🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 11
Who on earth was this man, and why had he been looking for Piani?
‘I’ve never even heard the name Chris before.’
The Count of Ribe’s family were eastern nobles through and through—meaning they didn’t know any central nobles.
[Hey! Why were you looking for me?!]
Piani yelled loudly. But the voice that rang clearly in Chris’s ears wasn’t the cute one coming from Piani.
“Is this really what you were looking for, Sir Chris?”
Johannes, looking anything but dignified, asked as he spat slightly.
“Yes. This is the very child I’ve spent my life searching for.”
“Not just a look-alike, but the real one?!”
“Yes. And stop spitting. It’s making me want to kill you.”
Chris spoke through gritted teeth, a tendon popping along his jaw.
Johannes shut his mouth tight. Life was precious.
‘Still, I can’t believe it.’
It was a doll that had been lost for about eighteen years.
And it was so small that Chris’s palm looked like a gigantic blanket next to it—yet he just happened to find it by chance?
‘You’d have a better chance of getting struck by lightning.’
And that wasn’t the only strange thing. The doll looked grimy, sure, but not old. After eighteen years, there should’ve been clear signs of wear and tear.
‘Something’s off. Is this really an ordinary doll?’
Johannes’s prickly thoughts were fully exposed in his uneasy eyes.
Chris narrowed his gaze, frowning.
“Don’t waste time doubting. It’s real.”
“It’s just… it’s too unbelievable. Realistically impossible.”
“To be honest, I can’t believe it either. But if I blow you up, maybe it’ll start to feel real. Shall I try?”
Chris said quietly, eyes shimmering with a chilling softness.
“P-please don’t say scary things!”
Seeing Johannes shiver, Chris felt satisfied. He didn’t even need to blow Johannes up to feel that this moment was “real.”
“Sigh… When I saw her in the marketplace earlier, my heart nearly burst. I never dreamed we’d meet again like this.”
Johannes glanced at the emotional Chris, then turned his eyes toward the doll resting obediently in his arms.
That subtle smile irritated him.
“You did say she was a normal doll, right?”
“I never said normal. I said unlike any other doll, she’s an incredibly cute little girl, utterly lovable, beautiful, with a wonderfully pleasant texture, and delightfully petite.”
Chris kept talking like he was bragging. Piani smiled, satisfied with such shameless praise.
‘This scary-looking guy actually has good taste!’
Technically, he had good taste in dolls, but still—high standards were high standards.
“Well, I was imagining a normally cute doll, but to think she’d look like this… She’s completely different from what I pictured.”
“Yes. She’s far too cute for someone like you to even imagine.”
Chris said proudly.
Just then, Johannes looked at Piani with a troubled expression.
“Hm. Rather than cute, she looks kind of insignifi—”
Johannes’s lips kept moving, but that was all Piani could hear.
Because Chris had gently covered her ears.
‘Huh? Why is he doing this?’
Had she heard the rest of Johannes’s sentence, it would have gone like this:
“She looks insignificant. That subtle blank smile is strange too. You kept praising her so much I thought she’d be ridiculously beautiful. But this is just…”
“You lunatic. Our baby can hear you.”
Excuse me? Baby? And she can hear?
“What?”
When Johannes frowned back, Chris murmured something quietly terrifying.
“And I think the nerves connecting your eyeballs and brain are seriously malfunctioning. Want me to fix them?”
“My apologies.”
Johannes bowed instantly.
Only then did Chris remove his hands from Piani’s ears.
‘What the heck?! He covered my ears, and now that guy’s bowing at the waist? What were they talking about?!’
Piani felt frustrated. This man Chris was definitely strange.
He had said he’d been looking for Piani. He hadn’t answered her questions, but he’d covered her ears to protect her earlier.
‘He covered them because he knows I can hear.’
Clearly, he knew she wasn’t an ordinary doll.
Piani clenched her tiny fists.
‘Maybe this man can help me… but how do I talk to him?’
While she pondered, Johannes asked:
“But really, a stuffed doll shaped like a human… fascinating.”
“What are you talking about? I explained it to you. Don’t tell me you didn’t believe me?”
Flames blazed in Chris’s eyes.
“No, no, I believed you! But hearing about it and seeing it are different things.”
Johannes suddenly wondered why stuffed dolls weren’t usually made in human shapes. Porcelain dolls? Figures? Those were made like people all the time.
While Johannes stroked his chin in academic curiosity, Chris replied coldly.
“Stop thinking about nonsense and prepare water. Now.”
“Eh? You mean drinking water?”
Johannes frowned as if such a trivial task was beneath someone of his talent—but Chris’s icy expression made him quickly straighten up.
“Shall I prepare warm tea instead?”
“Do I look like I’m looking for something to drink?”
Chris asked irritably.
“Oh.”
Only then did Johannes understand and turned his gaze toward Piani. A slow smile formed—one that made Piani shudder.
‘He looks like a pervert who enjoys others’ suffering.’
She evaluated him calmly and precisely.
Johannes, unaware of her thoughts, kept that half-lidded, wicked smile.
“You’ll need more than just water. Why not leave it to a professional? They’ll squeeze everything out of her and shake her clean.”
Piani jumped.
‘A professional? And what does he mean squeeze and shake?!’
But Chris, holding her carefully, answered in his usual flat tone:
“No. I’ll do it myself.”
“You… you’ll really do it yourself?”
Johannes’s face filled with shock. Even Piani mirrored his expression—she had a very bad feeling.
“Yes. I’ll do it.”
“If you insist, there’s no helping it. I’ll prepare everything perfectly.”
As soon as Johannes left, Chris raised the arm holding Piani.
‘Ack!’
Her body suddenly shot upward and then was flipped around so quickly she became dizzy.
Luckily, the one benefit of this doll body? The senses were duller than a human’s. Even if she flew through the air and hit the ground, it wouldn’t hurt enough to kill her.
‘Though it is easy to rip if something sharp hits me…’
Once she steadied, she realized she was now looking down at a man far taller than she could ever be.
‘Those sharp red eyes…’
In the marketplace earlier, he had looked like a criminal. But from this angle… he looked different.
‘Maybe because he took off the robe.’
His eyes were still intense, but not just sharp—they were elegant and deep. His thick eyebrows looked like they’d been drawn by a master painter. His straight nose glowed as if dusted with pearl powder. His firm lips and strong jaw made him look handsome and masculine, yet beautiful.
‘He has a face that could hypnotize someone.’
Even his hair was special.
‘It’s like sunlight is dancing on his black hair.’
He was the most handsome man she had seen since Delis. Hard to compare since they were different types, but when Chris wasn’t scowling, he might’ve been even more handsome.
Staring at such a face…
‘Ugh—! Something’s wrong with my body!’
For a moment she thought she’d returned to her real body. That’s how hot and tingling the places he touched felt, and her heart was racing wildly.
Then Chris bent his arm.
[Oh my goodness!]
She was suddenly pulled right up to his face. Piani stared into his vivid red eyes for a long second before squeezing her own shut.
To Chris, of course, she looked like a doll incapable of blinking.
He examined her body. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel his gaze—it was overwhelming.
[W-why are you doing this?!]
Naturally, her voice didn’t reach him.
“Hmm. She’s fine.”
Seeing no major damage, Chris smirked slightly, satisfied—like a hawk gripping its prey.
Piani cracked her eyes open, saw his face still right in front of her, and immediately shut them again while screaming:
[You’re WAY too close—!]
She’d only recently learned her screams sounded this clumsy. She’d never had reason to scream before becoming a doll.
Just then—knock knock.
Someone tapped the door. Normally one would glance away, but Chris didn’t take his eyes off her.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Johannes. I’ve brought everything.”
“Come in.”
Johannes entered, pushing a lavish golden trolley. Piani’s eyes widened at the sight of the water on it.
‘T-that—?!’
