CH 65

There was no way for me to know what would happen if Dietrich failed to become the Grand Duke. 

“Haa.”

With one of my hands on the wall, I took a deep breath and the triplets who were circling around me opened their mouths at the same time. 

“What’s wrong, Anissa?”

“It’s nothing.”

Not satisfied with my answer, Maslow pouted his lips with a sullen face. 

“You haven’t played with us lately. We can’t even use our ability!”

I stared blankly at his shadow and quickly stopped the child who was trying to summon the little demon. 

“Didn’t we decide to hide the fact that you could use the shadows?”

“I’m bored.”

Rose grabbed and pressed Maslow’s shoulder as he grumpily stomped his feet. It was only for a few seconds, but Rose as the older sister was still the most mature among the triplets.

“Listen to Anissa, Maslow. If you get caught being able to use shadow, you might be sent to the battlefield, you know that.”

I nodded with Rose’s clear voice. 

“By the way, will it be all right for you not to go back to Rose Palace?”

“It’s all right. Mother probably doesn’t even know we’re not there.”

Riesling, who answered my question instead of Rose, nibbled on his finger and met my eyes. 

“Father took mother to question her about Miss Liatris’ condition.” 

Derek was not aware that he was the reason why Liatris went insane. 

“I think he knows our mother even poisoned Miss Liatris.” 

I laughed in a hollow tone at Riesling’s answer. 

To Derek, the children of Liatris except for Alphonse, were like bugs that uselessly ate away rice. 

Thus, he seemed to think that Liatris, the hostess of Lagrange, wouldn’t be shocked just because one from among her many children had been killed. 

‘He’s only blaming people around him but himself.’

I shuddered, recalling Derek’s pitch-black aura. 

He knew that the curse of Asmodeus remained in the castle, and he also knew that I was the one eliminating the curse. 

However, it was clear he didn’t know how I did it. 

‘It wasn’t that the people were becoming strange, but because the curse was lifted, everyone was returning to their senses.’ 

If it had been before the curse was lifted, the triplets would not have been sad just because a baby, who couldn’t even speak, died.

‘Maybe it would have been better that way.’

A belated regret came to find me. Lagrange was too cruel to endure for children who knew emotions. 

“Riesling, do you remember the time before you met me?”

A clever child squinted his eyes as he looked at me as if he was gauging my motives. 

Half of the children of Lagrange that came to gather around me and started interacting with me, lost their lives in the war. 

‘I wouldn’t have known this pain of losing something precious if I had nothing to lose in the first place.’

I couldn’t forget the words Liatris murmured in the still silence when she lost Neil. 

All the children's aura, who didn’t know what sadness was, turned blue. 

“I remember.”

“Don’t you regret it? If you didn’t know me, Henri and the other children would probably know nothing.” 

“Regret? If that was the case, then I wouldn’t feel sad if Henri died?” 

Sometimes, children were more astute and quick-witted than adults. He didn’t know what my ability was, but he must have noticed that I was the reason why Lagrange changed even if it’s just a little. 

I bowed my head, unable to meet Riesling’s clear purple eyes. 

“Anissa.” 

The child placed his little hand on my head. 

“I’m really glad that Anissa came to find us.” 

At Riesling’s words, Maslow and Rose nodded their heads together as if they were in agreement. 

“If we hadn’t met Anissa, we would have ended up hating each other. We wouldn’t know that Henri was a clumsy but sweet child, and we wouldn’t know that Yuric’s blue eyes were pretty.” 

“Henri would have felt the same. He said he didn’t know why he hated us all this time.” 

“In addition, we didn’t know why I always felt angry but I didn’t feel like that when I’m with you, Anissa.”

I smiled thinly at the words that Maslow added. He was a child especially affected easily by the curse. 

“We need you, Anissa.”

Those words were something I needed, but it was the first time in both my past life and my present life that I heard those words addressed to me. 

‘You are a useless existence to our family.’

My noble sister didn’t let such words slip out of her lips, but she often spoke them with her eyes. 

‘The relationship of the siblings in this family would have been perfect if it weren’t for you.’ 

I was like a stain under the shadow of my outstanding brother and sister. In my previous life, I thought it was my fault. 

Because I’m not good enough. Because it was a sin to be a sibling who was a humiliation to them. 

‘But Dietrich didn’t say that.’

Dietrich, who was dozens of times superior to them in every way, had never once felt ashamed of me, especially when I spilled milk, stuttered with my words, and even my inability to handle shadows. 

‘The same goes for these children.’

I looked down at my hand that Rose squeezed. 

“.....Thank you for saying that.”

Lagrange was definitely changing. The children were no longer trapped in their set-up as villains. 

The only space given to us was the small garden in Dahlia, but in that place we were able to laugh freely as much as we wanted. 

‘Is it okay if I don’t give up this time?’

I didn’t have a lot so I was used to giving up. Maybe it was because I had nothing I deemed precious enough for me not to give up. 

‘It’s different this time.’ 

Dietrich was precious to me. 

Even in spring, it was cold enough to see our breaths, but flowers still bloomed in this desolate land. 

Even when this family was cursed by demons, these children did not lose their smiles. 

“So precious.” 

I spoke out the words that I had been pondering in my heart. 

“You are precious. I’m really happy that I met you, too.” 

A week later, I was called again by Derek where I rejected his proposal. 

At the same time, as I heard the demon’s giggling laughter, I was thrown into solitary confinement. 

────── 〔✿〕──────

It was said to be an act of the ‘father’ discipling his wayward ‘daughter’, but the room where Derek locked me up was more like a prison than a normal bedroom. 

He kept me locked up longer than I thought, but it was tolerable. 

‘But my prediction was right.’ 

I brushed up the back of my head as I stared at the grate in the damp basement where even the sunlight barely came in. 

The girl in the mirror looked back at herself with her pale neck exposed. Fortunately, there were no injuries thanks to being calmly dragged away. 

“As expected, it seems they can’t harm me directly either.”

My existence was necessary for Dietrich’s succession, and since my safety was related to Lagrange’s succession, Derek, the head of the family, seemed unable to harm me. 

‘Is the demon watching me?’ 

However, just because I wasn’t injured didn’t mean this situation was satisfactory. I called the knight wandering in front of my room like a guard. 

“Sir.”

“.......”

“Sir!” 

The knight slowly approached me, compelled by my call. The knights were expert at controlling their own energy so their auras did not spread widely. 

“Can you come a little closer?”

“What is the matter?”

It was clear that he was wary of me with his hard tone of voice. I reached out my hand and stirred his aura. 

‘I’m not purifying it but will this work?’

“Since I suddenly disappeared, my maid would be worried. Can you tell her the news?” 

“My duty is to prevent you from leaving this room, not to be a bearer of your errand, Princess.” 

The knight sharply refused my request and promptly turned his back. 

Instead of holding onto him, I concentrated on grabbing his aura and dyeing it pink. 

“......?”

“Please.” 

“...I understand.”

‘It worked.’

I glanced between the knight's back as he moved away and at my hands touching his aura. 

The power of the small, delicate hand attached to this thin wrist was greater than I thought. 

‘But if it was Anissa from inside the novel, she wouldn’t do such a thing.’ 

Eredia’s ability was inherently good. 

Purifying an aura stained with malice or curse was often something even priests who worship the goddess did, but controlling emotions and moving auras this way was something a demon-like succubus did. 

“But you can’t just live by doing only good things.” 

You had to use all the tools at your disposal to survive. 

A knight who had no inclination towards me couldn’t suddenly resist the urge to help me.

The knight, who returned, still had a stiff face but on his hand, he had brought with him a doll that didn’t suit him.

“If it’s Marilyn, the maid, then she already knew of this situation.” 

“That is?” 

“She said the princess absolutely needs this doll.”

I furtively smiled as I looked at the raccoon doll that Marilyn took care of. 

I’m already twelve years old. I’m already past the age to play with this rag doll.

‘So fluffy.’

However, it was quite comforting in a prison-like room without a single cushion.

“Should I order them to prepare your meal?”

“No, I don’t have an appetite. It’s all right.”

“Even if you don’t have an appetite, you shouldn’t skip meals. You’re too skinny.”

Without permission, the knight grabbed my forearm to look at it and clicked his tongue, then he took off his helmet. My eyes widened in surprise.

‘He’s much younger than I thought.’