CH 491

491: Dolls with Human Skin

The lab was simple and could be taken in at a glance. Aside from a few instruments, and a thick black book in the center, there were several dolls in varying stages of completion atop a large table.

The people had a hunch when they saw the dolls, but they weren’t completely certain.

The notebook was heavy with dust and laid in the center of the table. Who knew how many years it had been there?

Someone picked up the book and flipped through it. There wasn’t much recorded on the first page, but it did say the owner of the notebook came to the mansion on the invitation of a specific nobleman, followed by a description of the mansion and the host and hostess.

The mansion was owned by a nobleman from a thousand years ago. He and his wife were affectionate and together spoiled their daughter greatly.

Their daughter liked dolls very much, and had dolls of all kinds, but she would only play with them for a day or two before losing interest and burning them. It was a common pattern: play with a doll a few days then burn and repeat.

The nobleman wanted to give his daughter a special gift on her fifth birthday, so he invited the most famous doll maker at the time.

The notebook was owned by that very craftsman. He had been invited with a lot of money to the mansion to create a doll that would satisfy the young lady before her fifth birthday.

He wouldn’t leave alive until he fulfilled the request. He was just an ordinary person who crafted for a living: there was no way for him to resist a noble, so he stayed in the mansion and tried to craft a doll that would meet the young lady’s requirements.

Unfortunately, the dolls he made were not real enough and therefore unacceptable. He kept trying out of desperation, trying and trying to create a doll that would please her so he could leave the beautiful cage and return to his home.

Despite working as hard as he could, nothing he did was satisfactory. He was imprisoned in the lab and forced to keep making more dolls.

He was mad to get out, to be free.

At this time, the servant sent to deliver his meals was a young girl of six or seven. She was very cute with eyes full of curiosity and just a smidge of shyness.

At that moment an idea came to him. He remembered a secret necromancer technique he accidentally obtained.

The little girl disappeared and a brand-new doll appeared. No one knew what the doll was made of, but the entire body felt like a real person. The young lady really liked it.

The disappearance of the little servant girl didn’t attract any attention in the mansion. Not even a ripple of concern appeared.

The young lady of the house made an appearance with the doll on her fifth birthday. The one-of-a-kind doll, that felt like a real person, aroused everyone’s interest.

A lot of people wanted to buy a similar doll for their wives or daughters, and they were willing to pay a great deal for one.

After years of excess, the nobleman’s finances were not as good as they had once been. He saw the doll as a business opportunity, something the family could get involved in.

The nobleman refused to let the master doll crafter go, and instead demanded the craftsman make more dolls for him to sell.

The master craftsman was forced to confess the primary material for the doll was human skin tissue. He had used the skin of the missing servant girl and a book of forbidden arts to create the doll. That was why it felt so realistic.

It was impossible to mass produce because the skin he got from the servant girl was only enough to make two dolls.

The craftsman thought he would be denounced and labeled a demon after revealing the truth, that his method was heinous.

The nobleman was unexpectedly silent. The initial surprise that showed on his face quickly faded and was replaced with a neutral expression.

Instead of being denounced, the craftsman was reassured he would get assistance with supplies, that he only needed to focus on making more of the same realistic dolls.

The craftsman couldn’t resist the nobleman. He knew full well his family would be in danger if he were to escape. He couldn’t imagine putting them in that kind of situation, so he stayed and endured, helping the nobleman make the wicked human-skinned dolls.

The dolls sold out and were well loved by all the noble ladies. Business was good, but because the primary material for making the dolls was so unique, it was impossible to produce them on a large scale, limited as they were to thirty dolls a month. The dolls were snapped up at each release.

The business helped the nobleman regain his wealth and establish connections with other families.

Perhaps because the necromancer book was high-level, but not a single person on the continent could discern the difference in the dolls. This meant the family could maintain the business forever. They were quite happy.

They began pressuring the craftsman to make more dolls. It was impossible though because it had to be made from human skin and tissue.

The pressure from the nobleman upset the craftsman greatly and his desire to escape grew and grew. He regretted having made the first doll.

If he hadn’t done such a wrong thing in the first place, he wouldn’t be in the current situation where he was forced to do all these hurtful things.

He couldn’t bear the pressure from the nobleman. He didn’t want to do such hurtful things to the children and just wanted it all to stop!

He and the nobleman were the only two people who knew the dolls were made from human skin. Those whose flesh were taken didn’t just die, their souls were sealed inside the dolls. And because two dolls could be made from each child, their souls were effectively split in half, with one part of the soul in each doll.