The Teddy Bear Sends the Insomniac Villain to Dreamland - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 1
A suffocating silence permeated the dimly lit dining room.
The door to the quiet dining hall burst open, breaking the monotony of clinking silverware.
A strikingly handsome man in a black uniform took his seat at the meticulously arranged table.
He then pulled the chair beside him back slowly and carefully placed something upon it.
The deliberate, reverent care with which he handled the object drew curious gazes from those present.
“Blake. What exactly is that sitting next to you?”
Duke Leblanc, who had been eating in silence all evening, narrowed his eyes and pointed to the teddy bear positioned delicately on the chair.
“It is my comfort object, sir.”
“…Your comfort, what?”
“Com. Fort. Ob. Ject.”
The man, as if to clarify that he had been understood correctly, repeated each syllable with deliberate precision before calmly resuming his meal.
Clang—
A knife clattered onto the marble floor with a sharp, piercing sound.
Duke Leblanc, who had dropped the knife, bit his tongue in surprise.
His expression suggested he had heard something utterly unbelievable.
And understandably so.
It was a worn teddy bear—utterly incongruous with the sculptural coldness of Blake Leblanc’s, the Duke’s eldest son, appearance.
“Have you finally lost your mind from lack of sleep?”
“On the contrary, I am finally in my right mind.”
“Then why on earth have you brought that filthy doll…”
Blake’s claim to sanity carried little credibility.
Everyone knew that Blake Leblanc suffered under a curse that robbed him of sleep, yet he seemed utterly transformed from his usual self.
Blake was the mightiest knight in the Casthonia Empire.
In a nation plagued by constant warfare, his renown grew with each victorious campaign he led.
The war-monger, the grim reaper, or the blood-soaked general—
Every epithet attached to him dripped with violence.
The number of knights who revered him was beyond counting.
Yet now… a general who brought an adorable teddy bear to dinner?
Beside Duke Leblanc, rendered speechless by this jarring discord, a silver-haired boy called out to Blake.
“B-brother. Are you unwell?”
“No, Eren.”
“But… teddy bears like that are something only trivial young ladies and gentlemen carry around, are they not?”
At those words, Blake’s gleaming violet eyes turned toward the doll.
He carefully extended his hand and cradled the bear’s ear, then spoke.
“Do not speak carelessly of my teddy bear. It will be hurt.”
Hiccup!
Eren clapped both hands over his mouth at Blake’s chilling gaze, sharp enough to cut.
Desperate to suppress the hiccups escaping his throat, Eren hastily gulped down water.
“If you care for the teddy bear, brother… then I, too, shall purchase an identical one!”
Eren, who revered Blake to the point of deification, was utterly captivated by him and would do anything he asked.
He attempted to imitate everything Blake did.
Blake shook his head firmly at those words.
“That’s impossible. You can’t buy it.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“This bear doll cannot be obtained anywhere else.”
As Blake spoke, a peculiar satisfaction gleamed across his handsome face.
Of course, the bear doll was genuinely in such a grimy, worn state that it could never be purchased anywhere.
Horror flickered across the maidservant’s face as she carried a fresh knife for the Duke alongside the meal.
What a ghastly combination this was.
Blake Leblanc and a bear doll.
This was precisely the sort of situation that would spread rumors of Blake Leblanc, sleepless and tormented, finally losing his mind entirely.
The Duke found it impossible to believe that Blake appeared so thoroughly enchanted by the decrepit bear doll.
“Blake. It seems your mind has grown weary from lack of sleep. Go rest at once.”
Duke Leblanc attempted to salvage the situation upon witnessing the maidservant’s shocked expression.
At his tone, which treated Blake like a patient, he set down his utensils with a furrowed brow.
“Why would I be unable to sleep?”
This man, this man… he truly has lost his mind.
Duke Leblanc’s violet eyes scrutinized his son, who appeared utterly mad.
Deep contemplation settled within his gaze.
The curse that dwelt upon the Leblanc Family was not limited to Blake alone.
The Duke and Eren both suffered equally, unable to sleep.
It was a curse passed down like a punishment to the direct bloodline heirs who inherited the family.
Naturally, since the previous generation, they had poured vast sums of money into investigating it, yet scarcely anyone possessed knowledge of its origins.
The curse would inevitably persist throughout the remainder of this generation’s lives.
But then, what?
Unable to sleep?
“Do not jest. I have no wish to discuss matters concerning the curse.”
“Is that so?”
Blake replied briefly, then tapped the corners of his eyes.
The Duke’s gaze fell upon Blake’s eyes—the dark circles had vanished.
The Duke’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You… your dark circles…!”
These were not the weary eyes that would instantly reveal one’s status as Leblanc bloodline—eyes worn by exhaustion.
Eren, equally shocked, rose from his seat and rushed toward Blake to examine his face.
“B-brother… your dark circles have truly disappeared! I… I wish mine would vanish too….”
Eren’s eyes sparkled with longing.
Regardless, Blake gently stroked the crimson ribbon tied around the bear doll’s neck and spoke.
“This bear doll alone allows me to fall asleep.”
Clang—
The trembling Duke dropped his knife for the second time.
His jaw fell open with an audible gasp.
After all this time yearning and striving to break the curse, he could sleep soundly with just a single teddy bear?
It was a story he couldn’t possibly believe, yet in the next moment, a thread of hope flickered in the Duke’s eyes.
Though Blake’s condition didn’t appear entirely normal, the brightness that had returned to his eyes was no lie.
“Is that… truly so? Blake. Let me see that bear too.”
He rose with a violent sweep of his silver hair, reaching toward the teddy bear.
Just as the Duke’s hand was about to snatch the bear away—
A firm hand pushed his aside with a swift motion.
Blake picked up the worn, brownish teddy bear and held it tightly against his chest.
Then he rubbed his well-defined nose against the bear’s head affectionately.
“That won’t do. Only I may touch this bear.”
For someone known as the commander of the Blood Army, it was a remarkably childish thing to say.
“…Brother?”
Eren stepped backward, unable to believe what he was witnessing as Blake coddled the bear.
A strange obsession gleamed in Blake’s violet eyes. The bear in his arms seemed to crackle with energy.
He held the bear even tighter and whispered softly.
“That’s right, Vivian?”
…
And from his embrace, the crackling bear—
In other words, I screamed silently as I stared at this madman before me.
‘Let me go, you absolute lunatic!’
But as if mocking my desperate cry—
His eyes had already lost all reason.
***
December 31st, New Year’s Eve.
I sipped my wine while lamenting my circumstances.
How did I end up becoming a witch stranded in this desolate Western Territory with its howling sandstorms?
When I first opened my eyes in this place.
I instinctively sensed that this was one of the many romance fantasy novels I’d read before.
A class system I’d seen countless times elsewhere.
Nobles throwing lavish parties.
Even dragons with appearances straight out of fantasy.
The only difference was….
‘Why am I a witch?’
Others reincarnated as noble ladies or countesses’ daughters without fail, no matter how minor their roles.
Even the villainess heroines got entangled with the male lead.
‘Why am I the only one trapped living in this world of a different race!’
Besides, are romance novels featuring witches even common?
Either this was a hidden setting that got glossed over, or I saw it but forgot it because it had so little significance—one of the two, right?
“Ugh, enough. None of this matters.”
I sighed once, then unfolded the moving newspaper that the Eastern witch had developed.
Today’s newspaper headline, labeled 【Special Report from the Human World】, was remarkably simple.
[Special Report from the Human World: Blake Leblanc, Unstoppable Force, Saves Casthonia Empire’s Territory Once Again!]
On the right edge of the newspaper article praising General Blake Leblanc’s achievement, a strikingly handsome man moved about in his military uniform.
‘Blake Leblanc?’
The name sounded familiar somehow.
On this tedious year-end evening, my eyes blinked slowly as I stared at the newspaper.
“Quite impressive, isn’t it?”
Butler Max appeared at my side—I’m not sure when he arrived—and praised the newspaper with a glance.
“What is?”
“Blake Leblanc, madam. Isn’t he quite remarkable for a human? They say he swept away ten thousand enemy soldiers with merely five hundred knights.”
“I suppose.”
I gave a vague response and savored my wine again.
Perhaps because it was wine aged for centuries, the taste was absolutely exquisite.
“The Leblanc Family once paid considerable tribute to our Halloway Castle long ago, when the portal still existed.”
“So that’s why you favor them.”
“…Madam Vivian. It was you who favored them most back then.”
Was that so? I couldn’t remember.
It wasn’t a lie—I genuinely couldn’t recall.
‘It’s all ancient history now.’
The portal.
A passage connecting the world of different races where witches and dragons gathered (also called the Demon Realm) with the human world.
A very long time ago
a special portal that existed in an era when humans, witches, and dragons coexisted together.
That passage had vanished two hundred years ago.
Which meant I was already….
I slowly folded my fingers one by one to count, and after extending all ten, my mouth fell open in shock.
“Wait, Max. Don’t tell me…”
“Don’t tell you what?”
“Don’t tell me I’m already three hundred years old?!”
“You’re only just realizing that now? This is driving me mad. No wonder you don’t act your age.”
I’m the one going mad here, Max….
Chewing over the time that had slipped away so carelessly, I couldn’t help but feel bewildered.
But Max, oblivious to my turmoil, prattled on without a care.
“Still, Vivian. The Eastern Witch’s intelligence network doesn’t seem all that impressive, does it? The portal’s been gone for ages, so where on earth does she get news from the human world?”
“I have no idea. Lora’s an eccentric.”
Lora, the Eastern Witch, was an eccentric among eccentrics, utterly consumed by the development of magical artifacts.
“It’s strange hearing that from a romance novel fanatic. I can’t even count how many of those romance novels I’ve thrown away.”
“And you don’t remember how much trouble I went through retrieving them all?”
It was my only hobby, carried over from my past life!
I glared at him indignantly, but it had no effect whatsoever.
“In any case, this Blake person seems to be quite the sensation in the human world. Last month’s newspapers were filled with nothing but stories about Blake Leblanc. Everyone was raving about how romantic it all was.”
“Romantic?”
The last of my wine caught in my throat as I swallowed, and I nearly choked.
A primal instinct told me this would be fascinating, so I spun around sharply as he continued in a casual tone.
“You didn’t know? It’s a tragic love story—he left for the battlefield to forget his childhood friend, a young noblewoman.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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