To My Beloved Oppressor

Chapter 1

In retrospect, there was no such thing as fate in their meeting.

 Annette was quite the romantic fatalist. She had long since abandoned such notions now, but she was when she was younger.

Her philosophy teacher told her that there was no such thing as fate. Only the moment one accepts the inevitability of a passing coincidence, one interprets it as fate. If the words were right, it meant there was not even a coincidence between them. 

Annette looked dryly at her maiden name written on the envelope. "Rosenberg's Biography," a brief letter describing the events that led to her family's downfall. 

It was pitiful, considering the effort that had gone into obtaining this one piece of paper. 

The correspondence had to be handwritten because of the fear of being monitored. 

Annette left the room with the letter. Her steps took her to Heiner's office. Her husband, who she had been married to for four years. The young commander-in-chief of Padania. Arriving in front of his office, Annette knocked on the door without hesitation.

 Then, before she was even told to come in, she gulped and opened the door. This was unusual considering that Annette usually acted cautiously to avoid offending him by watching his countenance. Heiner raised his head as if trying to see who the rude person was. His eyebrows rose a little in surprise after he identified Annette, but there was no further change of emotion. Annette walked over to the desk and held out the letter.

"Would you like to read it?" She asked in her usual good-natured, soft-spoken tone. But Heiner did not even give the letter a glance. He turned to his papers again as he spoke clerically,

 "Ma'am, I'm busy right now, so I'd prefer to have this conversation later." The pen moved over the paper, making a crunching sound. Annette slowly lowered the hand that had received the letter. 

"Heiner. I've had a hard time digging up your past." Thump. Heiner's pen stopped. 

"My father is dead, but that doesn't mean that everyone in his entourage is dead. They and I know each other very well. So it wasn't impossible."

"...... madam," the low voice contained a warning. It also meant demanding an explanation. But to Annette it was comical. Because she was not the one who should be explaining. 

"I've always wondered," she said. Why are you doing this to me?" 

"..."

"Why do you do this to me? Why has the person who loved me so much when we were lovers changed so much? They say that the heart can grow cold, but still, isn't this just too much?" Annette smiled calmly, 

"But I understand now." Heiner's face as usual was expressionless as he looked up at her, but he was somewhat a little pale. 

"From the beginning, you approached me on purpose, didn't you?" (Annette)

"...Yes."

"You're not surprised by the fact that I knew."

I knew you would find out someday." All the meetings that Annette thought were fate were under Heiner's control.

She was at the mercy of that plan from beginning to end. 

"Is it so..." haha. Annette gave a short laugh. 

"It must have been hard pretending to love the enemy's daughter."

They got married after two years of dating. Annette's father, Marquis Dietrich, was a nephew of King Piete, and Annette was of royal descent. Marquis Dietrich was one of the five generals in the Padania army, and Heiner Valdemar was a commander under the Marquis. Heiner, who had married the daughter of his superior, quickly rose to victory.