette herself was the most lacking among them.
Because Annette, who was not a person of this world, was the most broken being.
Theodore, an arrogant person who seemed to enjoy only the most expensive things, somehow got along with those who were not perfect.
However, because he was completely indifferent, he seemed to say that all of these people were extremely normal.
"It's not that he's an impudently philanthropic man.
His Highness is someone who instinctively knows who he would lay down his life for.
He has a knack for picking on people who have nowhere to turn but him."
A person's loyalty does not come only from good intentions.
On the contrary, emotions based on hatred are more righteous and sometimes make loyalty continue uninterrupted.
Theodore knew this feeling all too well.
And I knew him as well.
The status of an illegitimate prince, a mother who only showed him corrupt love, and a father who couldn't even express his affection with emotion because he couldn't love his son properly.
The ridicule and criticism that flows towards him from everywhere despite his wealth and honor is just a facade.
The man who couldn't have anything, despite carrying the blood of the most noble royal family, knew what it was like to have nothing.
He knew how everyone could be saved if those who had nothing were pushed to the brink and made their way out of hell.
Theodore was able to buy someone's loyalty because he knew when to lend a helping hand precisely at the moment when that person was sinking into great despair.
The help offered to you at a moment when you were unable to get out of a predicament was something so sweet that a person could not resist it even if the hand extended was the hand of Satan himself.
“Since such a person brought you to his palace, of course I thought that Her Highness the Grand Duchess also looked like us.
But I was wrong.”
“You were not wrong.
I was in a more miserable situation than Mr.
Hans, and I had nowhere to return to either.”
Annette gave a slightly sad look.
His words reminded her of when she was confined in Elisia Sanatorium.
Annette remembered how delighted she had been when she saw sparkling silver hair where she had not seen even a handful of ashes in the light.
At best, Annette had neither body nor soul.
She never owned anything, like Hans who had no parents, the maid without a voice, and the dog without legs.
Nothing at all.
So the only thing she could hold was Theodore's hand.
Angette knew, as well as everyone else around Theodore, that he was the hope of the desperate.
“Don't talk nonsense.
Why are you taking your life so lightly?”
“It's not that I take my life lightly.
I can't tell you the real reason, but I don't want to die, so I'm in a position where I'm forced to stay by His Highness' side and risk my life for him until the end.”
Hans clicked his tongue and then looked at Annette for the first time with eyes full of pity and sympathy.
“I assure you, on my honour, that the day will soon come when Your Highness will lay down his life for you, and the Grand Duchess will no longer have to risk her life for His Highness Theodore.”
"truly?"
Annette weakly raised the corners of her mouth, lifted the already cold teacup, and took a sip.
There was no confidence in her forced smile.
Hans, who was a lawyer who lived by trusting others in his words, opened his mouth as he tried to confirm his words.
“If someone like me, who believes that love is just a waste and does not understand the emotional issues of others, says something like this now, know that I am right and that days will prove what I am telling you sooner or later.
Despite your grave mistake in staying away from each other now, your paths will cross again and it will become difficult for you to separate again.”