"Uh... you want to romance that dollmaker?"
The task-taker was brimming with confidence. "Of course. I’m determined to win over a yandere-type shota. Besides, I’ve seen the CGs—that little dollmaker’s looks are totally my type! The sickly aesthetic is top-tier!"
His system remained noncommittal. "He already has a canonical partner."
The task-taker waved a hand dismissively. "That guy just got lucky with the timing. Isn't it said that the little dollmaker only truly accepted him because he was lonely after his grandfather passed away? A humanoid weapon who escaped an organization... honestly, anyone who stepped in to comfort the kid would have been better than him."
The system pondered for a moment before giving up on its advice. "Fine, good luck."
Thus, the task-taker carefully selected a specific point in time and an identity to descend into the world.
At this moment, the little dollmaker’s grandfather had just passed away.
The funeral was simple, with very few attendees.
It wasn't that the neighbors didn't know the old man who made dolls, but every time they passed the shop and saw the lifelike dolls displayed in the window, they felt a sense of dread. The more superstitious elders found it inauspicious and told their children to avoid the shop.
Consequently, when the task-taker entered the funeral hall under the guise of a distant relative, he saw only the young dollmaker huddled alone by a massive, dark coffin. His exposed skin was paler than snow.
He looked even younger than his actual age. The way he clung to the coffin, trying to hold onto the deceased, exuded a fragile sense of weakness.
The task-taker felt a pang of pity, but he also felt energized.
Wasn't this the perfect moment for a "distant uncle" to step in and offer comfort?
He stepped forward eagerly, intentionally making some noise to draw the little dollmaker’s gaze.
The child by the coffin moved slowly.
When he lifted his face, the task-taker’s heart skipped a beat.
It was because the little dollmaker’s expression at that moment looked exactly like an unpainted doll.
His face was palm-sized, exquisite and beautiful, yet devoid of any spark of life.
Those lavender eyes, which looked misty and soulful in the CGs, were now like a pool of stagnant water.
The task-taker found his rehearsed lines suddenly difficult to deliver. "...I am your uncle."
A slight ripple appeared in those quiet depths.
"...Uncle?"
The task-taker adjusted his collar to hide his nervousness. "Yes, I’m a distant uncle. I heard about your grandfather’s passing and came to take care of you."
"..."
The little dollmaker stared into the man’s eyes for a few seconds, then lowered his lashes without saying a word.
The task-taker panicked.
He hadn't expected the dollmaker to have such a personality.
His emotions were dead and heavy; the boy felt like a black hole that swallowed all feeling.
Was it the shock of losing his only kin?
This was nothing like the sickly, gentle, and clever youth from the main story!
Searching for something to say, he pretended to ask casually, "Didn't you pick someone up? Why don't I see him here?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt a rare surge of emotion from the little dollmaker.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Pale fingers pressed against the coffin curled tensely. The little dollmaker chased him away with a blank face. "Please leave."
Those dead eyes finally flickered with a turbulent wave. "Please leave!"
Before the task-taker could argue, he received a system notification to exit the area.
The task-taker was stunned.
A "forced exit" was only triggered when the target's mood completely collapsed. How did he trigger it with just one question?!
His system floated out. "Wow, failed already. Want to give up?"
The task-taker refused to admit defeat. "No! Let me stay here in observer mode to study them. I refuse to believe I can't romance him!"
And so, the task-taker remained in the world as a wandering spirit.
He watched as the little dollmaker organized the funeral hall alone, standing on his tiptoes and struggling to clean.
His excessively thin, pale wrists looked so fragile while moving that the task-taker worried they might snap at any moment.
The little dollmaker went up to the second floor.
Since the first floor was being used for the funeral, most of the grandfather’s creations were piled on the second floor, filling the space to the brim.
Even for a child of his size, navigating through them was difficult.
The little dollmaker stopped in front of a large cabinet.
While the task-taker was wondering why he stopped there, he was startled by what was inside when the cabinet opened.
A youth was curled up inside, squeezed into the small space alongside a pile of dolls so lifelike they seemed real.
If the youth hadn't shifted slightly, the task-taker wouldn't have been able to tell who was human.
The youth opened his eyes; his deep blue gaze was empty and cold.
The task-taker realized: *This must be the "Lead Sheep," the humanoid weapon who escaped the organization.*
The little dollmaker, who was a head shorter than the youth, reached out and tightly hugged the other’s arm.
The task-taker finally saw a trace of emotion in the dollmaker.
Possessiveness.
Task-taker: *Emmm...*
Could it be that he was kicked out because the little dollmaker thought he was there to steal his person?
What a misunderstanding!
The youth remained unresponsive throughout. Even when the child beside him became visibly emotional and fragile, he only hesitantly curled his fingers, offering no real response.
Despite being so close, they shared no eye contact.
For a moment, the task-taker felt like he was watching two strange, humanoid dolls embracing each other.
They were exquisite and beautiful, yet their eyes were hollow and dead.
They were imitating human expressions of love, but their movements were stiff and clumsy.
They only knew how to hold each other coldly.
How should he put it...
It felt like neither of them was a normal human being.
The task-taker’s mindset gradually shifted. He went from "I must romance the dollmaker" to "I want to see how these two little monsters could possibly develop feelings."
Days passed.
The little dollmaker carefully returned his grandfather’s belongings to their original places. But when he tried to take up his grandfather’s craft and make a doll on his own, he could never finish.
Without his elder’s guidance and direction, he would carve a single detail over and over, constantly polishing and then rejecting it. Eventually, the cabinets were filled with scrap wood and blank dolls, yet he could no longer produce a single finished work.
His grandfather had told him that their lifelong dream was to create a perfect doll of their own.
But now, his grandfather was gone.
And his dream was gone too.
The little dollmaker became irritable, panicked, and lost.
He began to spend long periods huddled in corners, hiding in cabinets, drawing the curtains, and living his days in darkness.
During this time, he naturally neglected the "doll" he and his grandfather had picked up.
Originally, the grandfather would restrict the youth’s movements, but now there was clearly no one left to control him.
The youth went from huddling in the cabinet to being squeezed out by the little dollmaker, and eventually to proactively going outside to explore society.
The little dollmaker lay nestled among the dolls his grandfather had made. Hearing the sound of the front door opening and closing downstairs, he closed his eyes groggily.
*Is he leaving...?*
But the task-taker, in his ghost form, saw clearly. The youth explored aimlessly outside, but his gaze would always linger on young children who looked fragile or sad.
When a child was coaxed into a smile by a mother’s or brother’s hug, the youth’s eyes would flicker.
It was as if he were learning.
As the "Lead Sheep" who led the lambs out of the organization, this was how he had always "learned."
As for his motive, who knew?
After some clumsy practice, the youth finally found the little dollmaker sleeping in the pile of dolls one day.
These dolls were all made by the grandfather—some gentle, some elegant—but they all shared a similar pose: an embrace.
During the time the grandfather was gravely ill, he could hardly offer his grandson any comfort. So, the old man would laboriously direct the child to lean into the dolls.
"Hug them. They feel real, just like Grandpa is hugging Xiao Ran."
"Can you feel it? Grandpa is comforting Xiao Ran."
The old man would smile weakly, struggling to finish his sentences. "If... I am no longer here... they will stay with Xiao Ran..."
But those dolls lost all feeling after the grandfather passed away.
So cold.
Even being held by a dozen dolls, it was so cold.
Huddled in the cabinet, the little dollmaker smelled a faint scent of lacquer.
He stretched his legs, and a doll’s joint twisted unnaturally because of it.
He turned his head, and a spider sat on the glass eye of the doll beside him.
He looked down and saw his own hollowed-out chest and a heart that was slowly withering away.
The uncanny nature of the dolls grew heavier. They became fake, so very fake. Every detail on them became increasingly eerie. They no longer had warmth or cute faces; they were only a vortex meant to swallow a person whole.
In that vortex, the little dollmaker was gradually losing himself.
He was going to become a doll too.
...
...
Someone grabbed him.
The cabinet door suddenly swung open, and soft light hit the little dollmaker’s eyes.
The "mobile doll" he and his grandfather had picked up suddenly moved. He pulled him out of the pile of dolls and gave him an embrace.
There was no smell of lacquer, no dust, and no coldness.
It was a clumsy, stiff, yet warm and soft embrace.
"...!"
The little dollmaker’s eyes widened, filled with alarm.
He pushed back slightly, creating enough space to look at the youth’s face.
He was like a sensitive, wary stray cat—shrinking back yet curious.
The little dollmaker raised his hand, confusedly stroking the other’s face.
The youth’s hands remained around his waist, not letting go.
The little dollmaker touched those deep blue eyes he loved so much.
Even though they were as empty as ever, even though there was no emotion in them, even though he looked like a low-quality doll...
His voice was dazed and lost. "Why are you hugging me?"
The youth blinked slowly, his speech fragmented and halting. "Because... need... you... look like."
"...!"
The little dollmaker looked equally confused.
He pinched the youth’s ear and felt along the hairline to the back of his head.
There were no seams to be found.
He was human.
At that moment, he finally broke free from the vortex of the dolls, startled by the other’s identity... and the meaning of this action.
The "blank doll" he had imagined had, at this moment, revealed a nearly pure-white kindness and tenderness.
The little dollmaker stared fixedly at the youth’s face. Gradually, his shoulders relaxed. He rested his hands on the youth’s neck and slowly, gently, curled into the youth’s arms like a kitten.
So soft.
So warm.
Could this be his dream?
Those dull amethysts were finally wiped clean, brightening bit by bit.
The task-taker, who had been watching for a long time, finally heard that line of dialogue.
"I’m going to call you 'Brother' from now on."
"You aren't a doll anymore, either."
The subsequent developments were all covered in the CGs, so the task-taker was mentally prepared.
With a mysterious sense of paternal pride, he watched as the dollmaker gradually gained emotions, watched as the humanoid weapon youth matured, watched as the two became entangled and inseparable.
The system floated out. "How’s the learning going... Eww, what’s with that 'proud father' smile on your face?"
Task-taker: "..."
*Cough*, just a bit of shipping.
Please, the relationship between two little monsters is actually so ship-worthy, okay?!
He admitted defeat. With the specific symbolism of "dolls" involved, no one could ever replace the humanoid weapon’s position in the dollmaker’s heart.
The task-taker solemnly hid himself and took a photo of the two "monsters."
[In the afterglow of the sunset, the dollmaker habitually curled up on a soft chair for a nap. The humanoid weapon retracted all his sharp edges and readjusted the blanket that had slipped off the dollmaker.
The moment he leaned down, the napping youth suddenly moved, planting a light kiss on the young man’s cheek.
Then he immediately lay back down and played dead, with only the slight curve of his smile betraying his mood.
The orange light bathed them, and their shadows behind them stretched long and far until they intersected.]
It was a scene that was almost too normal and heartwarming, yet for these two, it was a miracle.
Two doll-like little monsters, through mutual adjustment, could actually live together in such a natural and harmonious way.
Task-taker: *Ah, I believe in love again TT.*
System: *What is this brat lingering here for? Hurry up and let's go.*
The task-taker left reluctantly.
...
"Ah, he’s finally gone." Mu Ran opened his eyes.
He hadn't expected to run into a colleague. He could have used the "autopilot" mode, but he ended up roleplaying for a while.
Still... it was quite fun.
Once he got into character, he could actually feel those intense and complex emotions.
Wow...
The young man beside him moved.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly pulled into an embrace, Mu Ran gave a symbolic struggle before asking, "What’s wrong?"
"We should apply for a 'Do Not Disturb' mode." The system’s voice sounded a bit muffled as he buried his face in Mu Ran’s shoulder. "Being watched while having to follow the scripted plot..."
"Hehe~"
In this script, the system’s character was cold and distant in the early stages, only responding when Mu Ran took the initiative. He was very passive.
It was a real test of acting skills.
Mu Ran took the opportunity to wrap his arms around the system’s neck, nuzzling him to offer comfort. "Then let’s stay here for a few more days~"
His voice was light and cheerful, filled with anticipation.
"Let’s continue our previous trip! Let me think, there are still a few places we haven't visited yet."
Before they had to get involved in the main storyline, they should make a run for it!
***
