Episode 53

Children who were no longer affected by the curse liked me very much.

It may be because they instinctively felt that I was the one who solved the curse that was tying them down.

‘Anyway, you like me so much that it’s a problem. . . . .”

For months already, children have been gathering at Dahlia Palace every day.

As soon as the sun rises and I see the children huddled together in front of Dahlia palace, I want to close my eyes back tightly. 

“First of all, everyone, gather around.”

When I clapped my hands lightly, the children who were talking among themselves sat in front of me.

“Ummm. You, you, and you!”

I caught a whiff of it first as I stood in front of the children. A terrible rose scent, like savory roasted marshmallows mixed in the children’s scent.

Soon, I only picked out children whose aura was stained and made them circle around me. Those who were not chosen sighed in disappointment.

“Are you going to play with us today?”

“Yeah.”

Not knowing why they were clapping their hands with me, the children got excited and started to sing along.

“Blueeeee skyyyy—“

“—Milkyyyy waaayy.”

Clap clap clap-

The most effective way to clean an aura was through physical contact. I devised a hand-to-hand game to clean up the children’s aura without having to reveal my abilities.

“What? Me!”

“Me too!”

When the children, who have not yet learned order, were about to fight, I simply imitated Dietrich once in a while.

“Sigh.”

“O-Okay, Don’t be angry.”

I wasn’t really angry, but because they wanted to play with me so much, the children immediately calmed down.

‘Hmm. This should be enough for today.’

Fortunately, the number of children who came with polluted auras was reduced due to the destruction of all the statues.

 I sometimes see these contaminations from the children, but it wasn’t that severe. There were also many children who recovered their own aura by simply patting them in the head.

‘Most of them are purified with my hands just like this, but. . . . .’

The problem was grown-up children like Alphonse. I sighed as I swept down the part of my neck where Alphonse’s sword had touched.

<<If you touch my bracelet one more time, you might just die.>> 

I certainly managed to clean Alphonse’s bracelet when I secretly infiltrated Liatris Palace. However, the cleansed bracelet had no effect on Alphonse. 

The longer the exposure to the curse was, the harder it was to wash the aura clean.

<<Got it? The reason I’m not killing you right now is because you’re protected by that damn restriction.>>

Not knowing what a successor restriction was, Alphonse said as he pushed me out of Liatris Palace. 

No matter how hard I tried, his dark, polluted aura didn’t clear up.

‘In the first place, his aura seemed to resemble Derek’s, maybe that’s why it was awful.’

Ultimately, I decided to give up on making Alphonse clean. The purification of aura was a way to restore one’s own aura, not a magic trick that turned a wicked man nice.

“Haaa.”

My whole body lost its energy even though I only played with the children briefly.

I sighed, so unlike a child, and washed my face dry with my two small hands.

“Anissa, are you tired?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

I grinned at the children’s innocent questions. Of course, the children were very cute.

‘But there are more than ten Lagrange children! Overall, there are dozens of people!’

The kids here didn’t know how to play normally. It was only natural as they’ve never played before.

Everyone must have been in a hurry to survive, and hunting was the closest thing to playing among the ways the children spend their time.

The majority of the children had never even tried to play the common games such as hide-and-seek, tag, dolls, which were enjoyed not only by children of aristocrats but also by ordinary children.

“Anissa, what are we going to play today?”

“It’s called Freeze Tag[1].”

“Freeze Tag?”

“Yeah. I made this game.” 

It’s a total lie, but if they asked me how I knew this game, I didn’t have anything to say.

“Wooow. Anissa is very smart.”

“That’s right. Our Anissa is a genius.”

I shrugged off the children’s compliments and decided the tagger with rock-paper-scissors.

‘I remembered the day I also told them all about rock-paper-scissors.’

We played rock-paper-scissors more than 300 hundred times.

The children were quickly engrossed on the real “game” they first experienced—not scary games such as catching an assassin or killing their half siblings. 

“Isn’t Anissa going to play Freeze Tag with us?”

“Huh? I want to rest.”

“No! Let’s do it together!”

I smiled helplessly and gathered the children who were chirping like chicks.

‘This is hard. . . . . You kids aren’t even tired.’

My respect for kindergarten and day-care teachers across the country rose.

“Okay, fine.”

“Okay, okay! Who’s the tagger this time?”

“Let me do it. No, I’ll do it!”

Physically, it was very hard to play with the children, but there was also the advantage as my pronunciation improved quickly because I spoke a lot. (YEEEES! NO MORE BABY TALK!!!)

‘I have to show it to Dietrich.’

Whenever I asked where he was, Baal or Yuric would avoid my eyes.

When they both looked at me in a glance, it seemed like he was out of Lagrange and in a different place.

‘You’ll be surprised when you come back.’

Since I hadn’t met him, I couldn’t even say anything about what made the children gather at Dahlia Palace.

“I’ll count to 100.”

I hugged a big tree and closed my eyes, pretending to be a tagger. Then, instead of hiding, the triplets followed me and hugged the tree.

“What are you doing?”

Dumbfounded, I opened my eyes and stared at the children. Rose, the only girl among the triplets, smiled and held my hand.

“We want to be taggers with Anissa.”

“Because we are best friends with Anissa.”

“We’re best friends. Right?”

I hesitated for a moment when Maslow and Riesling asked with hope shining in their eyes. . 

“No?”

Rose urged for an answer with a depressed voice.

“Y-Yeah. You guys are my best friends in the world.”

“You mean you’re best friends with them.” 

No, I’m telling you guys I’m closest with you, so what’s with the disappointed tone, again? 

“Huh?”

But Rose’s voice couldn’t be that low. Surprised, I forgot to count and turned around, and suddenly my body was lifted up.

“What the hell.”

A low voice that sounded like a sigh rang into my ears. I blinked my eyes and reached out to Dietrich.

“Dietrich!”

“What happened while I was away?”

He held me in his arms like nothing happened as if he had only seen me yesterday. It’s been a long time since I have been treated like a child because I only took care of the children while he was away.

“What’s with all those kids?”

‘As soon as we meet, he scolds me.’ 

Nevertheless, it was Dietrich who did not see the seasons change. I hugged his neck with joy and tears in my eyes. It smelled like the forest that I miss.

Dietrich spoke with an indifferent face, pinching my cheek.

“Answer first, Anissa.”

“Hnnngg.”

“Don’t cry.”

Dietrich wiped the tears around my eyes and lips with his fingertips.

“You’ve grown up.”

Of course I grew up, but it was Dietrich who grew up quickly. He has grown taller and his new height made him look closer to a boy than a child.

11 years old.

He is 11 years old now. He looked bigger than his age, perhaps because of my hard work of delivering milk to him when I was a baby.

“Dietrich, where the hell have you been?”

Dietrich, who ignored my question, looked around and let out a low chuckle again.

“I was the first to ask about what happened to the palace, Anissa.”

After coming back after many months, he must have been so confused as he had not seen this many children at home before.  

I stammered to open my mouth to explain.

“I got a little closer to them”

“. . . . .”

“I was bored without Dietrich.”

I was afraid Dietrich would be disappointed, but he showed no emotions at all. After a hum, he let out a short breath. 

“. . . . .you made friends with Catherine Fermat’s children?” 

“Do you know us?”

When Rose asked, Dietrich stepped back, a little nervous. Because I was being held by him, my body also shook. 

“Ah!”

At that moment, Maslow, who only watched us closely, went forward as he clapped his hands once.

“I remember who you are! Dietrich! Aren’t you Dietrich Lagrange—“

Maslow, staring up at Dietrich, who looked down at them coldly, suddenly raised his voice and covered his mouth in shock.

The scared children’s shoulders began to tremble.

‘What’s going on all of a sudden?’

As I was being held in  Dietrich’s arms, I reached my hand out toward the children.

“What’s wrong?”

“Anissa! It’s dangerous! Come here!”

What on earth was dangerous? I widened my eyes at Riesling’s pale face.

“You have to run away.”

“Huh?”

“Dietrich Lagrange was the one who eliminated all of Fermat's children that existed before us.”

At Riesling’s words, Dietrich raised one corner of his mouth, jeering at the child.

“Ah.”

Only then did I nod as if I remembered how villainous he was, and bit my lips.

“Is that how you describe your participation in the game, and was erased by losing?”

“But it’s true that you’re the one responsible. Shobi even said he didn’t want to participate in the game! He was going to give up!!” 

Riesling was on the verge of crying. I stuttered, making eye contact with the child in tears.

“I-I don’t think so. Because Dietrich doesn’t kill a child without reason.”

“No! Your brother killed Shobi!”

I slowly turned my head at Rose’s scream.

“Dietrich, are what the children are saying true?”

Dietrich nodded his head without hesitation at my question.

“A child who really wasn’t willing to participate in the candidate game. . . . .”

‘Did you kill him?’

Dietrich, without saying a word, squeezed me through the arms that held me. .

“. . . . .now, what does that mean?”

I couldn’t answer his self-deprecating question properly.

Those triplets who pretended to be innocent survived at the expense of their other siblings.

I have witnessed Dietrich’s unemotional handling of assassins over and over again.

It was a fact that I knew from the beginning that he was not the righteous protagonist, Hermann.

‘But if you weren’t willing to participate, it meant that he removed the child who didn’t have to be removed.’

The Dietrich I know was not the kind of person who would do such useless things.

“Huh?”

Only then did I see a black aura spreading near his chest.

Dietrich’s aura was as dark as a burnt ash, and it was so cloudy that it wouldn’t be obvious if you didn’t focus on it.

‘Did you always have that?’

 

Notes:

[1] 얼음 means ice and 땡 is just a sound and has no special meaning. The game was played with one catcher and the rest as "escapees". The game is very much like "Police and Thief." The catcher is supposed to catch an escapee. However the escapees can avoid being caught when the catcher is near by shouting "얼음". When the escapees call out "얼음", they can no longer move and neither can the catcher catch them. The "frozen" escapees can move again only after they are "ddaeng" or touched by other escapees. The catcher must catch an escapee before he or she shout out "얼음". Once an escapee is caught, he or she will become the next catcher. (Source: http://chaemii.blogspot.com/2007/03/blog-post_20.html?m=1)

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