The Third Party's Revelation, Hardening Blind Faith
Camilla left behind a gentle scolding, as if she were an ordinary mother urging her child to get ready for work, and closed the door. “You’ll need to head out for duty soon. I brought Karin’s knight uniform too, so play with Edric in moderation. I’ll be waiting outside, so get dressed and come out quickly.”
Even though she had been ravaged like a beast by her owner last night as a doll. No—even though she clearly knew that her daughter might have had her virginity taken by her master in this very room, she treated it all as nothing more than her owner’s ‘affectionate play.’ The blind devotion of a mother.
“..........”
Karin’s fist fell limply to the floor. The ‘freedom’ and ‘rebellion’ she had believed she had seized with all her might were, in her mother’s eyes, nothing more than a ‘childish tantrum’ to please her owner. That enormous sense of disparity and futility began to shake Karin’s mind to its core.
The heightened sense of victory she had felt just moments ago instantly twisted into filthy shame and crushed her.
“...So she brought the clothes from the official residence… Hic… as if nothing happened…”
I approached the dazed Karin, who was staring at the door, and gently wrapped my arms around her slender shoulders.
“Did you see that, Karin? That is your mother’s current state. Even without any physical restraints from the outside, she returns to her owner of her own accord and carries on with her daily life. To a doll whose mind has already been perfectly remodeled, something like a locked door is meaningless.”
“Ah… Aaa……”
Tears mixed with despair fell from Karin’s eyes. The realization that they could never escape the hypnotic domination crushed her.
I whispered into her ear with the kindest voice in the world.
“But don’t be too sad. The Knight Commander Camilla, who began teaching me at the training grounds this morning on her owner’s orders, was still strict and caring. Surely, the knight she once was and the mother who suggested preparing breakfast for her child as an ordinary parent are still sleeping inside her.”
A faint light of hope trembled in Karin’s eyes. I didn’t miss the opening and drove the wedge deeper.
“Let’s find a way to resist the hypnosis together and awaken that true nature sleeping within her. Just like my mother, who shattered the hypnosis for a moment out of love for her child and left behind a note.”
“Can we… can we really do that?”
“Of course. For that, you must become stronger. You are the only key to saving your mother.”
I sensed that the venom in her eyes was already beginning to transform into blind dependence. Karin now believed that the arms of the man who had violated her were the only lifeline to save her mother, and she willingly began to wrap the cold iron chains around her own body.
A short while later.
Having changed into knight uniforms alongside Karin, I sat in the splendid dining hall of the Blake County Estate, waiting for breakfast. To the servants of the estate who knew nothing, this scene must have looked like a heartwarming sight: the Knight Commander Camilla and her daughter, who had stayed behind after the party to celebrate the miraculous recovery of the Count and Countess, sharing breakfast together while remaining at the mansion.
In fact, such scenes had been a routine occurrence at least once a month in the past, before the delinquent Edric was caught by Karin for shaming the family and publicly punished.
But the moment the maids finished laying out all the food, bowed politely, and left the dining hall, this peaceful scene twisted grotesquely in an instant.
─Tap. Tap.
The Count, seated in his wheelchair, lightly tapped the table and cast a soundproof barrier over the entire dining room. The polite noble smile he had worn in front of the servants vanished, and his eyes instantly gleamed with dark, sticky lust.
He licked his lips as he alternated his gaze between the mother-daughter knight pair sitting demurely on either side of me, eating their meal.
“Did you have a good time last night, Edric?”
“Yes. It was an excellent night. Did you enjoy yourself as well, Father?”
At my question, the Count burst into loud, hearty yet bitter laughter.
“Just look at me. Because of that damn terrorist bastard, my lower body is paralyzed and I can’t hold a woman myself for a while. So all I could do was watch Carna and the other dolls mix their bodies in front of me.”
He chuckled darkly and added, “Fortunately, a rather useful new doll has arrived.”
At those words, the veins on the back of Karin’s hand bulged as she ate with an expressionless face in False Personality mode. Deep within her red eyes, fierce rage and murderous intent toward the Count burned brightly.
‘Heh heh heh. Looks like this old man is going to help me out.’
I laughed bitterly inside. This arrogant old man who coveted my dolls was destined to be dealt with by my hand soon enough, but if he was willing to play the role of a tank that perfectly absorbed Karin’s hatred like this, I was willing to let him live a little longer. Well, he couldn’t escape his fate of death in the end.
“A new doll. You mean there was one besides Mother?”
“...There was a product I ordered long ago but could never receive… I’ve finally obtained it.”
I didn’t bother asking what it was. I already knew the description of that doll from the original novel.
“...By the way, Father. How exactly do you plan to have Commander Camilla and Karin stay at the estate from now on? If the Empire’s two swords suddenly go missing or are seen living in our mansion, it will make for quite the juicy gossip in society.”
At my question, the Count leisurely swirled his wine glass.
“Hahaha! Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared everything. Or rather, didn’t you notice it yourself and openly receive training from Camilla this morning?”
The Count began to lay out a splendid justification. To summarize, it was a story in which Camilla, Carna’s cousin, would stay at the estate for the time being to personally help nurse her, since the Countess had regained consciousness but found daily life difficult after her long period of idiocy.
Given the solid evidence and witnesses that I had previously toyed with the maids who cared for the Countess—making it impossible to assign proper maids anymore—and the recent sinister rumor close to the truth that even the Count had been attacked by a terrorist after laying hands on a maid, it was a very ‘realistic excuse’ that Camilla had stepped forward herself.
“Additionally, I’ve already pulled some strings with the Knight Order so that you can naturally spend time with Knight Commander Camilla and the regular knight Karin.”
“Ah, I see. Thank you, Father.”
I nodded with delight. ‘Looks like both he and I are equally cunning when it comes to scheming behind the scenes.’
The Count’s meticulousness in creating the perfect justification and environment without me even having to ask first seemed like something I could make very good use of in the future.
As the meal continued, Camilla suddenly lowered her head and spoke as if apologetic.
“My lord. After training Young Master Edric this morning… it seems my discipline was too harsh, as his martial prowess has fallen to the level of an ordinary person. I am truly sorry.”
At that, the Count burst into laughter as if he found it refreshing.
“Hahaha! Is that so? It appears that when his body was healed by the Saintess’s miracle, even the ‘suggestion’ I had placed on him was cleanly dispelled.”
“......Pardon?”
I paused with my fork in surprise.
“You placed… a suggestion on me?”
In response to my reaction, the Count began making excuses in a voice mixed with slight guilt and irritation.
“Since you now know about the existence of hypnosis, I’ll tell you… To be honest, even as your father, I feel sorry for secretly placing a suggestion on you, my son. But when a child born between a mage like me and your mother—who was supposed to become a promising mage of the Empire before becoming a doll—insisted on picking up a sword instead of magic, what else could I do?”
The Count sighed deeply and clicked his tongue.
“Instead of the idiot Carna, you followed Camilla, who had been sharp since childhood, like a mother—or rather, like an idol even more than that… and eventually, in admiration of her, you stubbornly insisted on becoming a knight instead of a mage.”
Separate from his greedy lust for Camilla, the Count glared at her with resentful eyes.
“Honestly, I found it truly detestable at the time… but I couldn’t bear to see my own son mocked by others for lacking skill. So I asked that President fellow to place a special suggestion on you that would allow you to use outstanding physical abilities as a knight.”
“......!”
At that moment, Karin’s shoulders, seated beside me, twitched noticeably. An enormous shock that could not be hidden even in False Personality mode swept through her entire body.
It was the moment the Count himself confirmed the secret behind how the original novel’s delinquent Edric could possess such outstanding swordsmanship skills—a setting even I, as a reader, had half-doubted.
‘So the reason he picked up a sword instead of magic in the first place was pure admiration for Camilla… Heh heh heh. Even though he died a futile death, it seems he had a proper narrative after all. The original Edric.’
In the original novel, when the Count shouted at the President to hand over Camilla, there had been a line saying that the stain on the mage family was because of that woman. Now that I understood the specific meaning of that sentence, I felt a sense of satisfaction as a reader who had uncovered the behind-the-scenes setting of the original work.
On the other hand, Karin’s eyes shook violently as if an earthquake had struck, turning toward me. The sophistry I had murmured in the secret room yesterday—that ‘I too was a victim of hypnosis, a pure child who wanted to save his mother’—had now transformed into an irrefutable ‘truth’ thanks to the Count’s loose tongue.
I put on a slightly bitter smile like a dutiful son who knew nothing and answered.
“No wonder… No matter how much I lived like a delinquent, my skills never declined, so I thought I was a genius… So it was all Father’s love for me.”
My answer, spoken soullessly like a brainwashed doll affirming her owner’s will as if it were natural, drove the perfect wedge of conviction into Karin.
He genuinely admired and followed our mother. But even that pure heart was violated by that old man’s hypnosis and turned him into the current delinquent.
‘She’s so extraordinarily clever that she’s assembled a perfect narrative on her own and fallen into confirmation bias.’
Just by looking at Karin’s trembling eyes, I could read her thoughts clearly. Soon, her lost gaze filled with blind solidarity toward a pitiful comrade who must save their mothers. I saw it plainly.
“Hahaha. It seems this incident has really made you grow up. Unlike the times when the suggestion broke and you had fits, you seem like a completely different person now. I’m glad.”
Unaware of the truth, the Count smiled with satisfaction and finished his meal.
“Well then, since I’ll be stuck in this wheelchair for a while, I’ll have to stay at home. You two, who have become women of our family, will now serve Edric at your workplace from now on. However, do not serve him too much as dolls at work. Even if Edric requests it, the existence of dolls must be kept as a strict secret shared only among those who know, for the sake of the nobility’s dignity and prestige.”
“I will keep it in mind, my lord.”
“Yes, understood.”
Camilla and Karin bowed their heads at the same time.
“I must go down to the workshop and, with Carna’s help, find a way to treat this damned paralysis. Everyone, have a good day.”
After the meal, the Count disappeared under Mother’s guidance. A short while later, the three of us boarded the carriage waiting in front of the mansion. Carrying two dolls and one owner, mixed with lies, deception, and perfect misunderstanding, the carriage slowly set off toward the Imperial Knights Headquarters.