Chapter 45

The spirit disappeared.

In truth, the spirit could have left anytime it wanted. I believed it was opening up to me by staying by my side without going anywhere.

Sen gently stroked my shoulder as she looked at me with pity in her eyes.

“Grand Princess, it’s alright. It’s not like the doll can walk, so it will turn up soon.”

But it can walk.

Spirits can handle magical power better than most magicians. The more I thought about it, the more bleak the situation seemed, and everything went dark before my eyes.

“Everyone is searching for it right now.”

“…Okay.”

If the spirit had deliberately run away, there was no hope of finding it, no matter how much we searched. Knowing this fact, I still couldn’t bring myself to say we should stop looking.

‘I shouldn’t have fallen asleep so carelessly.’

If I had noticed when the doll left my side, I might have been able to stop it. Sen’s hand gripped my shoulder more firmly as I made a sad face.

Just then, a maid checking under a drawer shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

“It’s not here! Everyone, please check carefully under the large furniture!”

“Could it be here?”

“Not under the table either. I think it might have fallen somewhere else.”

I bit my lip as the search continued without progress.

Even if we brought back the missing spirit, the future didn’t look bright. If the spirit had escaped of its own will, it would obviously disappear again.

Rationally speaking, it would be better to give up on the spirit. But…

‘I can’t do that.’

It was a miracle I encountered just when I started wanting to live a little longer. For Juno’s traces, if nothing else, I couldn’t give up like this.

“I’ll look too.”

When they said I might have dropped it in my sleep, the most suspicious place was under the bed. However, furniture couldn’t be moved without the Grand Duke’s permission.

‘I’ll just look for myself.’

The maids stomped their feet anxiously when they saw me crawling under the bed without hesitation.

“Grand Princess! You shouldn’t go in there, it’s dusty! We’ll find it, so please come out!”

“Okay. Wait there.”

“Liat!”

“I’ll be out soon. I just want to look a little more.”

Ignoring the maids desperately trying to stop me, I moved my arms forward.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been under the bed.’

When I first came to the Grand Duke’s residence, I wasn’t used to the brightness, so I slept under the bed. After the maids returned, I couldn’t go under there anymore.

Because I knew how worried the maids would be when they couldn’t see me.

‘It’s so dark, I can barely see.’

As the familiar darkness enveloped me, my tense body relaxed. I put strength into my hips and carefully felt around the deep recesses under the bed.

Just as I was finishing my search under the bed, I heard the urgent voices of the maids.

“Grand Princess, you must come out now! The Grand Duke seems to be returning to the room soon!”

“I still have more places to check.”

“Please! If His Grace the Grand Duke sees this situation, he might get angry!”

“But my hope might be here.”

My hope (the spirit) that came to me.

My fingertips touched the wall, and there was nowhere else to go. If it hadn’t fallen under the bed, then the spirit must have moved and disappeared on its own.

Feeling helpless and wanting to give up everything, I curled up in the darkness, forgetting that I needed to leave.

‘I’ve lost it again.’

How many times had hope slipped helplessly through my fingers after I had obtained it with such difficulty? Before I could collect my emotions, everything suddenly brightened before my eyes.

“So this is where you were.”

A shower of light poured down on my head, and the figure of someone standing firmly. The Grand Duke’s white, luminous hair caught my attention.

A fleeting sense of relief appeared and disappeared in the Grand Duke’s cold expression as he looked down at me. It seemed like we had been in a similar situation before.

“Hello, Grand Duke.”

The dust sticking to my nose made it tickle. As I was about to cough, the Grand Duke frowned, bent his knee, and cupped my cheek.

“Didn’t you promise never to go under the bed again?”

“Daebak is gone.”

“Daebak?”

“Liat’s first friend. I have to find Daebak.”

The Grand Duke stopped me from rubbing my eyes with my dusty hands. Then he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped my cheeks.

Just then, mucus dripped from my nose and fell onto the back of the Grand Duke’s hand.

“Tsk.”

The Grand Duke clicked his tongue softly and asked Sen what had happened.

“Well, Daebak is the doll friend from the banquet the Grand Princess held.”

“She’s like this just because a doll is missing?”

“It’s not an ordinary doll, but the Grand Princess’s precious first friend.”

The Grand Duke looked at me as if asking what that meant. From his perspective, it might be hard to understand why I was so upset about a doll.

Wanting to borrow even the smallest help, I earnestly emphasized the importance of the missing doll.

“Daebak is a precious friend.”

“And?”

“There’s only one in the world. No other doll can replace Mr. Daebak.”

“If you wanted to find it, you should have had the maids do it. Who told you to crawl in there?”

My heart felt heavy as the Grand Duke interrogated me when I was already upset about not finding the doll. My young body, unable to control its emotions, reacted first.

Blinking my stinging eyes, I spoke to the Grand Duke again.

“Grand Duke… Mr. Daebak is gone.”

Perhaps I had been greedy for something that should never have happened. After all, I didn’t deserve to live after failing to protect Juno by accepting a predetermined future.

Still, I wanted to live to see the traces she left behind.

“…Grand Duke, Mr. Daebak…”

“Stop talking. I understand enough.”

The Grand Duke reached into the pile of dolls that the maids had scattered while searching for the spirit. Then he picked up any random doll and forcibly put it in my arms.

It was a rabbit doll that fit perfectly in my arms.

The Grand Duke roughly tousled my hair as I looked at the rabbit doll with a puzzled expression. Somehow, that rough touch felt warm.

“Hold this and wait.”

“…Okay.”

“If you’re going to cry, just cry openly. Holding it in won’t solve anything.”

“I’m not crying.”

“Right. That’s how it looks on the surface.”

The Grand Duke lightly pinched the bridge of my nose and had a maid summon the knights.

“Pull everything out.”

Following the Grand Duke’s orders, the furniture in the room was removed one by one. Some knights searched the room while others explored the garden.

With the Grand Duke’s help, the scale of the search changed completely.

After an hour of mobilizing almost all the personnel in the Grand Duke’s residence to find the missing doll…

A knight came running with the news we had been waiting for.

***

“I’m not sure how to explain this.”

The knight pointed to a corner of the garden with a troubled voice. Cradled in the Grand Duke’s arms, I stretched my neck to look where the knight was pointing.

A black dog was curled up asleep in a thickly wooded area. The glossy coat suggested it was a dog under someone’s care.

I looked over the deeply sleeping dog’s face and then shifted my gaze back to the knight.

“It’s just a black doggy?”

“If you look inside the dog’s embrace, you’ll see something like a doll.”

“No way.”

Looking closely, I could see a damp cloth among the fluffy fur. Spotting the familiar pink color, I excitedly grabbed the Grand Duke’s collar.

The knight’s face turned pale as he saw the Grand Duke being shaken up and down with his collar in my grasp.

“Grand Duke! It’s Daebak!”

“I understand. Don’t move and stay still.”

“Mr. Daebak has returned!”

“So why was the Grand Princess’s doll found in a place like this?”

The knight answered the Grand Duke’s question, which was miraculously articulated clearly despite being shaken.

“It seems a stray dog brought in by the gardener wandered around this area and took the doll in its mouth.”

“It came all the way into the room?”

“I’m not sure about that part.”

It was quite a problem that a dog had entered the Grand Duke’s room, which knights patrolled at regular intervals. It meant the magic that alerts when unregistered outsiders enter the room hadn’t worked.

‘The doll probably left on its own.’

Knowing the doll’s true identity, this fact wasn’t much of a concern for me. I jumped out of the Grand Duke’s arms, leaving him looking serious.

“Grand Princess! It’s dangerous!”

“I’ll be careful not to get hurt.”

I pulled out the saliva-soaked doll from the sleeping dog’s embrace. Fortunately, apart from being a bit dirty, there was no noticeable damage.

“You’re back!”

When I rubbed the doll’s cheek against mine, sticky saliva transferred to my skin. The Grand Duke, watching me rejoice, let out a small sigh.

“Is there no possibility that someone took the doll outside?”

“Since the Grand Princess always sleeps holding it, I’ve been told that’s not possible.”

“I guess we have no choice but to increase security.”

The knight’s eyes also grew serious as he realized what the Grand Duke’s words meant. The Grand Duke dismissed the knight with a gesture and picked me up again.

“The child is happy, so it’s fine.”

As the search ended, the knights moved the furniture back inside that they had taken out. The maids diligently went back and forth, sweeping and cleaning the dirty floor.

The chaotic room soon returned to its original state.

‘I can’t believe I found it again.’

Although I wondered why the spirit hadn’t escaped from the dog, this couldn’t have been better. If it weren’t for the Grand Duke, I probably wouldn’t have found it.

Satisfied that I had finally recovered the spirit, I happily rubbed my head against the Grand Duke’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Grand Duke.”

“Take care of your belongings yourself so you don’t lose them.”

“Yes!”

“To prevent this from happening again…”

The Grand Duke, who had been nagging, stopped speaking when he saw my grinning face. Looking flustered, he slowly brushed back his hair.

Between the few strands of silver hair that fell, his purple eyes of an exquisite shade sank deep in thought.

Befitting someone overflowing with magical power, a halo of light seemed to flicker in his eyes momentarily. It was an indicator showing that the Grand Duke was greatly emotionally moved.

“Should we hold an even bigger welcome party?”

The feeling that I could fly to the sky in an instant was shattered.

‘He wants to do that again?’

Another chaotic party with vassals, knights, and even Lucas? Not wanting to upset the spirit, I shook my head vigorously.

“No, it’s fine!”

“If you wish, I could force children your age to attend as well.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Why do you dislike it so much?”

Do I really need to explain for you to understand?!

I was even more frightened because the Grand Duke had the ability to actually fulfill what might have been a casual remark to others. I bit my lip while tightly hugging the doll in my arms.

I thought that perhaps I might be the only sane person in this vast Grand Duke’s residence.