Thank You For The Confinement, Grand Duke! - Chapter 56.2
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When I first entered this body, I was as excited as a child with a new toy. What kind of toy should I compare it to?
Ah, perhaps a dollhouse.
It was so beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. I imagined living inside it.
Then, as if I was dreaming, I found myself transformed into the prettiest doll I had admired in that very house. What could I do with it? What were its features? How should I play with it? What couldn’t I do? How could I have the most fun in it?
My mind was filled with ideas on how to play with this new toy. The situation was so unique and fun that I was ecstatic.
I wanted to try everything I had ever wanted. I slept in the fanciest room’s bed dressed like a princess, ate delicious-looking fake chicken with other dolls, moved cute furniture around as I pleased, and read toy books.
While playing with the accessories, my attention eventually turned to the other dolls.
There were a few dolls inside.
Shall I play pretend with them? You looked handsome, so you would be the dad. You were pretty, so you be the mom, and you, you looked a bit mischievous, so you would be the villain. And you, looking the gentlest, should be the baby.
I’ve been assigning roles to dolls based on their appearances, sometimes deliberately giving them roles that contrast with their looks. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that each doll had its characteristics, and discovering these was quite entertaining.
Then, I made a startling discovery.
The dolls were alive.
Well, I knew that from the start. The dolls talked and moved. It seemed like I could control them, but that wasn’t the case. They moved according to the roles they were programmed to perform. They were just adapting to accommodate me.
I thought of all this as mere programming by the toy company. But gradually, as the hours of playing with the dolls stretched on, I began to ponder. Even if it was a programmed personality, they lived with that character.
Within a programmed world, it struggles like an ordinary human, contemplating and wondering how to live.
Could I truly call this a doll?
And I finally realized.
I, too, was a doll inside this dollhouse.
What I had been viewing from a distance as someone else’s scenario was, in fact, my reality. The doll playing my role was myself. Unsure if it was a dream or reality, I thought I should enjoy the situation I had longed for, but my heart crumbled dryly.
I couldn’t actually leave this place. Now, this is my reality.
Not someone else’s story.
Not Chaperil’s story.
My story.
“Chaperil…”
It wasn’t Chaperil who was in danger; it was me. If captured, it wasn’t Chaperil but I who would be experimented on. It wasn’t Chaperil who had become an orphan by fate; it was me.
What lied before me…
Was a real person living in a world crafted by a God named the author.
“Foolish, me…”
My throat was dry.
A heat far more intense than the slight fevers before fills me, feeling as though I could burst at any moment, which seemed like it would bring relief.
If I really explode, I might die.
I.
Why didn’t I realize this simple fact until now?
I haven’t been ignoring it, but rather, I really just didn’t feel it.
As my feelings for Enfrise grew, I thought I had gained a sense of reality. I came to like him as a man, not just a character in a book.
But it wasn’t enough.
Somewhere in my heart, I kept thinking of Chaperil as Chaperil, separate from me. I perceived all her misfortunes as having nothing to do with me, including the dangers that lay ahead for her. In a way, I regarded it as someone else’s problem.
Like half-playing a game or watching a novel, even anticipating dangers, I didn’t feel a genuine sense of crisis.
But then.
I saw someone die right before my eyes. It was a scene I had never witnessed before, but instinctively, I knew. If the same method were used in my world, the same scene would unfold. That was when I truly became afraid of death.
I finally realized this narrow heaven wasn’t just a world on paper.
Now.
How foolish of me.
“….”
Enfrise’s hands hurriedly changed the towel. He must have noticed the fever rising.
Because I could feel it myself.
To only understand reality at this point… I felt incredibly foolish for only being excited—like a clown in a black comedy.
“Grand…Duke.”
Thinking like that, I called out softly.
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