CH 68

“You.” 

“Huh?” 

“Does this happen frequently to you?”

“No. Derek came back to Lagrange more often than Dietrich, but he was still focused on the battlefield.”

Dietrich half-heartedly listened to my answer and began to examine my body. 

The gaze that closely examined me for any injuries for some reason made my toes curl. 

‘You didn’t seem to care about it earlier.’ 

“Why do you ask that?”

Dietrich couldn’t answer immediately my question which was subtly laced with resentment. I pressed down his handsome nose and continued speaking. 

“....I heard it’s been a while since you came to Lagrange, so why didn’t you look for me?” 

“Because I didn’t feel the need.”

I struggled to get out of Dietrich’s arms at his cold reply. When I was about to fall down because I couldn’t stand properly due to the pain in my side, he extended his hand behind my knee. 

“I’ll take you back.”

“....It’s fine.”

I hated Dietrich who pretended to be considerate at the last minute, so I shook off his hand. 

Smack.

Even though the back of his hand which I hit must be stinging, he didn’t even frown once. He stared at my face with an apathetic expression just like earlier. 

It left me speechless to see his doll-like face, showing neither anger nor joy. 

“It’s been a while for us, hasn’t it?”

“..........”

“Did you forget me because you haven’t seen me in years?”

Dietrich really looked like that. The way he treated me as if I was a stranger was hilarious, so even though it wasn’t funny to me, it made me laugh. 

“I remember the nights I spent with you.” 

“............”

“Whenever I can’t sleep because I’m lonely, I always go to Dietrich’s room and pretend you were sleeping there. I was always looking at the moon.” 

I didn’t know if it was because of the fairy tale I liked but he and I liked the moon when we were kids. I sincerely wanted to hide behind the shadow of the moon with him. 

“I told you I’d protect you.”

Even if Dietrich didn’t remember my resolve, I remembered. 

It was dark, cold and the winter nights of Lagrange were hard, but at least we weren’t lonely when we were together. 

“You weren’t bothered that I was here and I was very thankful for that.”

My parents were bothered by me. But you, whom I didn’t share a drop of blood with, took me in. 

“I have never thought that you didn’t cherish me.”

“What a fool.”

“Yes, I’m a fool. That’s why I didn’t think Dietrich had changed.”

“...........”

“I didn’t believe Veronica’s words that you have changed. No matter how much you use your power, I thought you wouldn’t change.”

Because he didn’t seem weak enough to be swallowed by the demons. 

“But I must have been mistaken.”

This wasn’t the reunion I longed for.

However, the words of resentment that I had begun to spit out came out one after another. 

“Even when you didn’t come despite knowing I was locked up in the basement, I thought there was a situation that held you back.”

“............”

“I was just fooling myself.”

Unable to bear it any longer, tears started pouring out of my will. 

“I couldn’t sleep well thinking that you might have died, or that you were hurt.” 

Even though I knew that he was the damn villain in the novel, I was still like that. 

“I thought we were family. I was the only one thinking that. I, alone, waited for you.”

As I poured out my resentments, Dietrich didn’t even make excuses. 

I would have forgiven him if he had said a word of apology, no, even if he just showed a slight hesitation. 

“I have never thought of you as family, Anissa.”

Contrary to his cold words, the fingers that wiped away my falling tears were warm like always. I closed my eyes, not knowing what to do. 

────── 〔✿〕──────

It had been a long time since he returned to Lagrange but it was still endlessly desolate. 

Maybe it was also because there was no voice that kept on prattling. Dietrich caught a glimpse of the withered branches hitting the window. 

“Are you really not going to take Anissa?”

Yuric stomped his feet in anger. Next to him, Baal was fiddling with his fingers as if he was nervous. 

“Please listen to the prince’s words, Your Majesty. Why aren’t you going to save the princess?” 

He pretended to be worried, but the demon’s intentions were clear. Candidates who didn’t have a sacrifice wouldn’t be able to enter the final gate. 

However, Baal raised his voice as if he was really worried about Anissa, who was locked up in the basement. 

“The princess isn’t an ability user like you, Your Majesty, but an ordinary person. Her body wouldn’t last if she stayed locked up for a long time.” 

“........”

“I will also try to tell Agares.”

“I disapprove.”

Dietrich shook his head firmly. Yuric, finding the situation frustrating, began to pull his hair. 

“There are also abandoned evil spirits in the basement. Do you think Anissa will be able to hold out?” 

“It’s none of your business.”

“This bastard, why do you think it’s none of my business? Do you think she’s only your little sister?” 

Yuric fumed and raised his voice. If it was only up to him, he would have run to her and taken her out a long time ago, but Derek had only one condition. 

‘Dietrich himself must admit that Anissa is a precious existence to him.’ [1]  

It was exactly the same condition. He wondered what use it was for him to admit it, but he had a strong feeling that it had something to do with the succession gateway. 

“No, why not save her first and then think about it later.”

“I have no obligation to save that child.”

Despite Yuric’s insistence without knowing the situation, Dietrich continued to stare outside the window with no thoughts of being moved. 

“This jerk, really!”

Yuric, who was seething, finally couldn’t control his anger and ran towards him, grabbing him by the collar. 

His black eyes, as cold as a winter night, meet with blue eyes flashing with fury. 

“Are you really using Anissa? Because of that gateway or something!” 

No matter what Yuric did, Dietrich maintained a calm attitude. He grabbed his hand and snapped it with intensity.

“Let go.”

He let out a short warning. However, Yuric didn’t loosen his hold. 

“I don’t want to, you bastard!”

“Yuric Lagrange. You still don’t know how to bark.”

In an instant, a shadow rose under Yuric’s feet and began to tighten around him. 

Boom!

Yuric’s body which was thrown into the wall dropped to the floor. He got up with a tearful face but showed no sign of pain. 

It was because he realized that Dietrich deliberately didn’t throw him hard enough. 

“I really don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand me.” 

“Didn’t you tell me to protect Anissa? With that condition, you risked your life to make a contracts with the demons and gave the others to me and Veronica, and now you’re pretending you don’t care?”

Silence again. 

As if he was on the brink of insanity, Yuric smashed the wall with his fist and then harshly opened the door. 

“Ah, Mister Yuric is also here.” 

As if he had been waiting, Derek’s hands and feet told them that he was looking for Dietrich. 

Dietrich slowly got up from his seat and headed outside. 

As soon as he found Anissa, who had a swollen face from being beaten by Derek, he abruptly stopped walking. 

He shouldn’t be agitated. 

He chewed on the words as if he had pledged to himself. 

Because what Agares wanted to see was his agitation. 

‘How suspicious.’

Derek, who received a report that he had no precious existence, did not trust him. 

Derek’s demon was one of the demons who regarded the successor game to be sacred. The demon asked for proof. 

So the only solution left was patience. 

All he had to do was give up being the grand duke and wait for death. 

‘I just have to treat her as if she isn’t precious to me.’ 

Dietrich shook his hand off and watched as Anissa stood up with a limp.

She seemed to have grown taller, but he was uneasy because her small feet seemed to be the same. 

He bit his lips so that it wouldn’t show and called the child. 

“Anissa.”

“What.”

The sharp answer that came back was something he hadn’t expected. Because Anissa had never been angry at him.

Dietrich let out a small sigh as he watched the tears forming in her big eyes, unable to even wipe them away. 

“At least accept Baal’s help.”

“No. Never.” 

Baal, who had perked up his ears at Dietrich’s words and had risen up from Dietrich's shadow, recoiled.

The demon fiddled with his fingers as if in disbelief at her refusal.

“Why are you also getting mad at me? I beseeched his majesty to save the princess.”  

Anissa did not even respond to Baal’s words and turned her back. She couldn’t even maintain her precarious steps and started falling forward. 

Of course, she didn’t fall down because Dietrich quickly stepped forward and caught her in his arms. 

“Don’t help me!”

Anissa quietly shouted and bent her body backward. Dietrich, who alternately looked at her hand embarrassingly raised in the air and her white face, frowned one eyebrow.

“Don’t make me confused.”

“...........”

“You told Derek you didn’t care whatever happens to me, but why do you care now?” 

“That’s--”

He didn’t have an immediate answer to her question. The truth was, he was going to pretend not to care until the end. 

In the first place, Derek could not harm Anissa as he was bound by the ‘constraints as the head of the state’ and there was a possibility she could be designated as a sacrifice at the gate of succession.  

He thought if he endured it a little longer it would be solved soon. 

He had made up his mind to pretend not to care until the end but seeing her struggle in front of him was hard to bear. 

“Why are you trying to help me now?!”

Whenever clear tears fell from her eyes, his hands would reach out on their own, and whenever she swayed and was about to fall, his body ran to her without his command. 

“Nothing.”

Dietrich turned his head, ignoring Anissa’s question. As if she had expected it, Anissa turned her back. 

Dietrich stood there as if stuck in place, looking at her brave back despite her limp.