[Episode 88] - An Unexpected Guest (3)
“Good to see you, Princess. Has it been three years?”
When I gave a faint smile, Snow White’s face began to turn deathly pale. She must have been so startled that she couldn’t even put down the fork she was holding, merely opening and closing her lips like a goldfish.
As I wondered how she would react next, Snow White’s pallid face flushed red again in an instant. She set down the plate of food she had been holding and whipped her head aside, avoiding my gaze.
“...You have the wrong person.”
“As if.”
A laugh slipped out at the absurd excuse.
Even if I could mistake someone else’s face, there was no way I would ever mistake that one. No matter what mask she wore, the distinct lines of her face, her features, and even small details like wrinkles and the placement of moles were identical to Titania’s.
And the reason I could recognize her for certain was Snow White’s face, which, for some reason, had not changed at all. It was exactly the same face I had seen three years ago, as though she had not aged, so there was no reason I wouldn’t know her. When I tilted my head slightly and stared at her, Snow White let out a deep sigh and glared at me.
“I told you. You have the wrong person.”
“If you wanted me to get it wrong that badly, you should have done a better job with your disguise. Or come dressed as Princess Fiona like last time.”
“...Haa.”
In that instant, Snow White’s eyes grew even sharper. But it wasn’t as if I was wrong. Everything Snow White was wearing was ready-made. It was far too careless to call it a masquerade disguise, and she wasn’t even in Princess Fiona’s form.
When I carefully approached her side, Snow White’s face was filled with irritation as she glared at me. The princess opened and closed her mouth for a moment as if to say something, but in the end, she let out a deep sigh and ran a hand down her wrinkled face.
“...I put magic on the mask to interfere with recognition. How did you know?”
“Hmm...? You just caught my eye.”
“Why don’t you just say you don’t want to tell me?”
Snow White glared at me, demanding a proper answer and asking how that could possibly make sense, but what could I do when it was the truth? I merely shrugged under the princess’s murderous glare.
To be honest, I didn’t have the skill to tell whether magic had been placed on the mask. After the princess told me not to raise Titania as a witch, I myself had stopped trying to learn magic.
Ever since then, I truly had kept Titania away from magic. I didn’t teach her the magic I had intended to teach, and I told her to avoid anything related to fairies as much as possible.
Of course, I also kept my distance from magic whenever possible, and avoided even meeting fairies except for Ainsel. It felt like the right thing to do. At a thought that suddenly came to mind, I answered as if whispering into the princess’s ear.
“I’ve been keeping my promise.”
“What?”
“What you told me. You said not to raise that child as a witch. I’m keeping her away from magic and fairies as much as I can. The only fairy near her is Ainsel.”
“...I see. Is that so.”
Snow White seemed lost in thought for a moment as she stared blankly at the plate of food. Just how much cake had she been planning to eat? The plate was piled high like a mountain with all kinds of cakes. Watching her, I gave a small laugh and teased the princess in a slightly annoying voice.
“If you eat nothing but cake like that, you’ll get horribly fat.”
“...I don’t gain weight, so worry about yourse— No, what are you doing? Why are you talking to me so naturally? Don’t you remember me saying I hate you?”
“Hmm? I forgot.”
I hadn’t forgotten. Rather, how could I forget? The things Snow White had said to me, and the look she had given me. Hatred, contempt, and more—the expression Snow White wore back then, looking at me with all those negative emotions, was still vivid in my mind.
But that gaze wasn’t really directed at “me,” was it? The one Snow White hated was “Vivian,” not me. If we talked later, perhaps the misunderstanding would clear up someday. Though I wondered if that was too carefree of me.
When I looked at her with a bright smile, Snow White frowned at me as if she found it absurd. Sipping the drink in my hand, I asked Snow White something else I had been curious about.
“So? Why didn’t you come to my bedchamber?”
“What?”
“I asked Cat-sith to pass on the message. Didn’t you hear? I told you to come to my bedchamber whenever you liked. There’s also the Brownie’s cottage, so you can come any time.”
“...I did hear it, but hearing it directly is even more ridiculous.”
Snow White let out a deep sigh as if frustrated.
When I tilted my head, wondering if I had perhaps said something wrong, Snow White glared at me as if asking whether I really didn’t know. Frustrated, she stabbed the fork into a cake on her plate, broke off a piece, and swallowed it in one bite.
“I know your personality is very different from the Vivian I know. But do you know how much more twisted it feels when you say innocent things with that face? You’re a queen. How can a queen speak so lightly about inviting someone to her bedchamber? You do know what it means to invite someone to your bedchamber, don’t you?”
Snow White spoke seriously, almost as if she were giving me advice, and I couldn’t help but burst into a small laugh. Just what was this child imagining? Certainly, unlike thirteen-year-old Titania, Snow White seemed precocious. What strange things to imagine...
“What does it matter when I don’t use my bedchamber alone? Besides, it’s not as if you’re a man. Is this child possessed by a lewd demon or something...?”
“? What is that supposed to mean? You don’t use your bedchamber alone?”
“? I share a room with Titania. So I was saying you could come over and the three of us could talk together. What on earth were you imagining, child?”
Twitch. Snow White’s eyebrows shot even higher.
Under her gaze, which seemed to demand that I explain myself at once, I let out a small sigh. Would Titania become this precocious once she grew up a little more? Thinking about it, I had forgotten that Snow White, like Titania, also liked romance novels.
“...How old is that child?”
“She’s thirteen now. She’ll be fourteen soon.”
“Do you think it makes sense for a fourteen-year-old to sleep with her adoptive mother...? She’ll be an adult soon... At fifteen, she’ll be old enough for her debutante...”
“What can I do? The child sleeps poorly unless she’s in my arms.”
“Ha...!”
Snow White let out a hollow laugh as if she found it absurd.
“You really are...!”
For a moment, she seemed about to say something to me, but soon she only opened and closed her lips, let out a deep sigh, and began shoving the cakes on her plate into her mouth. Seeing her chew through the cake as if taking out her anger on it made me laugh. Was Snow White like Titania too, the type who couldn’t sleep alone?
“There, there. If you can’t sleep alone either, come visit whenever you like. The bed is plenty wide, so two or three won’t make much difference.”
“Even if I were to die from a disease that kept me from sleeping, that would never happen.”
Seeing Snow White click her tongue made me keep wanting to laugh.
Still, I was relieved that she wasn’t refusing to listen to me like last time. If we became just a little closer, wouldn’t I be able to bring up my own story? If I said, “I’m not Vivian,” right now, she would definitely treat me like a madwoman.
I calmly wet my lips with my drink and tapped Snow White’s shoulder with my finger. She jerked her shoulder away as if telling me not to touch her, and I grinned, then whispered in a very small voice by Snow White’s ear.
“It really is all right for you to come anytime. I want to hear your story too, and also tell you mine—”
The moment I continued speaking—
A small buzzing voice came from my chest. It was muffled by my clothes, so I lowered my head, wondering what was going on, and then Ainsel’s voice rang out between Snow White and me in a shout.
—Vivian!! Come! Back! Right! Now!! The Great Witch suddenly showed up!!
Startled by the words that the Great Witch had arrived, I raised my head and looked at Snow White. In that instant, Snow White’s eyes, which had softened slightly until now, furrowed again, and she clicked her tongue before whipping her head aside.
It was a reaction as if she were about to run away that very instant.
At that reaction, I unconsciously grabbed the princess’s wrist. Somehow, I felt that if I let her go now, I truly might never see Snow White again. My body had moved on its own.
Snow White, whose wrist I had caught, glared at me as if she would kill me—
Then whispered to me in a cold, sunken voice.
“Let go.”
“W-wait! Just wait a moment, won’t you? At least listen to what I have to say...”
Tsk. Snow White clicked her tongue sharply and glared at me.
She tried to shake me off forcefully, demanding that I let go at once, but I held Snow White’s wrist firmly and did not release her. I only wanted to say one last thing, but perhaps that irritated the princess, because Snow White sneered at me.
“Ah, right. You were a witch of the Coven too, weren’t you? Your skills were so pathetic that I forgot. So? Are you going to hand me over to the Great Witch? You would have noticed, wouldn’t you? That I’m the one the Great Witch is looking for.”
“N-no! That’s not it. Just listen to me for a moment...!”
“Or did the Great Witch already know? Is that why the Great Witch told you to bring me? Did she order you to find me? No wonder. I thought it was strange that I met you at a ball like this, one I never expected you to attend. If this is an act, then you’re truly amazing. As expected, you’re a bitch with a talent for toying with people.”
“Please, just listen to me...!”
“I knew it was strange from the moment you kept clinging to me when I told you to get lost. Was it the Great Witch’s magic that let you recognize me? How long do you have to keep deceiving me before you’re satis—”
“Please!! Listen to me first!!”
When I shouted, Snow White finally quieted down.
But she had only quieted down for a moment. If I released the wrist I was holding, she seemed likely to flee this place without looking back. I let out a brief sigh and raised my head to look at Snow White.
She was not the Snow White from when we had spoken a little earlier. Faced with Snow White’s gaze, which looked at me with a mix of distrust, hatred, and many other emotions just like last time, I was momentarily at a loss for words.
“...It’s really not what you think.”
“......”
“I have never met the Great Witch until now, and I truly don’t know why she came this time. Besides, if it’s you, you can use the cottage and escape quickly right now, can’t you? So before you run away, just listen to me for a moment—”
“I can’t use it.”
“What...?”
“I can’t use magic. If it’s true that the Great Witch is here, then the moment I use magic, she’ll obviously come to catch me. Are you really a witch? This is basic common sen—”
She couldn’t use magic right now?
Then how was the princess planning to escape from here?
...It felt as if my mind had gone completely blank.
What on earth was I supposed to do?
Why had the Great Witch suddenly come here? And what was I supposed to do with Snow White? According to Ainsel’s deduction, the one who turned Aurora into a fairy was none other than Snow White.
And Fran had said that the Great Witch had been searching for the culprit for over seven years. If so, the reason the Great Witch had come here must be to find that culprit, Snow White.
Then, was I supposed to take Snow White to the Great Witch? What would happen to Snow White if I took her to the Great Witch? What if she truly was the culprit?
On top of that, Snow White’s reaction in avoiding the Great Witch was practically saying that the culprit of that incident really was the princess. If I judged rationally, the correct answer would be to take Snow White to the Great Witch first.
But my feelings...
“...Follow me.”
“What?”
“I said follow me. I’ll hide you. You could leave by carriage, but the ball is still underway, so there aren’t any carriages leaving this place. If only one carriage left now, it would stand out too much. Don’t you think?”
I forcibly held Snow White’s arm and headed toward a lounge in a corner where there were no people. The lounge was a place no one would enter if a sign saying it was in use had been hung, and there were also things like food and water provided there, so it was a convenient place to hide.
“Stay hidden here quietly. I’ll somehow try to send the Great Witch back. And when the Great Witch leaves...”
I almost shoved Snow White into the lounge by force, then looked at her as she glared at me in disbelief. Surely, this was not the right answer. But at the very least—
“When the Great Witch leaves, talk with me.”
At the very least, after I heard your story.
I thought that judging then would not be too late.