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Chapter 1 …
A dark dining room filled with suffocating silence.
Only the clinking of tableware echoed through the quiet restaurant as the door suddenly burst open.
A man in a black military uniform with striking good looks entered and sat down in front of the neatly set table.
Then, he pulled out the chair next to his and carefully placed something on it.
His movements were so cautious, as if handling a precious treasure, that curious gazes gathered around him.
“Blake. What is that beside you?”
Duke LeBlanc, who had been quietly eating all this time, narrowed his eyes and pointed at the teddy bear seated carefully on the chair.
“It’s my comfort doll.”
“…A what?”
“A com-fort doll.”
The man, Blake, repeated each syllable clearly as if to confirm they had heard correctly, then calmly resumed eating.
Clang—!
A knife fell onto the marble floor with a sharp, piercing sound.
The Duke, who had dropped it, bit his tongue in shock.
He looked as though he had just heard something impossible.
And understandably so.
The “comfort doll” sitting beside Blake LeBlanc, the Duke’s eldest son, did not match his cold, sculpted appearance in the slightest.
“You… you. Have you finally gone mad from lack of sleep?”
“I’m perfectly sane.”
“And yet why on earth would you bring that filthy doll—”
Blake’s claim of sanity had very little credibility.
Everyone knew that Blake LeBlanc suffered from a curse that prevented him from sleeping, but even so, he was completely different from usual.
Blake was the strongest knight of the Casdonia Empire.
In a nation constantly at war, his name grew more and more renowned as he led every battlefield to victory.
The war-devouring butcher, the reaper of death, the commander of blood.
All the titles attached to him were brutal.
The knights who respected him were too many to count.
And yet now… the commander of the army bringing a cute teddy bear to the dining table?
The Duke beside him was rendered speechless by the grotesque mismatch.
Then, a silver-haired boy sitting nearby spoke up.
“H-huh, brother. Are you sick?”
“No, Aaron.”
“But… that kind of teddy bear is usually carried by petty young ladies and nobles…”
At those words, Blake’s shimmering purple eyes turned toward the doll.
He gently reached out and cupped its ear.
“Don’t speak carelessly about my bear. It might get hurt.”
“Eek!”
Aaron covered his mouth in panic, afraid he might scream or make a disgraceful sound.
He quickly drank water to steady himself.
“If you like the teddy bear that much… I-I’ll buy the same one!”
Aaron, who worshipped Blake to the point of nearly deifying him, tried to imitate everything he did.
Blake shook his head.
“No. You can’t buy it.”
“…Pardon?”
“This teddy bear cannot be obtained anywhere else.”
As he said this, a faint pride lingered on Blake’s handsome face.
Of course, the teddy bear truly was filthy enough that it couldn’t be found anywhere else.
The maid serving a new knife for the Duke looked terrified.
What a horrifying combination.
Blake LeBlanc and a teddy bear.
This was exactly the kind of situation that would spread rumors that Blake LeBlanc, deprived of sleep, had finally gone completely insane.
The Duke could not trust the Blake who seemed utterly enchanted by the worn-out teddy bear.
“Blake. You seem mentally exhausted from lack of sleep. Go rest.”
Seeing the maid’s shocked expression, the Duke tried to intervene.
But Blake frowned and set down his utensils.
“Why would I not be able to sleep?”
This kid… this kid… he’s truly gone mad.
The Duke’s purple eyes scanned his son, who now looked completely deranged.
Deep concern settled in his gaze.
The curse on the LeBlanc family did not affect Blake alone.
The Duke and Aaron also suffered from inability to sleep.
It was a hereditary curse placed upon the direct bloodline.
Naturally, they had poured enormous funds across generations trying to break it, but there was almost no information available.
The curse was expected to last for the rest of their lives.
And yet, what?
Why wouldn’t he be able to sleep?
“Stop joking. I don’t want to discuss the curse.”
“Is that so?”
Blake replied briefly and tapped under his eyes.
The Duke’s gaze shifted—and he froze.
The dark circles that should have marked Blake’s lineage were gone.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
“Y-you… your dark circles are gone…!”
Aaron also jumped up in shock and rushed over to examine his brother’s face.
“B-brother… they’re really gone! I… I wish mine would disappear too…”
Aaron’s eyes sparkled.
Meanwhile, Blake casually adjusted the red ribbon around the teddy bear’s neck and spoke.
“This teddy bear is the only thing that allows me to sleep.”
Clang—!
The Duke dropped his second knife.
It was the sound of his mind breaking.
He had struggled for years to break the curse, and now this teddy bear alone could make him sleep?
It was unbelievable—but hope flickered in his eyes.
Even if Blake didn’t seem normal, his brightened eyes were real.
“R-really? Blake. Let me see that teddy bear.”
The Duke rose abruptly, silver hair sweeping behind him, reaching for the teddy bear.
Just as his hand was about to grab it—
A firm hand pushed him away.
Blake picked up the worn brown teddy bear and hugged it tightly.
Then he rubbed his straight nose against its head.
“No. Only I will touch this teddy bear.”
For the feared “Commander of Blood,” it was an absurdly childish statement.
“…Brother?”
Aaron backed away in disbelief as Blake clung to the teddy bear.
A strange obsession flickered in Blake’s purple eyes. The teddy bear in his arms even seemed to struggle slightly.
He tightened his hold and whispered softly.
“Right, Vivian?”
“……”
And inside the arms of that struggling teddy bear—me—I silently screamed at the man in front of me.
‘Let go of me, you crazy bastarddd!’
But as if mocking my desperate cry,
his eyes were already completely out of control.
December 31st, New Year’s Eve.
I was sipping wine and lamenting my life.
How did I end up as a witch stranded in this barren western land where sandstorms howl?
When I first woke up here,
I instinctively realized this was one of those romance fantasy novels I had read before.
A familiar class system.
Nobles hosting extravagant parties.
Even dragons straight out of fantasy.
The only difference was—
“Why am I a witch?”
Other people, even extras, got noble ladies or daughters of counts.
Even villains still managed to get entangled with the male lead.
“So why am I the only one stuck in a non-human world?!”
Honestly, how many romance fantasies even have witches like this?
At best, it must’ve been a hidden setting no one noticed or a background detail too minor to remember.
“Agh, whatever. It’s all meaningless.”
I sighed and unfolded a moving newspaper developed by witches from the East.
The headline of today’s paper from the Human World was simple:
[Human World Special Report: Blake LeBlanc, the unstoppable commander of the Casdonia Empire, once again saves the Empire’s territory!]
On the right side of the article, a strikingly handsome man in uniform moved within the printed image.
“Blake LeBlanc?”
Why does that name sound familiar?
In the quiet end-of-year evening, my eyes blinked slowly as I stared at the paper.
“He’s really impressive.”
Max, my butler, who had appeared beside me at some point, glanced at the paper and praised him.
“What is?”
“Blake LeBlanc. Isn’t he quite remarkable for a human? He wiped out ten thousand enemy troops with only five hundred knights.”
“I see.”
I replied half-heartedly and took another sip of wine.
A centuries-old vintage—truly excellent.
“The LeBlanc family used to offer tributes to our Holloway Castle back when portals still existed.”
“So you like them, then.”
“…Lady Vivian. The one who liked them the most back then was you.”
Was that so? I don’t remember.
And I truly didn’t.
‘Everything from back then feels so distant.’
Portals.
The passage connecting the world of witches and dragons—also called the “demon realm”—and the human world.
A special gateway from the ancient times when humans, witches, and dragons coexisted.
It had been gone for 200 years.
So that would make my age…
I slowly counted on my fingers, then froze after using all ten.
“Wait, Max. Does that mean I’m…?”
“What?”
“Am I… 300 years old?!”
“You only just realized? No wonder you don’t act your age.”
The problem is me, Max…
As I mulled over the passing centuries in shock, Max continued talking without reading the mood.
“But Lady Vivian, don’t you think the East Witch’s information network is amazing? The portal has been gone for so long, yet she still gets news from the human world.”
“I don’t know. Laura’s just a weirdo.”
Laura, the Eastern Witch, was an eccentric obsessed with magical tools.
“You say that while being a romance novel addict. I don’t even remember how many books I threw away.”
“And how many times did I have to pick them back up, do you remember?”
My only hobby since my past life!
I glared at him, but it had no effect.
“Anyway, this Blake guy seems to be quite famous in the human world. Last month’s papers were all about Blake LeBlanc too. People say he’s very romantic.”
“Romantic?”
The wine I was sipping nearly went down the wrong way.
I turned sharply, sensing sudden interest, and Max continued casually.
“You didn’t know? It’s a heartbreaking love story—he left for the battlefield to forget his childhood sweetheart.”
“…What?”
