Chapter 336: A Harmonious Home (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 336: A Harmonious Home (3)
In Eden stood a tower as beautiful as one from a fairy tale.
A tower so tall it seemed to touch the clouds.
At its very peak, a single, solitary window was set.
It was a tower built by dwarves for Snow White, and on its top floor was the princesses' room.
In the slave city of Eden, all women were slaves, save for a few female masters, yet despite their status, they were called princesses.
It was because they were just that beautiful.
But not just anyone could enter. For it was guarded by none other than a dragon, and only the permitted were granted entry.
Of course, there was one person who could enter such a tower without the dragon's permission.
“I’m coming in.”
Karami arrived at the tower.
Two ice knights guarded the entrance.
He moved to enter as he always did.
Clank.
The two ice knights crossed their spears, blocking his path.
“…?”
“That is not the entrance. Wait a moment.”
The voice coming from the knight was Skadia’s. He waited as told, and soon, a staircase of ice materialized, spiraling up the tower's outer wall.
The stairs led to the window on the top floor.
“What is this?”
“Climb it.”
“What?”
“What can I do? It is what the princess wants. If you want to blame someone, blame your past self for reading her Rapunzel.”
Sigh…
It was a sigh he’d lost count of for the day.
Karami began to climb the exterior staircase.
Something swayed gently from the distant window. Focusing, he saw it was a lock of hair.
Was it the year before last?
When he had read Rapunzel to Azyeth.
She had been diligently growing her hair out ever since, but unfortunately, there was no way it could grow long enough to reach the ground floor in just two years.
That was only possible in a fairy tale, after all. If he actually tried to climb her real hair, Azyeth would be horrified.
But she didn't want to give up on the idea, so they had to go through this troublesome process instead.
Lost in thought, he climbed for a long while until the window was finally just above his head. He could see a long, pale blue braid.
Karami grabbed the hair and climbed through the window into the tower.
“I’m here.”
“Welcome, my prince. You've finally defeated the dragon and come to rescue me.”
“But we saw each other yester—”
“…”
“Of course, my princess.”
After giving him a cold stare, Azyeth nodded with a satisfied expression.
She gently hugged Karami, rubbing her cheek against him and basking in his warmth.
“Papa…”
A small hand tugged at Karami’s trousers.
He shifted his gaze toward the clear, lovely voice, like a stone tossed into a calm winter lake.
Beside Azyeth stood a little girl, clutching a fairy tale book as large as her own face.
Dark blue hair.
Skin as white as snow in contrast.
And jewel-like, piercingly blue eyes.
Unlike Azyeth’s languid eyes, which looked as if she might fall into hibernation at any moment, the corners of this girl’s eyes were slightly upturned.
The girl, who brought to mind a winter’s night, was named Aria.
If Azyeth was Snow White, Aria’s appearance was closer to that of a Dark Snow White.
“Have you been listening to your mother?”
Aria nodded silently.
Aria was the spitting image of her mother; her looks were, of course, stunning, and her personality was similar as well.
She rarely showed emotion and was a bit of an oddball.
As her father, he was inwardly concerned, but it wasn't something to worry about for now. After all, Aria acted like a spoiled child around him, expressing her emotions in small but definite ways.
The thought that this was a side of her only he could see actually pleased him.
Karami crouched down in front of Aria.
“What were you doing?”
“Playing with dolls.”
The room was filled with props.
Castles, animals, people.
All of them were made of ice.
Azyeth had made the more intricate ones, but Aria had made many as well.
It was all thanks to Skadia.
She, who had once foamed at the mouth and growled at Karami when Azyeth was pregnant, had volunteered to be Aria’s nanny after she was born.
She had even readily bestowed upon the child a dragon’s blessing, the kind that might appear once in a century.
Thanks to that, Aria, like Azyeth, received the blessing of winter and ice.
She wasn’t perfect at it, but she could create whatever she wanted.
“And Mama read me a storybook. But… I like Cinderella, but Mama keeps trying to read me only Snow White…”
“Snow White over Cinderella.”
Azyeth nodded vigorously, as if stating a universal truth.
The Cinderella storybook Aria held was, like the one he had given Azyeth, a version with illustrations and content adapted just for her.
It must have hit the mark, because like Azyeth, she never let the book out of her sight.
To this Aria, Azyeth was constantly proselytizing that a true princess was Snow White, not Cinderella.
He thought only the gumiho mother and daughter were like that, but here was another mother who refused to yield to her child.
“Since I’m here, I’ll read to you.”
“Nn. Not this one, something else…”
“Do you want to read a different storybook?”
“Not a storybook. Role-playing… but there are only two of us…”
At those words, Skadia, who had been guarding the tower from its peak, came inside.
“What is this nonsense, Aria? Only two of you? Am I not here as well?”
“But… there’s no prince…”
“I can be the prince.”
“Dia is a dragon. Not a prince.”
“Sob.”
Skadia wilted at Aria’s firm rejection.
Thanks to Skadia’s endless offensive of affection from the time Aria was a newborn until now, the two had grown quite close.
Aria even called Skadia by a nickname. But even she was absolutely not allowed to play the role of the prince.
“Papa, you be the prince.”
It was a role that only Karami could be assigned.
“Alright. You’ll be Cinderella, right, Aria?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What roles will you give the other two?”
“Umm…”
Just then, Azyeth chimed in out of nowhere.
“I’m Snow White.”
“But this is Cinderella.”
“I’m Snow White.”
“There’s only one princess to begin with…”
“I’m Snow White.”
“…”
Aria, her thoughts organized, nodded.
“I’ve decided.”
“What will it be?”
“Dia is the fairy who helps Cinderella.”
“Ooh. I shall make you a magnificent ice carriage.”
“You said I’m the prince. What about Azyeth?”
Aria looked at Azyeth.
“Mama is the wicked stepmother who torments Cinderella, and the first stepsister, and the second stepsister. Yep. Perfect.”
Azyeth’s eyes grew cold.
“I’m pretty sure I said I was Snow White.”
“But Mama, you’re old. You’re not suited to be a princess anymore, you’re a queen.”
“Once a princess, always a princess.”
“Okay. Then Mama is Snow White. Snow White is sleeping in the forest. So Mama can just sleep soundly in bed. Papa, Dia, and I will take care of the rest.”
“Ha, hahaha. Aria, what a novel story that is! So, after we find the owner of the glass slipper, next we’ll find Snow White…”
“The prince and Cinderella will get married and live happily ever after, and the prince will forget all about the Snow White who does nothing but sleep all day. Now, let’s start.”
The atmosphere grew so cold that even the ice dragon felt a chill.
Skadia was sweating bullets trying to salvage the situation, but her efforts were in vain as Aria delivered the finishing blow.
Finally, Azyeth shot up from her seat.
“I’m not playing.”
“Okay. Bye-bye, Mama.”
“Aria, you’re mean.”
“Stepmothers are supposed to hate the princess. It’s a time-honored tradition.”
“Let’s go, Rami.”
Azyeth tried to take Karami with her.
Aria grabbed Karami’s other hand.
“Why are you taking Papa?”
“Because Rami is Mama’s prince. That’s an undeniable fact. You can play with your fairy tale prince, Aria. Mama is going to play with Papa in the real world.”
“Papa is Aria’s prince.”
“Fairy tales are just fairy tales. They’re not real.”
Skadia gasped.
Karami squeezed his eyes shut.
To think that Azyeth, who was practically a resident of a fairy tale land herself, would be the one to shatter her child’s innocence.
The shock was on par with Rin declaring she would no longer covet his essence.
Just as he’d feared, Aria’s perpetually blank face darkened rapidly. Still unskilled at controlling her power, the tower began to freeze over with a crackling sound.
“…I believe I shall take my leave.”
“Where do you think you’re going? You’re the dragon who protects the princess.”
“This is your family, is it not? It wouldn’t do for me to usurp the role of the head of the household. Ahem. Perhaps I’ll go and see some old friends. It’s been a while.”
Skadia vanished in an instant.
The two princesses were still in a standoff with Karami between them.
At this rate, he was going to freeze to death.
“Let’s all get along. We’ll play Cinderella with Aria as the star once, and then we’ll play Snow White with Azyeth as the star.”
“…”
“Don’t you want to? Then I’m leaving, too.”
“No. I’ll do it.”
“I’ll play too, Papa.”
It seemed they still wanted to role-play after all.
Cute things.
“Since it seems neither of you wants to be the villain, I’ll…”
“Papa has to be the prince.”
“Rami has to be the prince.”
“…Alright. I suppose I’ll have to call Skadia back. We’ll have her play the villain, and you two can take other roles…”
“I’ll be the villain.”
“Me too.”
For once, both Aria and Azyeth volunteered to play the villain.
“For some reason, I feel like I could be really good at tormenting Snow White.”
“Me too. I’m confident I can torment her so much she won’t even dream of going after the prince. I’ll just smash the glass slipper. Yep.”
I take back what I said about them being cute.