Episode 61
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I couldn’t answer her suggestion easily. Even though it had been my long time plan to escape Lagrange the moment Dietrich safely became the grand duke.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of staying in Lagrange?”
Veronica frowned as if she couldn’t believe it. I hesitated, as I met her eyes which resembled Dietrich’s, however much more lively.
“Lagrange has already changed a lot. You know it too, sister.”
“That’s right. Our relationship has already changed. But it’s only possible because Derek was frequently out of Lagrange.”
I bit my lips at Veronica’s words.
“But, someday, the head will change. When Dietrich becomes the grand duke --”
“Anissa, Dietrich have probably changed. I’m saying that he must have been completely stained by the demons.”
“...............”
“It’s because you didn’t see Dietrich during the war. If you think that he will take care of you like he did when you were children, you’re mistaken.”
Veronica had been called to the battlefield several times due to her unique hallucination ability, and as if she was remembering that time, she shook her head in disgust.
“And it wasn’t his fault either. The more you misuse the power of the shadow demon, the more you lose your mind.”
“......I see.”
I replied feebly, but in fact, none of the plans that I had made since realizing I had become ‘Anissa’ was thwarted.
I survived safely under the protection of Dietrich, and my ability had not yet been discovered.
‘If Dietrich really changed, I can just disappear like this.’
Without Eredia’s powers, I was just an ordinary girl, and I agree with the saying that mediocrity in Lagrange has no value.
‘Even if I disappear, Dietrich wouldn’t care.’
Nevertheless, he’s always on my mind.
By listening to the demons talking, Dietrich, who went to battle, made remarkable achievements.
Although he was too young and inexperienced to be given command, he was engaged in more dangerous battles than mercenaries, wiping out every southern soldier.
Derek wanted Dietrich to die so he drove him to war of attrition where there was no possibility to win, but he came back with a bloody victory every time.
‘Wouldn’t that be hard?’
“I had a nightmare.”
“Oh?”
“A dream in which Dietrich didn’t recognize me at all.”
The dream of him returning from war and just passing me by was the nightmare I feared the most.
I was afraid like a coward that I would be abandoned even though I was going to throw him away anyway.
“Sister, is it weird that I miss Dietrich?”
“No. It’s natural since he’s your only family. However, for me, it’s just an unfortunate contractual relationship.”[1]
I smiled at Veronica’s words and rubbed my head around her waist.
“You’re my family now too, sister.”
Veronica smiled silently and stroked my head.
“Princess, are you going out?” [2]
Marilyn greeted me when I left the study with Veronica.
As the territory of Lagrange expanded due to Dietrich’s achievements, the evaluation of him within the castle changed with it, and naturally, Dahlia’s condition began to improve.
As his only ‘sister’, I alone, had as many as four attendants, and Marilyn who had been in Dahlia the longest, naturally became the head maid.
“Yeah.”
“We’ll prepare your outdoor clothes.”
When she lifted her chin, the maids rushed to open the door to the dressing room.
Sitting on the velvet sofa in the middle, they brought out a few clothes and showed them in turns. The maids’ eyes strangely sparkled with excitement.
“Try this first!”
“No! Try this first!”
“This suits you, Princess!”
“There’s nothing that doesn’t suit our princess, Vanessa!”
“That, that is--”
Their excited conversations with each other echoed in my ears.
If I left it as it was, even if they brought me dozens of clothes to wear, they would still continue to bring more so I shook my head.
“Just give me something comfortable to wear today.”
“Ah, then how about this dress? This time, Miss Marilyn ordered a custom made dress from the salon.”
Tally, the cute maid with sprinkles of freckles on her nose, made a fuss and pulled an A-line sky blue dress. It was a cute design with a white neck collar that reminded me of a sailor uniform.
“Hm, I’ll wear that.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Tally changed my clothes and before I could look in the mirror, she stomped her feet and clapped her hands.
“As expected, you are so, sooo, pretty! Our princess will be the cutest and prettiest in Lagrange.”
“Uh, yeah….”
Tally’s aura, who had put on a large red ribbon on top of my half-tied hair, was fluctuating intensely.
The lively maids that Marilyn had chosen and hired herself outside of Lagrange had one thing in common.
“It’s precisely because of this that I became a maid in the duchy.”
Everyone was bent on dressing me up.
At first it was extremely burdensome, but now I’m a little used to this treatment.
‘I don’t hate the feeling of being loved.’
It wasn’t until I had worn the knee-high lace socks and black Mary Jane shoes that the maids let me out of the dressing room.
‘At least it ended quickly today.’
I looked into the large full-length mirror that was next to the door.
‘If I also had a younger sister who looked like this, I would also try and dress her up.’
The girl, with her thick eyelashes curled up like a doll, looked at me with her blinking huge round eyes.
Although she was only twelve years old, she already had well-defined features that shone brightly.
“What kind of child has a nose as high as this?”
Still, I wonder if the author tried their best to play the role as the ‘voice’ of the book. In the Rose Wars of Men, Anissa was compared to a delicate spring rose and it really fit perfectly.
‘Ugh, it’s too much self-praise.’
Crinkling my nose in front of the mirror, I shrugged my shoulders.
‘Hm, well, it’s okay to do it a little. It’s true that I’m pretty.’
If it weren’t for Dietrich-related concerns, I would have been able to wander around just because I was born with such a brilliant appearance.
“He doesn’t even reply to my letters even once.”
They would think you’re really a villain. It was really indescribable to be so heartless to your only sister.
I walked slowly towards the entrance and kicked the floor once.
The wind blowing through the open windows was cold. Time passed as much as the fallen leaves piled up in the garden.
‘Three years....’
The tedious war lasted for three years and I was already twelve years old.
I couldn’t remember exactly when, but Dietrich became a grand duke at seventeen, so the day when he would return wouldn’t be long.
I stood in my place, forgetting about Veronica who was waiting for me.
“Ah......”
When I pressed down on both my eyes with my palms, tears fell down. Sometimes, when I thought of Dietrich, I became so annoyed to the point that I wanted to cry.
Being alone in Dahlia made me think of all sorts of things.
One day, I thought that he was a villain anyway and I was going to escape Lagrange, so it didn’t matter if he hated me or not.
Then, on another day, I suddenly remembered his eyes that became cold to me, and my heart dropped.
“Jerk.”
He might not even have read my letters asking if he was hurt or tired.
I thought I could bear the loneliness as much as I could, but Dietrich’s absence left an enormous gap in my life more than I thought.
‘I think it’s worse than before.’
On the day that my report card was released, my parents ate out with only my sister and brother. Because I didn’t have the ‘qualifications.’
Eating cold leftovers at an empty table made me suffocated with loneliness.
It wasn’t because I wanted to eat delicious food. It’s because I wanted to be with them, too.
It was like then. Sometimes I felt like going crazy because I was so lonely.
One philosopher said that humans were originally lonely beings, but just because everyone else was lonely, it didn’t mean I was any less lonely.
But everything changed when I became Anissa. It was because I had Dietrich.
When I was in a dangerous or difficult situation, he was my brother who would sigh as if I was pathetic but would give me a hand anyway.
“No. Even so, I will believe in Dietrich.”
If I didn’t believe in him then who would? He was originally a villain who had no one to trust.
I stared at the ceiling with my eyes wide open. The tears that were flowing down flowed back up.
‘It’s no use wasting time like this.’
I hurried towards Josef’s lab. Even though no one was visiting the building, which was reminiscent of an old library, it was pleasantly dusted.
“I’ve already read all the books in this bookshelf.”
I used the duster like a cane and picked out the books I had read. Three years was quite long so I was able to read all the books and materials that Josef left behind.
When he was staying in Lagrange, the bookshelves surrounding the room were lined with books, but now, there were only three quarters left of it.
‘Of course, reading all of these took a lot of time.’
It seemed that he had left in a hurry because there were still a lot of materials that remained. In particular, the sources on Eredia were very helpful to me.
I approached the window and checked Josef’s sacred tree which he had secretly raised.
“Ah, so pretty.”
The light green leaves of the sacred tree glistened under the sunlight. The white flowers that were barely blooming were as beautiful as pear blossoms. I touched the soft petals one by one, moving the aura of the sacred tree.
‘I knew that animals and plants had auras, but I didn’t know they could be moved.’
At first, no matter how much I tried, it wouldn’t move, so I thought the book was wrong, but in fact, it was a matter of my ability.
“When the sacred tree is fully grown, will it become a purification tree?”
Even knowing that there would be no reply, I spoke to the plant and smiled sweetly.
‘What can I do with a purification tree?’
Seeing as Josef spent his time growing it and doing research, it must be useful.
As I was looking around thinking about it, I heard a sound of something tumbling on the floor. Startled, I positioned myself close to the floor.
‘Is there an underground lab?’
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T/N: [1] [Contract with the demons since Dietrich gave her a demon, not the other kind of contractual relationship LOL.]
[2] [A duke’s daughter is also called a princess.]
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