[Prologue] - A Story Thirteen Years Later.
Bang—! Bang—!
Outside the window, in stark contrast to the dark room I was in, dozens of fireworks were being launched into the sky. Beautiful fireworks of every shape and color.
A green firework rose high into the sky beyond the window and burst with a bang, scattering across the black night like stars. It was so beautiful that I unconsciously tilted my head to watch.
As befitted fireworks celebrating a coronation, each and every burst was grand and dazzling. From below the castle, where they must have been holding a celebration party, the faint sound of singing began to drift up.
If I could, I would have liked to go over to the window and watch the fireworks, but right now, I was in no position to do so. I lowered my head and looked at the chair I was sitting in.
“How did it end up like this...?”
My upper body, seated in the chair, was bound with rope. My hands and feet were tied as well, so I could not even stand up from the chair. If there was one blessing in this misfortune, it was that my mouth had not been gagged.
Whenever I struggled to escape my bindings, the wooden chair I was tied to scraped against the marble floor with an unpleasant noise. I let out a sigh and turned my head to look back toward the window.
Thirteen years.
A full thirteen years had passed since I transmigrated into this “child-rearing simulation game,” Snow White. In all that time, I thought I had done my best to raise “Snow White” well, but...
Was the mistake, after all, that I had transmigrated into the “witch,” her stepmother...?
Whether in the game I had entered or in the original fairy tale, Snow White’s stepmother met a horrific death. Dancing in red-hot iron shoes... that sort of terrible end.
At first, I had simply taken care of “Snow White” to avoid such an ending, but now, after so much time had passed, the princess and I had truly become close enough to be called mother and daughter without it sounding strange.
So I had thought I would not die like in the game or the original story, but...
Creak—
As I was turning over my memories as though my life were flashing before my eyes, the door opened, and bright light spilled in, illuminating the dark room. Dazzled by the sudden light, I shut my eyes without thinking.
Click— clack—
The sharp sound of heels striking the marble floor rang through the room. As that piercing sound drew closer, I held my breath and slowly opened my eyes.
Through the open doorway, a woman walked in with the bright light behind her. Her face was all too familiar, and yet for some reason, looking at it today felt strangely foreign.
Hair as black as ebony, skin as white as fresh snow. And atop it all, red eyes that looked as though drops of crimson blood had fallen there stared directly into mine.
The last time I saw her was two years ago...
Before I knew it, the princess had turned twenty and become a fully grown adult.
The face that had once seemed a little young now carried a deeply mature air, and her height, which had been slightly shorter than mine, now seemed to have grown a little taller than me.
Click—
Before I knew it, the princess had come to stand in front of me and roughly seized my chin, forcing it up. At the sharp look in her eyes, as if she were brimming with anger, I involuntarily rolled my eyes away to avoid her gaze.
Even though I had looked away, the princess’s gaze, still fixed intently on me, felt fierce. The hand gripping my chin so roughly began to tighten more and more.
“It really is you, Lady Witch. The Lady Witch who left my side without a word.”
“I, I only did it because of a ‘promise’...”
Squeeze—
When I tried to make an excuse, the princess’s grip tightened even further, as if she did not want to hear a single word of it. With her hand clamping down on my jaw, my cheeks were pushed up, and my mouth was forced open.
“Ah, I see. So the ‘promise’ you made with me can be ignored, but a ‘promise’ you made with someone else has to be kept?”
“.......”
I could not refute a single word the princess said. Just as she had said, the one who had broken only the “promise” made with the princess and slipped out of the royal castle was none other than me.
The hand gripping me as if it would crush my jaw trembled, then finally fell away along with the princess’s sigh. Then she began staring straight into my face again.
“Well, it’s fine now. However it happened, what matters is that you eventually came back here.”
“Wh-why on earth...”
A tearful voice slipped out before I could stop it.
It was true that I had done wrong by not keeping my promise, but I could not understand why the princess was going this far. Did she hate me enough to tie me up with ropes like this?
Hearing the sob in my voice, the princess let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded. Then, unlike before, she carefully lifted the tip of my chin.
“Why, you ask?”
The princess’s thumb brushed over my lips as if smearing them. The moment our eyes met, her eyes curved pleasantly, as though veiling those jewel-like red irises.
“Because you don’t know that, I have no choice but to do this.”
In the gentle crescent curve of her eyes, there was not the slightest trace of malice to be found. Even though she had dragged me here as if kidnapping me, her eyes seemed instead to insist, “This is only natural.”
“If you run away from me one more time, I’ll put a collar around this neck of yours, so keep that in mind.”
“Hk... hngh...”
“Do you understand? Lady Witch? No—”
The princess’s hand, which had been stroking my lips, now slid down and felt along my neck. As her cold fingers brushed over my throat, a chill ran down my spine.
“Mother?”
The princess’s cool fingers felt almost like a collar.
It felt as though they were choking my neck.
Really, how did it end up like this?
Ever since I transmigrated into the body of Snow White’s “stepmother,” I could say with confidence that I had never truly done anything bad to the princess. It was not as though I had a hobby of tormenting children, and I had no desire to follow the original story and die.
I had simply, from the position of her stepmother, done my best to raise “Snow White.”
From the day, thirteen years ago, when I transmigrated into the body of Snow White’s stepmother, “Vivian.”