Chapter 83
“Um… I really want the chocolate you bought last time. The one from the market.”
“Chocolate?”
“……It’s my wish.”
No, your real wish is to leave me.
While I go to the market to buy chocolate, you’ll leave this place.
In the end, you’ve already made your decision.
You don’t even realize I can read your thoughts. You fidget awkwardly, trying not to show it on your face, working hard to conceal it. That sight only makes you look all the more pitiful.
But.
What am I supposed to do when your thoughts are already laid bare?
I am yours, Prina, so I can’t help but grant your wish, whatever it is.
If I could, I would chain you up and bind you in this room…
But then, you’d believe I had killed even your very last shred of fortune.
But Prina. Will you be alright?
You’re afraid of the forest. You don’t know the way. You can’t stand being alone.
If you escape the forest, you’ll run to your father. And though you know there may be no hope there, why do you still try to go?
I thought deeply on it. If you go there, the vile truth waiting for you will only shatter you again. But it can’t be helped.
Yes, what matters is not the process but the result, Prina.
Even if you suffer, it is all only part of the process for us to become complete.
See with your own eyes where you belong, who it is that will hold you.
“I’ll go and get it.”
Go, Prina.
“Play nicely with Lucky.”
Lucky will guide you.
To the painful, ugly truth.
And once you’ve faced it, you’ll be completely mine.
It didn’t stray from expectation. No, perhaps I should say it was inevitable.
You’ve always been so white and transparent that I could never trust leaving you anywhere. My pitch-black embrace is the only place that could feel safe.
And so you, who always feared the forest, stepped into it.
You collapsed within the woods. I watched it all through Lucky.
Isn’t it laughable?
You feared and were chased by something with no form at all—only me, existing inside you. And the one who raised you back up and led you out of the forest was Lucky. But Lucky was me.
You may never be able to believe it.
But in your life, filled only with misfortune, I am your sole fortune.
It may be the greatest misfortune of all. But you were born for this misfortune.
Prina. You always wanted the truth.
When you finally came face-to-face with the true nature of the one you called father, you wept. And perversely, seeing you cry filled me with no small amount of delight.
Thank you.
For letting me become your salvation.
Prina.
If the place you must live is hell, then live in the hell where I am.
“Finished playing?”
Did you enjoy the truth? Didn’t I tell you there was no need for you to know it?
But you can’t help yourself. You’re fearful, yet suspicious too. You like to confirm things for yourself. And I don’t find that bothersome at all.
If you need more confirmation, then I can repeat this tiresome game of hide-and-seek as many times as it takes.
Because you are Prina. That’s what makes it possible.
“Then let’s go home now.”
To the secret forest that you and I have made ours.
So fearful, so suspicious. You cannot believe my words even in the face of the worst.
So I repeated the words again, through Lucky.
It’s alright. Get up, Prina.
You saved me, so now I’ll save you too.
Follow me, Prina.
I may not be your happiness, but I am your last remaining fortune.
I will guide you to our paradise. To the place you’ve truly dreamed of.
Come with me. Let’s leave this hellish forest together.
Come with me. Let’s go home together.
Prina nodded through her tears.
“Alright…”
After a moment’s hesitation, she took his hand again.
“Let’s go together. To our home.”
And so, the princess lived happily ever after.
Forever.
Hunter placed the final period on the hunt, thus bringing this cruel fairy tale to its end.
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