Chapter 19 - Snow White's Son

Translator's Note:

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Here you go, and I wish you a good read.

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"Please, it hurts… let go!" Crow pleaded.

 

The knife glinted in the flickering light of the candles. His scalp throbbed from the unbearable pain, and he could hardly make sense of what was happening above his head. All he could hear was the strange sound of slicing, as if something were being violently hacked away. With each cut, the tension in his scalp eased, and his head dropped lower.

 

Hair fell before his eyes, severed and scattered like the remnants of a once-glistening thread. Only then did Crow realize what had been done to him.

 

The long hair, grown unnaturally due to the magic infused by drinking the elves' "milk," was his very lifeline in this tower—essential for his survival. And now, it was being heartlessly severed by the Beast.

 

"N-no… no, please… no!" Crow sobbed, his worst fear realized. For a year, he had dreaded nothing more than losing the magic bound to his hair.

 

Without that magic, he could no longer lift the Beast to the window of the tower. Nor could he restrain the wild beastly side of him or sing him back to his rational self with a lullaby.

 

This meant only one thing—he would never see the Beast again.

 

Crow's despairing cries filled the room as the last of his severed hair began to glow.

 

The black strands, which had once covered the floor and bed sheets like a living extension of Crow's body, began to lose their color, turning translucent. In moments, they transformed into silvery dust, shimmering in the candlelight like the scales of a dragon, and then disappeared entirely, just as the elves had a year ago.

 

Seventeen years had passed, and never once had Crow's hair been cut. It had lived alongside him like extra arms, a part of him. And now, just like the elves, it had vanished into another world.

 

"My hair… my hair is gone! Without my magic, I can't see you anymore!" Crow cried out in anguish.

 

"Silence! I will never come back again! Forget this hideous beast—forget me, and wait for your noble brother to come for you!" the Beast roared.

 

"No, please… Beast, you're not hideous! I love you—I'm in love with you! Why can't you understand that!?" Crow shouted, desperate and heartbroken.

 

"You are a proud prince! Forget the vile elves who defiled you and this wretched beast who ruined your life! Wait for your brother, who will come for you, I swear it! He has been powerless and foolish for too long. But this time… this time, no matter what, even if he defies the king, he will come to save you!"

 

"I don't want him to come! I only need you, Beast!" Crow cried out, reaching for him.

 

"It's nothing but madness! There is no way you could love me in my current state! You're confused—your heart and body are sick with loneliness, nothing more!" The Beast turned sharply, kicking aside the crushed apples as he stormed toward the spiral staircase.

 

"Wait… please, wait! Beast… believe me!" Crow begged, his heart shattering.

 

There was nothing wrong with the way he felt. He longed for the Beast's fur, the very body the Beast despised as ugly. He wanted to touch that face, that body, more than anything in the world. Why couldn't the Beast understand?

 

If only their lips could meet, their skin touch, Crow knew his feelings would be understood—surely, they would reach him then.

 

"Beast… Beast…!" Crow sobbed, chasing after him, the words caught in his throat.

 

He raced up the spiral staircase, which wound its way around each floor, climbing past the ninth level where the dining hall stood. At last, he stumbled into the tower's summit.

 

"Beast!"

 

But despite his haste, the Beast was already gone.

 

Through the small open window, there was nothing but the night sky. No trace of the blue-eyed one, nor the red-eyed one, nor the dark beast.

 

On the floor lay only his cloak and gloves, discarded as if he had vanished like the elves once had.

 

Was he to believe that the Beast, too, would never return? To let him go, wait for his brother to come and take him away—how easy that would be. Yet such thoughts would surely kill his heart. No, he couldn't accept an ending where his love was dismissed, where the final word was that he was "strange." He could not leave things like this, for neither of them would be saved.

 

He would not allow their bond to be dismissed as mere dependency or fleeting desire.

 

The Beast's heart was plagued by fierce insecurities, a tangled mess of inferiority and pride. It was a painful imbalance that made him loathe himself, and Crow longed to heal it. Like melting snow in his palms, he wished to thaw Beast's frozen heart and show him that he was beautiful just as he was.

 

Crow had come to love everything about him—his voice, his way of speaking, the elegance in his letters, the way he moved with grace, his earnest wish for peace in the land, and the profound shadow of sorrow in his eyes. Even the gentle, heated gaze he sometimes cast upon Crow. In loving all these things, Crow had grown to love the Beast's form as well.

 

There was love in the Beast's eyes, and Crow had accepted it with an open heart.

 

And it was because of that love that his own feelings had grown. The sensation of being loved was the most blissful thing of all.

 

Though you may never admit it, Beast, you did love me. Your gaze, your teachings, all the care you showed me were expressions of your love. Yet I failed to make you feel my love in return. When it came to the things I had done with the elves, I let my emotions run wild and failed to explain them properly. I angered you, driving you to desperation, and in the end, I only added to your suffering.

 

Tears streamed down Crow's face as he gazed out the window, searching in vain for any sign of the Beast. He wiped his eyes, but even when his vision cleared, Beast was nowhere to be found.

 

A cold chill crept down his neck and back, and his head felt strangely light. Fearfully, he touched his hair, only to feel the sharp, prickly edges where it had been cut.

 

Ah, it's truly gone... The magical hair given to him by the elves, now severed. Realizing this, tears welled up anew, spilling down his cheeks.

 

Though to Beast, his hair may have seemed a cursed and dreadful thing, to Crow, it was a precious gift, filled with love. Even now, knowing the meanings of desire and lust, Crow could never bring himself to hate or despise the seven elves.

 

The Beast cherished the ways of humanity, but elves were elves. Their morals could not be measured by the same standards. The truth that transcended all was that they had loved him, truly and deeply. For sixteen years, they had raised him with all the care they could give.

 

That was an unshakable truth, and no human moral could condemn it as evil or sinful. No matter what anyone might say in the future, his feelings would remain unchanged.

 

The past would stay where it belonged, but the days wrapped in love would never disappear.

 

"Beast, I will come to you. If you will not come to me, then I will seek you out."

 

Crow wept so bitterly that his vision blurred, clutching his lifeless hair in his trembling hands.

 

The Beast would not come if he stayed here.

 

And even if the Beast did come, Crow knew he would not be able to lift him up the tower.

 

No, the only way forward was to summon his courage and descend to the ground below.

 

To wait here for his brother's arrival would be to make a choice—a choice that would forsake the Beast.

 

His brother, with all his power, wealth, and beauty, could offer him everything. Yet if he went to his brother, Crow would lose the only chance to prove his devotion to the Beast.

 

I must be quick. If my brother arrives and the Beast's suspicions prove true… he will never trust me again. I must clear this misunderstanding, and quickly. I cannot remain in this tower without the magic of my hair to sustain me. It will be difficult to say "I'll live here alone" to my brother who came to pick me up.

 

Crow clenched his resolve. He had to leave, and he had to leave tonight. There was no time to hesitate.

 

If he didn't show the Beast that he had chosen him over his brother, the Beast would never believe in love again.

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