Rapunzel Is Raised by Her Stepmother

Chapter 5: Children Must Return Home Before Sunset

"Game clearrrr!"

The exhilaration and slight bitterness surged through as soon as my feet crossed the mansion’s main gate. That lingering aftertaste and regret I always felt when seeing a game’s ending swelled in my chest.

It was a shame to wake up from the dream like this, but there was no helping it.

Dreams existed to be broken.

Pleasant things left an aftertaste precisely because they had an end.

When I woke up, I had to make sure not to forget this lingering feeling. I should write down the details of the dream so I could recall it anytime. That way, even as time passed, perhaps some remnants of this dream would remain inside me.

With that thought, I surrendered my body to the air and closed my eyes, ready to wake up.

Alright, time to wake up from the dream.

I should get up quickly and head to work in a good mood—

"Ugh, gehhhk!"

—Or so I thought…

My body, unprepared for landing, tumbled straight onto the ground.

Roll, roll. Roll, roll.

After rolling across the dirt field, a stinging pain spread through my body. The agony was enough to bring tears to my eyes, and a scream burst out of me on its own.

"Aaaghh, it hurrrrts!!"

Huh? Pain?

Why?

While my body throbbed with a burning sting, my mind began to cool down as if doused with cold water. After all, pain wasn't something one could feel in a dream.

"Huh? Huh?"

Smack, smack. I slapped my own face as if checking it. The detailed sensations transmitted through my palm felt as though I were touching reality, not a dream.

Plump cheeks, sticky hair, a well-defined nose, soft lips. The unmistakable tender skin unique to a child registered on my palm. But rather than feeling good, I was utterly horrified to the point of goosebumps.

And on top of that…

"The wind feels… cool?"

A breeze swept through my sweat-matted hair. As I lightly shook my head, the refreshing sensation sent another wave of chills down my spine.

"Ah, eh? So, eh?"

The sharp pain from minor scratches and the overwhelming sensory details from nature.

The stinging aches, the faint breeze from the forest, the scent of freshly disturbed soil, and even the putrid stench of the guard dogs’ waste near the main gate.

"Uh, uh, so... so...?"

Smack, smack. I slapped my cheek again to wake up, but all I felt was the dull pain and my own soft skin.

…It seemed like my suspicion was correct.

In other words, right now…

"This… isn’t a dream?"

And on top of that, my rough and manly body…

"Has become a slender little girl’s body?"

Moreover, the owner of this body was…

"…That Rapunzel?"

No, why wasn’t this a dream? Why was this reality?

People usually dismiss game dreams as meaningless nonsense! They’re just the kind of dreams you sometimes have when you get too immersed in a game! Why wasn’t this a dream!! No, maybe it really was just a dream?! It was just incredibly realistic!

"Uuuugh, ugh, please let me wake up, this isn't fair, what did I do wrong? This is a dream, not reality, this is a hidden camera prank."

Gripping my head and twisting my body, I begged desperately to wake up, but all I got in return was the dust rising from the ground every time I writhed. Was this the world's way of telling me to eat dirt?

In the end, my attempt to escape reality lasted until the evening sun began to set.

No, no matter how I thought about it, this just wasn’t right…!

*

Rolling on the ground, covered in dust, wrapped in the hues of the evening glow—

A famous line from a novel suddenly came to mind. If I were to borrow that novel’s words to describe my current feelings—

I was completely screwed.

That was the conclusion I reached after much deliberation.

I was screwed.

What I thought would be the best dream of my life had turned into a nightmare in just half a day. What the hell did I do to deserve this? All I did was review the game because they asked me to!

As I sniffled, on the verge of tears again, I gazed at the evening sky and felt my mind settle. Right, I already cried for half a day and realized that crying wouldn’t change anything.

If crying was useless, then understanding the situation had to come first.

The only fortunate thing was that, in just a day after possessing this body, I had already cleared Chapter 1 of the game.

In other words, I wouldn’t be trapped in that tower and starve to death.

The only bad ending for Chapter 1 was "starving to death while locked in the tower." As long as I didn’t return to that tower, I had successfully avoided that ending.

"But..."

The problem was that even though I had cleared Chapter 1, I wasn’t moving on to Chapter 2.

The condition for clearing Chapter 1 was escaping from both the tower and the mansion. Normally, after clearing Chapter 1, a cutscene would play, and Rapunzel would transition into Chapter 2.

"So, the content of that cutscene is..."

A shadow approaches Rapunzel as she runs away after escaping from the mansion. That shadow draws close and whispers sweetly into her ear—

‘I will kidnap you.’

Startled by the sudden kidnapping declaration, Rapunzel’s eyes widen. Then, she loses consciousness and wakes up again in the "slave market."

Perhaps that’s where she meets a "capture target," right?

…Anyway, if this really was the world of [Rapunzel of the Golden Iron Cage], then that sweet kidnapper should be appearing in front of me now that I've escaped the mansion. But…

"Kidnapper mister—!"

I desperately shouted while gazing at the evening glow.

"Hurry and come— kidnap me—!"

But the kidnapper mister remained silent.

I had clearly escaped the mansion and cleared Chapter 1, so why wasn’t I being kidnapped like a cutscene? It made me question whether this world was really the world inside the game.

The evening sun was slowly setting.

It was time to decide what to do next.

Should I just keep going somewhere after escaping the mansion? But to where? I didn’t even know where the game's capture targets were.

I still didn’t fully understand this world, but one thing was certain—it had significantly worse public safety than the modern world. The mere existence of a slave market where people were bought and sold was already a dealbreaker.

Then… should I go back to that mansion?

After causing that mess? On top of that, if I returned and got locked up in the tower again, I might end up starving to death like Rapunzel in the game’s bad ending.

But if I didn’t return and wandered outside, I might run into bandits. And if they found out that Rapunzel’s hair turned into gold…

“…A lifetime of exploitation, huh.”

I’d probably be locked up in some basement, spending my life having my hair cut off. Or the bandits might just kill me first. Or maybe I’d end up eaten by wild animals in the hills.

I considered keeping the fact that my hair turned into gold a secret and just selling the gold instead, but there was no way a ragged little kid carrying gold wouldn’t immediately be accused of theft.

“…Should I go back?”

If I was going to die either way or end up locked up, staying in the mansion seemed like the better option. And if I went back and offered my stepmother gold, at least she might give me food.

‘If I’m going to be locked up and exploited anyway, it’s better to be exploited under a pretty stepmother than by bandits.’

As the sun set and night approached, I put my thoughts into action. After all, children were supposed to return home before nightfall.

Besides, if I quietly went back to the tower before it got too late, wouldn’t my stepmother’s mood improve a little? Adults usually didn’t like it when kids wandered around at night…

“…Sigh, what am I even thinking? The moment I escaped, I was already done for.”

Dragging my feet lifelessly, I passed through the mansion’s main gate. The guard dogs, seemingly forgetting the kindness of the snacks I had given them earlier, growled at me.

‘…Somehow, I feel completely exhausted.’

Was it because I had been running around all day? Feeling exhausted and utterly fed up with everything, I scattered the snacks in front of the puppies as if sowing seeds in a field and slowly stepped into the mansion.

Passing by the puppies who were devouring the snacks greedily, I made my way toward the tower where I had first woken up. Just as the entrance to the tower came into view, the guard stationed there caught sight of me and reacted in shock.

"You, you…! Where the hell have you been all this time?! Do you have any idea how much trouble the mansion has been in because of you…!"

"……"

"W-what’s with that look…?"

The guard stared at me in disbelief, seemingly interpreting my expression correctly as ‘I’m too tired for this, so don’t talk to me.’

I considered ignoring him and sneaking in through the hole I had made earlier, but…

‘…It’s probably better not to block off my escape route for later.’

Letting out a deep sigh, I pointed at the lock with my finger and made a request to the guard.

"Mister, open the door."

"…? What?"

"Open the door. I need to go inside."

The guard gave me a look as if wondering if he had heard me correctly. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if he had a lot to say, but in the end, he just sighed and unlocked the tower door.

"I have no idea what’s going on… How am I supposed to report this to the lady…?"

"Oh, mister, I’ll be counting on you next time too. I don’t have a key."

"…Next time?"

The guard’s face turned pale at the word ‘next time,’ but I ignored him and climbed the tower, heading to my room.

"Hey, hey! What do you mean next time?! Hey!!"

Next time is next time.

I was fine with being locked up, but I had no intention of starving to death.

If it really seemed like they were going to let me starve, I’d just run away again.

*

"…She came back on her own. She even asked the guard at the tower to unlock the door for her…"

"……What?"

Hearing the report from the maid that ‘Rapunzel had returned on her own and locked herself back in the tower,’ Dorothea furrowed her brows as if she had a headache.

What did I just hear? No, did I even hear that correctly?

Dorothea rubbed her face dry with her hands and stared blankly at her desk. Before she could process it, the maid, seemingly not finished with her report, opened her mouth again.

"A-also… the master has ordered you to come to the main estate tomorrow…"

"…I see, got it. The child is definitely in the tower, right? I’m not just imagining things?"

"Y-yes! I checked myself! She was sound asleep, snoring…"

Hearing the maid’s words, Dorothea could almost picture the child sound asleep, snoring without a care in the world. The very thought made irritation surge within her, and she clicked her tongue softly.

"…Alright. She might try to escape again, so tie her up with a rope so she can’t run away. I’ll check on her after I return from seeing the master tomorrow."

"…Understood."

With that, the maid bowed her head and quietly left the room.

Now that the room was finally silent, Dorothea lifted her head, let out a deep sigh, and glanced around.

"…Haa."

After confirming that no one else was in the room, she threw herself onto the bed. She didn’t care what happened to her makeup, pressing her face into the pillow and twisting her body against the mattress, crumpling her dress.

"Ugh, uuuugh!!"

Like a frustrated child, she kicked at the blanket with both feet and pounded the pillow with her fists. Making sure no sound escaped the room, she buried her face even deeper into the pillow and let out a muffled scream.

"Aaagh!! What the hell!! Seriously!! What is with that kid!! What the hell is her problem?!"

Not only had she toyed with the servants and escaped from the mansion, but now she had waltzed back in and was even snoring in her sleep. She looked like nothing more than a child who had played all day and collapsed from exhaustion.

"Is being a kid all that matters?! Is it?! Does that mean she can just escape whenever she wants and cause chaos?! I’m the one who has to deal with the aftermath!! Now I’m the one getting summoned because of her!! Aaaagh!!!"

After writhing around and screaming a few more times, Dorothea finally lifted her head and sniffled. Screaming into the pillow seemed to have helped her feel a little better.

Seriously, because of that damn witch, she never had a moment of peace. That so-called witch had ruined everything—her family, her father, her entire household.

"Hah… Seriously, this is infuriating. Where the hell is that witch, anyway…?"