Ch.214Putri’s Stage (18)

# 214. Putri’s Stage (18)

‘She’s here.’

Finally, the stepmother arrived. When I peeked through the window, her walking pace was extremely slow, and seeing how she stopped to rest every minute or so while patting her waist and knees, I understood why it took her so long. She looked so pitiful that I almost felt sympathy for her.

Of course, I quickly snapped back to reality when I saw the basket of apples she was carrying.

Knock, knock-knock-

“Who is it~?”

The stepmother knocked. The raid members were holding their tools, barely breathing. Since opening the door immediately would seem unnatural, I deliberately stomped my feet for a few seconds before answering. I noticed the raid members’ expressions momentarily turning awkward at my unexpectedly feminine response, but given the situation, they quickly composed themselves.

“Hehehe. Anyone home? I’m just a humble peddler. Would you like to see my wares?”

Though she had transformed into an old woman, she didn’t need to use such a rustic dialect, but her country accent performance was perfect—perhaps thinking it would make it easier to deceive Snow White. If I were to turn away a peddler at the door, I’d feel terribly guilty and compelled to buy even the cheapest item.

In the original story, Snow White indeed felt sympathy for such an old woman and ignored her animal friends’ warnings, but that didn’t apply to us who had already decided to derail the story.

I raised my index finger pointing at the door, then kicked it as hard as I could…

“It’s your mother!”

Yuri, who was at the vanguard, delivered a classic short and crude mom joke while simultaneously swinging both the axe she had made while waiting and her original hammer.

Though her strength was reduced due to her smaller stature and weaker body compared to her original form, the fact that her attack was the strongest among us remained unchanged.

Success.

That’s what I was certain of.

But something surprising happened.

As if revealing that her slow walking had been a disguise, the stepmother dodged Yuri’s hammer. However, perhaps because she was evading in an unfamiliar old woman’s body, she couldn’t avoid the wooden axe that followed, which struck precisely at her left wrist that was holding the basket.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Since it was wooden rather than metal, the old woman’s wrist didn’t completely sever. Instead, I could see her wrist bending in an impossible direction from the tremendous impact.

“Keep pressing!”

“Attack!”

As Yuri moved aside, the rest of the raid members rushed out and surrounded the stepmother. Apparently never dreaming she would be attacked like this, the stepmother remained frozen in place, clutching her wrist and screaming until we had her completely surrounded.

‘Well, how would a queen ever have experienced such pain?’

Even I would confidently pass out if a stranger suddenly struck my wrist with an axe. In a way, the stepmother was impressive.

“How dare, h-how dare you…!”

“How dare my ass!”

The stepmother locked eyes with me through the wide-open door and became enraged, but she had already taken a heavy first hit and was now surrounded.

We maintained our encirclement without letting our guard down. The reason we focused on surrounding her before attacking was because it would be extremely troublesome if she escaped.

“With that vile body, you must have seduced these dwarves who aren’t even human!”

“What are you babbling about, you old hag who’s about to die?”

“Your loins must be worn out! Taking the seed of these lowly creatures while spewing vulgar words and laughing shamelessly!”

“A senile old woman’s jealousy is pointless.”

Suddenly, the stepmother started dissing me. The stepmother was already the epitome of villainy, but whether driven mad by pain or not, she was treating me like a prostitute and berating me.

There was no need to keep up pretenses. I ordered the raid members in my normal tone.

“Attack.”

“Do you think I’ll just let you have your way? To mere dwarves like you!”

The stepmother, whose hand had been trembling in pain, reached into her bosom with her uninjured hand.

“Stop her!”

“Haap!”

I didn’t know what it was. But I instinctively knew we had to stop her before she could do anything.

You know that meme where people don’t understand why villains just stand there watching protagonists transform, calling them idiots? I wasn’t going to be that idiot.

I wasn’t the only one who felt this way—everyone threw their weapons at the stepmother, but… unfortunately, she was just a split second faster.

She threw something to the ground, and an extremely dense fog spread rapidly, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead.

The screams from the stepmother that we had expected didn’t come.

“Stop moving! Don’t move carelessly!”

“What kind of pattern is this!”

“Everyone stay calm!”

The artificial fog didn’t last long—a few minutes at most. When it cleared, I first checked if all raid members were safe. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

But the stepmother was gone.

“We need to chase her right now.”

“Shit…”

“She couldn’t have gone far!”

The raid members picked up their tools again. I followed them out. They worried about me, but when I said staying alone in the house would be more dangerous, they quickly agreed.

“But which way do we go?”

“Let’s split up.”

“No. We don’t know what variables might occur, like just now.”

“We need to decide quickly, whichever direction!”

Everyone was starting to feel anxious. If the stepmother escaped completely, it would be over. Not just a derailment of the story, but truly over.

I decided to think from the stepmother’s perspective.

If I were the stepmother, which way would I flee?

“Let’s follow the path the stepmother came from.”

“Okay. I’ll go first!”

“Let’s go together!”

The answer was probably ‘return to the royal castle.’

We started running hurriedly. Since the dwarves had short legs, it wasn’t too difficult to keep up, but running on an unpaved road consumed more energy than I expected. I quickly became out of breath, and the fatigue that hadn’t fully dissipated yet tormented my feet and legs.

But.

“Huh, what?”

“Could it be…?”

“I think it is! Let’s follow them!”

The animal group that had fled from predators when I desperately wanted to see them was now running ahead of us, maintaining a certain distance.

Seeing them, I was confident we were on the right track, and my fatigue and pain seemed to vanish.

The stepmother might have gained a few minutes, but how fast could she really be!

**

The Queen couldn’t believe it. She wished it were just a terrible nightmare.

For the first time in her life, she had been attacked by someone.

For the first time in her life, she was severely injured and experiencing tremendous pain.

For the first time in her life, she was running so hard that sweat poured like rain.

For the first time in her life, she was feeling fear.

But it was reality. Most unfortunately, she couldn’t ask for help because she had dismissed everyone before entering the forest. The Queen’s immense power and cruel nature, which normally ensured no one dared refuse her orders, now worked against her.

At least she had been thorough in her preparations, bringing various potions—that was her only consolation.

The rapidly spreading dense fog potion was one example, as was the potion that forcibly reversed her transformation.

Having to return to her original form before the duration expired caused an unpleasant sensation as if her entire body was creaking, along with irritating pain, but it was nothing compared to the pain from the axe wound.

The Queen fled without even properly dressing, and even drank a potion that temporarily enhanced physical abilities despite its severe side effects.

When packing, she had wondered if she needed to bring such things just for one lowly creature, but now she was grateful to her past self for thinking that something might happen while in the old woman’s form.

However, being someone who had always been far removed from physical exercise, the Queen quickly tired despite the potion.

Unable to stop completely, she continued in a walking-running motion while gasping for breath, struck by the realization that at this rate, she would be caught.

And right after that, she became confused about why they had attacked her on sight.

When she was attacked, she was too panicked to do anything but spread the fog and flee, but as time passed, her mind cleared.

‘Lessar! Could it be that damned huntsman!’

The Queen had found an answer. But another question remained. Even if that huntsman had betrayed her and warned the lowly creature about her existence, she was currently disguised as a shabby old woman, not the most beautiful woman in the world!

Not even the huntsman knew she could change her appearance through potions!

“How did I end up with such crazy dwarves…!”

The Queen had no way of knowing they were isekai souls familiar with this world, so she could only think she had the misfortune of encountering insane dwarves.

She was furious, but that wasn’t the important thing now.

What should she do if escape seemed impossible?

The Queen looked at her few remaining potions and contemplated.

“If I cannot escape, I’ll make it so I don’t need to escape…”

The Queen’s face twisted grotesquely as she gripped the vial.