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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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The lightning plunged downward.
A blinding flash lit up the world with impossible brilliance. As her vision flooded with light, Beatrice unconsciously reached toward the gleam.
“Eh, ehh…”
She thought she had just heard him speak…
But that had to be her imagination. She couldn’t hear human speech.
And humans couldn’t hear her either. The only ones she could talk to were dolls.
‘Wait… that means…’
Was the one being struck by lightning one of her dolls?
As Beatrice tilted her head pondering this, the lightning ceased. From long experience, she expected nothing would remain.
Even a holy knight couldn’t have survived such a strike. While holy knights could cut through magic and might be able to cut her dolls, they couldn’t cut through an attack created by a doll…
“Ow, that stings.”
Yet the man emerged from the dust cloud completely unscathed. And Beatrice realized his words were reaching her perfectly clear – it hadn’t been her imagination at all.
She recalled her hovering archangel and asked the man before her:
“Are… are you a doll?”
“What?”
“Y-you… are you a doll?”
Johan stared intently at the young witch, clearly confused by her words. Though she seemed hostile at first, having immediately struck at him with lightning, her current words carried no trace of animosity.
He wondered if she might be like some witches and holy knights he’d met before – able to kill without emotion. But then he noticed her hands trembling.
Those types didn’t tremble after attacking humans. Only those who saw humans as something other than human could kill without emotional response.
“I’m Johan. What’s your name?”
“B-Beatrice… Johan, are you really not a doll?”
“I don’t understand what you mean about dolls… I’m human.”
“R-really? Can I… look at you?”
Johan nodded and approached the witch, though he didn’t understand what she wanted to see. It was probably foolish to get close to a witch whose powers were unknown, but he trusted his magic.
He trusted both his magic and his instincts. Something told him this child wasn’t particularly dangerous.
The moment he got close, the young witch quickly grabbed his hand. As he watched, wondering what she was doing, she began touching his arm while fighting back tears.
“It’s warm… you really are…”
Sniffling, the young girl inched closer and closer until suddenly she was practically embracing him, feeling his body.
If she had been a grown woman, he would have pushed her away, unable to have contact with any woman but Master─ but he couldn’t bring himself to push away a crying young girl.
In the end, Johan simply hugged her tight without a word. Beatrice, overwhelmed by the warmth flooding through her entire body, finally burst into tears.
“Waaaaahhh! Uuuu! *hic* Waaaahh!”
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Looking at the sniffling girl, Johan pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
The young witch pressed her face toward Johan, whimpering as if asking him to help blow her nose, and Johan held the handkerchief to her nose.
Honk! After blowing her nose, the witch seemed to have calmed somewhat and looked at Johan.
“Johan… who are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone who can talk to me… I’ve never met anyone before. Not Mother, not Father, not holy knights or witches could talk to me…”
Johan realized her curse must be of that nature. A curse that prevented connection with people.
Similar to Master’s curse, making him feel a certain kinship.
Because of this, Johan found he couldn’t simply leave the witch before him. In some ways, her situation was even more severe than Master’s.
At least Master could converse with others and wasn’t hated if she just covered her face and skin.
“Beatrice.”
“Y-yes?”
“What kind of magic do you have?”
“Oh, do you want to know?”
“Yes, I’m curious.”
“…There’s a condition.”
Beatrice glanced up at Johan as she said this.
“H-hug me.”
“You want a hug?”
“Yes…”
Hearing words that seemed fitting for a young girl, or more precisely a girl starved for warmth─ Johan gave a bittersweet smile.
Children deserved to be loved unconditionally. How much must it have hurt to be denied that?
When he carefully opened his arms, Beatrice shook her head as if that wasn’t what she meant and quietly sat between his legs.
“Th-there!”
Having nestled into Johan’s embrace, Beatrice looked up at him worriedly, as if concerned she was being a bother.
When he hugged her gently as if to say “what are you worried about,” Beatrice began rubbing her cheeks against his arm, feeling its warmth.
“M-my magic… is magic that turns dolls into people.”
“Dolls?”
“Yes- so when I make dolls, I have to fill them with love. The more love I put in, the stronger they become…”
“Fill them with love.”
“I’ll give you one too… n-never mind!”
Watching Beatrice cover her face with a small squeal, Johan remembered his young cousins from childhood.
They too had been this adorable and affectionate when young. After growing up, he never saw that side of them again.
As Johan was finding Beatrice endearing, something began nagging at him.
‘…She said she filled them with love?’
She had said her ability was turning dolls into humans. And Johan had reverted hundreds of elves back to dolls today.
Even witches couldn’t do just anything. Witches had to learn things beyond their magic just like anyone else.
“Um… Beatrice?”
“Yes?”
“All the dolls here… you made them?”
“─Yes! I made them all!”
Beatrice pointed proudly at the elf dolls scattered everywhere. Making this many couldn’t have been done in just a day or two.
Which meant… this young-looking witch might be older than she appeared.
“Beatrice.”
“What is it? Johan, want me to make one for you too?”
“…How old are you?”
“Age? I forgot…”
Johan felt an inexplicable unease at those words. He might have been treating a witch several times his age like a child.
Whether Beatrice understood his thoughts or not, she continued nuzzling against him like an affectionate cat.
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As time passed, I headed to Beatrice’s house.
As she had said, dolls were scattered everywhere inside.
The moment we entered, Beatrice lightly greeted her dolls.
“Hello Charles! Luminé! Kleenex! Voltria!”
Hello, Master!
For a moment, I thought I must have misheard. But I hadn’t. The dolls were speaking.
After all that talk about magic turning dolls into people, could they actually be real people…
As I was thinking this while entering, I noticed something strange.
“Hi hi! Everyone, I made a friend!”
Heeh, we’re jealous, Master!
Isn’t he more like a boyfriend!?
“Ehehe, i-it’s not like that!”
The dolls’ voices were all identical.
The source of the voices was the same too.
Like ventriloquism, all the sounds came from Beatrice’s mouth.
‘…Beatrice.’
Only then did I realize the dolls weren’t making sounds at all – Beatrice herself was making all the voices.
This poor girl had been unable to make friends due to her curse. Yet her time spent with dolls through her magic had only increased.
She must have started treating the dolls like humans. Until finally she reached a point where she could no longer distinguish between humans and dolls…
“Ah, Johan! Come here!”
Beatrice led me to her room. Though the hallway was full of cute dolls, her room had even more dolls than all those in the hallway combined.
From crude dolls that showed signs of being handmade to polished ones that spoke of professional craftsmanship.
I couldn’t even imagine how much time it must have taken to make all of these.
“Hehe, Johan, Johaan…”
After making me lie on the bed, Beatrice lay down beside me using my arm as a pillow. Though she had the kind of cute face that didn’t get messed up lying like this, seeing her kept reminding me of someone.
“Beatrice.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“I should get going now.”
“…Going? Where?”
“Home. I can’t stay here forever.”
Hearing this, Beatrice stared at me intently with gleaming eyes. The way she kept staring without a word was enough to give me chills.
As I carefully tried to move her head and get up, Beatrice grabbed my sleeve and spoke:
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“…Are you going to abandon me too, Johan?”
Looking at Beatrice gazing up at me tearfully, I shook my head.
“I’ll come back. Don’t worry. We’re friends now, right?”
I recalled what she had said to her dolls earlier as I told her this.
But Beatrice shook her head and pulled me tight.
“…You’re abandoning me.”
He’s abandoning us, Master!
Grab him, grab him!
The surrounding dolls began cackling as if agreeing with her words. Just as chills began running down my spine, Beatrice spoke softly:
“This is your home now.”
You can’t go anywhere.
Beatrice said this as she activated her magic.
The dolls filling the room lunged at Johan.
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That’s terrifying.