[Episode 44] - Now It’s Time to Part (2)
“I really hate it!!!”
Whoosh—Fran’s wrist, which the princess had flung away, flew straight up. Fran caught it again as if it were nothing, fitted it back onto her arm, and looked at the princess, who had hidden behind my legs.
Really... if anything, it was a very Fran-like farewell, but...
“Now, Titania. It’s not as if Fran’s mischief is anything new, is it?”
“......”
At this rate, the farewells would never end, so I lifted the princess from where she was hiding behind me and set her down in front of Fran. The princess stuck out her lips and busied herself avoiding Fran’s gaze.
Every time Fran looked at the princess to meet her eyes, the princess turned her head in the opposite direction. After their heads had whipped back and forth a few times, the princess staggered in place as if she were dizzy.
When there was no sign of a conversation beginning, Fran stared at me quietly.
“Would it be all right if I spoke with the princess alone for a moment?”
“...All right. I’ll be right outside the door, so tell me when you’re done. Ainsel, you go back into my earring too.”
—Yes, understood. See you in a bit, Princess.
Even as I turned to leave the room, the princess said nothing. She simply hung her head and clutched her skirt tightly. If she truly disliked Fran, she would have run to me at once, telling me not to go.
Perhaps what the princess truly hated was not Fran, but the “parting” itself.
It had been only a short time, barely a month, but Fran and the princess seemed to have grown more attached than I had imagined. They had spent long hours together during dance lessons, and mischievous Fran had been busy teasing the princess every single time.
This was only my guess, but...
At such a young age, the princess had already experienced many farewells. So perhaps parting from Fran, whom she had grown fond of, was painful for her.
Slowly, I opened the door and slipped out of the room. Through the gap of the slowly closing door, I saw Fran wiping away the princess’s tears as they began to fall, drop by drop.
Seeing that, I felt there was no longer any need to worry.
*
Drop by drop, tears rolled down Titania’s cheeks, and Fran wiped them away with her fingers. Crouching in front of Titania, Fran gently lifted her head and looked at Titania as she swallowed back her tears.
“Princess.”
Even at Fran’s call, Titania only hiccuped and sobbed, tears falling. As Fran watched her, she stroked Titania’s hair and lifted the corners of her mouth into a smile.
“Do you remember what I told you last time? That I dream of harmony between fairies and humans.”
Titania nodded slightly. She remembered when she had run away from the terribly harsh lessons, when they had made a secret base inside the room and hidden there together, talking.
“It sounded grand when I said it, but in truth, it is not such a grand dream. I simply—”
Fran’s hand, which had been gently stroking Titania’s hair, slowly moved down and brushed Titania’s cheek. At the gesture, Titania raised her head slightly and looked up at Fran.
“I wanted to become friends with humans. Back when I was a fairy, I was a ‘house fairy’ who lived hidden in people’s homes and helped them.”
Fran began to speak of the time before she had gained a human body, when she had still been a fairy. Titania swallowed down the tears dripping from her eyes and quietly began listening to Fran’s story.
“A house fairy is a fairy who lives in an old house and helps the humans who dwell there. Wearing a pure white silk dress, they do housework and errands, striving to be of help to the humans they live with. All so that they may become family, or perhaps friends, with them.”
Fran fluttered the maid uniform she was wearing and showed it off to Titania. Swaying her skirt lightly, she spun around once, then stopped in place and offered an elegant curtsy.
“But no matter how hard I tried, no matter how diligently I helped them, they did not think of me as family. After all, they could not see me.”
Devotion without compensation, effort without reward.
Remembering her time as a house fairy, Fran wore a bitter expression.
“And so I wished to become human. I truly wanted to become their ‘family.’ I wanted to become their ‘friend.’ That was why I made a request of my father, ‘Victor Franken Stein.’”
Fran took Titania’s hand and placed it over her heart. Thump, thump. Feeling Fran’s heartbeat, beating no differently from that of a real “human,” Titania looked at Fran.
“But even though I gained a human body, becoming friends with humans was difficult. In truth, I have never once become friends with another human until now. Perhaps it is because I became half-baked as both ‘human and fairy.’ Everyone avoided me.”
“What about the other witches...?”
“They have a ‘business’ relationship with me. I treat fairies and receive compensation in return. I am the fairies’ ‘doctor,’ after all. To call them friends would be... very difficult. At most, they would be ‘coworkers.’”
As she said that everyone avoided her, Fran pulled off her wrist and waved it at Titania. When Titania frowned at the sight, Fran fitted her wrist back on again.
Fran placed the reattached wrist on top of Titania’s head and slowly stroked her hair with a smile. Looking at Fran, who had begun treating her more and more like a child, Titania puffed out her cheeks slightly.
“So... Princess, you are my first friend.”
“First friend...”
“Yes, my first friend. In all the long years I have lived, as both fairy and human, you are the only ‘human’ who has ever called me a friend.”
Being called a “first friend,” Titania felt something ticklish stir in her chest, and the corners of her lips rose slightly in a smile. Fran did not miss the opening; she squished the princess’s cheeks and lifted the corners of her mouth with her fingers.
Looking at Titania’s now-ugly face, Fran laughed.
Brightly, radiantly.
“I read in a book that when friends part, they send each other off with smiles. So please don’t cry. Even without an invitation, I will come to see you again.”
“...Really?”
“Yes. When I do, I will bring plenty of delicious foods and toys from where I live. Or perhaps many of the unusual objects I have received from other witches as payment. So—”
Fran gently embraced Titania and patted her back. Then, as if the sobs she had barely been holding back were about to burst forth, Titania’s eyes reddened and filled with tears.
“When we meet next, please be sure to greet me with a smile, Titania.”
“Okay...!”
Burying her face in Fran’s shoulder, Titania smiled as she cried.
“You have to keep your promise to come see me...!”
*
“Are you really sure you don’t need to receive anything? I’d like to give you something in return for treating Ainsel...”
“It is all right. I did not do this in hopes of such a thing.”
Fran shook her head at my words and slowly opened the wardrobe door. When I asked why on earth the wardrobe door was a passage, she said this was a “fairy bypath,” a “road” ordinary witches used when traveling.
Apparently, because such a convenient thing existed, they could meet even while living in distant regions... If only I could learn that “bypath,” I felt like I might be able to sneak out of this royal palace, so I asked her to teach me, but...
“The fairy bypath is truly complicated and treacherous. If you set even one foot wrong, you may wander the fairy bypath forever. It is that difficult a method, so I recommend learning it later, after you have accumulated a little more knowledge as a witch.”
Fran shook her head and said she could not teach me yet.
Fran, who had placed one foot inside the wardrobe, turned her head and looked down at the princess. Perhaps still reluctant to part, the princess stuck out her lips and glanced sideways at Fran again and again.
Watching her, Fran held out her hand, saying they should exchange one last farewell. The princess, nervous that her wrist might come off again, gently took Fran’s hand and shook it up and down.
“Hoho, next time I shall think up a Fran joke that will surprise Titania even more.”
“...I don’t need one.”
At the princess’s prim voice, Fran raised the corners of her mouth even higher and smiled. Once Fran and the princess’s hands parted, Fran stood inside the wardrobe and looked at me.
“Vivian, Ainsel. I shall see you next time.”
“...Yes. Stay well until then.”
—Thank you so much for treating me. I’ll see you again next time, Franken Stein.
With that farewell, the wardrobe door closed. When I opened the wardrobe once more, Fran, who had been inside it, had vanished without a trace.
“...It really is a fairy bypath.”
*
For about three days after Fran left, it was truly hard to bear watching the princess. Fran’s absence must have been quite large, because Ainsel worked hard to cheer up the princess, who drooped and could do nothing.
Perhaps it was sad for her to part so soon from a new friend she had just made. The princess even asked me to do the Fran jokes she had hated so much.
Since I couldn’t do things like pull off my wrist or spit out screws, I only showed her something like finger magic... but perhaps that clumsy little trick only made her miss Fran even more, because the princess merely sighed.
But they say time is medicine. No, perhaps one merely grows accustomed to it, but the princess gradually began filling the empty space Fran had left with memories made together with Ainsel and me.
As time passed, the princess slowly regained her smile, and though she missed Fran, she no longer cried and longed for her the way she had at first.
I do not know what the two of them talked about, but whenever asked whether she missed Fran, the princess always answered like this: it was fine, because she had “promised” to come see her.
Seeing the princess grow so admirably in both body and heart made me so happy that I could hardly contain it. Was this what parents felt when they watched their children grow? At times, I was so happy it was almost troublesome.
And so, the princess turned seven years old, and the “main event” of spring came to an end.
I could not say it was perfect, but I still felt it had been a successful “declaration.”
Everyone who had attended the party had looked upon the seven-year-old princess, and every citizen of the kingdom came to know the princess’s name clearly.
That the princess’s name was “Titania Snow White.”
As the time I spent with the princess gradually increased, the timid princess slowly disappeared, and she regained her original bright and energetic self, just as in the original work.
Sometimes, she was so mischievous that her pranks became too much for everyone to handle.
And so, three hectic years passed by quickly.
“Princess Titania, how would you like your hair done today?”
“I’d like to cut my hair now that it’s grown down to my shoulders... but Mother probably won’t allow it, will she? What do you think, Ellie?”
“Hoho, if it is Her Majesty the Queen, I’m sure she would grant any request of yours, Princess.”
“Hehe, I think so too.”
Titania, who had been seven years old, became ten, and I, who had been twenty, became twenty-three.
The princess’s spring passed, and summer approached.