Cinderella x Sleeping Beauty: Book 3 Chapter 2

## Verse 1

A few days earlier...

"Tell me, would you give your **life** for me?"

The voice that spoke those words was sweet, yet untrustworthy.

Cold fingers garnished the young man's face.

"I-if it's for you, anything!"

"...I'm glad to hear that. You're the only one who's said that."

"Miss...!"

As the man trembled with the intensity of the moment,

The woman softly embraced him.

"When all this is done, you'll be the boss."

"O-okay!"

The lips formed words of **love**.

On her face was a **a cruel smile**.

 ...Yeah, I remember him. Cute kid.

 He always did what I asked, just like a pup.

 ...What a strange dream.

 Is this what I get... for listening to that scary story on the news?

## Verse 2

The mistress of a gangster has no rights.

Without reliable men, she has no chance.

She could plunge from heaven to hell in an instant.

The woman had seen it many times before.

## Verse 3

...My drowsiness today isn't so bad.

I can hear

Mama watching TV.

## Verse 4

Princes are capricious.

Who knows when they'll turn their gaze to another woman?

...Who even knows when they'll die?

## Verse 5

Someone was shot in front of some store.

That kind of news.

Mama muttered "how awful."

## Verse 6

I wanted a life that wouldn't be controlled by men.

I wanted the strength to choose my own path.

But I was a black sheep of society.

I couldn't hope to hold a normal job.

## Verse 7

I can hear an ambulance siren

in the distance... It's even louder today.

## Verse 8

I shall clamber up the ladder of this world,

using every method available to me —

money, my body, violence...

I'll show you that I can make my own castle.

## Verse 9

"...You don't wake up

even when it gets this noisy, huh?"

said Mama in a sad voice.

Sorry. But I'm so... sleepy...

## Verse 10

*Before*

One floor below the gently sleeping maiden, men covered in blood were carried into the hospital.

"What's the situation?!"

"There are two of them! A man in his 60s and another in his 40s.

Gunshot wounds. A few went through. One died instantly."

"Looks like it's a **gang war**."

"Could this be a **war over succession**, I wonder?"

"Ah, call their families over."

Complaining as they were, the doctors on duty began their treatment.

But it was of no use...

"1:44 AM.

The patient has passed away."

The **wife** who came running crumbled to her knees.

 In the hospital, it always sounds like someone's crying...

 But the world from my bed... inside my dreams... is the only one I know.

 Everything else is far... far away...

 He was the perfect messenger to drive home my cause.

 But that was all.

*After*

"Miss, I did it. I claimed his **head**!"

The young man whose eyes brimmed with excitement embraced the woman like a dog.

The woman, with her kind hands, softly patted the young man's head.

"You did it. Good boy."

The young man's face grinned happily, frozen in time as the **gun sounded**.

"Miss..."

The woman was expressionless toward the fallen man, **firing off** every last bullet.

"You said you'd die for me, didn't you?"

The last thing he saw in the world was a woman whose **cruelty** knew no equal.

## Discordant Poem

A young couple spoke.

Lips whispered of love. Cold hands conveyed the message.

She had high expectations for the young man.

The men who had been shot were brought in to

the hospital where the young woman had fallen asleep.

Next to the man whose life had cruelly been taken away,

the widow let out an anguished cry.

The young man had returned

triumphantly, having claimed the life of the boss who stood against the woman.

The woman shot him with a smile on her face.

He was nothing but a means to an end.