Cursed Doll

"Hmm? Not here?"

After waiting for a long time without receiving a response, Anna couldn't help but feel quite puzzled.

"This is a chance to have your wish 100% fulfilled, why isn't anyone claiming it?"

"That... he's already dead..."

Raising his hand and pointing to the burned Doll hanging under the chandelier in the Between Heaven and Earth’s Mountains and Seas Jian Qi began to speak cautiously.

"... Dead?"

After a slight pause, Anna looked up at the Doll.

A gentle breeze blew in from outside the castle, flipping the half-burnt Doll that was hanging in mid-air over.

"I didn't expect he was already dead... This is troublesome."

Tilting her head, Anna thought for a moment, crumpled the paper in her hand into a ball, and then began to speak.

"In that case, let's postpone the lucky wish-making opportunity~ Apart from His Your Highness the Prince, the other six people should all be here, right?"

"Instead of that, don't you think you should explain things to us first?"

Sitting on the Sofa, Fireworks of Romance suddenly spoke.

"How exactly did the Colorful Black man die? I think within the castle, only you possess such power, right? I feel you owe us an explanation."

"Sure, do you want Anna's explanation?"

Turning to look at Fireworks of Romance sitting on the Sofa, Anna tilted her head slightly.

"What kind of content would you like to receive, sir?"

"My question is simple: Did you kill him? If so, why? If not, what was the cause of his death?"

Staring directly at the Blonde Loli in front of her, Fireworks and Book of Wind and Moon blurted out all the questions that had been on their minds.

"No, I didn't kill him."

Unexpectedly, Anna shook her head.

"Anna is a good girl, she wouldn't kill someone so easily. He must have broken the rules of the castle and angered the guards."

"... guard?"

Fireworks of Romance, the body tense.

"Such a large castle, Anna couldn't manage it all by herself. Of course, I have guards and Maid to serve me. They're the ones who prepare your meals every day."

Anna responded lightly.

"However, Anna doesn't like them, so they can only appear at night to tidy up the castle, and they are forbidden from contacting guests, so the guests can't see them."

"..."

After Anna's explanation, Fireworks of Romance realized that the hall, which had been a mess yesterday, had now been completely cleaned up.

Was it the servants in the castle who cleaned it?

If that's the case, then those people who delivered and retrieved the envelopes last night must have been the guards Anna mentioned. Because they were forbidden from contacting guests, they resorted to slipping the envelopes under the door...

In an instant, many thoughts flashed through my mind about Fireworks of Romance.

"Alright~ Anna has Perfect answered your question. So, according to the principle of Equivalent Exchange, are you also prepared to pay the price? Let me think about it..."

As she spoke, Anna looked up at the charred Doll hanging above, then clapped her hands happily as if she had thought of something interesting.

"I've got it. As the price you have to pay, you'll be responsible for getting rid of this Curse Doll. Anna's castle doesn't welcome Perfect, flawed Doll."

"The Curse Doll..."

Before Fireworks of Romance could react, the rope suspending the Doll suddenly snapped in the middle. With a soft thud, the charred black Doll, which was part of the Colorful Black, fell from mid-air and landed motionless on the puddle of water on the ground.

"... Should we get rid of this Doll?"

Fireworks and Romance had already stood up from the Sofa. Looking at the motionless Doll lying on the ground not far away, her face was solemn.

The next moment, just like a classic scene often used in horror movies, the pitch-black Doll suddenly stood up from the ground, its glass bead eyes turned straight to look in her direction, and then flew towards her at an abnormally fast speed.

--A distance of just a few meters, which can be covered in an instant.

"Tsk, I'm not exactly a close-quarters Martial Arts Faction..."

Gritting her teeth, Fireworks of Romance narrowly hid behind the Sofa, watching the charred black Doll fly overhead and take away a large section of the Sofa. She decisively waved her hand.

As she moved, a dozen ripples spread around her, and dozens of common kitchen utensils, such as Kitchen Knife, Chopsticks, spoons, forks, spatulas, and frying pans, flew out from the ripples and stabbed at the charred black Doll with a speed even faster than the object itself.

The Doll itself was just Doll. Under this sudden and faster attack, its head was first severed by a Kitchen Knife, and then its body was pierced by knives and forks, with large swaths of white cotton falling down.

Before she could even catch her Fireworks of Romance, a sharp pain shot through her ankle. When she looked down in surprise, she saw the doll's arm, which she had severed with her Fruit Knife, gripping her foot tightly.

Five fingers gripped the flesh of her ankle tightly, as if they wanted to twist her foot off!

"Oh no, if this happens..."

A chill ran through her. Forgetting about the arm stuck in her foot, she quickly turned around and saw a head with its mouth wide open flying towards her.

"Bang!!"

At that moment, a dull gunshot rang out, Precision blowing the doll's head off.

Then, a burly figure burst out from the side, punching the doll's head hard. At the same time, flames erupted from the gauntlets on his hands, instantly incinerating the doll's head.

Before Fireworks of Romance could recover from the series of changes before her eyes, in a flash, the doll's arm on her foot turned into several pieces of ashes and fell off her feet.

Not far in front of her, a Girl with Short Black Hair turned around indifferently.

"Tch, mind your own business..."

Muttering something under his breath, Fireworks of Romance leaned against the wreckage of the Sofa and sat down on the floor.

--At this moment, less than half a minute had passed since the Doll fell from mid-air and attacked her.