[Episode 94] - Three Questions and Answers (2)
“...If you’re not going to take this seriously, would you mind going back?”
“C-couldn’t you give me another chance to ask...?”
When I looked at her pitifully, Snow White let out a deep sigh and furrowed her brow slightly, as if telling me to hurry up and speak. Honestly, wouldn’t anyone fail to come up with a proper question if someone started counting while they were still thinking? I calmly exhaled, steadied my breathing, and for now, asked my first question.
“Then... about Aurora.”
The first question I’d managed to think of was about Aurora.
According to Ainsel’s deduction, it seemed that the one who had turned Aurora into a Leanan Sidhe was Snow White. She had also said that the one who had kidnapped Ainsel’s main body back then seemed to be Snow White. They were all only suspicions, but...
Honestly, if there was something I was curious about, it was this. Why had Snow White done such a thing? No matter if she had come from another world, Aurora should be Snow White’s “birth mother” in any world, shouldn’t she?
I swallowed dryly from the tension and asked.
“...Was it you who turned Aurora into a Leanan Sidhe?”
At my question, Snow White narrowed her eyes slightly. Resting her chin on her hand with a languid expression, she answered immediately, as if there was no need to think about it.
“That’s right. I did it.”
“......”
I glanced down at the bright red thread tied around my wrist.
The red thread, which was said to snap if the other person lied, still connected Snow White and me. Looking at that unbroken thread stirred something intense inside me, and I asked Snow White.
“Why on earth...? Aurora is your birth mother...”
“Is that your second question? Isn’t it my turn now?”
“Huh?”
Don’t tell me that was the end of my first question?
When I looked at Snow White in bewilderment, she let out a faint snicker, as if mocking me. Seeing Snow White’s laugh, as though she truly thought I was stupid, I felt my face flush bright red without realizing it.
“Really, I can never get used to it when you do something this foolish. I don’t know if you’re innocent or just stupid.”
“......”
And only then did I realize how questions were supposed to be asked in this exchange.
It seemed direct questions like this wouldn’t do.
If I didn’t ask in a way that used my head a little more, Snow White would surely answer carelessly like this next time as well. I shouldn’t have asked, “Was it you who turned Aurora into a Leanan Sidhe?” but rather, “Why did you turn Aurora into a Leanan Sidhe?”
‘Then I would have been able to hear all of her intentions, too...’
While I was fuming at my own stupidity for wasting a question so absurdly, Snow White let out a sigh, rolled only her eyes toward me, and then asked in a calm voice.
“Then it’s my turn.”
“Fine, ask whatever you like.”
I wondered if she needed time to think like I had, but apparently she did not. Snow White must have already decided what she wanted to ask me, because she began questioning me without hesitation.
“Three years ago, why did you try to make Titania meet Brownie?”
“...Huh? That’s all?”
When I asked if that was all, Snow White simply nodded. Feeling strangely deflated by the question, I began answering calmly. Why had I tried to make Titania meet Brownie? Well...
“...Even if Titania didn’t become a witch, Brownie’s magic would always be helpful to her. Of course, I wasn’t trying to approach the child just because of Brownie’s magic and cottage. I was also trying to resolve the problem Brownie had been suffering from.”
When I answered, Snow White quietly looked at the red thread tied around her own wrist.
No matter how she looked, the red thread wouldn’t snap. I hadn’t lied. Snow White tapped the red thread with her finger just in case, but as expected, it did not break.
Looking at that unbroken red thread, Snow White gave a faint smile. It was not a smile mocking me, nor a smile because she found the situation amusing. It was a hollow sort of smile, like a sigh.
“...Really, I can’t understand you.”
I felt like I vaguely knew why Snow White was reacting that way.
The “Vivian” Snow White knew was the same Vivian I knew well.
That “villainess Vivian,” whose nature was to reject and despise others and who had lived as though nothing mattered more than herself, would never say anything suggesting she cherished someone else.
“I thought I knew you better than anyone else...”
And on top of that, the person I claimed to cherish was not “her,” but “another version of herself,” so it was only natural she would react that way. Besides, the red thread had told her that my answer was not a lie, but the truth...
“Now I really don’t know you anymore.”
She was surely that confused.
Snow White hesitated for a moment, then lowered her head.
As if trying to calm her confused heart, Snow White let out a sigh and glanced at me. The sharp red eyes looking at me still seemed to be saying, “I hate you.”
For a while, silence settled between the two of us. With our conversation halted for a moment, only the sound of waves rolling in from far away and the occasional chirping of night insects in the grass could be heard.
“...You don’t know me?”
In a calm voice, I broke the heavy silence that lay between us. As I slowly opened my mouth, Snow White’s gaze turned toward me. Feeling needlessly irritated, I continued speaking calmly.
“Of course you don’t. This is the first time we’ve had a proper conversation. Shouldn’t we at least talk to each other before we can know anything about each other?”
“......”
“I don’t know you either. I do think of you as similar to Titania, but I’ve never thought of you as the same ‘being’ as Titania. You are you, and Titania is Titania. To me, you are different people.”
Truly, I had never placed Snow White and Titania on the same line.
Titania was Titania, and Snow White was Snow White. Even if their faces were identical, even if Snow White truly was Titania from another world, the two were clearly different beings.
“But you never try to see me as ‘me.’ You always try to see me as the ‘Vivian’ you know.”
I lifted my head and met Snow White’s eyes as she looked at me. Perhaps because this was the first time I had shown this side of myself, Snow White’s eyes widened slightly, and she merely stared at me.
“You don’t even try to know ‘me.’ So how could you possibly know me? You know nothing about me. And I know nothing about you.”
I placed a hand on my chest and pointed to “myself.”
Not “Vivian,” but “me.”
“No, I...!”
At that, Snow White seemed overcome with emotion and clenched her fists as she looked at me. She parted her lips as if she had many things she wanted to say, but like a goldfish, she only opened and closed her mouth without managing to continue.
“All right. If there’s something you want to say, say it. Or would it be easier for you to speak if I asked?”
Then Snow White clenched and unclenched her fists, at a loss for what to do. I had met Snow White several times until now, but this was the first time I had seen her look so confused. However...
“Then this is my second question, Princess.”
I shook the red thread around my wrist and looked at Snow White, who was only opening and closing her mouth. Was it easier for her to speak if I asked through this three-question exchange? Or would she use her right of refusal and refuse to speak?
“Won’t you give me a chance to know you?”
Hearing my question, Snow White bit down hard on her lower lip. She parted her lips for a moment as if to immediately exercise her right of refusal, but then closed her mouth again and irritably tapped the table.
Tap, tap, tap, tap. The speed at which Snow White tapped the table with her finger grew faster and faster. After thinking and thinking, as if annoyed, Snow White finally glared at me and opened her mouth.
“...Fine. I’ll tell you.”
At the sight of Snow White letting out a deep sigh as though she had given up, I unknowingly let out a sigh of relief. I had been worried she might refuse, but fortunately, it seemed Snow White had given me a chance.
However, as if telling me not to feel relieved, Snow White looked at me and smiled bitterly. That truly bitter smile gave me a bad feeling, and for a moment, my heart seemed to drop.
“Thirty-four times.”
And at times like this, my bad feelings had never once been wrong. For a moment, I tilted my head at words I couldn’t understand, but then I could only be horrified by what Snow White said next.
“That’s the number of times I was killed by you... by Vivian and Aurora.”
“......Huh?”
In the game, Snow White had been killed by Vivian countless times. Truly, truly countless times. Vivian killed Snow White whenever she had the chance, after all.
But to think she had even been killed by Aurora? How on earth? Not knowing what expression to make, I could only bite my lip, and Snow White smiled brightly as she continued her story.
“The most common was poisoning. Even the silverware I used to detect poison was useless. I died from so many truly unusual poisons. Next was... let’s see. Murders disguised as accidents. Bribing a maid to push me down the stairs while saying they would never be caught, or damaging the axle of a carriage to cause an accident, and after that...”
“W-wait...!”
At the sudden story, it felt as though my mind was turning completely white. Why? Hadn’t Snow White come from the “witch route”? Thirty-four times? How on earth? What could have happened...?
Perhaps she liked seeing me so confused, because Snow White chuckled as she looked at me. Her expression seemed to say, “Do you finally understand why I hate you?” and I couldn’t say a single word.
“Why? You asked me to give you a chance to know me, didn’t you?”
Yes, this was the question I had asked her to answer.
I had asked her to give me a chance to know her.
So this story was...
“So listen quietly. This is the chance I’m giving you.”
A story I could not refuse.
*