[Episode 129] - Escape (1)
Two days had already passed since my reunion with Titania. In other words, two days had passed since Titania became queen, and it also meant that I had already been living here for two days.
To be precise, I had been confined here.
Though to be honest, I still wasn’t sure if this truly counted as confinement.
Titania had only told me not to leave her side, and after the coronation ceremony, she hadn’t tied me up or anything. She even let me go on walks when possible. The door wasn’t locked, and I was able to meet the maids as well.
Besides, it was far too cozy a room to call it imprisonment. Unlike the narrow bed I had used in the countryside, there was a wide bed, a pretty table, and even dresses—the very clothes I had worn in the past—were all here.
On top of that, there were the novels Titania sometimes brought me when she came by, and all sorts of things scattered here and there for me to play with when I was alone. I don’t think I had felt bored even once over the past two days.
But as they say, humans are creatures of adaptation. After finally adapting to the countryside over the course of two years, being dragged back to the royal castle and made to live in luxury like this made me feel as if thorns were sprouting on my back.
In any case, I had worried a lot after coming here, but nothing in particular had happened. No, to be exact, nothing had happened at all. Titania had only come to visit from time to time, and other than that, I had been alone.
Neither Veronica nor Ainsel came to see me, and not even Katarina, who was supposed to protect me, appeared. Perhaps they couldn’t come. Especially since there was no “mirror” in this room, Ainsel definitely couldn’t come.
‘...What should I do now?’
Sitting on the bed, I let out a small sigh and turned my head to look out the window. Was staying here really the right answer? No, there was no way it could be. No matter how I thought about it, Titania’s actions had gone too far.
No matter how much she wanted to see me, there was no other way to explain her drugging me and bringing me here except that she had gone too far. As if to prove she really was “Snow White,” I never imagined she would prepare a poisoned apple...
‘In the fairy tale, the witch fed Snow White the poisoned apple, but here, Snow White feeds the witch a poisoned apple...’
Resting my chin on my hand with a groan, I lay back on the bed for a moment and sighed. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t wanted to see Titania. On the contrary, I had missed her just as much as she had missed me.
But I couldn’t meet Titania just because I wanted to. Because if I stayed by Titania’s side, I felt as though I would indulge every bit of her childishness. Because I loved that child.
And because Titania relied too much on me, even though I wasn’t her real mother. Because she loved me, her adoptive mother, too much. Because even after becoming the queen of a nation, there was no sign of that changing.
That was why I couldn’t meet Titania. For Titania to leave me, become independent, and grow into an adult, my existence could no longer remain by her side.
‘But even if I tell her now, she won’t listen at all...’
In truth, every time we met, I had told Titania this several times. That I shouldn’t be by her side. That she relied on me too much. That for her sake, I had to leave her side.
But Titania refused to listen to me. She said absolutely not. That, on the contrary, she needed me. That I had to always stay by her side. That if I ran away one more time, she would never forgive me.
‘Did her obsession get this bad because I left without saying anything...? But even if I had told her back then, Titania would never have listened. And besides...’
If I had told her directly, Titania would certainly have tried to hold me back. She would have cried and clung to me, begging me not to leave. And even so, I would have shaken off that Titania and left the royal castle.
If that had happened, then I truly would have abandoned Titania. I had been afraid of that, so I couldn’t say anything to her. I had merely tried to lessen my own guilt with a single letter.
I had thought Titania would understand me someday. Because she was my daughter, because she was a child who would soon become queen, because she was smarter than me—I thought Titania would surely understand why I had left.
But the answer that came back was this situation, with me drugged and kidnapped. This time, too, she had threatened me, saying that if I ran away from her side again, she wouldn’t forgive me. She could forgive it twice, but there would be no third time.
I know. I know I’m selfish. I know that I, who couldn’t overcome my guilt and ran away after leaving Titania only a single letter, am selfish and a bad person. But this—this isn’t right.
“No matter what, kidnapping someone is just wrong...”
Frustrated, I let out a sigh and rubbed my face. Then, suddenly, a truly frightening thought occurred to me. Don’t tell me I was going to live here like this for the rest of my life? Confined here for my entire life?
I tried to laugh it off, thinking that sweet Titania would never do something like that, but then I wondered if the current Titania might actually be capable of it. She was a child who had drugged and even kidnapped me. So...
‘F-for now, I need to get outside and meet someone else.’
Somehow, I had to let people know that I was here. The best method I could think of right now was meeting the other ministers. I had to let them know that I was in the royal castle, breaking the promise I had made with them.
‘Th-then they’ll definitely try to drive me out, right? No matter how much it’s Titania, she won’t be able to just dismiss the ministers’ opposition outright. So...’
First, I felt that I had to put some distance between myself and Titania. No matter what, I couldn’t stay under Titania, who seemed intent on keeping me here for life like some pet. We needed to separate from each other and have time to think.
‘Titania is too agitated right now. If we talk after she cools her head a little, surely she’ll understand me, won’t she? She definitely will. I’ll promise not to run away from the capital, and we’ll just stay apart for a little while.’
When I thought about who might be able to help me, only one person came to mind after all. Because right now, in the royal castle, this person was the only one I could trust the most.
“Vincho... help me...!”
*
When I tried to leave the castle to meet Vincho, the maid in charge of this place blocked my way. I pleaded that I wanted to go for a walk, but the maid looked at me coldly and continued in a blunt tone.
“I apologize, but Her Highness the Queen Consort cannot leave this castle.”
“N-no, why? I’m just going for a walk. Yesterday, I definitely...”
“Yesterday, you were with Her Majesty. It is Her Majesty’s order that Her Highness the Queen Consort is not to be allowed outside the castle alone. Please return to your room.”
At the maid’s firm tone, I had no choice but to go back to my room. The place where I was staying was not the “main castle” where I had usually lived. Should I call it an annex? It was a little distance away from the main castle.
That meant that in order to get to the main castle where Vincho was, I had to get out of this place somehow. But how? Because the maid was stopping me, I couldn’t leave the castle, and I couldn’t even go to the garden right in front of it.
“It’s not like I’m Rapunzel or anything...”
In a situation where I couldn’t take a single step outside the castle unless Titania was with me, I looked out the window and let out a deep sigh. Wait, Rapunzel? Come to think of it, if it was Rapunzel, then surely...
I whipped my head around and looked at the large bedsheet lying on my bed. The room I was in was on the third floor. If I simply fell, it was high enough that I would break my legs, but if I tied bedsheets together and climbed down, it was a height I could manage.
I swallowed dryly and steeled my resolve. Even if I couldn’t meet Vincho directly, if I went outside the castle and caused a commotion, that would be my victory. My goal was to make it known that I was here.
When I lifted my head and looked at the sky, fortunately, it was the time when the sun had begun to sink. Thinking that it was the perfect time to hide in the darkness, I quickly tied the ends of the bedsheets tightly together, making a long rope.
And then, after waiting for the outside to grow dark—
“Titania, I’m really sorry, but...”
After tying five bedsheets together into one long length, I ran straight to the terrace and fastened it to the railing. After confirming that it was tied securely, I lowered the long line of bedsheets down from the terrace.
“No matter how I think about it, this just isn’t right...”
I lowered my head and checked the height again. Perhaps because it had gotten dark, I couldn’t see the ground clearly, and for some reason, it looked even higher than before. I wondered if I might die if I fell, but...
“So let’s take just a little time to think, the both of us.”
I gritted my teeth, steeled myself, and began to cling to the bedsheets. Just as I was about to slowly climb down, I heard from afar that Titania had arrived here, from the outer side of the castle.
Realizing there was no time, I slid down the rope just like that. I felt sorry for running away again, but if I didn’t do at least this much, Titania wouldn’t listen to me.
Shrrrk—
After descending to the first floor on the bedsheets, the moment my feet touched the ground, I began to run. Was this how escaped convicts in movies felt? My heart was trembling violently, and yet, for some reason, I found myself laughing.
*
“Mother?”
Titania, who had naturally entered Vivian’s room, found herself unable to say a word upon seeing the state of the room. Her mother, who should have been inside, was nowhere to be found, and beyond the terrace, a long line of bedsheets stretched down from the railing. It seemed she had used that to flee from here.
“Ha.”
Should I really have tied her up? Looking at the bedsheets fluttering from the railing, Titania could only let out a hollow laugh. The reason Titania had not tied Vivian up until now was out of consideration for her mother.
It was her own form of consideration, allowing her at least to move freely within the castle. But her mother had kicked that consideration away with her own feet. At this point, Titania wondered if she had deliberately set out to provoke her.
“...Fine. So you intend to keep acting like this until the end, is that it?”
Turning her head, Titania looked at the maid waiting behind her. Frightened by the situation, the maid began trembling like an aspen leaf. Titania had no particular intention of blaming the maid, so after letting out a sigh, she gave her an order.
“Bring me ‘that’ thing I ordered last time.”
“Y-yes...!”
As soon as she received the order, the maid dashed outside in an instant.
Watching her go, Titania approached the terrace where the bedsheets stretched down in a long line. When she lowered her head and looked below the terrace, the darkness was deep enough that she could hardly see the ground, and it frightened her slightly.
“If she had made one mistake, she really might have died...”
Did that mean being trapped here was worse than death?
Did that mean she would rather die than stay by my side?
‘...First, when she comes back, I’ll have to punish her for running away as she pleased.’
A punishment severe enough that she wouldn’t even think of running away for a while. A punishment harsh enough that she would never again think of doing something this insane. Only if she did that, Titania felt, would this anger be relieved.
Titania let out a small sigh and turned away from the terrace. To be honest, it didn’t matter if her mother ran away. After all, no matter how far her mother ran from here, she was still in the palm of Titania’s hand. If anything, Titania almost looked forward to seeing just how far she could flee.
“...Go on, then. If you want to run, try running. If you want to avoid me, try avoiding me until the very end.”
Titania gave a faint laugh, the corner of her mouth lifting. She simply couldn’t understand why her mother kept trying to turn her into such a wicked daughter. Was it truly so difficult to just stay quietly by her side?
“Because no matter what it takes, I’ll find you and bring you back.”