Rapunzel, DON’T Let Down Your Hair!

First, there was Rapunzel, standing with his arms crossed as he looked down at her. He was tall and slender, and he was wearing the sort of one-piece nightgown women often wore. The chest was decorated with ribbons and lace, and it even tapered neatly at the waist.

Though the sleeves did look somewhat short on him.

Anyway, with the face of an unparalleled beauty and clothes like that, there was no helping the fact that she had mistaken him for a woman. Reassured that the misunderstanding hadn’t been her fault, Erin looked past him at the rest of the room.

The phrase ‘witch’s tower’ somehow conjured an image of a place filled with ominous and suspicious things. Things like the wyvern guarding the entrance and the black clouds.

But the actual inside of the tower was completely different. It was dim because the clouds blocked the sunlight, but it didn’t feel dangerous. Candles illuminated the corners reasonably well, and the furniture and belongings were utterly ordinary.

A bookshelf built into the wall, packed tightly with books. A bed beside it. A neatly folded blanket on top. Anyone could see that this was the room of an ordinary person who liked things tidy. Aside from the book left open on the bed, not a single thing was out of place.

Boring.

She had just thought that when a shadow fell over her and Rapunzel approached from the side. Erin tried to sit up. As promised, she intended to explain how she had ended up coming all the way here.

“You’d better stay still.”

But Rapunzel pushed her back down. In an instant, he used his long hair to wrap her up tightly.

Like a mummy.

“What the hell!”

In the blink of an eye, Erin’s arms and legs were bound, leaving her completely unable to move. When she demanded to know why he was doing this, Rapunzel narrowed his eyes, leaned close enough for their faces to nearly touch, and glared at her.

Not knowing what was happening was frightening enough, but in an entirely different way, he was also frighteningly beautiful. Erin’s heart began pounding wildly. She suddenly wanted to gulp, but her mouth had gone completely dry.

Had she ever been this nervous in her life? Even so, she fought the tension as much as possible and tried to raise both corners of her mouth into a smile. What she needed to show him now wasn’t nervousness or awkwardness, but friendliness.

“Um, this looks like a comfortable, nice place.”

“……”

“It looks bigger than I expected, and there are stairs too. Where do those lead?”

“I still don’t trust you.”

Rapunzel warned her and held up the sword he had somehow taken from her. The muscles around Erin’s mouth twitched when she realized what had happened.

Still watching her warily, he glanced sideways at the sword. He examined the hilt two or three times, turning it this way and that, before scoffing.

“I knew you were lying. There’s no stag on you, the crest of Kalis.”

If she were a real princess, shouldn’t the crest be somewhere on her possessions? Rapunzel spoke with complete certainty, as though he had finally caught a fraud red-handed.

“I told you I’d throw you out of the tower if you lied, didn’t I?”

“Wait. The reason there isn’t a crest on it is because I’m a princess!”

“What are you talking about? If you’re a princess, of course you should bear the royal crest.”

As he could see, she was a woman, which meant she wasn’t allowed to possess it. When Erin explained, he said it made no sense and refused to believe her.

She wished that particular fact were a lie too. Erin smiled bitterly and gestured toward the sword in his hand with her chin.

“Still, it’s not the kind of sword you’d find lying around just anywhere. You can tell from the blade, can’t you?”

The blacksmith who forged swords for the royal family had called it one of his finest works. He had even said it was sturdier and sharper than William’s. That was one thing Erin was proud of, so she could speak about it confidently.

Rapunzel inspected the blade and nodded, saying that it did look like it could cut well.

“Then you believe me…”

She had been about to ask whether he believed her now, but Rapunzel pointed the sword at the tip of her nose. It didn’t touch her, but it was so close she could almost imagine that it did.

Erin stared at him without breathing. After bragging about how sharp it was, she knew that one wrong move could send her nose flying.

“You could have stolen a good sword. If you want to prove you’re telling the truth, talk.”

“Fine. I’ll tell you anything. Just tell me what you want to know!”

Erin tried to raise both hands in surrender. But because she was wrapped up like a mummy, all she could do was twitch helplessly.