Chapter 83
This Will Be the Last Time I See Myself Like This
Rationally, he knew it would have been wiser to take a step back.
If he wanted to prepare for the time when he would leave with Anette, it would be troublesome if the Grand Duke grew suspicious of his visits.
But the Grand Duke’s attitude toward Anette, which had seemed indifferent until now, was so unexpectedly different that it unsettled him.
Just as she had once left his side during his absence and become another man’s fiancée, he worried that perhaps something about Anette had changed during this brief month apart.
Unable to shake the restless urge to confirm with his own eyes, Zeon ended up provoking Grand Duke Harzent, drawing his wariness.
Yet Zeon felt no regret.
The sting of his mistake—trying to prove Anette’s worth only after returning from the subjugation—was still eating at him.
In the end, since he admitted to himself how important she was, he couldn’t forgive the cowardice that had kept him from reaching out his hand and asking her to leave with him right away.
Compared to that, this kind of blunder seemed like nothing.
“Did you hear? They say he’s a wizard, a real wizard!”
At that moment, Luke, who usually hid his excitable personality in front of Hubert, spoke in a thrilled voice.
“I’ve never seen a wizard before. Do you think it’d be okay if I snuck off for a moment to catch a glimpse?”
Zeon let out a short laugh at Luke’s elaborate plan to wander around as if lost and then knock on the wizard’s door.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Go ahead, if you’d like to get yourself thrown out of the Grand Duke’s castle.”
“Ah! No, that would be terrible. I have to stay here and serve the Princess, after all!”
“……”
Zeon stared at Luke, who was busy renewing his resolve, with an unreadable expression before brushing past him into the room. He went straight to the window and opened it.
Looking outside, he saw the head butler climbing into the carriage they had arrived in and returning to the main residence.
Just then, that carriage passed another one that was parked in front of the annex.
Another guest?
Zeon thought absentmindedly, but then suddenly furrowed his brow.
Luke tilted his head, puzzled at Zeon’s sudden stillness.
“What is it?”
Zeon stopped moving and murmured in a dazed voice.
“I thought I heard the captain’s voice.”
“What? Really?”
Luke also began fussing, darting his eyes around.
“But… I don’t see anyone. And I don’t hear anything either.”
Zeon gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
If she were really in the annex, the Grand Duke would never have sent them here.
“I must have imagined it.”
It had to be an auditory illusion… born of longing too strong to bear.
“Your Highness?”
Martin greeted Anette and Larisa with a bewildered face as they suddenly appeared in his laboratory.
“What brings you here?”
No servants ever entered this annex where the notoriously irritable wizard lived.
And since there were rarely guests to the Grand Duke’s residence in the first place, the annex had remained quiet and untouched.
So when the future Grand Duchess, whom the Grand Duke cherished above all, appeared at his door, Martin could hardly believe his eyes.
Larisa, too, widened her eyes, curious as to why Anette had come running to the wizard, leaving her rabbit doll carefully in her room.
“Well, um…”
Struggling to speak, Anette avoided answering directly and instead let her gaze wander across the cluttered laboratory—piles of research notes, a cauldron bubbling with white smoke, shelves of strange-colored bottles.
But when her eyes fell on Martin’s haggard face, she couldn’t bring herself to say what she’d come for right away.
“Your Highness…?”
When the silence grew awkward and Martin prompted her again, Anette finally spoke cautiously.
“I just… wanted to see how the research was going. You said the antidote would be complete soon, but I haven’t heard anything…”
Once the words left her lips, she felt guilty, as though she were pushing a hardworking man too harshly.
But Martin only looked sheepish, as though he found her impatience natural.
“My apologies for making you wait. The antidote research is nearly finished. If His Grace hadn’t kept assigning me unrelated tasks, it would already be done.”
“Unrelated tasks… do you mean the rabbit doll?”
“Exactly! He was so impossibly particular that I lost far too much time.”
Was the magical device that could record and play voices really that difficult to make?
Anette thought that compared to the long-distance communication orbs, it ought to be simple, but since she was no expert, she let it go.
Instead, she asked with barely contained excitement:
“Then the antidote will really be finished soon?”
“Of course. In fact, I’ve even created a temporary antidote already!”
With confidence, Martin pointed to a small glass vial filled with shimmering green liquid.
Anette’s eyes widened as she looked at it.
“If I drink that, I can return to my real body?”
“There are still a few details left to confirm, but in my estimation, it should be fine.”
“Then… could I drink it right now?”
“What? Right now?”
Martin, who had been boasting a moment ago, blinked in surprise.
Anette scratched her cheek shyly.
“It’s just… I really want to go back as soon as possible. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but an envoy came from Hayworth. His Grace said he would handle it, but I feel like I should meet them myself…”
She trailed off with an awkward smile.
The truth was, that was only an excuse. What she really wanted was to meet Cardin as an adult and finally confess her heart.
“I wonder if I could try the temporary antidote, just to see how effective it is…”
As she fidgeted with her fingers in embarrassment, Martin muttered to himself.
“Indeed… it’s been difficult to test properly, since it involves phenomena unknown to ordinary humans. If we could examine it right away, that would be ideal…”
Then, with a decisive nod, he agreed.
“If that’s what Your Highness wishes, then I consent. The temporary antidote is practically finished anyway—it only requires adjusting the dosage of a calming herb, so there’s no real danger.”
Calming herb?
Anette tilted her head.
Why would an antidote meant to restore her body include ingredients related to mental peace?
Before she could ask, Martin continued:
“By the way, Your Highness, you look far healthier than when we first met. His Grace must have followed my advice well.”
“…?”
“Although, honestly, I’m sure he would have done fine even without my suggestions…”
Remembering how he had been forced to watch Cardin whispering into the little rabbit doll with a voice sickeningly sweet, Martin grimaced and shook his head. Then he asked Anette:
“Shall we try the experiment, then?”
Click.
Closing the door of her dressing room, Anette carefully lifted the vial in her hand.
Her eyes sparkled as she gazed at the sloshing green liquid.
She had just returned to her room from the annex with the temporary antidote.
She’d wanted to drink it immediately, but…
Not here, Your Highness. If you regain your adult body, you’ll have nothing appropriate to wear…
Only after Martin had said this did she realize how thoughtless her impatience had been.
“My lady, it’s me, Larisa!”
A quiet whisper came from the other side of the door.
Anette quickly opened it, and Larisa, cheeks flushed from rushing around, thrust something into her hands.
“Oh… this is…”
“It’s a dress His Grace had prepared for you! I fetched it from the chamber that was meant to be yours.”
Larisa’s cheerful answer left Anette dazed.
On their way back in the carriage, she had confided in Larisa, worrying aloud that they should at least prepare a maid’s outfit for her in case she became an adult.
Larisa had blinked in confusion, then asked why she would need a maid’s clothes when her own dresses already filled the Grand Duke’s castle.
And so Anette discovered that Cardin had stocked the Grand Duchess’s chamber—connected to his own—with countless dresses for her.
Why on earth did he prepare all that…
Feeling flustered, Anette stroked the deep green dress, then turned to Larisa.
“Then wait outside for me.”
“My lady, are you sure you don’t need me with you?”
“Of course.”
She had been warned that she must remove all her clothes before drinking the antidote, since her body would change.
Though Larisa often helped her bathe, that was only possible because she was in a child’s body.
She couldn’t possibly face Larisa naked once she became an adult.
“I chose a dress that seemed simple enough to put on alone, but if you do need help, just call me!”
Reluctant to leave her mistress but determined to respect her wishes, Larisa closed the door softly.
Finally alone, Anette set the dress on the table and began carefully taking off her current clothes, worried she might damage the gown that the Empress Dowager had given her.
Then she wrapped herself in an oversized towel and stood before the full-length mirror.
Looking back at her was the red-haired little girl she had seen upon first awakening in the Alkane Empire.
This will be the last time I see myself like this.
There was no guarantee it would work, but Anette forced herself to think positively.
Martin had said that the strength of her desire to return mattered most.
If that’s the case, I have more than enough resolve.
Her eyes glinted with determination—she was done being treated like a child.
With that thought, she pulled out the stopper and swallowed the potion in one gulp.
