Chapter 6: CH 5

Mikael wasn’t the only one confused. Yul was equally embarrassed and startled by this situation. Yul, who had been contemplating on how to get out of this for a brief moment, relaxed his whole body and fell forward.

“…”

“…”

A moment of silence passed. Of course, Yul, who collapsed, didn’t say anything, and Mikael didn’t say anything either.

As the silence grew longer, Yul’s head filled with thoughts of being fucked. Wouldn’t it be better to just honestly reveal his identity first? Or would it be better to just stay like this?

Two thoughts clashed sharply in a head the size of a fist full of cotton. Just when he couldn’t decide which way to go with and his worries only deepened…

“Caleb.”

Mikael called Caleb in a low voice. Caleb Mason was the Knight Commander of the Orlov family and his right-hand man to carry out Mikael’s various crazy orders in the novel.

In the novel, Mikhail was simply mentioned as Caleb’s benefactor. He didn’t know what kind of benefactor he was, but in Yul’s opinion, no matter how great of a benefactor Mikhail was, Caleb, who followed his insane orders, also seemed insane.

At the end of the novel, even when Mikael started his rebellion, it was Caleb who was at the forefront.

To be honest, I also had to do whatever my Professor said! But still, if the Professor asked for help because he was starting a coup, I would report it right away! Of course, the professor was not a benefactor, but an enemy to me…

“Yes, please speak.”

“C- Check that out.”

“This…?”

Seeing the ‘that’ that Mikael was pointing at, Caleb tilted his head and asked.

The tip of Mikael’s straight, white index finger was pointing to a small cotton doll. Caleb wondered why such a thing was in the Archduke’s room, but he couldn’t understand why his superior, who didn’t seem to be afraid of anything in the world, stammered to the end and asked him to check it out.

“Uh… yes, that.”

“Yes… I understand.”

Caleb still didn’t understand the slightest bit of what he was doing, but it was an order, so he decided to follow it. As he strode forward, Mikael grabbed Caleb’s shoulder and pulled back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Be careful.”

“Yes?”

“I said be careful.”

He even asked again in case he had heard it wrong, but it was the same when he heard it again. The Archduke was a person who didn’t even say empty words about being worried for other people but he told him to be careful twice.

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… And ordered him to check the cotton doll.

Caleb felt even more strange at his unusual behaviour and approached the doll.

Caleb picked up the doll that had been lying on the floor. It was a doll with 2 parts; his head and body proportioned one-to-one.

He didn’t know why he had to be wary of such an insignificant-looking doll, but since it was an order, Caleb looked closely at the soft doll.

His pink hair was cozy and his eyes were embroidered with a couple of colored blue threads, and he had a very innocent and pure impression. Besides, his eyes were so big that they took up half of his face, so Caleb thought it was cute even if he didn’t know much about dolls. His mouth was shaped like a cat’s mouth, only about the size of a knuckle.

Overall, the short limbs on the plump torso didn’t look dangerous at all.

“What do you mean by check? It’s just an ordinary doll.”

“… An ordinary doll?”

“Yes. Well, if I had to point something out, it’s a little cute.”

Mikael hardened his expression upon hearing Caleb’s words.

It couldn’t be. He definitely saw it with his own eyes. The doll was standing on its own feet and even blinking at him.

“What about the eyes?”

“It’s blue and big.”

“… Is that all?”

“Ah, it has two eyelashes.”

“…”

Mikael couldn’t say anything at Caleb’s words. Even if he considered that what happened the previous night was an illusion, he saw it clearly with his own eyes that this doll was moving just now. But Caleb didn’t feel anything was strange even though he was looking at the doll so closely.

Was he mistaken because he didn’t sleep well last night? Mikael became increasingly confused. A chill ran down his back because of the strange phenomenon, but at the same time he wondered if he had seen it wrong.

Meanwhile, Yul, who was in Caleb’s hand, felt like his heart was going to burst. Although he relaxed his body with as much as possible, his tension was at its peak. He did the best he could to widen his eyes and look innocent and harmless.

Fortunately, Caleb seemed to think of him as an ordinary doll, perhaps his whole-hearted acting worked.

He wondered how Mikael would react, but since Caleb’s face was in front of her, he couldn’t even avert his eyes and could only look straight ahead.

Please just think that you were mistaken. That you had misunderstood, that you were crazy!

“Are there any problems?”

“… No. I must have been a little tired.”

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Oh yeah! Yul squealed for joy inwardly at Mikael’s words. Seems like Mikael was an idiot, hehe.

“Ah, now I see there is one strange thing.”

“What is it?”

‘What?’

Mikael asked, surprised by Caleb’s sudden change in words, and Yul became nervous. In the same space, the two were very nervous because of their different thoughts.

‘I was still, and I didn’t even blink, why, what’s weird! What is it!’

Yul silently complained of injustice with a frustrated heart. He wasn’t even able to blink for a while, so he endured the fact that his eyeballs were about to fall out, and he was acting like a doll, but he couldn’t understand what the hell was wrong.

“It’s wearing a ring. A diamond ring from Count Wilson as a birthday present for the Archduke.”

“What… ?”

‘Ah… Damn it.’

To Caleb’s words, Mikael was baffled, while Yul despaired.

Because of the ring, his identity was revealed despite his method-class acting. But there were no regrets. It was a diamond of all things, and such a big diamond at that, how could anyone overlook it when it was right in front of them?

“… Could it be that the Archduke put it on it?”

“Are you crazy? No!”

After hesitating for a while, Caleb carefully spoke his deduction out loud. Then, Mikael, forgetting the fear that had tormented him the whole time, became furious and denied his words.

But it was to no avail. Caleb began to smile kindly with a look of understanding.

“Yes, of course not.”

“I said no? I didn’t do it. Caleb, what do you think of me?”

“Oh, yes. There is no way that the lonely Archduke could have been soothing himself in the long night by putting a diamond ring on a doll in the room alone. Alright, I understand.”

“I- I said it’s not like that!”

“Okay, okay. I know it’s not. Don’t worry.”

For some reason, the more Mikael denied, the more Caleb began to be convinced of his own thoughts. He thought that his boss was a workaholic and that he seemed to have had some grievances, so he even felt pity for Mikael in his heart.

Yul, watching the two of them, swallowed a sigh of relief. Caleb, this punk, is more useful than I thought?

Thanks to Caleb’s baseless and bizarre idea, Yul, who had overcome the crisis of his identity being caught, was satisfied on the inside. He vowed to refrain from cursing Caleb in the future.

“Caleb.”

“Yes.”

“Get out of my room right now.”

“Yes.”

In other words, realising that he was only disadvantaging himself, Mikael gave Caleb an order to leave. Even after Caleb quickly greeted him with courtesy and disappeared, Mikael took a deep breath as he did not cool down his anger towards Caleb, who accused him of an eccentric taste.

“I don’t understand.”

Mikael muttered to himself and picked up the doll that had fallen to the floor. He looked at him, and, as Caleb said, it was nothing more than an ordinary doll. Of course, he couldn’t understand the fact that it was wearing a diamond ring, but anyway, based on common sense, there was no way this doll could move and wear the ring on its own.

But he still couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. However, when he thought about throwing it away, the words that he had told Levi that he would cherish it came to mind.

After a lot of thought, Mikael put the doll in the drawer by the window.

‘Huh? Hey, Mikael, why are you locking me up?! It’s dark here, it’s scary!’

Rumble!

Yul, who was suddenly trapped in a dark drawer, struggled inside the narrow drawer, and the drawer shook with a sound.

Mikael, who had sealed the doll in a drawer and turned around after finding peace in his heart, was startled by the sound and stopped in place.