Rapunzel, DON’T Let Down Your Hair!

Erin’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She wanted to believe that the nanny was lying.

“But I want to save a princess and become king.”

“You can’t.”

“I can’t?”

“Instead, a wonderful prince will appear before you someday, Princess. And you’ll become a wise queen.”

“Then that means I have to be locked up like Rapunzel. I want to wield a sword and rescue someone in a cool way!”

And defeat lots of monsters and witches too. Erin held her hand as though she were gripping a sword and swung it around.

“Rescuing is the prince’s role. The princess is supposed to stay quietly locked away in a tower.”

The nanny raised her voice at the end, deliberately teasing her.

Normally, Erin would have thrown a screaming, crying tantrum by this point. But strangely enough, that day she merely pressed her lips tightly together in silence.

Her eyes shimmered. Before anyone knew it, tears had welled in the young princess’s eyes. They hadn’t spilled yet, but she was moments away from bursting into tears. Her reddened nose twitched above her tightly pursed lips.

Apparently, learning that she couldn’t become king had shocked her more than the nanny had expected. The nanny began to feel sorry for being spiteful for no reason. Regretting how immaturely she had behaved, she belatedly tried to salvage the situation.

“B-But listen! If you truly want to become king, Princess, there is one way.”

Erin didn’t raise her head, as though she didn’t believe a word she said.

She won’t even look at me. This is really bad. The nanny desperately called to the princess in the gentlest voice she could manage.

“You can prove what you’re capable of. Enough to make everyone believe that you, Princess Erin, are the one who could become a good king.”

“…What kind of ability?”

The look she shot the nanny was sharp. Still, the fact that she had responded instead of ignoring her was a good sign.

“That’s something you’ll have to think about from now on, Princess.”

“What kind of answer is that!”

“Oh, but there is one thing I know!”

“What?”

“Great kings don’t cry.”

“……”

“Because they have to maintain their dignity.”

“…William cries every day.”

Well, that’s because Prince William is only a baby who was born not long ago, so it can’t be helped.

That was what the nanny thought, but she repeatedly nodded as though agreeing with Erin.

“See? You’ve already gotten a head start in one thing, Princess.”

She just had to keep doing things like that from now on. Then, even if the princess adamantly refused and said she didn’t want to, everyone would beg Princess Erin to please become their king.

It was nothing more than sweet talk meant to get her out of trouble, but it proved quite comforting to Erin.

“I’ll do better than William and become king!”

The tears that had been brimming in her eyes vanished before she knew it, and she smiled brightly as usual as she made her declaration.

* * *

Twenty years later, the now-adult Erin found herself lost in a forest. There was a reason she had come all the way to the neighboring kingdom of Grauden, rather than some forest near Kalis Castle, only to lose her way.

“Apparently, an evil witch has imprisoned another maiden in a tower. And wouldn’t you know it, the maiden who was kidnapped this time is named Rapunzel too. The exact same thing that happened 300 years ago is happening all over again.”

It was because of the rumor that had thrown Kalis Castle into an uproar.

Erin felt sorry for the maiden said to be imprisoned in the tower, but to her, that rumor was the perfect opportunity to prove what she was capable of.

Rescuing someone from a witch’s tower was the highest honor anyone could acknowledge. If she accomplished something of that magnitude, there was hope that even the law barring a princess from inheriting the throne might be changed.

It wasn’t as though someone was imprisoned in a tower every day. Erin believed this was the first and last chance of her lifetime, so she left the comfort of the castle behind and willingly subjected herself to a hundred days of grueling hardship. Until just a short while ago, she had nearly died after being chased by a wyvern.

Still, all that suffering had been worth it. Erin had finally found the witch’s tower, accessible through a hidden path.

The tower had an ominous air befitting a witch’s tower. Despite the clear weather, the area around it was extremely dark. Thick black storm clouds clustered all around it.

Erin approached the base of the tower and looked up.

“Just as I thought, I can’t see anything.”

She had hoped things might look a little different from here, but no such luck. Because of the clouds, she couldn’t make out what the tower looked like at all beyond its middle.

Erin slowly circled the tower, searching for stairs leading upward or some kind of door. But the tower was nothing more than solid stone walls built tightly together without a single gap. There was nowhere that looked like a person could enter or leave.

Instead, an absurdly long length of hair hung down. Just like in the legend of Rapunzel.