The Teddy Bear Sends the Insomniac Villain to Dreamland - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

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“…Young Master’s…”

“…Teddy bear?”

The shocked maids’ murmurs gradually faded, and an uncomfortable silence settled over the hallway.

Blake silently stared at the two pairs of eyes blinking slowly as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, then adjusted his hold on Vivian again.

“G-Goodness, Y-Young Master…”

The maids gasped in shock as a freezing atmosphere filled the air, then hurriedly bowed.

Yet their gazes remained fixed on Vivian in Blake’s arms.

Like people physically incapable of looking away from her.

Well, to be fair—

“Found you, my teddy bear.”

—that had been a pretty intense statement.

Standing before the eldest son of House Leblanc, a man known for being cold and difficult to approach, the maids didn’t dare ask questions.

But Vivian could practically hear what they were thinking anyway.

—Hey… didn’t Young Master Blake just call that doll “my teddy bear”?

—Yeah… I think he did.

Blake watched the silent exchange of glances between the two women with a troubled expression before turning around with Vivian still in his arms.

As he strode quickly down the corridor, moving farther away from the maids, faint whispers drifted behind him.

“Am I going crazy? Or is the Young Master…”

“Let’s just say we’re the crazy ones.”

“Right? Ahaha… goodness.”

“They’re gossiping about you, Blake.”

Maybe he hadn’t heard them?

Should she tell him or not?

If he didn’t know, maybe it was better that way. But if he did know, it probably wouldn’t feel very good either.

Still… if it were her—

‘Tell me everything! Whether I accept it or not should be my choice!’

—that’s what she would’ve said.

In the end, comfortably tucked in his arm, Vivian stared seriously at Blake’s shining silver hair—which had become even messier from rushing around—and spoke gravely.

“Blake. Your lovely servants were whispering about whether their Young Master has gone insane. Did you hear them?”

“……”

As expected.

He hadn’t heard.

“I knew it!”

As a witch with extremely sharp hearing, she had caught every word clearly.

Growing even more serious, she continued reporting.

“Ooh, and just now they decided to generously conclude that they’re the crazy ones instead. Very merciful of them, right?”

“Be quiet already.”

“They also said you and I really don’t suit each other. Apparently you don’t look like someone who’d carry around a teddy bear even as a child.”

“…Ha.”

“They said there’s a limit to how shabby a teddy bear should look too! Seriously, those people! But am I really that shabby?”

Holding up one of her yellowish arms, Vivian asked innocently.

Blake, who had been staring straight ahead the entire time, finally lowered his violet eyes and slowly scanned her body from head to toe.

Right.

She was shabby.

Yep, she didn’t even need him to say it.

“You know your eyes just answered for you, right? That really hurt my feelings.”

Blake ground his teeth and let out a deep sigh.

Walking so quickly it almost looked like he was running, he returned to the room and slammed the door shut behind them.

“Eek!”

Vivian flinched violently.

Blake paused for a moment before gently setting her down on the bed—then immediately twisted his expression into a frightening glare.

The soft eyes she had once thought looked pure now stared down at her sharply.

Running a rough hand through his hair, he looked like someone who didn’t even know where to begin.

“You. Do you even remember me telling you to at least pretend to stay still?”

“Ah, well… I was trying to stay quietly in the room. But it’s been such a long time since I visited the human world, so I got a little excited.”

Vivian awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

She genuinely hadn’t intended to cause trouble for Blake.

“This is the human world, exactly like you said. If you truly are a powerless witch, then you should’ve feared this place. The Crown Prince was here today. What were you planning to do if that suspicious bastard had seen you?”

His voice, normally flat and emotionless, carried visible agitation now.

“The Crown Prince?”

“Yes. If that man had seen you, he would’ve ripped your entire body apart and dissected you just to uncover your identity. Did you seriously not think about that?”

Vivian sat down awkwardly and rolled her eyes nervously.

He was angry.

Well… that was understandable.

He’d told her to stay put, and she’d wandered outside anyway. That was entirely her fault.

‘Still… staying trapped in the room forever was kind of suffocating…’

But now clearly wasn’t the time to say that.

How should she apologize?

‘When you’re sorry, apologize with everything you’ve got! That’s the best way!’

Vivian inhaled deeply and lowered her head dramatically.

“Blake, I’m really sor—WAH!”

At least, that’s what she tried to say.

Until the weight of her oversized head pulled her straight off the bed.

“….”

THUD.

Vivian crashed onto the floor beneath the bed with a pitiful cry.

Ah, seriously.

How embarrassing.

She had completely forgotten about her ridiculous three-part body proportions—head, torso, and legs.

Her head spun painfully.

Just because her body was soft and fluffy didn’t mean impacts didn’t hurt.

Clutching her throbbing head, Vivian looked up to find Blake frozen awkwardly with one hand extended.

Was he trying to catch her?

Thinking that might be the case, she placed her soft little hand onto his palm—

—but Blake immediately snatched his hand away.

Because of that, she wobbled dangerously again, though thankfully she managed not to fall a second time.

What exactly was he trying to do, teasing her like that?

Still, now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

Being a polite witch, Vivian didn’t forget the apology she had intended to give.

“So anyway, what I was trying to say is! I’m really sorry. I sincerely apologize!”

The moment she bowed again, the weight of her enormous head folded her entire body in half.

Maybe because the posture looked even more respectful than intended, Blake stopped scolding her.

Instead, he stared at her with an oddly complicated expression before picking her up and placing her back onto the bed.

“Haah… What kind of conversation am I even supposed to have with a teddy bear?”

Despite his words, the way he carefully held her remained surprisingly gentle.

“So your anger’s gone now?”

“I’ve lost the energy to stay angry, so stop talking.”

Was it good or bad that he’d lost the motivation to be angry?

Vivian had no idea.

But the important thing was that the crisis seemed to have passed.

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

After remaining silent in thought for a long while, Blake finally spoke again in a calmer tone.

“Anything!”

“If you really are a witch… how exactly did you end up inside that doll?”

It was a sharp question.

No—more accurately, it was probably a question that absolutely needed to be asked.

And honestly, even Vivian herself still didn’t understand the strange and suspicious identity of this teddy bear.

She recalled the moment she had first entered the doll and honestly explained everything she remembered.

“—Then, when the teddy bear fell onto my head, something flashed brightly. And when I came to my senses, my body had somehow ended up inside this thing.”

She patted her plump belly lightly.

Blake’s gaze immediately dropped toward it.

His eyes lingered there for an unusually long time, so Vivian awkwardly shifted her stomach sideways.

His gaze followed the movement.

Why was he staring so much?

Was it really that fascinating?

“Wait… are you talking about the moment it fell while you were fighting with Rain over the doll?”

“Yep, exactly then.”

“And you expect me to believe that…?”

“But it’s true, so what am I supposed to do?”

Blake’s expression visibly twisted more and more.

But seriously—

Before she could even finish thinking about finding the portal again, she had suddenly become a teddy bear.

Did he have any idea how despairing that felt?

Seeing the troubled look on her face, Blake slowly rubbed his chin.

His long eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

The wary gaze examining her from top to bottom clearly showed he was still suspicious.

Accepting his scrutiny calmly, Vivian finally asked the question she’d wanted to ask for a while now.

“I’m curious too. Where did you get this teddy bear?”

Even if she was currently a powerless witch, witches were naturally born with enormous magical pathways.

A vessel strong enough to contain a witch like that—

she had never even heard of such a thing.

Meaning this teddy bear was definitely not ordinary.

‘Blake mentioned before that he bought this doll from someone.’

That was what she had overheard on the terrace during the banquet.

Blake answered immediately, as if the question wasn’t difficult at all.

“An old junk dealer woman who occasionally came around here.”

“Hmmm. So the junk dealer granny sold this doll, and you bought it? Was there anything particularly suspicious about her?”

Could that old woman possibly be a witch?

This object was strange enough that Vivian wouldn’t even be surprised if it turned out to be something made by Laura—the eccentric witch of the East.

“Nothing especially strange. Though she did say it wasn’t an ordinary item. I already ordered people to report it if the old woman appeared again, but so far there’s been no news. I intend to search for her, though she may have already fled.”

“That’s troublesome. Did the old woman leave behind any other clues? Anything at all is fine.”

“She may have said something about it being no ordinary doll…”

“I knew it! I knew it!”

“Do you know something about the doll?”

“Nope. Absolutely nothing.”

“……”

Naturally, she knew nothing.

“Why are you looking at me like that?!”

She could clearly read the Are you really even a witch? expression in his eyes.

“This just isn’t my field of expertise! Ah, though Laura might know.”

“Who’s Laura?”

“She’s the witch who governs the East. There’s nothing she doesn’t know about magical tools. I actually saw you before in one of the newspapers she created.”

“A newspaper…? The world witches live in has those?”

“Of course! Honestly, if you saw one, you’d probably faint from shock. It’s Laura’s masterpiece—a newspaper with moving photographs!”

The desires of witches really were impossible to understand.

Back then, it had been something boring beyond belief.

Yet now, she found herself missing it terribly.

“So how exactly are we supposed to meet this witch named Laura?”

“First, we need to find a portal and cross over into the world of other races.”

“A portal?”

“You could think of it as a door connecting the human world and the world of other races. As far as I know, the portals disappeared about two hundred years ago. Which also means humans and witches haven’t interacted at all for roughly two centuries.”

“Then how did you cross over?”

“That’s what I want to know too. I don’t know what activated it, but suddenly a portal opened. Then, just like I told you, I fell straight into the human world and met you.”

Which made it all the more strange.

Just where exactly had the portal little witch Annie threw at her come from?

“So in order to ask this Laura witch, we first need to find the portal.”

After listening quietly to everything Vivian said, Blake neatly summarized the situation in one sentence.

Really, he was a smart human.

“Exactly. Now we’re finally understanding each other.”

“…Hey.”

“Anyway, if we can just reopen the portal, we won’t even need to find the old woman! I can escape this doll body, and we might even find a witch capable of breaking your curse. See? Two birds with one stone!”

“So what you’re saying is… you want my help finding the portal?”

“That’s basically it. You’ll help me, right?”

Finally feeling like their conversation had made real progress, Vivian clasped both hands together and looked at him with sparkling eyes, expecting an eager answer.

But the answer she received was not what she expected at all.

“I refuse.”