I Raised Snow White!

I heard a snapping sound, like something breaking inside me.

And I immediately knew that this was the sound of my patience finally breaking.

Had I expected too much from someone who wasn’t even human?

No, even a mere beast doesn’t abandon its own offspring.

Then, how should I describe the creature locked in here?

One thing was clear: it was a creature worse than any beast.

I no longer cared about the King’s condition or whether the First Queen was still alive.

I just couldn’t stand to see that disgrace rotting in his chamber, harming everyone around him.

“…Take the Princess to her room. And make sure not even a single ant approaches this place until I leave.”

“But… but…”

The knight caring for the Princess looked at me anxiously.

It was as if he could already imagine what would happen if he left.

However, I had no intention of backing down either.

When I glared fiercely at the knight, another knight bowed deeply, apologized, and took the Princess away from the room.

I couldn’t stand this lazy tyrant’s nonsense any longer.

The only thing that would satisfy me now was dragging this creature worse than a beast out of his den by his hair.

Ignoring the knight’s concerned attempts to stop me, I approached the door of the King’s secluded chamber and firmly gripped the handle.

But as expected, the door remained locked tight.

Click! Click, click-click-click-click!

The lock was bolted from the inside, showing no intention of opening from outside.

Each time I pressed down on the handle, all I got was a jolt of pain in my wrist.

Bam!

Frustrated with the locked door, I finally kicked it with all my might.

I wanted to break it down, but all I achieved was hurting my own toes.

“Ah… damn, my toe.”

As the pain shot up from my toe, I managed to calm down slightly and let out a long sigh, lifting my head to look at the stubbornly closed door.

Even after kicking it so hard, there wasn’t even a scratch on the door.

While I was catching my breath, I heard Ainsel’s trembling voice in my ear.

She seemed in shock, muttering incoherently and breaking into sobs after seeing the Princess.

-Ah… ugh… I’m so sorry… If only I hadn’t been forced into that ‘contract’… If only I’d spoken up sooner… None of this would have happened…

“……”

-The Princess drew this for me… It was her first time… drawing a picture of me…

It felt as if my insides were burning, but I couldn’t blame Ainsel.

She had been silenced against her will.

She had a reason for not being able to speak.

Looking at the torn pieces of the picture scattered on the floor, Ainsel began to cry even harder.

I remembered how happy she had sounded yesterday when the Princess had drawn a picture of her.

I took off my earring and held Ainsel in my palm.

Reflected in the mirror, Ainsel wiped away her tears with both hands, cursing herself.

She called herself a fool, said she was so stupid, and scolded herself.

Letting out a small sigh of frustration, I gently stroked Ainsel’s hair with my finger.

And, as if it actually helped, Ainsel began to slowly stop crying.

“…It’s not your fault.”

-No… it is my fault. If I had told someone ‘on the other side’ earlier, at least… things wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Ainsel, who had stopped crying, looked up at me with a determined expression.

No longer running away, no longer avoiding things, Ainsel clenched her fists tightly.

-I have to take responsibility.

“…How?”

In response to my question, Ainsel looked up at me firmly.

She told me to listen carefully, as she would only explain it once.

I brought her closer and started listening to her story.

-…The ‘contract’ imposed on me prevents me from ‘harming’ the First Queen. Of course, it also includes keeping all secrets about the First Queen.

“So that’s why you couldn’t say anything about the First Queen.”

-Yes, that’s right. I was forced into this contract. My ‘main body’ was taken from me.

“Main body?”

At my question, Ainsel nodded slightly.

-Yes, actually, if it’s within the area of the royal palace, I can use all the mirrors here as my ‘clones.’ The mirrors I control serve as paths I can freely move through. Vivian used this ‘path’ to gather all the information in the palace. That’s one of the reasons she was able to become the Second Queen.

So, Ainsel, possessing her main body, could turn the mirrors into CCTV cameras.

And undetectable hidden cameras at that.

Did Vivian use this to dig up the dirty secrets of the nobles?

-…But now I’ve lost my main body, and I only have two remaining ‘clones.’ The earring I’m in now and the ‘replica’ in your room are my last clones.

“…Then, where is your main body now?”

Ainsel sighed softly and glanced at the tightly shut door in front of me.

When I looked at the door, she continued, as if confirming my suspicion.

-My ‘main body’ is inside that room. That’s how I know ‘who’ is inside right now. Until now, I was too afraid of the ‘contract’ to do anything about it…

Ainsel gave me a small smile.

-Didn’t I tell you? I’ll take responsibility.

At that moment, a crackling sound came from the tiny earring, and a crack started to form.

It was as if the mirror couldn’t allow her to say anything more and was beginning to break with a sharp noise.

“…Are you really okay with this?”

-…Yes, it’s fine. Besides, I have you, don’t I?

The edges of the mirror began turning to a sand-like powder.

As I looked at Ainsel, unsure of what to do, she smiled brightly at me, even as she started to turn into sand.

-I’ll use magic from the inside to open the door for you. By sacrificing this clone, I should be able to avoid the ‘contract’ that binds me to the main body.

Crack, crack.

Small shards of the mirror started to break off and fall.

The pieces crumbled in my palm, quickly turning into sand and scattering.

Looking at me one last time, Ainsel spoke.

-I’ll be waiting inside. Vivian.

Click!

The moment the mirror in my hand became sand, I heard the sound of the lock opening on the firmly shut door.

Then, with a creak, the door slowly began to open.

The door was barely ajar, as if whispering for me to hurry inside.

At that whisper, I gripped the handle and pushed my body forward into the room.

*

As soon as I entered, a nauseating stench forced me to hold my breath.

The air was thick with the smell of decay mixed with the sharp odor of paint.

The floor was so cluttered with countless paintings that there wasn’t a single clear spot to step on.

With each step, the sound of paper crumpling echoed through the room.

I grimaced and lifted my gaze.

Though the room was dark and hard to see, I could make out a figure in the corner, seemingly painting on a canvas.

Surely, this was the shut-in ‘His Majesty.’

“Your Majesty.”

In a low voice, I called out to the figure that resembled a person.

However, the figure didn’t respond.

He simply stared at something and continued painting in silence.

I looked down at the drawings scattered on the floor.

All of them depicted a woman with black hair and red eyes, showing various expressions—smiling, crying, angry.

The drawings covered the floor, walls, and even the ceiling.

Compared to these, the paintings in the outer and main palaces were nothing.

“Your Majesty.”

Pulling my gaze away from the disturbing images, I turned back to the figure I presumed was His Majesty and spoke again.

Still, there was no response.

The faint light filtering through the window wasn’t enough to see much in the dark room.

Gradually, as my eyes adjusted, I became certain that this form was indeed human.

Slowly, I moved closer to the figure.

His hair, unkempt from two years of neglect, was long.

His hands and feet were emaciated, his back skin sticking to his ribs, and his thighs were frighteningly thin.

Though I couldn’t clearly see his face, he looked like a mummy.

As I looked at him, a surge of anger rose within me.

Couldn’t he spare even a little of the love he had for the First Queen for the Princess?

Did he hate the Princess so much that he tore apart her drawings?

“Your Majesty..!”

I reached out to the person painting on the canvas.

His brittle black hair brushed against the back of my hand, giving me goosebumps, but I didn’t stop and gripped his shoulder.

“Please, just stop..!”

Grabbing onto his clothes, I pulled him up from the chair, and I couldn’t help but widen my eyes in shock.

Even though I lifted him, he was incredibly light, almost inhumanly so.

I grabbed him by the collar with both arms, forcibly lifting him.

As I drew back the blackout curtains that darkened the room, sunlight poured in, allowing me to finally see his face.

I looked down at him, confirming if he was truly alive.

His unkempt black hair hung down to his waist.

His red eyes had lost all light.

And… he had the swelling on his chest you’d only expect from a woman.

“What… are you?”

I knew this face.

I’d seen hundreds of portraits bearing this face in both the outer and main palaces.

I shook him by the collar, shouting for him to explain this incomprehensible situation.

“What the hell are you?!”

At my shout, he shifted his gaze slightly to look at me.

When his skeletal hand gripped my wrist, a cold shiver ran through me at the icy touch.

Was he just… a corpse?

“Who… am I, you ask?”

A voice so rough it was almost unintelligible.

“Second Queen, have you already forgotten me?”

“What..?”

With a faint chuckle, the person I held by the collar introduced himself.

“I am Edrick Snow White.”

The ‘woman’ who called herself the King flashed a manic smile.

“Your husband, am I not?”