Chapter 1
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a man with his eyes closed, puckering his lips in rapture, about to kiss mine.
By reflex, I shoved him hard, sat up, and scanned my surroundings.
A magnificent palace, extravagant decorations, a spacious bed, and a dazzling crystal chandelier overhead.
If I had to guess, I’d transmigrated into a Princess.
“Princess, you’re finally awake.” The Maid stepped forward excitedly and clasped my hands. “It’s all thanks to the Prince’s True Love’s Kiss.”
I was just about to explain that he hadn’t kissed me at all when the Prince, at my side, spoke with deep affection. “Darling, I’ll go to the King right now to ask for a royal marriage decree, and we’ll hold our grand wedding at once.”
After he hurried off, I sent the Maid away. The room was left with only me.
From the moment I woke, I’d felt something was wrong. I lifted the hem of my skirt-blood was running down between my legs, and the bloodstains seeped into the skirt’s white lining, forming bright-red words.
I found a pair of scissors at the vanity and cut off the piece of fabric with the writing on it.
[Welcome to Grimm’s Fairy Tale World.]
[Please abide by the following game rules.]
[At any time, you must not wear a white dress.]
[Food does not talk. If you find food that can talk, do not eat it-destroy it immediately.]
[There is only one Good Prince here. He never lies; all the others are Bad Prince, and every word they say is a lie.]
…
I’d thought I’d merely transmigrated into Sleeping Beauty, burdened with the clichéd task of winning over a Prince.
Now it seemed this world was far from that simple.
“Princess, the wedding is about to begin. It’s time to change into your wedding dress.”
At some point, the Maid had appeared behind me without a sound-I hadn’t noticed at all.
In her hands was a heavy, pure-white gown. She tried to pull down the zipper on the back of my dress. “You’ll look beautiful in your wedding dress.”
[At any time, you must not wear a white dress.]
I remembered the rules written in blood on the fabric. I wrenched my hand free from the Maid’s grip and shook my head in refusal.
“Princess, you shouldn’t be so willful.”
The Maid’s tone sounded a little irritated. She tilted her head, and there came a crisp sound of joints dislocating.
The next second, unnatural cracks and mottling appeared across her face. As chunks of skin fell away, the wood grain hidden beneath was exposed.
“Hurry and get married, Princess. Great love will save all suffering.”
The Maid’s outer shell gradually peeled away. She had already become a mechanical Puppet with no will of its own, her mouth endlessly repeating, “Get married, get married.”
No matter what I said, it was as if she couldn’t hear.
Seeing she was about to break down, I didn’t have time to think. I grabbed the nearest vase and smashed it down hard on her head.
The vase shattered, and so did she.
The scattered Puppet collapsed on the floor, and the room fell instantly silent.
I was just about to figure out what was going on, when the bedroom door was pushed open.
The Prince, the King, the Queen, and a whole mass of soldiers and servants were all slowly moving toward me.
“Marry him, marry him-marry the Prince, beautiful Princess…”
Their mouths opened and closed as the flesh on their faces peeled away faster, revealing bloodless lacquered wood.
The Puppets surged toward me like a feral army without emotion.
Unarmed, I could only snatch up whatever vessels were nearby and hurl them at them. Flying shards cut my cheek.
One Puppet after another fell, but there were still thousands more, multiplying and increasing like a virus-endless.
I kept retreating until I was forced onto the balcony.
This was the highest floor of the castle-dozens of meters up. Jumping would mean certain death.
The Puppet Prince’s hand touched my chest. Grinning viciously, he went mad trying to strip off my pink dress so I could be put into the white wedding gown.
More and more Puppets surrounded me. They seized my limbs, saying they would make me the kingdom’s most beautiful bride.
In despair, I closed my eyes. Unknown terror crawled over my cerebral cortex like ants-fine, dense, relentless.
Was it going to end like this?
Just then, a strand of hair gently swept over the top of my head.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a Golden Long Braid hanging in midair, thicker than a hemp rope.
A chance!
I used all my strength to wrench one hand free and grabbed the braid. It immediately responded to my weight and snapped upward.
The Prince Puppet clung tightly to my thigh, hanging in the air with me:
“Marry me… marry… me…”
His mouth still opened and closed, repeating the same words.
I braced myself and kicked his head hard with my other foot.
At last the Prince Puppet let go. He plunged from the height, and with a “bang” crashed onto the King’s statue in front of the castle.
The braid swung to the side of the castle, then slowly lowered me down. Seeing the Puppet pursuers drawing near in the distance, I had no time to thank the braid’s owner. I could only choose to flee this terrifying castle first.