The Tyrant’s Last Doll

Gulp.

I swallowed, even though my mouth was dry, and without saliva.

With the ornate crimson carpets, gruesomely torn and destroyed luxury furniture, and the intermittent, painful groans that sound heinous.

She felt like the prey of a beast.

She stood there in the flamboyant room, like a stone that seemed to have been stirred away. I heard a voice that sank through the silence.

“Who are you?”

Her hair covering her whole body stood up with the goosebumps that arose.

It was as if a hungry black panther was making a threatening growl.

“I surely said to not let anyone in.”

I stared at his golden eyes of melting honey where they rest between his scattered black hair.

With his fascinating, yet human pupils, I made eye contact as I held my breath.

I was suffocated by the eye contact with the ruler.

‘You’re not gonna kill me if I make eye contact with you, are you?’

I clasped my skirt tightly with my trembling hands.

From just eye contact, I already felt like a beast’s prey.

‘No, I’d play dead if I were a real beast.’

His golden eyes felt bloody as if he was asking for her to move at once, yet I felt like my feet were glued to the ground.

Without even thinking about running away, I thought desperately about how to survive in this position.

In either situation, it would seem like a failure even if she decided to move or not.

‘What the hell do you want me to do?’

I looked back on why I was in this situation, crying internally.

***

A few days ago, I woke up in a slavery cage.

When I looked up, a big moon and a small moon were glowing outside of the palm-sized window.

‘Two moons?’

For a moment, I was confused by the strange, unfamiliar, peculiar feeling in my stomach, and as soon as I realized that I had reincarnated into a different world, I ripped out my hair.

“I’m doomed! I’m doomed, this life is ruined!’

Well, this is the world of the fictional romance fantasy novel, the bizarre title of “The One Who Brings the End of the World,” famous for its tragic ending.

When I realized that I was reincarnated in a world from a book, I was so dumbfounded that I had no choice but to laugh in a frustrating position for a while.

Nevertheless, I had to believe that this was real because of both the vivid memories of both lives and the pain in my throat. It was as if I were screaming, the pain allowed me to realize that this was not a dream.

It was because.

‘Yeah, reincarnation is fine. It’s possible! I admit it!’

The ability to adapt quickly is my strength.

It was because I remembered the name of this country and what I looked like that I realized that I was reincarnated into the world in the book. By the way, ha.

I was reincarnated as a background extra, scripted to die for the dramatic appearance of the female protagonist!

Why am I a doll of all things? I’d rather live as a passerby!’

The author described in great detail what my role was originally and how gruesomely I died.

In just ten lines.

Even when I thought about it again, my blood pressure rose.

“Of course, of course. You just had to make my current life suck, I didn’t even live that good of a past life. Give me a break.”

I cursed the gods of this world for a moment. I also worked myself to death in the previous life, but in the present life, he was only working to die as a slave.

I’ve been working all day.

I’ve lived the last five years in the canaries of cages.

Then I lost my voice to the former owner, who wanted to monopolize my voice a while ago, and was in the repeating cycle of being sold again.

If it weren’t for the medicine the slave trader threw to me through the bars, I would have been dead in a cage.

Though, he quickly shut me down, after saying that me dying would make him lose too much money,

At the moment, there was blood on my forehead.

‘You poisoned me to monopolize my voice, and not to mention that you put me, a child, in the same damn cage for five years. Crazy! Maybe it’s because of the worldview. These aristocrats, they’re all out of their minds!’

Of course, at the highest peak of insanity, was the emperor.

He was called a hero who saved the Empire that had fallen externally and was the most-known in the castle for the people more than anyone else.

However, in reality, he’s a sensitive, violent, uncontrollable tyrant because of the trauma he gained in the past.

If he finds it annoying, he kills them. If he attacks the country next to him, he could simply say that it irritated his eyes.

The rumors were true, so on the continent, the great empire’s aristocrats were all supporters of the Emperor, afraid of his wrath. It was true that they all stood up and begged for his approval.

‘Because of his trauma, he can’t sleep without a doll, that’s the reason why I have to be pushed into this hard role.’

Then he meets the hostess and becomes a reincarnation, but in fact, he will lose her and become a mastermind of the destruction of the world.

Then, he meets the female lead and comes back to life, but in fact, he will lose the female lead. His loss, trauma, and despair lead to him breaking, then he turns into the one that destroys the world.

The only way to calm him down was his ‘Doll’ until he met the female lead.

When I remembered the fact, I covered my face with my hands. It is because I felt so wronged.

‘Why am I the last doll of all people? I’m going to die because of the unfair plotline!’

According to the original, a year until I enter the palace as a doll and die at the whim of the Emperor.

It has been two years since the emperor fell in love with the heroine.

Therefore, the time remaining until the end of the world was only three years.

I found out I was born again, and it’s been three years since then. Why are the gods doing this in my life?

‘Yes, let’s survive somehow and leave the male lead to the female lead! Then I can live safely for at least 3 years.’

I want to save the princess so that she doesn’t run wild, and I want to die of a fine old age, but I’ll give her a criminal that’s not even known in the original book.

I want to save the female lead so that the male doesn’t try and destroy the world.  I’ve decided also want to grow old and die.

‘But I still have the knowledge of the original, so if I’m lucky, wouldn’t I be able to find it?’

For five days, she thought about how to extend her life, even for a little.

“Come out.”

Early this morning, I was dragged out of the slave cage.

I had only eaten grain porridge and hard slices of bread so far, so my legs trembled.

The slave merchant washed me moderately and put me in a fairly clean dress and took me to the parlor.

Then he left me in the parlor, saying he would bring in the guests.

While waiting, I shook my heavy shackled feet.

‘Oh well.’

A sigh came out of my mouth by itself.

‘Cause I can’t run away anyway.’

Not only was security was rigid and strict, but above all, this world was too tough for a woman to live alone.

Besides, an unmarried female slave wandering the streets alone was like holding up a poster with bolded red words, advertising: ‘Catch me!’

During the five years of the current emperor’s reign, the empire has improved its security to the extent that it can be said that its borders have been transformed into a circle of guards. It’s said that the darkness didn’t allow humans to disappear to that extent.

Thanks to this, I was deprived of even the option of running away, and I had to wait for ‘him’ to pick me up from the Imperial Palace.

‘Well, if you go to the Imperial Palace, will you at least give me rice?’

I heard footsteps approaching the room.

Three men and a slave merchant came in with the hood of the mungo gray cape, the highest rank of them all.

The noble-looking man’s head returned toward me.

He approached me with his hood off.

“Is this her?”

Seeing his dark green hair and intelligent eyes, I realized the appearance of ‘him.’

I was looking forward to seeing ‘him’, and stared with sparkles in my eyes.

‘This is the Emperor’s closest aide, the cold-blooded Raven!’

I can’t believe I’m actually seeing Raven, one of my favorite characters in the original!

He was a character full of charm, that was absolutely loyal to the emperor, although he was like a cold sword in all other subjects, with his prickly mind and sharp eyes.

“Yes, it is. She’s the one who fits your terms!”

The slave trader rubbed his hands out of habit, answering Raven’s questions eagerly.

Raven glanced at me with eyes that seemed to be able to see through both my mind and soul.

“Well, the conditions for being a doll were tricky.’

I remembered the original story.

Be similar to the person who caused the emperor’s trauma.

Probably in his late teens.

Be ready and obedient.

No experience of sleeping with men.

The final conditions were unpleasant, but they were very important to them if they might serve the Emperor at night. However, it was very difficult to find female slaves in this world who had no experience until their late teens.

‘Whew, whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, I’m the one who fits the tricky conditions.’ 

According to the original, the fifteenth ‘doll’ would have been disposed of by the emperor a week ago.

And because of the emperor who couldn’t sleep even after his disposition, a bloody and destructive breeze would be blowing in the palace right now.

That’s why Raven came rushing to buy me.

Raven grabbed my chin with his gloved hand and examined it back and forth.

I quietly cheered at his cold appearance, but I was a little frustrated.

‘When I read the books about reincarnation, everyone was born as ab aristocratic girl, and they ate and lived well. Why am I a slave?’ 

Despite his rude gestures, I stood quietly with an expressionless face. Thanks to my habits formed from being a slave. I have been accustomed to this behavior for many years.

“How old are you?”

When Raven asked, the slaver standing next to me responded immediately.

“She’s nineteen.”

“I didn’t ask you. “

“She can’t talk. She hurt her neck not too long ago.”

Raven’s gaze returned to me at the slave merchant’s explanation. He looked at me a little more and then lowered his hand.

“She looks like a doll.”

Raven nodded to see if he liked my stiff self, then turned to the slave merchant.

“I’ll take her.”

“Oh, thank you so much, sir!”

The slave merchant, who habitually answered, was stunned by Raven’s glare.

“You’d better be careful with that mouth.”

“Wow, whether or not there is mercy!”

The slave merchant tightened his head, his face full of cold sweat.

Raven still threw a heavy pouch at the feet of the slave merchant with an expressionless face.

At first glance, it is worth thousands of gold pieces. It was an excessive amount for the ransom for pariah slave.

tn: pariah means undesirable, rejects, or outcasts.

“Bring her.”

He ordered his men to do so, and then left the parlor without looking back.

I was sold as the Emperor’s ‘doll’ that day.

☾*✲⋆.