Lucas sat up, furrowing his eyebrows as he carefully listened to the high-pitched child's voice echoing in his mind.

<Here's a daily reminder. The aim of this Story is to collect as many shoes as you can. Please aim to find a hundred, at the very least. Otherwise the consequences.... Hehe... It's a very easy task, all you need to do is find, steal, take. Good luck, my sweet characters~>

Then came silence.

Lucas and the masked man shared a look, before the man started to walk away. Lucas quickly called out, "If you're using the carriage, wait for me this time." 

There seemed to be a pitiful, scolding look in the crouching prince's eyes.

The man laughed. "Should I?"

"You should," said Lucas, slipping into a change of clothes once again to follow the usual routine.

The man said nothing, but left when Lucas was done with a slight wave of his hand. However, he wasn't disturbed and calmly walked over to the balcony, where he had an overview of the entire property. 

Lucas lazily stood in the careful wind, pale gaze watching.

He watched as a particular person walked, then got into a certain carriage that he had seen the previous night.

It started to move as it always did, and Lucas turned away indifferently. On the way out of his room, he bumped into a maid, who bowed her head and apologized profusely. From an outsider's perspective, everything seemed normal.

But red dripped onto the floor.

Lucas slowly lowered his gaze at his hand, wrapped firmly around a knife handle, a mere breath away from supple flesh. 

Pain seared into his hand, and he lifted his eyes to stare with a terrifying calm. Darkness lurked in his gaze, a temperament gained from years of chaos.

"What—" He yanked his hand forward, twisting the metal out of her shaking hands. "Do you think you're doing?"

Her body shook violently, words coming out in choked spasms. "I-I..."

Lucas paused, narrowing his eyes. His sensitivity to emotions was something he had confidence in, and what this woman radiated could not be fear. 

Not shame or humiliation. 

Her shoulders didn't shake out of horror and what she'd done—they shook out of laughter.

"Hey, you—"

"Hahahaha!"

He stepped back as she lunged to grab the blade, hysterical. "Too bad! I thought I might be able to do it too, but it looks like I've severely underestimated you! Really, I only meant for one quick stab."

The maid clawed at her face, wide eyes peering at Lucas through a hazel frenzy. Her slender fingers wrapped around a strand of golden hair and tugged, hard. It fell at her feet, spread across the ground softly to reveal soft, dirty-blonde curls cropped short at the ears.

They cleared their throat, a grin spread from each corner. It was deeper, carrying the same soothing and tinkering tone it did originally, now corrupted with insanity.

"Don't blame me. I just want to survive! Cinderella can't kill us, but don't you know it's impossible to reach the quota? There aren't enough shoes for everybody! You need to kill, steal, take! It's not my fault, it's not!" 

The woman—now man—seemed to be convincing themselves, redeeming their crimes.

"If you're going to kill, take responsibility for the lives you took. It was your hands that murdered."

"I did it out of necessity!"

"You did it out of selfishness," said Lucas, sneering. Why was he wasting his time lecturing a fool? But this explained how there were so many deaths in this Story—it pitted humans against humans. "Don't make excuses, you delusional bastard."

"You don't understand."

"I do." He wrapped his hand around the knife, pointing it in front of him with eyes of unwavering steel. His voice was grave, layered with biting cold of undeniable honesty. "Because I also want to survive."

Slowly, the man raised his chin in taunting arrogance. "Even if it means I have to kill everyone."

The youth couldn't be older than twenty, mouth spread impossibly wide as he stepped back—pressed against an open window. The curtains flew around him, billowing in the wind. "I can't wait to see it then! Prove your damn resolution, Ghost!"

"...Ghost?"

The boy tapped his eyes, arms spread wide around him. "White eyes. Isn't that interesting, hah!"

Then he fell.

Lucas rushed to the window, and watched as the boy rolled onto the soft nest of bushes below, scrambling to his feet and dashing off. The man contemplated chasing after the troublesome person, but finally concluded that it wouldn't be worth it.

He arrived at the village market in a sorry mood, having been awoken then almost stabbed when the sun was hardly up. 

But it seemed that the youth's words were correct, when the map now pulsed with only a faint hue of blue. Most of the shoes had already been gathered into somebody's possession. He had 15 already, but another 85 were likely almost impossible.

There was something he was missing about this Story.

He reached out to pick up a rosy red apple from one of the stalls, distracted. A soft voice interrupted him. "Hello sir, I hope you have money to pay for that?"

"I—"

When he raised his head, he met Nora's joyful eyes. "I'm glad to see somebody I know. Thank god you're alive—I managed with my identity, as you can see, an apple seller."

Lucas got over the initial surprise at seeing her quickly. "I have the role of the 'Prince'. How many shoes do you have?"

"A rather large number away from the minimum, I'm afraid. I've managed to find 5 yesterday." She swallowed, sighing softly. "I do think that finding 100 may be an impossible task. I can't help but feel that there's something we're missing, though. Would they give us a task that can't be completed?"

She didn't even think about killing others to steal their glass slippers.

"They wouldn't. There's likely some form of manipulation at play."

"Well, everything seems to be mad under the guise of this simple story. Honestly, I'm still reeling in surprise. The amount that has died... and the incidents that are everywhere. Have you heard the rumour of a carriage this morning, near the palace? You seem to have just escaped it."

Lucas paused, placing the apple back down. There seemed to be a faint smile of satisfaction on his lips. "I haven't. I'm pretty lucky."

"That seems to be the case! Ah, yes, are you attending the ball, Lucas?"

"I am. You?"

"I found an invitation tucked away." smiled Nora enthusiastically. "I'll see you there, then. I feel better knowing there's somebody I know. There's also some things I've noticed... there's a journal that seems to have been written. My character seems to be searching for somebody."

"Searching?"

"Yes, I don't quite know the details, I haven't read through it completely. But everybody is this town seems to be oddly aware of my existence, careful not to bother me. Until you, not a single person, has approached my stall."

She stretched out a hand to arrange the apples and winced, a sliver of wood from the old stand piercing into her skin. However, it remained near the surface of her finger abnormally, as if refusing to dig any deeper.

Lucas frowned.

Suddenly, a shadow towered over his body, shrouding him in darkness. 

Danger screamed in his ears, and he hastily stepped to the side, peering at the cloaked man who examined the apples, stretching out a well-defined hand to pick one up.

There were a few cuts across the slender fingers. As if they'd crashed against the ground. Lucas narrowed his eyes cautiously, when the deep ocean eyes snapped to him.

A low chuckle. "Are my fingers so lovely to stare at?"

"The only lovely thing is that apple in your hand." replied Lucas immediately.

Nora's eyes widened at the damaged sight of the man's hands. "God! What happened to your hands? Should I grab you some bandages?"

"A little animal was playing tricks on me this morning."

"An animal?"

"I think I should correct that. A big animal." The man stared at Lucas, and the latter was certain that the other would retaliate.

However, the white-eyed man decided that he did nothing wrong. 

He accidentally kicked the carriage a little out of an emotional outburst. How could he be blamed for whatever incident occurred? 

It was completely unintentional. In fact, how would he know that anybody would steal that carriage away in the morning?

The masked man laughed and said nothing else, handing over payment (where did he get money from?) and turning to leave. Lucas stared at the disappearing back before looking away.

"Was he your acquaintance?" asked Nora curiously, her eyes trailing after the leaving figure.

Lucas shook his head calmly. "Never seen him before."