‘Omg! Who is this? Where are you taking me?’
The hand that violently grabbed her suddenly fell away.
‘Ahh! It falls.’
The body that was falling down landed somewhere. It was soft and not hard. Soon, she felt as if her body was floating and moving, and her vision became bright. She came out into a hallway lit by candles. The person who ‘kidnapped’ her was a maid. The only place she fell was a laundry basket.
‘Wait, laundry?’
They were trying to wash Lulu.
‘No!’
The maid walked down her hallway humming her tune until she entered a room and set down the basket. As the maid walked away for a moment, she looked out of the basket.
‘It’s the laundry room after all, right?’
A maid was drawing water from a large wooden barrel. Laundry. This will never happen. She doesn’t want to erase the last traces of her mother from Luca’s doll, nor does she want to see her water tortured.
‘Noo!’
While the maid was looking away, she jumped out of her basket. She ran to the open door, looked out into her hallway, and saw no one there.
She went out into the hallway and walked behind the vases and statues like stepping stones. As she was doing this, she felt like a rat.
‘Where was Leah’s room?’
She looked around the mansion during the day, but she was confused as she walked around in Leah’s arms and tried to find my way with her feet.
‘Where am I?’
She wandered around and ended up in the wrong place. She never thought there would be a garden in the center of the building. Should she cross the garden and look around to the other side? It was when she was going down the stairs leading to the courtyard. There was a splash in the pond, the sound of water, and then a voice was heard.
[The doll moves, right?]
Someone told me that there were two frogs sitting on a rock in the middle of the pond.
‘You also raise frogs. Did Leah pick up those children too?’
Do those frogs know where Leah’s room is? No, there is no way a frog living in a pond would know. The moment she was about to take the step she had stopped for a moment, she froze when she heard another frog’s voice.
[Have you seen all this nonsense now, Gerald?]
…Gerald?
That’s the crown prince’s name, right? Also, where do you think she had heard that voice before?
“Wow, it’s the empress and the crown prince!”
The moment she ran and shouted, the frogs jumped up and ran away into the water.
“Okay…”
She climbed up the ledge of the pond. As she was looking closely at the water, she came across two frogs hiding under a rock. They were both looking at me with fearful eyes.
[Hey. This is Hazel.]
[…Hazel?]
[Is that Hazel, the Grand Duke’s lover?]
[Yes!]
The two narrowed their eyes and slowly crawled out.
[I thought only the evil witch knew that we turned into frogs.]
The queen frog sat on a rock and muttered. They thought she was just a servant sent by the witch.
[But how did you end up here?]
[We boarded a passing carriage…]
As she heard the story from the empress, she let out a sigh of despair. They had been looking for them for so long, but they never thought they would been hiding in this mansion.
[But how did you get here?]
As the Crown Prince asked, the Empress’s large eyes became alert.
[How do you know we are here? Did the Grand Duke send you to eliminate us?]
With a splash, the frogs jumped into the water again.
[Hey. It would be nice if that were the case, but Elliot doesn’t know I’m here.]
The two sighed in relief and stuck their heads out of the water again.
[Miss Hazel.]
The crown prince huffed, cleared his throat, and asked her.
[Can you return us to human bodies? There are plenty of examples.]
When she asked him why he was suddenly so polite, it was because he had something he wanted. The magic that turned him into a frog was not black magic, but regular transformation magic. Therefore, it will not be released even if the caster, the witch, dies. On the one hand, because it was regular magic, it was easier to solve than black magic. All it took was a person with purifying powers or another high-level witch to release it. But he was asking her to do that and no one else.
[Is your lack of shame innate or acquired?]
It’s shameless to participate in stealing my body. She didn’t want to break the spell, but she didn’t have the strength to do so. If she had the magic power to do so, she would have already gone home on her own.
[Hmm…]
The Empress, who had kept her mouth shut, suddenly changed her words.
[But why did you become a doll?]
[I thought she was dead…]
[Thanks to her, I almost died.]
[…]
[…]
The two once again fell silent like frogs who had eaten a fly.
[But it turns out that the spirit of the previous Grand Duchess was protecting us. Thanks to this, she was able to enter the doll’s body without dying.]
She raised her chin and crossed her arms triumphantly in front of the two people.
[Perhaps because she was a saint, her abilities were truly amazing.]
She didn’t know, but it was a lie mixed in. She wanted to scare the two people.
[You two will meet him when you die… Well, I will pray for your peace in advance.]
Those of you who participated in the assassination of the previous Grand Duke and his wife will be punished even in death, this is it.
[Maybe it would be better to live and be punished.]
At her words, the frogs froze as if they were hibernating. After scaring the frogs, she felt light walking into the mansion. The crown prince’s disparaging remarks, ‘That woman is starting to resemble Eliot more and more,’ only sounded pleasant.
‘Hehe, good. Now that she has found the Empress and the Crown Prince, all she has to do is find Elliot…’
But how could she find Leah’s room? While wandering around the first floor, she found a familiar staircase and started climbing it. Climbing the stairs with a doll’s body was like mountain climbing.
‘Young…’
It was when sh climbed the last stairs and reached the second floor.
“Are you here?”
She heard the sound of wheels and horses moving from the first floor, and then the maid came out of nowhere and opened her door wide to greet her. Soon, the people the child had been looking for all day appeared through the opened door.
‘Her parents have finally arrived.’
She looked at the clock and saw that it was past 11pm.
‘Wow, have I been lost for two hours already?’
She had to go back quickly. As she wandered through the hallway again, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
“What about Leah?”
“The lady is sleeping.”
“Okay.”
As the voice got closer, she quickly hid behind a curtain hanging on a window.
‘Oh, is that Leah’s room?’
The couple passed in front of her and turned the corner to the left. ‘Please go see Leah.’ She quickly followed the two after making sure no one was there. The two were really on their way to see Leah. Right in front of her, hiding behind a vase, the couple opened a familiar door, went inside, and closed the door.
‘But how could she get in?’
After walking to the door, she sighed and sat down.
‘If I sit here, are you going to let me in thinking it’s a lost toy? No, what if I send it back to the laundry room?
It was when she got up and tried to hide behind the vase again.
“Leah, is it okay for us?”
Leah’s mother’s worried voice came out through the crack under the door.
“I think I’ll have to give up my house.”
‘Are you giving up your house?’ Her ears perked up.
“Then how can I tell Leah that she won’t be able to take her beloved dogs and meows.”
Since she couldn’t hear Leah’s voice at all, it seemed like she was saying this while looking at her sleeping Leah.
“Maybe we should sell Leah’s toys and even her dress…”
A man’s sighing voice was heard along with the sound of soft footsteps that seemed to be moving around her room. What on earth was going on? When she pieced together the words the distressed couple shared and made a guess, it seemed like they were running a business. It is said that they were on the verge of bankruptcy because a ship carrying a lot of goods sank not long ago. Well, at times like that, there was no time to worry about the child. It seemed like he couldn’t stay at home these days because he was spending all day borrowing money here and there.
“Leah, I’m so sorry.”
“Please don’t hate us.”
She felt sorry that she had suspected that they were bad parents who neglected their child.
“I was willing to help them when they were in trouble…”
Leah’s father’s deeply heartbroken voice came through the crack in the door.
‘It looks like I couldn’t borrow money.’
It’s a pity. She had a lot of money. She saved up a lot of the money she received as a salary for 5 years at the Grand Duke’s residence without spending much of it, and it was a huge amount. However, if a rabbit doll suddenly appears and says, ‘I’ll lend you money!’, I wonder if they’ll turn a blind eye.
“If that money fell from the sky, you make a foolish wish.”
If she had any fingers, she would bring a bag full of gold coins here. It was when she looked down at the pink sole pattern and sighed.
“I wish at least that rabbit doll would fall off.”
The moment she heard Leah’s mother’s words mixed with a sad smile, she jumped up.
‘Rabbit doll?’
Was she saying those two people saw the leaflet put out by the Grand Duchy?
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released March, 30.
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