"Hmm?"
Selena opened her eyes and found the frost-walker kneeling before her. The weapon it had originally taken from the tactical box lay discarded to the side.
The girl tilted her exquisitely beautiful face slightly and said, "How interesting. Are you not acting in accordance with your orders?"
"It should be so... but I cannot execute the directive."
The frost-walker’s tone remained devoid of emotion, but its stuttering, mechanical articulation gave the construct's voice an illusion of feeling.
"Your Highness, I cannot lay a hand on you. You should not die here."
"Even though you are merely a tool, you would defy your master's will?"
Selena’s eyelids lowered slightly. She scrutinized the frost-walker for a long time before suddenly laughing with delight.
"Hahaha! That fellow Arcturus... he deliberately used a frost-walker to prevent the executioner from being charmed. But I suspect he never imagined—"
"That my beauty could not only captivate the living, but even heartless objects cannot escape it? Alas, I truly am a sinful woman."
Snow White stroked her supple, flawless cheek and let out a faint, melancholic sigh.
The frost-walker remained indifferent to the princess's self-indulgence and simply continued, "Lord Arcturus commanded me to kill you and return with your heart. I will find a wild beast nearby to take your place. The 【hunter】 functional module is sufficient to process any beast's organ until it is indistinguishable from a human's."
Selena knew the frost-walker would not kill her now, yet despite this, she showed no sign of joy.
The girl brushed back her beautiful, silky long hair and said calmly, "It’s meaningless. Am I supposed to flee the country in a pathetic state? No matter how far I run, the curse will pull me back to Midwinter to fulfill the destiny every Snow White in history has been bound to complete."
A sharp, resolute expression appeared on that face, whose beauty words could never fully describe.
"It is precisely because I loathe that hideously ugly slaughter that I chose to end my own life. My life shall never permit any unbeautiful blemish!"
"...Your Highness, please take care."
The frost-walker did not intend to persuade Selena; it had neither the inclination nor the function to do so. Refusing to kill the princess was the only directive it had recognized as its supreme command.
The construct stood up, picked up the tactical box, and walked to the riverbank. The faint blue furnace core in its chest began to work at over-capacity, and then its knees dipped slightly...
Boom—
In an instant, the heavy construct broke the sound barrier, kicking up a gale and a spray of water as it charged into the forest on the opposite bank.
Using her cloak to shield herself from the splashing water, Selena watched the direction the construct had gone and sighed helplessly.
Afterward, Snow White walked along the riverbank with her hands clasped behind her back.
She gazed down at her slender reflection in the water: hair as black as the night sky, eyes as clear as pure silver, skin as translucent as white snow, and most importantly, a face as enchanting as a myth... There were no excessive or complex decorations; it was simply beauty.
Simple beauty, pure beauty, beauty sufficient to shatter one's reason.
The peerless girl became intoxicated by her own reflection and tilted her head slightly.
"Yes, a truly magnificent face."
Selena did not deny that she had narcissistic tendencies.
But was this merely Snow White being conceited? Who could see this face and not feel a sense of adoration?
While admiring her own beauty, Selena pondered her next moves.
First, one thing was clear: she did not intend to live an ignoble life just to survive.
The curse placed upon the Midwinter Kingdom by the evil dragon was something no Snow White could ever escape. Selena absolutely refused to kill her own mother with her own hands.
However, choosing a suitable method of suicide was a difficult problem.
She couldn't just throw herself into the river, could she? That would be far too pathetic and ugly.
At the thought of a bloated, floating corpse, Selena’s expression soured.
Other methods of suicide weren't great either. The most dignified would be to take poison. Yes... poison it would be.
She wished to live as brilliantly as a summer flower and die as quietly and beautifully as an autumn leaf. The curtain call of her life had to be grand and mournful; otherwise, she would rather not die at all.
"Perhaps I should go meet that prince who proposed?"
Selena pulled the well-preserved letter from the pocket of her white, form-fitting dress and opened it to read.
The letter was written with such elegance and deep affection. Originally, Selena had only appreciated it as a poem of praise dedicated to her, but now it seemed she might actually accept.
In all her years, the princess had never left the castle, let alone had any romantic experiences.
In the royal castle of Midwinter, aside from her mother, there was only a group of stiff, old-fashioned ministers who didn't even want to say a single word to Snow White.
Selena rested her hand against her delicate white chin and nodded. "I'll go see him. If I die without ever even being in love, it would be far too much of a regret."
Of course, the prerequisite was that the Qingxi prince had to be handsome enough. A severe looks-enthusiast like Snow White could never get along with someone ugly.
While she didn't expect him to be on the same level as her own beauty, as long as he was decent, she could try to get to know him for the sake of that proposal letter. If they clicked, they could get officially engaged.
"Then, my grand wedding shall also become my funeral! Joy shall be my funeral dirge, flowers shall pave the way to my grave, and the vow of eternal love shall be answered with perpetual silence."
Thinking of that scene, a flush appeared on Selena’s beautiful face from excitement, and she pressed her fingers together over her mouth.
Then, this princess, who seemed like the incarnation of beauty, began to hum a soft melody by the river, twirling occasionally as she sang.
"The most beautiful person, at their most brilliant and dazzling moment, will be branded into the end of life, leaving everyone with a lifelong regret! Hehe, I truly am a sinful woman."
Thinking she had found the way to die that best displayed her own beauty, Selena laughed, sometimes with joy and sometimes with self-deprecation.
Beauty is flawlessness, but even more so, it is a regret.
"Finally, I shall lie quietly within a crystal coffin, letting the years flow by while I embody eternal beauty."
Just as Snow White was immersed in her aesthetic fantasies, a booming sound broke her train of thought.
Boom—
A flock of birds was startled into flight. From the nearby forest came the sound of clashing steel.
Selena looked toward the noise and saw the frost-walker that had just left flying backward, smashing through several cedar trees. Chasing the construct was a furious young man.
"Aaaaah! You dare kill my horse?!"
The youth actually suppressed the frost-walker, seizing the construct by the throat and using it to plow through the ground.
When the youth fighting the frost-walker looked up, the silver eyes of the princess suddenly widened.
A sensation like an electric shock hit her chest and filled her entire body in an instant, causing her to involuntarily straighten her back.
This strange feeling... how should she put it?
Selena suddenly felt that she didn't want to die that much anymore.
Rate on N.U.
