Chapter 51: CH 50

Yul, who had been quietly looking at the grass where she had disappeared, opened his mouth in a whisper.

“No matter what, how can you say that you’re going to kill someone? And that woman, she’s the one who helped Mikael in the original story.”

“Like heck she did.”

Although he kept her alive because he thought she would be of use, it was Mikael who didn’t have high expectations from her, so Yuri’s words sounded funny to him.

“Ah, I’m serious, okay?”

Yul responded, glaring resentfully at Mikael as if he was falsely accused. Just like before, he kept his voice as low as possible so that others would not hear it, so that even Mikael could not hear him.

At that moment, an arrow flew from somewhere.

And he swore to heaven, he didn’t do it on purpose at all. It wasn’t intended to be like that.

Yul, who saw the arrow flying toward Mikael, moved unconsciously. With all his strength on his short legs, he jumped out of Mikael’s pockets. Even so, he moved only two or three centimeters, but it was enough to stop the arrow flying towards Mikael’s heart.

“Uh, ughh…”

Yul groaned and fell at Mikael’s feet. All of this happened in an instant.

“Yuri!!!”

Mikael shouted urgently and carefully picked up Yuri. Yuri, whose body was pierced in the middle by an arrow, had his two large eyes tightly closed.

“Damn it, Yuri. Open your eyes. Medical staff, medical staff! Shit!”

Mikael, who was shaking Yuri’s body, went to the medical center shrieking to find security personnel deployed everywhere. Emergency measures had to be taken as soon as possible.

Mikael’s red eyes wavered helplessly. The fear of losing Yuri surrounded him.

It was the moment when he was about to shed tears that had formed without his knowledge…

“Oh, I’m not dead.”

Yul opened his eyes and carefully touched the arrow that had pierced his stomach with his short arm. He felt that the moment he was hit by an arrow hurt terribly, but it must have been just his feeling. He felt nothing when he touched it.

“Mikael, look at this. There’s an arrow stuck in my stomach. It feels very strange.”

“…”

“Mikael? Hick, Mikael are you crying?”

Yul, who had called Mikael with a clear voice, looked at his face, puzzled by the reply that did not come back. Then Yul, who found tears in Mikael’s eyes, doubted his own eyes.

“… Be quiet.”

“But…”

“Shut your mouth unless you want to be hit by another arrow.”

“Yes.”

At Mikael’s words, Yuri quickly closed his mouth as if he had never opened it.

Mikael rubbed his face without saying a word. He was so shocked for a moment that he forgot. The fact that Yuri is a doll.

It was surprising that he was okay after being hit by an arrow, but when thinking about it, it would be even more strange that he was fatally wounded when he didn’t have organs in his body or blood in his veins like humans.

It was embarrassing that he was afraid of what would happen to Yuri, a doll. However, the relief that washed over about the fact that Yuri was fine was greater than that.

At the same time, the anger towards the person who shot the arrow flared up. At least, something grave almost happened to Yuri. Of course, it would have been fine as long as he was a doll, but the fact that Yuri was surprised by the arrow did not change.

“Mikael, can you pull out that arrow? It doesn’t hurt, but how do I say, it doesn’t feel very good.”

“Alright.”

At Yuri’s request, Mikael pulled out the arrow stuck in his body. White cotton was entangled in the arrowhead and came out.

“Gasp, my organs… Oh no! My cotton! All my cotton is coming out!”

Normally, organs would come out in this situation, but soft cotton came out of Yuri’s body.

Mikael tried to remove as much cotton as possible from the arrowhead and push it into the hole, but the stomach became even thinner than before.

“I got a puncture…”

Yul muttered in a low voice.

After the arrow was pulled out, an ugly hole was pierced in the stomach. Fortunately, it wasn’t penetrated, so it didn’t go all the way to the back, but since it’s a small body, the hole made by the arrowhead was relatively large.

“… I’ll treat you, so hang in there.”

“But how do you treat this? You can’t go to the hospital and ask for stitches. If I’m taken to the laundromat, will I be repaired? No, wait. So, am I going to be stitched up without anesthesia? Huhu. Terrible.”

Yul, lost in his imagination alone, chattered off.

Mikael was also deeply concerned about how to treat Yuri, but he couldn’t leave the stomach like this, so he had to do something. While he was lost in thought for a long time, a person who could heal Yuri came to his mind.

“Mikael, what happened?!”

“Archduke! Archduke, are you okay?!”

At that moment, Andrei appeared, riding wildly with Caleb. They must have been in a hurry, judging by the heavy breathing of their respective horses.

“I heard you were looking for medical staff, are you hurt?”

It seemed that he had heard that Mikael was urgently looking for medical staff.

Caleb jumped off his horse and ran to Mikael. He looked over at his lord with worried eyes.

“I’m okay. I am not hurt.”

“Then…”

Caleb’s gaze, which tilted his head at Mikael’s words, stopped at a certain point. It was because of seeing Yuri’s open stomach.

“Is the reason why you searched for the medical staff earlier…”

“Shh. Say no more.”

“… I don’t even want to.”

Caleb shook his head as if he were out of energy. It’s fortunate that his lord was safe, but the reason for the desperate voice he had never heard before was that the doll was injured. The shock made his head throb.

“Are you really okay? Are you not hurt anywhere?”

“…”

“… Oh, the little fellow is in rags.”

“Rags! What do you mean rags!”

Andrei, whose voice was worried, also seemed to understand the situation. He burst into laughter as if it were absurd.

“An arrow came flying. It was aimed right at my heart.”

“What?”

“Pardon?!”

At Mikael’s words, the atmosphere became serious again for an instant.

They thought it was a simple incident, but it wasn’t. The culprit had to be caught and investigated whether it was a mistake or intentional, but even if it was a mistake, it was not an ordinary case since they almost hurt the Archduke.

“Yuri got the arrow instead of me.”

“What?”

Andrei, as if surprised by Mikael’s words, looked back and forth between him and Yuri. It was only then that Mikael’s urgent voice was understood. It must have been because he was surprised and flustered that Yuri, whom he loved so much, had been shot with an arrow instead of herself.

“… I see.”

He didn’t know exactly what happened because he couldn’t see the situation at the time, but he was certain that the little doll saved his friend.

Andrei stared at Yuri. He still had questions about his identity, but as much as he was worried, it didn’t seem like he was a threat to his friend.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, no. It’s no problem!”

Yuri shook his head in embarrassment at Andrei’s low voice thanking him. Seeing this, Andrei burst into laughter, feeling more at ease.

***

Andrei hastily ended the hunting competition because someone had shot an arrow at Archduke Orlov.

As the truth of the incident was being investigated, an ominous atmosphere swept through the imperial family and noble families.

However, Yuri, the biggest victim of this incident, was comfortably eating dessert at the Orlov mansion without knowing anything.

Knock knock.

Yul’s round head tilted to one side at the sound of knocking. “Come in,” said Mikael in an impassive voice.

Just as Yul was about to take another bite of the piece of cake, thinking that the other person would probably be Caleb, Levi, or Andrei, judging from how they comfortably entered the room.

“Hello, Archduke!”

Surprised by the voice he heard for the first time, Yul slowly turned his head. A cute-looking girl was standing there.

Clang clatter.

Surprised, Yul missed the fork. While he was stunned, not knowing what to do, the girl came right in front of Yul.

The girl looked at Yul. Yul also looked straight at the child.

Yul froze, not knowing how to react to the embarrassing situation.

“Hello, Yuri? I am Liena.”

“Oh, hello… ? Gasp.”