The next day, Blair answered Herdin’s call and went to his office.
In the office, Herdin and a middle-aged man whom Blair had never seen before were waiting. It wasn’t difficult to guess who the man was.
As soon as the man saw Blair, he respectfully lowered his head.
“I am Hypnotist Marcel. It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness. No, I should call you Lady Duchess now.”
He said so while looking at Blair’s hand and eyes alternately.
When noblemen or high-ranking gentlemen met noblewomen, it was customary for men to kiss the back of the woman’s hand as a sign of respect and courtesy.
For Blair, who had lived as a princess for twenty years, it was a familiar and natural occurrence.
Blair noticed it and extended her hand to him.
However, at that moment, Herdin, who had been leaning against the desk in the office, stood up and passed between them, saying, “Let’s start right away since we have the next schedule.”
The hypnotist, with no place to go, wiped his hand in embarrassment and immediately began to prepare for hypnosis.
Blair, who was sitting in a rocking chair in the office, looked at Herdin with anxious eyes.
He seemed to be planning to watch the hypnosis being performed, standing there.
“Herdin, if you’re busy, I can go and attend to my duties.”
“Those who awaken difficult memories often suffer. So, as your husband, shouldn’t I be by your side?”
Although the hypnotist thought that the Duke valued his wife very much, Blair understood.
Despite his words of concern, his cold blue eyes, which stared at her, were saying, ‘How can I trust you?’
Blair closed her eyes, as if erasing the cold voice in her head, then slowly opened them.
“I’m ready. Let’s begin, Marcel.”
The lights in the dim room went out, and the pendulum in the hypnotist’s hand began to move.
Blair’s eyes blinked slowly in sync with the pendulum’s movement, and soon they closed.
In the quiet room, only the hypnotist’s soft voice echoed.
“You are going back to the day when there was a fire at the Empress’s palace ten years ago. You were about ten years old, right?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Blair’s response sounded slow, like someone half asleep.
Herdin clenched his fists and leaned against the window, watching her closely.
At the time of the incident, Blair had collapsed in the corridor of the Empress’s palace, and the knights who had come to rescue the Empress had found her and saved her.
And in the Empress’s room, Esmeralda and her maids were found dead, their throats slit.
No one knew what had happened there on that day.
The maids who had been staying in the palace that day had fallen asleep due to the sleeping potion in the tea they had drunk, so they had also perished in the flames of the Empress’s palace.
Blair was the only survivor of that incident.
Blair’s memories only extended as far as waking up in the wardrobe of the Empress’s palace. That was all.
I have translated the paragraph from Korean to English as per your request. Here is the English translation:
“I had no memories from the moment I emerged from the wardrobe until I was rescued. So, the real search for memories began now.
The hypnotist also sensed something and adjusted his posture.
“What were you doing there?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up in the wardrobe…”
“Well, how about going outside now?”
When the hypnotist suggested this, Blair gasped, appearing frightened.
“I… I can’t go out.”
“Why not? Is the door locked, or is there some other problem?”
“I don’t know, I just can’t go out. I can’t… I mustn’t go out.”
Herdin’s brow furrowed as he looked at Blair. The truth of that day was likely beyond the wardrobe, where she couldn’t see.
“Well, how about we take a look outside through the crack in the door? See what’s happening outside.”
“I don’t want to see… I’m scared…”
Blair stammered and cried, as if she had turned back into a ten-year-old at that moment.
“Whatever’s out there, whatever’s happening, it won’t be a problem for you. Now, take a deep breath.”
“Fire… smoke is coming in.”
Blair began to cough and gasp for air as if she had truly inhaled smoke.
“Now let’s go out of the wardrobe. Open the door.”
“The door… the door won’t open.”
Blair spoke with a terrified voice, and that’s when the hypnotist calmed her down.
“You can open that door. It will open if you want it to.”
Blair had been found in the corridor that day. Whether someone had helped her or she had come out on her own, the wardrobe door must have been open.
The reason Blair thought she couldn’t leave the wardrobe was likely a subconscious barrier she had created.
But Blair still couldn’t open the door.
“No… I don’t want to. I don’t want this… Save me, please… I can’t breathe…”
Suddenly, she twisted her body, tears streaming down her already pale face.
Herdin understood why Blair had tried to send him away before starting the hypnosis.
“Enough.”
However, the hypnotist, deep into his work, seemed to ignore the command and continued to push Blair.
“We need to open the door. You have to open it and come out!”
“Ugh… Ugh… I don’t want to…”
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
