Chapter 1
Not long ago, I was just an ordinary office worker in South Korea.
The only real joy in my life was reading romance fantasy novels whenever a new chapter came out.
But now…
Something that only happened in romance fantasy novels had happened to me.
I stared blankly at the scene before my eyes.
The room had an old-fashioned elegance to it. It looked like the kind of bedroom where a noble would live.
If I were only seeing it in a photograph or while travelling, I would have admired its beauty without a care.
But in my current situation, I couldn’t appreciate any of it.
That’s right.
I had transmigrated into the romance fantasy novel I had been enjoying so much lately.
The transmigration itself was already a problem.
But there was an even bigger one.
I hadn’t become a person.
I had become a doll.
It didn’t take long after realising I had transmigrated to discover that I wasn’t human anymore.
In fact, I realised I had become a doll even before I fully accepted that I had entered a novel.
One day, I woke up and found that I couldn’t move my body.
It reminded me of an article I had once read about a man who had suddenly become completely paralysed overnight.
Could the same thing have happened to me?
Terrified, I suddenly noticed something strange.
The room in front of me wasn’t my room.
I had definitely fallen asleep in my own apartment the night before.
So what was this unfamiliar room that looked like it belonged in a romance fantasy novel?
Did someone remodel my apartment while I was sleeping?
Of course, that was impossible.
I hadn’t heard a single sound during the night.
As I struggled to understand what was happening, my eyes landed on a large mirror across the room.
It was big enough to reflect the entire room.
And in the place where I should have been…
There wasn’t a person.
There was a doll.
Seeing it reminded me that my body wouldn’t move no matter how hard I tried.
No way… That’s impossible.
That was the moment I realised I had become a doll.
How had I suddenly turned into a doll overnight? Not even an animal—a doll.
The situation was so absurd that I didn’t even have the energy to complain.
Whose doll had I become?
Where was I?
I wanted to figure things out, but I couldn’t even move.
No one came into the room either, so there was no way to understand what was going on.
For now, all I knew was that the room looked like an old Western-style bedroom.
It was so elegant that my first thought was that I must be somewhere overseas.
Did I possess a doll that belongs to some rich foreign family?
Just then, the door opened.
Someone entered.
He’s… beautiful.
That was the first thought that crossed my mind.
The man was so handsome that anyone would think so at first glance.
He certainly didn’t look Korean.
He had the appearance of a typical Westerner.
Then I really did possess a foreigner’s doll…
I had just reached that conclusion when he spoke.
“Prepare the room for bedtime.”
“Yes, Duke Layton.”
A maid standing by the half-open door answered respectfully.
Wait… why can I understand them? They’re not speaking Korean. Is this some kind of transmigration bonus?
None of this made any sense.
Then again, nothing had made sense ever since I became a doll.
But suddenly, the name the maid had just spoken caught my attention.
Layton.
It sounded strangely familiar.
It wasn’t an unusual name.
It was common enough to hear in novels or films.
But why did it feel so familiar?
Ah…!
After thinking for a while, I finally remembered.
It was the name of the hidden mastermind from the romance fantasy novel I had been reading until yesterday.
In fact, it was strange that I hadn’t recognised it immediately.
Come to think of it, the hidden mastermind in that novel was also the duke who ruled a territory.
Could it be…
I looked back at the man the maid had called “Duke Layton.”
Then I recalled the novel’s description of its hidden mastermind, Kerris Layton.
Jet-black hair fell messily across Kerris’s forehead. His dark eyes seemed deep enough to swallow anyone who looked into them. His pale skin, whether from poor health or endless overwork, gave his already beautiful features an almost mysterious aura.
Everything matched.
Black hair.
Black eyes.
A beautiful duke.
And the family name Layton.
It was exactly the same as the hidden mastermind from the novel.
Honestly… even if it were true, so what? I’ve already turned into a doll. Saying I’ve also entered the novel feels like going too far, doesn’t it?
While I was thinking that, the maid quietly left the room, leaving the man alone.
Then, as if to destroy my last bit of denial, he muttered to himself.
“His Majesty Schmidt said he’ll reconsider what I proposed last time.”
Schmidt?
Did he just say Schmidt?
I hadn’t recognised Kerris immediately.
But the moment I heard the name Schmidt, I knew exactly who it was.
Schmidt Latia.
The male lead of the novel.
The emperor of the empire.
Since Kerris had called him “Your Majesty,” there was no doubt.
There was no point denying it anymore.
Everything I had been uncertain about was now certain.
The man standing before me was none other than the hidden mastermind from the novel I had been reading.
Kerris Layton.
Am I dreaming?
First the hidden mastermind appeared.
Now even the male lead had been mentioned.
Had I become so immersed in the novel that I was dreaming about it?
But it felt far too real.
And nothing about this place resembled the modern world.
The maids.
The clothes.
The room.
Everything belonged to another era.
I had no choice but to accept it.
I had transmigrated into the romance fantasy novel I had been reading.
And not only that—
I had become a doll.
But why did it have to be a doll in the hidden mastermind’s room?
I had never imagined Kerris owned a doll.
A cute doll that looked like something a young noble lady would carry around.
In the novel, Kerris was cold, calculating, and completely heartless.
He was the perfect hidden mastermind.
Sometimes I even wondered whether someone so emotionless could truly be human.
Yet this very man kept such an adorable doll beside his bed.
And…
“Sarina, as you know, I’ve spent my entire life living for the Layton family.”
He had even given the doll a name.
Every night before going to sleep, he talked to it.
In other words…
The doll I had possessed was Kerris’s favourite doll.
“If it weren’t for you, I probably wouldn’t even be able to sleep.”
Apparently, he couldn’t even sleep properly unless he spoke to the doll first.
I was speechless.
This is really the hidden mastermind?
The same man who tormented the heroine and the male lead until he met a miserable end?
It was hard to believe.
But everything he said matched the novel perfectly.
Who would have thought Kerris Layton had such an unexpectedly adorable habit?
Every morning, Kerris left for the Imperial Palace with perfect punctuality.
Every night, he returned to his mansion—to this very bedroom.
Then he would tell me about everything that had happened that day.
His thoughts.
His worries.
His feelings.
I already knew the rough outline from reading the novel.
But it seemed Kerris had become the stereotypical hidden mastermind largely because of the environment in which he had grown up.
The novel had portrayed him as so cynical that I assumed he didn’t care about his past.
Yet hearing him talk every night made it clear that wasn’t true at all.
“Sometimes I wonder if this is really the right way to live. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I know thoughts like these do nothing to benefit the Layton family…”
He spent his entire life working for his family.
He had no one to confide in.
So he poured out his heart to a doll that couldn’t even answer him.
And without doing even that, he couldn’t sleep.
The more I listened, the more sincerely sorry I felt for him.
“I wish you were a real person. I’ve reached the point where I can’t tell anyone else anything about myself.”
As the days passed, I found myself wanting more and more to become his conversation partner.
I knew better than anyone how much strength it could give someone simply to have another person listen.
To me, the reason Kerris ultimately walked the path to ruin was because there had never been anyone by his side to do exactly that.
I never imagined I’d end up feeling sorry for the novel’s hidden mastermind.
Back when I had simply enjoyed reading romance fantasy novels, I never would have thought such a thing.
But even so…
There was nothing I could do.
I was nothing more than Lord Kerris Layton’s beloved doll.
I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t move.
So what was the point of wishing I could comfort him myself?
Perhaps thinking that wish was my mistake.
Because at the most unexpected moment…
My wish finally came true.
