Episode 47

 I tilted my head as I looked at Lancel, puzzled by his sudden change of attitude. It was only a small scratch and I didn’t even feel it until he made a fuss, but he carried me and started running towards the front door.

“Marilyn! Marilyn! The Princess got injured! Come on out!”

“Lanshel, I’m owkay.”

“You’re not okay!”

Lancel gritted his teeth at my answer and looked down at me. I wondered what was wrong with him all of a sudden, and when I looked up at him with my eyes going round, he gasped.

“Ugh . . . . . “

“Lanshel?”

“Princess, were you always this cute?” 

“. . . . . what?”

“Why are you so cute?”

‘He must have gone crazy.’

Maybe a fragment of the debris got stuck in his head. They said that if a person suddenly changes, they die.

“Please sit here and wait. It would be bad if it left a scar.”

Lancel stroked my head with his big hand then hurried out of his seat.

Only then did I see his aura before he left. The dark blue color that I usually see was as refreshing as the autumn sky.

‘But no matter how much I purified it, it never turned into that color though?’

I got up from my seat without waiting for Lancel. If, just if, it was really the rose statue defiling Lancel’s aura—

‘There can’t be only one of those statues decorating Lagrange.’

It seems that the question I’ve been holding for quite some time might be resolved today.

‘The curse left by the demon Asmodeus may have been affecting the children unconsciously.’ 

Everyone has their own aura. It’s impossible, even for me who possesses Eredia’s ability, to change the essence of aura itself.

The only way I could interfere with people’s aura  was to calm  down it’s emotional fluctuation using the abilities of Eredia.

‘However, it was said that the first head of Lagrange was manipulated like a human doll.’

There were children who use hypnosis on people just like Veronica, but changing the aura itself is a completely different story. 

‘They’re really just bad kids so their senses might be dull, but . . . . . “

I thought of Dietrich, Yuric, and Veronica as I stood in front of the wall that separated the Palace of Liatris and Dahlia.

Yeah, I know they’re not really angelic children. What kind of angel laughs as they teach you how to stab people?

‘Though they’re not that terrible either.’

Torturing  and killing each other was a tradition that repeats everyday, but really, they’re only trying to survive.

All the children who gave up the succession were considered as rejects so their lives were difficult, and those who didn’t give up had to live in constant threat of death.

‘The Dietrich in the novel and the Dietrich that I know are very different from each other.’

No children of ‘Lagrange’ were born as a demon. They were born ordinary, from ordinary parents but raised as demons.

I stepped into Liatris Palace through the dog hole that I often went around to play with Yuric. Hidden among the bushes, I closed my eyes and focused my senses.

‘Just as I expected.’

I could smell the faint scent of roses similar to what was in the backyard of Dahlia Palace. The problem was that the scent didn’t come from only one direction.

‘Two? No, from three directions?’

Unlike Dahlia’s garden, which was close to ruins before Marilyn came to take care of it, the garden of Liatris was quite beautiful.

The sparkling golden fountain still exudes splendour. But so did the silence, because the children couldn’t play around the Lagrange estate.

‘I think it’s around here.’

 Thump thump. 

I began tracking the scent like a hound. It didn’t matter if Yuric catches me but it would be a big deal if I was caught by Alphonse or the other children of Liatris so my heart was thumping with tension.

Fortunately, the garden was deserted. I hid among the tall sunflowers and smelled the surroundings as I ran speedily towards the fountain.

‘I found it!’

The scent of roses was rising from the statue of a goddess situated in the middle of the fountain.

‘Hmm. . . . . ‘

For the time being, I crouched down in front of the fountain where my eyes were glued to the goddess made of gold.

‘It’s too high.’

When I took a closer look, the smell of rotten roses seemed to be flowing from the goddess’ eyes. There was a black aura clumped together like a cloud.

‘But I’ve already come this far.’

I took a deep breath and climbed onto the fountain platform. The goddess, where clear water gushes out from her skirt, was a voluptuous woman so there was no place I can grip on.

“Hyaap!”

After lightly warming up my hands and bending my knees, I reached for the waist of the goddess.

Splash-

‘I knew it.’

Even if I was an NBA ace player with excellent jumping skills, it’s impossible with this body. The fountain was too big for my short legs.

I dragged my wet body back to the statue. As I climbed up to her little by little like a monkey on a tree, I soon reached the goddess’ eyes.

The first attempt wasn’t easy but I got the hang of it on my second attempt. I sculpted the eyes of the goddess like that time when I broke the rose statue.

Crack.

It made a softer sound than when the rose statue broke and a black mist rose above the pieces that had fallen into the water.

‘By the way, why isn’t anybody around this place?’

While using the same method I used when destroying the suspicious decoration hidden in the bushes, I didn’t encounter a person, let alone an ant.

I slowly gained confidence after I destroyed one statue after the other without being caught by anyone.

‘It looks like the last one is in the palace.’

I walked with heavy steps mustered by my baby feet towards the back of the palace. Liatris Palace was newer than Dahlia’s, so all the windows are large.

“Hiyah!”

I grabbed a window railing that was twice as big as me and jumped up like a spring. It wasn’t that difficult to jump over the cracks to step on the bricks  that protruded unlike when I climbed the statue.

Fortunately, the window was open as if expecting me to come in, but I hid behind the curtain and surreptitiously searched the inside.

‘It’s really extravagant here.’

No matter how many times Marilyn swept and cleaned, sometimes Dahlia still looked like a haunted house while Liatris Palace was so luxurious that no one would bat an eye if a one jewel went missing.

‘Could this be a bedroom?’

Liatris flowers made of ivory were in full bloom, decorating the pillars, and various jewels were embedded in the center of the flowers.

I drooled and as if possessed, I reached out to the pillar closest to the window.

‘No! Wake up!’

Don’t forget your purpose for sneaking into Liatris Palace. I shook my head to snap out of it and focused on my nose again.

‘Well, it’s not in this room.’

The smell was coming from somewhere close. I climbed the railing carefully and crossed over to the next room.

“Uwaaaaa!”

‘A baby?’

I couldn’t get into the room as I stopped when I heard the sound of a baby crying from the next room.

Fortunately, the aura I felt was only coming from the baby and the artificial rose scent. I jumped out of the window in a hurry and hid myself behind a table.

‘Ugh, I’m so nervous.’

Regardless if the baby was by themself, I still felt like I entered the enemy camp alone. Dahlia and Liatris weren’t the only palaces in Lagrange, but Dietrich’s worst successor candidate contender was Alphonse.

I began to look around carefully and found the cause of the smell. Already accustomed to this work, I found the decoration much faster than before.

‘Oh, why does it have to be there?’

The problem was it was attached to the mobile decoration on top of the baby’s cradle. If this was how it was, I had no choice but to go near the baby.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Liatris could have hired five nannies, but no one was around to take care of the baby.

I crossed the room, careful not to make a sudden noise. The baby, wrapped in a duvet with lace patterns, was sound asleep in a luxurious wooden cradle.

‘This baby has a higher ranking than me.’

Many people thought that Lagrangian children were born with a demon’s horn from the moment they were conceived, but the baby visible in front of me was just pretty.

Even the aura was pure white as if nothing had stained it.

But a dangerous aura was leaking out from the mobile, circling around the baby’s aura as if it had a will of its own

‘If this continues, the baby’s aura will be dyed quickly.’

I took hold of the bird-shaped sculpture spinning around the baby’s head.

Clatter- 

It was difficult because the thread was sturdy and could hardly be broken. If I crushed the sculpture right now, pieces of it would certainly fall on the baby, so I stepped back with it in my hand.

“Uwaaaaa! Uwaaaaa!”

It was then-

The sleeping baby suddenly started bawling. Outside the door, noises could be heard as if someone was rushing to get in.

‘Gasp.’

I frantically looked everywhere to find a place to hide. However, the room was a nursery, so it was smaller than the bedroom I saw earlier, and there was scarcely any furniture.

Left with no choice, I crouched down and curled beneath a small sofa. After I hid myself, as if on cue, the door opened.

“You must’ve been hungry.”

The voice held a soft tone, neither low nor high. From my point of view, only the ankles can be seen, but the lace socks that peeked over the shoes were very luxurious.

‘Liatris?’

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