CH8

So I became the maniac’s slave, ah, no, comfort doll. Tada—★

Unlike his exhausted heart, Yul tightly closed his eyes at the sound of a lively spirit coming from somewhere. It was too late when he realised that he had been caught in the madman’s trap.

To answer the obsessive maniac’s question of whether he would do anything, it was foolish to say that he would do anything.

Thanks to that, Yul was now receiving the karma of his foolish words.

“Hey, excuse me. Where are you taking me?”

Currently, Yul was heading somewhere with Mikael as well as Levi in a carriage that looked ridiculously luxurious.

He would understand and concede a hundred times if they went out holding him in the pretext of surveillance. But shouldn’t they tell people… no, the doll of the destination?

Yul was furious, but he wasn’t stupid enough to get mad at the madman. The anger boiling in his chest was filtered out as much as possible, filtered again, and filtered once more, and expressed by changing it into a fine submissiveness.

There was a big gap between resentment and servility, but both words started with the same letter (in Korean), so let’s just say they were similar.

“Hello?”

“Archduke-nim…? Mikael-nim…?”

At Mikael’s cold look, Yul quickly read the air and corrected what he had said.

Most of the time, people called him ‘Archduke-nim’, so he thought it would be the most reasonable to call him that, but just in case, ‘Mikael-nim’ was also included.

But for some reason, Mikael still looked dissatisfied.

“If you don’t like that, then Mr. Handsome1…? Professor…?”

“Mr. Handsome? What does that mean?”

“Uh, someone who is really good…? Am I right? I don’t actually know. I don’t know but calling someone by that solves the situation. Oh, ‘Professor’ is the person with highest authority in the world I had lived in.”

There was no one at a higher position than a professor for a graduate student. Indeed. Yul nodded at his thoughts.

Then, Mikael snorted as if it was ridiculous.

“I know what a professor is.”

“Ah, huh. Yes, there’s an academy here, so you know. But it’s a little different from that. A professor at a graduate school is much more overbearing, coercive, and knowledgeable and capable but annoying than a professor at an academy…”

“…Are you saying I’m that kind of person?”

“Gasp! N-no! I didn’t mean to say it that way, but I was just trying to explain the nature of professors… Sorry, sorry. I will cancel what I said.”

Yul, who had been rambling on and on about his thoughts about professors without realising it, realised his mistake and widened his eyes. Then, as he slowly rolled his candy-like eyes, he met Mikael’s gaze. Yul swallowed dryly seeing his cold, hardened face.

“T- Then, I’ll call you Mikael-nim from now on…?”

Perhaps because of the many sins he had committed, Yul became more servile. Even the way he spoke showed extreme servility.

“Hmm, just call me Mikael.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Yul’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer. Of course, he thought that he wanted to be called with the highest honorifics, but it was surprising that he just told him to call him by his first name.

Yul was wondering if it was okay to just call his name, but since he said it himself, it really seemed okay.

“Okay, okay, Kael-ah.”

“What?”

Mikael burst out laughing. Yul was relieved to see Mikael smiling.

Mikael, this bastard wanted something like this after all! A friendly relationship! Like best friends!

Yul, who was encouraged by his reaction, spoke again and added the words he wanted to say.

“Hey, Kael-ah. Where are we going? You aren’t going to sell me, are you?”

The eyes of Levi, who was sitting behind Yul, were dyed with embarrassment, but there was no way Yul, who was only looking at Mikael in front of him, could see Levi’s reaction since it wasn’t like he had eyes on the back of his head.

Mikael, who had been smiling the entire time Yul was joking, hardened his face in an instant, and opened his mouth coldly.

“Levi.”

“Yes.”

“Throw this out the window.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Ah, no! W-w-why are you throwing me!!!”

Yul, who was suddenly thrown out of the running carriage, panicked and grabbed the carriage seat, but it was impossible to hold the smooth leather seat with cotton hands. Without much resistance, Yul, carried by Levi, headed out the window.

The carriage, led by four handsome steeds, was running at tremendous speed. Thanks to that, Yul couldn’t even open his eyes properly. If he fell at this speed, he would be seriously injured if lucky, or would die instantly if you thought about it realistically.

“Uwahhhh, spare me, uwahhhh, my eyes are freezing!”

Yul closed his eyes because of the brisk wind due to the acceleration and the dust generated by the horse running and begged for help. He didn’t forget to hug Levi’s finger with all his might, trying not to fall off somehow with his tiny hand.

Mikael, who was happy to see Yul screaming loudly, glanced at Levi. Then Levi nodded slightly and brought Yul back into the carriage.

Yul, who couldn’t even open his eyes and was hanging by holding Levi’s hand, didn’t notice their communication.

“I think my eyeballs were cut. My eyes hurt, huhu. Dust got in.”

Yul wiped away the tears that were welling up in the afterglow of the pain that remained.

After some time passed, of course, resentment towards Mikael soared.

That bastard was indeed a ‘professor’. In the pretext of a dinner party, after getting drunk, it was the professor who told him to speak informally but later reacted gravely. The face of the professor and Mikael’s face overlapped.

“I’ve never told you to call me so impudently.”

“Hmph, I’ll be careful.”

At Mikael’s warning words, Yul calmed his heart that was feeling wronged.

If that’s the case, don’t tell me to call you Mikhail. I did what I was told to do, but you’re abusing a doll like this? You have no conscience at all…

Yul looked at Mikael with a grudge, and saw his red eyes shining brightly, and immediately innocently widened his eyes.

“Mikael, where are we going?”

“Much better.”

Mikael muttered, satisfied with Yul’s words.

He had no intention of being treated with utmost respect from this little guy. Maybe it was because he looked so insignificant, so he didn’t even want to hear honorifics.

So he told him to call him by his first name, but he suddenly behaved rudely.

Again, he didn’t get angry because he looked so insignificant, but it was so ridiculous that he wanted to tease him, so he had Levi do that, and the little guy immediately lowered his tail. The lightning-like change of attitude was absurd and funny.

“I am going to the Imperial Palace.”

“… Huh, the Imperial Palace?”

“Yeah, there’s a troublesome guy calling me.”

After hearing the words “Imperial Palace” and “troublesome guy”, Yul quickly realised where he was headed. It was the Emperor who had called him.

Speaking of the Emperor, in the original story, when Levi couldn’t stand Mikael’s abuse and hid with the help of the Emperor, who had always looked after him, Mikael started a rebellion.

The problem was, Yul couldn’t remember what happened after the rebellion very well. Whether the revolt was successful or not.

Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the ending of “Red Prison” at all, as if it had been erased with correction tape. He definitely had read it to the end, but was it because he was so shocked by the development of the story before that?

In any case, he didn’t know what happened after the rebellion.

No matter what the ending was, the thought of going to meet the Emperor, a character who appeared in the original story, felt strange.

It really hit him that this was the world in a novel, and he became unsure if he would even be able to escape and return to the original world.

“You don’t have to show off that you are a demon-possessed doll, so be careful.”

“What do you mean demon, those words are too harsh. I said it’s not like that!”

“Other people won’t see it your way.”

“Sniff…”

Feeling upset but couldn’t think of anything to say, Yul slightly sniffled at Mikael’s words.

“We’ve arrived.”

At that moment, Levi said in a calm voice.

Surprised by his words, Yul quickly put his hands on the window sill of the carriage, tiptoed and tried to look out the window. Unfortunately, he was a finger’s length short, so he couldn’t see the scenery outside. Yul was curious about what the real Imperial Palace looked like, so he jumped and jumped and tried to look out the window.

Mikael, who had been silently watching, quietly held Yul in front of the window.

Yul was mesmerised by the splendid scenery that his jaws dropped automatically. Yul, held in Mikael’s large hand, looked out the window comfortably.

“Wow, pretty.”

His blue eyes gleamed with ecstasy. Mikael looked out the window, unimpressed unlike Yul’s reaction. After confirming that the sight was nothing special, he immediately turned his gaze to look at the small ball of cotton in his hand.

Because in his eyes this was much more worth seeing.

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