I Thought It Was a Fairy Tale but the Genre Is Strange

Episode 60 – Snow White (2)

According to Adel, the current situation is like this: he went outside the castle to recruit other allies for Snow White but miserably failed and, after being kidnapped by Gretel, he was the only one to survive. But he thought recruiting us would be a major strategy so he was trying to take us with him for now.

Even though he’d lied to us, which made me kinda suspicious, we decided to meet Snow White while we were meeting the hunter anyway, ‘cause I felt bad for him, the poor b*stard. Adel about jumped for joy at that, bowing over and over again.

“Thank you, thank you! I knew I could trust you!”

“Trust you, my ass.”

“Hehe~ Anyway, you little shit of a dwarf. That hunter better have seen a rabbit for real.”

With a bright smile, Elice grabbed Adel by the head and hauled him up. Adel’s face scrunched up in agony like his skull was cracking, and he yelled desperately,

“Of course! Krrraaak! I-it’s not a lie, I swear! The guy himself said he saw it!”

“Alright then.”

Elice let him go and Adel landed hard on his ass. Tears were welling up in his eyes, but he was still grinning wide.

And just like that, we headed for the castle gate. Hidden in the bushes near the entrance, we watched as travelers were being checked.

“Halt!”

The gate was guarded by heavily armed soldiers. They were dead-set on not letting any suspicious outsiders in.

I whispered to Adel.

“You think those guards are vampires too?”

“Hmm, well, there’s a possibility, I guess.”

[What the hell does that mean?]

“Means I don’t know, duh, teehee. So reliable, aren’t you?”

“C-cough.”

Adel coughed awkwardly.

“Anyway, since the princess and we are wanted, and outsiders can’t get in, we can’t go straight through. Follow me. I know a secret passage.”

“Hehe~ Really?”

Alice scanned Adel with a suspicious look.

“Ah, I swear, it’s true. P-please believe me.”

Following Adel’s lead, they headed towards the back of the thick wall. Surprisingly, they entered easily since the guards didn’t patrol that area. Adel meticulously surveyed the ground beneath the towering wall.

“Found it!”

He exclaimed cheerfully, pointing at a secret passage.

“Huh? Is that a secret passage?”

“Yep! I dug it myself! Those dumb guards don’t check all the way over here!”

Facing Adel, who was laughing so proudly, they wore expressions of disbelief. There was a dog hole under the wall. And Adel was a dwarf. A small-statured dwarf. The dwarf had dug a dog hole to fit his own body.

Meaning, the hole was ridiculously small.

“Haha, follow me!”

[How are we supposed to get in there!]

Eriel yelled, grabbing Adel by the scruff of his neck. Adel stared blankly, as if not understanding, then showed them directly.

“Haha, I guess you’re not used to it, princess. See, you just go in like this.”

He wiggled his butt and went inside the dog hole.

“See? Easy, right?”

I smacked myself in the forehead. Alice grinned and then promptly kicked Adel in the rear.

“Start making repairs right now.”

Only after Adel held his sore behind and finished repairing the hole could they enter it. It was still narrow, so their shoulders got stuck and it was hard, but it was manageable. In the meantime, Adel mentioned that he was going to go behind Eriel and Alice, and almost got his head bashed in for his sneaky comment.

“Whoa!”

Passing through the narrow, dark dog hole felt like a breath of fresh air. Maybe because they were outside the fortress wall, but the atmosphere was much grimmer and more depressing. Adel rummaged through a pile of trash nearby and pulled out four ragged cloaks, handing them to them.

A cloak exuded a stench that could paralyze your sense of smell.

“Ugh, what is this?”

“We’d stand out too much going in like this. Come on, everyone, put one of these on and follow me.”

“The smell is horrific.”

[It’s Adel’s smell]

We had no choice but to throw the ragged cloaks over ourselves and head towards Snow White’s headquarters. With every step, the terrible stench of the tattered cloak stabbed our noses, making us gag.

“By the way, the street scene is pretty grim.”

I said, trying to keep my voice down. The scene that met my eyes was people walking along the streets, all looking spaced out, like their souls had left them. Some were sitting on the ground, crying, while others were working with unfocused expressions. And surprisingly, there wasn’t a single beggar or vagrant in sight. Normally, there would be several in these outer areas.

“It’s because they’re all getting their blood sucked dry by Count Vivid. Eek.”

Adel pulled us into an alleyway. It was because of the guards patrolling with fire in their eyes. They were grabbing people, shouting at them, and even going into homes to search as if they were looking for something.

“Are you here!”

“If you’re hiding something, you’ll be executed immediately!”

Alice tilted her head and asked.

“Have we been found out?”

“No. They’re looking for victims. Count Vivid likes the blood of young humans. So he kidnaps children from each village and raises them, but I guess the numbers are low, so he’s ordered the guards to bring him children.”

He likes the blood of young children, huh. So that’s why there aren’t any children on the streets, just adults.

“Where’s Snow White?”

Huh? We all had question marks pop up over our heads. And Adel was the same.

“Adel, has it been discovered that Snow White is here?”

“Ah, no! That can’t be right? We’ve been preparing to strike against Count Vivid very secretly, so there’s no way we’ve been exposed!”

[So why the hell are you looking for Snow White?]

Alice said with a sly grin.

“Looks like I’ve been found out.”

After navigating the dark and shadowy alleyways like a maze, we arrived under the bridge connecting the castle’s outer wall and the main building. A small stream trickled here, but it was so filthy it was basically sewage with the corpses of tiny fish floating on the surface.

Adele cautiously scanned the area, then tapped a seemingly empty wall exactly four times.

A voice came from inside the wall.

“Snow.”

“White.”

It was a password. A brief murmur came from inside, then suddenly, the wall creaked open. It had been a door disguised as a wall. I couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Adele!”

Black shadows poured out from inside. They hugged Adele, rubbing their beards all over him.

“You’re finally back! What took you so long!”

“We were so worried! We didn’t know what happened!”

Dwarves. Six dwarves who looked almost 80 percent identical to Adele came out.

“Hahaha! Sorry for worrying you. I’ve been through a lot.”

“Adele…”

A frail voice came from behind the dwarves. Hmm? But I could hear the voice and not see anyone. No, wait. Upon closer inspection, a petite, tomboy-styled girl was peeking out, her face just barely visible. She was staring at us with wary, no, fearful eyes.

That’s Snow White? Even just seeing her face, it was clear she had skin as white as snow. Even in the dim light, she seemed to glow like a star all on her own.

“Princess!”

Adele immediately got down on one knee.

“I’m so, so sorry for being late!”

“It’s, it’s okay… But, um, those people…?”

Her voice is really like a mouse’s squeak.

“These are great heroes who’ve decided to join our cause! I recruited them myself!”

Well, not exactly heroes. And more like we caught them and they begged for mercy than being recruited. Though, they are a bit annoying, seeing their faces, I feel a little sorry for them and just kept quiet.

“H-Heroes!”

Snow White’s pupils widened at the word “heroes.”

“Haha, well, enough of that, let’s go inside first and talk. I have a lot to tell you.”

We entered Snow White’s dark and dingy hideout. The inside of the hideout was surprisingly spacious, but it couldn’t shake off the gloomy, prison-like atmosphere. Rats and insects were swarming around, and there were furniture pieces, probably salvaged from trash heaps, all with some sort of flaw, as well as several sacks full of rotten potatoes.

We sat down at the table and continued the conversation.

“You’re amazing! To bring heroes with you! We’ve only ever failed until now!”

“Hah! Actually, we tried to assassinate Count Vivid and failed!”

At the dwarves’ words, Adele was shocked and her jaw dropped.

“W-What, assassination! Why did you act so rashly! No wonder the guards were looking for the princess!”

“Haha, the hunter said that now was the perfect time, as the Queen who’s obsessed with war has sent troops, making the guards weak.”

“Even so! How few people do we have to try assassination!”

Adele smacked her forehead.

Ariel looked at the dwarves and Snow White, and then whispered to me.

[These guys, they seem a little off]

I gave an awkward smile and nodded.