“Hohoho—nooo! You lose again! Oh, poor Malcavissa. You lost to Cerpolpol again! You’re so bad~ Don’t despair. I still like you.”

Cerpolpol, the plush octopus with the zombie dog head, moved its green pawns with tentacles.

My body responded, moving the yellow pawns around the board on my turn. But it wasn’t me driving it. It was the doll.

I couldn’t understand how she did it. Her power twisted my body. Like I was being manipulated or—by invisible strings and hands.

“I’m sorry, sweet Meerarere. I’m sorry. Would you two like to play another game?”

The words came out of my mouth without me saying them. Since I sat down, my voice and lips had been moving at the doll's will.

She kept making me say ridiculous things and playing with the plush she was petting in her lap.

“Maybe later. Cerpolpol likes this game. One more, please.”

The dog barked and wagged some of its tentacles while rearranging the pieces on the board. Meerarere stroked it behind its floppy ears and held it to her chest.

The doll expressed only positive emotions. She went from mocking smiles to surprise, passing through many moods in between. She didn’t seem rushed, anxious, or nasty.

While we played, she hummed and started fictitious conversations between me and the stuffed animal, pretending to intervene as a mediator.

I tried to stay calm, a prisoner of my body.

My shadow explored the surroundings and studied the situation. I needed information.

She didn’t care and perhaps didn’t notice.

Her magic didn’t follow the rules I knew—if it was magic. It had no focal points, nor did it seem tied to anything in physical reality.

The possibility that she was mentally manipulating me—or causing me to hallucinate—wasn’t out of the question. But if that were the case, then it would mean that I was dealing with a sorceress with abilities equal to, if not greater than, those I had in life.

A shiver shook me, but my body didn’t move, and the feeling of unease froze in my back. I couldn’t do anything.

Even the goosebumps remained at a subcutaneous level, annoyingly unable to manifest without the approval of that doll.

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For the first time, I was as scared as I was helpless. No, it wasn’t the first time.

I moved a flag over the border of the territories in half of the board.

“Oh, Malcavissa. So, you were scared as a child?”

My breath caught. Had Meerarere just read my thoughts? So—

“These are sad subjects. Freeing ourselves from these burdens would be nice when we play, right?”

“Right, right,” Cerpolpol intervened. “Malcavissa is telling the truth. These are sad subjects, best left out of the game table.”

Why this farce? Because—

“In any case, I was beaten as a child, and, at that time, they destroyed a toy that my father had given me. It was the only toy I ever had.”

“Owh~” Meerarere’s expression became sorrowful. She hugged Cerpolpol, who gasped as if out of air. “How sad! Toys exist to comfort children, and you—and you—and you—were deprived of them in such a cruel way!”

The doll began to sob, crying iridescent tears.

I was confused and frightened. What I had said was true, but the doll had made me say it. If she could read my mind, why ridicule me like that? Why cry?

I had no idea what to do. Paralysis rules my body.

Cerpolpol picked up a lace handkerchief from the floor to wipe away the doll’s tears. She was hugging it, leaning over, not ready to stop.

Meerarere calmed down and suddenly beamed again.

“You are so lucky, Malcavissa!”

“Really?”

She nodded, closing her eyes.

“Yes, because people are judged that way after death. Depending on how they treat toys in childhood, a person runs for either toy heaven or hell. No half measures, no room for appeal.”

I wanted to ask what the hell she was saying. This topic all sounded stupid. What did it mean that life after death was decided by how a child treated toys?

No matter how hard I tried, a force greater than my will made me smile and clap my hands.

“But that’s sounds great!”

“Yes, it is! You protected your only toy, so you have the right to choose. It’s so nice to see people happy; that’s what toys are for. No matter how sad the moment is, we are always there. We are available, always smiling, and ready to help those in need. True, we can’t do much else. But we are for comfort people, and we don’t ask for anything in return.”

“But I defended it and cried when they broke it. I cried for the beatings at the time, but in the days that followed, I cried more for the grief.”

“Aww, you were so sweet!”

My level of discomfort increased and increased. Everything Meerarere said was disturbing. Everything she forced me to say was grotesque.

I vaguely remembered that day. I, the mighty Malcavissa, promised myself that nothing like this would happen again and that I would have no more toys.

But other than that—

“Well. Now, you will have to pass just one small test.”

Meerarere bent down to set Cerpolpol on the ground. The plush walked out of my field of vision.

The doll adjusted the ribbons in her hair and the bows in her dress. She took a coin out of her sleeve and placed it in the center of the table.

“So, sweet Malcavissa, this is your decision. Heads, you will stay in heaven. Tails, you will go to hell. You can choose who will toss.”

“You are very kind to let me choose. You toss.”

“You are entitled to it. I toss~!”