"...Understood. Your orders will be obeyed."
The Frost Walker seemed to have decided that Princess Wintertide's authority ranked at the very highest level. After the black-haired girl spoke, it obediently departed as commanded, not forgetting to carry off the box containing the white horse's heart.
Once the intelligent construct had gone, Selena beckoned to Faust.
"And one more thing, Faust... Prince. Do you plan to stand on that side of the river forever? If so, you'll be no help to me at all."
There was no mistaking Selena's words for anything but an invitation.
Faust knew the Snow White had accepted him. At once he stepped across the water, crossing the narrow river with ease.
Up close, observing the Snow White, Faust found himself even more dazzled by the girl's beauty.
It was a kind of loveliness that felt almost transcendent, beyond the mortal world. Her face, unpowdered and unpainted, radiated the purest beauty while carrying within it a forbidden temptation, as though she were... a brilliantly colored, poisoned apple.
There was no better word for it than forbidden fruit.
Though Faust's "superego" conjured up all manner of artistic phrasing, his "id" simplified things considerably.
In short: flag raised, appetite whetted.
"Haven't you looked your fill yet?"
Selena had naturally noticed Faust's unconcealed gaze, one that was, quite plainly, the gaze of a male upon a female.
But the princess felt no disgust. If anything, she seemed to be savoring this greedy admiration, secretly pleased with herself.
Snow White lifted the dark hair resting on her shoulder, letting the black strands slip through her fingers.
"Very few men dare look at me so directly. If anyone else were this presumptuous, I'd have his eyes gouged out."
Faust smiled and inclined his head. "Then I'm grateful for Her Highness's generosity."
Selena turned her face toward the treetops beside them and said slowly, "Highness... Highness... You're not a citizen of the Kingdom of Wintertide. There's no need to address me that way. We should be considered allies, so just call me by my name. I'll call you Faust as well. How does that sound?"
Oh dear, going straight for the nickname already? This reeked of being a bit too easy.
Though, granted, I'm plenty easy myself.
As though he'd heard Faust's inner thoughts, Mephisto offered an explanation.
[It's only natural. To be loved by a witch is to be loved by a witch. Even after you've awakened from fate itself, you still can't resist an impulse that's simply innate.]
[If anything, this isn't really fate at work. It's that the two of you are drawn to each other on a physical, constitutional level.]
That was indeed the case. Judging by Faust's more than ten years' experience as a prince, drifting from one romance to another, however shallow that experience might be, one thing held true.
Whether two people would fall for each other was, in truth, essentially decided the moment they first laid eyes on one another. Rarely did that verdict change much afterward.
This was especially true for women. If it was someone she liked, then no matter what he did, it would seem pleasing to her. If it was someone she disliked, every pore on his body would seem to reek of filth.
Slow to warm up, as they say? No such thing exists. That's only slow when it comes to someone you don't like. Don't kid yourself.
When a woman meets someone she likes, she wants nothing more than to cling to him at once, all sweetness and whispered affection.
And so, even though Faust had slapped Selena across the face the moment they met, leaving the Snow White thoroughly humiliated, she still had no objection to deepening their relationship further.
Come to think of it, wasn't this so-called fairy tale world simply built on the logic of a romance novel written for women?
Ah, women's fiction.
Faust sighed inwardly, reflecting that the throne of traditional male dominance had apparently shrunk by another notch.
"Then... Selena, Your Highness, no... Selena."
Faust settled into the habit of addressing Snow White by her given name.
Hearing her own name from Faust's lips, the black-haired girl's face, serene and beautiful as ice and snow, filled with satisfaction. She crossed her arms and said, "Though I don't mind you continuing to be infatuated with my beauty, shouldn't we discuss the matter of our partnership?"
"Of course. Let's talk as we walk. That execution, that manhunt you mentioned earlier, what was that about?"
Faust gestured for Selena to lead the way, and asked his question.
Although he knew the storyline of Snow White, that was purely for reference and clearly didn't apply to this twisted, altered world.
He could hardly treat a Disney princess as scripture, could he? If he did, he'd really have to start belting out songs and dancing.
"Ah, that. Well, it starts with the curse. Do you know what kind of curse the dragon placed on the Kingdom of Wintertide back then?"
Snow White clasped her hands behind her back and, with Faust the "knight" attending at her side, began to recount the tale.
"Long ago, that dragon swept across the continent. When its wings cast their shadow over Wintertide's skies, the princess of that era stepped forward to face it. Though she was ultimately no match for the beast, she genuinely managed to wound the dragon... well, a single scale, at least."
Whoa, a mortal body actually managing to shake a true dragon, a being worthy of godhood? This Princess of Wintertide was no ordinary woman.
Faust had assumed the dragon could only be slain through the mechanism tied to the Hero, and hadn't imagined that a mere mortal could actually wound the creature.
"By all rights, the Kingdom of Wintertide should have been utterly annihilated by the enraged dragon afterward, reduced to just another nation wiped from existence by dragonfire, like so many others. But for some reason, perhaps the strength and will that princess of Wintertide displayed moved the dragon, it didn't strike her down. Instead, it laid a curse upon the one who had defied it."
Selena tilted her head back, speaking as though she had lived through it herself, softly repeating the dragon's curse.
"'You, fate's chosen darling, dare to show such admirable will before me? Then let us see. Let us see just how resolute that will of yours truly is. I curse you: you shall slay your own spirit, again and again, and slay your own bloodline! You shall endure the agony of kin destroying kin!'"
"'I curse your kingdom: it shall be swallowed inch by inch in ice and snow, until nothing remains but silence and death! Only when you admit defeat and take your own life will this cycle finally end.'"
Even though she was merely repeating the words of the curse, Selena's expression turned chillingly cold, a hatred that had no business appearing on such a flawless, exquisite face.
Faust asked, "So the curse specifically means..."
"That Princess of Wintertide, still a maiden, 'gave birth' after the battle ended. No, 'split apart' would be the more accurate word. The infant that fell from her body was the continuation of the Wintertide princess's own life."
Selena spread her hands and said with a cold laugh, "The more her daughter grows, the more life she drains away from her mother, until eventually, guided by the curse, the daughter kills her mother and becomes the new queen.
She then splits off her own offspring in turn. In essence, every queen in the history of the Wintertide royal line has been one and the same woman. The Dragon's Curse is nothing less than a thousand years of self-inflicted torment for that princess of old."
"A way of making certain she understands that the family she wished to protect can never truly be protected."
The black-haired girl glanced sideways and smiled at the Prince of Aurum.
"And this next-generation queen, fated to murder her own mother, is the Snow White standing before you. So, how does it feel? Has the fantasy shattered?"
Having learned the truth of the Dragon's Curse, Faust fell silent for a long moment before finally offering his verdict.
"That's more than a little twisted."