I cried and protested to my mother, but she didn't apologize, saying she thought I would save money and do nothing.
'It must have been because of stress that I had cancer at a young age.'
I shook my head with the sudden remembrance of the past. Unlike in my past, the story of the baby rabbit has a happy ending, as fairy tales always do.
With the benevolent care of the goddess of the moon, the white baby rabbit built a pretty house on the moon and lived happily before being caught by hunters.
The moon where the rabbit was born was a paradise that no one could find because of its shadow.
'How nice it would be if there was really a place like that.'
I looked wistfully at the full moon above Dietrich.
"I asked you what you're doing here."
"This book…"
He asked again, as if frustrated at me who didn't answer.
I opened up a fairy tale book that I was holding in my arms before Dietrich.
"The moon appears in this book, when I look at the moon I want to read the book."
For fear of being scolded for wandering around for nothing, I raised my arms to Dietrich, acting childish.
Then, he naturally hugged me.
'It's worth it training him for several years.'
I hugged him a lot whenever I saw him, and now he hugged me a lot of times even when I didn't say it first.
"The garden at night is dangerous."
"But I wanted to see the moon."
I turned my head while being held by Dietrich.
The boy, who noticed me moving trying to see the moon, put me in a chair on the edge of the garden.
As I passed the road, I tried to pretend to be unaware of the visible bodies.
"What book is it?"
"This!"
There were only three children's books that Baal gave me, so I started talking a lot that there's no way Dietrich wouldn't know the story of the baby rabbit.
He raised his eyebrows as if saying 'you're reading the same book again?'
"There should be a library in Dahlia."
"But Anissa likes this book the besh."
I added, swinging my legs that didn't touch the ground.
"Of course, I like my brother the most."
"Ha."
That reaction again.
Dietrich smiled wryly whenever I said I liked him. It seemed to be a mocking smile and it also seemed to be a real smile.
"Should I buy you a rabbit?"
"Huh? Really?"
The Dahlia Palace had few toys for a child to play with. Baal's hand-made rattles had long been boring, and the rattles Dietrich brought were more of a weapon than a toy.
Dahlia Palace was also a palace, so there was a library but there were not a lot of books — I was still poor at writing — that I could read.
'But I also don't want to study.'
The only friend I had who was of the same age was Yuric whose face I only see through the doghole, so I was always bored.
"Yeah."
Kyaah!
I clapped my hands at Dietrich's words and rejoiced. I'll have to raise it well. I'll love it very, very much.
"Brother, should Anissa read you the book?"
After a long time, Dietrich now looked kind. I forgot about his scary appearance and opened the book.
"Once upon a time, in the Forest Maul in Ing...Ingkanto—"
"Inkanto."
My speaking pronunciation didn't improve so easily because I didn't have many people to talk to. As expected, Dietrich cut off my words while correcting my poor pronunciation.
"Tsk..."
'You pronunciation-obsessed man.'
"Continue."
When I stopped talking and pouted my mouth, Dietrich flopped down on a chair next to me, urging me. He closed his eyes as if he was going to sleep listening to my story.
The moonlight glowed above his dark black eyelashes, which looked good. I stretched out my hand and pressed down on his forehead.
"There libb a baby rabbit in Ingkanto."
"...."
"The baby rabbit was loneli. Because it was the only whyte one."
Dietrich's head was falling to the side of the chair where I sat. I stroked the boy's head, which fell over my leg.
"Brother, are you asleep?"
"....no."
"Uhm. Tell me if you're sleepy?."
"Sure."
The slender Dietrich had dried up blood on his hair.
'Should I clean it up?'
Since I had just come out of bed and had no handkerchief, I only shrugged off my shoulders and read the book to the end.
"...so thath's how the baby rabbit decided to libb in the moon happelly."
Dietrich sat motionless until I finished talking. I thought he was asleep, but as soon as I stopped talking, he opened his eyes.
Seeing him focusing on fairy tales, it felt as if he were a child. I hugged Dietrich's slender neck from behind because I felt sorry for him.
"Brother…"
"Yeah."
"Can we go to the moon, too?"
".....who knows."
I wish we could go, too.
Where you didn't have to be a villain, where you didn't have to excel.
Where you could laugh to your heart's content, that kind of paradise.
There won't be another genius like Dietrich in using shadow abilities, but that didn't mean that he wasn't without injury.
"Brother!"
Surprised at the sight of Dietrich, whose forehead was torn and blood was dripping, I ran out to him.
"Don't come."
When I got in front of him, he stepped back and stopped me. Stamping my feet in place, I reached out to his hand.
"You're hurth? What to do? Does it hurth a lot?"
Five years have passed since I became siblings in the same palace with Dietrich.
Of course, we didn't meet very often, and I'm just hanging on to him one-sidedly, but Dietrich was not the only one who took care of me through the exposure effect.
"What to do…."
Whenever Dietrich got hurt, my heart hurt. Although he was still a child who couldn't understand, and in the future, he would be a villain who'll beat the world down….
"Does it hurth a lot…?"
Anyway, right now he's my brother.
I grabbed Dietrich's arm with tears hanging over my eyes. Now that I looked closely, the wound was deeper than I thought.
'I think there was a scene like this in the novel.'
I screamed silently at a cut that ran from Dietrich's forehead to his left eye.
'Derek!'
It's Derek Langrange. I finally remembered.
"Ngh."
'Bastard. He's still your son!'
I frowned as I wiped away the flowing tears with my hands, regardless of my will.
Derek Lagrange hated Dietrich. He wanted Liatris' eldest son, Alphonse, to be his successor, and Dietrich was the biggest obstacle to this.
'You just do whatever you like.'
If it's like this, why did you give birth to him? I wish he hadn't brought Camille to Lagrange in the first place.
It was the Lagrange principle that the strongest and coldest heir would succeed the family, but the human garbage scumbag Derek, who fell in love later, pushed his son Alphonse who was born to Liatris to be the successor.
'Was it around this time that he helped Alphonse in earnest?'
The king of the shadow demons, Baal's choice was Dietrich.
As he could not beat him with talent, Derek tried to get rid of him, avoiding the eyes of the other families in the north.
Because of this, Dietrich, who had rarely been injured, would return bloody these days.
'What if he dies like this?'
I knew in the future that he would end up becoming the Grand Duke but I was scared to watch him keep coming back with injuries.
"Brother."
I buried my face on Dietrich's body, lying on the sofa without energy. He opened his eyes with a cough as if I touched the wound.
"I'm, I'm sowry!"
I didn't know what to do, so I hurried away from Dietrich. He looked at me, narrowing his hard-to-open eyes.
"Don't cry."
"Brother, does it hurth a lot?"
"It doesn't, urk, hurt at all so don't cry. It's noisy."
I looked at Dietrich's aura at his cold words.
'You're not angry at all, but pretending to be angry.'
His aura was still gray. It was hazy, like remnants of the fire.
'Why is it this color?'
From the start, Dietrich's aura was much more dull than the others. It felt like it would go away anytime soon, so I felt nervous.
Kugh.
Dietrich still hated the sound of crying, so I had no choice but to bite my lips and hold back my tears.
"...I'll learn swordsmanship quickly, brother."
"Don't talk, ugh, nonsense."
Even speaking seemed to be too much. I left Dietrich in the room and came out into the hallway.
The Palace of Dalia had been empty since I first came here. It was so quiet that I felt so lonely.
The old, crumbling columns and dusty empty rooms did not change even when Marilyn swept and wiped the palace.
At first, it was because Dietrich had no ability, but right now it was due to Derek's discrimination.
'If you're going to discriminate like this, why did you give birth!'
That's what I said to my mom before I died. My parents didn't come even on my surgery day, saying that they had to go to my sister's graduation.
I quickly went out looking for Marilyn, shaking off my thoughts. Even though I was working hard, my short legs didn't speed me up.
"Ma, Malilyn!"
Arriving in front of Marilyn's room, I knocked on her door. It was impossible to see where Baal had gone at this critical time.
"Lady?"
"Malilyn….."
Tears welled up when I saw her friendly face. She hugged me in confusion.
"What's wrong? Why are you here?"
"Bro, brother Detrie looks dying."
I buried my face in her throat and wept. I didn't think much when he got hurt fighting with just those assassins, but it broke my heart to hear that he got hurt by Derek.
'Even though your child loves you unconditionally.'
Ku, kugh.
"Lady, don't cry. I'll go."