He told me to wait and I sat quietly sit quietly like I’m trapped in a garden, but Dietrich didn’t come till the night.
I hugged my hungry stomach and dragged my cold, trembling body back to my room.
‘Liar.’
The bitterness fills the throat, but what can I do? I haven’t yet been able to enter Dietrich’s heart.
‘I need to be more active in starting tomorrow.’
Anyway, Dietrich didn’t avoid me if I approach him.
‘Because I’m hungry, I can’t sleep.’
I was so hungry that I cried and barely fell asleep.
***
From the day after Dietrich had eaten all the sparrows on her own in front of me, I began to be given other food than milk.
“Now, Mammam here. Mammam you’ve been waiting for.” [[TN: mammam is how baby Anissa mentions meals. Lancel repeated the way Anissa mentioned food.]]
“Tankyu, Lance.” (Thank you, Lancel)
I bowed my head to Lancel who was looking for bread and laughed.
‘Finally, there is something to chew.’
“You also have milk.”
“Lancel, vegetables.”
It wasn’t very tasty, but I was very impressed with the texture of the bread soaked in milk.
‘I understand why Yuric was impressed with cookies.’
Did you say that hunger is the best side dish?
For Liatriz’s children, it’s black bread that they don’t care about, but it tastes very delicious for me.
There was bread, so I could leave more milk than before. Dietrich knew how to hunt better than me, but however, I brought milk for him when I had the chance.
Milk was the only bribe I could give him.
“Deti!” (Dietrich!)
“…..Why again.”
“Deti! Dinkmik!” (Dietrich! Drink Milk!)
“I don’t need.”
“Even kuki!” (Even cookies)
When Dietrich refused the milk, I had no choice but to take the cookie I stolen from Lancel.
Now that my teeth have grown enough to chew a hard cookie so it was a little awkward to share.
“Atkukiii!” (Eat cookies.)
“……”
“Eyat ayot! Andestan?!” (Eat a lot! Understand?!)1
Dietrich looked down at me with an unreadable expression instead of accepting the cookies I passed.
‘This is because his aura is too dull and difficult to read.’
“Where did you get this?”
“Ay stoye it.” (I stole it.)
I replied proudly with my chest open.
Sometimes Lancel-
‘Why does the cookie keep disappearing?’
Lancel murmured with his wide eyes looked at me sharply, but he couldn’t find any evidence in the end.
‘It’s not like that.’
Looking at Lancel, the effect brought this and that to Dietrich was better than I thought.
It turned out that he had already been nominated for a successor, so he no longer needs to worry about food. But Dietrich hardly refuses the food I give now.
“You can eat cookies. I’m fine with milk.”
Dietrich said that and picking up the bottle cap that I had just brought out.
Gulp gulp.
‘Oh, drink it well.’
If I look at Dietrich, who swallows milk smoothly, it makes me proud as if I am raising him.
‘Yes, that’s all going to be blood and flesh. You grow up so much~!
You’ll be a villain.
‘This is really…’
I feel like crying if I imagined a large Dietrich doing something terrible.
‘But you still have to like me. Otherwise, all the milk and cookies I brought will be wasted.’
“Opapa Papa.” (Brother.)
I walked writhing out to the door, holding a bottle that Dietrich has emptied.
‘Well, Lancel didn’t know when I disappeared last time.’
Lancel wasn’t really interested in caring for me, he didn’t realize it at all when I blinked and fell asleep in Dietrich’s room some time ago.
It seems like he thinks that I just sleep peacefully in my bed.
‘It’s Salary Lupin*.’ [[TN: get a salary from work delegated to others / similar with ‘easy money’]]
Your work is less than the servants of other palaces, isn’t this a dream job?
“Hey.”
I turned my back when Dietrich called me as I walked to the door.
Why do you always call me ‘Hey’.
‘Oh my god. Don’t you know my name?’
“Dett. I’m aniya.”
“What are you saying now?”
“I’m Anissa.”
“You’re not cheap?” [[TN: Dietrich misheard because Anissa didn’t have a good pronunciation]]
‘No, my name is Anissa!’
I hope you can understand next time!
“Come here.”
‘Why, why you call me earlier.’
Even though I complained, I still walked back to Dietrich. Now that I’m used to walking, I can run too.
‘Good job, my legs!’
Sometimes, one of my legs sways like sausage so I knock on my thigh twice.
“Huh?”
Dietrich reached out to me as I approached him. When he opened his fist, the red cherries hiding in his palm caught my attention.
‘Is it cherry?’
The fruit with a very red color was a precious food that can never be found in the withered rose forest.
“Can you eat something like this?”
Dietrich threw a cherry at me and I worried that Dietrich had met a beast while picking it.
“Uh!”
I nodded quickly in case Dietrich would change his mind.
“I can eat!”
“Yup.”
“Diett! Thankyu!”
Above all, I was deeply impressed by the fact that Dietrich was thinking of giving me something to eat, and I closed my mouth with my hand in a standing position.
Of course, children are most easily tamed by food. [[TN: You think you tamed him? Dietrich is taming you right now lol]]2
‘Now I think you like me a little bit!’
Today is the most monumental day of the many days I spent bringing him milk and cookies.
Dietrich held my hands tightly and my eyes twinkling when he looked at me indifferently.
“Detteli.”
“Okay.”
“Dett, tangkyu.” (Dietrich, thanks.)
I scrubbed the cherries he gave me over my clothes and put them in a mouthful then chewed them.
“You really look like a little chick.”
I tried to ignore the impression he made when he saw me eating the cherries.
“Want more?”
“Yeah!”
The cherries that were eaten for the first time after being reborn were so delicious that makes me tearful. The refreshing juice that spreads in the mouth is a bit irritating.
‘This sweet and sour taste! It is the best!’
“Why are you crying again?”
‘I always only eat black bread and milk. Please imagine how delicious this fruit feels.’
Dietrich froze ashamed to see me with tears. I laughed at his wry face, wondering if I would be misunderstood.
“I’m not cliying!” (I’m not crying)
‘I’m not crying! I’m happy!’
The child frown after my big laugh that makes my mouth hurts.
“Are all babies like you?”
“Woo..oo?”
Dietrich stared at my smiling face and said steadily.
“I don’t know because all the babies other than you are dead.”1
Well, okay.2
Let’s assume that I haven’t heard such bloody words. I stretched my hand toward the bed where Dietrich was sitting, hide the efforts that make me sweat.
“So you can’t go up there.”
The height of the bed almost reached my neck, so Dietrich lifted me.
‘Now you giving me this kind of kindness.’
It’s called ‘The mere-exposure effect’, the more often someone sees a person, the more pleasing and likable they find that person. Whenever Lancel wasn’t watching me, I was looking for Dietrich and staying close to him.2
This is the moment to realize the fact that my lasting effort wasn’t wrong.
“Why are you there?”
Dietrich was sitting on the edge of the bed, so I had to go a little longer to get him. I moved quickly and put my face on his leg.
“Dettlii!” (Dietrich!)
Dietrich pushes my head and rubs my cheeks on his legs.
“Go away.”
“Oppa, I like yu!” (Brother, I like you!)
But I have no intention of stepping aside. It wasn’t a skinship with the intention of building a sense of familiarity with him, and I just really wanted to express my gratitude.
‘The future villain is working hard to looking for cherry and share it with me!”
Rather than good children who do good things, it’s far more impressive when bad children do good deeds.
“Dettli, I like yu!” (Dietrich, I like you!)
“Hah!”
“Dietliiii! I lili lili like yu!” (Dietrich! I really really like you!)
“Whatever.”
No matter how much I confess, Dietrich doesn’t respond. He was very cold to the bone.
‘It’s been over a year since I checked my face, but sometimes I’m cute enough that I want to linger in the mirror!’
To be bored with a cute baby like me. It’s sure Dietrich’s heart was made of ice. My pink cotton candy hair has grown a lot so much that I can play it with my hands.
“Am I not cute. Isn’t this the same child as the one in the mirror?”
“Do you want more?”
“Yeah!”
“Eat well.”
I laughed happily after taking cherries that Dietrich gave me again.
“I picked it from another palace.”
“…… huh?”
“Well, It shouldn’t be poisoned.”
‘What! You bastard! You should have said that soon!’
“Nyo!” (No!)
I open my mouth and couldn’t swallow the cherries I chewed when I heard Dietrich’s words. It seems like it’s only an illusion if Dietrich likes me a little bit.
‘That’s right! The villain couldn’t get tamed this easily!’
It’s fine if it’s dirty, but it was a big deal if the poison was on it.
“Suden’t! Yu suden’t!” (Shouldn’t! You shouldn’t!)
It seems that my throat that swallowed cherries is hot. I cried with my hands around my neck.
“I, I’ll die?”
Dietrich looked at me with relaxed eyes and opened his mouth.2
“Let’s see.”