The Tale of the Ink Princess

**The Tale of the Ink Princess** is a story left intentionally unfinished, and was used as a psychology test in the pre-Oracle era by the Pythias. The reader/audience was meant to finish the story by coming up with their own ending. The story itself is found in the Library in Hello Charlotte 1, and several characters in Hello Charlotte 2 finish the story with their own endings. It also appears briefly in Episode Three, when Anri has it in her room among other papers.

## Hello Charlotte 1

### Part 1

* Once upon a time, in a far, far away land filled with ink, lived an Ink Princess.
* Every morning she put on a pitch-black ink dress and combed her black hair.
* After spending thousands of years dwelling in the vast ocean filled with nothing but ink, the Princess decided to end her solitude.
* Thus, the Ink Princess set out on a journey.

### Part 2

* The Princess passed through the fields, admiring how fruitful they were, and the crops got soaked in ink.
* The Princess swam in the sea, admiring how vast and clear it was, and all the fish died from pollution.
* "Please leave these lands! Can't you see everything is dying?" the peasants begged the Princess.
* But the Ink Princess was deaf to their prayers, as her heart had been soaked in ink a long, long time ago.
* No matter where the Ink Princess went, she was always unwelcome.

### Part 3

* One day, she stepped into the Paper Kingdom.
* Every step the Princess took stained the ground, leaving inerasable footprints. Everything she touched turned pitch-black, as if it was never white before.
* In order to protect the city, at the cost of many, many lives, the citizens caught the Ink Princess and had her thrown in a paperwhite prison.

### Scrapped Ending

* The Ink Princess died of starvation.
* ~Happy End~

## Hello Charlotte 2

The Tale of the Ink Princess is used three times in Hello Charlotte Episode 2 when Frei, Charlotte, and Felix all give their own endings to the tale.

### Frei's Ending

*Told during a dream*

* A pitiful ink-black princess that looked for minds alike who ended up in prison of Paper Kingdom.
* But the story didn't end here. Time passed, and Paper Princess herself came to visit the prisoner.
* The two became acquaintances shortly after, and Ink Princess was freed from imprisonment.
* Ink Princess taught Paper Princess writing, and no paper in the city was blank anymore.
* They obtained power known as "knowledge".
* Paper Princess couldn't be happier.
* Yet, having spent so much time with Ink Princess, she became stained in Ink Princess's pitch-black color.
* Day by day, Paper Princess became more and more soaked in jet-black ink...
* ..until she was indistinguishable from the Ink Princess herself.

### Charlotte's Ending

*Told in a flashback*

* The Ink Princess wasn't kept in prison for long.
* The Paper Princess befriended the Ink Princess, and they became dearest of friends.
* Thus, the Ink Princess became the happiest person in the world.

### Felix's Ending

*Told in a flashback*

* How about the Paper Princess dying from intoxication after touching the Ink Princess?
* Or Paper Princess using Ink Princess for ink production until it drains her completely.