Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Dollhouse
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A moment later.
“Hey, Juliet!”
The door to the drawing room burst open without so much as a knock.
Striding into the empty drawing room was one of the visitors, Theo Levatan.
Theo had spotted Juliet from a distance just moments ago and followed her.
He had no idea why she was dressed like a priest, but it was unmistakably her. The redheaded Theo Levatan, suspicious, had trailed her here. He scanned the drawing room and frowned.
“What the? Where’d she go?”
Where could she have gone?
“You can’t just barge in like that, Brother!”
The guardian priest who had been hurriedly guarding the entrance chased after him, wailing.
“I-I told you! This is a restricted area—urk!”
True to his reputation as a notorious rascal, the youngest son of House Levatan grabbed the pursuing priest by the collar and barked at him.
“Then you’re saying my eyes are playing tricks on me?”
“N-No, that’s not... His Holiness said no one is allowed here...”
The priest, gripped by the collar, was sweating bullets.
Theo eyed the empty room suspiciously once more. But there were no other doors or exits in sight.
That’s weird. I clearly saw her come in here.
“Perhaps your sister is somewhere else—”
“How would you know that?”
“Pardon?”
“How do you know if she’s my little sister or my big sister?”
“W-Well... that’s what you said...”
The priest averted his eyes with a lame excuse.
Hm. Something was fishy, but Theo ultimately left the drawing room without finding anyone.
***
Nix appeared in her dream.
“Pfft!”
Nix cried out at Juliet as if demanding food.
‘I need to feed him.’
Right, Nix!
Surprisingly, at that moment, Juliet’s eyes snapped open.
‘Hm...?’
Juliet, now awake, felt dazed for a moment.
‘Am I still dreaming?’
The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was the canopy-draped ceiling of a bed.
‘...The princess room?’
If Juliet were ten, no, fifteen years younger, she might have been thrilled. But even as a child, she had never been fond of such childish flower-pink lace.
Where am I?
Juliet decided to take stock of the situation first.
Her whole body ached for some reason. Like the day after an intense workout using muscles she’d never used before in her life.
Juliet groaned and barely managed to sit up.
Looking around with difficulty confirmed her initial impression.
It wasn’t a dream. Centered around the bed she lay on, the room was packed with cute dolls and furniture.
The bedroom wasn’t all that large, but it was clearly a space someone had put a lot of care into decorating.
“What is this...”
Juliet was bewildered.
The last thing she remembered was heading back to her room after her bath...
Juliet staggered to her feet and stepped down to the floor.
Or tried to.
Clank.
“...!”
‘What’s this now?’ It wasn’t just a metal band around her ankle—it was a chain shackling her ankle.
It was utterly out of place amid the girlie trinkets filling the bedroom.
Pushing aside the bedsheets revealed a chain linking her left ankle to one of the bedposts.
If this was a prank, it was a cruel one.
‘Have I been kidnapped?’
Are they after ransom?
Or... maybe revenge.
It could be the Guinness marquisate, given what happened at the auction house last time.
‘No, but I was definitely in Lucerne.’
The Holy State of Lucerne was a small city-state, a neutral zone that not even the monarchs of other nations dared invade lightly.
Even an emperor or king of a nation had to obey the Papal Court as a servant of the goddess while in Lucerne.
So who would kidnap someone from the Papal Court?
The answer to Juliet’s question came from above the very next moment.
Creeeak.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Juliet jumped at the sound of footsteps and looked up.
‘What’s that?’
Hidden in what she had thought was just the ceiling wall was a spiral staircase. And someone was descending it.
“Via?”
The figure who appeared with the footsteps was a face Juliet recognized.
But it wasn’t anyone she had expected.
Rarely at a loss, Juliet blinked in confusion, unable to grasp the situation right away.
“...?”
“You’re awake earlier than I thought, Via.”
The man greeting her in the world’s gentlest voice was the pope, Sebastian.
Click.
Without any explanation, Sebastian unlocked the restraint around Juliet’s ankle.
Juliet rubbed her ankle, which had been bound.
Though forced to sit side by side, she didn’t forget to glare at him warily.
“Come eat before it gets cold.”
Sebastian smiled and pointed to the food on the table.
She was hungry, but... eating food she didn’t know might be drugged felt iffy.
“...I think there’s been some mistake.”
Juliet carefully touched her neck as she spoke. She didn’t know what they had slipped her, but it seemed like a paralytic.
Her voice wasn’t coming out properly.
“You’ve got the wrong person.”
I’m not the ‘Via’ you’re talking about. I don’t know who that is.
Following the manual for kidnapping victims, Juliet stayed calm. She avoided provocative words and kept her tone steady.
“Why say that?”
But a smile spread across Sebastian’s face.
“Via. There’s no way I’d mistake you.”
“...Who is that?”
Sebastian’s expression grew subtly strange. Juliet had a bad feeling. She sensed she had stepped in something nasty.
This weird room too...
‘But why?’
Why?
“Not to your taste? Shall I get you something else?”
Sebastian offered the steaming soup again.
Juliet gloomily thought it might be best to eat something for now. It didn’t seem like this would resolve quickly, so she needed to regain her strength.
But the moment she reflexively reached for the bowl.
Plunge.
A syringe stabbed into her wrist.
The syringe contained a purple liquid sloshing inside. It looked like the same kind that had been jabbed into the giant wolf’s scruff on the train.
“No need to worry. From now on, we’ll be together always.”
Sebastian gazed down at Juliet with a loathsome smile.
...This psycho.
Juliet’s instincts screamed.
It was clearly an instant-acting paralytic poison.
Juliet inwardly unleashed every curse she knew, but it was no use.
She couldn’t speak, let alone twitch a finger. The only thing she could move was her eyes, rolling around.
Juliet toppled sideways and looked down at her outfit.
A tight corset cinching below her chest, a stiff fabric.
The design could have been fashionable decades ago, with frilly lace on the sleeves, and the black Mary Janes looked well-preserved but had slightly worn toes, as if someone had actually worn them.
“Was the dose too much?”
Despite ruthlessly jabbing her, Sebastian gently laid her down with a concerned look.
“Sleep well, Via.”
Then he lightly kissed her forehead.
‘Great, now it’s even creepier.’
Juliet thought as she blacked out.
**
When she opened her eyes again, fortunately, that lunatic was not beside her.
That guy wasn’t next to her.
Her limbs were no longer bound either. How much time had passed?
“I’m hungry...”
It was a relief the psycho was gone, but honestly, her situation was far from fortunate.
The space she was trapped in was a sealed room with no exit worthy of the name.
Juliet searched the house high and low, but the only edible thing was a single apple on the table.
Crunch.
Taking a big bite of the apple, Juliet suddenly remembered.
“...Right, Nix.”
What about Onyx if I’m stuck here? He’s still a baby and doesn’t know how to open doors.
Only Juliet, Helen, and Esselrid—who had ridden in the same carriage—knew Nix had snuck in her luggage.
Helen had left for Carcassonne just before that disaster the previous evening.
Esselrid was staying in a completely different building from her room.
Helen might have tipped off Gre or Theo before leaving, but the odds weren’t high.
‘I need to get out of here fast.’
Satiating her hunger with the apple, Juliet decided to search for an exit once more.
But moments later, she reached a provisional conclusion.
“This place... is a dollhouse.”
Juliet murmured.