Ch.211Putri’s Stage (15)

# 211. Putri’s Stage (15)

“Huhuhuhu… What a beautifully shaped heart.”

After Lesar presented the heart to the Queen and departed, the Queen’s daily routine began with opening the box to gaze at the heart. She looked at it before breakfast, after eating, during lunch and dinner, and before going to bed.

Each time, the faces of her attending maids turned pale, but the Queen was not the type to care about such things.

“Yes. Yes. No matter how pretty your heart is, how could it compare to my heart that still beats and lives? Huhuhuhu.”

The Queen had killed an innocent person out of jealousy for their beautiful appearance and extracted their heart, and now she was desecrating the deceased by gloating over that heart…

“Magic mirror. How much time is left?”

“[One day.]”

“Huhuhuhu. One day. Yes. In one day, I won’t have to look at this disgusting heart anymore.”

Once again, there was no one anywhere who could stop her. That was the kind of existence the Queen was.

**

“Since we can’t see all situations at once like in a game, I’m not sure about the exact timing, but I think the stepmother will come tomorrow or the day after.”

“Let’s assume it’s tomorrow then.”

“Right. I’ll talk assuming it’s tomorrow.”

After a chilling storm had passed through the dwarfs’ house.

Only after I emphatically explained that how Snow White wakes up isn’t important, and that despite this being a play-within-a-play, I absolutely hate the idea of having my lips touched by the prince, were we able to have a constructive conversation.

To be honest, while it’s established that Snow White and the prince fall in love with each other, it still seems ridiculous that they’d share a kiss while she’s sleeping when all they’ve done is briefly see each other and exchange songs. Really. I know it’s a fairy tale, but still.

“Everyone probably knows this already, but I’ll go through it again to refresh our memories. Originally, Snow White is supposed to encounter her stepmother disguised as an old woman while the dwarfs are out working. Then the stepmother offers Snow White a magical apple, which is actually poisoned, and the animals see this and cause a commotion because they’re suspicious. Kind-hearted Snow White scolds the animals and defends the old woman, and the animals go to get help from the dwarfs. Meanwhile, Snow White eats the apple and falls into a death-like state.”

“Why would this flower field girl stupidly eat something given by a stranger?”

“Yuri!”

“Okay, okay.”

Sister Yehyun stopped her, but I completely agree with Yuri’s comment…

“When the animals come to the workplace and cause chaos, the dwarfs rush back home, but Snow White is already down. Then they track the stepmother and the stepmother raid begins. After defeating the stepmother, they place Snow White in a glass coffin, and when the prince comes and awakens Snow White, it’s cleared. That’s the established route and official storyline.”

“But things went wrong before that.”

“Right. I succeeded in persuading Lesar, but I was left with a scar on my chest, and on your side, the fake couldn’t be revived, so the seven became six, and after entering the forest, you killed a wild beast.”

Honestly, when I first heard the whole story, I almost shouted asking why they made such decisions. The scar on my chest? That was a trivial issue. The seven dwarfs becoming six? That was unavoidable. But them entering the forest and killing a wild beast was like crossing a river of no return.

Still, I had no right to criticize them. It was a fact that I was alive thanks to the raid members’ judgment, and I knew their decisions weren’t made rashly out of impatience or anxiety.

What’s done is done, and unless we have the power to turn back time, a leader’s role is to suggest what to do next rather than dwelling on the past. We can learn from past events and take them as lessons, but digging deep into who was right or wrong would only ruin the atmosphere.

“This is a bit off-topic, but I do have a guess as to why the fake didn’t revive.”

“Really? I couldn’t figure it out no matter how much I thought about it.”

“What is it?”

“Danya.”

“Huh? Don’t tell me the fake was Danya?”

“No, that’s not it. I think it might be a kind of penalty. There should be seven, but eight people got involved. If all eight were allowed to participate in the stage, there wouldn’t be a fake among the seven dwarfs, so they gave us a penalty by excluding Danya, who isn’t an official participant.”

I miss Danya.

I want to rub my face vigorously against Danya’s soft fur and belly…

Anyway, when I brought up Danya since there had been no mention of her, looks of guilt appeared on the raid members’ faces. They were so identical it was like they had copy-pasted the same expression, and I almost burst out laughing.

“Subin said it first. That Danya might not have appeared because she’s treated as your pet. But hearing your theory now, I think yours makes more sense.”

“Pet treatment… Subin’s words aren’t entirely wrong either.”

“But why is it a penalty? Danya’s absence itself is already a penalty.”

“It’s probably because we tried to sneak in 8 members when the full party for this raid is supposed to be 7.”

“But you said she’s treated as a pet!”

“Well, I don’t know that much. How am I supposed to know what goes on in that concept-obsessed demon’s mind?”

That was the end of the Danya discussion. Sorry to say this about her, but her significance in this raid was literally zero, so it would be wasteful to worry about it further. Once we safely complete the raid, I’ll hug her all day.

“So! The reason I brought up the storyline that we all know is to decide whether we should still try to follow the established route or completely break the line and forge a new story.”

“If we forge a new story, what, do we just wait here and immediately destroy the stepmother when she comes?”

“That’s one option.”

“…Really?”

“Isn’t the most important thing to reach the ending where Snow White and the prince get together and everyone, including the dwarfs, lives happily ever after?”

I shared the points I had been pondering while reviewing the story.

“Especially if Snow White wasn’t an all-ages story but an adult one, I don’t think that prince would stop at just a kiss, so I need to stay awake to avoid doing that kind of thing with him. To do that, I need to avoid eating the poisoned apple.”

“Since the stepmother’s arrival is inevitable, we either kill her as soon as she arrives, or pretend to eat the apple and ambush her when she leaves thinking she’s succeeded.”

“Bingo. For that to work, the dwarfs need to either stay at home or hide near the house pretending to be away. Snow White not eating the poisoned apple? That’s such a major change that it would directly affect the ending…”

“Even if the stage doesn’t break, the penalty would be enormous.”

Penalty.

If we had perfectly executed Putri’s stage, it would be 0, but if the story was damaged or if we made inappropriate choices or actions even if the story flowed properly, the number would increase, becoming a shackle for the raid team when facing Putri in the future.

For reference, if we got a bad ending or dead ending, we wouldn’t even get to raid Putri—it would be an immediate wipe judgment, unrelated to penalties.

“Or, since this isn’t a game… that bastard Putri might call it the birth of an ‘interesting’ story.”

“Given that Putri bastard’s personality, that’s entirely possible?”

“Why have we been trying so hard to follow the original flow all this time? It’s ultimately to defeat Putri easily. But by now, we’ve probably accumulated at least 5 or maybe 10 penalty points. It’s already a terrible number, but I think it’s not something we can’t handle.”

“Ah, I see.”

Just as Subin chose the forest over the mine, she was suggesting that we completely overturn what had already gone awry.

“Of course, this is just speculation, as Subin said. So it might still be better to go with the official route from now on. This isn’t a training session, but what happens next has a bigger impact on the ending, so if we follow the official route from now on, we might be able to minimize the penalties.”

“Shall we vote?”

“Let’s vote. In favor means breaking the route, against means following the original route.”

The not-so-cute dwarfs rested their elbows on the cute table and closed their eyes in contemplation. Though they trusted their raid leader and followed his words well, that didn’t mean their thoughts, intellect, and individuality were uniform.

If that had been the case, we wouldn’t have wasted time debating and deciding by vote.

“What are we?”

“Hairy dwarfs?”

“We are Veritas! So I’m in favor! Fuck Putri. I refuse to be manipulated any further. I’m going to do what I want.”

Yuri was the first to finish deliberating. She slammed the table with her fur-covered hand, casting one vote in favor.

Did her words persuade the other raid members, or were they just a trigger?

Given the personalities of the raid members, I expected one or two to be against it, but the vote was unanimously in favor.

Now we had to choose between attacking the old woman (stepmother) on sight or pretending to eat the poisoned apple and then having the raid members who were hiding nearby ambush her. We chose the latter.

This was because the stepmother had various abilities, and in the story, she offers the apple outside the house, making it difficult for the dwarfs to ambush her if they’re hiding inside.

“Then, from now on, we’re switching to stepmother raid mode.”

This wretched stage was gradually coming to an end.