RPL 5

Chapter 5

Somehow I felt like crying. At the same time, I was curious.

How had Regina been able to listen to their receding footsteps over and over again?

How had she been able to endure, time after time, the despair of being left alone once more?

I wanted to ask the hallucination of young Regina, but the hallucination had already vanished at some point.

‘……That’s because it was a novel.’

Holding back tears made my nose run, so I sniffed.

Yes. It was possible only because it was a novel.

“It’s okay.”

I shook my head and deliberately muttered in a bright voice.

It was far better than the time when I had been waiting aimlessly with no promise at all.

I would be able to get out soon now.

‘……I will be able to get out, right?’

Leaning against the door, I slid down and sat, recalling the original.

The child of the woman who had become empress after Regina’s mother, the former empress, was executed—Imperial Princess Kisella.

And Imperial Princess Kisella’s playmate, Prince Yunid.

The reason the young ones had been able to freely come and go to the castle where Regina was imprisoned was thanks to the “secret passage” the emperor had secretly told Kisella about.

“Your Majesty. Do you know that a child is locked up in that castle? Why is that child locked up?”

That was also why Kisella, having resolved to get Regina out, had gone to the emperor and asked about Regina.

She had thought that an emperor who had told her about the secret passage leading to the castle where Regina was imprisoned would surely know of Regina’s existence.

“I do not know. A child locked up there, you say. But why do you ask about it?”

“If she is not locked up as a criminal, I want to get her out.”

At Kisella’s words, the emperor told her the method to open the door that the children had tried every possible way but had never been able to open.

In truth, the emperor had not told Kisella about the secret passage for no reason.

He had come to need the child he had locked up and turned his back on with his own hands—Regina.

But for various reasons it was not easy to end Regina’s imprisonment, so he intended to use Kisella for Regina’s escape.

Since he had informed her of the secret passage for that purpose, there was no way he would stop Kisella when she voluntarily tried to get Regina out; if anything, he would help.

“Even if I did things differently from the original, it doesn’t seem like anything will change.”

Recalling the original, I rested my chin on my knees and muttered.

The reason I had said I was a fairy was also because I knew the emperor’s true intentions.

No matter what method I used, as long as I made Kisella go to the emperor and ask about me, I knew the emperor would step in.

‘But what if it fails……’

I let out a short laugh and shook off the negative thoughts rising again.

This was inside a novel. Regina was the protagonist.

Only when Regina got out of this place would the real story begin.

There was no way I couldn’t get out.

“I should get ready to leave.”

I stood up and staggered toward the water facility that only ran cold water.

I didn’t want to go outside looking filthy, so I intended to endure the cold a little and try washing.

* * *

“Fairy, I’m sorry.”

At the unbelievable words, I swallowed my breath.

“I did ask my father, but I can’t open the door for you.”

A lie.

The more Kisella spoke, the more it felt like I was tumbling endlessly downward.

“……Why?”

This is a lie.

A thoroughly hoarse voice came out of my mouth. It was because I had caught a cold from washing with cold water.

“Um. That’s…… well……”

Clinging to a shred of possibility, I anxiously waited for the rest of her words.

“Because I’m scared.”

At last the rest of Kisella’s words came. Her voice seemed a little hesitant.

“Scared of what?”

Yunid asked.

“That you might be a ghost instead of a fairy?”

“No! It’s not that—the way to open the door is……!”

Kisella raised her voice as if she felt wronged.

“To open the door, it needs the blood of the imperial family to touch it, but…… but bleeding hurts!”

Ah.

Just because of that?

A sense of emptiness washed over me.

And at the same time, I realized why the original had devoted such a long time and so much description to making them become close.

Currently the emperor had two children.

One was the daughter he had imprisoned with his own hands, Regina. The other was Kisella.

With Regina imprisoned, Kisella had been treated as the sole imperial grandchild. Truly a precious jewel, the one and only noble Imperial Princess.

In other words, the author who wrote the original had added that development in order to give plausibility to how a young child—and a noble Imperial Princess at that—would endure wounding her own body and shedding blood.

Yet I had kicked away the opportunity with my own feet.

Because I had acted differently from the original, unwilling to endure just a few months.

“Wait a moment.”

Thinking that I had to stop them, that I had to make them shed blood no matter what lie I told, I squeezed out my voice and called to them.

That was when it happened. Suddenly a certain thought flashed through my mind.

‘Could it be……’

“Fairy.”

At that moment, Kisella called me.

“I am an Imperial Princess. An Imperial Princess. An Imperial Princess is a very, very noble being. Of course. Because I am the daughter of the great Emperor.”

Listening to Kisella’s instructional words, my thought began to solidify into certainty.

In this empire there were two Imperial Princesses.

“I want to get you out, but enough to wound this precious body……”

“I also……”

“Huh?”

Imperial blood.

That was said to be able to open the door.

And Regina was also of the imperial family.

I did not know whether the door could be opened from the inside as well.

But to escape this despairing situation, I had to try everything I could do.

“You might as well just die.”

To be locked up without knowing why, to receive miserable treatment, and in the end die just as that woman had said?

Wouldn’t dying like this be too unfair?

‘As if I’d die in a place like this.’

Blood. I had to shed blood somehow.

The first thing my eyes went to was the tray holding the food.

Those damn men had taken advantage of my quietness and switched the food back to dried-up hard bread.

But that was not important right now.

There was no fork, no knife. Nothing sharp.

‘If you told me to die, you should have at least given me something to die with.’

I ground my teeth toward the empress and threw the wooden tray that had held the bread with all my strength.

I had to break it somehow. If it broke, a sharp edge would appear.

“What are you doing!”

Sensing danger from my actions, an urgent voice came from outside the door.

“I have to shed blood.”

I muttered as I worked to smash the tray.

But the wooden tray was harder than expected. No matter how much I threw it, it would not break.

‘If something breaks……’

I stopped the pointless action that only wasted strength.

If I collided with something. If some part of my body broke or tore.

“Fairy? Fairy, what are you doing!”

“Blood! I have to shed my blood!”

Thud.

Shouting loudly to endure the pain, I slammed my head against the door.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Again and again, over and over.

Still no blood came out. Because the door did not open.

Only my mind grew hazy from the pain as if my head would split.

The magpie in the folk tale that had struck its head to ring the bell was truly an amazing being.

“……!”

It was when I was looking around for something I could use.

Something suitable came into view.

“Calm down for now.”

Just as I was about to take a step toward it, Yunid’s calm voice came from outside.

“You said you have to shed your blood? So you’re trying to shed blood right now?”

“Yes.”

I answered his question as I walked.

“Why?”

“Y-Yunid! That’s not what’s important right now! Do, do something! The fairy is going to die! She’s dying!”

While I paused at his question, Kisella shouted.

Had she been frightened by the loud noises I made?

Kisella pressed Yunid without thinking ahead or behind.

“No.”

“Why!”

“Because it’s dangerous……”

“Why is a fairy dangerous!”

“……”

“Hurry! The fairy is dying! Hey!”

Along with Kisella’s shout came the rustling sound of clothes.

It seemed Kisella was grabbing Yunid and shaking him.

A moment later, a long sigh was heard.

“What’s not possible is not possible.”

“Hey!”

At Yunid’s firm tone, I let out a short laugh and bent down to pick up what had fallen.

‘So he noticed.’

Since they had come using the secret passage, Yunid probably hadn’t known exactly where this was.

‘He must have just thought it was one of the unused palaces.’

But seeing me trying to shed blood in front of a door that could be opened with imperial blood, he must have realized at once.

That an Imperial Princess was imprisoned in a room at the top of some castle.

“It’s fine.”

Having picked up what I wanted, I spoke toward the door.

“I don’t need it anymore.”

What I had picked up was a fragment of the broken chair.

The chair that had been falling apart from the beginning had long since been completely destroyed from repeatedly becoming the target of my anger.

I raised the chair fragment high.

Then immediately stabbed my palm.

“……”

It was a dark space where only pale sunlight entered.

Even so, the red blood surging up over my palm was clearly visible. The red blood soon soaked my entire hand.

There was no room to feel the pain.

I quickly approached the door and placed my hand on it.

“……!”

Then the door that had had not a single seam began, like a lie, to slowly split from the center.

The creaking sound that would normally have been unpleasant was now sweeter than any sound in the world.

I could declare it the most ecstatic sound I had ever heard since being born.

Through that sound, light gradually entered.

‘Ha……’

I did not know why the tears came.

Was it relief, or joy? Or was it because my eyes were dazzled by the bright, brilliant light I was seeing after so long?

At the indescribable dazzle, at the overwhelming emotion, I sank down and quietly closed my eyes, shedding tears.

“The fairy……”

“Why are you crying?”

At the children’s voices that seemed flustered, I opened my eyes and looked up at them.

A girl with dark-red hair reminiscent of roses and red eyes, and a boy with soft wheat-colored hair and green eyes.

It was nothing more than coincidence. No—it was nothing more than being used by the emperor.

Unlike the original, they had neither gotten me out themselves nor given any help.

And yet at this moment. Why did they look inexpressibly lovely?

Was it because, in the moment of liberation, they were standing amid the vivid light?

“But a fairy turns out to be something really dirty and smelly.”

That was when it happened.

The moment Regina’s half-sister, Kisella, opened her mouth, the swelling emotion instantly subsided and the tears stopped.

Calm returned.