“Ugh, my head…”
Marie groaned as she woke up.
Her head throbbed painfully.
‘Is this what a hangover feels like?’
‘If that’s the case, I won’t touch alcohol even when I become an adult.’
Drinking enough to lose consciousness was something only people like Uncle Bernard enjoyed, and Sir Heis had told her that alcohol was bad for her body.
“Ah! Sir Heis! He must be looking for me!”
Immediately after shouting, Marie collapsed again. The effort of raising her voice made her head throb even harder.
‘Maybe it’s because of that sleeping incense.’
Marie retraced her memories.
Last night, Marie had woken up while being kidnapped. Startled and confused, she tried to scream, but the kidnappers were faster.
“Now, now, calm down. You’ll feel comfortable soon.”
The kidnapper with the familiar face had muttered those words as he pressed the incense toward her.
“…They definitely used much more than the intended amount.”
If it was normally this painful, no one but a masochist would ever use sleeping incense.
Marie groaned from the headache and barely managed to squint her eyes open.
She saw dust floating slowly in the air.
‘Wait, is it… daytime?’
She hoped she hadn’t slept for more than a day.
‘Where am I?’
The thick fibers of a carpet tickled her cheek. Lifting her head a bit more, she saw a wooden dresser in a warm tone.
And above that dresser, there was a window.
Marie fumbled and grabbed the dresser to pull herself up. It was to look out the window.
“The sky is… so blue. The clouds are pretty, too.”
Marie tried to escape reality for a moment, but a sigh soon escaped her lips.
“But the ground is so far away.”
If she fell from a place like this, she would die instantly. There wouldn’t be a more pathetic way to go.
‘I need to find another exit.’
Marie looked around the room for an exit, but her face soon turned pale.
“There’s no door?”
No, to be precise, it wasn’t that there wasn’t one. There was a door. It just wasn’t on the wall; it was on the floor. It looked like a hatch leading to a basement.
“…It would be nice if there were stairs under this door.”
However, the door looked far too small and narrow to expect something like that.
“Let’s stay calm. I can climb a ladder easily. Even if it’s a rope, I’ve climbed ropes several times while playing with Sister Elise.”
The severe headache was a concern, but she could still do it.
‘I’ll make them regret leaving me alone.’
Marie made a firm resolution and opened the door, only to fall silent the next moment. What she saw was neither a ladder nor a rope, but a gaping black hole.
“Hmm…”
Marie let out a low groan.
She had certainly told Sir Heis once that if there were a cliff with no end in sight, she would jump.
But that was a metaphor.
“No matter how I think about it, jumping from here seems like it would be fatal.”
Of course! Of course, if she had to jump, she could. Anytime! But she was a human, not a monkey.
“Let’s see if there’s anything useful.”
There was only one piece of furniture in the room. Marie boldly opened the wooden dresser.
“Eek!”
She immediately let out a scream.
“A-A head?”
At first, she thought a human head was inside. But looking again, it was a blonde wig.
Not just one or two, but over ten blonde wigs.
“What on earth… and every single one is just like my hair?”
Not only was the color similar, but even the style and length were nearly identical. It was eerily so.
A typical girl might have burst into tears at this point. Kidnapped and locked in a high tower with no exit, only to find a drawer full of creepy wigs.
But Marie was no ordinary girl.
“The structure of this is exactly the same as stage wigs.”
Marie had even made stage wigs herself. Being able to make them meant she knew how to take them apart.
“…I have a rope now, don’t I?”
Marie’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the wigs.
—
While Rur and I were desperately searching the hallway.
“Th-There!”
Suddenly, Rur pointed toward the empty air.
“Teacher! Look at that! What is it?”
“What?”
At first, I thought Rur was pointing at nothing. But looking closely, I saw something like a spiderweb. It looked like thin strands of thread stuck to the very center of the ceiling.
“Shine the light on it!”
When the lantern light hit it, the web sparkled. Just like the golden hair I had picked up in Copper’s room earlier.
‘Why is that on the ceiling?’
I narrowed my eyes and examined the ceiling closely. Looking carefully, it wasn’t just stuck there. it was coming out of an invisible gap in the ceiling.
I raised my staff and pressed firmly near where I estimated the gap in the ceiling would be. Then.
*Rattle!*
The ceiling tile was pushed up, and something tumbled down in a heap. It was a bundle of hair emitting a brilliant golden radiance.
It was like a scene out of a fairy tale…
“Kyaah! Kyaaah! What is that?! That’s human hair, right?!”
“Is it really hair? Rur! Check it!”
“Y-You check it, Teacher! You’re the teacher!”
“Gah! You’re right! It’s real human hair!”
…Except it was a bit too gruesome for that kind of scene.
Rur and I grabbed each other and made a fuss. It was only much later that we realized the identity of that golden rope.
“So, it’s a wig?”
“Yes. The color at the top and bottom is subtly different and blotchy. Plus, this smell. It’s definitely a wig made by washing brown hair with lye to dye it. The wire woven in between… they probably tore apart the wig cap.”
As far as I knew, there was only one person who would make a rope out of wigs.
‘It’s a trace of Marie.’
It couldn’t be anyone else. I recognized the way the hair was woven.
“Rur. This is the method you taught her, right?”
“Yes,” Rur replied in a hushed voice. “It’s the hair-braiding method I taught her.”
The braiding method Rur had taught her to soothe her anxiety. Marie had used that method to weave and twist the hair into a long rope to lower down.
“Good job. Both Marie and you.”
Since the two of them had played their parts, it was now my turn. I handed my staff to Rur. Rur staggered for a moment before leaning the staff against the wall.
“What are you going to do?”
“The princess trapped in the tower has lowered her golden hair.”
Then there was only one thing to do, wasn’t there?
“Heave-ho!”
I put my weight on the golden rope. Fortunately, the human hair rope reinforced with wire was sturdy enough to support my weight for a short while.
“I’ll go and bring Marie back.”
I climbed the rope. Up and up.
‘This reminds me of our first meeting.’
That day, Marie had also lowered a rope for me. That day, I had thought of Rapunzel as I climbed the rope.
Was it a princess or a witch waiting for me at the top? A fragile victim or a wicked villain?
‘It’s ridiculous. Marie is neither.’
Even the original story of Rapunzel I recalled wasn’t like that. If Rapunzel hadn’t lowered her hair, would the prince have even been able to climb that tower? When the prince fell into the witch’s trap, landed in the thorns, went blind, and lost his way, how could he have found her again without Rapunzel’s guidance?
Therefore, the happy ending that marked the end of every fairy tale was by no means achieved by the prince alone.
“Marie!”
“Sir Heis?!”
Just as our reunion was not achieved by me alone.
“Are you okay? Are you safe?!”
Marie was a bit pale, but at a glance, she didn’t seem to be injured. As I let out a sigh of relief, Marie cried out with a tearful face.
“Sir! What on earth happened to your clothes?”
“Is that all you have to say the moment you see me?”
“If your clothes are that damaged, it means Sir Heis’s body was damaged too!”
I had nothing to say when she put it like that.
“…Still, I’m glad Sir Heis came. I managed to make a rope and lower it, but I felt so dizzy that I didn’t dare try to climb down it.”
“Rest assured. I can go down that rope even with you on my back.”
I was in a hurry. We had to move before the Grand Duke or his subordinates arrived.
“Let’s get out of here first. And once we reach a safe place, we’ll denounce the Grand Duke’s atrocities. Then—”
“Wait, just a moment.”
Marie cut me off.
“It shouldn’t proceed that way.”
“What? Why?”
“I heard something important from the kidnapper.”
With a serious face, Marie said something unbelievable.
“His Grace the Grand Duke’s goal wasn’t to kidnap me. Actually, he…”
*****
A crowd of people was marching through the dark corridor.
“I told you. There is nothing there!”
“Hmm, a commoner like you might not understand, but people with a guilty conscience always speak that way. I am a man trained not to fall for such tricks! I am, so to speak, a detective!”
The great detective of the Elion family, Keltas Elion, strode forward.
According to the stories he had heard from his grandfather, there was bound to be a secret passage in the corridor behind this long gallery.
‘Lady Marie’s body must be hidden there!’
There were at least twenty people following him. Of course, more than half of them were bothersome people trying to block his path on the Grand Duke’s orders, but what did that matter?
Once the secret space was opened, they would all become witnesses to a gruesome sight. Then, the Grand Duke would be finished! It would be the end! It would serve as a stepping stone to bring glory to this great detective!
‘Or perhaps, a stepping stone for the great next Grand Duke?’
Keltas met the eyes of one of the portraits of past Grand Dukes. A symbol of a seasoned man of power who looked stubborn and solemn. Keltas stiffened his face, imitating the expression in the portrait. He saw his own image reflected in the glass of the frame overlapping with the portrait.
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