Eileen cried her heart out.
Yu Sheng did not try to comfort her. For one thing, he genuinely had no idea how. For another... he was afraid that if this doll became too distraught and lost her mind, trying to comfort her might only provoke her into leaping up and biting him.
She really did have to leap up to bite someone now.
Of course, the good news was that she could bite people now. Back when she was in the painting, all she could do was yap.
It took quite a while before Eileen's sorrow finally eased a little. Yu Sheng hurried two steps closer to the table and spoke hesitantly. "Um... don't be sad. I'll make you a new body next time, one of normal proportions. As for this one... just make do with it for now, okay? If that won't do, I'll make another one for you tomorrow..."
"For the time being, I can only use this one," Eileen said miserably, sniffing twice. "Let's just leave it at that. You don't have to go to the trouble— even if you made me a new body tomorrow, I couldn't switch into it yet. A living doll's soul can't withstand changing vessels constantly. At, at least a few months..."
As she spoke, her grief welled up again, and it looked as though she was about to start crying.
Yu Sheng quickly grabbed a small glass bottle and held it under Eileen's face.
"What are you doing?" Eileen asked, sniffing as she stared at Yu Sheng in bewilderment.
"Tears from a living doll," Yu Sheng said with utmost seriousness. "When we make your body next time, let's try to use high-grade materials. I'll spend the next few months collecting them, and then I'll make you one that glows with golden light..."
Eileen thought about it, then wailed, "Yu Sheng, you son of a—ahhh!"
It took quite a while before the doll's sorrow finally settled down again.
Eileen climbed onto the stack of old books beside them and sat atop it, staring blankly as she contemplated life. Yu Sheng sat beside the table, keeping her company while contemplating life with her.
"At least... at least it's better than before," Eileen muttered softly, though it was unclear whether she was speaking to Yu Sheng or herself. "At least I can run around on my own now."
"You can watch television by yourself too," Yu Sheng quickly chimed in. "That's much more convenient than before, right?"
Eileen let out a long sigh, seemingly trying to make it sound solemn and grave. But because she was so tiny—only 66.6 centimeters tall—that sigh did not sound grave in the slightest.
Yu Sheng turned his head and secretly examined Eileen as she was now. His gaze fell on her exposed wrists and knees.
The ball-and-socket joints unique to dolls were particularly conspicuous.
"Even though you used a clay doll as the vessel, you still ended up with these puppet-like ball joints," he said thoughtfully.
"Obviously. I'm an articulated doll. How am I supposed to move without joints?" Eileen shot Yu Sheng a sidelong glance. "This is the form recorded in my soul, so no matter what shape the vessel originally has, my body will become like this after my soul finishes reshaping it. If you don't like ball joints, there's nothing I can do."
"Oh, it's not that I dislike them," Yu Sheng said casually. "But speaking of the form recorded in your soul... your soul still has a record of you being 167 centimeters tall..."
Eileen instantly sprang from the book pile onto Yu Sheng's arm and grabbed his thumb, bending it back with all her strength. "Can you stop bringing up whatever hurts most?!"
Yu Sheng let out a howl and jumped up. As he desperately pulled the tiny doll—who stood only 66.6 centimeters tall but possessed astonishing strength—off his arm, he hurriedly explained, "I was just curious, curious! Where exactly did something go wrong during the reshaping? Your appearance turned out perfectly, so how did your size end up shrinking so much...?"
"How should I know?" Eileen had been pulled off his arm and was now dangling in midair by the collar. "Nothing should have gone wrong. Everything felt normal during regeneration, but somehow the final body size came out wrong... Hey! Can you put me down first?"
"Then you have to promise me you won't bend my fingers anymore." Yu Sheng held Eileen up by the collar and addressed the doll sternly. Only after she nodded did he put her back on the table.
"Sigh, forget it. There's no point dwelling on it," Eileen said, taking a few steps back and forth across the table before shaking her head. "We still have to find a way to contact the sisters from Alice's Cabin. If I can get home, the sisters will definitely have a solution..."
Yu Sheng grew curious at that. "You keep mentioning Alice's Cabin and the dolls... Where are those sisters of yours usually? Are there any dolls besides you in this city? And speaking of your 'organization'... what exactly do you usually do?"
He had wanted to ask these questions for a long time, but one troublesome matter after another had cropped up recently. Only now had he finally found a chance to bring them up.
"Us? We're a race created by the Ancestor of Dolls. As for our mission... we don't really have one. Sometimes we deal with the Otherworld, and sometimes we help other organizations handle troublesome entities. But most of the time, the dolls simply do whatever they like," Eileen recalled as she spoke. "Most of my sisters don't operate in the human world, but there should indeed be a contact point in Boundary City... I just don't remember exactly where. Besides, so many years have passed. The method of contact and the people responsible for it should have changed by now..."
She climbed back onto the stack of old books and rested her chin on both hands, slowly continuing as she delved into her memories. "Whenever we operate in the human world, we disguise ourselves. Living dolls look very similar to humans, so it's easy for us to blend into crowds. This city is enormous. Without a specific method of contact or a specific contact person, finding a hidden living doll isn't easy..."
Yu Sheng listened from the side. He had already imagined that all sorts of strange beings might be hiding in this city, but he still found it astonishing. "Incredible... I always thought the only residents of this city were humans..."
"How could that be?" Eileen rolled her eyes at Yu Sheng. "This is the Crossroads."
"The Crossroads..." Yu Sheng quietly repeated the term.
"Anything can appear in the Crossroads. For that matter, even this old district is hiding a strange fellow like you, who thinks he's human," Eileen said, waving a hand as she jumped down from the stack of old books. "Let's go downstairs first. I've had enough of staying up here. Now that I can finally move around freely, I'm going to explore this huge house properly~"
"True." Yu Sheng exhaled and patted his cheeks to wake himself up. "It took me most of the day just to make your body, and now I'm hungry. Let's go downstairs and make something to eat."
As he spoke, he turned toward the attic exit. But after taking only two steps, he heard Eileen shouting behind him, "Hey, wait for me! I'm not down yet!"
Yu Sheng turned around and saw Eileen run a few steps across the table before leaping with all her might onto the creaking old chair. She then crawled to the edge, gripped the chair leg with both hands and feet, and slowly slid down. After quite some time, she finally made it safely to the floor...
Yu Sheng: "..."
Eileen moved her short legs as fast as she could and ran to Yu Sheng's feet. Only then did she notice his gaze on her. She immediately raised her head and forced her hands onto her hips, trying to look imposing. "What are you looking at?"
"Nothing." Yu Sheng shook his head. "I just think you're pretty cu—cute."
He had almost said "funny."
Eileen stared blankly for a moment, failing to notice the suspicious pause in Yu Sheng's words. "I-Is that so?"
Then she followed Yu Sheng forward. After taking only two steps, she reached out and tugged at his pants. "Oh, right. Thank you."
Yu Sheng lowered his head. As he tugged at his waistband, he looked at her in confusion.
"Thank you for preparing this body for me. Things were too chaotic just now, so I didn't properly thank you." Eileen spoke with a serious expression.
Yu Sheng could not help looking her up and down in her current form—66.6 centimeters tall. After holding it in for a long time, he finally blurted out, "You're like this, and you still want to thank me?"
"One thing has nothing to do with the other. The problem with my size came from something going wrong during my own reshaping, but you did carefully prepare this body for me." Eileen raised her head, looking especially solemn—though it did not really show. "Although it's a little ugly."
"...You could have left that last part out."
"A-Anyway, the promise I made to you still stands," Eileen hurriedly said. "I'll help you from now on. Whether you need help fighting or assistance with the occult, I'll be useful. Even if we find my other sisters in the future and I return to Alice's Cabin, I'll come back to help you. So..."
She paused there and thought for a moment.
"So, shall we start with a hundred years?" she asked cautiously, looking at Yu Sheng. "You should be dead of old age by then, right?"
Yu Sheng: "...I'll do my best."
"Then a hundred years it is." Eileen beamed happily. For some reason, her mood had suddenly improved tremendously. She then turned around and ran toward the attic exit on her short legs. "Then let's hurry downstairs..."
Her voice cut off abruptly. She suddenly pitched forward, like a puppet whose strings had been severed, and went flying from her running momentum until she slammed into the opposite wall.
The smile on Yu Sheng's face froze at the instant Eileen went tumbling away.
"Holy... holy crap?!"
He froze for a moment, then rushed to Eileen's side in a few strides and bent down to pick up the little doll.
The doll's eyes were tightly shut. Her entire body was limp, without a trace of strength. Her limbs, which had been warm only a moment ago, were now as cold as ordinary clay. Only her skin retained its soft, supple, living texture, yet there was no sign of life within her.
Yu Sheng was completely stunned.
Then he heard Eileen's voice coming from the large table not far away—
"Yu Sheng! I-I'm back inside this thing!"
Before you continue