The Doll and the Burning Mansion
The Doll and the Burning Mansion
That day was the day His Majesty, my brother the Crown Prince, and the other royals were all away from the capital.
I heard they said they were going to an event hosted by Silberg?
Recently, news had spread that the Silberg Viscount family was abandoning their isolationist stance and adopting an open policy, and the event was part of those activities.
However, I did not go.
It wasn't just because I hadn't received an invitation directly like His Majesty or my brother, but also because I didn't want to see Leon Silberg again after our meeting.
"Are you really sure you don't want to go? If you end up incurring the Silberg family's displeasure..."
"Seriously! Silberg! Silberg! Silberg! Who do they think they are? Nanny, and you servants. Listen well. Your master is the Imperial Family! Do you understand?"
"...Yes, we understand."
"If you understand, then... stop bringing up Silberg in front of me. Whether they're displeased or not, I'll be the one to pay the price. Got it?"
"...Yes. Princess-nim."
I couldn't help it.
I was young back then, and my first meeting with Silberg was the worst.
Even though the people around me were offering advice out of concern, I wasn't the kind of person who could accept it at the time.
"I'm going out. Get me ready."
"Where are you planning to go?"
"I'm going to the orphanage I used to sponsor. I haven't been able to go lately because of my brother's strange suspicions, so I want to check if it's still running well."
"Yes, I understand. I will get it ready."
In any case, having been granted freedom for some reason, I came outside.
It wasn't exactly a situation where I had to go to the orphanage.
I just wanted to get out.
'I heard you were pretty, but maybe it's because you're cooped up in your room, you're really nothing special.'
There was only one reason: the words Leon Silberg had left behind.
I tried not to pay attention, but his voice rang in my ears strangely.
The words from back then, which seemed to tease me, hovering between condemnation and mockery, were what made me move.
The orphanage was on the outskirts of the capital.
It was a place I had chosen as an excuse to go out, picking somewhere reasonably far away because I wanted to get some fresh air.
However, after visiting a few times, I learned of the sorrow of the young children who had lost their parents, and I had been taking care of them ever since.
Well, even so.
I hadn't been able to go for several months due to my brother's interference, but....
Hearing the chattering voices of children my age somehow made me feel better.
"Princess-nim, you've arrived."
"Ah. Director. It's been a while. Are the children doing well?"
"See for yourself."
"?"
But that day, something was strange.
The Director guided me with a blank, expressionless face, as if she had lost her soul.
It was different from her usual bright, smiling face.
Had something difficult happened?
Or was she sick?
Thinking I should bring her something later, I followed her inside the orphanage.
And what I was met with was.
"Huh?"
"...Princess"
"It's the Princess."
"Princess, visited 3 months and 23 days ago."
"I agree. Saw her exactly 3 months, 23 days, and 7 minutes later."
"I have no memory of her."
They were eyes that had lost their vitality.
Among them were children I had seen a few months ago.
Children who, just a few months ago, would shout 'Princess-nim!' and hug me as soon as they saw me.
Even the child who was my age and had become my secret friend,
"Princess. Promised to be friends. Informal speech allowed."
looked at me with unfocused eyes.
Then I saw something terrible.
"Ah, I should do it like this. Hello, Reina~ It's been a while, right?"
A child greeted me with a smirk, just like before.
But the unnatural smile brought a sense of revulsion.
This wasn't the kind of child they were.
It was to the point where I felt disgusted by the forced smile, as if they were being controlled by something.
What is this? What is this situation right now?
Just as I was confused.
There was a loud noise from outside.
"Princess-nim!! Run away quickly... Gack!!"
It was the screams of the attendants I had brought with me.
Startled, I tried to look in the direction of the sound.
I was flustered by the strange scene unfolding one after another, but as a Princess, I couldn't just sit down and cry.
But I couldn't achieve my goal.
"Reina~ Where are you going? Let's play with me."
"Hehe. Can't run away. Can't run away."
"Caught you. Princess."
It was because all the children who had surrounded me had lunged at me and grabbed my limbs.
And so, I was captured.
"Wh-what? Let go! Let go!!"
It was also the first time in my life I had lost consciousness.
...I opened my eyes.
The place I woke up in was an unfamiliar location.
A place like a mansion.
It was night, so I couldn't see well, but it was a large room.
Where is this?
But I couldn't keep thinking.
"Ugh...!"
Because I wasn't the only one in this room.
What I saw, having grown accustomed to the darkness, were countless eyes.
Including the orphans who had grabbed me a little while ago.
Countless people I didn't know at all were sitting on the floor like dolls.
Could they be dead people?
But when I focused and looked, they were breathing.
"Excuse me... by any chance, where is this?"
I asked the person closest to me, a child around my age.
But that was the first and last question.
"You haven't assimilated? Why are you asking me?"
It was because the expression of the child, who looked at me without pupils and asked back, was too bizarre.
Had they been brainwashed?
The child's mouth, curving into an arc as if to say I was asking useless questions, stopped me from asking any more.
I was scared.
There were many people, but thinking that everyone here was an enemy made me inevitably fearful.
I might be a Princess, but here, I was just a helpless ten-year-old child.
"...I want to leave. I'm going to leave."
I didn't want to be here.
Fortunately, I wasn't tied up or anything, so moving wasn't difficult.
Thinking I might be grabbed by the people here just like at the orphanage, I kept an eye on my surroundings, but they just looked at me with bizarre eyes and didn't move.
━ Click.
The door to the room wasn't locked either.
I hurried toward the exit.
There were no guards in the hallway, so I thought if I just hurried like this, it would be fine.
But when I reached the end, I realized why they had kept me locked up so loosely.
"No...!"
A firmly locked door.
Not only was it locked with chains, but the exit was plastered with magic circles, blocking my path.
I could tell at a glance that it couldn't be opened.
I couldn't even attempt anything.
━ Crackle
"Eek!!"
Just by getting close, a strong electric current flowed, so it was impossible to even grab the doorknob, let alone open the door.
I was scared.
My helpless situation, combined with my life up until now, delivered a terrible sense of pressure.
Fear that made my heart ache shook my spirit.
But then.
I heard the sound of footsteps approaching from somewhere.
━ Click-clack. Click-clack.
Relaxed footsteps.
I had to turn around at the sound approaching me.
━ Click-clack. Click-clack.
━ Click-clack. Click-clack.
It wasn't even just one.
Two irregular shoe sounds rang out alternately.
Had they come to catch me?
People appeared from the darkness.
They looked at me and said this.
"Is that one a doll too?"
"I don't think so? She looks like a person, doesn't she?"
"Is that so...? Hmm. But she looks familiar somewhere?"
One was a woman with black hair and red eyes.
But her outfit was strange.
A combination of a maid outfit and a long spear.
But that wasn't very important.
"Who are you...?"
What was more important than that was the other person.
A boy with blond hair and a suit, smiling, but with a wickedness in his eyes that didn't match the smile.
"Leon... Silberg?"
"Oh~ You know me? That's right. She's a person, not a doll. You were right, Cecil."
Cecil? Then is that woman behind him... the Grand Duchess of the North, Cecilia Eisen, who recently swore an oath of loyalty to Silberg?
"I told you there was one. Please believe what people say."
"I thought they were all dolls. Everywhere I looked, there were only dolls."
Leon, quoting the previous conversation to mock me.
But I couldn't say anything.
It was because I had already realized that here, I was just a helpless ten-year-old girl.
Also, I didn't even know if the opponent was an enemy or an ally.
All I could do was be wary of them and observe the situation.
But then, I saw something behind them.
━ Whoosh.
Flames illuminating the darkness.
Strongly burning flames were swallowing the hallway and heading this way.
"Ah, no!!"
The exit in front was blocked, and behind was the encroaching fire.
In a situation where I could do nothing, I had no choice but to despair.
"It's fast."
"Since we poured oil on it, it has to be fast. Now. Shall we leave?"
"Yeah. Let's go. We're done here."
But they were calm.
Contrary to my worries, the two of them easily brought up leaving.
And they made those words a reality.
━ Clang!! Crackle!!
"...Huh?"
With one thrust from the woman named Cecil, the door was pierced.
The chains as thick as my forearm, and the magic barrier that had electricity flowing through it, were useless.
Following the magic that scattered like paper, the door also shattered into pieces and flew away.
"What are you doing? Not leaving?"
"Uh... y-yeah."
I could see the outside.
There were no people outside either.
And so, I escaped the mansion.
"You... by the way, how did you...?"
It was then.
"Save me!! Save meeee!"
"It's hot! It's hot!"
"Mom! Where are you! Waaaaah"
I looked up at the mansion.
I could see children screaming from various windows of the mansion, which was filled with flames.
From those grabbing and shaking the window frames to those screaming for help at the top of their lungs.
Those who had been sitting blankly like dolls just a moment ago were all wailing and begging to be saved.
It seemed the brainwashing had been lifted as they began to feel pain.
Someone had to step up and save them.
But I couldn't save them.
Because the fire demon had already swallowed the entire mansion, and the heat, which was hard to even approach, blocked my path.
"Ah, no!"
Flames that I couldn't even get one step closer to.
And there was one more person who stopped my actions.
"Step back."
"Eek!"
It was Leon Silberg, who had grabbed the back of my neck and thrown me backward.
Having fallen on my bottom like that, I had no choice but to just watch those dying amidst the screams.
"Dolls burn really well."
"Except for the noise, that is."
Excluding human emotions.
Their conversation, viewing everything as dolls.
Even though they were screaming so hard to be saved, Leon Silberg treated them as if they were truly dolls.
This wasn't right.
The sight of them being able to remain so calm even after hearing such screams was even more terrifying than the people who had been brainwashed a moment ago.
To me, Leon Silberg threw out one remark.
"Why? Do you want to die too?"
At those words, I got goosebumps.
In an instant, I couldn't help but recall what he had said to me a few days ago.
'How boring... you look just like a doll.'
At the same time, I lost my mind.
The fainting that had happened exactly twice in my life.
It was the day both of those times occurred.
Afterward, I was rescued safely.
I heard later that the mansion was completely burned down and no human bones were found inside.
To be precise, it was reduced to ashes to the point of becoming powder, and because the Silberg side took control, saying they would investigate immediately after the fire, an accurate investigation was impossible....
My kidnapping was settled as being caught up in the process of the Demon God Followers seeking human sacrifices.
It was an absurd handling of the case, but there were no objections.
Even though it was an incident involving a Princess,
It was because that was how Silberg reported it.
But I knew the full story.
It was Silberg who burned the mansion.
I couldn't know if it was Silberg who had trapped the people there, but judging by the conversation I heard, it was definitely Silberg who set the fire.
And everyone trapped there died.
Even if there were no traces left. The fact that the children from the orphanage had disappeared was undeniable evidence.
And from that day on, I had to struggle to survive.
"Ah~ So that was Your Highness back then? It was dark, so I didn't know. I'm a bit night-blind. I thought you were one of the dolls."
"...Hic!"
The day I met him again after the incident.
That was what Leon Silberg said to me.
Even after that.
"You've been working hard lately... You used to look like a blank doll, but now you look a bit more like a person."
"Hiiiiiik!"
Every time I met him, Leon Silberg would talk about dolls and try to test me.
And he would choose times when I was trying to put down the burden of being a Princess, even a little bit.
As if to say that a me who wasn't a Princess was unnecessary.
He forced me to move.
After that, I moved diligently.
I tried to do everything, and regardless of what my brother the Crown Prince said, I ignored it and focused on my work.
As I did, I saw it.
My brother the Crown Prince's incompetence, and the young, capable talents who had a grudge against it.
They became my followers without hesitation,
And before I knew it, I had risen to the position of Crown Princess.
And I became Emperor.
From then until today, I haven't had any dealings with Silberg.
As if raising me to be Emperor was their final plan, Silberg became quiet.
Not long after I ascended to the throne, news reached me that most of Silberg had died due to internal strife, but it wasn't exactly good news.
Because Leon Silberg, who was practically Silberg itself to me, was alive, and he, the only survivor, had become the family head.
The only fortunate thing was that he had been quiet ever since.
But that, too, is a thing of the past now.
The trauma in my memory hasn't disappeared yet, and Silberg was moving again.
"Leon Silberg... what on earth are you thinking?"
I wanted to ask him sincerely.