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Chapter 03 …
I couldn’t move even a single finger.
My entire body felt limp, and I had no sense of magic power at all.
But that was only natural. My magic was actually disappearing.
With my drained body, I slowly looked around. It didn’t take as long as I expected to figure out where I was.
Judging from the conversation earlier, this place was the banquet hall of Leia Everett.
In other words, the mansion of the Count Everett family—where the female protagonist’s birthday celebration banquet was being held!
‘This is insane. What is going on?’
The portals to the human world had long since closed and disappeared.
“Ah. And my power….”
While I was moving, I had felt a sharp pain in my chest, and then my magic quickly evaporated.
“…I have no power.”
This unfamiliar yet strangely familiar sensation of losing magic was, in a way, something I recognized.
“Don’t tell me… is this my sabbatical year?”
Slowly, I folded my fingers as I recalled the last sabbatical cycle.
A witch’s sabbatical year comes once every 50 years.
Witches are beings not governed by the natural cycle of life and death—decay and rebirth.
Because their existence does not align with the laws of nature, every 50 years from their birth, there comes a time when the force of nature strongly suppresses them.
That is the “sabbatical year.”
During this time, a witch’s magic almost completely disappears.
That’s why it was an unspoken rule not to leave witch territory during this period.
But right now, I was a witch who had fallen into the human world during her sabbatical year?
“What kind of lightning strike is this… ugh, my head.”
I needed to lie down somewhere immediately and recover.
Without a castle filled with circulating magic, even standing was difficult.
Perhaps understanding my feelings or not, the splendid night of the Everett Count family had just begun.
At least it was fortunate that I had fallen onto the terrace.
‘Imagine a suspicious woman suddenly dropping from the sky into a banquet hall.’
I blankly stared at the brilliantly lit hall, trying to decide what to do.
“Commander!”
A frantic voice called out as the terrace doors suddenly swung open.
Startled, I crouched down into a flowerbed beside the terrace, and soon a man with silver hair that resembled moonlight stepped inside.
“Commander, why aren’t you greeting Lady Everett? It looked like she was looking for you. I think this is your chance.”
Following him, a blond man entered and lightly grabbed his shoulder.
“Don’t talk nonsense. I’m already exhausted from coming straight to this banquet after returning.”
“Didn’t you come here in the first place to see Lady Everett?”
“I came because I was called. That’s all.”
The man spoke coldly, his face faintly illuminated under the moonlight.
His pale silver hair shimmered like fresh snow, paired with thick eyebrows.
Deep, sharp eyes and violet-colored irises.
The man with strong, masculine features was none other than…!
“Blake LeBlanc!”
“…What?”
“Pardon?”
I quickly covered my mouth, but Blake, whose name had just been called unexpectedly, turned sharply and glared at the blond man behind him.
“What are you dissatisfied about, speaking informally? Rain?”
At the chilling voice that seemed to leak frost, the man called Rain stepped back, raising his hands in disbelief.
“What? I-I didn’t say anything. I spoke informally?”
“You didn’t call me?”
“No matter how crazy I am, I would never do something like that!”
Blake narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Rain, then his gaze shot toward the flowerbed.
‘Uh-oh!’
My loose mouth!
The shock and excitement of seeing the tragic sub-male lead from the original novel made my voice slip out without thinking.
His sharp gaze swept across the flowerbed like a blade.
‘If I get caught, I’m dead.’
I squeezed out every last bit of my depleted magic to hide my presence.
If it were my original self, I wouldn’t have been afraid—but now I could instinctively feel it.
‘That man is beyond human-level strength.’
A terrifying pressure that made me hold my breath.
“Then have you prepared Lady Everett’s gift?”
“Ah.”
At Rain’s sudden question, Blake turned his gaze back.
“W-wait… you didn’t prepare one?!”
“I did.”
“Oh, you did. What did you prepare?”
“This teddy bear.”
“…Pardon?”
At their interesting conversation, I perked up my ears.
A gift for a crush… a teddy bear?
That’s actually kind of romantic.
As expected of a romance novel, such a cute gift made me smile unconsciously, forgetting my own situation.
Now that I think about it, he had been holding a slightly mismatched teddy bear when he came onto the terrace.
So that’s what it was.
“…Wait a moment. You’re not talking about that dirty brown teddy bear, right? Haha. Right? It can’t be, right?”
Rain muttered nervously, glancing at the silent Blake before suddenly shouting.
“Don’t tell me it’s THAT?! That worn-out teddy bear?!”
“Is there a problem?”
“…Good heavens.”
A brief silence fell over the terrace.
“Now that I think about it, you were wandering around the streets after training earlier.”
“……”
“Did you perhaps buy it from that old street peddler woman who’s always there…?”
“That’s right. The old lady grabbed my pants leg, so I bought it because it was annoying. Better than nothing.”
“No, it’s not better at all! Today is Lady Everett’s birthday! She’s someone important to your relationships!”
“I know. But is a birthday that important? This banquet is just for investment purposes for the Everett Count family anyway. Leia probably won’t care about gifts.”
“Ughhh….”
Rain held his forehead and groaned deeply.
The atmosphere grew heavy, and I frowned as well.
He was described as an emotionless monster without blood or tears…
‘Isn’t this just a robot?’
I stared at Blake’s indifferent silver head in disbelief.
“Ah, this won’t do. Let’s just throw it away!”
“Don’t act like a materialistic human, Rain. I hate people like that.”
“That’s not what I meant! I’m talking about throwing away trash! Give it to me!”
“Give it back.”
“No!”
“Do you want to die?”
Their argument continued endlessly.
My legs were starting to go numb from crouching too long.
Now wasn’t the time for this!
I needed to find a way back to the demon world immediately.
Blake, the original story—everything aside, I couldn’t stay in the human world without any magic.
‘But where is the portal?’
There had to be a portal somewhere if I had come here in the first place.
Now was my chance while those two were arguing!
Just as I was looking around—
“Ah! What are you doing throwing the teddy bear?!”
A worn brown teddy bear fell right onto my head.
“Eek!”
And in that instant—
Flash!
A brilliant light exploded, and my body suddenly became light.
‘Huh?’
Dazed, my vision wavered as I blinked repeatedly.
I felt a thick hand gripping one of my arms.
“Honestly… you could’ve just thrown it away, why insist on keeping it?”
But why did my body feel so light… and fluffy?
Slowly lifting my arm, I saw it.
A small, fuzzy lump instead of a hand.
My entire body stiffened. I couldn’t understand what was happening.
‘This fluffy fur… and this small body…’
I looked down at myself in shock and realized.
A teddy bear? I became a teddy bear?
‘AAAAAAAAAAHHH!’
Damn it. How can something like this even happen?
Even if my magic was gone, still—
Could a witch with such powerful magic really be sucked into a mere teddy bear?
‘What even is this teddy bear?!’
Unless it was a cursed object powerful enough to imprison a witch, this shouldn’t be possible.
‘Okay. First, get out of this thing.’
Focus. Calm down.
Exhale.
Then gather strength…!
Huh?
Again—force it…!
Oh no.
‘I’m not changing back….’
No matter what I did, I remained a fluffy teddy bear.
And worse—
‘I have no magic, so I can’t even move.’
One shocking realization followed another.
I was trapped inside this teddy bear, unable to move at all.
At this point, I had no choice but to admit it.
‘I… became a teddy bear.’
