Annet Renard was Richter Belmont's girlfriend, and it was her fate, too, to become a pawn in the eternal play. After Dracula was risen from his slumber by Shaft and his deviant followers, he cooked up a plan that saw his forces ravage Warakiya and take some of the town women hostage in hope of luring a Belmont hero to his castle for a duel. The skeletal and demon perpetrators grabbed Annet, her younger sister, Maria, plus others and imprisoned them in ghoulish locations surrounding the castle.

Annet, herself, was locked away near the castle keep, in the preceding clock tower (or in the caverns, if you prefer Castlevania: Dracula X's truncated story). From here, Dracula could keep an eye on her while further taunting Richter. When Richter arrived in the clock tower, he located the key to her chamber in an eagle's nest in a branching corridor, and this is all that stood in the way of his beloved. It was easy, yes--but Dracula's only interest was to goad Richter this far.

Her rescuing holds more relevance toward the story continuation of both games: In Rondo of Blood, her rescue counts towards your completion percentage and thus the best ending. And in Castlevania: Dracula X, saving her opens up a hidden stage, and, thereafter, an alternate boss on the clock tower stage whose defeat unlocks the game's best ending.