The Seven Deadly Sins IF: The Sloth Fairy King and the Doll Princess Who Never Knew Love
A doll with a heart, awakened by accident. A fairy king with a heart, paralyzed by fear. When Gowther unearths a porcelain princess from the depths of the Fairy King's Forest, King feels an inexplicable ache—a pull toward the silent, beautiful doll that he cannot name. But as her glass eyes begin to flicker with something like life, and her tiny hands reach for a warmth she's never known, King must confront a question he's avoided for five hundred years: what does it truly mean to love, and be l
The Seven Deadly Sins IF: The Sloth Fairy King and the Doll Princess Who Never Knew Love - A Doll Princess Arrives at the Boar Hat! ~The 700-Year-Old Fairy King Loses at Love and Stays in Bed for Three Days~
" Five hundred years of unrequited love, and the guy she turned down locks himself in his futon and cries for three days straight! That's rich, I tell ya!"
Ban's booming laughter echoed through the ground floor of the traveling tavern, the Boar Hat. Behind the counter, the silver-haired man clutched his stomach, a tankard of his special ale raised high. It was morning, yet the place was already packed with regulars. The wooden floor had been polished so many times it gleamed honey-gold, and the walls were haphazardly hung with old weapons and maps gathered from every corner of the land.
This traveling tavern, currently parked on the outskirts of Liones Kingdom in the center of Britannia, looked at first glance like any other two-story wooden pub. But few knew it was one of the bases of the Seven Deadly Sins—the legendary knightly order once hailed as Liones's strongest, now restored to honor. The first floor held a counter and about ten round stools; upstairs were four lodging rooms for the members. The special ale brewed by the owner, Ban, cost five shillings a mug, and merchants and informants traveling the continent flocked here for its famous taste.
" Ugh, would you knock it off...!"
In the corner of the counter, a black-haired boy had his face planted on the wood, bright red. His long black hair, tied back, drooped limply over his shoulders. His fairy garb of white and green was fine cloth, but now it was a crumpled mess of wrinkles. The small wings on his back lay flat, as if mirroring their master's mood. A tiny piercing in his left ear caught the morning sun through the window and glinted.
King. Third Fairy King, and a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. His strength was the real deal—but right now he looked, from any angle, like nothing more than a sulking child.
" Three days? You haven't crawled out of bed for three whole days—what kind of maiden are you?"
" I-it's not like that! I was just thinking about stuff!"
King shot upright and protested, his amber eyes glistening. This seven-hundred-year-old Fairy King was normally gentle and easygoing—a devoted man who would lay down his life for his comrades. But when it came to matters of love, he was hopelessly weak.
Five hundred years. He had loved Diane for five hundred years.
Diane, the giant girl, was everything to King. They had first met long ago, near the ruins of the giants by the Fairy King's Forest—around the place called the Drole's Ring. The days he'd spent with her while she had lost her memories were King's greatest treasure. Even after she joined the Seven Deadly Sins, his feelings had never once wavered.
And yet.
—King, you're such a good friend.
Every time he remembered those words, something deep in his chest clenched tight. He knew Diane had meant no harm. She had simply said it, honestly. That only made it hurt more.
" ...But Diane said—she said I'm a good friend..."
" Hah! Just picturing your face when she said it is killing me. You froze right there on the spot and then keeled over, didn't you?"
" H-how do you know that!?"
" Hawk reported it with great delight. While scarfing down scraps."
From under the counter came an oink—a thoroughly dopey sound.
" Man, King's face back then was an absolute masterpiece. Worth three plates of scraps, easy."
The one who emerged saying this was a small, talking pig. A round pink body, and absurdly round, beady eyes. The Boar Hat's scrap-disposal officer and its signature mascot. Foul-mouthed, but somehow impossible to hate. Hawk hopped up onto the stool beside King and nudged a carrot on the table with his snout.
" Here, eat a carrot and cheer up. If you've got time to mope, help me process scraps."
" Process scraps... I'm the Fairy King, you know."
King sighed, still slumped over the table. Outside the window, people were passing by on their way to the morning market. The capital of Liones was half a day away by carriage. This area was peaceful farmland, and in the distance he could see patrols of Holy Knights.
The Holy Knights—Liones Kingdom's military order, some two thousand knights strong. Entry required magical aptitude, and the pass rate was a narrow fifteen percent of applicants. They were the same order that had once hounded King and the Seven Deadly Sins on false charges, but now they were allies.
" Seriously, how long are you gonna mope? You're the Fairy King. The king who rules the Fairy King's Forest—do you really have time to lie around over a little heartbreak?"
Ban spoke while wiping a tankard, exasperated. At his words, King slowly pushed himself up.
" ...You don't get it, Ban. Five hundred years. Five hundred years of loving her, and I'm 'a good friend.'"
" Yeah, yeah. I had my share of stuff back when I was immortal. Still—I'm not entirely ignorant of how a long unrequited love stings."
For just a moment, Ban's eyes went distant. He, too, had a love that had never been returned. King knew about his past—how he'd drunk from the Fountain of Youth in the Fairy King's Forest and become immortal, and about the lover he'd tried to revive even at the cost of losing that power.
But now wasn't the time to bring that up.
" ...Do you think Diane doesn't feel anything for me at all?"
" Who knows. The heart of a giant woman—what would we fairies know about that? Besides, you haven't even confessed, have you? Moping just because she called you a friend—how delicate can you be?"
" Ugh...! B-but confessing... if she hated me for it, I might never get to be with her again..."
" Come on. You've been together five hundred years—there's no way she's gonna hate you now. It's about time you charged in, ready to get shot down."
King bent his mouth into a sulky frown and hugged his tankard of ale with both hands. The amber liquid swayed. The sound of bubbles popping was strangely loud in his ears.
A fairy's lifespan is eight hundred to a thousand years. King had already lived seven hundred. What remained, in human terms, was maybe ten years or so. And yet he couldn't say a single word.
The law of the Fairy King's Forest—do not interfere in conflicts beyond the forest. That was the shackle King had carried since birth. To protect the forest as its king, while traveling the continent as a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. He had borne that contradiction all this time. He wanted to be with Diane. But he also had his duty as the forest's king.
Caught between the two, for five hundred years.
" Hahh... What am I supposed to do?"
Just as King heaved a deep sigh—
The tavern door swung slowly open.
" Hello. King, and Ban. I found something rather interesting—would you take a look?"
The one who appeared was a beautiful, androgynous boy with soft pink hair swaying around his face. Behind round glasses, gentle purple eyes blinked quietly. He was tall, his slender frame wrapped in simple clothes.
Gowther. A member of the Seven Deadly Sins, bearer of the sin of Lust. His true nature: a doll given a heart, created long ago by a sorcerer of the Ten Commandments. He was poor at reading the nuances of emotion and always marched to his own beat. But his curiosity sometimes brought in things beyond all imagining.
King looked up. Something was cradled in Gowther's arms. Something small, wrapped in white cloth.
" Gowther, what's that?"
" I found it deep in the Fairy King's Forest, by the spring called Tiara's Tear. It's very old."
Gowther set the bundle gently on the counter. Ban leaned in with interest. Hawk stretched his neck from his stool too.
The white cloth slipped away.
What lay there was a small doll.
A lovely princess made of porcelain, about sixteen inches tall. White-porcelain hair flowed straight to her shoulders, and large glass-bead eyes shone pale sky-blue. Delicate flower patterns were carved into the hem of her dress, and a silver ring adorned one tiny hand. She was so beautiful it was hard to believe she had slept deep in the forest for years.
The moment King laid eyes on her, something deep in his chest ached with a strange, sharp pang.
A pain he didn't recognize. And yet, somehow, familiar.
" ...What the hell is this? That's one insanely detailed doll."
" That's no ordinary doll."
A woman had come down from upstairs without anyone noticing and now approached the counter. Clad in jet-black robes, long black hair swaying—a bewitching beauty. Merlin, hailed as Britannia's greatest sorcerer, gazed at the doll and pressed a slender finger to its forehead.
A faint light enveloped the doll's body.
" ...I see. This bears the trace of the forbidden art used by Gowther of the Ten Commandments—the Doll Possession spell."
" Doll Possession—that one?"
" Magic that instills a pseudo-heart into an inorganic object. Originally a technique for crafting puppets. But this one... a self-awareness has awakened in it by accident. Even the caster likely never intended it."
At Merlin's words, the tavern fell dead silent.
A doll with a heart. The same kind of being as Gowther himself.
" Now that's interesting. A doll with a heart—never heard of such a thing."
" Its duration and side effects are unknown. Handled poorly, the heart could break."
Merlin stated it flatly. In her voice was just a hint of interest.
King couldn't take his eyes off the doll. Porcelain skin, sky-blue eyes, small lips. A quiet face, as if she were sleeping.
Then—the doll's eyelids twitched.
" Whoa!? It moved!?"
Hawk leaped off his stool. King caught his breath without thinking.
Slowly, the doll's eyes opened. Pale sky-blue irises gazed vaguely at the ceiling, then slowly wandered around. The counter, the bottles, Ban, Hawk, Merlin, Gowther. And—King.
The doll's gaze stopped on King's face.
" You... you look at me as though you're sad."
Her voice was clear as a bell.
King's heart gave a great, heavy throb. They had only just met, and yet something deep in his chest burned. His amber eyes met the doll's sky-blue ones.
" I—I look sad...?"
" Yes. Deep in your eyes, I can see a profound sorrow. You're longing for someone, but it doesn't reach them, and it hurts. ...That's the look you have."
King was speechless.
A doll had seen right through him. The heart he'd been nursing over Diane—read in a single glance.
Perhaps because her heart was newly born, she could see it. She read emotion straight from King's expression. A pure, direct heart that couldn't hide a thing.
" Pfft! You're getting hit on by a doll!"
" King, you—even a doll can see your heartbreak! That's priceless!"
" W-why are you laughing at that!? I'm not getting hit on!"
King shouted, face bright red. The wings on his back fluttered in flustered agitation.
Charlotte watched King's flustered state in silence. Her sky-blue eyes glimmered.
" I'm sorry. Did I say something rude? ...I still don't quite understand. How my own heart is moving."
" Oh—no, it's just... it's not rude, exactly..."
King fumbled for words, averting his gaze from the doll. Even the tips of his ears burned.
What was this feeling? Different from the nervousness he felt talking to Diane. More like a tickle deep in his chest—a restless, unsettled warmth.
" Charlotte. That is this doll's name."
" Charlotte?"
" There was a stone monument by the spring of Tiara's Tear, carved with that name. Most likely the name of the doll's owner."
Charlotte. The name of an old doll princess.
King rolled the name around in his mind once more. Why? It was the first time he'd heard it, and yet it fit strangely well.
That was when it happened.
Hawk's eyes suddenly blazed with golden light.
" Wh-what the!? My eyes...!?"
Hawk frantically rubbed his face with his front hooves. But the golden light didn't fade. His eyes shone emptily, as if staring at something far away.
And then Hawk's mouth began to move, entirely against his own will.
" ...Report. A doll with a heart confirmed in the Fairy King's Forest. An accidental product of the forbidden art of Gowther of the Ten Commandments. Cu
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