The Teddy Bear Sends the Insomniac Villain to Dreamland - Chapter 03

Chapter 3

I couldn’t move a single finger.

My entire body felt limp, and it felt as though there wasn’t a trace of magic left inside me.

Which, honestly, made sense.

Because my magic really was disappearing.

With my weakened body, I slowly looked around.

Surprisingly, I quickly figured out where I was.

Judging from the conversation earlier, this place was Lea Everett’s banquet hall.

The location of the heroine’s birthday celebration banquet—in other words, Count Everett’s mansion!

‘This is impossible. What happened?’

The portals leading to the human world had all closed and vanished long ago.

“Ah. And my power…”

During the transfer, my heart had started throbbing painfully, and then my magic evaporated in an instant.

“…I have no power.”

This unfamiliar yet strangely familiar sensation of losing magic…

“Wait. Was this year my dormant year?”

Slowly folding my fingers one by one, I tried recalling the date of my last dormant year.

A witch’s dormant year came once every fifty years.

Witches were beings excluded from the cycle of life and death—the natural order where things fade away and are reborn over time.

Because our existence defied the laws of nature, every fifty years after our birth, there came a period when we were strongly affected by natural law.

That period was called the “Dormant Year.”

And during that time, every witch lost almost all of their magic power.

That was why it was an unspoken rule for witches never to leave witch territory during those years.

But now I was a witch in her dormant year who had fallen into the human world?

“What kind of disaster is this… ugh, my head.”

At this point, I desperately needed to lie down somewhere and recover.

Without the magic-filled atmosphere of my castle, even standing upright was exhausting.

Completely unaware of my suffering, the dazzling night at the Everett estate was only just beginning.

At least it was fortunate I landed on the terrace.

‘Can you imagine if some suspicious woman suddenly dropped out of thin air in the middle of the banquet hall?’

I stood there blankly beneath the brilliantly glowing lights, wondering what I should do next.

“Commander!”

At the urgent call, the terrace doors beside me suddenly flew open.

Startled, I immediately crouched down inside the nearby flowerbed.

A man with silver hair resembling shining moonlight stepped onto the terrace.

“Commander, why haven’t you greeted Lady Everett? It seems the young lady has been looking for you. I think this is your chance.”

A blond man who entered after him lightly grabbed his shoulder as he spoke.

“Stop talking nonsense. I already feel exhausted enough after coming straight here from the battlefield.”

“You only came all the way here because you wanted to see Lady Everett, didn’t you?”

“I came because I was invited. It means nothing.”

The man’s cold voice drifted through the moonlight.

Light silver hair sparkling like freshly fallen snow.

Sharp dark eyebrows.

Long eyes with deep violet irises.

That masculine man with striking features was…!

“Blake Leblanc!”

“…What?”

“Pardon?”

The moment I clamped a hand over my mouth in horror, Blake—whose name had suddenly been shouted—turned and glared sharply at the blond man behind him.

“What exactly are you dissatisfied with, Rain? Why are you speaking informally to me?”

At the chilling voice that seemed to radiate coldness, the man called Rain quickly removed his hand and stepped back in confusion.

“What? I-I didn’t say anything! You think I spoke informally to you?”

“So you weren’t the one who called me?”

“Even if I were insane, I wouldn’t do something like that!”

Blake eyed the frantically waving Rain suspiciously before his gaze slowly shifted toward the flowerbed.

‘Crap! My stupid mouth!’

The shock and excitement of seeing the tragic second male lead from the original novel in person had made me blurt his name out without thinking.

His sharp eyes swept coldly around the flowerbed area.

‘If I get caught, I’m doomed.’

I squeezed out the last remnants of my depleted magic to hide my presence as much as possible.

If I were my usual self, I wouldn’t have been afraid.

But right now, my instincts screamed at me.

‘That man is beyond human.’

It was the kind of terrifying moment that made you unconsciously hold your breath.

“Then did you at least prepare a present for Lady Everett?”

“Ah.”

At Rain’s sudden question, Blake’s gaze returned to him.

“D-Don’t tell me… you didn’t prepare one?!”

“I did.”

“O-Oh, you did. Then what did you prepare?”

“This teddy bear.”

“…Pardon?”

Hearing the interesting conversation, I perked up my ears.

He prepared a teddy bear as a gift for the girl he secretly loved?

That was actually pretty romantic.

A cute present worthy of a romance novel.

Without even thinking about my own situation, I smiled unconsciously.

So that was why he’d been carrying around such an oddly mismatched teddy bear since entering the terrace.

“…Wait a second. Surely you don’t mean this filthy brown teddy bear, hahaha. Right? Of course not.”

Muttering, “No way. Absolutely impossible,” Rain stared at the silent Blake before suddenly screaming.

“You seriously mean this?! This old teddy bear?!”

“Is there a problem?”

“Good heavens.”

Perhaps unable to continue speaking, Rain fell silent.

The terrace became quiet for a moment.

“N-Now that I think about it, you were wandering around the streets after training earlier.”

“……”

“Don’t tell me… you bought it from that old peddler woman who’s always there?”

“I did. The old hag grabbed onto my pants and wouldn’t let go, so I bought it because she was annoying. It’s better than showing up empty-handed.”

“No, it is absolutely not better! Today is Lady Everett’s birthday! She’s one of the most important people in your life, Commander!”

“I know. But is a birthday really that important? This banquet is just a place for Count Everett’s business investments anyway. Lea probably doesn’t care about gifts.”

“Gaaaah…”

Rain pressed a hand against his forehead and groaned deeply.

Even I frowned at the seriousness of the atmosphere.

I vaguely remembered Blake being described as a cold, emotionless monster with no blood or tears…

‘But isn’t this guy just a robot?’

I stared blankly at the indifferent silver-haired man who genuinely seemed to care about absolutely nothing.

“Ah, this won’t do. Let’s throw this away!”

“Don’t behave like some materialistic human, Rain. I despise people like that.”

“What are you even talking about?! This isn’t about being materialistic—we’re throwing away garbage! Hand it over!”

“Give it back.”

“No!”

“…Do you want to die?”

The two continued bickering endlessly.

Instead of leaving quickly, they kept arguing over ridiculous nonsense, and my legs were starting to go numb from crouching.

This was not the time for this!

I needed to find a way back to the Demon Realm immediately.

Blake and the original story were interesting and all, but I couldn’t stay trapped in the human world with absolutely no magic.

‘But where’s the portal?’

There had to be a portal somewhere if I’d fallen into the human world through one.

Now was my chance while those two were distracted fighting!

Just as I started looking around—

“Ah! Why would you throw the teddy bear?!”

Thud!

An old brown teddy bear suddenly landed right on top of my head.

“Gah!”

And in that instant—

Flash!

A brilliant light exploded around me, and suddenly my body felt light.

‘Huh?’

Dazed, I blinked several times at my spinning vision.

I could feel a thick hand gripping one of my arms.

“Honestly. You should’ve just thrown it away from the start instead of stubbornly clinging to it.”

But why did my body feel so light and fluffy?

Slowly, I raised my arm.

What I saw was a stubby paw covered in fur.

My entire body froze stiff.

I couldn’t understand what had happened.

‘This fluffy fur and tiny body…’

Staring blankly at my shrunken form, realization finally hit me.

A teddy bear?

I became a teddy bear?!

‘Aaaaaaaaaah!’

Damn it. How could something like this happen?

Even if my magic had disappeared.

How could a powerful witch be sucked into an ordinary teddy bear?

‘What exactly is this teddy bear?’

This couldn’t happen unless it was an object containing magic powerful enough to imprison a witch.

‘Okay. First, I need to get out of this doll.’

Focus.

Stay calm.

After taking a deep breath—

I strained with all my might…!

Huh?

Then I tried again with even more force…!

Oh my god.

‘It won’t work…’

I couldn’t return to my original body!

No matter what I did, I remained a fluffy teddy bear.

And on top of that—

‘I have absolutely no magic, so I can’t even move.’

One shocking event after another.

To think I’d become trapped inside a teddy bear, unable to move at all.

At this point, I had no choice but to accept reality.

‘I… became a bear.’