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Dietrich was a little annoyed.
Although his face was impassive and neat as usual and his eyes were as cool as glass beads that did not show any emotions, his agitated fingertips trembled a little.
“What is the meaning of this?”
"............."
“Have you gone crazy?”
Hermann, whose hair was caught by his hand, asked as he fumed, and he admitted calmly.
“That’s right.”
He was crazy. He was going crazy with anger.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and the swelling was so tight that he couldn’t stand it.
To say it literally, his eyes had rolled.
“Should I kill you?”
The words that came out of his lips contrary to his intentions made Hermann’s pupils shake.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
Dietrich demonstrated extraordinary patience and loosened the strength of his hand that was about to break his neck. Hermann stutteringly opened his mouth.
“Grand Duke, the rotation is the day after tomorrow. Do you intend to end the war in this barbaric way?”
"............."
“Don’t you have a cause? What will people think if you kill me now?”
Hermann exhaled in a hurry and cast his big and bright eyes at Dietrich.
The clean blue eyes gave off a beautiful glow in the dark.
“Ha.”
He gave a low laugh as if the Duke’s words were funny.
“Grand Duke, maybe you didn’t realize it because you were too young, but our war is a war with a cause.”
"............."
“The moment you kill me is the same as Lagrange losing the war!”
Who exactly was the young one here?
The Duke opened his mouth without fear even when his life was threatened.
“Why did you think Anissa –!”
Dietrich jerked his elegant face again to interrupt him.
“Kugh!”
“F*ck, who told her to bother about that?”
Dietrich was stunned by the accusation he was blaming him for.
Soon, he took out the letter from his arms written by ‘Anissa’ to ‘Hermann’.
“I didn’t know you were such a seeker of morality.”
A crumpled, unrecognizable piece of paper flew into the air.
He seemed to think that if he sent it through Damon, it wouldn’t be taken away, but in the first place, his secret agent was not in Lagrange.
“Th-that’s!”
Hermann’s surprised eyes widened.
He hurriedly grabbed Dietrich’s hand which was grabbing his collar.
“Grand Duke, I don’t mean to hurt Anissa! I just want to send her back home!”
“Home?”
“That’s right! Because Euclid is Anissa’s home!”
Dietrich clenched his fist and hit Hermann on the mouth.
Punch. The Duke’s face turned and the sound of cracking of the bones echoed in the silent room.
“I think I misheard it earlier, why don’t you say it again.”
"............."
Hermann bowed his head, pressing down the blood flowing from his mouth with both hands.
Now, he wasn’t just angry simply at Hermann. That one-sided letter he sent to Lagrange alone was bearable.
He had believed in Anissa’s words that she wouldn’t leave.
The reason why he didn’t speak to her was that he thought she would naturally ignore him.
He thought that she would believe they were angry words he spits out simply to threaten her. But in the end, Anissa agreed.
‘Why?’
Although she had said that she did it for him, it was a logic he couldn’t comprehend.
He had never said he needed that damn Luzen nor the loyalty from the other families in the North.
There was only one thing Dietrich said that he wanted.
That she wouldn’t leave his side.
He didn’t know why it was so difficult for her to grant his request that she stay within his reach. She only need not move.
‘Did she want to win that much?’
Anissa offered an end to the war on the condition that she returned to Euclid.
A bloodless victory for Lagrange.
Since the South had nothing to gain from the war in the first place, then Euclid would have easily allowed it.
‘Did she think I would lose?’
He thought that he had never shown to be weak in front of her.
The plan went awry.
Time was running out for Dietrich anyway.
He didn’t know when his worn-out body would last.
So, in the early morning when the promised day was not yet bright, he grabbed the hair of Duke Euclid, who slept soundly like a princess in a fairy tale.
“I wonder what kind of face she’ll make when I kill you and bring back only your head.”
The Duke’s face turned deathly pale at his blunt murmur.
“Hng.”
He bore a little resemblance to Anissa, with his face all white and delicate and only his lips were red. His dark pink hair was similar to that little rabbit he saw in the garden.
He didn’t know if it really resembled her or if everything looked like her because someone had cut her hair recently.
Dietrich looked down at the watery blue eyes of the young Duke and raised his sword.
────── 〔✿〕──────
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“Huh? What did you say?”
It seemed that Lancel was still talking more, but I was distracted by the short time and started packing my stuff in a hurry.
The butler who was watching my behavior grabbed my hands.
“Princess!”
“I’m busy. If you have something to say, say it later.”
“Please don’t be like that and look at the door.”
I paused and listened to Lancel then belatedly turned my head.
"............."
‘Is it hallucination?’
Did I long for Dietrich that much?
He was leaning against the door, unchanged from the last time I saw him. As if time had turned back.
“Something must have gone wrong with my eyes, Lancel.”
“It’s perfectly normal if you’re seeing His Grace.”
“What?”
But his departure was only the morning before yesterday.
“Dietrich?”
Looking a little tired, he slowly walked toward me with a blank face.
The sound of footsteps echoed loudly as if he was stepping on mud. The clean floor was splashed with dirt.
‘Is it really Dietrich?’
The blade he was holding in one hand shone particularly bright.
‘There is no way the war is already over and he already came back?’
But why?
I stood up in an awkward position even as I was questioning myself.
Every time he came closer to me, the smell of fishy blood gets thicker. It was the same smell that wafted from the window earlier.
‘What on earth is this smell?’
I was wondering if Dietrich was injured but his clean face was rather lively.
“How come you’re already here? Did something happen?”
“Same goes for you.”
“Huh?”
“What is that luggage?”
He answered my question with another question.
“I’ve only been away from the castle for a day. And you’ve already changed your mind?”
I covered with my body the luggage that Dietrich pointed at with the tip of his gleaming sword.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t leaving?”
He laughed coldly when I avoided answering.
“Answer.”
"............."
“I see you don’t plan to answer me.”
The corners of his lips were raised but his eyes weren’t smiling. I waved my hand at his seething aura.
“Th-that’s not it. I was just going around the neighborhood to cool my head.”
“Without me?”
That’s right, without you.
However, Dietrich’s expression was unfamiliarly bloody for me to nod my head frankly. Instead of urging me for an answer, he stretched out his hidden arm.
“What’s that?”
The dark pink hair in his hand hung lifelessly.
I was so startled that I stiffened in place and swallowed my scream.
‘A head?’
If what he had in his hand was really a human head, then it was obvious who it belonged to. His hair, like a cockscomb, was stained with blood.
“........I asked you what that is.”
At my urging, Dietrich dropped the chunk of luggage as if he was handing it over to me.
Thud.
A heavy sound echoed in the silent room.
I turned my eyes to the huge sack that had fallen in front of me.
“.....Hermann? Is this Hermann?”
“That’s right.”
Dietrich nodded his head. I was shocked at his indifferent and emotionless face that I covered my mouth with both my hands.
“Urgh.”
Ah.
I got goosebumps all over my body thinking that it was only his head but it seemed that his body was completely attached. I leaned over to examine the mass of luggage that was breathing heavily.
‘Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be dead.’
Still, it was against morals to kidnap Hermann. Doing this would only perpetuate the war rather than end it.
“The war hasn’t even started yet and you went and kidnapped the opponent?”
What kind of crazy thing to do.
I turned pale and looked between Herman and him. He nodded his head as if nothing of note happened.
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t listen to me.”
I pursed my lips at Dietrich’s calm words.
“I don’t listen to you?”
“That’s right. You don’t.”
"............."
“You really terribly don’t listen to me.”
Dietrich’s dark eyes glistened savagely.
Suddenly, the black color of his eyes, which glistened like a submerged pebble, reminded me of the fact that he had crossed the battlefield dozens of times that I didn't know.
“So now I really can’t stand it anymore.”
He grabbed me by the back of my neck without telling me what he couldn’t stand anymore.
“Wait.”
I reached out, startled when Dietrich bent his head close enough to touch my nose.
A warm breath touched my forehead.
“Close your mouth.”
As he approached, there was a fishy smell characteristic of a murderer instead of his usual cool scent.