I Thought It Was a Fairy Tale but the Genre Is Strange

Rapunzel (6)

As the golden mouth returned to ordinary hair, something soared into the sky from that spot, and stairs appeared. I frowned at the reappearing stair hell, but the only choice left for me was to move forward.

Even the surrounding golden monsters were wriggling and forming, so there was no time to rest.

Dragging my tired body, I moved my iron-like legs and struggled up the stairs. My thighs are going to burst at this rate! Gritting my teeth, I barely reached the end of the stairs, avoiding the slow-pursuing monsters behind me. There was another door, but this time it was completely red.

It looked ominous, but I steeled myself and turned the doorknob.

With an unpleasant creak, the door opened.

“Hahahahaha! Merel! How is it? Isn’t it amazing!?”

Contrary to the ominous atmosphere of the red door, the room was bright and filled with warm sunlight. Birds chirped outside, and the sunlight streaming through the window made Rapunzel’s golden hair shine even more. Rapunzel was young. By age, she seemed to be around 8 years old.

Rapunzel moved her hair to create various animal shapes as if playing shadow puppets. She made the shape of a sparrow outside, and surprisingly, the sound of a sparrow chirping came from her hair.

The maid in front of Rapunzel smiled softly.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s amazing, Princess. Your magic skills are improving day by day.”

“Hehe! I will become the greatest magician in the kingdom and make our kingdom the best place to live in the world!”

It was a harmonious atmosphere. What is this? I thought she would have been treated poorly as a cursed child, but my expectations were completely off. She was living brightly like a child raised in a harmonious and affluent family.

Unlike the current Rapunzel, who had cursed and taken over the kingdom, the young Rapunzel declared that she would develop her kingdom with magic.

I couldn’t grasp the situation. Similarly, they treated me as if I were invisible. I calmly watched their conversation and leaned against the nearby wall to rest.

“That’s a wonderful dream, Princess. I will also support your dream.”

“Great! Merel, you don’t avoid me like others and take good care of me, so when I am officially recognized as a magician, I will grant you any wish you want!”

“Just hearing that makes me grateful. Hmm, then I…”

Merel said with a playful smile.

“I wish for a man who will love the princess unconditionally to appear and be with the princess.”

“Wha, what!? Wha, what are you talking about! There’s no such wish in the world! Not even magic can make that happen!”

“Hehe, is that so? I would love to see the princess become a magician, but I also want to see her with a man who would give his life to love her.”

“Ugh! Really!”

The young Rapunzel made a fan with her hair and fanned herself to calm her blushing face.

“I, I’ll show you my boyfriend later, so think of a wish for yourself.”

“I have no other wish but this one. By the way, I’m really curious. Who will be the prince that will be with the princess? The princess is the most beautiful person in the world, so surely princes will line up.”

“Ugh, what are you talking about!”

Rapunzel, embarrassed by the love story, turned around and started walking around the room.

“So what I’m saying is! Well, you could wish to be rich, or to have mysterious powers, or to play with me as a joyful friend for the rest of your life, something like that.”

Rapunzel’s last words, filled with sincerity. If Merel, who was a maid, heard them, she would have been deeply moved.

I clenched my fist. My nails dug into my skin, and blood dripped down. I hoped she wouldn’t turn around and look at Merel sincerely.

“Huh? What, why aren’t you answering! Mer…el?”

Rapunzel’s eyelids rose endlessly. Her beautifully shining pupils grew larger, and her golden hair slowly rose upwards, moving unstably.

Her slightly parted lips couldn’t easily form words, and only her lips trembled. Her complexion turned pale in an instant. Young Rapunzel, walking with difficulty step by step, stretched out her seriously trembling arm towards Merel.

“Me, Merel? Huh? What, what is this?”

Blood soaking the floor. The owner of that blood was instantly killed, pierced through the body by the golden, stiff, and long hair. Merel, still standing thanks to the hair that penetrated her body and stuck into the floor, hung her head lifelessly and stared at Rapunzel with lifeless eyes.

“Merel? Huh? Why aren’t you answering… Merel!!!”

Tears streamed down Rapunzel’s eyes. She cried out loud enough to shake the room. She moved her golden hair to heal Merel with her power, but Rapunzel didn’t have the ability to revive someone who was already dead.

In the noisy situation, Rapunzel’s door burst open. Guards and Gothel. And the king and queen, who came running late.

They flinched at the scene before them. Rapunzel, covered in blood, hugging the dead Merel. The maid brutally murdered in front of her. The golden hair scattered around the room. People’s eyes moved quickly.

Hair. Merel. Rapunzel.

“The princess killed the maid!!!!”

Gothel’s urgent cry. The queen fainted on the spot, and the king and guards were confused. Rapunzel was just crying and trying to use magic to revive Merel.

“Your Majesty!!! Didn’t I tell you!! The princess has evil magic! Look now! Who knows what cruel magic she will perform with that hair imbued with evil magic!”

“No, no. This, this is…”

“Your Majesty, you must come to your senses! Please hurry and give the order! We must subdue the princess immediately!”

“Ah, ah…”

The king dropped his head and gave the order in a somber voice.

“Restrain… the princess.”

The guards moved in perfect unison at the king’s command. The memory ended with that scene. With a fierce gust of wind, all the characters were scattered and disappeared, except for the guards who moved to carry out the king’s order.

Ten guards drew their weapons and charged at me.

“The princess killed the maid!!!”

“Restrain the princess!”

“Stop the cursed princess!!!”

The guards shouted as they charged. I was busy defending myself, retreating to avoid the soldiers swinging their large swords.

Clang!!

A blue blade struck my scythe. The impact reverberated through the scythe, shaking me to my bones. If I kept taking hits like this, my arm would break. Fortunately, their armor hindered their mobility. Their attack speed was faster than the golden monster, but their movement speed was significantly slower.

“The cursed princess killed someone as foretold!!!”

“Restrain the princess who killed the maid!!”

“It is the king’s order! Stop the murderous princess!!!”

What was Rapunzel feeling? What was she thinking as she watched the guards charge at her so fiercely? As she heard them shout that she was a cursed being. As she heard Gothel’s cries that she knew this would happen. As she finally heard her father’s order to restrain her.

How utterly miserable must she have felt.

“No.”

I gripped the scythe handle tightly and ground my teeth. Then, as one of the leading guards raised his sword high to attack, I swung my arm.

The soldier was split in half and fell.

I glared at them and shouted.

“No!! Rapunzel didn’t kill her!!!!”

Clang!!! Sparks flew as the sword and scythe clashed. I didn’t take the heavy attack head-on but deflected it to the side. Then, pulling back the much longer scythe, I slashed horizontally as three guards lunged forward simultaneously, suppressing the scream of my muscles.

Three soldiers cut down in one stroke.

The remaining guards trampled over their comrades’ bodies and charged. Each of them spewed vile slurs with their mouths wide open.

“We must kill the cursed princess!!”

“Kill her! She should never have been born!!”

“Shut up!!!! Rapunzel didn’t do it!!!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs, facing their swords.

Rapunzel didn’t kill Merel. I saw it clearly. Her hair remained still. What killed Merel were several strands of golden hair that came through the open window. As Merel turned her head towards the window, wondering what it was, the hair mercilessly ravaged her body.

But that wasn’t hair in the first place. It was lighter and much thicker than Rapunzel’s golden hair. It must have been a weapon created to frame Rapunzel for killing the maid.

So Rapunzel didn’t kill her. She didn’t kill her with her own hands. Her friend, the only one who supported her!!

“She couldn’t have killed her, you damn b*stards!!!”