Episode 42

Anissa’s power allows her to judge people from their aura rather than their appearances. Veronica may be seen constantly wearing a perfect smile on her face, but her aura was always tinged with the blue color of sadness.

‘A person who is sad is not scary.’

It seemed that the sorrow that deeply haunted her was caused by what happened to her family.

‘Yuric talked nonsense when he didn’t know anything.’

What the children of Liatris knew was that she killed all of her family members in order to enter Lagrange, but that wasn’t the case at all. As a matter of fact, Veronica was someone who loved her family very much.

‘You idiots! Veronica is just really sad.’

It looked like she was about to cry anytime soon so I embraced her waist tightly. I felt her flinch at the contact as I hugged her.

“I’m really not scary? Even though I beat up a person as if it was nothing just now?”

“Hmm.”

Veronica certainly didn’t believe me so I tightened my hold more and raised my head to look at her. It wasn’t until my cheeks puffed up that the stiff expression on her face loosened.

‘Take this! My cuteness attack!’

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Wook clowsly, Sishter!” (Look closely, Sister!)

I left Veronica and approached the fallen man. Having slowly regained his consciousness, he blinked his eyes to clear his vision. I climbed on to his bleeding stomach and started jumping on it as if I was on a trampoline.

‘Is it because he’s fat? It’s surprisingly soft.’

Even if it was a child’s body, it would still hurt a lot if somebody jumped on your stomach while injured. The man snapped out from his stupor and screamed.

“Kuaaaaaaah!”

Take that!

I didn’t stop jumping and went back and forth between the ground and his stomach.

‘I feel like I became a warrior.’

If Marilyn had been here to witness this, she would’ve been proud of me for not abandoning my dream of becoming a warrior. It’s a pity so let’s jump one more time. 

“Hyah! Go and die, bad man! Hyah!”

“Gaaaaaah!”

“Jumping attack!”

Getting his stomach assaulted by heeled shoes, the man’s hands and feet trembled as if he would faint again. It was enough to cause pain.

Flustered, Veronica ran to the man’s side to get me off his stomach.

“What are you doing?!”

“What do you mean what, I’m gibing punishmewnt to the man who made sishter sawd.”

I didn’t get off his stomach until I confirmed that the man had lost consciousness again. As if she didn’t expect me to do such a bad thing, Veronica looked down at me with a dumbfounded face.

“Sishter, good people can get angwy too.”

“. . . . .”

“Not just the bawd people.”

Veronica, who was looking at me as if I was absurd, burst into laughter when I landed on the ground with a proud look.

“I see. Thank you.”

I giggled when I saw her blue aura change a little into a happy one.

“But what are you doing here at Saint-Dena? This is Dietrich’s territory.”

“I wash gowing to buy wottery.”

“Shall we go together?”

“Yeah!”

I answered with a grin and then Veronica picked me up.

“I was the one who brought her.”

Behind me, I heard Yuric grumble in disappointment but I decided to ignore it.

‘I’m going to go into the arms of the strongest person here.’

No matter how hard I looked between them, Veronica seemed much stronger than Yuric. I rubbed my head against her shoulder and my curly hair made a rustling sound.

“It tickles.”

“I like Sishter!”

“Hmm.”

Veronica snorted at my confession but her white cheeks turned crimson. She took a step, saying they need to go to the gambling house to buy a lottery ticket.

“Why are you coming with us all of a sudden?”

 “Mind the way you talk to your sister.[1]”

“That’s wight! How could yu tawk to your older sishter like thawt, Yuri!”

Yuric appeared dissatisfied that Veronica suddenly joined in. I imitated what she said and raised my index finger. Yuric pouted, feeling upset as I pointed my finger at him.

“Are you really going to do this to me?”

‘It looks like he’s about to cry.’

I felt a little sorry so I quickly took my hand back.

“Yuri, Yuri, come on. Come hewe.”

“Never mind. You don’t need me anymore.”

“Nyo. Yuri is needed.”

After what I said, Yuric followed us meekly.

It appears that Veronica knew the path to Saint-Dena district very well. Soon, she was able to get us to the gambling house without getting lost.

“Children are not allowed inside.”

A well-built man was obstructing the entrance to the gambling house, preventing our entry. Amused, Veronica looked up at the man.

“Veronica Lagrange.”

“. . . . . What?”

“You must be out of your mind to block my way here in Saint-Dena. Perhaps, you don’t want to live.”

“Ah!”

Hearing those words, the man immediately brought his hands down which were blocking the entrance. Even though this was Dietrich’s district, Veronica entered gracefully inside the gambling house of Saint-Dena as though she owned the place.

“The lottery tickets are probably being sold here.”

“Wow.”

The gambling house didn’t have windows but fancy chandeliers hanging from the ceiling made up for the lack of light instead, making the place bright whether it was day or night.

Veronica watched for a moment at the people gathering around, yelling and throwing dice in a round table before settling me down on a stand in the corner.

“Seynt-Dena. . . . . jelry shop.”

I read the worn out sign that was about to fall off. I turned my eyes over the glass window above the kiosk to see if they also sell lottery tickets in the jewelry shop[2].

A woman stuck her face out of the perforated window.

“Huh? Veronica, we don’t take care of human babies, not unless it's for sale right away.”

The woman began to observe my face as she chewed on a jerky. Her gaze scared me so I took a step back.

“Well, it’s pretty. She’ll fetch a heavy price, but how about 1 Blois for an immediate sale?”

“Just 1 Blois?”

Veronica scoffed at what the woman said.

‘How much was 1 Blois again?’

Blois was the highest monetary unit after Copper and Shilling. Coppers were equivalent to 1000 won, Shilling was 10,000 won and 1 Blois was about 1 million won.

‘Then, I am a million won?’

I pondered over the value of each currency for a minute until I realized that they were talking about me, and looked back at Veronica in anger.

“Awe yu selling me?!”

“I am not selling you. Not for that price.”

‘Does that mean you will if the price goes up?’

“S-Sishter, Anissa doesn’t want to gow anywhere elsh, pwease don’t shell me . . . . . .”

She laughed as she couldn’t suppress it any longer when I gripped my clothes with tears forming in my eyes.

“I won’t sell you. How could I when you’re not even mine?”

Hearing those words, the woman looked at me and smacked her lips in regret.

‘Shoo, shoo! Go away!’

I turned away and avoided the woman’s gaze. Veronica picked me up again, who was struggling to get off the counter.

“To buy a lottery ticket, how much do I need to pay?”

“2 Coppers.”

‘Hic.’

I checked at the coin in my hand that I was about to pay when the woman answered.

‘It was definitely 1 Copper the last time I remembered!’

My bewildered gaze soon landed on Yuric. The boy, aware of my predicament, hastened to check his pocket and opened his mouth bitterly.

“It appears I spent all my money on the dagger earlier. What now?”

I wept at the empty pocket that Yuric apologetically handed over to me.

“Yuri don hab money . . . . . ?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Anissa cawn’t buy wottery . . . . . ?”

The dream of living in a fortune was shattered before my eyes. Not losing hope, I held out the shiny coin in my hand to the shopkeeper of the jewelry room.

“A wottery ticket pwease.”

“One lottery ticket is 2 Copper coins though?”

“Pwease gib me a discownt.”

“What?”

“Pwease, a discownt. Anissa don hab money.”

I looked at the shopkeeper courteously and the coin propped in my hand alternately.

‘Bite your lips tightly; put strength in your eyes!’

With my eyes looking as pitiful as possible, the woman exclaimed and clasped me near my chest.

“How can I give you a discount for the lottery ticket if you have nothing?”

“Anissa don hab money. I’m powr.”

I decided to use my ace weapon. As I drew tears in my eyes, the shopkeeper started to be conflicted. I took a breath and continued.

“Anissa, hu! Can’t buy . . . . . wottery ticket . . . hu! Anissa is powr . . . . “

Eventually, she took the coin from my hand in defeat.

“No, just what kind of baby buys a lottery ticket anyway.”

Until just a moment ago she had been thinking of selling me, now she was looking at me with the most gracious gaze in the world.

“Don’t cry. Here.”

I dearly held onto the lottery ticket that she had placed in my hand.

“Hehe. Lucky.”

“You like the lottery ticket that much?”

“Yes! Life is all abowt good fowtune.[3] With thish, I can buy you shomething delishous, sishter.”

‘Of course, not until I buy stuff for myself first.’

“Hmm . . . . . .”

Veronica, who watched me giggling, placed her hands on the sides of her waist with a look of excitement. Soon, she opened her wallet and took out three bills.

“3 Blois. Bring me all the lottery tickets that you have.”

Notes:

[1] Just like most Asian countries, Koreans make a big deal out of seniority/age and to be respectful to those older than you. Basically, Yuric has been using casual speech at Veronica, who’s older than him, and she called him out because of that.

[2] The hangul 금은방 can literally be translated as “gold and silver room” it’s basically a store where you’ll find accessories made from PURE gold, all the way up to 24k. It’s also where Koreans buy gifts of pure gold accessories for babies on their first birthday because celebrating the 1st birthday of a baby is a big deal. They’re different from your typical jewelry stores 쥬얼리샵 (like Tiffany&Co.). Anyways, there’s no proper translation for this in English so we simply put it as a jewelry shop. :)

 [3] For the hangul of this one, 일각천금 (which in Anissa’s case is 이락쩐금), is an idiom saying that time (even if it’s short 일각) is precious. How this relates to the lottery ticket is that, 천금 literally means a lump of gold. But in the dialogue, there’s a word before 일각천금 which is life and if you connect the two you basically get “Life is all about the good fortune. “ or “Life is all about the small precious moments.”