CH 71

No matter how stupid I was, it was an oddity that I couldn’t help but notice. 

‘There’s no way Dietrich wouldn’t have known.’ 

He was a sensitive child who, while sleeping at night, would get up at once in the presence of an assassin and raise his sword. 

There was no way he wouldn’t recognize my clumsy camouflage. 

‘He definitely knew. Why did he pretend not to know?’

The vague and hazy suspicion I had became certain the moment I turned around leaving the triplets to Lorraine in the jewelry store. 

‘Why?’

If he deliberately pretended not to know, there weren’t many reasons to guess. What was certain was that he didn’t want me to stay in Lagrange. 

‘Derek said I was Dietrich’s sacrifice.’

Wasn’t Dietrich pretending to cherish me to make me his sacrifice? Speechless, I turned my body around. 

“You didn’t even ask me.”

He never even asked me if I could sacrifice myself for his sake. 

‘If you had asked me, do you even know how I would answer?’

As I breathed heavily, stifled with overwhelming feelings, whether it was anger or unfairness, I looked back at the triplets who didn’t know the situation and only tilted their heads.

“You stay here.”

“Anissa, where are you going?”

“Lagrange.”

“Why?”

“I left something behind.”

What? I could hear the children asking again. 

My stupid Dietrich.

Responding that I left that fool who pretended to be mean but only to live suffering heavy losses, I quickened my steps. 

“Baal!”

“.......”

“Baal! Where are you!”

As soon as I entered Lagrange castle, I looked for Dietrich’s demon, but I couldn’t find it anywhere even if I cleared my eyes. With a sigh, I grabbed the little demon hiding in my shadow and pulled it out. 

“Kkuuk!”

“Where’s your king?”

“Kku?”

“If you don’t answer, I’ll burn the rest of your tail.”

The little demon that Dietrich planted on me, although it’s been a while since it had been planted on my shadow, still listened to me. 

The demon who was waving its black tail, which I accidentally half-burnt before, pointed to the floor with a sullen expression.

“Underground?”

“Kku.”

“How do I pull him out?”

When I asked, the little demon reached out its small hand and showed his teeth. It was a similar request of the tooth fairy I encountered when my baby tooth was missing. 

‘You’re a delicious-looking kid.’

I couldn’t forget how the demon who turned a child’s teeth into money looked at me with gleaming greedy eyes. I fumbled and rolled up my sleeves then held out my wrists. 

“Bring Baal.”

Dietrich’s demons strangely liked me. They were beings who didn’t work without a fair price, so they wouldn’t have liked me for no reason. 

Bite. 

“Kkyuu.”

Whenever the little demon bit my wrist without hesitation, it always showed a slightly apologetic look. The demon, which gained power through blood, quickly rolled through the air. 

“Come out!” 

I immediately shoved my hand into the hole that opened into the demon realm in front of me and pulled everything I could grab. 

“Ack! Ahh! Princess! My! Head! Head! Uwah, hair loss! My precious hair!” 

Whether or not the portal opened properly, I had caught Baal’s hair in just two moves. I hurriedly pulled him who was screaming at the top of his lungs. 

“Hurry up and come out! We don’t have time!”

“Oh my, oh my! The demon is dying!” 

Baal groaned in pain and rolled over the ground, but he wasn’t particularly pitiful. I grabbed his collar and drastically pulled him up as I raised my voice. 

“Don’t pretend to be weak! You probably know everything!”

“I didn’t know either, I really didn’t! How would I know that His Majesty was that crazy? What am I supposed to do seeing him go to his death?”

Baal’s face contorted as if it was unfair. I opened my mouth, trying to clear my hoarse voice filled with emotions. 

“What’s going to happen to Dietrich now? Is he really going to die?”

“........Princess. The gate has already opened. There’s no way to stop it now.”

“I’m already here. Aren’t I the sacrifice?”

“If you want to make a sacrifice, it has to be brought when the gate is opened. A gate once closed will never open again.” 

“Is there really no other way? Are you sure?”

Baal’s resolute voice made me feel suffocated. I was on the verge of tears looking alternately at Derek who had melted into the mud and the vortex where Dietrich was sucked into, disappearing without a trace. 

“Vassago can open it, but he’s sealed.”

“Vassago?”

I muttered the familiar name of the demon and caressed the ribbon neatly tied around my neck collar. The brooch that tied the ribbon in place, which was as dark red as Dietrich’s eyes, was the sealing stone of Vassago. 

“Then I only have to wake him up.” 

“Yes. But you won’t be able to do it. It’s not a seal that anyone can just break --” 

“It’s not up to you to decide whether I can do it or not.”

I cut off Baal and held the brooch in my hand. The dark vortex that had already closed and the brooch stood out one after the other. 

In the meantime, Vassago’s sealing stone hurriedly sucked in the blood from the wound left behind by the little demon who had bitten it earlier. 

“Wake up, Vassago.”

“.........”

“If the threat of burying you under the purification tree doesn’t work then—“

Placing the sealing stone under the vortex, I stood up, putting a lot of strength on both my legs. Maybe it was because I had lost a lot of blood that I was already dizzy, but I couldn’t stop here. 

“I’m going to drive all the shadows out of Lagrange.” 

“Princess?”

“I’m going to purify all of you.”

Kwang!

Ssshk -- Kwang!

Ignoring Baal’s bewildered call, I stretched out my hands toward the aura that covered Lagrange. 

As if responding to my abilities, the sacred trees that had been holding their breaths as if they were dead in Josef’s laboratory and Dahlia’s garden, began to take root one by one. 

‘Josef’s ability amplifier, it was a good choice not to sell it.’

If it was just my own strength, it would have been insufficient, but the opal which amplified my ability, glimmer with a strong light in front of my eyes, giving me greater strength. 

Kwang!

As the thick roots of the trees shook the building and rose from the ground, Baal reached out to me with a pale face. 

I continued to avoid his touch and said, “I’m not the saint who will save you and I won’t blink an eye even if Lagrange is destroyed.” 

Because only Dietrich was important to me. 

At the end of my words, the purification trees bloomed in full at once. The shabby branches which had no smell emitted a strong scent that seemed to paralyze the sense of smell. 

In an instant, Lagrange was buried in a cluster of flowers. As the flowers that ate the shadows bloomed, Baal’s appearance started to become blurred. 

Standing in front of the open darkness in the air, I stretched my arms again. 

‘Wait, just wait a little bit.’

As if the harsh winter in the North was a sin, more than that,  the sight of white flowers blooming on the pure white snow was a spectacle, but there was not even time left to admire its beautiful power. 

‘He wasn’t a person who smiles like that.’

Dietrich’s pained smile flickered in front of my eyes, making me feel like I'm going out of my mind. I clenched my teeth and headed towards Vassago, buried in the petals.

“Wake up, Vassago.”

“..........” 

“This is my last warning. Let’s all die together or you open that door.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a stubborn person like you.” 

The brooch began to vibrate along with the sound of low laughter as if ridiculing my behavior. Darkness was leaking out from the gold on the fine brooch. 

“A very, very long time.”

A white arm popped out from the darkness. Baal, who had not yet completely disappeared, tried to grab me with an urgent voice, but I didn’t look at him. 

“Princess!”

Vassago jumped into the vortex holding me like that. 

────── 〔✿〕──────

“H-How did you get in here?!”

Alphonse, who found Dietrich entering through the gate, stepped back as if he would pass out. A crown too large compared to his head wobbled above his neck. 

“You don’t even have a sacrifice! That’s cheating!”

Alphonse, who had already known that Dietrich’s Anissa had run away, had sacrificed his shadow demon, which could be said to be the force of his everything.  

For Alphonse, that demon was the most precious thing. Not his family, or lover, not even a friend, but the demon who was the source of his power. 

“Asmodeus, get rid of him! This is the same as if I have already been chosen as the Grand Duke!”

Dietrich turned around, ignoring Alphonse who was yelling. Then, he checked the tightly closed door and felt relieved. 

That door would never open again. He had chosen to enter and leave Anissa outside the gate. 

Now, no one could reverse his choice. 

“Asmodeus.”

Behind the huge black door that seemed to pierce the sky, stood a demon as huge as the door. A burst of gigantic laughter echoed through the ceiling as if it were about to rip off his ears. 

“It’s the first time anyone has entered my gateway without a demon nor a sacrifice.”

Asmodeus grinned. The mighty demon king and god of demons with seventy-two legions under his feet was a terrible figure with a goat’s head on his left and a sheep’s head on his right, but Dietrich still looked up at him with indifferent eyes. 

“Your older brother, Alphonse, sacrificed his own demon like his father. Do you have nothing to give me?”

“No.”

Dietrich firmly answered the demon’s question and pointed his sword toward the floor. 

Sssrk. 

The sound of a sword dragging as it approaches echoed in the empty space. The feeling of intense pressure coming from a single human boy was so overwhelming that Asmodeus let out a burst of sudden uncontrollable laughter to hide the fact that he had flinched. 

“I’ll praise you for opening the gate without bringing a sacrifice.”

“I don’t need your praise.”

Dietrich showed off his sharp energy by leaving deep marks on the dark floor he walked on. Slowly raising his sword, he smiled slowly. The demon, bewildered by his carefree manner, squeezed the armrest of the throne with his hands. 

“Is that your throne?”

“That’s right.”

“Come down.”

Dietrich rushed in quickly without waiting for the demon’s answer. In an instant, with the blade hanging around his neck, Asmodeus jumped into the air shaking. 

“Now, it will be my seat.”