Since returning from Glenford, Annette had not seen Heiner’s face for nearly a week.
It was nothing unusual. Even before she had asked for a divorce, they had rarely run into each other.
The mansion was spacious, and their spheres of activity differed, so unless one sought the other out first, they simply went about their own lives.
After the revolution, it had largely been Annette’s role to seek the other out. Though that had changed somewhat after the talk of divorce arose.
Now, unless it concerned the divorce, Annette had no reason to seek him out first.
Outside the window, birds chirped noisily. Annette placed the documents detailing the sponsorship funds she had organized into a file, then opened the safe inside her wardrobe.
After putting the file in the safe, she took out a jewelry box. She placed the jewels stored inside into a paper bag and pressed the call bell. Soon, a servant entered the room.
“Miss Ritzberg. I have a favor to ask—please go to a nearby jeweler and….”
“Yes, my lady.”
“….”
“Please speak, my lady.”
When Annette did not continue, the servant looked puzzled. After a moment of thought, Annette smiled faintly and shook her head.
“It’s nothing. I’ll go myself.”
“If you wish to purchase jewelry, I could bring a catalog….”
“I want to look at the shop myself. Could you have the driver wait for me?”
“Understood.”
The moment the servant left, the trace of a smile vanished from Annette’s face. She changed into an outing dress and put on a hat with a veil.
Gloves and all, Annette exited the building holding the paper bag. Naturally, one attendant followed after her.
The attendant opened the rear door. Having climbed into the car, Annette asked the driver,
“Is there a nearby jeweler’s that doesn’t have many people?”
“Ah… then how about Hefin Jeweler’s? However, the shop is deep inside an alley, so the car must be left on the main road. You will have to walk a bit.”
“That’s fine. Please take me there.”
As a driver accustomed to ferrying noblewomen about, he knew the jewelers like the back of his hand. The man smoothly turned the wheel and changed course.
Before long, the car stopped at the side of the main road. Annette walked into the alley lined with shops. As she neared Hefin Jeweler’s, the attendant spoke.
“I shall wait outside, my lady.”
It was a welcome thing to hear. Annette gave a slight nod and stepped inside the shop.
“Welcome.”
The jeweler greeted his customer with a somewhat indifferent air. Annette placed the paper bag on the display counter and said,
“I wish to dispose of all of it.”
“Have you had it appraised elsewhere first?”
“No.”
The jeweler glanced inside the paper bag and put on his loupe.
“Please wait a moment.”
The quantity of jewels was not great. The Rosenberg family’s assets had all been seized, and as one belonging to Valdemar, she too had been forced—semi-voluntarily—to donate most of what she owned due to public opinion.
The reason she was suddenly selling off jewelry that would have served as an emergency fund was simple.
It was to prevent the situation where, after her eventual death, the jewels might appear in the newspapers or be put up for auction under the name of “jewels once owned by Dietrich’s daughter.”
While the jeweler conducted his appraisal, Annette looked over the displayed gems. She had always loved jewelry. Not because it was expensive, but simply because she liked things that sparkled.
Heiner had known of Annette’s taste. Whenever they had gone on dates in the past, he had without fail bought something sparkling and placed it in her hand. Jewels, beads, glass crafts….
“Do you know my room is full of your gifts? At this rate, I’ll be buried alive.”
“It would be troublesome if this much were enough.”
“Is this, by any chance… some grand scheme to crush me to death?”
“Something like that. I shall let you live surrounded by all manner of shining things.”
“Ahaha, could this be a proposal?”
“If I were to propose, I would do so more splendidly than this.”
There had been a time when the world felt a little more brilliant simply by being with him.
Annette rested her hand lightly on the display case and looked inside with dry eyes. Though everything was dazzling and bright, she no longer felt any thrill.
“I am finished, my lady. Please look over this list.”
The jeweler, having completed the appraisal, promptly held out an itemized list with prices.
“In total, I can offer 2,300 pounds. Is there anything you wish to ask?”
“Please dispose of them at that price.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
The jeweler’s voice was somehow lukewarm. Annette withdrew her gaze from the list with a look of utter indifference.
Whether he had lowballed her or not, she did not care. Rather, the lower the price, the better.
Suddenly, the diamond ring on her left ring finger caught her eye. Its stone was larger and more beautiful than any gem inside the display case. It was the wedding ring Heiner had given her when he proposed.
Annette removed the ring and handed it to the owner, asking,
“How much might this diamond ring fetch? I should like to dispose of it as well.”
“May I see it?”
Having examined the ring, the jeweler let out a low exclamation.
“Goodness. This alone would exceed 7,000 pounds. I am sorry, but our shop does not have the means to pay such a sum. You would need to go to a larger jeweler.”
“…Is that so.”
Taking the ring back, Annette pondered briefly before putting it into her bag.
The owner counted out the money and handed her an envelope containing the payment. Without checking the amount, Annette left the shop.
The attendant who had been waiting before the door followed her at once. Annette left the alley at a slow pace.
2,300 pounds. It was no small sum. Though the stones had not been large, they had all been of high quality, so it was only natural.
*But for one ring to be 7,000 pounds….*
Even as a maiden, she had never owned jewels of such caliber. Had Heiner believed he could only satisfy her with an expensive ring?
She could easily picture the image he must have held of her.
A foolish woman born into a powerful family, knowing nothing of how the world works. A vain woman raised without want, indulging in everything she desired to do or possess.
*Not entirely wrong.*
Thinking self-mockingly, Annette stepped out onto the main road. Looking around, she spotted the car parked by the street. At a gaze she suddenly felt, she turned her head.
A man stood beneath a streetlamp. A young man who looked to be at most in his early twenties stared fixedly in her direction. Even when their eyes met, he did not look away.
*Is he looking at me?*
Worried he might have recognized her, Annette hurriedly pressed down on her hat. Yet the man’s eyes remained locked on her. Something strange and intense flickered within them.
Those eyes.
A shiver crawled across her skin.
Terrified, Annette instinctively stepped back. Her instincts screamed at her to flee. In that instant, the man drew something from his waist.
Beneath the sunlight, a silver light glinted in the shape of a cross. That light was aimed at her.
That sequence of movements seemed to unfold very slowly.
Instinctively, Annette turned toward her attendant. Surprise spread across the attendant’s face. He reached out toward her.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. The attendant grabbed her shoulder.
Bang!
A scorching heat flared in her side. Annette gasped, freezing for an instant. The attendant pulled Annette behind him and drew his pistol.
Bang! Bang! Gunshots echoed through the midday avenue. Exchanging fire with the assailant, the attendant shoved Annette toward the front of the car. Her staggering steps gave way.
“Stay down!”
Collapsed in front of the car, Annette breathed in ragged, sobbing gasps. Cold seeped up from the pavement. Her shoulders shook irregularly.
“My lady! Are you all right?”
The driver, having gotten out of the car, hurriedly checked her condition. Looking down, his eyes went wide.
“M-my God, my lady!”
Her lips trembled wildly. Annette slowly raised the hand that had been clutching her side. Her palm was thickly coated in red blood.
Sharp pain surged from her lower abdomen. It felt as though she had been riddled with bullets. Annette hugged her stomach haphazardly and trembled violently.
“My lady… just hold on… to the hospital soon….”
The driver’s voice rose and fell disjointedly, like a broken phonograph. Annette panted for breath. Her mind felt damp and distant, as though submerged in water.
Supported by the driver, Annette leaned her back against the car. Barely lifting her head, she found her vision filled with a deep blue sky. It was blinding.
The driver spoke to her from beside her, but it did not reach her ears well. Annette exhaled a thin breath and thought blankly,
*If only he had shot… my head.*
Then she could have gone in one shot, without pain.
Her vision flickered. It was strange. The gunshot wound was clearly in her side, yet a terrible pain blanketed the entire area beneath her chest like a quagmire. It felt as if she had been shattered into pieces.
So this is what it means to be shot. She had never been hurt this badly in her life, so she had not known. The fingertips of her hand trailing on the ground twitched intermittently.
“…an! My lady!”
Strength failed her eyelids. Cold sweat trickled down her temple. The sound of gunfire gradually faded from her ears.
Heiner had said he had often been injured during operations. Gunshot wounds accounted for three of them. Had he hurt like this too? Having endured such pain countless times, had her suffering seemed like nothing to him?
My pain, my pain is, my pain… my….
Her thoughts could no longer continue. Annette gave up holding onto consciousness. Her flickering vision was eventually dyed black.
At the very edge of consciousness, a scene surfaced as though captured in a photograph. It was the face of the man who had shot her. Those eyes that had aimed the gun without hesitation. The vividly blazing emotion.
It was unmistakable hatred.