I Raised Snow White!

That dawn, after teaching the princess some dance moves.

Lately, with my mind tangled in a mess, I hadn’t been able to sleep properly, so I wandered through the silent palace, holding only a single candle for light.

Since it was the early morning when everyone was still asleep, the palace was eerily quiet.

There were no maids rushing around with work to do, and no nobles who’d arrived to attend to business.

The silence was so complete, it almost made me feel like I was the only one in this vast palace.

As I moved forward, step by step, exploring the quiet corridors, I heard someone sobbing from a room in the far corner of the hallway.

‘Again…?’

Ever since I became possessed by Vivian’s body, I had started seeing things I never could before. Ainsel, Sylph, Undine, and other fairies.

I had gained the ability to sense beings that others couldn’t see or hear. Especially at dawn, when the palace was empty, these beings were often visible.

Hearing the sobbing sound, I moved slowly towards its source. Normally, I would have been scared, but like with ghosts, familiarity makes them less frightening.

“Sob, sob, sob, sob…”

Letting out a small sigh, I approached the door from which the crying sounds came. Carefully, I turned the handle and entered the room, where a “woman” was sobbing in the corner.

She was wearing a gray cloak with a hood, her black hair disheveled and wild. Her eyes were red and puffy, as if she’d been crying for ages.

Anyone else seeing her would have probably screamed, but instead, a sigh escaped my lips. I was certain I had already told her not to cry here…

“…Are you crying here again, Banshee? I told you not to cry here; the maids keep saying they hear a ghost wailing, and it scares them.”

“Sob, sob… Vivian… sob…”

The woman, her eyes swollen from crying, turned to look at me. She took a deep breath, as if preparing to cry even louder, and let out a loud wail.

“Waaaah, waaahhh!”

“Haah…”

At the piercing wail that made my head pound, I shook my head, entered the room, and locked the door behind me. If anyone else saw this, they’d think I was a madwoman talking to empty air.

Placing the candle on the table, I plopped myself down on the bed where the “crying woman” was sitting, and gently patted her back as she wiped her tears.

“Banshee, why are you crying again? Did the other fairies bully you?”

“S-Sob… Leannán Sidhe did again…*”

“…I told you, didn’t I? Just let whatever Leannán Sidhe says go in one ear and out the other. She’s just teasing you for fun.”

“But… sob…”

Watching Banshee wail with her face buried in her hands, I let out another sigh. This fairy, sitting beside me and known as “the crying woman,” was also called “Banshee.”

Seeing no sign of her stopping, I kept patting her back, hoping to soothe her enough to cry somewhere else instead of here.

“Enough crying, stop!”

“*Waaah, waaah!*”

As I was comforting Banshee, I heard a giggling sound from above. I looked up and saw a woman floating in the air with a mischievous smile.

“Leannán Sidhe…”

“Hello, Vivian~ Can’t sleep again tonight?”

Floating gently, wearing a soft, flowing white dress, was a fairy.

With snow-white hair and red eyes, her beauty was enough to enchant anyone, reminding me of a “succubus” who lures in men with her allure.

The nature of Leannán Sidhe was similar to what people usually associated with succubi—a fairy who “gives artistic talent to men she likes in exchange for their life force and blood.”

That was what Leannán Sidhe was.

Banshee and Leannán Sidhe.

Technically, they were fairies who appeared as enemies in the game…

I frowned and asked Leannán Sidhe, who was floating in the air.

“…You said last time that there were no tasty men in the palace and you’d head off to another region. Why are you still here?”

“I’ll leave soon~ I just stopped by to meet a ‘friend’ here~”

“…Really?”

Suspicious, I looked at her, and she grabbed my face with both hands, forcing me to look her in the eye. Her eyes were blood-red, with long, narrow pupils, like those of a predator.

“I told you, didn’t I? There’s no man here that I fancy. Even if offered, I wouldn’t take them. Besides, my ‘friend’ has already taken a place here, so we usually don’t ‘feed’ in the same area.”

So there was already a victim of Leannán Sidhe’s in the palace…

Leannán Sidhe let out a sly giggle, spun once in the air, and floated down next to Banshee. Still bawling, Banshee continued crying with deep, mournful sobs.

Leannán Sidhe, sighing with a smile, placed a gray hood over Banshee’s head.

“Honestly, I knew you’d be hiding here again. Let’s go, Banshee, or the ‘Fairy Gate’ will close. Say goodbye to Vivian and let’s go.”

“Sob, waaah!”

With an inevitable smile, Leannán Sidhe took Banshee’s hand, and they floated gently away into the air, disappearing to somewhere else. From the mention of the “Fairy Gate,” it seemed they were returning to their homeland.

“…Finally gone.”

With Banshee’s wailing no longer echoing around, the quiet made me drowsy. Looking out the window, I saw that dawn was breaking, with the dark sky growing lighter.

I gazed at the brightening window with tired eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

‘If I go to sleep now… would I get two hours of sleep…?’

Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!

It felt like I had barely closed my eyes after lying down on the bed, but when I opened them, it was already a bright morning.

Awoken by the loud sound of something tapping on the window, I lifted my head and looked toward the noise.

“…? What’s that…?”

Hogwarts?

A white owl was tapping at the window with a letter held in its beak.

When it met my gaze, the owl started pecking the window harder, as if insisting I open it quickly.

Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!

I rubbed the mirror next to me, signaling for Ainsel to wake up.

Finally opening her eyes, Ainsel looked at me with a sleepy, groggy expression.

“Good morning… Vivian.”

“Ainsel, what’s that? Why is there an owl…?”

“Huh? An owl?”

Rubbing her eyes, Ainsel glanced over at the window where the tapping sound was coming from.

Looking slightly confused, she tilted her head and examined the owl outside.

“Oh? An invitation from the Coven?”

“Coven?”

“Oh, it’s nothing suspicious. You can open it. And that’s not an owl, it’s a snowy owl. Look closely—it has a round face without any tufted feathers on its head.”

I still couldn’t quite tell the difference.

Trusting Ainsel’s assurance that it wasn’t anything suspicious, I opened the window wide to let the owl into the room.

The owl looked around before swiftly hopping inside.

With a flutter, it spread its large wings, circled the room, then perched on the bed and opened its tiny beak, placing the letter it was carrying down in front of me.

Its demeanor was both cute and impressive, and I reached out to pat its head, but it sharply pecked the back of my hand, as if warning me not to come any closer.

“Ouch!”

“Hoot! Screeech!”

After pecking my hand again as if to threaten me, the owl spread its large wings, made a strange noise, and flew back out through the window.

Rubbing my now-red, swollen hand, I picked up the letter it had left on the bed.

It was a plain white envelope. Examining it front and back, I asked Ainsel about it.

“So, this is an invitation from the ‘Coven’?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s an invitation from the Gathering of the Thirteen Witches, where Vivian used to attend. But it’s strange… they should already know that Vivian is dead.”

Ainsel tilted her head, genuinely puzzled as to why they would send an invitation to me.

To be honest, I had no interest in the Coven or witches in general. I didn’t intend to get involved anyway.

“…It’s fine if I don’t go, right?”

“Oh, yes? Um… yes, probably. It’s a pretty free-spirited place, and Vivian wasn’t particularly active there anyway.”

So, Vivian was more like a ghost member of the Coven.

“Alright, then. It’s not like I’m a witch anyway, right?”

“Well, that’s true… but… are you sure? This could be a chance to connect with other witches.”

“With you around, do I need other witches?”

“Heh, hehe.”

Uninterested in the Coven, I tucked the letter the owl had delivered deep into a drawer in the vanity.

I didn’t feel quite right about tearing it up, so I kept it in case it might come in handy someday.

I wanted to go back to sleep, but…

The owl’s peck had fully shaken off my drowsiness.

To wake myself up a bit more, I raised my arms and stretched, then started a few simple stretches.

For some reason, I found myself humming the movements I’d taught the princess, tapping my belly along to the beat.

Ainsel looked appalled.

“Ugh. Doing that childish dance with Vivian’s face.”

“It’s not a dance. It’s exercise. Aerobics.”

Ignoring Ainsel’s disapproval, I swayed my hips, but then I heard a knock at the door.

It was probably a maid coming to wake me up.

Before the maid could open the door, I opened it myself, and she looked at me with surprise.

Grinning at the startled maid, I greeted her.

“Hello, good morning.”

“G-Good morning, Your Majesty…”

*

Today, I had planned something a little special for the princess’s lesson.

After receiving the supplies Bainshaw had prepared, I headed to the room where I always taught the princess.

In one arm, I carried a large drawing paper, and in the other, a set of crayons, paints, and various other art supplies.

Entering the room with all the materials needed for today’s lesson, I saw the princess tilt her head in curiosity at the items I was holding.

Smiling, I laid the materials out on her desk.

“Your Majesty…? Today’s lesson is…?”

“Today’s lesson will be a bit different. Aren’t you tired of etiquette and dance lessons all the time?”

The princess’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she looked at the large sheet of paper, the paints, and the crayons.

She probably hadn’t had many chances to draw like this before.

“On this large piece of paper, draw something you like, anything at all. A cake, maybe, or flowers. Or you could even draw His Majesty and the First Queen.”

“Mother… and Father…?”

I planned to place the drawing the princess made today in the king’s secluded room.

If he still had any humanity left, maybe he’d feel something upon seeing a picture drawn by his own daughter.

That was my hope.

“Yes, and once it’s finished, we’ll send it to His Majesty. Since he enjoys drawings, he’ll surely like the one you make, don’t you think?”

“……”

Please, I hoped the king—whatever he was—would feel something upon seeing his daughter’s drawing…

The princess looked up at me, unsure of what to do.

After a moment of contemplation, she glanced back and forth between the blank paper and me, then finally placed her hand on the paper, as if she’d made up her mind.

“…Would Your Majesty draw with me?”

“Me?”

“The paper is too big for me to fill alone…”

The princess, looking a bit hesitant, handed me a red crayon.

I patted her head with a smile and accepted the crayon.

“…Alright, let’s draw something that will leave His Majesty speechless.”

“…Yes!”