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“Here are the documents, Your Grace.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“I’ll leave it here, Your Grace.”
“Stop. There’s a limit to how much I’ll let it go.”
Although Dietrich put some annoyance into his voice, I just snorted and threw the papers on his desk.
‘If there’s a limit to how much he’ll let it go, how far can I go?’
Thunk!
The dust on his desk floated along with the sound. I stared at him moving the pen in his hand on top of the ebony desk.
His hands were so pretty that it was hard to believe he was someone who wields a sword every day.
‘Hmph, so what about it!’
His heart was full of grumpiness anyway!
“Stubborn.”
Dietrich, who was moving the nib in scribbles, finally looked at me when I whispered.
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything, Your Grace.”
“Anissa.”
He chewed and spit my name like an angry beast. But it’s not his anger I’m afraid of.
“Please speak, Your Grace.”
“You really!”
Dietrich, who opened his mouth as if he would shout, clenched his fists, barely holding himself back. I shrugged my shoulders with renewed admiration for his patience.
In fact, I had been aware that he had been quite – a lot actually – tolerant of me so far. Still, I couldn’t help but feel upset.
‘If you don’t want me to keep provoking you, then let me go.’
No matter how much I think about it, it was his useless grumpiness that was keeping me from leaving.
It’s a time when everyone was doing their best for the prosperity of Lagrange, but I wasn’t saying I’ll go out to play around.
“Since my work is done, may I leave now?”
“Where are you going?”
“The restroom!”
“.........”
I’m going to rest, so what!
Guessing from the way his eyebrows kept rising higher and higher, his patience must be wearing thin to the ground.
I twisted my lips as I looked at his speechless face.
“Would you like me to make a list of my destinations today and report them to you, Your Grace?”
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
A shadow of backlight fell over Dietrich’s face as he responded coldly.
The face with a neat nose line was still handsome today but I left the room with eyes filled with hate.
────── 〔✿〕──────
It was at dawn when everyone was in deep sleep that I headed back to his office. In the quiet time when the dim moonlight shone in the hallway, I sneakily moved like a thief.
All the while, I hoped that the black hood on my head would hide me.
‘No one is around, right?’
I couldn’t sense any aura beyond the door. I heaved a deep sigh and pulled the door handle.
Dietrich, of course, never told me, but I knew that the ‘warp’ magic that sorcerers use to move places was engraved in the Grand Duke’s office.
‘I’ve read it in the book.’
I had thought it was a useless setting, however, I didn’t know it would come in handy like this.
I clapped my hands softly in appreciation of the author’s detailed setting.
‘Was it under the carpet?’
Until the succession of Lagrange was decided, warping outside the territory wasn’t possible, but now Dietrich was the Grand Duke in name and in reality.
I removed the dark red carpet and found the hidden magic square.
“Phew. Found it.”
“Found what.”
Thud.
The sound of my heartbeat dropping echoed in the silence.
I sprang to my feet, surprised by the black shadow seeping beneath me.
“What are you doing in my office this late at night?”
Dietrich, who was watching me only open and close my mouth in bewilderment, moved his hand.
Click.
He flicked his hand and the office lit up immediately.
Standing under the yellow lamp, the frosty expression on his face made me swallow in tension.
‘He’s angry.’
In retrospect, I didn’t have many memories of seeing Dietrich angry.
His aura, which had always seemed so calm like the dead, shook noticeably.
“Answer me.”
“Th-that’s…”
I could hardly open my mouth because the excuse of going out while he was sleeping wouldn’t work.
“So….”
He slowly moved towards me who kept on mumbling.
I wondered why the sound of footsteps echoed so loudly today and faltered backward.
Dietrich was standing in front of me while I was clinging to the wall.
A brief sigh fell on the top of my head.
He was always one head taller than me. I was locked in Dietrich’s arms and my eyes flitted around.
“Is it that important?”
“Huh?”
“The relics.”
“........”
“Is it important enough for you to persist even when I stop you like this?”
‘Is he not angry?’
“Answer me. I’m about to get really mad.”
I stared at his face, which was so close our foreheads were about to touch, and quickly nodded my head.
“Yeah. I told you we need it if we want to win the war. That’s why I asked you to accept the truce.”
“So you don’t trust me.”
He, who was expressionless when he caught me in his office, frowned in displeasure at that.
“Is it because you think that if I don’t have those relics, I would lose to that bastard Hermann?”
Dietrich’s angry voice was no higher or lower than usual. I wondered if the sight of me struggling in trepidation to find the holy relics was seen like that in his eyes.
‘In the end, it’s about his pride?’
I whipped my head around and raised my voice.
“I know you’re strong.”
“Then, why–”
“But there is a safer way, so why should I only believe in your skills, Dietrich?”
The words I uttered to interrupt his words came out much sharper than I had intended. Dietrich lost his words for a moment with an astounded expression at hearing my supposed lecture, which wasn’t what it was.
‘As expected, it’s only his body that’s become big.’
He was still a boy. He was rejecting the relics just because of his countless victories.
‘He must have had the greedy thought of winning with all his might.’
I couldn’t let him be put in danger just because of the childish reason that borrowing the power of the holy relics would hurt Dietrich’s pride.
If you're not reading this at blogspot, you're probably reading from an aggregator site. Read this translation at https://notmysisteryoufool.blogspot.com/.
It meant that I cannot overlook even the smallest possibility. It would be my fault.
I was the one who destroyed Asmodeus because I failed to turn a blind eye to the children of Lagrange.
In the end, I was also the one who weakened Dietrich’s power.
‘Moreover, it was unknown whether Charlotte would help Lagrange now.’
No matter how annoying and unreliable Charlotte had been, since she was the saint who would have helped Dietrich, I could have closed my eyes and just waited.
Sometimes, such thoughts haunted me alone at night that I couldn’t breathe.
What should I do if I made the wrong choice? I was arrogant.
So, what if in the end, Dietrich would wander into the bottomless despair as the original had intended, and there was no one left to help him?
“Anissa.”
I was so scared that I couldn’t even hear the low voice calling me.
At that moment, when fear engulfed my mind like a shadow, Charlotte’s words echoed in my surroundings like a dream.
‘I told you, you’re the clown pretending to be a god.’
And she said that I would eventually destroy the North.
“Anissa!”
Dietrich shook my shoulders to wake me up from the thoughts that consumed me while biting my lips tightly. I looked up at him with blurry eyes as tears streamed down my face.
He sighed deeply and stretched his long fingers toward my face.
“Why are you being stubborn like this?”
I answered calmly though my tears kept falling down on his palms.
“You’re the one being stubborn, Dietrich.”
“Limeria is dangerous. Moreover, it’s a not place where I can put a shadow on you.”
“So? Is the battlefield not dangerous? You were on and off on the battlefield since you were younger than me, so why can’t I?”
It’s a world where it’s difficult to live without taking risks.
‘I’m the only one who can go to the sanctuary in the first place.’
However, Dietrich continued brusquely, not shaken by my question.
“I can’t let you go to a dangerous place where I can’t follow.”
“Because you think I’m weak, is that it?”
“............”
“If I can prove to you that I’m as strong as the other kids in Lagrange, will you let me go?”
I wonder if this was what Dietrich meant earlier.
That Veronica was strong, but I was not.
I stopped crying and frowned, offended by his assessment. His fingers, which were embarrassingly floating in the air, paused.
“I’m telling you it’s not like that.”
“Then why am I the only one who can’t?!”
The triplets were already packing up to look at the world so why was I the only one?!
Dietrich stared at my face filled with injustice and washed his face dry with his hand. Words like a sigh flowed between the knuckles of his beautiful fingers.
“....Then win against me.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you to defeat me. If you do, I’ll let you go.”
I laughed in shock at his declaration.
“You think I can’t do it?”