Fairytale System {bl}

Arc 2.3

Hayoru: Sorry for the late update~ I got grounded for eating all the snacks in the cabinet meant for treating guests. Those Asian tea parties are no joke, yo. She said something about me getting too fat and the snacks are for blah blah blah. Sorry mom, I'll try to be healthier.

• • • • • • •

He was spending the day like he does everyday -- reading books.

But he'd already read them all multiple times. One could imagine his intense feeling of boredom.

After all, there's not much he can do in this small room/study. Just a large shelf full of books, an armchair, and a small table. However, everything including the furniture was tasteful and extravagant.

He doesn't need to sleep or eat. He doesn't get tired or feel any discomfort. He also stopped aging ever since he was trapped in here. Even his clothes stayed the same, neat and fitting.

The only other thing he can do is find beautiful people. It was why this mirror was created in the first place.

Pretentious bastards.

His sunset colored eyes glowered. Just how many valuable materials and magic was needed to make this mirror? And it was all for the sake of finding and hunting beauties.

Laughable.

But today was different. 

He was forced to do his usual rounds with the mirror to see if there were any exquisite beings in the kingdom. Not that he expected to find any ever since the massacre.

He once again felt that strong, oppressing urge to move towards the mirror. He deeply detested the curse for making him feel this way. It unnerved him how nothing was under his control and he was forced to live this monotonous life.

His tall and fit figure made its way to the mirror that showed the dark dungeon instead of his reflection. It was like an unbreakable clear glass was separating the other side and him rather than a window to another dimension.

He muttered an unrecognizable chant under his breath and the mirror began to glow a soft light. And like a flash, it cleared up again only to show a scene that made his breath stop and his heart beat. . .  a little faster.

Beautiful

He was stunned. The boy on the other side had soft, whiteish pink hair that urged him to give it a rub, fair skin and rosy cheeks that made him want to gently caress, and bright, limpid eyes that seemed to glow with vitality, somehow reflecting his lovable and mischievous personality, yet a touch of hidden sadness.

More than his looks, he felt the boy was extremely familiar. As if he was someone important, someone he had to protect. . . . But failed in doing.

He felt a strong yearning to hold him, cherish him, love him in his arms. That hint of sadness in his eyes made his chest ache and feel unbearably disheartened for the boy's sake.

He was beautiful. Too beautiful.

Fuck.

He felt his heart drop into the abyss and his throat constricted.

He wished he never looked into the mirror.

He knew she was going to find out.

And he couldn't do anything to stop it.

BANG!!

The door was slammed open and the loud echoing of heels was getting louder and louder as it came nearer to his location.

His hands subconsciously clenched itself into tight fists.

Speak of the devil, and she shall come.

The sound of heels stopped as the wearer had reached their destination.

It was the Evil Queen.

This was the stepmother to Snow White. The vain, jealous, evil queen. 

And the fairest of them all.

She smirked devilishly and walked up to the magic mirror that held the handsome man captive inside.

The Queen proudly sneered, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Tell me. Who is the fairest of them all?"

The man looked back at her with a blank expression, and opened his mouth to respond. . .

"Queen, I'm sorry to say, but you are no longer the fairest of them all-"

Crash!!!

A bloody hand retracted itself from a nearby mirror on the wall.

"WHAT!!!" She screamed, her face was absolutely livid, but the man in the mirror had no reaction whatsoever.

The Evil Queen started to breath heavily from extreme rage trying not to shatter the magic mirror in front of her. She tried to relax but evidence shows that she couldn't looking at her popping veins and clenched hands making her hands more bloody, she asked with an undisclosed hint of hopefulness, "You're lying to me right?"

The man gritted his teeth from fury but had a better handle on his emotions than the woman in front of him.

He coldly spoke out, "You know I can't do that."

It was part of his curse after all.

The Queen asked, "Tell me who it is so I can have the soldiers bring them here."

The man looked extremely defiant but had no choice but to say his name, "Bashful, also goes by Raine".

The Queen calmed down, she's done this before and she could do it again, "Raine was it?"

The man interrupted, "But he lives quite far away at the borders, and never comes into the kingdom."

She finally realized something was off. And she began to smile a sadistic grin.

"Oh ho? Are you. . . Interested in this person?"

"Yes." The man flinched ever so slightly. She got on his nerves too much, and the truth-telling constraint didn't help at all.

The Queen looked a bit disappointed but was happy all the same. This person in front of her was the only man who didn't fall for her charms.

And he was truly a God amongst men, with his rare sunset eyes and his golden brown hair, but he had the nerve to reject her, hurting her self-inflated ego and pride.

She smiled beautifully but it only made the man look away in disgust. She once again got angry, "Hah! Don't look at me like that! You're the one who got him into this mess in the first place. Really despicable, harming your loved one like this. I can't wait to torture him to death in front of you. Serves you right for not falling in love with me." And she promptly left the dungeon, leaving the man alone with a murderous face.

A hypocrite. What "harming your loved one", she was the one who poisoned her own husband in the first place.

It was really too bad she couldn't see it. Even after ten years she never got to see true emotion on that man's face, but now he was displaying a look that can kill with a glance.

She might have actually ran for her life due to the man's extraordinary aura and heavy killing intent.

But then the expression turned a bit pale.

She was going to hurt him. The curse has too many restrictions. He wanted to meet him. He never wanted to see him.

He couldn't help but wish in his heart,

Don't let her catch you.