The Inn Beyond Time and Space

Eileen's cursing was surprisingly colorful.

Adrian Wells couldn't fathom how a doll sealed in a painting could have such an extensive vocabulary—and to keep swearing so fluently while sliding down the stairs without even pausing for breath. Maybe it was because she didn't actually need to breathe, being a doll and all.

Still, Adrian remained unperturbed. After Eileen's frame reached the bottom of the stairs and her tirade continued unabated, he leisurely made his way down, gripping the handrail and moving at a snail's pace—mainly because his back still hurt. When he finally reached the first floor, he bent down with some effort to pick up her painting.

"You're insane!" Eileen yelled, clutching her stuffed bear tightly. Her crimson eyes glared at him, and her hair and dress were in disarray. "Who throws someone down the stairs like that? What if the frame broke?"

"My back hurts, and your frame is too heavy to carry," Adrian replied matter-of-factly, slowly making his way toward the dining room. "Besides, I've checked—your frame is solid. If it did break, maybe you'd finally escape from the painting."

"If it were that easy, I wouldn't still be stuck in here!" Eileen fumed, slumping back into her chair. "Ugh, my head's spinning…"

Adrian stopped abruptly and lowered his gaze to study the girl in the painting intently.

Eileen shivered under his scrutiny. "W-What are you looking at? I'm warning you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I'll haunt your dreams! When you dream about exams, I'll make alarms ring. When you dream about playing games, I'll pull the plug. When you dream about going out, I'll chase you with a truck. And if you dream about romance, I'll—"

How could this cursed doll have so much trash to talk?

Adrian clenched his teeth, resisting the urge to haul her back upstairs and toss her down again. With a serious expression, he forced himself to stay calm. "I just want to ask about the nature of this 'seal' you mentioned. What exactly does it take to break it and free you?"

Eileen didn't expect this question. She froze for a moment, staring at him in disbelief. "You… You're willing to help me get out of here?"

"You're the one who said you needed help escaping, aren't you?" Adrian frowned, quickly adding, "I'm just asking for now. I haven't agreed to anything yet."

But it seemed Eileen hadn't heard the second half of his sentence. She quickly blurted out, "There are three—no, two ways! The best option is to find my original body. I don't know where it is, but it must be somewhere… probably not far from this painting. If you find my body and bring me near it, I can escape from this cursed frame."

"And if we can't find it? Or if your original body has been destroyed?" Adrian asked, his voice calm and steady.

"Then we'll have to use the second method: build me a new one," Eileen replied. "But a new body wouldn't work as well as my original one—it'd take time to adapt, and it wouldn't be as…"

"How do we build a new one?" Adrian interrupted. "Can I just buy a doll from a store?"

"Of course not!" Eileen snapped, glaring at him. "I'm one of Alice's Dolls! Blessed living dolls! How could you compare me to those three-quarter or quarter-scale plastic things from a shop?"

She paused, her expression growing more serious as she continued, "Living dolls like me are born in the Garden of Alice, and our original bodies come from there. But I've lost my connection to the garden, and I can't leave this painting, so I can't return there for a rebirth. Even so, there's an emergency process to create a temporary body in the mortal world… but even for a temporary body, it's not an easy task."

"First, you need hair that grows on its own, soil that moves like a living creature, bones from a corpse that can break and heal themselves, and a drop of a living doll's tear—two drops if you want better skin. Then, you have to use alchemy to reanimate these materials and…"

Adrian's face grew darker as she spoke.

"…And then you smear the blood of the—hey, why are you making that face?" Eileen asked, looking a little alarmed.

Adrian stared at her for a long moment before sighing. "Let's talk about finding your original body instead, shall we?"

Eileen blinked, tilting her head. "You don't know alchemy?"

"Is that something everyone's supposed to know?!" Adrian exclaimed, his frustration spilling over. "And let's not even talk about alchemy. Where am I supposed to find those ridiculous materials you listed? Did you pull that list straight out of some third-rate fantasy magazine? 'Tears of a living doll'—if I could find another living doll, I'd just hand you and your painting over to them and let them deal with it!"

Adrian considered himself a newcomer to this strange "world." He barely understood the eerie shadows and the supernatural elements lurking beneath their surface. But from everything he had seen and heard, the materials Eileen described weren't things ordinary people could access. How could she just casually rattle off such an outrageous list?

Eileen seemed a little embarrassed by his reaction. She shifted in her chair, her voice lowering. "Well… you could also just use other materials. Clay, paint, wigs… things you can buy online…"

Adrian: "…"

He shot her a look that screamed, Are you messing with me?

Eileen shrank back, clutching her bear. "I just thought it'd be nice to have a decent body… but if gold-standard materials are out, even a basic one will do."

"Even with basic materials, you'd still need blood and some alchemy," she added quickly. "I can teach you—it's easy enough for ordinary people to learn…"

Adrian didn't respond right away. He seemed to be lost in thought. After several seconds, he finally said, "You were about to say there are three ways. What's the third method, and why didn't you mention it?"

"…That one's not ideal. It comes at a cost," Eileen admitted, waving a hand dismissively. "You wouldn't agree to it, and I don't want you to try it anyway. After all, we barely know each other."

"Then don't waste my time with so much chatter," Adrian retorted, shooting her an annoyed look.

Eileen pursed her lips, looking uncharacteristically cautious. "So… will you help me escape? The second method isn't hard. You could even make a crude body—doesn't have to be perfect. As long as the ritual is correct, I can reshape it once I'm inside. Just… don't make it too ugly. It has to look human, at least."

Adrian didn't argue or joke this time. He fell silent, thinking deeply for nearly half a minute before replying seriously, "I can't promise anything yet. I need time to consider."

He didn't trust her—not entirely.

Despite her earnest demeanor, chatterbox nature, and harmless-seeming personality, all of it was just surface-level. At her core, Eileen was still a strange and supernatural entity sealed inside a painting.

Adrian wasn't about to let her charming appearance sway him into recklessly creating a body for her. What if she turned on him the moment she was free?

Adrian had already died once recently. He wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

Eileen, however, didn't seem upset by his response. She simply looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I understand."

Adrian was surprised. He'd expected her to argue or throw a tantrum, but her reaction was unexpectedly… mature.

"After all, we don't know each other very well yet, right?" she added with a playful smile, winking at him from inside the painting. "I'll ask you again once we're closer."

"…We'll see," Adrian replied with a faint smile of his own.

He carried Eileen's painting to the dining room and propped it upright against the wall before heading to the kitchen.

"I haven't had dinner yet," he said. "I need to cook."

"Alright… Oh! Can you turn on the TV across the table first? I want to watch something."

"You're so demanding," Adrian grumbled, but he turned on the TV anyway before grabbing the groceries he'd bought earlier and heading to the kitchen.

Cooking was one of Adrian's favorite things to do. Ever since arriving in this strange and familiar "Boundary City," he had insisted on cooking every meal himself. It was the one thing that brought him peace in a world filled with unsettling shadows.

He didn't mind encountering eerie figures while walking through the city, but he wouldn't tolerate interruptions during cooking or eating. These were sacred moments in his life.

Though now, even his "safe house" had acquired an odd tenant—Eileen.

Still, compared to the shadowy figures lurking in the city's streets, the freezing rain, or the giant frogs, this talkative, unlucky doll trapped in a painting was almost endearing.

At least she wouldn't rip his heart out.