False Oasis and the Wheels of Despair
Amid the steady rumble of the carriage wheels rolling through a false oasis, Karin stared out the window, biting her lower lip hard. “Karin. Now that you’ve been promoted to a full knight, you must carry greater responsibility. As I’ve told you many times, as an imperial knight you must fulfill your duties and set an example for others. Understood?”
“……Yes, Mother—no, Commander.”
When Camilla, seated across from her, spoke with the stern face of an ordinary, strict mother, Karin felt an overwhelming sadness. The fact that her mother’s noble maternal love remained intact even after her body and mind had been reduced to those of a doll filled her with rage. At the same time, the reality that she herself had become a doll forced to play the role of an ordinary daughter brought a bone-deep sense of emptiness and despair.
In that moment, her eyes fell on Edric. Only hours earlier, he had stripped her naked in the secret chamber and toyed with her entire body, yet now he gazed calmly out the window as if nothing had happened. Seeing him blend so naturally into her daily life, just as he had before the revelation, made tears well up in Karin’s eyes.
Until this morning, the horrific humiliation and despair she had endured as a doll, the very fact that she had become a hypnotized sex slave, had felt so unreal that this peaceful morning commute almost made her wonder if it had all been a terrible nightmare.
But… this is reality.
Against her will, she despaired within the false-personality mode that moved according to its predetermined schedule. Honestly, she wanted nothing more than to leap from the carriage with her mother and flee. Yet bound by the shackles of “false personality mode,” she had no choice but to play the part of an ordinary daughter and exemplary knight, silently commuting to knight headquarters.
Upon arriving at the Third Administrative Office of the Knight Order—the very department where Edric, once a full knight, and his subordinate trainee knight Karin had worked together—their ranks had been completely reversed due to the scandal surrounding the count’s wastrel son’s sexual harassment. Now it was “Full Knight Karin, assisted by Trainee Knight Edric.”
Seated at her desk, Karin stole a glance at Edric, who sat in the assistant’s seat beside her, sorting documents. What she saw made her inwardly gasp.
Tap, tap-tap. With crisp keystrokes, Edric’s fingers flew across the magic typewriter. The old Edric had only known how to give orders; he had never written documents himself. On the rare occasions he typed, he would peck at the keys like a chicken, produce a flurry of typos, then hurl the papers aside in irritation. But now he was different. With terrifying focus, he processed the mountain of administrative work with skill and speed.
“Hey, boss. I’ve finished reviewing this month’s knight order supply settlement documents. Just need your signature.”
Edric grinned and held out the neatly organized papers. Karin found herself staring blankly at his flawless work.
Ah… so this was Edric’s true self all along.
Thanks to the removal of the count’s horrific hypnotic suggestion—placed on his son to shield him from blame and prevent others from noticing his incompetence—Edric’s original intelligent and capable nature had finally surfaced. Karin even felt a pang of sympathy for the sincere boy who had once purely admired her mother and read psychiatry books from childhood in hopes of saving his dim-witted mother.
“What are you spacing out for? Did you fall for me now that I’ve suddenly become competent after getting kicked out of the full-knight position?”
“Nonsense! It’s just… strange seeing you work so quietly.”
“Haha, I’ve been demoted to trainee, so I have to do as I’m told. Hurry up and sign already, Dame Karin.”
Karin snapped back at Edric’s mischievous joke, and he smoothly parried it. It was the kind of ordinary, cheerful workplace banter they might have shared had the devilish art of hypnosis never existed. Within that lighthearted exchange, Karin felt the nightmares of the past few days melt away from her heart.
Yes. It’s still hard to trust him completely, but let’s believe in Edric as an ally. Together, we have to reclaim this everyday life—and the lives of our mothers that were stolen from us.
Yet the fragile sense of relief and illusion that had bloomed in the ordinary routine shattered that very afternoon.
“My lord. I’ve brought the quarterly budget approval documents from the Third Administrative Office… huh?”
During afternoon work hours, Karin opened the door to her superior’s private office—the recently appointed baron—to submit documents for approval, only to freeze on the spot. On the sofa, the baron was openly groping his young secretary’s breasts while she sat beside him. The secretary’s eyes were unfocused, like a doll’s.
“Ah, good work.”
Even with Karin standing there, the baron showed no sign of embarrassment. He casually fixed the secretary’s collar and stood up.
“Why the shocked face? Oh, I see. They said you were incomplete, but it looks like the young master gave you quite a bit of freedom at work.”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
In that instant, seeing the secretary nestled in the baron’s arms with vacant eyes, Karin felt nausea rise in her throat. She also remembered seeing the baron at yesterday’s banquet. There, he had treated his doll like a noble fiancée, calling her his “betrothed,” but behind closed doors the truth was that she was nothing more than a toy for his lust.
Is that… the fate Mother and I will soon face?
The image of the baron’s filthy hands violating the secretary’s body flickered before her eyes, and Karin was forced to endure phantom pain as if her very soul were being carved apart. The baron, who had attended the banquet, swept his lecherous gaze over Karin from head to toe. Having recently spent a fortune to acquire a doll disguised as a fiancée, he was utterly addicted to the pleasure of dolls.
“Kekeke. How was your first night as the young master’s doll? Thinking about how that haughty knight once called the empire’s next sword would writhe like a bitch in bed makes my lower half ache.”
As the baron spewed vulgar sexual harassment, he reached for Karin’s shoulder. At that exact moment—
—Crack!
“Aaaaargh!!”
Independent of Karin’s will, her body reacted with mechanical precision and beast-like speed. Her hand snatched the baron’s outstretched wrist and twisted his arm at a grotesque angle. It was the doll’s “automatic defense mode,” imprinted to activate whenever someone other than the owner attempted to touch a doll with clear intent.
“Warning. Do not touch another’s property without permission.”
A cold, mechanical voice—something the real Karin would never utter—flowed from her lips.
“Y-you crazy bitch! How dare a mere doll attack its master?! Aren’t dolls supposed to obey absolutely?! I’ll call the knights right now and have you and that wastrel bastard—mmph?!”
The baron was thrashing in pain, about to shout loud enough to be heard outside the residence, when—
—Vwoooom!
Suddenly the entire space warped. An absolute barrier that seemed to freeze all sound and the flow of time engulfed the office. Then the air tore open, and a woman descended lightly. She wore a pitch-black suit that accentuated her figure, a white mask covering her entire face, and flowing silver-white hair. Between the strands gleamed beast-like, chilling golden eyes.
“Yes. Dolls must obey their owners absolutely. However, Lord Baron,” the woman’s voice was sweet as honey, yet laced with a killing intent that froze one to the bone, “Lady Karin’s owner is Young Master Edric, not you.”
“Y-you… You’re one of his…!”
Recognizing the woman as an executive of the hypnosis doll-making organization, the baron collapsed to the floor in terror. She looked down at him coldly from behind her white mask and issued an elegant warning.
“Hohoho. It seems your mouth is far too loose, dear customer. That simply won’t do. The empire’s dark shadow that creates wives through hypnosis cannot be entrusted to such a careless tongue. If you understand, nod your head.”
The baron nodded obediently at the woman’s gentle tone. Watching him, the masked woman gave a clear warning to remember this well, then lightly snapped her fingers. In that instant, the pain wrapping around the baron’s broken arm vanished.
“This appears to be the first time you’ve touched someone else’s doll, so I’ll end the warning here. Be more careful in the future. However… since you broke the rules, you must accept a penalty, yes?”
At her next words, the baron’s face turned deathly pale.
“P-penalty…?”
“A suspension of requests. From now on, we will not accept any requests made under Lord Baron’s name.”
The baron’s expression turned despairing at the death-sentence-like announcement. In contrast, the masked woman gestured toward the secretary collapsed on the sofa and added mercifully, “Hohoho. Well, cherish the doll who is to become your wife for the rest of your life. In that case, I’ll leave your auction participation rights intact. Ah, but if you ever desperately need to commission another doll…”
The woman’s golden eyes curved into slits.
“Hurry up and produce an heir, then make a ‘proxy purchase’ through your son. Now then.”
With those words, the pitch-black barrier and the woman herself vanished like a mirage.
Left behind, the masked woman’s final remark struck Karin’s mind like a thunderbolt.
Proxy… purchase…?
Karin’s crimson eyes widened in shock. All the scattered fragments of truth aligned perfectly in her mind into a single picture. The man who had once touched another’s doll and could no longer obtain any more. The disgusting old man whose lower body was paralyzed, unable to embrace a woman himself, yet who still sought to dominate women through hypnosis. And… the pitiful son who was that old man’s “heir,” forced to bear all the blame and bound by the chains of hypnosis.
Count Blake… that demonic bastard was once placed on the blacklist! That’s why he controlled Edric to make proxy purchases of Mother and me…!
Having witnessed the empire’s horrific darkness and the hellish situation Edric was trapped in, Karin fled back to her office, consumed by intense fear and rage. She had to share this truth with Edric no matter what. He was the only comrade with whom she could share all of this.
“E-Edric! Where’s Edric?!”
Karin burst through the door, panting, and asked. A junior knight who had remained at his post answered with a puzzled expression.
“Ah, Senior Karin. You mean Edric? Commander Camilla came and took him away earlier.”
“What…? Where to…?”
“The commander seemed quite determined. She said she’d give that wastrel special training to turn him into a new man, and that she’d take leave for a while to stay at the count’s estate and focus on his training. Hahaha, looks like our commander is really going to reform someone!”
The junior knight chuckled peacefully, firmly believing it was simply the admirable mentoring of the knight commander he respected. The moment Karin faced that bright, innocent colleague’s face, her breath caught in her throat.
Mother… took Edric to the count’s estate…? Under the pretext of training… to offer him up for the count’s horrific service!!!
Though her insides burned black, she could not speak this truth to anyone. How could she possibly voice the horrific shadow of hypnosis that ruled the empire to these colleagues living ordinary lives?
In the first place… the words won’t even come out…
No matter how much she struggled, there was only one person in this world with whom she could share the truth.
Edric…
The pitiful man who, like her, had become the count’s puppet. He alone was the only comrade who could understand this horrific reality and fight alongside her.
Staring at Edric’s empty assistant seat, Karin lowered her head bitterly, overwhelmed by a crushing sense of powerlessness. In perfect isolation, her heart plunged uncontrollably toward the abyss.