The sky was still a dim azure. A red sunset was slowly spreading over the horizon, but there was a little longer before it got dark. The fireworks show would start after the sun completely set, so there was time before then.

“Mikael, Mikael. T- that one And this too. Oh oh, this too.”

Yul wanted to make the most of his remaining time. The method was nothing other than to eat sumptuously prepared buffet food until his stomach exploded. He took only one hand out of Mikael’s pocket and was busy pointing at all the tasty-looking food.

Mikael scooped a pinch of Yul’s choice of food onto the teacup saucer. No matter how much Yul showed his appetite and chose each food without hesitation, in the end he only put as little as possible because he knew how much he could eat at one time.

“Thank you for the food!”

Holding a dessert spoon and fork side by side in one hand, Yul exclaimed in an excited voice.

The scene was familiar to Mikael, but unfamiliar to Andrei. He stared at Yuri with a dubious expression. His face was full of questions about whether he could really eat it.

“Hey, it’s delicious!”

Yul pushed a small amount of food that was less than a bite’s worth of food until his cheeks bulged. Then he munched and chewed a few times before he opened his eyes with an elated expression.

“Is he really eating?”

Andrei’s expression was astonished, as if he couldn’t believe it when he saw it with his own eyes. Mikael just nodded his head casually.

“Mikael, this is so delicious. Mikael should try too. Do you want a bite?”

The amount Yul poked out with a fork was so small that, in terms of human standards, it would be what people ate just to check if the food was poisoned. It was very funny to see him offer it to eat, but Mikael accepted his sincerity pretending nothing was wrong.

“How about it? Isn’t it delicious? Delicious!”

“Yes, it is delicious.”

In fact, he didn’t feel any taste at all. There was no way he would be able to taste anything after eating an amount the size of half a little fingernail. However, Yuri was so full of anticipation that he couldn’t ignore his sincere question, so he agreed.

“You know, this…”

“I’ll get the recipe and pass it on to the chef.”

“Oh, as expected, Mikael, you’re quick-witted.”

Mikael was terribly aware of what Yuri was about to say. Thanks to this, Yul was able to eat even more happily.

All these moments were familiar to those who lived in the Orlov mansion, but to Andrei and Isaac, they were shocking. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the great Archduke Mikael Orlov playing along with a small doll. In the first place, he couldn’t believe that Yuri was really eating food, but it was even more shocking when Mikael’s eccentricity was added to it.

In fact, Andrei still distrusted Yuri. No, in fact, even the word ‘distrust’ was ridiculous. It was absurd to believe in a doll the size of a fist.

The reason he invited Mikael today and accommodated him was entirely in order to improve his relationship with him. To add a slightly different purpose to that, it was to figure out a little bit of the identity of Yuri, the product of a dubious black magic.

When he brought Yuri, it didn’t really help him to understand black magic, but he did find out that Yuri really ate food. He questioned himself if it had any use.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

At Andrei’s question, Mikael looked at him with wary eyes. It was evident that Andrei’s attempt to threaten Yuri was still unresolved.

“It’s nothing serious. Just out of really simple curiosity.”

“… Ask.”

Mikael replied with a clear reluctance.

“Where does the food go?”

“…”

At the same time as Andrei asked, a heavy silence settled in the space.

In the quiet, Yuri missed the dessert spoon and fork that were moving excitedly. Metal fell onto the table with a ‘chang’ sound. Mikael was also taken aback and didn’t say anything.

In fact, the question Andrei asked was a question that had been in the minds of both of them the whole time.

How on earth did he eat anything from this body that contained nothing but cotton!

“That… goes… somewhere in the dimension… ?”

Yuri looked into Andrei’s eyes and replied cautiously. He was stunned by what he said, but there was no other way to explain it.

He had never really felt the urge to excrete, and he had never actually excreted.

“Really… It is truly a mysterious body.”

“I think so too.”

Yul wholeheartedly agreed with Andrei. Although it is his body, there were still many physical questions that he had not been able to figure out.

Anyway, he ate because he was hungry, and he slept when he was sleepy, but he was still curious about how that was possible.

However, no matter how much he thought about it, it was not a problem that could not be answered. So, whenever curiosity filled his head, he decided to live comfortably in a complicated world, thinking, ‘Humans possess the bodies of dolls in novels, so that’s possible!’.

“Be careful not to get stained. Fruit water doesn’t drain well.”

“Yep.”

Seeing Yul pick up a blueberry and try to eat it, Mikael warned in a stern voice.

Andrei tilted his head again at the strange feeling. No matter how you looked at it, it looked like Mikael was raising Yuri. Andrei himself had never raised a child, and he had never seen those around him raise a child, but he could sense that Mikael’s behavior was similar to raising a child.

Anyway, he could concede to that, treating a doll like a child.

But what he couldn’t accept was that Archduke Mikael Orlov was doing it.

To think that no one else, but the head of the family of Archduke Orlov, treated a small doll as if it were a child. The more he thought about it, the more shocking it was.

It was a situation that could only be thought of as Mikael being possessed by a doll. Andrei’s expression as he looked at Yuri darkened even more.

“Eek, Mikael… I made an accident.”

At the moment when Andrei’s doubts were being confirmed, Yul called to Mikael in a crawling voice. Mikael frowned and checked Yuri’s condition.

“I told you to be careful.”

“That is… I said I’d be careful… Life really doesn’t work out the way you want it to…”

Yul bit off a raspberry and hid his hands stained with the juice he spilled behind his back.

In the meantime, thinking that he would like to bite off his chattering mouth to make an excuse, Mikael hurriedly moistened a napkin with water and wiped Yuri’s hands.

However, he did not think that the bright red raspberry juice would be erased, as the more he wiped it, the more it spread. Mikael looked at the red stain with complicated eyes.

Come to think of it, compared to when he first met Yuri, he looked a lot more shabby and worn out. It was partly due to being bitten by Lucky day in day out, and he often picked up dirt from running around. Besides, there were also minor stains from food like now.

He let out a long sigh, wondering if it would be nice to see this dirty doll, but Yuri laughed brightly and said, ‘Wow, raspberries are really delicious!’

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“Should I just throw it away…”

When he let out a murmur without realizing it, Yuri looked at Mikael with surprised eyes.

“Hey, you’re not talking about me are you?”

“Then who do you think I’m talking about?”

“Oh, how can you! You promised to protect me! What do you mean throw away just because of some raspberry stain!”

Yuri jumped up and down as if it was unfair. Each time, three or four grains of dust fluttered. At that small act, Mikael shook his head.

“Don’t even think about that! Ok?”

“Do something if you want that.”

“I am doing well enough. I am doing my best.”

His blunt answer was just shameless. Of course he did, although that was Yuri’s charm.

In the end, Mikael burst into a low laugh.

Of course, it was Andrei who was horrified by this appearance. It was bewildering to see Mikael was smiling so well, but seeing that his friend was smiling, he didn’t feel bad. On the contrary, it was probably better.

It bothered him that the person who made that smile possible was that suspicious doll, but on the other hand, he was relieved that Mikael’s already dirty personality seemed to be a little bit softer.

Needless to say, he was confused with himself for feeling this way.