Chapter 3

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Chapter 3 – 12 Hours of Cinderella

TL/Editor: yana/Obleau

The parchment slid up the frame in continuation of the story. I stared blankly at the now darkened frame. A strange sound projected out from the frame. The sound was that of a young man’s voice, it sounded very weak.

“… Good night, your Majesty.”

After the frame flickered a few times, the narrator’s voice continued.

“… And Cheneren… lived happily ever after alone in the glass castle.”

At that moment, I noticed a slight buzz from afar.

As soon as I heard it, I craned my neck in the direction of the sound and saw someone walking in the snow. Off into the distance, a young man was spotted moving under the thick canopy of the blizzard. I wasn’t sure because of the darkness, but it looked like he was walking with a cane.

As soon as I called out to the man, he staggered to a halt. Then, he slowly turned his head in the direction where I had fallen.

The man came up to me, limping. Through the thick blizzard, the man’s appearance gradually cleared up as he got closer.

The first things that caught my eye were his long legs, trudging through the snowy field. He was dressed in a black fur coat that rippled violently against the wind. Every time he took a step, his right thigh wobbled. The man was leaning on a long silver cane.

“…Who are you?”

I tilted my head towards him when I heard a familiar voice. Was this the same voice that came out of the frame from earlier?

All of a sudden, a stiff hand grabbed the back of my neck. The man had bent down to pull me out of the snow. I stared at him, while my wet limbs drooped in midair.

To my surprise, the man was Cheneren from the framed story. He looked at me through his wistful blue eyes.

I studied his face, starting around the tip of his nose. His pale cheeks were slightly flushed from the cold, and he had curly hair that covered the base of his neck. He was slightly thinner in physique compared to the last picture I saw of him, but it was clear that this was the Cheneren the narrator spoke of.

Cheneren was a man with inexpressibly sad eyes. He didn’t look happy at all, contrary to the ending that he “lived happily ever after”. His unusually reddened eyes shimmered slightly. Was he crying or something?

“Tell me your name.”

He interrogated me in a harsh voice. My name? I’m just a rag doll that a couple of farmers put up as a scarecrow. Why do I need a name?

I tilted my head back, still hanging from this man’s arm. When suddenly, he threw me back into the snow and frantically looked around, as if searching for something. He seemed to be completely disinterested in me already.

“It’s dirty and dark here. I cannot see anything.”

A red flame flared up in the man’s palm. The fist-sized flame quickly took shape and grew. It was now a flame large enough to consume me all at once.

The man narrowed his eyes and looked at me again. The corners of his mouth slightly curved upwards, perhaps he was amused just at the sight of me. Are you trying to burn me with this flame?

I looked for an opportunity to escape, but nothing good came up. The terrible reality was that my body was too soaked to move at all. Did this problem stem from me trying to get through a blizzard in the guise of a rag doll? Or maybe the problem started when I first descended the mountain. In the end, I should have just waited for Dorothy.

Cheneren snapped his fingers as he turned his attention up towards the night sky. This made the flame emerging from his hand sail into the air. The flame lit up the surrounding area.

“Have you ever seen a woman with silver hair here?”

Cheneren asked, without even sparing a glance. This time, more flames lit up the surrounding area, making it much brighter. Now I could see all the way to the white plains.

“She’s about this tall. Her eyes are purple, her cheeks are pink.”

He described, raising his hand up to the base of his neck.

I shook my head in silence, and he sighed with disappointment.

Abruptly, the heavy ringing of a bell sounded throughout the night sky. Even the howling of the blizzard was not loud enough to drown out these rings. Unphased, Cheneren only stared up as if he didn’t give a damn about the sound of the bell.

Meanwhile, the sound rang out ten more times. Upon the twelfth ring, I felt a sudden chill course throughout my body. At that moment, I started to physically feel the coldness surrounding my body and the heat of the flames over my head.

It couldn’t be. There were many days of snow, wind, and sunshine in the cornfield. But I have never been neither cold nor hot.

Looking down, I saw a white human hand buried in the pile of snow. When I shuddered, the white hand also moved in sync. When I tried to stretch out my fingers, the human fingers also stretched out in front of my eyes.

I blinked at the sight of a pair of cold, wet human hands. I didn’t understand what was happening. When I carefully peeled back the hem of my dress, I saw long human legs. They were real human legs, not a slender doll’s legs made of long socks stuffed with leaves.

I felt a soft body of flesh and bone. My body felt as heavy as soaked cotton wool. The cold weather was so icy that I couldn’t bear it.

“Asha?”

I looked up when I heard Cheneren’s frightened voice. He looked at me anxiously. His lifeless eyes filled with light for the first time. Tossing his cane to the side, he bent on one knee and sank down in front of me.

His hands shakily wrapped around my shoulders as his blue eyes filled with surprise and joy. He looked at me with shock, while his eyes swept over my entire body.

“How did this happen …”

As soon as Cheneren opened his mouth, the parchment, which I had completely forgotten about, unrolled above his head.

【Clause applies after the last call, which announces 12 hours every night. The item has the same effect as magic in the story.】

【12 o’clock Cinderella: 12 o’clock at night, all the magic that acts on Dorothy will be dispelled (time of the item: 12:00 noon – 12:00 midnight)】

Another parchment appeared in front of me. And disappeared at the same time as it appeared above Cheneren’s head.

“We must return to the castle.”

Cheneren hastily took off his black fur coat and wrapped it around me. Although the weight of the garment put a lot of pressure on my shoulders, I could bear it this time. Had it been the body of a doll, I would have fallen into the snow under its weight.

He muttered harsh curses as he examined my snow-soaked clothes and gently embraced me once again.

“Are you hurt? What is this knife mark on your back?

He belatedly found the marks on the back of my clothes and gritted his teeth. It was the part of my back that had been torn in the fall from the pole. The wound disappeared when I turned into a human, but he seemed to be very pissed at the fact that my clothes were torn.

“Damn it, what kind of guy did such a thing …”

“I did it.”

“I’m sorry.”

Cheneren raised an eyebrow in a curt apology. His eyes, staring right into mine, reminded me of obvious pain. After his lips fluttered for a brief moment, he suddenly hugged me again.

“How long have I been looking for you … I didn’t even know if you were alive …”

He patted me on the back, while muttering in a sorrowful voice. I blinked a few times blankly, while still being held in his embrace. Cheneren seems to know me. Am I the woman named “Asha” that he’s talking about?

But this cannot be. Up until today, I was just a scarecrow from the cornfield. Could it be that the human appearance I’ve assumed resembles Cheneren’s beloved?

“I cannot breathe …”

As soon as Cheneren let go of me, a dark shadow appeared behind him. I turned away and looked over his shoulder. Against the background of the blizzard, a man in a dark blue coat was approaching us.

The strange-looking man stepped under the huge fireball. He carried a giant ax on his shoulder, and every time he moved, a squeaky, strange sound entered my ear. It sounded like that of a moving wind-up doll.

The moment Cheneren tilted his head towards the direction of the unfamiliar sound, the man stopped high behind Cheneren’s back. When I peered up, I saw the man’s thick thighs through the hem of his long coat. I slowly looked up to the large hands holding the ax. Upon examining him, I saw a face with pale green eyes hidden behind a piece of black cloth and honey-colored hair ruffling in the wind.

The honey-haired man raised his ax high. Cheneren didn’t seem to notice the man’s presence yet. Before I could scream, the ax sank into Cheneren’s head.

To the dull, terrible sound, I shut my eyes tightly. I didn’t want to see a human head split in half.

Cheneren’s cold body fell slowly, accompanied by the sound of something collapsing. Holding on to the hem of my torn dress, I felt cold grains stick to my cheeks.

When I carefully opened my eyes again, I saw Cheneren lying helplessly on the ground. His head was smashed like a china doll.

However, not a single drop of red blood was spotted anywhere on the white blanket of snow. Cheneren’s damaged head was just scattered about like broken glass. A blizzard of remains, sparkling like precious stones, flew towards me. The grains that were stuck to my cheeks must have been part of Cheneren.

“…”

The mystery man took a step closer to me, pulling down the black cloth covering his face. I wanted to ask why he attacked Cheneren, but I was speechless upon seeing his exposed face.

The man was crying, though he was very quiet. Tears that did not match his cold eyes flowed faintly down his cheeks.

“…”

The man stared at me in silence and threw the ax into the snow. There was no blood on the blade of the great ax either.

He stepped on Cheneren’s back with his large leather boots. As he did, Cheneren’s body shattered like a statue and scattered across the snowy field. The body was hollow. I did not see the flesh, guts, and bones that humans would normally have.

Cheneren’s scattered pieces then turned into a shiny powder and were then consumed by the fireball. As a strong wind blew by, the fireball was extinguished without leaving a single trace of remains. The surrounding area was now bathed in darkness, with the only source of light coming from the faint moonlight that peeked out from behind the clouds.

A new piece of parchment appeared under the dim moonlight.

【“Tin Woodman” Elliot attacked Cheneren’s “Cinderella” alter ego.】

【Cheneren in the glass castle is so furious that he takes it out on his stepfather and stepbrothers.】

【Cheneren vows to kill Elliot.】

The man looked up at the moon, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand. He then extended his hand towards me without saying a word.

Are you out of your mind? Do you want me to hold a killer’s hand now? I stared at him with burning eyes and jumped up from where I was sitting. Since it was so deadly cold, Cheneren’s thick fur coat did not help much.

“Who are you?”

The man opened his eyes wide in response to my question. I noticed that my hand was shaking slightly. Finally regaining his composure, he touched his fingertips to my lips, narrowing his eyes in the process, and shook his head without speaking a word.

“Can’t you talk?”

I asked, slightly lowering my head. The man appeared to also lower his head as I did, when suddenly a sign with unfamiliar markings appeared above his head. No matter, it looked like he didn’t understand why I was asking such a question.

The man looked displeased with the coat that Cheneren gave me. He nodded.

I was going to ask why he attacked Cheneren and why his body broke down into shards and disintegrated. However, my desire for an answer quickly disappeared upon realization that this person could not speak. I lost interest in him.

“Then, see you … Goodbye.”

I moved away from the man and straightened my coat. I needed to find a place to escape this terrible cold. I wanted to return to the cornfield, where there were warm sunsets. Would this human body be able to pass through that transparent glass wall that was erected on that hill?

Trembling, I straightened Cheneren’s fur coat, though it had a limit to the amount of warmth it could provide. My head felt frozen due to the snow, as were my bare feet. This coldness was the first terrible feeling I had felt in my life.

Is the human body really that weak? At this speed, I will freeze to death from being buried in this snow.

When I got out of the darkness, I sensed a man running after me. He stood next to me, taking an agile step that did not match his large physique.

“Why?”

I asked without looking. The man stepped in front of me and presented something. They were the big boots that he had worn some time ago.

“… Do you want me to put them on?”

He nodded and pointed to my bare feet. Both of my feet were covered with snow, they were swollen and red.

Turning a little, I saw that his large legs had sunken into the snow. I stared blankly at his gray legs in surprise.

They didn’t look like normal human legs in any way. It was very strange that the toes, like the insteps of his feet, were covered with tin. In addition, all of the man’s toe joints were tightened together with screws. A large screw was also found embedded into his ankles, both were slightly exposed under his pants.

Sensing my intense gaze, he gently flexed his toes. A strange sound came from the man’s feet. As if he was embarrassed, he avoided my gaze and held out his boots again.

I shook my head, still staring at his reddish ears.

“I won’t wear them.”

He responded with a frown. Questions appeared behind his pale green eyes. The man cocked his head to the side and stared back with disappointment. He seemed to be asking, “Why?”

“I don’t want to be indebted to a killer.”

I spoke my mind honestly with him. He was a man who broke another’s head. I didn’t want to take his shoes.

After standing for a moment in a daze, he suddenly grabbed me. To be precise, he grabbed the sleeve of Cheneren’s fur coat and…