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

Episode 46 – The Candy House

We buried Rapunzel’s corpse in a sunny spot. In a warm forest with plenty of sunlight for her, since she couldn’t leave the kingdom. And just in case, so that wild animals wouldn’t dig up the grave, Ariel cast a spell around it, so if anyone tried to dig it up, a water spirit would appear and attack them.

I stood quietly in front of her grave for a while. I savored the short but intense memories I had with her. And to not forget Rapunzel’s face and voice, I closed my eyes and tried to recall her image. A kind-hearted girl. Even though she was trapped in the tower, she did not succumb to rage at the world. Instead, she tried to find someone to kill her.

My girlfriend, who took her own life in the end, because she couldn’t control her emotions and not become a curse.

I fidgeted with the golden bracelet Rapunzel made for me last.

She may not be here anymore, but she will live on with me in my memories, in my heart. Because the fragments of her are already unforgettable and have left a painful mark on me.

“Take care.”

I choked back the surge of hot emotion and spoke. Then, after a bitter smile, I moved my feet.

Because no matter how hard or painful it is, I always have to keep going.

I looked back at Rapunzel’s grave one last time and vowed,

that all the endings from now on would be filled only with happy endings.

That no such tragedy would ever happen again.

…………

“Ugh, got anything to eat?”

I said, clutching my rumbling stomach. Ariel, whose cheeks were sunken in, shook her head.

[I wish to serve my prince delicious food, but sadly there are no ingredients]

“Ugh, should’ve grabbed some food when I was rampaging through the kingdom.”

It’s been two days since I last ate. Thanks to Ariel, I could at least drink water, but strangely, in this endless forest, not a single ingredient could be found. Before, I could occasionally spot mushrooms or fruits, and even saw a few wild animals.

But as soon as I got the idea that I was hungry and needed to eat, everything had astonishingly vanished as if evaporated.

Alice, who wields superhuman strength, seemed okay with going hungry for a couple of days. Looking at us weaklings, she told us to just eat bugs if we were so hungry, but the horrifying expressions of people doing bug mukbang on the internet flashed before my eyes, and I just couldn’t.

Even so, Alice insisted that grilled bugs tasted quite good and started beating every tree around into pieces. Ariel was appalled and tried to stop her, but Alice just kept focusing on finding bugs.

“Hmm~ Weird~”

Alice muttered, shaking off the wood fragments stuck to her fist. Seeing no bugs on her hand or among the smashed wood pieces, Ariel and I both sighed in relief.

“Haha, seems like even the bugs don’t want to be eaten by us, so they hid themselves.”

“Hmm~ Honey, even if they were talking bugs, the fact that we can’t see even normal bugs that should be everywhere is strange.”

[Oh, the crazy b*tch is saying something normal, how surprising]

Come to think of it, she sometimes hits the nail on the head with insightful remarks when she’s acting normal. Alice smiled at Ariel’s words.

“I’m perfectly normal, you know, kid.”

[GASP! You really think so?]

“I used to have nothing to eat, so I devoured every bug in the area. Even the talking ones. Back then, no matter how many I ate, they just kept coming. No matter how hard I tried to kill them, those bugs just kept on living.”

[Don’t you ignore me!]

Ignoring Ariel, Alice kept on talking.

“But look at the situation now. There aren’t even animals, let alone any edible mushrooms or fruits. Not even a single bug.”

“…It’s definitely weird. Maybe we wandered into some cursed forest? It doesn’t make sense that we haven’t left the forest in two days.”

“Magic, huh. Could be. To undo magic, we just need to find the wizard and separate his head from his body. Little princess, do you feel anything?”

Ariel clenched her fists, glared at Alice, then glanced at me, sighed deeply, and suppressed her anger.

[If you’re useless, just shut up. My concentration is slipping because of this ignorant muscle-brain.]

“Heh~ If our little princess says so, then so it is~”

Alice put her arm around my shoulder and, as if watching something entertaining, stared at Ariel like an audience member.

Ariel looked like she wanted to punch Alice right then and there, but she persevered, closed her eyes, and focused. A faint blue magic shimmered around her before she quickly opened her eyes.

[As expected, it’s a cursed forest. It’s a magic barrier of sorts, designed to cut off the inside from the outside the moment you enter the territory.]

“So, the only way to break the magic is to find the wizard?”

“Heh heh, if that kid could break the magic, she’d have already done it. Like I said, we need to find the wizard and chop off his head.”

Alice burst into laughter, and Ariel created a water spear and immediately threw it at Alice.

“aaack! W-what are you doing!”

I pulled Alice aside, making her dodge the attack. Surprisingly, Alice came to my side quite easily, wearing a somewhat strange expression.

“Ariel! I know you’re angry, but you can’t just throw spears like that!”

“It’s okay, honey~ That little bit couldn’t even scratch me.”

Eriel clicked her tongue silently, then shook her head.

[Nah. I was just pointing out the mage’s trail. Look over there.]

Following Eriel’s pointed finger, I turned my head and spotted a water spear embedded upright in a forest path a little ways off. And impaled on the spear’s tip was something. A shape that felt familiar. Something I’d seen a lot in the real world.

I took a cautious step forward, wondering if what I saw was right. Then, I realized my eyes hadn’t deceived me. I pulled the water spear free and reached down to pick up the object.

Soft and squishy. Even smelling fragrant and fresh, like it was just made.

It was a large chunk of bread. For a moment I was almost tempted to put it in my mouth, but I held back, knowing it could be poisoned, or there might be some kind of trap.

“What’s that, a piece of bread?”

Alice eyed the bread in my hand, tilting her head.

“Is *this* the clue?”

[Dumb muscle-brain wouldn’t get it. These traces are leading to the mage.]

Wait. Traces? Not just *one*?

Eriel glared at Alice with disdain, then pointed in another direction. There, laid out in a line, were a surprising number of bread chunks, the kind that made you wonder how we hadn’t noticed them before.

Alice, seeing the sight, grabbed a piece of bread and swallowed it whole.

“Huh? W-wait a minute! Why’d you just eat it like that!”

“Huh? Why not? It tastes good.”

[Frustrating! Idiotic! That’s the mage’s trail! Even if it looks like normal bread, there could be a spell on it or some kind of hidden danger!]

Alice chuckled, grabbing another piece of bread and munching on it.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing to me. And you guys said you were hungry. I’m just checking to see if it’s poisoned or cursed. Well, except for the bit of dirt.”

Alice held out another piece of bread to me. She was glaring at Eriel as if telling her not to eat, but I still couldn’t overcome the gnawing hunger. My whole body felt weak, like there was a hole in my stomach. I was about to lose it if I didn’t put something in me, quick.

So, I ended up eating it.

The warm, soft texture of the bread and its savory taste spread through my mouth. With that, the emptiness in my stomach was slightly filled, and a smile naturally bloomed on my face.

“Delicious!”

“Right? It tastes better than I thought.”

Me and Alice started picking up and eating the bread scraps scattered along the road.

[What are you doing! I told you not to eat that! Prince, don’t fall for that crazy b*tch’s words!]

“Chomp chomp, but I already did it. And like Alice said, if it was poisoned or cursed, something would have happened, but we’re fine. Ariel, you try some too.”

When I offered a bread scrap, Ariel made a troubled face. But Ariel’s sense of smell, starved by hunger, reacted first, and her nostrils flared. She finally squeezed her eyes shut and put the bread scrap in her mouth.

As soon as she swallowed, Ariel’s eyes widened.

[Delicious! There’s no magic or poison in it! It’s safe!]

After saying that, she joined us. For now, we didn’t know what was going on, but there were clues everywhere, and if we followed and devoured those clues, a wizard would surely appear, so we kept filling our hunger.

How much time had passed? Only after putting the last bread scrap in my mouth did I snap back to my senses. Even though we had eaten quite a few bread scraps, the hunger was still there. But this time, it wasn’t the savory smell of bread that stimulated my saliva, but a sweet smell.

“Whoa, that’s a weird-looking house.”

At Alice’s words, I lifted my head and saw a flashy cottage in front of us. A house made of candy.