Side Story 1 Chapter 12

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“Did I reach it?”

“No. You have to stretch a little bit more.”

“What about now?”

“It’s still far, Your Grace.”

Lancel sighed heavily as he looked at Dietrich, who was holding his hand in the air with his eyes tightly closed.

“You have to put your hands down so that you can reach the baby.”

It was only at Lancel’s words that Dietrich finally, with half-closed eyes, looked down. 

The first thing he noticed was the soft white cheeks that looked as if they would pop when pressed hard.

Ruby and Sapphire were twin girls who looked exactly like Anissa from when she was a baby. 

“Your Grace, be brave.”

Lancel patted Dietrich on the shoulder, who swallowed a groan while biting his lips in front of his daughters.

‘I can’t believe His Grace is showing this kind of side. If I’m not seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.’

He was someone who was summoned to the battlefield at the age of twelve. He never showed any weakness in front of any enemy.

However, the Dietrich in front of him was clearly perplexed. Cold sweat broke out on his pale forehead.

“You Grace, please come. Fortunately, the children are sleeping now.”

Come on and touch this sweet baby girl’s cheek!

With Lancel’s support, Dietrich barely managed to overcome the tension and stretched out his hand. 

‘Please don’t cry, baby!’

Lancel held his hands together and prayed on behalf of his nervous master. 

“Uh, Uwahhhhh!”

However, as soon as Dietrich’s fingertips touched Ruby, who had been sleeping soundly, the child woke up and burst out crying.

‘Oh my goodness, why are you crying again?!’

Anissa, their mother, was a quiet baby who never cried except when she was hungry, but Ruby and Sapphire often cried. 

Flustered, Lancel ran, seeing Dietrich frozen in place with his hands outstretched to his children. 

“......They’re crying again.”

Maybe they don’t like me?

Dietrich was in agony. 

It was clear that Ruby and Sapphire disliked him. 

If it wasn’t that, what reason would there be for her to cry like that whenever he touched her?

Lancel, an experienced butler, lathered some words to secure the confidence of a novice father who was turning into dust scattering into the air. 

“Oh my, Ruby woke up! Babies usually cry when they wake up like this, Your Grace. It’s definitely not because you touched her, Your Grace.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, yes. So why don’t you try hugging her again…..”

It was at that moment when Lancel was about to give Ruby to Dietrich.

Ruby, who had been calm in Lancel’s arms, opened her mouth wide to burst into tears, starting another bout.

“.....I still have work to do so I will leave now.”

“.....Y-yes, please go, Your Grace. Don’t worry too much about the babies, me and Marilyn are taking care of them.”

Dietrich checked Ruby, whose crying subsided again like a ghost as soon as she was embraced by Lancel, and drooped his shoulders. 

It’s already been a month since Ruby and Sapphire were born.

They had already been embraced by Marilyn, Veronica, and even Yuric, but Dietrich, the father, couldn’t even hold one finger of his children.

“Tsk, tsk. It’s because you can’t hide your energy.”

The person who greeted Dietrich, who rarely came out of the children’s room was Yuric, who vacated the commander’s room to see his nieces whenever he had a chance.

“Even the knights sometimes feel goosebumps just with your energy, but what more the babies?” 

He was just getting out of the bathroom after Marilyn said that he had to wash his body thoroughly to see the babies.

“I’m doing my best to control it.”

Dietrich answered, frowning at the water dripping from Yuric’s blonde hair. 

“Your own way to control, you mean. You’ve never been weak so you don’t know how to hide your energy.”

Dietrich was strong enough to control Baal, the king of shadow demons, from the age of eight.  

Although he may have been under various checks, he always reigned as the top predator even in the Lagrange family, which was filled with villains. 

‘That’s why you can’t hide your sharp edged spirit like a sword.’ 

They may not have been born with Anissa’s ability, but since Ruby and Sapphire were babies sensitive to the energy of others, it was natural for them to be afraid of Dietrich. 

“If you continue being this way, Ruby and Sapphire won’t even consider you their father.”

Yuric shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Dietrich, who was more subdued than usual, but still felt ferocious that was chilling like sharpened ice.  

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll be a great dad in your place!”

Yuric walked past Dietrich and grabbed the doorknob, wearing his characteristic refreshing smile.

‘This jerk, the shock must have been big.’

Normally, he would have already broken one of his shoulders, asking what bullshit he was talking about but Dietrich only stood alone in the hallway, looking down at his hand and not touching Yuric. 

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“Baal.”

“Yes?”

“Die.”

“.........”

Baal was stunned for a moment thanks to his master who summoned him after a long time and urged him to commit suicide. 

“I don’t want to, though?”

The demon, who soon came to his senses, shook his head and waved his hand.

“Moreover, I am a body that cannot die in the human world.”

“I know.”

“.....Are you telling me to go to the demon world and die?”

At Baal’s dubious question, Dietrich nodded briefly.

“Ho! So now, since the princesses are afraid of Your Majesty because of my energy left in Lagrange, you want to see me go back to the underworld and die so that even my remaining energy can disappear?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you speaking to Baal, the sincere demon who has lived for you all his life?”

“Correct.”

Of course, Baal’s purpose was to control Lagrange’s humans through Dietrich and to absorb their gloomy energy to make his stomach full.

The choice to make Dietrich his king did not mean that he revered his power, but it meant that greed took precedence in the end. 

‘But asking me to commit suicide is too much!’

All just to hold a human baby once. 

It still sensed Baal’s energy and bursts into crying, but wasn’t what one needs to do when they get a little older would be to get used to the shadow demon’s energy? 

“Dietrich, don’t be like that to Baal.”

Anissa, who at some point had entered the room, patted Baal on his dumbfounded shoulder as if comforting him.

Baal wanted to burst into tears in her arms. 

“Anyway, even if demons are annihilated, they won’t completely disappear.”

It was as if she was saying that if she could get rid of it completely, she would have gotten rid of it right away.

‘There’s really no one to trust in Lagrange…..’

Baal’s mouth was bitter.

“But Ruby and Sapphire kept on crying.”

“Hm, I’ve thought of a way.”

At Dietrich’s sullen voice, Anissa clapped her hands and smiled brightly. It was a smile as fresh as the scent of flowers carried by the spring breeze.

“Right in time, you just summoned Baal.”

Anissa grabbed Baal by the scruff of his neck and left the room.

“Kek.”

Captured by Anissa, Baal was eventually taken to the children’s room. 

As soon as the demon entered the room, the babies were startled by the chilling air and burst into tears. 

“Baal, what are you doing not soothing the children?”

“Pardon?”

“Weren’t you good at something?”

At Anissa’s words, Baal realized what she wanted. 

Baal soon became a human, no, a demonic rattle, waving his hands from side to side. 

“Kyahh.”

Dazzled by Baal’s jingling rattle, which moved with a cheerful sound, Ruby and Sapphire stretched a big smile on their cute faces.

“Our babies love to watch dances, too.”

“Yes.”

Afterall, it was better to soothe the babies than to be told to die by Dietrich every time he came out to the human world to satisfy his hunger. 

Baal danced hard until the babies got used to the demon’s energy.

Jingle, jingle.

The sound of the demon dancing echoed across the hallway.

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“Hm, that’s strange. Now, they don’t even cry when held by Baal.”

Ruby and Sapphire were no longer afraid of the shadow demon’s energy, thanks to Baal’s care for the babies with utmost sincerity for three days and three nights. 

Even so, Sapphire rejected Dietrich, who held her in his arms, and burst into tears. 

“Is it because they’re not familiar yet?”

Dietrich was at a loss as he held the crying baby in his arms. 

Anissa approached her husband, who was too stiff to even comfort the baby, and patted the belly of Sapphire in his arms. 

“Don’t cry, Sapphire. It’s your dad. There’s no need to be scared.”

“That’s right, no need to be scared.”

Dietrich hesitantly agreed with Anissa's words.

“Dietrich, smile.”

Grin. 

“Smile prettily. Not in a scary way as if you’re threatening people!”

Smiles. 

“.......Just keep a straight face. That’s better.”

Dietrich then stiffened with tension and withdrew an awkward smile - which didn’t look like a smile at all.

The baby slowly began to calm down as he patted along with Anissa on Sapphire’s belly, who was in his arms.

“See, it’s because they’re not used to you yet that’s why they cry.”

Anissa narrowed her eyes and acted proudly with Ruby in her arms. 

“They don’t hate me….”

“There’s no way that’s possible. You’re they’re dad.”

Anissa even gave Ruby to Dietrich, who had not fully regained his confidence.

He strained his arms as if he would never let go of the babies.

His face, which didn’t even blink once and made threats in front of the emperor, but was now filled with nerves, was funny and lovely. 

Anissa patted the back of Dietrich’s hand holding the babies in his arms and tilted her head. 

“I’m a little tired. Shall we go to sleep?”

It was still midday with the sun not yet setting.

Dietrich hurriedly summoned the demon-nanny- at Anissa’s half-lidded eyes.

“Baal!” 

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