When Jayden’s fingertips, appearing indifferent, entered the full underskirt, they trembled slightly, but Larien was too distracted by her pounding heart to distinguish whether her body was trembling or if it was his fingertips.

His long, firm fingers, seemingly twice the size of Larien’s, traced up along her hips. The goosebumps rose following his careful yet slow movements.

Heat radiated from his fingertips as they reached the waist of her tightly fitted tights. Contrary to her expectation of being cold, they were as hot as a bonfire.

Larien swallowed hard on the other side, grateful that he couldn’t see her like this.

“Jayden… hurry…”

Larien gently urged him as his hands lingered around her waist, seemingly hesitant to remove the tights. At this rate, they might spend the entire night here.

“Right.”

His fingers caught the tights and slowly, almost ticklishly, pulled them down. The red strings and pink leotard gradually revealed underneath were in an inverted triangle shape that would barely cover her private parts.

With the leotard having so little coverage it might as well have been nothing, her white, smooth bottom was completely exposed to his view. The strings were tied tightly, causing plump flesh to bulge between the crossing strings. His lowering hands hesitated once again.

“What are you doing? A little faster…”

Aroused by his teasing actions, Larien didn’t even realize she was gently swaying her hips. Every time she whined with a “hmm,” her smooth skin touched his hands and left them frozen.

At Larien’s whimpering, his hands resting on her pelvis suddenly showed strong grip strength. He grabbed her b*ttocks firmly with both hands, enough to leave red marks immediately.

“Ahh!”

A tingling sensation spread throughout her body as if electricity flowed through his hands touching her bare skin. Larien let out a small moan and raised her toes even more. Her luscious bottom lifted high.

She hurriedly covered her mouth with her palm, unable to believe such an erotic sound had come from her lips.

“S-sorry.”

And for the first time, she heard Jayden’s greatly flustered voice.

* * *

Jayden didn’t regret getting injured while saving a comrade. This was also why he refused his friend’s suggestion to go to the Land of Dolls together while apologizing to him.

Toys could break anywhere, anytime, and humans would easily find new toys. Rather than being discarded meaninglessly, he felt proud that it was a meaningful action.

Until he met Larien. That’s how it was, certainly.

One day, the old houses near the toy store disappeared and a large, magnificent circular building took their place. It was of such overwhelming size that it could be seen even from the decorated corner shelf where he sat.

The gold leaf decorating the white pillars sparkled in the sunlight even from afar.

The National Theater, was it?

He learned from visiting nobles that it was a place for performing unfamiliar things like ballet and opera.

Being right in front of the theater, people who had gone there with children naturally made their way to the toy store. Among them, girls started looking for ballet dolls, and the owner hurriedly ordered dozens of ballerina dolls from nearby workshops.

The once-popular princess dolls were moved aside, and wax dolls wearing white ballet dresses took their place in the central display case.

Red cloth was laid on the display case floor, and the brightest lamp was hung above it, making it look like a small theater.

Jayden watched with dispassionate eyes as children gazed excitedly at the ballerina dolls posed in somewhat uncomfortable positions.

The interest he thought would quickly fade continued for months, and the once simple ballet costumes became increasingly elaborate. Last week’s dolls all sold out, and soon new ballet dolls arrived.

The dolls seemed quite elaborate, as the store owner’s exclamations continued with each unwrapping of the white packaging.

These dolls, labeled ‘Swan Lake’ from the name itself, looked particularly white and delicate.

These will sell quickly.

As the fifth ballet doll was completely unwrapped, Jayden’s indifferent gaze suddenly lit up.

His eyes stung as if dozens of lamps had been lit simultaneously instead of just one.

As he watched the doll that was immediately placed in the center, apparently to the owner’s liking, time seemed to stop and he couldn’t even blink.

Thump.

His breath caught as if a heavy stone was pressing down on him.

Instead of the breath that couldn’t escape, saliva pooled in his mouth swallowed with a gulp, sliding down his thick Adam’s apple.

He couldn’t distinguish whether the image fixed on his retina was an illusion or reality.

Jayden examined the woman with wide eyes.

His heart, which had beaten at the same pace his entire life, began to race wildly as he saw her silver hair as delicate as if woven by a goddess herself, her small and delicate features, and her violet eyes that, despite trying not to show it, curiously darted around the store.

‘When I first saw Clara, I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe.’

His friend’s words who had departed for the Land of Dolls suddenly came to mind.

Though he hadn’t openly criticized it, he had scoffed at it as nonsense.

His friend’s words were the absolute truth without a grain of lie.

He too found it difficult to breathe, like he was being strangled.

It was fortunate it was daytime when his body was stiff. Had it been night, his knees would have buckled immediately as his mind spun.

In his gray world, she alone shone brilliantly.

A desire grew to capture that light from somewhere closer, not from such a distance.

Jayden had never waited for night to come so eagerly before.

When night fell, he forgot even to read his book and paced under the bookshelf. Every time he circled the same spot, the tapping sound of his crutches echoed across the floor.

The sound that hadn’t bothered him at first began to irritate him after about ten repetitions.

Whisk, he threw away his crutches, but then all his attention focused on his limping leg.

Damn it.

Just as he picked up his crutches again, the ballerina doll he had seen during the day appeared from afar, accompanied by laughter like a lark’s chirping.

She, who had captured his heart even when motionless, was smiling so brightly with her friends with her eyes half-closed.

Her round cheeks were red and luscious enough to make one want to bite and swallow them. When listening to conversations, she would slowly blink her thick eyelashes as if by habit, and her small, pink lips that parted with each response looked as delectable as nectar bestowed by the gods.

She was his perfect ideal type, lacking nothing anywhere.

Like the toys in the store, even Alexander, the most popular in the store, was watching her with a dazed expression.

The more he looked at the woman who shone more brilliantly than fairy wings, the more his face grew shadowed, as dark as the corner where he stood.

Looking at the woman’s footsteps, which were lighter than a butterfly’s wingbeat, his injured leg that had lost its balance seemed even more pitiful.

That woman was absolutely not someone he could reach. She was so noble it seemed impossible to even touch her. She was likely to leave for a noble’s house any day now.

Just watching her made his heart overflow.

How dare someone like him. He couldn’t even dream of wanting her.

Jayden’s first love ended without ever reaching the stage of confession.

Fortunately, ‘Larien’ didn’t have to leave.

The craftsman who made her died, making it difficult to obtain ballet dolls for a while, and the ballet dolls, including Larien, became display-only items in the store.

The scene repeated several times: the owner apologizing profusely and girls pointing at Larien leaving empty-handed and crying.

When Jayden heard this news, though he couldn’t openly show his joy, he said countless prayers of thanks to God in his heart.

To hear her movements as light as a small bird’s and her sweet laughter, Jayden, who usually stayed in his quarters, took out a book and settled in his corner.

Though it caused some annoyance, he could endure that fatigue by pretending to read while watching Larien from the corner of his eye.

Then one day, visits from boys called new nobles increased, and the number of toys breaking in their hands grew one by one.

Though they showed no interest in him stuck in the corner, occasionally their gazes scanning the ballet dolls were chilling like predators eyeing prey.

Jayden, trusting his near-certain intuition, placed his hat upside down beside him every day before sunrise. Then he gathered as much fairy stardust as possible and put it on his head.

Most of it was absorbed, but on a day when enough remained to move his body at least once, as he had predicted, one mischievous child grabbed Larien’s leg and shook it violently.