RVCM | Chapter 005

Chapter 005

Annette had been abruptly pulled into the world of this book without knowing why.

In an unfamiliar world, even the movements of her body felt awkward…

She felt like a parasite.

Annette couldn’t move freely because every time she did, she began to feel that the limbs she was using belonged to someone else.

Every movement was terrifying, as if she were forcing a lifeless corpse to move.

Thus, it was impossible for her to get used to this body or this world.

Nor did she think she wanted to adapt to them and live a difficult life as the novel’s villainess.

It was unfortunate to live a life tied to someone else’s, so she would have preferred to die.

But for better or worse, as soon as Annette opened her eyes, she found herself facing the threat of death.

Since it was someone else’s life, Annette couldn’t end it, so she decided to endure the situation for a short while.

And in the moment she gave up on everything…

This man appeared.

When he quietly whispered an opportunity for survival in her ear, Annette thought he was her salvation.

The words whispered to her about escaping that asylum were so sweet that she didn’t hesitate to seize the chance.

She blindly followed Theodore, not knowing whether she was heading toward heaven or hell.

In truth, Annette expected that the place she was going to wouldn’t be heaven, but she didn’t know that the person she was following would be a guide to the depths of hell.

How could Theodore, a mere fictional character in a book, have brought Annette into his world?

Unanswered questions piled up in her mind as anger surged within her.

“Tell me. How in the Creator’s name did you summon me here?”

Annette’s words carried not the slightest hint of courtesy.

She had abandoned the calm she had struggled to maintain, crushing it on the path the carriage traveled.

Now, Annette’s mind was filled only with a relentless determination to learn how to return to her world.

“How did you bring me here?”

“There’s a way to bring you here, but I can’t tell you about it.”

In the end, unable to contain her anger, Annette grabbed Theodore’s shirt collar forcefully and pulled him toward her.

Her rage was wild and boundless.

It was the fiercest emotion she had felt since entering this world.

“A few months ago, Annette Cheringen was talking nonsense about how a soul from another world would enter the body she was leaving, and that the person who would come would know the secrets and future of this world.”

As Theodore spoke, Annette’s grip on his collar slowly lost its strength.

“She said it would be like a holy spirit that never errs, so if I received help from it, my fate would change, and I’d become Emperor. All her talk was ridiculous, but do you know what was the most absurd part?”

“…”

“To summon a soul from that world, a certain price had to be paid. Part of it was already provided, so she asked me to provide the other part.”

“So, did you pay the price she asked for?”

“I was fed up with dealing with her at the time. I wasn’t ready to pay for anything, so I told her to leave immediately. After that, Annette Cheringen disappeared, and there was an article saying Marquis Cheringen had died.”

Theodore took Annette’s hand, which was gripping his collar, and gently placed it on her lap.

“I don’t know who you are.”

He smoothed out his collar and adjusted it.

“But I’ll tell you how to return to your original world. In exchange, make me Emperor.”

Annette looked into Theodore’s eyes and gasped.

His eyes were filled with madness.

If he were sane in the first place, he wouldn’t even believe in something like reincarnation.

An unwavering obsession to achieve his goal, even if the means weren’t from this world or even reality, and a willingness to use a mad, angry woman.

That’s what those eyes told her.

Until Theodore got what he wanted, she would never escape his grasp.

Annette had been caught in this man’s trap and had fallen into this world for an indefinite period.

“So, be my holy spirit. If you’re the grace that woman spoke of, I’ll return you to your spirit world.”

There was no reverence on his lips.

Far from awe at her being from another world, there was only arrogance in his words.

At that moment, the coachman cracked the whip, the horses sped up, and the carriage shook, but it was Annette’s heart that trembled more.

The carriage continued its journey late into the night.

* * *

‘I thought I was dizzy from seeing sunlight for the first time in a while.’

The sunlight had long disappeared, but her head was still throbbing with pain.

Her complicated thoughts had grown wings and were actively tormenting her mind.

Vineyards were visible from the carriage.

Everywhere Annette looked was green and fresh, so she had nowhere to rest her eyes except on the ripe grapes.

This was a place no one visited except workers, and no one would approach it by mistake.

The sounds of grass insects and the stars in the night sky were the most prominent features in the dazzling scene.

The carriage carrying Annette and Theodore stopped in this place.

When Annette stepped out of the carriage, she saw a secluded villa surrounded by vineyards.

The exterior, made of stacked tree trunks, wasn’t appealing enough to call it a noble’s villa, but it was a place where Theodore rested when he wanted a break.

It was a deliberately rundown building constructed for the purpose of staying unnoticed, and the property was also owned by someone unrelated to Theodore.

“We’ll stay here for a while.”

Theodore’s rest stop was currently Annette’s hiding place.

The villa’s suspicious appearance might arouse curiosity in ordinary people, but Annette didn’t ask Theodore anything.

After her outburst in the carriage, her expression had returned to an unreadable state.

She didn’t even respond to the conversation Theodore tried to start.

“While hiding here for a while, I plan to deal with the trial and the annoying matters hanging over you. Once things are settled, I’ll move you to my own palace.”

“I’m tired.”

Annette turned her back, ignoring Theodore’s explanation.

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll stay here, just tell me where the bed is. It’s been a long time since I walked more than ten steps, so I’m extremely weak.”

There was no strength in her voice, nor was there any emotion.

Faced with her obvious boredom, Theodore frowned.

“I won’t go so far as to tell you to accept your situation with joy, but I also have no intention of seeing you act so uncooperatively.”

Theodore had many things to ask her and arrange with her, but her tightly shut mouth wouldn’t open.

“I said I’m tired.”

Annette’s response wasn’t loud or low, nor was it an expression of anger; she spoke to explain her current state.

It wasn’t even a weak rebellion on her part.

Then Theodore realized she was truly struggling.

Eat, drink, sleep.

It had been a month since Annette couldn’t even maintain the three basics of survival.

Her body was so thin that every bone was protruding.

Her body was exhausted after riding a rattling carriage for hours with a frame that had lost all its muscle.

“Tell me which room I can use.”

When Annette asked in a hoarse, halting voice, a maid came running, flustered.

The hurried maid saw the woman next to Theodore and stopped midway in shock.

It was Emma, a nearly deaf maid who couldn’t hear.

Instead of hearing with her ears, she read people’s lips and was quick-witted.

That’s why Theodore chose Emma as the maid for the villa.

Because people who listen too much aren’t good for relaxation.

“Take her to her room.”

Emma nodded and led Annette to the bedroom.

Annette’s appearance was so dreadful even for the maid to see, and she needed urgent care, so Emma was at a loss about what to do first.

First, she wanted to prepare bathwater and offer a meal, but Annette collapsed onto the bed as soon as she saw it and fell asleep immediately.

Not knowing what to do, Emma finished her service by pulling a blanket over Annette, who hadn’t even changed her clothes.

The next day…

Theodore called Annette to have breakfast with him, but she didn’t move from the bed.

Emma, fearing that the suspicious young lady would offend Master Theodore, hurried to wake her, but Annette wouldn’t wake up.

Thinking something was wrong, Emma touched Annette’s forehead and jumped back in alarm.

Annette was burning up.

Emma immediately informed Theodore of Annette’s condition and began tending to her.

She wiped her body with a wet towel, but the fever wouldn’t subside.

The fever didn’t break, and Annette couldn’t even open her eyes, teetering between life and death.

The exhaustion and mental strain she had endured over the past few months had erupted all at once, and she couldn’t even get up from her place.

According to Theodore’s original plan, he was supposed to leave the villa after a late breakfast with Annette and a conversation.

However, due to Annette’s illness, his schedule was disrupted, and he was irritated by the unexpected circumstances.

He had thought that if he found her after her disappearance, he could use her immediately for his benefit, but he ended up wasting money and time to treat her.

Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of her now?

It didn’t make sense in the first place—why had he gotten caught up in something so illogical?

But since he had already started down this path, he had to see it through to the end.

Even when hunting, he always checked the moment the animal he shot stopped breathing.

So his actions with Annette had nothing to do with human conscience.

“We… we need to bring a doctor here quickly.”

The anxious maid managed to utter a word in front of her master.

But her inconsistent tone made Theodore feel more anxious than necessary.

The maid, who was scared just by being near Theodore, had mustered her courage.

This meant the situation was truly serious.

“I’m already looking for a doctor.”

As soon as the maid read Theodore’s lips, she ran back to Annette.

Her expression was filled with fear, saying she didn’t want to be in the same place as him for a moment.

But Theodore was used to it, as most people looked at him that way.

His mother, Maria, had protected him excessively, and his father, the Emperor, never once scolded him, no matter what mistakes he made, due to guilt over his illegitimacy.

Since no one restrained his cruel temperament, Theodore grew up alone.

Naturally, people feared and avoided him, the uncontrollable one, and he had lived like that for ten years.

But Annette was the first to look into his eyes and say something arrogant.

It was such an entertaining experience that he felt he had to save her.

But the reason the doctor hadn’t arrived was that he needed to bring someone who could be silenced.

A coarse-mouthed female doctor who would hide the fact that Annette was living here and keep her health condition a secret.

“Wait just one more day. I don’t know if you’re a holy spirit or just a fraud, but either way, you won’t die easily.”

Theodore glanced at Annette’s room and turned away.