In Ryo's brain, he was beyond relieved.
"Oh thank god Aurelia didn't marry the kid version of Kaj... that would've been way too illegal and the Fairytale cops might've stepped in… wait…I was once a cop… but it's none of my business, I'm a detective now. I'll let the Fairytale cops do their thing… if there is a Fairytale cop here in the first place."
And Ryo wasn't wrong…
In the original Snow Queen tale, Kaj's age was around 7 to 10 years old. The Snow Queen herself was an older, mature woman. Her exact age wasn't stated, but she looked somewhere in her 30s or 40s.
But in this Fairytale world, things were different.
Kaj was a teenager when he met Aurelia. She was, too. They fell in love and married in their early twenties. Both were legal. This world isn't bound by Earth's stories. In fact, in the original tale, they weren't even married at all.
In the old story, Kaj got a shard stuck in his heart and eye, which basically turned him into a cold, distant, overly critical little gremlin. Then one day, while out playing with his sleigh, the Snow Queen found him and took him to her icy castle. And thanks to that shard, Kaj followed her, like a little punk who thought he knew better than everyone.
Later, Gerda—his friend—traveled far and wide, only to find him mentally frozen, almost turned to ice, sitting in the cold trying to spell the word 'eternity' with chunks of frozen letters. She cried, and her tears melted the shard in his heart. A kiss cleared the one in his eye. He woke up from the spell.
And the Snow Queen? She vanished. No explanation.
But that wasn't the most shocking part for Ryo.
No... the most spine-chilling truth he'd heard from Aurelia's story was this…
The one who murdered Aurelia... was Kaj.
The same Kaj who once begged for her love.
The same Kaj who shared a happy marriage and had a daughter with her.
The same Kaj who looked her in the eyes and killed her—saying something as heartless as:
"You were always a burden."
Who the hell says that? After a marriage? After having a child?
Ryo clenched his jaw.
But then came something worse.
Before Kaj struck, Aurelia had seen something swirling around his blade.
Black Miasma.
And Kaj had fought Aurelia with Dark Magic.
Ryo's eyes narrowed.
He'd seen them before.
Malakar wields dark magic, and the Vrakuls have that smoky, malevolent black miasma. Now Kaj also wields dark magic just like Malakar, and the dagger that slashed Aurelia's throat was swirling with black miasma.
And Fairy Greatmother… she too had encountered the Vrakuls during a war in the Fairy Kingdom 15 years ago, when she lost her granddaughter.
Could it be…?
Nineteen years ago, the Vrakuls were already lurking in her kingdom of Glacindor and had corrupted Kaj, which led to Aurelia being betrayed and murdered.
Ryo now had a gut-wrenching suspicion:
Kaj was corrupted. That murder wasn't just betrayal. It was manipulation.
And now… the whispers he'd heard in the village today started making horrible sense.
Now Ryo suspects that 'Kaj' might be involved in Cinderella's kidnapping… along with that mysterious flying boy in black. People have been talking about a boy in black, flying through the sky laughing, leaving behind trails of purple sparkles… and Black Miasma.
"He's involved," Ryo thought."He might've kidnapped Cinderella… and he's not working alone."
Fairy Greatmother's face went cold with realization.
She turned to Ryo. Her voice calm, but low.
"Mr. Detective… Aurelia said… Kaj, her former husband, was holding a knife thick with Black Miasma…"
Ryo's gaze sharpened, locking with hers.
"Yeah… this is no mere coincidence anymore."
Aurelia blinked, confused, floating toward them.
"What? What's going on, you two?"
Ryo turned to her with seriousness.
"You'd be surprised… but it looks like the three of us have a common enemy."
Aurelia floated even closer, eyes wide with curiosity.
"What do you mean by that? Please tell me!!"
Ryo leaned back slightly, caught off guard by her sudden closeness.
"Madam Aurelia… you're too close. Some space, please."
Aurelia pouted, clenching her fists like a child.
"MMMMM!!!!! ALRIGHT!!" she huffed, then floated back—just a bit.
Ryo exhaled, trying to collect his thoughts.
"Madam, before I get into this common enemy of ours, I need you to—"
But before he could finish, Aurelia's face dropped in disappointment. Her eyes welled up and she started flailing, dramatically flying through Ryo's body back and forth like an 'X'.
"NOOOOO!!!! PLEASE TELL ME!!! I WANT TO KNOW WHO THESE COMMON ENEMIES ARE!!! WAHHH!!! WAHHH!!! WAHHH!!! WAHHH!!!!"
She spun, her ghostly energy leaving trails in the air like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Ryo sighed, face already tired. "Madam Aurelia… please act your age…"
Still flailing, Aurelia shouted.
"I may be 42 now, but I died in my 20s! And I still look like I'm in my 20s as a ghost! So I'm still a child! WAHHH WAHHH WAHHH!!"
At that moment, Fairy Greatmother had had enough of her childish tantrums.
With a gentle ping of magic, her hands glowed with fairy power as she grabbed Aurelia by the cheeks and stretched them.
Aurelia kicked her legs mid-air. "OW OW OW OW OW THAT HURTS!!!"
Fairy Greatmother smiled sweetly… but there was something dangerous in her eyes.
"Aurelia… a lady in her 40s must act proper and refined. What would your daughter think if she saw you like this?"
"Uggghhhh… your fairy magic is scary…" Aurelia whimpered.
Fairy Greatmother's sweet smile froze. Her eyes widened into teacher-mode terror. She stretched Aurelia's cheeks even WIDER.
"Aurelia… you need to do as Mr. Detective says." She leaned in, voice dropping lower. "And what did you just say about my fairy magic?"
Aurelia frantically tapped Fairy Greatmother's wrists.
"OW OW OW ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I'M SORRY MS. ROSELIA! I'LL DO WHAT THIS STRANGE FOREIGN MAN SAYS! AND YOUR FAIRY MAGIC IS ACTUALLY REALLY LOVELY UUUUGGGHHH…"
Finally, Fairy Greatmother released her.
Aurelia floated away, rubbing her sore ghostly cheeks and mumbling to herself.
"Mmmm Ms. Roselia is very scary…"
Ryo chuckled, watching the aftermath of the chaos.
"Guess ma'am really is a teacher."
Then Barkzilla noticed Ryo's dagger still lodged in the hazel tree and perked up. Ryo had forgotten to take it out.
Without hesitation, the loyal agent dashed through the snow toward the tree and, with a firm bite, freed the dagger. He walked back proudly, tail swaying, and gently returned the dagger to his commander.
Ryo crouched down, patting Barkzilla's head with a small smile.
"Good boy, my Elite Agent."
Then his eyes narrowed slightly, something tickled his memory.
Straightening up, he turned toward Aurelia, curiosity in his tone.
Madam Aurelia, I've been wondering... when this dagger struck the hazel tree, it seemed like the tree glowed for a moment then dimmed again. Does this tree have a connection to your powers, even though you're a bound spirit?"
Aurelia turned to him with a gentle, bittersweet expression. Her ghostly form hovered softly as a nostalgic yet mournful smile spread across her lips.
"My daughter…" she began softly. "Every time she visited my grave… she would speak as if I could hear her. And I did."
Her hands folded gently over her heart. The smile faded.
"But she also cried… crying for a mother she never truly remembered. I had her adopted to the Lady of the Manor when she was still a baby. I thought I was doing what was best for her. And yet… she still longed for me. She would say… how much she wished she could see me—truly see me. She struggled there… in that manor."
She sighed, her voice brittle with guilt.
"Sometimes… I wonder if I chose the right family for her."
She drifted to the Hazel tree, her fingers brushing the bark as though touching a memory.
"This tree was born from her sorrow. From her tears. She planted a seed here, right over my resting place, and when her tears touched the soil…"
Her voice lowered solemnly as she spoke of the past.
"It grew." She looked over her shoulder at Ryo and Fairy Greatmother.
"My daughter… Cinderella… is half Frostreaver and half human. Her tears carry the bloodline of my magic. So when the hazel tree bloomed, even in death, I regained my magic—through her pain."
Based on what she'd said, he had suspected Cinderella's mixed heritage. Kaj was human. Aurelia, a Frostreaver. It all added up. But hearing it aloud gave the truth a weight he hadn't expected.
Yet something else pressed on his mind.
The Hazel tree… the Grimm tales… he remembered. In the old stories, Cinderella's tears grew the tree. And from it, she received her magical gown and her slippers. But something didn't add up.
Fairy Greatmother had told him she only gave Cinderella the gown before the royal ball, not the slippers. In fact, Cinderella had seemed reluctant to explain where they came from, as if afraid of sounding mad.
But now, with Aurelia hovering here, this mystery could finally be answered.
Ryo pointed at the cracked glass slipper in front of him.
His tone was calm, yet pressing.
"Madam Aurelia… can you tell me…" He looked her in the eye. "When did you give this slipper to your daughter."
Aurelia floated forward, her pale form gliding softly through the air until she stopped in front of Ryo and Fairy Greatmother.
She lowered her gaze, placing one trembling hand over her chest.
"As a mother… it's a painful memory for me." Her voice was quiet, fragile.
Then she looked up at them—resolute. "But I shall tell you."
Five months before the royal ball was ever announced…
Spring had just begun to bloom, the air light with petals and green life. On that day, the Stepmother granted Cinderella a rare day of rest. Without telling anyone where she was going, Cinderella quietly slipped away with a small bouquet of flowers in hand.
She returned to the grove… to her mother's resting place.
The Hazel tree had already grown tall and full. Countless tears had fed its roots, tears shed during so many visits before. Aurelia had watched each one… powerless to intervene. Powerless to hold her daughter. And yet she lingered, always.
This time was no different. As Cinderella approached the tombstone, Aurelia's spirit appeared above the grave. She hovered gently in front of the stone, just as always. Her daughter stood before her—so close, yet still blind to her presence. Still deaf to the whispering love of the mother standing mere inches away.
Aurelia saw the sadness in Cinderella's face.
She wanted to comfort her, to say. "I'm here. Everything will be alright."
She tried.
But Cinderella couldn't hear her.
Then Cinderella collapsed to her knees, dropped the flower bouquet, and started to sob. Her sobs broke through the quiet of the grove.
Aurelia flinched, her hands shaking.
She reached out, desperate to hold her daughter and soothe her, but her fingers passed right through her.
Cinderella, her hands planted on the grass, stared through her tears at the tombstone.
Her voice cracked as she cried out.
"Mama… once again… I don't know you… but I want to see you."
Aurelia's breath hitched. Tears welled in her ghostly eyes.
"My dear child…" she whispered, her voice faltering.
Cinderella's hands clenched in the grass.
"My Stepmother… she's always yelling at me. Giving me tasks no one could finish… My stepsisters—they mock me. Laugh at me. They ruin things just so I'll have to clean again!"
Her voice trembled.
"And Stepfather—Edmund—he just watches and looks away. He never stops it. Never helps. Why…?"
"Why does everything fall apart the moment she remarried? Why Edmund?"
Aurelia's heart froze.
Her wide eyes shimmered with anguish as the truth crushed her.
"Cinderella… my child… I'm so sorry."
Cinderella's voice rose into a pained shout. "WHY EDMUND?!"
She covered her face, sobbing uncontrollably.
"We were a family once… Stepmother smiled at me. My stepsisters played with me… We were happy! They treated me like their real sister!"
Aurelia could take no more.
She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Cinderella—not truly able to touch her, but phasing just close enough to make the embrace seem real. Her face rested gently against her daughter's hair, where she once used to kiss her to sleep.
Her voice trembled as she spoke through shattered breath.
"I'm sorry for being… weak… I'm sorry that your father—Kaj—overwhelmed me. If only… I had been stronger… I might still be alive… I could've stayed by your side… played with you… cooked for you… read you bedtime stories… held you… like when you were just a little baby in my arms."
Aurelia looked at her, eyes glowing with motherly love.
"And even in death, I am your mother. I will always love you. Even if the gods drag me to heaven… I will resist. I'll remain down here… by your side. To see you… even if you cannot see me… because I love you. I love you so much, my dear Cinderella."
Then… something changed.
The wind shifted.
The air turned cold—unnaturally so.
Cinderella pulled her hands away from her face… and gasped.
Parts of her palms were covered in thin layers of ice.
"What's… happening to me…?" she whispered, eyes wide, trembling.
Aurelia's breath caught.
She remembered this… the first signs of losing control. It had happened to her once, long ago—when her powers had spiraled.
The earth beneath Cinderella began to freeze. The frost crawled outward from where she knelt, spreading like veins of white. It touched the grave… then the Hazel tree… then kept going.
Hundreds of meters. A full 500-meter radius—all turned to ice.
Then the blizzard came.
Snow and wind howled through the grove. The sky turned gray and furious.
Aurelia looked up in horror.
"No…" she whispered.
She understood now. Her daughter, her precious Cinderella, was breaking. Her emotions had reached their peak. The mistreatment, the pain, the buried magic… it had all erupted.
Cinderella clutched her head, screaming in agony.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Then she stretched out her right hand toward the tombstone, as if begging for help.
"MAMAAA!!"
Aurelia's panic rose with the storm. She circled her daughter, helpless, heart torn in two. She wanted to stop it—to guide her—but she couldn't. Cinderella still couldn't hear her.
Then, something surged through Aurelia. A force. An instinct.
The Hazel tree… it shimmered.
Aurelia turned toward it. She felt it. Her soul was connected to it. And through it, she could act.
She raised her hand toward one of its branches and summoned something from deep within her essence.
A pair of glass slippers.
Glowing amber, radiant, and beautiful.
The tree's branch lowered, offering them to Cinderella.
Aurelia turned to her daughter, clenched her fists, and shouted with everything in her spirit.
"PLEASE, MY DEAR CHILD! PUT THESE ON… HURRY!"
Cinderella, startled by the light, stared at the slippers. She didn't hear her mother—but she felt something. A divine tug. As if someone… somewhere… was guiding her.
She reached forward and slipped them onto her feet.
The moment they touched her skin, the amber glow pulsed.
And everything… stopped.
The storm ceased.
The ice began to melt.
The winds quieted.
Her sobs faded to stillness.
Warmth returned.
The slippers… had suppressed the chaotic power within her. They were sealing the uncontrollable magic. Keeping her safe.
The Hazel tree's shimmer faded.
Aurelia exhaled, weeping in relief. Her daughter was safe.
Cinderella stood up, walked toward her mother's tombstone, and collapsed against it, wrapping her arms around it tightly as her tears kept falling.
"Thank you, Mama… for saving me. I love you."
Aurelia froze.
And then, for the first time in all her deathly years, she felt something… warm. Fulfillment.
She had protected her daughter. She had done something… anything… as a mother.
And she smiled.
A real, soft, mother's smile—directed only at Cinderella.
Back in the present…
Aurelia turned to Ryo.
Her voice was steady. Her eyes still shined with that same warmth.
"And that… is when… and how I gave the slippers to my lovely daughter."
After she finished her story, she slowly glanced up… and blinked.
There, perched comfortably on top of Ryo's head, was a puffed-up white dove, adjusting its stance like a feathery emperor. Agent McPecker.
Her eyes trailed to Fairy Greatmother, who stood perfectly composed despite having another dove casually standing on her head. Agent McDrama was fluffing his chest proudly, like he was supervising a stage play.
The two doves looked like they'd been there the whole time.
Aurelia blinked twice and pointed at them, baffled.
"Umm… what are those two doves doing atop your heads…?"
Fairy Greatmother gave a dainty laugh, raising her brow with amusement.
"Oh my. They probably wanted a better view while listening to your story."
Ryo grinned and casually thumbed toward Agent McPecker on his head.
"Yeah, the 'air force' team from the Cinderella Rescue Animal Squad needed a high vantage point. Reserved VIP seating."
Aurelia stared at him, eyes narrowing in confusion.
"…Air force? VIP…?" she muttered like the words personally offended her.
"Why do I feel like you're casting spells I don't understand…"
Suddenly, both doves flapped their wings and launched off their human and fairy perches, soaring toward her in synchronized formation.
Aurelia flinched, raising both hands. "Wai–WAI–WAIT!"
The birds began circling her in wide loops like miniature predators, swooping just low enough to make her panic.
"WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH!" she yelped, once again spinning and flailing like a startled ballerina in a snowstorm.
Ryo folded his arms with the dull stare of a man who's seen too much nonsense in one lifetime.
"Madam… they're not even trying to attack you. And even if they were, you're literally a ghost. You can't be harmed. You're like… anti-harm."
The doves made one last synchronized loop, then glided up and perched on the branches of the Hazel Tree.
Aurelia panted, her hair slightly messy despite being ethereal.
"That… that was terrifying," she muttered, as if she'd just been chased by Wraiths.
Ryo rubbed his temples, visibly unimpressed.
"Aren't you supposed to be the one who looks terrifying? I mean, look at you—you look like a rejected extra from a medieval horror flick."
Aurelia dramatically pointed at Ryo and snapped, her icy voice cracking with exasperation.
"WHAT ARE THESE STRANGE TERMS YOU KEEP USING?! AND WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I'M BEING INSULTED WITHOUT EVEN UNDERSTANDING HOW?!"
Fairy Greatmother tried (and failed) to suppress a giggle.
Ryo tilted his head back, eyes locking on the two doves, Agent McPecker and Agent McDrama, perched proudly on the branches of the Hazel Tree.
For a moment, he went quiet.
Something about the sight stirred a memory.
In the old Grimm's tale, it was two white doves perched on the Hazel Tree who brought Cinderella her magical gifts—the gown and the slippers—before the royal ball.
But now, after hearing Aurelia's story, he knew that wasn't what happened here.
Aurelia hadn't given Cinderella both gifts. Just the slippers. And not out of tradition or whimsy, but out of desperation. To save her daughter.
The slippers were never just elegant footwear, they were a lifeline. A seal. A magical suppressant forged from a mother's love, meant to suppress the powerful ice magic Cinderella never even knew she had. Powers that only awakened when her emotions hit a breaking point from the pain she endured in silence.
The gown, as he remembered, had come from Fairy Greatmother later on.
So the Grimm's tale… wasn't entirely wrong. But it wasn't entirely right either.
Not in this world.
And now it made more sense—why Aurelia, even in death, could access her ice powers again. There was a connection, a pulse, running between her spirit and the Hazel Tree—fed by the tears of her daughter. Tears that grew the tree. Tears that carried Frostreaver blood.
It was like the very soil around the grave remembered them both.
Then came the final piece of the puzzle…
Why Cinderella never told anyone—especially Fairy Greatmother—about the slippers. Of course she didn't.
It would've sounded unhinged to anyone.
'I was crying at my mother's grave. The weather broke. My body became icy. Then spirit-mama summoned glowing slippers from a tree branch to stop my powers I didn't know I had.'
No one would believe that.
Even if things had unfolded the same way as the original fairytale, with magical birds and tree branches bestowing divine fashion advice—Cinderella still wouldn't have said a word. Because it was too strange, too impossible.
Too hers.
A secret stitched from sorrow and survival.
Then Ryo furrowed his brow.
That one line from Aurelia's story echoing in his mind.
'Even if the gods drag me to heaven… I shall resist.'
It wasn't just dramatic. It was intentional.
He cleared his throat. "Madam Aurelia… earlier in your story, you said something about not wanting to go to heaven. Even resisting if the gods tried to drag you up there. What's that all about?"
Fairy Greatmother's voice was gentler.
"That's right, Aurelia. I'd like to understand that as well."
Aurelia looked at them—then slowly lowered her gaze. Her hands rose to her chest, clutching it tightly as if her ghostly heart still beat inside.
"…Actually," she began, voice low and trembling, "there is this feeling I can't shake."
She looked back up, eyes glossy, haunted—but full of longing.
"Like… there's a dream. Or no—a wish. A wish I've always held in the silence of my heart."
Ryo tilted his head, curious. "Wish?"
Aurelia's lips trembled, her voice cracking.
"I wish… to be alive again. To live and breathe beside my daughter. To be there as she grows older. To laugh with her, to hold her hand through the world's cruelty, to hear her say 'Mama' again like she used to—while I'm alive. I want to stay by her side… and live out my life to the fullest while I'm with my beloved Cinderella."
Silence.
A long, impossible, weightless silence.
Even the wind paused.
Ryo. Fairy Greatmother. The animals. Every single one of them blinked in unison.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No one moved.
Ryo's eye twitched. "…Madam Aurelia."
She turned toward him slowly. "Yes?"
He hesitated. Nervous.
"…If this were a novel, readers would start flipping tables and raging online over the revival trope you just wished for."
Fairy Greatmother turned her head sharply. "MR. DETECTIVE!" she shouted, instinctively begging Ryo not to break the fourth wall—even if she didn't fully understand what it meant or how to stop him.
"What?" he held up both hands, "I'm just saying! The forums would explode!"
Aurelia tilted her head, genuinely confused.
"You keep using these strange words again. 'Novel'? 'Online'? 'Forums'? 'Table flip'? And what are these 'Tropes' you keep mentioning?"
Ryo opened his mouth, then gave up. "Just… never mind."
Aurelia gave a small, sad laugh.
"But I know what you're thinking. It is crazy. A ghost… hoping for life again. Wishing for something so impossible."
Fairy Greatmother's smile softened with pain.
"It's not crazy at all. It's the most human thing in the world." She looked down, eyes far away. "Especially for someone who's lost their own granddaughter."
There was silence again—but heavier now. The grief in her voice was raw. Real.
Fairy Greatmother truly missed her granddaughter after the Vrakuls dragged her into the void, gone forever. So it was no surprise she said that, she understood how deeply Aurelia longed to live again, just to be by Cinderella's side.
Aurelia's expression warmed, and she gave a slow nod toward Fairy Greatmother.
"I'm glad you understand, Ms. Roselia. Even if my wish sounds foolish."
Then she turned to Ryo, her tone becoming steady… serious.
"And it's just as you heard in my story. I don't want to go to heaven. I want to remain in this world. As a bound spirit. Watching over her. Until she grows old… until her time comes. And when she passes on, then I'll ascend. Together. With her."
Ryo crossed his arms, gaze sharp but thoughtful.
"I get that, Madam Aurelia. But here's what confuses me… most bound spirits remain in this world because they feel unfinished, or because they're worried. That makes sense."
His brows furrowed.
"But you've been here for nineteen years. And for the first fifteen, Cinderella was happy. She was safe. Loved by the Ravenswood family. It's only in the last four years that things got dark… because of the mistreatment."
He paused, narrowing his eyes.
"So why didn't you move on during those first fifteen years? You weren't bound by grief, rage, or fear? Or was there some other reason?"
Aurelia closed her eyes, slowly placing both palms on her chest again.
And then—
She said it.
The bombshell.
The impossible.
The haunting truth. "…That's because…"
Her voice cracked. "…for some reason…"
A shiver of energy rippled through the air, like the world itself had paused to listen.
"I don't feel like I'm completely… dead."