The Hunting of Snow White: A Grim Tale - Chapter 66

Prina searched everywhere for Hunter.

Hunter wasn’t in his own room. He wasn’t in hers either. He wasn’t in the first-floor hall.

Hunter was quietly working in the vegetable garden where Happy had been buried.

Though he must have sensed her presence, he didn’t turn his head. Watching his absorbed profile made her throat tighten, but she swallowed it down.

“Mr. Hunter.”

At the sound of her calling him, Hunter lifted his head instead of answering. For some reason his eyes looked sorrowful, and she hesitated for a moment.

The generosity he had so easily shown her, his strong and warm embrace, the sweetest words she had ever heard… Those all flashed through her mind.

Lying to him felt wrong. Cruel, even. That she thought she had to abandon him in order to survive. Her heart pounded, her mouth went dry. Was it nerves? Or conflict? She couldn’t tell herself.

“What is it, Prina.”

But his gaze never wavered, always fixed steadily on her. For an instant, that golden gaze overlapped with the dying eyes of the knight. She must not let her resolve weaken. He was quick to sense her thoughts and feelings.

Even the smallest movement, the faintest breath could serve as a signal. She had to speak quickly, without hesitation.

“Um… I really want the chocolate you bought last time. The one from the market.”

“Chocolate?”

“…Yes. I’ve been feeling a little down these days. I think if I ate that, I might feel a bit better.”

Forgive me, but you cannot refuse my wish.

That is your weakness.

“It’s my wish.”

When she added those words again, Hunter fell silent for a while.

She tried her best not to let her anxiety show. Even with countless mirrors still staring like watchful eyes, it no longer mattered if he found out. Until she escaped, she would shamelessly lie again and again.

At last he let out a faint sigh, then curved his lips into a smile.

“I’ll go get it.”

He readily accepted her wish.

It was done. At last.

A farewell easier and hollower than she had imagined. Yet it brought her relief.

She thought Hunter would be alright.

“Play nicely with Lucky.”

Goodbye, Hunter.

Prina silently sent her farewell to his retreating back, words she would never truly give voice to. A last farewell to the one who would live inside her forever, who had once made her whole, but whom she would never see again.

* * *

Prina stood still at the entrance to the forest.

What should she do? She had to run before he came back.

But it felt as though her ankles were bound, her feet refusing to move.

“Princess!”

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice calling out to her, Prina flinched and turned around.

Sir Arthur was dead. So she must have misheard. But then why…?

Confusion made her breath grow ragged, her breathing quick and shallow.

Prina feared the forest. A place that had once given her breath now, through all she had endured, had become an object of terror.

The memory of Sir Arthur mocking her and chasing her down. The pelting rain that stung her skin, the gunshots that split her ears. And the stench of blood that still lingered.

But more than anything, what chilled her was Hunter’s golden eyes watching her from within it all.

Yes. She had first met Hunter in this forest. And in the end, it had been in this forest that she had walked straight into his snare.

Looking at the densely tangled trees, it felt as if she were crawling into the darkness on her own. Her fingertips went cold at the thought. Twisted, endless branches seemed to beckon her in, drawing her into the woods. Like the gaping maw of a monster, waiting to swallow her whole.

Though the sun had not yet set, the forest in the distance was so dark its depths could not be guessed. The hooting of owls sounded like a funeral dirge calling for her death. The smell of rotting leaves and damp earth was like a grave.

Was she walking into her own place of death?

Would it be better to turn back, even now?

To the safe room given to her, with its soft bedding, warm meals, and the things she could make and tend with her own hands.

If she went back before being discovered, as if nothing had happened…