My missing daughter – the White Queen’s story (1)
* White Queen’s perspective
“Are you certain about this?”
“Yes, absolutely. She looked exactly the same as when Your Majesty first brought Princess Rapunzel to the tower two years ago. With that long, golden hair that’s unmistakable even from a hundred li away, who could confuse her for anyone else? More than that, I clearly heard her companions call her ‘Rapunzel’ with my own ears!”
“How peculiar. Princess Rapunzel should be inside her tower right now, guarded by my chess soldiers. If anyone, including the princess, had entered or left from the tower, they would have informed me. It should have been impossible for her to sneak out.”
“Indeed, it is a very strange and unsettling matter.”
Early this morning, Doctor Quack, the Mirrorlands’ most renowned healer, had urgently called me and reported that a young woman who was the spitting image of Princess Rapunzel had visited her home in the company of an odd group.
If what she said was true, then someone who looked identical to the princess had been in Sector 4—a full five hundred li from the capital’s Sector 1—at the very same time I was dining with the princess last night.
It was a statement that beggared belief.
“Could it not be a mere coincidence? The young lady you mentioned is supposedly as small as a human thumb, is she not? I certainly never taught Rapunzel the magic of changing one’s size at will.”
“This is only speculation on my part, but the group accompanying her seemed in quite a hurry to reach the Mad Tea Party. Though, as I said, it’s only a guess on my part, but I fear perhaps that maybe Princess Rapunzel left the tower, got into some unfortunate situation, and is now seeking out the ‘Un-shortbread Cookie’ at the Mad Tea Party to restore her body to its original size.”
“The…Mad Tea Party?”
It was a plausible theory.
But if the person Doctor Quack saw was truly Rapunzel, then who could the person currently inside her tower possibly be?
“Your Majesty, shall I pursue them right away? As it had not yet been even half a day since they left here, I could take a shortcut to get to the Mad Tea Party first and wait for them there…”
Doctor Quack cautiously asked me this, it seems, as I had been deep thought for a long time without saying a word.
“No, I’ll have someone more suited to the task follow them. You may go for now.”
“Understood, Your Majesty. Should you need any further assistance concerning the princess, please inform me at any time.”
Removing the black fur hat she had been wearing, Doctor Quack bowed respectfully and disappeared from the mirror’s image.
I might have asked her to trail the suspicious visitors herself, as she was more faithful and trustworthy than any other, if she had not lost her left leg in that accident 40 years ago. I could not ask something so dangerous of her, who had almost died 40 years ago while trying to save my Lily…my daughter Lily.
Fortunately, did I not have that Hatter, who had just the other day come crawling to the Mirrorlands to serve as my hands and feet? When he came to me, I had sent him to spy on the Queen of Hearts, not realizing this bothersome matter would arise. But now that it had, I would now order him to go to the Mad Tea Party and capture the suspicious figure believed to be Princess Rapunzel.
And, since he had no idea that the Rapunzel I sought was the same Alice the Queen of Hearts sought, he wouldn’t have any reason to attempt useless trick.
Wait!
The Queen of Hearts?
If she had discovered Princess Rapunzel in the tower and then helped her escape…
Then it would all be explained.
With her magic skills, the Queen of Hearts would have been capable of aiding Rapunzel’s escape from the tower, disguising herself as Rapunzel, and taking her place, pretending to be trapped in the tower in Rapunzel’s stead.
“I’m certain of it…the Queen of Hearts is behind this.”
If she had indeed snuck into the tower, I had no doubt that she would have told Rapunzel the truth of her birth and origin.
Naturally, I had used a memory-erasing potion on Rapunzel to erase her memories for just such situations, but if the Queen of Hearts had powerful enough magic, would it have been possible for her to restore those erased memories?
I had never met the Queen of Hearts personally, so I could not say for certain that rumors of her supposedly outstanding magic were true. However, she had supported the armies of her non-magical husband, the King of Hearts, with her magic in the recent war with Wonderland. This alone was enough to suggest her magical power rivaled my own.
“No! Rapunzel must not regain her memories from her days as Princess Alice of Wonderland!”
If Rapunzel were to remember her life as Princess Alice, she would undoubtedly resent me, who taken her from there and brought her here to the Mirrorlands, for the rest of her life.
‘If that happens, Rapunzel will be lost to me, too.’
I had already lost my Lily, I could not bear to lose Rapunzel, too.
To confront a powerful magic-user like the Queen of Hearts, I would need an elite team capable of wielding the most advanced spells.
“Guards! Summon all the kingdom’s sorcerers to accompany me to the princess’s tower at once!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“If the one in the tower is in truth the Queen of Hearts, then those who stand against her must be prepared to lay down their lives. Knowing this, who among you shall stand with me in battle?”
I surveyed the assembly of sorcerers from across the Mirrorlands who had made haste to swiftly gather before me upon receiving my summons. However, as soon as I mentioned the possibility of death in a fight against the Queen of Hearts, these so-called top royal mages hesitated, merely exchanging glances with one another, and not one of them came forward.
“Well then, let’s put our lives on the line then, yeah?” someone in the group finally declared, raising their hand.
“I’ll go, too,” added another, “Foreign magic from Wonderland? Doesn’t that mean a chance to finally try out theories we’ve only seen in books? Sounds like fun, I’m looking forward to it.”
“Wait a moment—aren’t you…Kai and Gerda! Just where have you been wandering and what have you been doing that you have not shown your face at the palace in all this time?”
Kai and Gerda, renowned as two of the greatest mages of the Mirrorlands, had practically been in and out of the castle as often as they had been in their own homes until a few years ago. Then, without any notice, they had disappeared, leaving no word of their whereabouts.
“It’s a long story, Your Majesty. But right now, it seems the most urgent priority is to neutralize the Queen of Hearts’ spells in the tower and have the chess soldiers capture her and take her to the dungeon,” Kai replied.
“There is still a chance the one in the tower is Princess Rapunzel, so you must be careful.”
After all, there was a possibility that the information from Doctor Quack was incorrect.
At this, Kai and Gerda suddenly burst into bubbling laughter, surprising me.
“Ahaha, my queen, we can say for certain that the one in the tower definitely isn’t Princess Rapunzel,” Kai said.
“Indeed, Kai is right,” Gerda added. “The person in the tower is the Queen of Hearts, posing as Princess Rapunzel.”
‘How can they laugh even now, with my beloved Rapunzel’s life at stake?’
I felt a surge of anger, watching them find humor in such a grave moment. But I force myself to regain my composure and think rationally.
‘These are the talented twins Kai and Gerda, who both possess magic rivaling my own. To act like this, I’m sure there must be a reason.’
Their mischievous personalities were as unchanged as ever, which irked me to no end, but their skills were too valuable to lose to my temper. Striving to cool the anger swelling inside of me, I swallowed it down and tried to remain calm.
“We apologize if we’ve caused offense, Your Majesty,” Kai said, perhaps noticing my displeasure. He and Gerda quickly ceased their laughter, their expressions turning serious.
“But rest assured, Your Majesty. We, too, have personally seen Princess Rapunzel wandering through the Mirrorlands’ forest. You should trust us on this point,” Gerda said, looking to me directly.
Seeing Gerda speak with such conviction, it seemed certain that the one in the tower must indeed be the Queen of Hearts.
“Very well. I shall trust that it is as you say.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. Leave it to us, and there will be no need for you to bother with this yourself. We will lead these mages and capture Queen of Hearts.”
“That’s right, put your faith in us. While we handle matters in the tower, perhaps you might focus on tracking down the real Princess Rapunzel and the group, Doctor Quack saw?”
Seeing their confidence, I decided I could trust the capable twin mages to handle the situation in the tower.
While I waited for Kai and Gerda to settle the situation inside the tower and capture the Queen of Hearts, I contacted the Hatter.
“Understood, Your Majesty. You want me to wait at the Mad Tea Party until Princess Rapunzel arrives and then escort her back to your castle?” he confirmed.
“Precisely. And remember,” I added, “if you happen to meet Rapunzel before reaching the Mad Tea Party, report to me immediately. My precious Rapunzel has strikingly beautiful, long, golden hair. Don’t forget it.”
After reminding the hatter of Rapunzel’s appearance, I ended the call and turned to find Kai and Gerda leading in the captured Queen of Hearts. They had successfully managed to subdue her, and they now dragged her before me.
“We’ve brought her!” announced Kai.
“As we said, the one hiding inside the tower was not Princess Rapunzel but the Queen of Hearts from Wonderland!” Gerda added immediately.
With her hands bound tightly behind her, her left elbow held firmly by Kai and her right equally held by Gerda, the Queen of Hearts was roughly forced to her knees, a swift kick from Kai leaving her face brought down right before my throne.
As she collapsed to the floor with a loud thud, Gerda grabbed her hair and yanked her head upwards, exposing her face to me for me to confirm her identity.
“Ptooey!”
The Queen of Hearts, who had met eyes with me at last, spat defiantly, a glob of spit landing on the pristine royal carpet at my feet.
“It’s useless, White Queen. No matter how hard you try, Alice will never return to you. Alice has already learned about what a vile hypocrite you truly are. Hahaha!”
Her laugh echoed throughout the hall, so loud and full it seemed to shake the castle’s very foundations. But it barely registered in my mind.
‘Rapunzel knows I erased her memories? That I kidnapped her? And my darling Rapunzel will never return to me? I can’t believe it!’
I was left with nothing but the hollow ache of despair and helpless frustration as I realized that, since she now knew everything, I might never see my dear Rapunzel again.
Translator comments:
- Kai & Gerda are from ‘The Snow Queen‘.
- Inspirational pre-battle speeches, choose your fighter: The White Queen’s ‘there’s a solid chance that you might die, so just be prepared for that’, Aragorn’s speech at the black gate, or the St. Crispin Day speech from Henry V.
- Characters being surprised that there are consequences??? to their bad actions??? never ceases to make me shake my head.
Translation notes:
- Doctor Quack says Rapunzel’s hair can be seen from 100리/100 li which is a unit of measurement for distance, and I couldn’t decide what to localize it to so I left it. FWIW, it would be ~40 km or ~24.5 miles, depending on your geographic distance measurement unit of choice. Likewise, ‘a full 500 li away’ would be ~196.5 km or ~122 miles.
- 귀신이 곡할 노릇 Literally translates to something like “a situation where even ghosts would cry”. This was a new idiom for me. Apparently it’s used to indicate when something baffling or completely ridiculous occurs. An English equivalent may be something like ‘are pigs flying?’ ‘this is beyond belief’ or ‘this is mind-boggling’, but since pigs could reasonably fly in Wonderland (lol) & the Queen uses a more formal speech pattern so I opted for the lesser known ‘beggars belief‘.
- Related – The way the White Queen speaks is with language that is somewhat. hmm… elegant/archaic/poetic? She also tends to use more indirect/dramatic/literary expressions than other characters.
- Like in 그대들 중 누가 나와 함께 하겠는가? (“Who among you will join me?”), she uses ‘그대’ to refer to ‘you’ which isn’t really used in modern, everyday speech, and is more like something you’d hear in a song or a poem. I’ve done my best to convey this! Esp. since English doesn’t have the pronouns to pull this off with just a word, it occasionally meant padding the text (ex, ‘Who among you will join me’ –> ‘Knowing this, who among you shall stand with me in battle?’)
- Likewise, 순식간에 내 앞에 몰려든 (“gathered before me in an instant”) is actually a more like, dramatic/literary expression than the literal text.
- Even when reproaching Kai & Gerda she’s not like ‘where tf have you two been’ it’s more indirect while also being authoritative.
- 마법사: Mage, wizard, sorcerer, witch, magic-user…could be any one of these.
- 퉤 (twae): sound of spitting, ‘ptooey!’
- 성이 떠내려갈 정도로 크게 나를 비웃어댔다 literally “She laughed at me so loudly that the castle could have floated away.” but that hoenstly didn’t make much sense to me, so not sure if I missed something here.
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