§ Chapter 2 §
Two children shoved their faces into the cradle where I was lying. Both looked like candidates for the heirship of House Lagrange.
“I’ll let you kill this one. You’re weaker than me anyway.”
The slightly taller boy smirked arrogantly, as if sparing his weaker companion the “honor” of killing an infant was some grand act of generosity.
The smaller boy, delighted at being granted the chance, grinned from ear to ear and nodded enthusiastically.
Then I saw it. A bright yellow aura spreading around the smaller boy’s heart.
Yellow—joy. He was happy. Happy because he was about to commit murder.
‘These lunatics…’
Instead of killing me outright, the boys played with me, dragging it out. A knife slashed across my leg, leaving a stinging wound.
Bright red blood welled up from the soft, pale flesh.
It hurt. Badly.
A moment ago I’d been pinched by Lancel, and now I was being stabbed by children who looked barely old enough to enter elementary school.
What kind of terrifying world was this? No—what kind of terrifying family was this? Even if we were half-siblings, what reason was there to make us kill each other?
‘If you’re going to lose your mind, at least don’t lose it in such a horrifying way!’
“Waaaah!”
All I could do, trapped in an infant’s body, was cry.
‘Don’t kill me! Please!’
“Waaaah, waaaah!”
Honestly, even if I had the body of an adult, I doubted I could have done anything but cry in that moment. I had never felt such an immediate, raw threat of death before.
My wails made the knife poised over my throat hesitate for just a moment—
“What are you doing?”
The calm voice that rang out across the room didn’t belong to a child.
For a second, I thought the cruel boys had faltered because of my crying. But no, that wasn’t it. They were struggling with all their might to stab me, but their bodies were trembling violently, as if bound by invisible chains.
“What are you doing, Dietrich! Stay out of this!”
‘Dietrich?’
In the novel, Dietrich Lagrange was described as the future Grand Duke of Lagrange.
In other words—this boy was destined to be the winner of the heir game.
I tried to lift myself to see him better, but—
“Uueh.”
My baby body didn’t have the strength to sit up. All I could do was wiggle my toes in frustration.
‘Damn it! This body can’t do anything!’
“I asked what you were doing.”
Dietrich came closer, close enough that I could see him without having to sit up.
He was no bigger than the boys pointing knives at me, but his presence was completely different.
Yes, he was only about six years old, but you couldn’t laugh it off.
The would-be murderers at least had gleaming eyes full of excitement—but Dietrich’s eyes were pitch black. Dead.
The longer you looked into them, the more it felt like you might get swallowed whole by that darkness.
‘As expected—the ultimate villain of the novel!’
I almost wanted to clap my hands in admiration. Compared to these petty brats, Dietrich was on another level.
“Answer me.”
With some unknown power, he lifted both boys into the air as if gravity had abandoned them.
‘Whoa… he’s strong. Really strong.’
Even the bigger boy, who looked older and sturdier than Dietrich, couldn’t move a muscle.
“Y-you know how it is! Babies are meant to be sacrifices in the heir game!”
“That only applies when they aren’t protected.”
Dietrich tilted his head, unconcerned by the boy’s desperate shouting.
“So you’re saying you were about to kill this baby?”
He spoke lazily, but his shadow tightened around them like a vice. Their faces turned pale.
“A-ack! I-I didn’t know she was your sibling—!”
At that, Dietrich released his clenched fist, and the boys fell to the ground like raindrops.
“My sibling?”
“Khack—?”
“I didn’t stop you because she’s my sibling. What a stupid assumption.”
With a sigh, he added:
“This baby happens to be under my protection. That’s all. The game has special rules about ‘protecting.’”
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”
“Then get lost.”
Dark shadows swirled around the boys like a storm, spinning faster and faster.
‘How can a kid radiate this much charisma…?’
I couldn’t help but gape in awe.
‘That’s it. I have to stick with him.’
In this insane family, children weren’t seen as human beings—they were assets. Weak children with no value were eliminated.
‘I can’t even crawl away yet. If I’m not careful, I’ll be wiped out instantly.’
Many children had tried to escape the Lagrange estate, but those who showed cowardice were killed off one by one.
Even if Dietrich didn’t seem particularly thrilled to acknowledge me as a sibling, he was still the one destined to survive in this hell.
If I wanted to live—even if I planned to run away someday—I first had to survive.
In the novel The War of Roses Among Men, the heroine wasn’t Anittha. So there was no description of how she survived within Lagrange.
That meant survival was entirely up to me.
But what could I do? My only gift was reading people’s emotions through their auras. In this violent family, I wouldn’t last long without someone to protect me.
‘Dietrich. It has to be you.’
“Uwee!”
I decided then and there—Dietrich would be my protector.
“P-please! Forgive me just once!”
Crunch.
Darkness engulfed the room in an instant. By the time the shadows cleared, the boys who had tried to kill me were gone.
‘He doesn’t mess around.’
While he dealt with them, I used all my strength to roll across the cradle until I reached the edge. The mobile hanging above jingled as it swayed with my movement.
‘Hey, look at me!’
As if sensing me, Dietrich turned and slowly walked toward the cradle instead of leaving.
‘He’s coming!’
“Bba!”
Up close, Dietrich was as strikingly beautiful as Camille, the man who had kidnapped me before.
Not handsome yet, but pretty—like a doll. His hair was as black and soft-looking as the veil of night, his eyes just as dark.
But those eyes… they weren’t the eyes of a child. They were the eyes of an old man, lifeless and heavy.
‘Why do a kid’s eyes look like that?’
They shone with no vitality at all, only dead blackness.
I wanted to call him “oppa,” but my baby mouth couldn’t form the word yet. So instead, I stretched my tiny hand out toward him.
“Bba?”
Even I had to admit my chubby white hand looked adorable, but Dietrich didn’t so much as twitch an expression.
“What?”
“Bba!” (Oppa!)
His aura didn’t change. From the moment he entered, it had been a flat, lifeless gray—something I’d never seen before.
“Quiet.”
I grabbed his hand on the edge of the cradle.
His hands were small too, but mine were barely half the size. For someone shrouded in such a gray aura, his hand was surprisingly warm.
Smack.
Dietrich frowned and brushed mine away.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
‘What do you mean? I just held your hand, you brat!’
A normal baby would probably burst into tears here. But I wasn’t normal, and neither was he.
If I cried, he might just kill me for being noisy.
So instead, I smiled brightly and grabbed his hand again.
From what I remembered of psychology—small physical contact could have powerful effects. Even brushing a customer’s hand once supposedly made them tip café staff more generously.
“Bba!”
“What does ‘bba’ even mean?”
In answer, I pointed at him and grinned widely.
“Bbaaa!”
“…Me? You mean me?”
Realizing I was calling him, Dietrich frowned deeply.
Why did a child frown like that? At this rate, he’d get wrinkles before he even grew up.
As he opened his mouth to say something to me—
The door creaked open.
The air grew so heavy I felt suffocated in my tiny body.
‘Derrick Lagrange.’
I didn’t even need to look. I knew instantly who had entered the room.
