CH 138

Fortunately, Dietrich didn’t catch me and then grilled me. 

‘What is he doing?’

After collecting twigs and making fire, he searched his pockets and pulled out some envelopes. 

‘Hm?’

I sniffed my nostrils for something, but I was surprised to find out the identity of the envelopes that were burning with smoke and I raised my two front paws on my forehead. 

‘Aren’t those letters from Euclid?’ 

The picture of the eagle piercing the sun was obviously Euclid, and that was Hermann's seal. Since the wax seal had been torn, it seemed that the contents had already been examined. 

‘No wonder there was no answer!’ 

There was no reply to the letter I had sent that I needed more time to think thus I had been thinking of contacting him again. 

I was stunned and hopped out towards the fire to see what Hermann had written.

‘Ack, it’s hot.’ 

When I poked my flaring nose, the hot fire heats up my cheeks. I didn’t even know that my whiskers were scorched and began to look at the half-distorted letter. 

‘Waiting for a positive answer? Waiting?’ 

It looked like it was about to suggest something, but that part has already been burnt and disappeared. However, I could guess the general content.

‘He’s probably talking about his proposal to come back to Euclid.’

There was only one thing that Hermann wanted from me. 

“Do you want to be grilled?” 

Dietrich caught me after I was lost in the fire for a moment to grasp the situation. I opened my eyes wide at the savory scent that stimulated my sense of smell.  

‘Is this my scent?’ 

It was a mouth-watering smell even as I smelled it. I grabbed Dietrich’s hand with my front paws fearing that he would change his mind and eat me. 

Fortunately, maybe because he wasn’t hungry, he put me down on my legs. 

‘No wonder he wasn’t surprised when I brought up Euclid a while ago.’ 

I slapped his knee with my hind legs and raised my head at the rush of betrayal. A gray shadow fluttered beneath his sharp jaw.

I thought he was hiding his surprise because he was a person who rarely expressed his feelings, but it seemed that he had already read Hermann's letter. There was no clear invasion of privacy than this. 

‘What’s wrong with letters addressed to me?’ 

They already burned it before it even reached me. Someone might think he’s not the villain and so he did all these bad things by himself and sat down. 

The more I think about it, the angrier I get, so I hit Dietrich's thigh with my disgruntled front foot, and he pressed down on the back of my neck.

“Stop that.”

‘Can’t breathe!’ 

It was when I was struggling in his hand that he let me go. Dietrich soon began patting my head absentmindedly. 

“Stay still.”

‘I don’t want to!’ 

I frowned, dodging his insincere touch. 

“I’m leaving you be since I don’t think I can even make gloves even if I peeled off your skin.” 

"..........."

I quietly fell flat on my stomach at Dietrich’s low warning. He smiled and turned his head as if he was satisfied with my attitude. 

The corners of his lips were clearly smiling, but his gaze was strangely dark as he looked at the letters which had now been completely burned to ashes.

“I don’t want to let her go.” 

I noticed that he was talking to himself about me. I moved my tail, wondering what he meant and he scratched me gently behind my ear. 

“Baal.” 

At Dietrich’s call, the demon soon appeared above the raging fire.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” 

Baal looked a little haggard, maybe because I tormented him too much. Dietrich, who glanced at his pale face, slowly opened his mouth. 

“What of Vassago’s contractor?”

“I don’t know if it’s the same contractor as Hermann knows, but I found them.” 

“How long did they live?”

“..........I think they lived for about ten years after signing with Vassago.”

‘Ten years?’ 

I didn’t know how old the contractor was when they met Vassago, but if they weren’t an old man then it would have been too early to die.

“Is that so.” 

Even with Baal’s thunderous words, Dietrich only nodded his head without any emotions. 

I was wondering what the hell he and Baal were talking about so I forgot my appearance and opened my mouth. 

‘No, I’m guessing that’s what happened to the contractor of Vassago. Surely, not all demon contractors die within ten years?’ 

All of the previous Grand Dukes died at a young age, but the cause of death was usually because they lost their humanity due to being tainted by darkness.

It was because they all had cut down their rationality in order to keep the title and lost their place to the successor they had raised. But Dietrich still had no children, let alone a successor. 

“Your Majesty, what is with this animal?” 

Baal narrowed his eyes at me, looking at me with suspicion, perhaps finding my surprised face unlike that of a rabbit. 

I put my front feet together and made a rabbit-like posture as much as possible. 

“Are you raising animals now, too?”

“My dinner.” 

‘You said you won’t eat me earlier!’ 

I shuddered at Dietrich’s blunt answer.

Hng. As I let out a little snivel, the demon took out a shining red jewel from his arms. 

‘Isn’t that Vassago’s brooch?’

It was definitely in my room but I didn’t know why it was in Baal’s hands. He proudly handed my item to Dietrich as if it was his to give. 

“I brought you Vassago. Please don’t tell the Princess since I’ll get scolded when she finds out.” 

I was suspicious that he had completely disappeared since I couldn’t feel any aura, but he seemed to be still sealed.

‘This thief!’ 

In my indignation, I ran forward and slapped Baal’s right foot, and he slinked back stealthily. 

“Your Majesty, your dinner is hitting me.” 

Although he was laughing as if there was a joke, Baal’s aura was unusual. I focused on the blue scent that I normally wouldn’t have known.

‘Why is he sad?’ 

He couldn’t be sad about the sealed Vassago. Baal didn’t like Vassago after all. Though I think I knew the reason. But I wanted to deny it. 

I clenched my teeth because I was afraid of the scenery drawn by the pieces being put together one by one.

“I know it may sound strange coming from me.” 

"............."

“There’s really not much time left. I think it’s better for you to be careful, so please don’t call me either.”

“All right.” 

I now understood what he meant. There was no way for me not to understand when I could feel Baal’s aura clearly. I bowed my head, pressing on my violently pounding heart. 

‘Will he die?’

When he said that there was not much time left, was it really a time limit on Dietrich’s life? 

Even though I was thinking that it was nonsense, I was choking with the fear that I couldn’t shake. 

I jumped out of my place and moved my body. I could hear Baal’s bewildered voice from behind, but there was no room left to pay attention. 

Read this translation at https://notmysisteryoufool.blogspot.com/.

As I rushed back to the study room, luckily, Damon greeted me as if he had been waiting for me. I started writing on any piece of paper I could get hold of once he released the magic. The tip of the pen quivered. 

“Are you all right?” 

Damon looked at my pale face with a quizzical gaze. I shook my head instead of answering.

The smell of hawthorn was being carried in by the wind through the open window. It was definitely all the scent of the purification trees. 

‘The shadows have definitely faded.’

I remembered the way Derek died. He was not even human when Agares ate him up. His aura had smelled so rotten to the point that it was indistinguishable from Baal’s. 

‘It had been like that even before he died.’

So I understood his inhuman cruelty to be the price of selling his soul to the devil. Because Lagrange's children were not originally as evil as people believe.

Slowly, they were stained with evil as if they were in a swamp that went out of their feet. 

At that time, Lagrange was covered with the curse of Asmodeus, and it was an abnormal place to the point that even the servants came to possess an evil mind. 

‘.....That’s why I planted the purification trees.’

I used my powers day and night to create the hawthorn forest. Because, unlike Charlotte, I didn’t have divine powers.

I couldn’t be confident that it was perfect, but I believed I had succeeded to some extent. 

Now, Lagrange was so clean that even the little demons with a light shadow, and of course the demon king, Baal, could not freely roam around unless Dietrich called for them. 

“.......No way.” 

But the reality that unfolded as if laughing at my incompetence was horrendous.

The shadow was still aiming for Dietrich with its huge gaping mouth. Even faster than the original that I remember. 

“Herman….Charlotte or Hermann, at any rate, they must be in Euclid.” 

I bit my lips as I handed the scattered letter into Damon’s hand. 

He looked at me with bewildered eyes and lifted my chin.

“Are you crying?”

Ah. 

It was then that I became aware of my tears falling down to the ground. 

“Please send this to Hermann.”

“What on earth did you find out?”

“.......Just send it to him fast. Please.”

“Will you stay here crying?” 

I quickly polished my expression and wiped the hot corner of my eyes. 

“It’s nothing. I’m really fine.” 

".............."

My answer seemed unfavorable but in the end, Damon nodded his head.

I sent him off the study with the letter in his arms and squeezed my clenched fists. 

‘You better get your head straight.’ 

Dietrich had always been like that. He was as indifferent to himself as he was to others, and so it was easy for him to give up.

‘So I can’t be like that.’ 

I could never give up on him. I already saved him once, I could save him twice.

Something like that won’t happen.