02. The Mad Queen Who Talks to the Mirror (1)
02. The Mad Queen Who Talks to the Mirror (1)
[Episode 2] - The Crazy Queen Who Talks to a Mirror (1)
"...We will ring the funeral bells and proceed with the funeral of Queen-nim, Vivian Liliensole."
Daeng- daeng-
A solemn bell toll that seemed to tear at my ears rang out. I frowned without realizing it at the sudden sound of the bell while I was sleeping. What kind of crazy person is ringing a bell outside the house?
"...Please come out one by one and pay your last respects to Queen-nim-"
Amidst the loud voice that seemed to echo through the empty hall, small, murmuring voices could also be heard. Several voices, whispering as if grumbling, tickled my ears.
"In the end, His Majesty did not attend the Queen-nim's funeral. Even now, His Majesty..."
"I've never seen such a shabby royal funeral. Who would look at this and think it's the Queen-nim's funeral? If someone didn't know, they'd think some local noble had died."
"Because of the rumors that Queen-nim is a witch-"
Soksak, soksak.
As my consciousness, which had been deep in sleep, slowly returned due to the bell and the voices, I suddenly felt a choking sensation. It felt as if my nose and throat were submerged in water, making it impossible to breathe properly.
Kkeureureuk, kkeureuk. As I inhaled deeply, the sound of water filling my lungs burst out from my mouth. Once my consciousness had fully returned, the first thing I felt was maddening pain.
"Kkeureuk-! Cough-!"
The water that had entered through my mouth and nose was agonizing.
The pain of suffocation.
The pain of water entering my lungs.
The water that had gone down my windpipe and filled my lungs was painful. I had only just woken up from sleep, but the sudden pain made me think that if I didn't get up right now, I might drown, so I bolted upright.
"Uwaek, uwaeek! Cough! Cough!"
As I retched as if to vomit all the bodily fluids inside me, water with a fishy smell burst out of my mouth. Did I get drenched in water while sleeping? Or was I waterboarded?
Once I had vomited all the water and the pain subsided a little, I felt like I knew what the smell in my mouth was. For some reason, I could taste the fishy smell of lake water and the scent of rotten soil in my mouth.
"Hek, heuk...!"
Why on earth? This question didn't last long. The moment I tried to think about what had happened to me, murmuring sounds came from all around.
When I lifted my head to check the source of the murmuring, I saw the face of a young girl through my vision, which was blurred by tears. A little girl who looked to be between 5 and 7 years old.
The girl with black hair and red eyes was looking at me, trembling. The girl was wearing an all-black dress, and she was clutching a single lily flower in one hand.
"Uh..?"
Yes, just like a child who had come to a funeral.
"W,waaah!!"
"Kyaaah!!"
"Wh, what..? What is it..?!"
At the same time as I made a stupid sound, screams erupted from all around. When I left the girl behind and looked around, people wearing black mourning clothes were busy running away, everyone without exception.
People were crowding at the large door, pushing and fighting to get out first; it was chaos. I endured the pain that felt like it was tearing my insides apart and looked around.
A church?
A cathedral?
The interior of the building, which had the feel of a religious structure, was decorated with black cloth and white lilies, giving it the distinct atmosphere of a funeral.
Especially the place where I had been lying.
It was a long, hexagonal wooden box that looked just like a coffin. Inside this wooden box were piles of white lilies and things that felt like items the deceased had used while alive.
'...No, it really isn't a bed, it's a coffin..?'
......No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand this whole situation.
What was the fishy taste of water in my mouth, and what were the outfits of the people running away while screaming? I couldn't understand the outfit of the child trembling in front of me, the appearance of the building, or anything at all.
"What on earth... is going on..?!"
*
At first, I just thought it was a dream.
Having heard that there are sometimes dreams where you can feel pain, I was certain that this whole situation was a dream and that the pain I was feeling was just because I was too immersed in the dream.
However, as time passed, I didn't wake up from the dream, and as the pain subsided, various senses felt even more vivid. I could taste food, and I could even smell people's perfume.
"It appears to be short-term amnesia due to trauma. Perhaps as you recover, your memory will gradually-"
I sat on the bed and stared blankly at the middle-aged man in a white coat while listening to his story, observing the room. When I glanced over, I saw a large full-length mirror hanging on the wall.
The person reflected in the large full-length mirror was an ambiguously familiar face. I slowly blinked or waved my hand to greet the person reflected in the mirror.
However, when I waved my hand, naturally, the woman in the mirror also greeted me, and when I blinked, the woman in the mirror blinked back at me, looking at me.
She looked a bit haggard, but seeing that even that haggardness felt beautiful, I thought she must be a great beauty. Golden hair that looked like it had been woven from gold thread, and green eyes that seemed to contain the lushness of nature.
...As expected, it was a familiar face no matter how I looked at it.
"Ahem!"
As I was staring blankly at the mirror, the middle-aged man who had been diligently explaining about the amnesia cleared his throat loudly as if to tell me to focus, and then opened his mouth.
"Then, I will take my leave now. If you remember even the smallest thing, you can call for me at any time."
"...Alright."
With those final words, the middle-aged man in the white coat bowed his head and left the room. He was so obviously annoyed, just rambling about amnesia and then finishing.
"It's not like I have amnesia, though."
Because I remember exactly what I ate for lunch yesterday. I pushed my body up from the bed, which was large enough for five adult men to lie down on, and turned my head to look around the room.
The room was so luxurious that the word "grand" was an understatement. Well, considering where I was now, this level of luxury was to be expected.
From the armrests of the sofa to the frames of the pictures, there wasn't a single place, even the smallest detail, that wasn't gilded with gold. Even the candlestick placed next to the bed shone gold as if it were made of gold.
"Really... so extravagant."
Even the pajamas I had been changed into were so soft that I couldn't even feel them on. Looking at my state, it seemed I was a person of quite high status here.
"...I have to admit it now."
I didn't want to accept this unrealistic and illogical situation, but a hypothesis that I had no choice but to accept was crawling up from the corner of my mind.
A story that would only appear in web novels or webtoons.
"Possession..."
I grabbed my cheeks with both hands and stretched them out. I pulled so hard that my cheek flesh felt like it was going to tear off, and tears welled up. As expected, it wasn't a dream.
As I accepted that this situation was reality, a sense of injustice welled up in an instant. I slowly walked to the large full-length mirror I had looked at earlier.
When I stood in front of the full-length mirror, a woman with vicious eyes glared at me. It wasn't that she was trying to glare; this woman's default expression was this vicious one.
Vicious eyes like a snake harboring poison, a high-bridged nose, and a sharp jawline. She already had a sharp impression, but her pale skin seemed to make that sharp impression even sharper.
I wondered why the face looked familiar, and when I looked closely, I was certain.
Why on earth?
Why did I have to possess the body of a woman like this?
I raised my eyes to look at the woman in the mirror. Her expression was so fierce that I was momentarily scared by the face in the mirror and swallowed dry saliva without realizing it.
"Wow, this is driving me crazy."
The kingdom's disgrace that even the King gave up on.
A crazy narcissist who loves herself fiercely.
A 'Witch' of which there are only 13 in this worldview.
"Why her?"
And...
The villain of 'Snow White' whose 'death' is confirmed in the ending of the game or fairy tale.
"Why this woman of all people!! In these kinds of 'parenting simulation games', they usually let you possess the King, the player character!!"
I threw myself onto the bed in despair and rolled around. I kicked the bed, covered myself with the blanket up to my head, and screamed.
Even if I screamed until my throat burst, the despair didn't disappear. Rather, the stinging pain in my throat every time I screamed seemed to tell me, 'This is reality, so give up.'
As I panted and got angry, my eyes started to close slowly, perhaps because my body was very tired. Yes, please, I hope this is all a dream when I wake up.
So I prayed, calling out the names of gods I didn't even believe in. Please, let me return to my original male body when I wake up.
*
Are there no gods?
Or did the gods ignore my prayers?
When I opened my eyes to the chirping of birds, I was still the kingdom's disgrace, 'Vivian Liliensole'.
Perhaps because I had slept, my cooled head began to adapt to reality. From now on, to live as 'Vivian Liliensole', I absolutely needed someone's help.
In web novels or webtoons, the person who possesses the body usually retains the memories of the original, but for some reason, I couldn't read 'Vivian's' memories.
So I desperately needed someone to help me.
"Huu..."
If this world is truly the world of the parenting simulation game 'Snow White' that I know, there was exactly one person who helped Vivian.
Should I call it a person?
You know, right?
The witch's helper that also exists in the fairy tale.
I, who had bolted up from the bed, walked back to the mirror I had been staring at yesterday. The mirror was still reflecting Vivian Liliensole, who looked like the word 'vicious' had become a person.
"Ahem!"
Clearing my throat, I looked at the mirror and whispered 'that line' that everyone knows. Because the witch in 'Snow White' only has this one line when looking at the mirror.
"Mi, mirror~ mirror~ who is the most beautiful person in this world..?"
......
However, the mirror had no reaction.
I felt like my whole body was curling up from embarrassment, but as far as I knew, this was 'the mirror'. Because this was the only giant full-length mirror in Vivian's room.
I cleared my throat again and called out to the mirror in a coaxing voice.
"Mirror~ mirror~ who is the most beautiful person in this world~?"
At that moment, the surface of the mirror began to ripple.
Just like when a water droplet falls into still water and creates ripples. As the rippling surface of the mirror began to subside, the mirror underwent a change.
It was natural for a mirror to reflect objects and follow their movements, but Vivian's 'mirror' was different. As the ripples subsided, the 'Vivian Liliensole' reflected in the mirror began to move on her own.
The Vivian in the mirror, who had slowly opened her eyes, made eye contact with me and opened her mouth.
-Uwaek.
"...Huh??"
The Vivian in the mirror who had opened her mouth suddenly started to gag. Covering her ears as if she had heard something she shouldn't have, Vivian frowned and actually got angry at me.
-What is it?! What the hell?! Is the new Vivian also a crazy woman with narcissism?! Are you going to make me repeat the same answer all day like the last Vivian?! If you ask, 'Who is the most beautiful person in the world~', do I have to say, 'The most beautiful woman in the world is you,' hundreds of times a day to satisfy you, you crazy woman?!
".....? Excuse me, mi, mirror?"
-I can't! I can't! I can't live like this anymore! I thought Vivian had finally died, but some strange person has taken over Vivian's body and is trying to do the same thing as that human! If you're going to do that, just kill me!!
I broke into a cold sweat at the sight of the Vivian in the mirror, who was sprawled on the floor crying as if she had PTSD. What on earth did Vivian do to make the mirror like this?
I sat limply on the bed and decided to wait until the mirror's fit stopped. I thought about just covering the mirror with a blanket, but I couldn't risk getting on the mirror's bad side.
And the mirror had clearly said this while looking at me.
New Vivian.
'This mirror... it knows I've possessed her, doesn't it?'