Chapter 4: CH 3

Levi, this jerk, didn’t even have a bag. At the very least, he should have put the doll in a paper bag or something, but he kept holding on to Yul’s pink hair with his bare hands. Yul, whose hair was suddenly caught, burst into resentment towards Levi in ​​his heart.

“Mom, it’s Annabelle’s friend.”

“Yes, that’s right. Annabelle’s friend.”

‘Eek, kid! What are you talking about?! Did you just call me Annabelle’s friend? Not at all!’

At the words of a girl who appeared to be about five or six years old, pointing at him, Yul reacted inwardly. Of course, he knew that the Annabelle the child was talking about was not the one in the horror movie, but the name of the doll the child was holding in her hand, but he was still somehow appalled.

“Bye, Annabelle’s friend!”

The child greeted him by waving the arm of the doll she had. Yul almost accepted the greeting without realising it. Had he done so, he would have really become Annabelle’s friend. Yul calmed his heart, surprised by the terrible situation just imagining it.

Meanwhile, Levi continued to hold Yul’s head.

‘Let go, you jerk! All my hair is falling out!’

Since it was a one-piece head stitched with a piece of cloth, there is no way that hair will fall out by holding the head, but Yul, who had not yet adapted to the doll’s body, had fallen into untimely worries about hair loss.

‘Wow, this jerk lacks manners. Sigh, whatever. I’m done.’

Because of Levi, who didn’t want to let go of his hair, Yul was halfway to giving up. It would have been more practical for him to think of a way to get away from him rather than to utter swear words in his mind that the other person wouldn’t be able to hear anyway.

(1) He pretends to be a doll and flees when he sees a chance.

(2) Move and talk openly to scare Levi and make him abandon him.

Yul traveled with his head in Levi’s hand, thinking seriously about the two options.

(1) was safe, but it wouldn’t be easy to sneak away with these short limbs. For (2), there would be no need to escape with difficulty since Levi would throw him out first, but there could be side effects.

For example, they might misunderstand that he was a doll with evil spirits and try to exorcise him, or put him on display like the Annabelle doll, or, if he is unlucky, take his head and burn him…

In any case, terrible things could happen that he couldn’t even imagine.

After a long deliberation, Yul decided to naturally choose (1), excluding (2) which has a large risk factor.

‘Okay. They won’t notice it anyway because I’m small anyway, and if I get the timing right, I’ll be able to escape.’

Deciding to pretend to be a doll, Yul stretched his body as much as possible and released the strength from his eyes. He vowed to show the perfect puppet acting.

Then Levi waved his hand at the carriage approaching from afar. Then the squeaking of horseshoes got closer and closer, and then stopped in front of him.

The impressive coach greeted him warmly, and Levi also gave a simple answer and got on the carriage. Thanks to this, Yul also got into the carriage.

Levi tucked Yul down in the corner of the seat. At that moment, while Yul was happy that his head had finally found freedom, he vowed to repay Levi for this disgrace one day.

“Sir, where are you going?”

“Please go to Archduke Orlov’s residence.”

At Levi’s words, Yul’s jaw dropped to the ground. The destination must be Archduke Orlov’s house of all places. Why take me to where that crazy maniac lives, why! The words he couldn’t say out loud lingered in his throat.

He was uneasy about heading for Archduke Orlov’s residence but Yul tried to placate his heart. There was no way the insane Archduke would show any interest in the doll anyway, so there would be nothing to do with him. Even before the Archduke realised his feelings, his attention was entirely on Levi.

———

‘… No, it should be like that! Why is that crazy Archduke bastard interested in me?! Why!’

Yul looked at his bright red eyes like a flame that was directed towards him and screamed silently.

The owner of the blood-red eyes is none other than Mikael Orlov. He was the crazy bastard from the novel “The Red Prison”.

Blood-red eyes approached his nose. In the burdensome narrow street, Yul almost closed his eyes tightly, forgetting his promise to perform a perfect doll performance. Fortunately, he pulled himself together with the last remaining reason and endured it, but his heart was pounding terribly.

‘Uhhh, why are you poking me? Why! Don’t touch me, you crazy man!’

When the Archduke stabbed Yul’s face with his long index finger without mercy, Yul bit his molars tightly so that he wouldn’t scream subconsciously. Fortunately, Archduke Orlov turned his gaze from Yul to Levi before long.

Yul breathed a sigh of relief at that moment, and secretly looked at Archduke Orlov, as he laid down on his back on the desk.

Bright red eyes with pale white skin that contrasted with his dark black hair.

In terms of his appearance alone, he was unrealistically beautiful. If you don’t know who he really was, it was a beautiful appearance that would make you want to bite, suck, and lick just by looking at his face.

However, for Yul, who knew how much trashy actions he would commit in the future his handsome face only felt terrifying.

“Levi, what is this?”

“It’s a doll.”

In response to Archduke Orlov’s question, Levi did not take his eyes off the document he was looking at.

Even in the novel, Levi was portrayed as a character who was very indifferent to the Archduke. As set in the novel, Levi didn’t even pay attention to what the Archduke, and even his superior, were talking about.

“Right, it’s a doll.”

At Levi’s short, cold reply, the Archduke followed his words like a parrot and muttered.

Looking at it, Yul understood a little how a man with a half personality ended up going crazy over Levi. Levi was the only one who treated the Archduke himself like that, so he must have wanted to get his attention.

Meanwhile, Levi did not give the Archduke a single glance. The Archduke even sat down on Levi’s desk, but he didn’t care.

‘Oh, Levi you punk. You’re so great, aren’t you?’

""

At first, it felt hopeless to possess a doll in the novel “Red Prison”, but it was quite fun to actually see the main characters in the novel.

It was at the moment when Yul was trying to feel the immersion like watching a performance in the first row while listening to the conversation between the two.

“By the way, Levi, why did you bring the doll? Did you like stuff like this?”

“Ah, it’s the Archduke’s birthday present.”

‘… ?!!!’

At Levi’s words, four eyes turned to him. Two belonged to the Archduke, who had been watching him all the time, and the other two belonged to Yul. The big, round blue eyes grew larger as if they were about to fall out.

‘Hey, dude, are you crazy?! Say it isn’t, say it’s a joke!’

“Take it.”

Despite Yul’s earnest wish, Levi passed Yul’s ownership over to him indifferently.

Yul turned his anxious gaze over to the Archduke.

Say no, say you don’t want to receive this!

“Giving me a doll as a present for my birthday… Isn’t this too much?”

‘That’s right, good job! Well done!’

For the first time since reading “The Red Prison”, he supported Archduke Orlov.

He didn’t want to fall into that human’s hand. Of course, it was impossible that Archduke Orlov was interested in dolls and would play with Yul, but from Yul’s point of view it was horrifying to fall into the hands of such a psycho.

“What’s too much?”

“It’s not sincere, is it? For Levi’s birthday, I prepared a present with much more care.”

“Diamond rings, ruby ​​pendants, black horses, pearls, perfumes, clothing, shoes, armour, swords, gold, premium quill sets and inks, various books, rugs, etc. This year, the Archduke received gifts from the imperial family and social circles.”

“… Right.”

“This doll was the only gift I could give from my side, without overlapping with so many gifts.”

Levi’s gaze, who was reading the list of gifts without taking his eyes off the documents, turned to the Archduke for the first time. Then, Archduke Orlov looked at Yul and Levi alternately, and then raised the corners of his mouth. Yul, who got an ominous feeling at that smile, looked up at him nervously.

‘Don’t tell me, it can’t be. Don’t fall for that kind of sweet talk! You bastard Levi!’

“Alright. Levi is the only one who really thinks of me like this.”

‘Aaaaaaaah, you crazy bastard!!!!’

This time too, a shout that he could not bear to shout lingered in Yul’s mouth. Unable to understand Yul’s heart, the Archduke picked up Yul with a satisfied smile.

“I’ll cherish it.”

He didn’t forget to say those words to nail one more time into Yul’s heart, who was in despair.