Fairy Tales From Around the World

The Little Glass Slipper

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a gentle and modest widowed merchant named Kizashi Haruno and his daughter Sakura, who was an intelligent young girl with a kind heart and sweet disposition. This made her belove by her father and everybody else she knew. As time went by, the girl grew lovelier as her father grew lonelier. Since his first wife, Mebuki, passed away years ago, he had been looking for another woman to wed so that he could give his daughter a new mother figure.

One day, he met Lady Hinako Masuda, a woman with two daughters of her own, Reika and Fujiko Masuda. Kizashi married Lady Hinako and he introduced her to his daughter as her new stepmother. On the outside, Lady Hinako was a poised, well-known woman of keen feeling and refined taste. However, she spent most of her time doting on her two daughters, spoiling them until they were just as vile, selfish, vain, and rotten as she was. Despite her many attempts, Sakura was never able to grow closer to her new stepmother.

One stormy night, Kizashi grew ill. His faithful daughter stayed by his side at every waking moment, caring for him to the best of her abilities while his new wife kept her distance. He declared his undying love for Sakura before sadly passing away.

This made Lady Hinako grow jealous of her stepdaughter and a new hatred for the young woman had formed in her icy black heart. She seized the family fortune and spent it all on her daughters, relieving the household servants of their responsibilities, and forcing Sakura to become a slave in her own home. Despite her stepfamily being so cruel to her, Sakura kept her kind heart, generous nature, and loving spirit. She did the cooking and cleaning around the house without speaking one word of complaint or contempt.

Sometimes when it was too cold in the drafty attic where she slept, Sakura would sleep by the amber glow of the dying fire of the hearth to keep warm and the ashes would blow all over her body, covering her face and hair in a fresh blanket of dust and ashes and making her look gray and dirty whenever she woke up the next morning. Despite the insults, chores, and occasional beatings, Sakura always looked on the bright side of things and secretly wished that someday this nightmare would come to an end and she would finally be happy.

One morning, Sakura was scrubbing the floor of the foyer when she heard a knock at the door. She curiously opened it to see one of the King's royal messengers standing before her. The messenger loudly blasted a trumpet in her face before announcing:

"HEAR YE! HEAR YE! THEIR MAJESTIES, THE KING AND QUEEN-"

Before he could finish, Sakura interrupted the messenger by clearing her throat and saying, "You don't have to shout, I'm right here. I can hear every word you're saying just fine."

"Whoops." The messenger apologized before giving a scroll with the royal seal to Sakura and saying, "Their Majesties, King Hikaru, and Queen Ayaka have requested all eligible maidens to attend a Royal Gala tomorrow evening in honor of their only son, Prince Kazuya Watanabe, where he might select a bride."

"A Gala?! Tomorrow night?!" Sakura exclaimed as she held the invitation in her hands. Her eyes went wide with excitement. "This is fantastic! I have to tell my Stepmother right away! Thank you very much!"

The messenger smiled, nodded, picked up his trumpet, and happily skipped off to the next house where Sakura could hear him blowing his trumpet loudly in someone else's ears. She rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smirk before closing the door behind her. Sakura was so excited about the Gala that she didn't even notice the dark glares her stepfamily was giving her when she barged in on their breakfast to tell them the news.

"Sakura, what in the name of God are you doing?! You know not to interrupt our meals like this!" Lady Hinako scolded.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, Stepmother. I didn't mean to barge in, I was just-" Sakura stuttered.