翁公在厨房和我猛烈撞击

She didn't even give me a chance to persuade her.

"Then, take care."

She scanned my face with calm blue eyes. I wiped away the goosebumps that had risen in my arms at her clean gaze like that of a summer sky.

Charlotte, who turned down my request quietly, but firmly with a good face as always, left me devastated and went out of the drawing-room.

The priest caught me as I tried to follow her.

"It's time for the saintess to offer her prayers. Please come again next time."

But there was no next time for me.

'I don't even know when Dietrich will disappear!'

I bit my lips and looked at the priest but he shook his head and didn't let me go.

'Is this really the end?'

I thought Charlotte would be able to help. She would be helping Dietrich after all, and not me. Wasn't saving the North her calling?

I, who considered Charlotte a kind of safety net, was pushed to the floor with the priest's strength, unable to control my body, and lost my mind.

"Please get up, Princess."

The priest didn't wait for me for even a moment and raised me up then led me outside.

I returned to Lagrange with Damon, who had waited for me with an anxious look on his face.

"Thank you. Without your help, I wouldn't have been able to go there, Marquis."

Warp was magic that even an excellent wizard could not easily use. I bid farewell to Damon with concern at his pale face.

"I think it would be best if you get some rest as well, Princess."

He advised while looking at my deathly pale face, but I didn't listen to Damon.

'I don't have time to rest.'

So, at dawn, when even the bugs were holding their breaths, I entered Dietrich's bedroom where he was sleeping soundly.

'He's not waking up.'

Unlike before, when he couldn't fall asleep easily even with the slightest sound of footsteps, he didn't even move because he couldn't hear me.

Deep shadows fell over his thick eyelashes. Usually, he had a chilly expression enough to invite the cold wind, but the way he slept was very gentle.

'Maybe it's because he's not frowning?'

I swallowed as I touched his towering nose bridge with my fingertips.

'If neither Hermann nor Charlotte are the solutions that I'm looking for then…….'

On the bedside table was the brooch of Vassago that I had been looking for. I had already received his help once.

'Even then, it only responded until the last minute.'

Maybe because it was not yet time that he ignored me no matter how many times I called for him.

'If he wants to take the price from me, then I have no choice but to agree.'

Unlike his comfortable face without a frown, Dietrich's breathing was uneven.

I watched the shadow rise insidiously over Dietrich's neck as he breathed heavily.

Maybe it's not that he'd fallen asleep but wandering between life and death.

I was terrified that I placed my finger under his nose, but fortunately, his rough breathing started to gradually subside.

I paced around until his breathing calmed down and then I finally left the room.

"Goodbye."

I cowardly bid my farewell while he was sleeping.

────── 〔✿〕──────

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"Hello, my lady."

As I had expected, Vassago appeared as if he had waited after losing all the cards I had.

"Your face looks dark?"

The demon raised the corner of his lips vigorously as if he wasn't affected by the hawthorn tree I was leaning on and reached out his hand to me.

"Is it time for me to take the price? I don't think you've fully grown up yet, though?"

The demon, with the face of a handsome man brightly, smiled. I tilted my head, thinking of Baal who would lose his form quickly if he wasn't around people.

"If you're so strong that you don't even lose your human form no matter how long you've been locked up, then why are you sealed?"

"Did you call for me to ask about the past?"

"It's an important question. If you're weak, then there's no reason for me to cling to you."

At my stiff words, Vassago knelt before me with a smile on his face.

He kissed the back of my hand like a gentleman.

"It's because I fell in love with a terrible person. No, the only one who loved was me. She was eviler than a demon."

I narrowed my eyes at Vassago's words which sounded like lyrics.

The demon tapped on his chest as if he wants me to believe him.

"I was willing to betray my kind for her, but in the end, I was only used and abandoned. Quite pitiful, isn't it?"

Vassago's face didn't look the least bit sad when he said he was betrayed.

He went on as if he didn't even want my affirmation.

"But even now, I still love her. It's because once we have feelings, they last forever."

"Are you saying you loved Charlotte's mother?"

At my question, Vassago finally wiped the smile off his face. I began to get nervous at the demon's cold face.

"So you know about that. That's right. The soul of my beloved Luna Vallandia was eventually taken by Asmodeus."

"How come? If you terminate the contract, then isn't it over?"

I was frightened by Vassago's words and grabbed his shoulder. The demon patted me on the back tenderly as if to reassure me.

"It was because I was caught taking another human's soul instead of hers in exchange for the contract. Asmodeus was pretty thorough back then."

"Asmodeus is gone now."

"No, he's not here. But he can come back any time."

I bit my lips at Vassago's firm words. He looked down sympathetically at me even though he was not close to me like Baal.

"I was sealed for violating the rules of the demons, and even though I knew of her terrible end, I couldn't save her. How miserable is a fate that you couldn't change no matter how much you try."

Vassago's sweet voice dropped in an instant. It was a seductive and gentle tone as if he understood all my feelings.

"It's hard, isn't it?"

He waved his sealing stone in front of me as if he were shaking a candy in front of a child.

"Anissa, I understand your desire to change Dietrich's ending."

"............"

"But you already received my help. What do you plan to pay me with?"

"I'll give you whatever you want. Whether it's Eredia's power or whatever."

"Even you soul?"

I nodded at the demon's words like a good child.

"That's right. I'll give you everything. All of it."

"You know that the only souls I can take are from the North. Anissa, I may have may be foolish but I'm not stupid."

The demon didn't fall for my shallow tricks. Vassago laughed coldly at my desperation.

"Isn't Dietrich your insignificant everything?"

"No, not Dietrich."

It was absurd to offer him to pay the price when I wanted to save him.

As I shook my head firmly, Vassago raised the corners of his lips. The gentle demon was laughing at me.

"Are you saying he's not your everything?"

"You're right. He's my everything."

Dietrich was my heart, my feelings, my everything. He was my spring, my summer, my autumn, and my winter. All the time I spent as Anissa all came down to one – him.

"But I won't give you Dietrich."

I insisted, even as I acknowledged the fact that except for him, I was left with nothing but a shell.

Ironically, Vassago seemed to like my answer. His red lips ripped to the point of cruelty.

"Is that so?"

From that point, I had a foreboding sense that something was going wrong, but like pouring water that couldn't be contained, I couldn't push away the temptation of the demon that had been summoned.

"If I can't take him away from you, on the other hand, that means, it's all right for me to take you away from him."

Instead of answering him, I tried to use my brain to figure out what he meant. He stroked my hair with his gentle hand as if comforting me.

"Would you be all right even if you don't exist anymore?"

Of course, I'm not all right.

I had already died once after all.

And unlike then, there were so many things that were precious to me now. However, I didn't shy away from Vassago's touch.

"Is that how much your resolve is?"

I slowly nodded my head when Vassago asked back.

"There is no end to the karma I have accumulated, so it wouldn't matter if I can't carry them."

The demon murmured in a whisper.

I barely overcame the weight of my eyelids which were getting gradually heavy to examine his expression.

"Goodbye, Anissa."

Vassago looked relieved.

"Thank you for letting me straighten out the twisted plan because of that damned Camille."

'Camille….?'

Why was Camille's name coming out of his mouth now and not the name of Charlotte's mother?

I wanted to ask but I couldn't overcome the drowsiness of sleep that came to me in the end.

I listened as if I could hear the sound of the paradise setting in the distance. It was Dietrich's voice.

Because he's my paradise.

My Dietrich.

Darkness, the light was flickering.

When I woke up, I was in the forest in the middle of the night. The forest in winter was a world of black and white.

I felt like I had lost something and my heart was utterly empty. My heart was aching as if it was getting torn apart.

'What did I lose?'

I thought about it, but I couldn't remember.

As my jaw trembled in the cold, I cried like a child without knowing what I had lost.