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chapter 01
A dark dining room filled with suffocating silence.
Only the clinking of cutlery could be heard in the quiet restaurant when the doors suddenly burst open.
A striking man in a black uniform stepped inside and sat down at the neatly set dining table.
Then he pulled out the chair beside him and gently placed something on it.
His careful movements, as if handling a priceless treasure, drew curious gazes.
“Blake. What is that next to you?”
Duke LeBlanc, who had been silently eating all along, narrowed his eyes and pointed at the teddy bear seated neatly on the chair.
“My comfort object.”
“…Your what?”
“My. Comfort. Object.”
As if making sure he hadn’t misheard, the man calmly repeated each syllable before resuming his meal.
Clang—!
A knife fell onto the marble floor with a sharp ringing sound.
The duke, who had dropped it, flinched and bit his tongue in shock.
His expression said he had just heard something unbelievable.
And understandably so.
It was a worn-out teddy bear—completely out of place with Blake LeBlanc, the duke’s eldest son, whose appearance was as cold and sculpted as a statue.
“You, you… have you finally lost your mind from lack of sleep?”
“I’m perfectly sane.”
“Then why on earth did you bring that filthy doll….”
The claim that Blake was “sane” had very little credibility.
Everyone knew Blake LeBlanc suffered from a curse that prevented him from sleeping, but even so, he was acting far too strange today.
Blake was the strongest knight of the Casdonia Empire.
In a nation constantly at war, his reputation—leading every battlefield to victory—grew by the day.
The butcher of war. The reaper of death. The commander of blood.
All his titles were terrifying.
There were too many knights who admired him to count.
And yet now… the commander who brought a teddy bear to the dining table?
Beside the duke, who had lost the ability to speak at the grotesque mismatch, a silver-haired boy called out to Blake.
“B-big brother… are you sick?”
“No, Aaron.”
“But… aren’t teddy bears something frivolous noble ladies and young lords carry around?”
At that, Blake’s shimmering violet eyes turned to the doll.
He carefully reached out and covered the bear’s ear.
“Don’t speak carelessly about my bear. It’ll hurt its feelings.”
“Eeek!”
Aaron immediately covered his mouth, terrified by the icy glare that looked ready to kill.
Trying not to make an embarrassing hiccuping sound, he hurriedly drank water.
“If you like teddy bears that much… I-I’ll buy the same one!”
Aaron, who revered Blake almost to the point of worship, would have done anything he did.
Blake slowly shook his head.
“No. You can’t buy it.”
“…Pardon?”
“This teddy bear cannot be obtained anywhere.”
As he said it, a faint sense of pride appeared on Blake’s handsome face.
Of course, the teddy bear truly looked like something no one would ever sell—it was that worn-out.
A maid carrying a newly prepared knife for the duke froze in fear.
What a horrifying combination.
Blake LeBlanc and a teddy bear.
At this rate, rumors would spread that Blake LeBlanc—sleepless and unstable—had finally gone completely mad.
The duke could not believe the sight of his son, seemingly utterly possessed by the old teddy bear.
“Blake. It seems your inability to sleep has worn down your sanity. Go and rest.”
Trying to salvage the situation, the duke spoke carefully.
Blake frowned and set down his cutlery at the tone that treated him like a patient.
“Why would I be unable to sleep?”
This kid… this kid really has lost it.
The duke’s violet eyes slowly scanned his son, as if assessing how far gone he was.
Deep concern settled in his gaze.
The curse of the LeBlanc family did not affect Blake alone.
The duke and Aaron also suffered from sleeplessness.
It was a hereditary curse, passed down like punishment to the direct bloodline.
Of course, generations had poured enormous wealth into trying to break it, but no one even knew where to begin.
And it was expected to last for the rest of their lives.
And yet—what?
Why couldn’t he sleep?
“Don’t joke around. I don’t want to talk about the curse.”
“Is that so?”
Blake replied casually and tapped under his eye.
The duke’s gaze landed on Blake’s face.
The dark circles were gone.
The duke’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Y-you… your dark circles…!”
They were gone—completely gone.
Even Aaron, shocked, jumped up and ran over to inspect his brother’s face.
“B-big brother… your dark circles are really gone! I… I wish mine would disappear too…”
Aaron’s eyes sparkled.
Ignoring him, Blake adjusted the red ribbon tied around the teddy bear’s neck and spoke.
“This teddy bear is the only reason I can sleep.”
Clang—!
The duke, trembling, dropped his second knife.
It was the sound of his jaw dropping.
After struggling for so long to break the curse… this teddy bear alone was the reason he could sleep?
It was impossible to believe, yet a thin thread of hope sparked in the duke’s eyes.
Even if Blake seemed unstable, his clear eyes were not a lie.
“R-really? Blake. Let me see that teddy bear.”
The duke stood up, silver hair flowing as he reached toward it.
Just as his hand was about to grab the bear—
A firm hand pushed him away.
Blake lifted the worn brown teddy bear and pulled it close.
Then he rubbed his straight nose against the bear’s head.
“No. I’m the only one who can touch this teddy bear.”
For someone called the Blood Commander, it was a surprisingly childish statement.
“…Brother?”
Aaron backed away, unable to believe the way he was clinging to a teddy bear like it was precious.
A strange obsession flickered in Blake’s violet eyes. The teddy bear in his arms seemed to squirm slightly.
He hugged it tighter and whispered.
“Right, Vivian?”
“……”
And inside the teddy bear struggling in his arms—me—I screamed internally at this insane man in front of me.
‘Let go of me, you psychoooo!’
But as if mocking my desperate cry, the man’s eyes were already completely gone.
December 31st, New Year’s Eve.
I sipped wine while lamenting my life.
How did I end up as a witch dumped in this barren western land where sandstorms rage?
When I first opened my eyes here, I instinctively realized this was one of those romance fantasy novels.
A familiar social hierarchy.
Nobles hosting lavish parties.
Even dragons that looked straight out of fantasy.
The only difference was…
‘Why am I a witch?’
Even extras usually end up as noble ladies or daughters of counts.
Even villains somehow get entangled with the male lead.
‘Why am I the only one stuck in a non-human race world like this?!’
Do witch-centric romance fantasies even exist that often?
At this point, it must have been some hidden setting I forgot, or something so minor I didn’t even remember it.
“Agh, forget it. It’s all meaningless.”
I sighed and unfolded the moving newspaper developed by witches of the East.
The headline of today’s paper was simple.
[Human World Special Report: The unstoppable Blake LeBlanc once again saves the territory of the Casdonia Empire!]
On the right corner of the article praising Commander Blake LeBlanc was a remarkably handsome man in uniform, moving as if alive.
‘Blake LeBlanc?’
That name feels familiar.
In the dull end-of-year mood, my eyes blinked slowly as I stared at the paper.
“Quite impressive, isn’t he?”
The butler, Max, who had appeared beside me at some point, glanced at the paper.
“What is?”
“Blake LeBlanc. Isn’t he quite remarkable for a human? He swept away ten thousand enemy soldiers with only five hundred knights.”
“I see.”
I replied casually and took another sip of wine.
It tasted incredible—probably aged for centuries.
“The LeBlanc family once offered generous tributes to our Holloway castle back when portals still existed.”
“So that’s why you like them.”
“…Lady Vivian. At that time, the one you liked most was you, Lady Vivian.”
Was that so? I don’t remember.
And I truly didn’t.
‘It’s all so long ago now.’
Portals.
Passages connecting the human world and the other species’ world where witches and dragons lived—also called the Demon Realm.
They had once existed in an era when humans, witches, and dragons coexisted.
But it had been 200 years since they disappeared.
So my age would be…
As I slowly counted on my fingers, I used all ten and froze in shock.
“Wait, Max. Does that mean I’m…?”
“What?”
“Am I… already 300 years old?!”
“You’re only realizing that now? Honestly, I wondered why you never acted your age.”
I’m the one going crazy here, Max…
As I tried to process the passage of time, Max kept chattering away obliviously.
“But Lady Vivian, isn’t the East Witch’s intelligence network amazing? The portal has been gone for so long, yet she still gets news from the human world.”
“I don’t know. Laura is a weirdo.”
Laura, the East Witch, was a strange genius obsessed with magical tools.
“You’re calling her strange while you’re a romance novel fanatic? I can’t believe how many of those books I’ve thrown away.”
“And do you remember how much I suffered retrieving them?”
My only hobby from my past life!
I glared at him in protest, but it had no effect.
“Anyway, this Blake person seems to be quite famous in the human world. Last month’s papers were all about him too. People say he’s quite romantic.”
“Romantic?”
The last sip of wine almost got stuck in my throat.
My instincts told me something interesting was coming, so I turned sharply.
“Did you not know? It’s a tragic love story—he left for the battlefield to forget his childhood sweetheart.”
