Ch.212Putri’s Stage (16)

# 212. Putri’s Stage (16)

“Huhuhu.”

A day had passed since the magic mirror’s prediction. As soon as she woke up in the morning, the Queen approached the mirror, brushing back a stray lock of hair, and addressed it.

“Magic mirror.”

“[Yes.]”

“Who is the fairest one of all?”

The magic mirror knew this moment would come. So without further questioning, it confirmed:

“[Margarete.]”

“Of course it’s me… What? What did you just say?”

“[The fairest one of all is Margarete.]”

The Queen’s bewildered expression quickly contorted into something hideously malevolent. Her face, once noble and elegantly beautiful, twisted so grotesquely it was hard to believe it belonged to the same person.

The Queen’s gaze immediately shifted to the box containing the heart.

The mirror’s unbelievable answer. The heart. And the hunter who had disappeared quietly, refusing additional rewards.

The Queen’s cunning, wicked, but not stupid mind immediately drew its conclusion.

That pretty-faced lowborn is not dead.

Lesar, that scum dared to deceive me.

What I thought was her heart wasn’t her heart at all.

Though she had figured out the situation, her anger and irritation, far from subsiding, flared up like oil poured on fire.

The Queen grabbed the box and smashed it to the floor.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”

Once, twice, three times.

The high-quality box the Queen had personally prepared didn’t break. This only fueled her rage further, and she continued throwing it and stomping on it with her shoes.

But the box was sturdy. No matter how heavily the Queen breathed, the box wouldn’t suddenly crumble. However, the lock was weaker than the box itself.

After countless impacts, the lock finally broke, causing blood to splash everywhere in an instant.

The Queen, whose feet and calves were suddenly covered in blood, reflexively stepped back before approaching again to look at the messy lump of flesh.

The heart was completely crushed.

Seeing the crushed heart, the Queen’s emotions fluctuated wildly.

If this had been that woman’s real heart!

The anger that had momentarily subsided due to the sudden blood splash rose again. But this time it was different.

A cold cutting wind had settled into her fury.

‘To ensure this never happens again, shouldn’t I just rip out her heart myself?’

She knew that merely being angry and irritated wouldn’t solve anything.

While most problems could be solved by properly using her underlings, Lesar, a first-class assassin, had betrayed her.

The existence of someone more beautiful than herself was both impossible and unforgivable, and eliminating such a person was the most important thing in the world.

Though it was bothersome and beneath her dignity, she had no choice but to do it herself.

If she sent someone else and failed again… she might go insane.

“Margarete… Margarete… Hehehe. Just wait.”

A dark cloud was descending upon the innocent beautiful girl.

**

Unfortunately for the Queen, the innocent beautiful girl (not really) she was targeting was a veteran who had faced so many crises that such dark clouds were nothing more than “passing showers” to her.

“The stepmother’s combat power isn’t much. So fortunately, we don’t really need to worry about getting hurt directly by her.”

“Yeah. The random elements are the problem.”

In the original story, enraged dwarfs chase the stepmother. I don’t know how they move so nimbly with such short legs, but naturally, the stepmother, feeling her life threatened, ran desperately. However, while her essence was the Queen, her appearance was that of an old woman, so she couldn’t move very fast.

Eventually, realizing she would be caught, the stepmother tried to crush the dwarfs by rolling a boulder, but unfortunately, lightning struck right near where she was standing, causing the ground to collapse and her to fall to her death.

This was implemented as a racing mini-game in the game. Although it was called a raid—the Stepmother Raid—the point was to chase the stepmother while avoiding obstacles that appeared without warning.

If the stepmother got too far ahead, it was a failure regardless of how close to the finish line.

If you were behind the stepmother when reaching the finish line, another gimmick called lightning and boulder would activate.

If you overtook the stepmother before reaching the finish line, you would directly defeat the stepmother who now had HP.

We were aiming for the third scenario.

The plan was simple.

The dwarfs would hide somewhere suitable outside the house.

I would pretend to eat the poisoned apple given by the stepmother and fake collapse. As the satisfied stepmother turned to leave, the dwarfs would pounce!

“If we don’t want to be spotted by the stepmother, we need to keep our distance, but how do we time it?”

“Don’t we have something like a telescope?”

“As if…”

The stepmother could transform from a seductive mature woman into a hunched old hag. While her physical strength wasn’t impressive, she had a talent for annoying and troubling people. Before experiencing the Stepmother Raid, there were groups called the “Stepmother Squad” or “Queen Squad,” but after experiencing the infuriating chase with the transformed old woman, they were renamed to something quite dangerous to describe verbally…

Anyway.

To eliminate risk, it would be best for the dwarfs to hide near the house, observe me and the stepmother, and then jump out at the right moment, but what if the stepmother sensed something suspicious and acted differently?

And what if that flow deviated from the limits of the stage?

“We’ve made a bold choice. But we shouldn’t get any bolder.”

“Then what should we do?”

We decided to scout outside the house.

“We’re looking for terrain suitable for an ambush.”

“Yeah, and somewhere that allows for easy observation so we can intervene anytime.”

“Not easy.”

As Subin said, it wasn’t easy. Places good for ambush were blind spots, and places good for observation offered almost no cover.

Returning to the house, we racked our brains.

“Ah, if it’s like this, let’s just go with Plan A!”

“Hmm?”

“Think about it! We’ve already deviated from the story, right? But don’t you think we’re still too conscious of the original story?”

“That’s natural…”

“Nooope!!!”

As if struck by a good idea, Yuri slammed her thick fist on the table like she was about to destroy it and presented her opinion.

“Oppa said we shouldn’t be too bold, but I disagree. Be bolder! The stepmother comes? The stepmother offers a poisoned apple saying it’s delicious? Then say this: ‘Oh my! I have nothing to give you in return!'”

“Yuri.”

“Then she’ll say something like: ‘Hohoho, it’s a gift for a pretty young lady.’ Then Oppa can blush and naturally invite her inside. Say you can’t give her money since you have none, but you’d like to offer her a cup of tea. The stepmother comes in? We pounce.”

“What if she gets suspicious?”

“Oppa can grab her. You can hold her for a moment, right? Then we come out and pounce.”

Yuri looked around as if seeking agreement. It seemed not a bad idea, as several were nodding.

“Think about it, we said we’d pretend to eat the poisoned apple and collapse. But there’s no guarantee the stepmother won’t notice then either. Or that just putting the apple in your mouth and chewing won’t put you in a comatose state.”

“Fair point. Yuri’s plan doesn’t sound bad? It’s simple.”

The subsequent vote resulted in 4 in favor, 2 against.

Yuri’s proposal was accepted.

I was a bit uneasy, but since Yuri’s plan wasn’t bad, I agreed to go along with it.

If successful, we could skip the annoying chase entirely and deal with the stepmother directly.

**

– Remember. Not only does your appearance change, but Your Majesty’s physical abilities change as well. So please don’t overexert yourself.

“Hmph.”

The Queen, now in the forest outside the city, looked at the potion in her hand and snorted. She almost killed the court magician for offering such obvious advice, as if she wouldn’t know such things herself.

“This should be enough. Everyone, return.”

“Yes!”

She had already confirmed the lowborn’s location through the magic mirror and had comfortably traveled to a place not far from there by using knights.

Though it was beneath her dignity, it was truly time to act directly.

After confirming no one was around, the Queen drank the potion in a secluded spot. Soon her vision lowered, and her body felt droopy.

No, it wasn’t just a feeling. Her height actually decreased, her skin lost elasticity and sagged, her back hunched, and her arms and legs ached.

The clothes that had fit perfectly became loose, leaving her almost naked, and when she inadvertently looked at her body, the Queen nearly fainted from the ugliness.

Even after hurriedly changing into the old woman’s clothes she had prepared, the shock didn’t easily fade, forcing her to lean against a tree for a while.

“For me, for me to become like this… it’s impossible. Never! Never!”

The Queen, who had nearly broken a mirror after discovering fine wrinkles around her eyes recently, thought she would have to push the court magicians harder when she returned, as she walked along the forest path.

“…Oh my.”

The involuntary sigh and the joint pain she was experiencing for the first time in her life made her start to regret already.