I Raised Snow White!

“…We mourn the passing of His Majesty Yejong and will now hold the funeral for Her Majesty, Second Queen ‘Vivian Lilienthal.'”

Dong–dong–

A solemn bell rang, piercingly loud, waking me up. I frowned involuntarily as the sudden bell sounded through the silence. Who in their right mind was ringing a bell outside?

“…Please, step forward, and give your final farewell to Her Majesty the Queen–”

Among the booming voice that echoed through the hall, whispers of murmuring voices began to surface, soft and hushed, scratching at my ears as if they were secrets not meant to be heard.

“In the end, His Majesty did not attend the Queen’s funeral. Still, His Majesty is–”

“I’ve never seen such a lowly royal funeral. Who would look at this and think it’s for a queen? Anyone would think it’s some minor noble’s.”

“They say Her Majesty the Queen was rumored to be a witch–”

Murmur, murmur.

The bell and the murmurs slowly stirred me from a deep sleep, but an oppressive feeling tightened in my throat. I felt as if I was submerged, unable to breathe properly.

Gurgle, gurgle. As I gasped for air, a strange, water-filled sound gurgled out of my mouth. With awareness fully returning, the first thing I felt was a maddening pain.

“Gurgh–! Cough–!”

Water filled my mouth and nose, making it unbearable.

The pain of suffocating.

The pain of water filling my lungs.

As the water seeped further into my lungs, I thought, if I didn’t get up immediately, I might drown. I bolted upright.

“Ugh, blech! Cough! Cough!”

I heaved and spat out what felt like a flood, releasing water with a sickening smell. Had I fallen asleep only to be doused? Or been tortured?

As the pain subsided a little after vomiting all the water, I recognized the smell that lingered. Somehow, it smelled like lake water and rotting earth.

“Haa…huff…”

Why was this happening? The question barely lasted. The moment I tried to understand what was happening to me, I heard muttering voices around me.

Raising my head to investigate, I saw the blurry face of a young girl through tear-filled eyes. She looked about five to seven years old.

With black hair and red eyes, the girl stared at me, trembling. She wore an all-black dress and clutched a single lily tightly in her hand.

“Huh…?”

Yes, just like a child at a funeral.

“W-Waah!!”

“Kyaah!!”

“What, what is it..? What’s going on?!”

As I let out a confused noise, a wave of screams erupted around me. Turning away from the girl, I saw that everyone around, dressed in black mourning clothes, was scrambling to escape.

Crowding toward the large doors, people pushed, shoved, and fought to leave first. Bracing myself through the gut-wrenching pain, I looked around.

A church?

A cathedral?

The interior, with its religious structure, was draped in black cloth and adorned with white lilies, thick with the air of a funeral.

Especially the place where I lay.

A long, hexagonal wooden box that looked like a coffin. Inside were white lilies and objects that seemed to have belonged to the deceased.

‘…No way, this isn’t a bed; it’s a coffin, isn’t it?’

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t make sense of any of this.

The foul taste of water in my mouth, the way people around me screamed, their mourning attire, the trembling child in front of me, this whole place—it all made no sense.

“What…the heck is going on?!”

*

At first, I thought it was all a dream.

I’d heard of dreams where you could feel pain, and I figured this was one of those—an over-immersive dream with intense sensations.

But as time went on, I didn’t wake up. Instead, as the pain faded, the other sensations sharpened. I could taste food, smell people’s perfume.

“It seems like temporary amnesia due to trauma. As you recover, memories will likely come back–”

Sitting on the bed, I half-listened to the middle-aged man in a white coat while surveying the room. Glancing to the side, I noticed a large full-length mirror on the wall.

In the mirror was a face that looked vaguely familiar. Slowly, I blinked and waved to the woman in the mirror.

But as I waved, so did she, and when I blinked, she blinked back.

She looked a little tired, but even in her exhaustion, she was stunning—a beauty with hair like spun gold and eyes as green as a deep forest.

…It was a face I definitely knew.

“Ahem!”

As I continued staring blankly at the mirror, the middle-aged man cleared his throat, as if to regain my attention, then spoke.

“Well, then, I’ll take my leave. If anything at all, even the smallest thing, comes back to you, please don’t hesitate to call.”

“…Understood.”

With that, the man in white gave a slight bow and left the room. He seemed tired of explaining amnesia, only muttering a few words about it before hurrying off.

“But it’s not like I have amnesia.”

I remembered perfectly well, down to what I’d eaten for lunch yesterday. Rising from the massive bed big enough to fit five grown men, I scanned the room.

The room was lavish beyond words. Then again, considering where I seemed to be, this level of luxury was only natural.

Almost every item was trimmed in gold—armrests, picture frames, even the candle holders by the bed seemed to be made of gold.

“Really… this is excessive.”

Even the pajamas I’d been changed into were soft, barely noticeable on my skin. Seeing myself in this state, I seemed to hold a rather high position here.

“…I guess I’ll have to accept it.”

Reluctant as I was to believe it, a theory I didn’t want to consider started creeping into my mind.

Something straight out of a web novel or webtoon.

“Possession…”

I grabbed my cheeks with both hands and pulled hard enough to make my eyes water. It hurt—it wasn’t a dream.

As the reality of the situation set in, a feeling of injustice overwhelmed me. I slowly walked toward the large full-length mirror I’d looked at earlier.

Standing before it, I saw a woman with a fierce look staring back at me. I hadn’t intended to glare, but her default expression was one of hostility.

Her sharp eyes, a nose that cut like a blade, and a jawline as sharp as a knife. Even her pale skin seemed to intensify her severe appearance.

The face was oddly familiar, and when I examined it closely, my suspicions were confirmed.

Why?

Of all the people to possess, why her?

I lifted my eyes and looked at the woman in the mirror. Her gaze was so intense I felt a shiver down my spine.

“Wow, this is insane.”

A notorious troublemaker abandoned even by the king.

A self-obsessed narcissist who loved herself to an extreme.

One of only thirteen ‘witches’ in this world.

“Why her?”

And…

The villain of ‘Snow White’ doomed to die in every game and fairy tale.

“Why does it have to be her?! In these ‘child-rearing simulation games,’ isn’t it usually the king the player possesses?!”

Despairing, I threw myself onto the bed and rolled around. I kicked the mattress, screamed into the blanket until my throat hurt.

But even as I screamed, the despair didn’t go away. The soreness in my throat seemed to mock me, telling me, “This is reality; accept it.”

As I huffed with anger, my exhausted eyes began to close. Maybe, just maybe, when I wake up, this will all have been a dream.

So, for the first time, I silently prayed, calling on even the gods I didn’t believe in. Please, let me wake up as my original self.

*

Either the gods didn’t exist, or they’d ignored my plea.

When I woke up to the chirping of birds, I was still the kingdom’s notorious troublemaker, ‘Vivian Lilienthal.’

After a night’s sleep, my mind felt calmer, beginning to adjust to this reality. From now on, to survive as ‘Vivian Lilienthal,’ I would absolutely need someone’s help.

In most web novels or webtoons, the memories of the person one possesses remain, but for some reason, I couldn’t access any of ‘Vivian’s’ memories.

So I desperately needed someone to assist me.

“Whew…”

If this world was indeed the child-rearing simulation game, ‘Snow White,’ that I knew, there was only one person who ever helped Vivian.

Or should I say… person?

There was one who existed, after all.

The witch’s helper from the fairy tale.

Springing up from the bed, I walked toward the mirror I’d stared at yesterday. It still reflected the formidable figure of Vivian Lilienthal, her face filled with hostility.

“Ahem!”

Clearing my throat, I looked into the mirror and whispered the line that everyone knew. In ‘Snow White,’ the witch’s mirror only responded to this single line.

“Mirror, mirror~ on the wall~ who’s the fairest of them all?”

…

But there was no response from the mirror.

The embarrassment was almost unbearable, but I knew it had to be this mirror. There was only one full-length mirror in Vivian’s room, and this was it.

Clearing my throat again, I called out in a delicate tone to the mirror.

“Mirror~ mirror~ who’s the fairest of them all?”

Just then, the mirror’s surface began to ripple.

Like a drop of water creating ripples in still water, the mirror’s surface undulated and then calmed, and something strange happened.

Mirrors should reflect exactly what they see, but Vivian’s ‘mirror’ was different. When the ripples subsided, the ‘Vivian Lilienthal’ in the mirror began to move on her own.

The reflection opened her eyes slowly, met my gaze, and spoke.

-Ugh.

“…Huh??”

The reflection suddenly made a face as if about to vomit. She covered her ears as if she’d heard something awful, scrunched her face, and snapped at me.

-What?! Are you a new Vivian, also a crazy narcissist? Like the last Vivian who made me repeat the same answer all day? If you keep asking, ‘Who’s the fairest of them all?’ I’ll have to say, ‘You’re the fairest of them all,’ hundreds of times!

“…Uh, M-Mirror?”

-I can’t do it anymore! I thought Vivian was finally dead, but now someone else’s taken over her body and wants to do the same thing! Just kill me if that’s the case!!

Seeing the Vivian in the mirror collapse dramatically to the floor and sob, I broke out in a nervous sweat. Just what had Vivian done to traumatize the mirror like this?

I sat down on the bed, deciding to wait until the mirror’s episode passed. I thought about covering it with a blanket, but I didn’t want to risk offending the mirror.

And the mirror had clearly referred to me as the “new Vivian.”

‘This mirror… knows I’ve been possessed?’