Episode 35

 “Baal!”

Marilyn and I were playing with dolls in my room, and then I jumped out of my seat because of the smell of trash in the distance. 

‘I didn’t even know where he’d been for a while and I couldn’t see him anywhere!’

If there was a person who knew Dietrich’s whereabouts better than Yuric or Marilyn - though he’s not really a person - it was Baal. 

I poked my nose around the hall to find the stale aura of Baal.

“Baal!”

“.........”

“Don’t hayd! I know you’re der!”

I shouted, pointing my fingers at Baal hidden in the shadow of the window sill. Baal was barely visible to the eyes where the black shadow was because of its mud-colored body. 

But even if he was a demon, he couldn’t hide the smell of his aura.

“How the hell did the princess find me?”

“Baal’s shmell.”

“....my smell?”

“Yea. A stinky shmell. It shmells like rotten farths.”

With my analogy, Baal flinched with a start, as if shocked. I clung to the body of the sullen shadow devil and opened my mouth.

“Whersh brother Detrie?”

“He is in the Nature of Lagrange.”

Nature was the Palace where Derek Langrange lives.

‘Hic! Isn’t that a dangerous place!’

Why did he go to Nature alone without bringing his demon? Frightened, I jumped up and down in my place to grab Baal’s collar-which I presumed was his collar. 

“Hing.”

He was so tall that I couldn’t grab onto him. As I pouted my lips in anger, Baal bent down. 

At that moment, I grabbed the collar of the great [1] demon and promptly shook him.

“Then why is Baal hewe?”

“I have to protect the princess. The movement on Liatris’s side is suspicious. I heard you saw Zagan?” [2]

“Shagan?”

“Veronica Lagrange’s demon. It has wings.”

‘Ah, that demon that looks like a calf?’ 

I remembered the demon yawning beside Veronica who smelled as bad as Baal. 

“What bout it?”

“Originally, he was a demon contracted with His Majesty, but he fell completely in love with Veronica Lagrange. Something dangerous could happen to you, princess.”

‘But Veronica is not a bad kid.’

A bad person had a bad aura from the beginning. Derek’s aura, for example, compared to the demon, was creepy enough to raise goosebumps.

‘Also, she gave me macaroons!’

A person who gave some food to someone was not a bad person. Yuric, in the end on that day, couldn’t take away my macaroon.

I remembered the taste of the macaroon which I couldn’t savor well because I swallowed it in one bite. 

“Hm. Then, I’m fhine sho go and protec brother Detrie.”

“I cannot.”

“I tolth you I’m fhine!”

“I still cannot.”

I snorted angrily at Baal’s polite refusal. At least within Dahlia Palace, my safety was ensured. In Lagrange, Derek was the only one who had real malice against me, but no one would believe me.

“If you don’t lishten to me, I will hitth you.”

“Pardon?”

I grabbed Baal’s soft flesh and stretched it out. Although he was elastic like clay, as if he felt pain, his color gradually faded.

“Ah, it hurts a little. Princess?”

“Panishmenth!” [3]

I struck the area where Baal had previously indicated that it was his genitals where he had always carried the rattle. [T/N: LMAO WHUT O.O]

“Heek.”

Finally, the demon who used to be so calm no matter what I do, tried to escape in fear. 

‘So this works!’

With the rattle held tight in my hand, I moved my body slowly. It was a rewarding moment for me to carry it as self-defense even though I was past the age of playing with toys. 

“Ple, please wait a minute, princess.”

“Come herr!”

“It’s a toy I made for you, and yet you use it to attack me?”

Baal, who was avoiding my hand gestures, disappeared for a moment and reappeared as a human being. As I grabbed his gray hair like the color of burnt ashes, he had a face which looked like he was about to cry. 

“Why are you suddenly like this to me, princess? My wife will scold me.”

Although he wore a mask of a human’s face to buy sympathy from me, his aura was so stale that it couldn’t pass for a human. 

What’s more important to me, who could sense auras, was not their physical appearance, but their true selves. 

‘By the way, I guess demons can get married, too.’

“If you’re schared ofh me, then hurry and gow to brother!”

“Haa….I understand.”

Baal, who was flinching, soon gave up persuading me. He seems to have decided that it would be more profitable to be scolded by Dietrich than me.

“Then, I will be going….hic.”

But before the devil could disappear, Dietrich returned to Dahlia. He landed lightly in the hallway through an open window.

“Your Majesty.”

Baal bent at his waist and faced Dietrich. He greeted him with a silent nod. 

As if he had opened the door normally, his hair was not messy, so I looked around him to check if the hallway I was in was on the first floor, and not the fourth floor. 

“Where are you going?”

“The princess keeps telling me to go to you, Your Majesty.”

Whether it was true that Zagan was originally his demon, the winged demon Griffin was following behind him.

“Browther!”

It was only a few days, but I felt like I hadn't seen him for a very long time, so I ran to him.

Dietrich lowered his body so he could hug me. When he bent down just enough to match me on eye level, I gave him a big hug. 

“Wai are you sho late!”

“Why are you trying to kick out Baal, Anissa.”

“Because browther needs the debon more.”

I scanned Dietrich’s face as I remained inside his arms. Thankfully, he didn’t have any scratch on him and looked clean.  

As I let out a sigh of relief, he slanted his head and opened his mouth.

“To me?”

“Because I don’t like browther getting hurth.”

“Why’s that?”

As I leaned my head away from the questions he stupidly kept asking me, Dietrich’s deep dark eyes stared back at me. 

I blinked as I was about to be sucked into the abyss that settled in the boy's eyes.

“Because I want to help browther.”

“........”

“Browther is prethious to me.”

At my answer, Dietrich’s face hardened. I pressed his stiff thin lips with my fingertips trying to make him smile. 

The kid somehow looked depressed today.

“Browther. It’sh going to bhe fine.”

“.......”

“Ebberything ish going to bhe fine.”

I wish time would go by so quickly so that Dietrich would become the Grand Duke. Then I wouldn’t have to be so uneasy and nervous that he would die like this. 

“You say that so easily.”

Dietrich answered coldly then took Baal and disappeared. 

‘He doesn’t seem to believe my words.’

I glanced at the little demon he hid to protect me. 

‘If I’m in danger, I can just run and call on Dietrich, right?’

The little demons were capable of playing tricks, but they were not capable of combat. 

‘It looks terrible.’

The little demon looked like a monster that a child drew. I picked up the head of the little devil who hid in my shadows thinking I couldn’t see it, and was picking its nose. 

“Keuk!”

“Do you habba friend?”

“Kuwek?”

‘It seems it can’t talk.’

“I asked if you habb a friend.”

When I shook the little devil, as if the child understood my meaning, managed to call out a devil like himself. I raised my chin proudly and opened my mouth.

‘If I do this, I might look a bit like Dietrich.’

“Chashe after Detrie.”

I wanted to give a charismatic command, but it didn’t work properly because of my short tongue. I stared menacingly at the devil with a scowl from a distance. 

“Gow chashe after Detrie!”

“Kuwek?”

“You musth never be caughth.”

‘It can’t seem to speak in human language, but I guess it can understand.’

I found out through Baal that demons love sweets so much that I put the leftover cookies in the little demon’s mouth.

The little demon, who stuck out his slender tongue and ate the cookies, nodded his head enthusiastically.

“Make shure to tell me what’sh happening in nature.”

“Kuwek.”

“Undershtand?”

The little demon, who panted like a puppy, smiled broadly and ran to Nature.

‘When I see those kids, I don’t think all demons are bad.’

I turned around to go back to Marilyn and started worrying. 

‘When did Derek Lagrange die?’

Derek was an incredibly mean villain that couldn’t be ignored, but he was also a supporting character whose name ended up being mentioned a few times.

‘What happened before Yuric ripped his head off again?’

Dietrich would win if the original story was followed….

It’s clear that Derek wasn’t stupid, and he’d probably find ways to strangle Dietrich. I hugged my shoulders to myself, waiting for the little demons to bring me some news.

‘It’ll be all right.’

Dietrich would surely overcome this hardship.

However, I didn’t know if Lagrange, when he becomes a Grand Duke and reigns over it, would become a paradise like the moon for us.

TL Notes:

[1] 대령한 - Could mean ‘wait for an order’ or ‘captain or colonel’. I settled for ‘great demon’ instead. 

[2] Zagan - I made a mistake in Ch. 32 when Veronica’s demon first appeared. I used the word ‘slithered’ because it was machine translated with the word ‘interspersed’ so I used another word that could mean the same. But it turned out it was actually a name. I changed it up now.

[3] 때찌 - supposed is the baby word for ‘hit’. Basically Anissa said I’ll hit you. And she stretched it out again with 때애찌 - and I went with the word ‘punishment’ to fit the situation (I guess) haha.

Poor Baal. Lmao. And, he’s married?!