Chapter 12
“…Young Master’s…”
“…teddy bear?”
The murmurs of the shocked maids grew quieter, and an uncomfortable silence settled over the hallway.
Blake quietly stared at the two pairs of eyes blinking slowly as though they could not believe what they had just seen, then adjusted his hold on me in his arms.
“H-Hngh, Y-Young Master.”
As if time itself had frozen, the maids gasped and hurriedly bowed in greeting within the icy atmosphere.
Yet their eyes remained fixed on me in his hands, like people incapable of looking away.
Well, the phrase ‘Found you, my teddy bear.’ had been pretty shocking.
Standing before the eldest young master of the LeBlanc family—cold and difficult to approach—they could not dare ask questions aloud, but I could practically hear what they were thinking anyway.
—Hey… did Young Master Blake just call that doll ‘my teddy bear’?
—Yeah… I think he did.
Watching the silent exchange of glances between the two maids with a troubled expression, Blake turned around while still carrying me.
As he strode quickly down the corridor, moving farther away from them, faint whispers followed behind us.
“Am I crazy? Or is the Young Master…”
“Let’s just say we’re the crazy ones.”
“Right? Ahaha, honestly.”
“Hehehe.”
They’re gossiping about you behind your back, Blake.
Can’t you hear them?
Should I tell him or not?
Whether he knew or didn’t know, it didn’t seem like he’d feel very good about it.
But if it were me…
‘Tell me everything! Whether I accept it or not is my problem!’ —that’s probably what I would have said.
In the end, while resting securely in his arms, I stared seriously at the sparkling silver hair scattered messily across his pretty forehead—clearly from running all over the place searching for me—and spoke.
“Blake. Your lovely servants were whispering about whether their young master has gone insane. Did you hear them?”
“……”
As expected. He hadn’t heard them.
I knew it!
To me, a witch with exceptionally sharp hearing, every word had sounded perfectly clear. So I informed him in an even more serious tone.
“Ohhh, and just now they decided to pretend they’re the crazy ones instead. Pretty generous of them, right?”
“Be quiet.”
“They also said you and I look completely mismatched. Apparently you don’t seem like the type who would’ve carried around a teddy bear even as a child.”
“…Ha.”
“They also said there’s a limit to how filthy a teddy bear can be. Honestly! Am I really that dirty?”
Cradled in his arms, I lifted my yellowish arm and examined it carefully as I asked. His violet eyes, which had been staring straight ahead the entire time, slowly swept over my body from head to toe.
Yeah. I am filthy.
Right. I can tell without even looking.
“You know you just answered with your eyes, right? That was actually pretty hurtful.”
He let out a deep sigh and clenched his teeth tightly.
Walking so quickly it almost looked like running, he returned to the room and slammed the door shut.
“Ah! You startled me.”
I flinched and trembled slightly. He paused for a moment before gently placing me down on the bed—then immediately twisted his expression into a frightening glare.
The eyes I had once thought looked pure and delicate had turned sharp as they stared down at me.
Unable to figure out where to even begin speaking, he roughly swept a hand through his hair.
“You. Do you even remember me telling you to at least pretend to stay still?”
“Ah, well… I was going to stay quietly in the room. But it’s been such a long time since I’ve gone out into the human world, so I got a little excited.”
Awkwardly, I scratched the back of my head. I truly hadn’t meant to cause trouble for Blake.
“This is the human world, just like you said. If you really are a powerless witch, you should’ve been afraid of this place. The Crown Prince was here today too. What were you planning to do if that suspicious man had seen you?”
His tone, usually flat and emotionless, carried obvious irritation.
“The Crown Prince?”
“Yes. If that man had seen you, he would’ve torn your body apart and dissected you immediately just to uncover your identity. Did that possibility never cross your mind?”
I awkwardly settled into place and rolled my eyes around.
He’s angry.
Well… that made sense.
He told me to stay put, and I came outside anyway. That was completely my fault.
‘Still, being trapped in the room the whole time was a little suffocating…’
Now definitely did not seem like the right time to say that.
How should I apologize?
‘When you’re sorry, apologize with all your heart! That’s the best way.’
I inhaled deeply and lowered my head to shout—
“Blake, I’m really sor—uwaaah!”
—right before I lost balance from the weight of my head and rolled straight off the bed.
“……”
Thud!
With a loud crash, I tumbled onto the floor beside the bed and let out a pitiful scream.
Ah, seriously.
Why is this so embarrassing?
I had completely forgotten about my ridiculous three-part body proportions made up of head, torso, and legs.
My head spun dizzyingly. The spot where I’d headbutted the floor felt like it was swelling.
So even if my body is soft and fluffy, that doesn’t mean I can’t feel pain.
Clutching my throbbing head, I looked up to find Blake frozen awkwardly with one hand extended.
Was he trying to catch me?
Thinking that, I placed my soft paw-like hand into his palm, but he quickly pulled his hand away.
Thanks to that, I nearly lost my balance again, though at least this time I managed not to fall over.
I had no idea what he was doing—was he teasing me or something? But now wasn’t the time for that.
As a polite witch, I hadn’t forgotten the apology I was trying to make earlier.
“So what I was trying to say is! I’m really sorry. I’ll bow my head and apologize properly.”
Naturally, the moment I bowed my head, my body folded nearly in half because of its weight.
Perhaps because my posture looked even more respectful than intended, Blake stopped scolding me.
Instead, for some reason, he looked at me with conflicted eyes before grabbing me after my fall and placing me back on the bed.
“Haah… what kind of conversation am I even having with a teddy bear?”
Unlike his words, the way he carefully handled me was as gentle as ever.
“So you’re not angry anymore?”
“I just lost the motivation to stay angry, so stop it.”
Was losing the motivation to be angry a good thing or a bad thing for me? I had no idea, but the important part was that things seemed to have smoothed over.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
After sitting in silence for a long while as though deep in thought, Blake finally spoke in a calmer tone.
“Anything!”
“If you really are a witch, then how exactly did you end up inside that doll?”
It was a sharp question.
No—or perhaps it was a question he absolutely needed to ask.
And honestly, even I still didn’t understand the strange and suspicious identity of this teddy bear myself.
I briefly recalled the moment I had first entered the doll and honestly explained the entire sequence of events.
“—And then, when the teddy bear fell onto my head, something suddenly flashed. And when I came to my senses, my body was already inside this thing.”
I tapped my plump stomach lightly, and his gaze followed downward toward it.
His eyes lingered there for quite a long time, so I subtly pushed my belly sideways. His gaze moved along with it.
Why is he staring so much? Is it really that fascinating?
“Don’t tell me you mean when I dropped it while struggling over the doll with Rain.”
“Yep, exactly then.”
“And you expect me to believe that now…?”
“But it’s true, so what else can I do?”
I could see Blake’s expression gradually twisting further.
But think about it.
Before I’d even finished deciding I needed to recover the portal, I had suddenly become a teddy bear.
Can you imagine how hopeless that felt for me?
After seeing my troubled expression, he slowly rubbed his chin. His long eyes narrowed slightly as he frowned.
The gaze scanning me up and down still carried suspicion, as though he were trying to determine whether I was telling the truth.
Enduring his prolonged stare, I finally asked something I had wanted to ask since before.
“I’m curious too. Where did you get this teddy bear?”
Even if I was a witch who had lost her magic, witches were beings born with enormous magical pathways by nature.
A vessel powerful enough to contain a witch like that?
I had never heard of such a thing.
Which meant this teddy bear was definitely not ordinary.
‘Blake did say he bought this doll from someone.’
That was what I had overheard back on the banquet terrace.
At my question, Blake answered immediately. Apparently it wasn’t difficult for him to answer.
“An old junk shop woman who occasionally came by around here.”
“Hm. So the junk shop granny sold you this doll, and you bought it? Was there anything suspicious about her?”
Could that old woman actually be a witch?
This object was strange enough that even if someone claimed it had been created by Laura—the eccentric witch of the East—it wouldn’t sound unbelievable.
“Nothing particularly suspicious. Even so, I ordered people to report it if the old woman appeared again, but there’s still been no news. I plan to have people search for her, though she may already have escaped.”
“Well, that’s troublesome. Did the old woman leave behind any other words? Anything at all is fine.”
“She may have mentioned that it wasn’t an ordinary item…”
“I knew it! I just knew it!”
“Do you know something about this doll?”
“No. Not at all.”
“……”
Naturally, I knew absolutely nothing.
“Why are you looking at me like that?!”
I could clearly read the Are you really a witch? look in his eyes as he stared at me pitifully.
“This kind of thing isn’t my specialty. Ah! Though Laura might know.”
“Who is Laura?”
“She’s the witch who rules the East. There’s nothing she doesn’t know about magical artifacts. I actually saw you in a newspaper Laura made.”
“A newspaper… the world where witches live has things like that?”
“Of course! If you saw it, you’d probably be so shocked you’d faint. It’s Laura’s masterpiece—a newspaper with moving photographs!”
The desires of witches truly were impossible to understand.
Something that once bored me to death now somehow felt nostalgic here.
“So in order to meet this witch named Laura, what exactly do we need to do?”
“First, we need to find the portal and cross into the world of other races.”
“A portal?”
“It’s basically a door connecting the human world and the world of other races. As far as I know, the portals disappeared about two hundred years ago. Which also means humans and witches haven’t interacted for roughly two centuries.”
“Then how did you cross over?”
“That’s what I want to know too. I don’t know what triggered it, but suddenly a portal opened. And after that, just like I said, I dropped straight into the human world and met you.”
Which made it all the more strange. Where exactly had the portal that little witch Annie threw at me come from?
“So in order to ask this witch Laura, we first need to find a portal.”
After silently listening to everything I said, Blake neatly summarized the entire situation in a single sentence.
As expected, he really was an intelligent human.
“Exactly. Now we’re finally understanding each other.”
“…Hey.”
“Anyway, if we can reopen the portal, then we won’t even need to find the old woman anymore! I can escape from this doll, and maybe we can even find a witch capable of breaking your curse. See? Two birds with one stone.”
“So what you’re saying is that you want me to help you find this portal?”
“You could say that. You’ll help me, right?”
At last, the conversation felt like it was making progress, and excitement filled me. Clasping both hands together tightly, I looked at him with sparkling eyes, expecting an agreeable answer.
However, the answer I received was not what I expected at all.
“I refuse.”
