by N. Heller
Note: Even though the user can ignore the usual physics regarding refraction through air, the distance between the optical illusion and the true object is limited by the user's capabilities and the user's familiarity with the uses of this book. Additionally, no matter how much this effect improves, the illusion can only last for 30 seconds. This effect can only be used once every ten hours.
As Lin Sanjiu's wings and ankles were completely bound by Snow White's hair, Lin Sanjiu could not move her body. Due to the limitations of her Special Item, the illusion was actually still very close to her true location. When Snow White reached out to hold her shoulders, the princess' hands nearly touched her. However, Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and went all out. Twisting her body away from those hands, she took the risk and grabbed the princess. When Lin Sanjiu recalled the pain coursing through her body when she chose to do that, she felt a bout of anger once again.
Lin Sanjiu pulled Snow White up by grabbing her hair. She made a gesture and something appeared in her hand. She smashed the item right into the young lady's face, "You look a little more bearable dead! So bloody eat up!"
The smell of apple immediately assaulted Snow White's nose. This was the same piece of poisoned apple that Lin Sanjiu had spent 15 stamina points on.
Once she caught the whiff of her bane, Snow White started struggling. She waved her arms and feet, struggling like a fish out of water. She clamped her mouth and mumbled, unwilling to eat that apple. However, her feeble attempt to resist could not counter the force Lin Sanjiu exerted on her jaws.
When she saw the apple moving past her teeth, Snow White suddenly cried loudly without any warning. "Bwahhhh!"
Her resounding wail rang out through the forest. Lin Sanjiu was stunned and that made her stop.
"I-I've already been poisoned once by my stepmother," she cried out. She had already become breathless despite only crying for a few seconds. "You want to poison me again! Not only are you going to poison me; you've also killed my prince! Without my prince, why should I still live? Now my stepmother can just attempt to kill me as many times as she wishes!"
"Now you're trying to reason with me?" Lin Sanjiu was angry but she also found it very funny. Just when she was about to say something, one of the dwarfs stuck his head out, trembling with fear.
"Excuse me, are you planning to kill the princess or will you spare her?" the timid dwarf asked.
"Is this another multiple-choice question?"
Lin Sanjiu shuddered once. She looked at the dwarf and then at the princess on the ground. The latter was bawling her eyes out. She was crying so badly that Lin Sanjiu was even worried if the apple would just slip down that princess' throat. When she thought of this, Lin Sanjiu quickly grabbed Snow White's neck and shouted, "Stop crying! I am not going to kill you!"
Snow White sniffled and stopped crying immediately. Bleh. She spat the piece of apple out.
Strangely, no matter how many times that apple had been swallowed, it looked as if it had been just sliced. Just as before, it seemed to be in a pristine condition.
"I spent a good amount of stamina points on that…" Lin Sanjiu waved her hand and stored the apple. Without standing, she sighed and stared at the back of Snow White's head, "What do you people want from me?"
A sobbing, nasally voice came from the head full of luxuriant black hair, "I don't care. You need to get rid of my stepmother. Otherwise, this won't be the last you hear from me!"
"Do you guys think you can just pressure me into doing what you want like this?" Lin Sanjiu snorted, "I don't have time to deal with this nonsense, I still have to—"
Snow White turned half her face toward Lin Sanjiu gloomily, and her eyes were still red, "You are chasing a yellow bird, right? There are many of that sort of birds in my kingdom. If I release a few of them, they would be able to track that particular yellow bird of yours. How about it? Will you help me?"
Apparently, once Lin Sanjiu defeated Snow White but spared her life, a "blackmailed" option was developed… Lin Sanjiu didn't really have a choice. Even though she was still angry, she finally stood up from Snow White's body with a disgruntled expression.
Lin Sanjiu kicked Snow White a few times with her filthy and heavy boots before commanding the princess coldly, "Lead the way!"
When the dwarfs saw Snow White standing up pathetically, they slowly popped out from their hiding spots and crowded around her. They seemed a little afraid of their princess as they followed behind the young lady without making a sound. They maintained a fixed distance away from the princess.
"Where is Snow White's kingdom? Is it far from here?" With these thoughts running through her mind, Lin Sanjiu followed the group of "people" of varying heights, distractedly. However, after they walked to the top of a hill, her eyes widened.
How could she have forgotten? This cartoon world was as random as they come.
"This journey had been quite tough," the dwarfs whispered to each other, acting as if they had completed a huge feat. "We're finally here."
Standing at the top of the hill, a foggy city appeared on the horizon. Despite the fog, Lin Sanjiu could tell that the city was quite big. The countless roofs with varying colors and heights stretched boundlessly into the distance. Straining her eyes, Lin Sanjiu observed the city carefully. Shocked, she couldn't keep herself from turning to Snow White, who did not look any better.
"Your kingdom... looks…" Lin Sanjiu couldn't really find the right word. After thinking for a moment, she uttered, "...spooky."
Chapter 373 - Because She is Lin Sanjiu
It wasn't entirely accurate to say that this place was spooky.
Lin Sanjiu was walking through an alley under darkness' reign with her hands in her pockets and eyes on the surroundings. As she ventured further through the alley, uneasiness seeped quickly into her mind and overtook her thoughts.
The visibility was poor, and the only thing that was particularly visible was the vast blanket of dust that hung heavily in the air. The alley looked as if God had had a crisis of perfectionism and decided to take an eraser and remove the urban landscape, but Lin Sanjiu knew it wasn't true. Behind the dense white dust were many twenty-four hour skyscr.a.p.ers with chimneys constantly pumping out reeking smog that assaulted whosever nostrils with pungent ammoniacal scent. There were puddles of filthy water here and there among the highways and alleys even though there was no rain. The foul water splashed over the shins of all who were unfortunate enough to step on them.
It seemed that dampness was the constant nuisance here for at least the past 50 years as the houses that sparsely scattered along the alley appeared to be badly in need of improvements. Mildew crawled up their walls, and a thick layer of black stains streaked along the dingy brick walls, dripping off at the eaves around the height of Lin Sanjiu's eyebrows. Even in the real world that had been ruined by the apocalypse, it was rare to see such a wasteland.
The hem of Snow White's silky white satin dress had been smeared with brownish dark mud after they had traversed the alley for ten or so minutes. While her dress looked pretty awful, her expression was even viler.
The dwarfs had stopped on the urban fringe and did not escort their princess back to her castle. While they were walking, Lin Sanjiu cast a sidelong glance at her companion, pondering whether or not she should ask the question that lingered in her mind. At last, she decided to throw everything to the wind and get straight to the matter, "You were born here? No offense, Snow White, but you and the city look like two different cartoons…"
"The hell are you talking about?! How dare you compare my kingdom to this filthy piece of land!" Snow White's voice was ear-splitting, "The sky above my kingdom is like a cloudless diamond, clear and sparking. Our streams are aquarium-blue, winding their merry way around the forest. Our forests are dense, full of lush, green trees that make the perfect spot for an afternoon nap. My kingdom might be small, but it's wonderful. It's nothing like this! I don't know this place!"
"A likely story." Lin Sanjiu stopped mo
ving, "Guess my help is not needed anymore, then? That's fine; I'm leaving now."
Hearing her reply, Snow White turned into Snow Red. Her skin flushed red, and her delicate oval face grew wretched with nervousness, "No, that's not what I meant. I know this place, but… Hey, don't leave! Okay, fine, fine, you win. This place was my kingdom, but it was never like this before—"
Lin Sanjiu knew Snow White had been hiding something from her as she had had a pretty good grasp of the whole story. She had only wanted to make Snow White anxious. While turning a deaf ear to Snow White's nonsense that wasn't going to end soon, she tore a piece of paper from the wall of a residential house.
Then, she lowered her head and again looked at the page. Shaking the paper to get a better look, Lin Sanjiu decided to take a closer look. Concurrently, Snow White had stopped mumbling. She stood on her toes and craned her neck to look at the paper as well.
After a minute of reading, Lin Sanjiu lowered her hand, and an almost ludicrous expression of astonishment spread over her face.
It required a strenuous amount of effort to differentiate the words beneath the mildew and stain. If her eyes didn't fail her, the paper in her hand was a poster for an election.
At the bottom of the poster, there was "VOTE FOR" printed in extra bold font. It seemed that someone had been canvassing support among the voters. After Lin Sanjiu squinted, she was able to distinguish the long and unfamiliar western name behind the call to action.
"McDuck?"
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback by what she saw. She quickly glanced over the yellow stain, and she finally understood why the stain appeared in the same spot in all posters.
She turned her head and stared into Snow White, "Scrooge McDuck is your dad?"
The young lady's two cherry red lips gaped into an "O." She didn't seem to be a part of the duck lineage, "What do you mean? Are you dumb?"
"Look at it yourself," Lin Sanjiu snarled and shoved the poster into Snow White's face, "This poster was printed by Scrooge McDuck when he was competing for this country's presidency!"
Lin Sanjiu somewhat remembered that Scrooge McDuck was the uncle of Donald Duck and an incredibly wealthy business magnate. While she reveled in Snow White's face-changing performance, a wild thought flashed into her mind, " Yea, the wealthy can do whatever they want. Scrooge McDuck is rich. Not ordinary rich, but extremely rich. Of course he can compete for a country's presidency with his wealth. Guess not even Cartoon World could escape from that iron law. "
"Since when did my kingdom implement democracy?" Snow White screamed again. A few ravens flew into the sky from a roof not far away from them, "Where is my father? Where is my stepmother? What has happened to them?"
Snow White blurted out all the question without hoping that Lin Sanjiu would give her the answer. Since Lin Sanjiu couldn't answer her, she had to find the answer her own. Lifting the hem of her dress in one hand, she rushed forward in a hurry. Lin Sanjiu sighed before stretching her legs and following after Snow White.
Although the city had been expanded at least three or four times, the castle still stood staunchly at the heart of the city as a landmark. After losing their way several times in the cobweb-like routes and cursing the amateur urban designer that did his only given job poorly in their minds, Lin Sanjiu and Snow White finally found the correct path that led them to the castle.
Looking at the castle from a distance, Snow White's anxiety-ridden expression eased a little bit.
Lin Sanjiu had never set foot in this city before, but even as a first-time visitor, she could see that in the middle of this tarnished and gloomy city, only the castle retained its former glory, giving people a look through time at how pretty this city had once been. The building was pure white as if it was built of jadestone. The delicately constructed rooftops spelled the word fantasy and stood steadfast at a different height in the haze. The occasional flashes of gold came from the castle's golden finishings and adornment.
"This castle matches your mien better," Lin Sanjiu said to Snow White from behind her, "But how can the castle stay so sparkling clean while the air is so full of dust?"
"You are not from here, so you don't know. There is a group of people specifically tasked to wipe and clean the facade of the castle…" Just as Snow White replied to Lin Sanjiu, a group of people with rags on their faces, each of them carrying buckets of water and cleaning tools, swarmed out from the castle. After the team had set up everything, they then began to clean the castle starting from the bottom.
This was the first time Lin Sanjiu saw living beings, asides from rats, ravens, and the faces that shilly-shallied behind windows after she stepped into this city.
"Let's go," she tugged at Snow White's sleeve, "Since we're here, we might as well go up and ask them who this Scrooge McDuck is, and where your father is."
However, Snow White didn't budge.
Lin Sanjiu stopped and looked over her shoulder at the young maiden.
Even though she did not exert much strength, Snow White wasn't somebody who needed people to tote her around. Despite that, the young maiden looked like her soul had ascended from her mortal body. She had a stunned look on her face, and she refused to move an inch — her mouth ajar made her look stupid.
Following her glassy stare, Lin Sanjiu saw a short, dirty, old geezer stumbling his way over to them. He grew closer and closer.
"Snow White?" asked the old geezer. His face was covered with wrinkles and mud. His complexion had yellowed due to malnutrition, "Snow White, you're back! Oh, my poor daughter, it's such a relief to see that you're fine."
"He is the king?"
Standing like a log, Snow White was petrified for a right amount of time in the embrace of that old geezer. Then, with her reddened, rheumy eyes, she pushed the old geezer away and studied him from his head to toe. She exclaimed in disbelief, "F-Father? What happened to you?!"
"Oh, many things happened in your absence, my dear Snow White. I'm no longer the rightful owner of this land; hence, I am not the king now," the scrawny old geezer waved his hand profusely, "The owner of this land is now President Scrooge McDuck. The reason our country has become a better place day after day is all thanks to the sagacity and acuity of President Scrooge McDuck. My time as the king has over, and I'm satisfied with what I am now."
Lin Sanjiu needed to narrow her eyes hard to see a slight similarity in between Snow White and the face of the old geezer beneath his dry and aged skin.
There was a saying that you shouldn't mingle yourself with other people's family affairs. Lin Sanjiu could neither solve their family affairs since Snow White's stepmother was no longer around nor was she a master of politics, she thought that she should leave now.
"Who is that duck? What made you become like this, father?" Snow White's face reddened. The veins on her neck bulged. She thrashed her hands around in the air and stomped her feet in fury, "How can we simply change the title of the country's monarch from the king to president—"
"Ha, ha, ha! Cause this is the will of the people!"
A croaky laughter sounded from behind the old geezer, and the three of them fell silent.
The first person to come back to senses was the former king. The old geezer quickly spun his body around and bowed to that person reverently, "Mr. President."
Lin Sanjiu and Snow White finally saw who the speaker was after the old geezer turned his body around.
Of course, he couldn't be called a human.
He wore a top hat and a pair of pince-nez glasses. Half of his plumpy figure was wrapped in a black frock coat while his lower torso was exposed to the air. He seemed the same as Donald Duck. The only notable difference was the two fluffy bushes of short fur that grew from either side of his cheek that indicated that he was an aged duck.
Scrooge McDuck looked more normal than Mickey, though he was still an oversized duck standing at almost twice the size of an ordinary person. When he opened his bill, it seemed that he could easily devour Snow White whole. When he blinked his eyes, l
ike Mickey, they moved sideways toward the center.
"So you're Snow White," said Scrooge McDuck while stroking his black frock coat. Then, a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he said, "I have attended to and solved anything regarding your past royal internal affairs. The country is now coming to a new era, and I hope that you won't be a hindrance to this progression."
As he was talking, he lowered his head. Then, he saw the poster that Snow White had been gripping.
"Oh my, oh my, how can this thing is still around?" Scrooge McDuck awkwardly flapped his wings. "The Congress has passed the resolution of appointing me as the president for life of this country, and these useless posters should return to their rightful place… Why haven't you people begun to clean the outer wall?"
His order toward the former king had sparked a flare in Snow White. She pushed her father away, walked two steps forward and pointed her finger in Scrooge McDuck's broad face as she growled, "What do you mean by "solved," huh? Where is my stepmother, then? And how dare you ask my father to do the chores for you, you fowl!"
"Oh my, how can you call me a fowl?" Scrooge McDuck narrowed his eyes into two thin lines as his bill curled into a grin, "Your stepmother is not from this country. I have sent her back to her own country to continue to live her life as a princess like you… Oh, silly me. I have forgotten that you're no longer a princess now. Oh my, oh my, life sure loves to make a joke with us, isn't it? And what makes the matter worst is that you have to accept it no matter what. What a shame."
Snow White's brain went blank. It wasn't known if the information had come too sudden that her brain could not process it since she could not say anything now. Seizing his chance, Scrooge McDuck turned his attention towards Lin Sanjiu.
"Guess this beautiful lady over here must be our visitor from far," he politely flapped open his wing as his eyes narrowed toward the center, "I have heard from my nephew that a visitor was coming here for sightseeing, but I didn't expect to meet you so soon. Anyway, if I may be so bold to ask a favor of you, I can provide you with all the help you'll need."