Rapunzel Is Raised by Her Stepmother

Chapter 3: Rapunzel the Prison Breaker (2)

‘A dream play’ refers to—

Clearing a game of extreme difficulty without dying even once, or going further by clearing it without taking a single hit, known as a "No Hit" run.

Defeating the game's final boss at level 1 after extreme grinding, playing the game blindfolded, or using something other than your hands and feet to play.

It describes gameplay so skillful and absurd that one might wonder why anyone would play the game in such a way. In short, the phrase "a dream play" means "a play you could only achieve in a dream."

At that time, I mistook the situation not as "possession" but as a "dream." Believing it to be a dream, I decided to perform gameplay worthy of the name—a dream play—myself.

Because once I cleared it, I’d forget everything and only be left with a pleasant feeling, as it was just a dream.

Because in a dream, it feels like a loss not to enjoy yourself.

And what gamer doesn’t like challenging tasks like these? Gamers are peculiar creatures who get more excited the more restrictions are placed on their play.

I set two restrictions for myself:

Speedrun and no-miss clear.

I had to escape the mansion as quickly as possible before waking from the dream, and I couldn’t afford to make a single mistake until the escape was complete. Normally, I would have thought, "How on earth am I supposed to do this?" and avoided it...

"Since it’s a dream, it’ll work out somehow! Yeehaw!"

I thought, even if I made a mistake, wouldn’t I get some kind of "dream correction" or something...?

Somehow, I felt an inexplicable surge of confidence.

Armed with that baseless confidence, I escaped the tower and headed to the “mansion” where Rapunzel’s stepmother lived—the stage of Chapter 1 in Rapunzel of the Golden Iron Cage.

---

When you enter the mansion, the game’s world-building unfolds in earnest.

And it’s the items called "Remnants of a Witch," hidden throughout the mansion, that explain this world. Like in any classic 2D side-scrolling game, the abilities and usage methods vary depending on the equipped item.

There are about ten hidden Remnants of a Witch items in total, but it wasn’t necessary to collect all of them. For my goal of a speedrun and no-miss clear, I needed exactly three of them:

[Garden Shears of Thornbush]

[Hand Mirror of a Certain Queen]

[The Witch’s Basket of Sweets]

Among these, the first item to prioritize was the [Garden Shears of Thornbush]. This was a so-called encounter-avoidance item, capable of distracting the gazes of maids or butlers (excluding the final boss, the stepmother) up to three times.

"Items like these are always hidden in such random places, no matter the game."

---

Sneaking into the mansion, I quickly headed for the kitchen located at the far end of the first floor.

Fortunately, the kitchen was empty, so I rolled in like a ninja, entering the space covertly and swiftly searching for the box holding the cooking utensils.

Why did I roll in? Because rolling is the golden rule of entry!

"Oh, found it."

Among the kitchen scissors, I found a pair of scissors exuding an ominous vibe. Smiling, I lifted them above my head. The scissors had one handle designed to resemble thorny vines.

Why were garden shears among the cooking utensils?

Well, items in thriller games are always in inexplicable places.

I decided not to think too deeply about it.

"Ba-ba-da-bam! Rapunzel has acquired the ‘Garden Shears of Thornbush’!"

I hummed the game’s BGM that played whenever a "Remnant of a Witch" was obtained and celebrated the acquisition. Having this was practically like gaining three extra lives, so of course, I was thrilled!

But my joy was short-lived as a loud voice rang out behind me.

"What-what the?! Where did you come from?! And the kitchen—look at this mess!"

A man dressed as a butler pointed at me and shouted.

Well, it had been going too smoothly up to now. In this game, maids and butlers would swarm like ants.

As soon as I had that thought, the butler, wearing an angry expression, started striding toward me. Naturally, I quickly darted away from him with short, quick steps.

"You! Stop right there! Where the hell did you crawl in from?!"

"Too slow—"

"What?!"

Dodging the butler’s outstretched hand by a paper-thin margin, I taunted him, causing his face to flush red with anger. His expression turned ferocious in no time.

"If I catch you, it won’t end with a mere beating!"

"Heehee! Hahaha!"

As I fled the kitchen to avoid the threatening butler, I could feel his furious yells and footsteps chasing after me.

"Isn’t anyone out there?! Someone catch her!! The ‘Remnant’ the head of the family brought in has escaped!!"

Ah, this is how it should be. This is the thrill.

Everyone has had that dream where they’re being chased by a ghost or a killer. When you wake up, your heart is racing as if it’ll burst, and cold sweat is dripping all over your body.

While others dismiss such dreams as nightmares and find them terrifying, I’m different. Experiencing that kind of thrill, that sense of being alive, is hard to come by in modern life.

"Uhuhuhu! Hihihihi!"

"Ugh! Just get caught already!"

I was someone who knew how to enjoy that thrill.

While sprinting down the corridor with the butler hot on my heels, I saw maids and other butlers rushing toward me from ahead. They must have heard the butler’s earlier shout: "The Remnant has escaped!"

"One, two, three, four... Time to use it."

Realizing there was no way to escape the tightening net behind and ahead, I decided to use the [Garden Shears of Thornbush] I had just acquired. The usage of these scissors was—

Snip!

To cut Rapunzel’s hair.

I snipped off a lock of hair and threw it toward the butlers rushing toward me as if scattering it.

"Take this! It’s gold!"

As soon as the hair left my hand, it quickly hardened in mid-air and, just as I’d said, turned into "gold," falling to the ground. Thud, thud! The golden strands hit the floor with a dull sound.

The eyes of the butlers and maids, who had been chasing me, changed.

They were no longer looking at me but instead fixed their gaze on the golden hair scattered on the ground.

"W-wow! It really is gold!"

"Pick it up! Hurry!"

As if they’d forgotten they were chasing me, the butlers and maids pushed past me, scrambling to pick up the golden strands. Their behavior was so frenzied it bordered on bizarre.

"...I knew about this from the lore, but it’s fascinating to see in a dream."

The transformation of Rapunzel’s hair into gold wasn’t due to the scissors’ ability.

The description of the [Garden Shears of Thornbush] in the game had simply stated, "A pair of scissors with an unusually sharp blade." In other words, the hair turning into gold was entirely Rapunzel’s innate ability.

Her hair was so strong that ordinary scissors couldn’t cut it, and once cut, the strands would turn into gold.

This was the unique trait of "Rapunzel," the Remnant of a Witch.

"That ability is the reason Rapunzel was sold to this place."

Not as a person, but as an object.

Feeling an inexplicable bitterness, I left the butlers and maids scraping the floor behind me and moved on to find the next "item." After all, I didn’t have time to stand there and reflect on the scene.

"It’s just a dream anyway, so what’s the point?"

---

Being chased by the butlers and maids, I had somehow reached the final stages of my mansion escape speedrun. It felt like I’d gotten there faster than expected.

While being pursued, I found myself hiding in a wardrobe. Taking advantage of the brief respite, I checked the items I had collected so far. The scissors from the kitchen and the basket of sweets from the library.

"I’ve got the scissors and the basket... All that’s left is the ‘hand mirror,’ and then I can escape."

The scissors and basket had been relatively easy to find. Although I’d nearly been caught while escaping with the basket, luckily, I had the scissors.

Just like before, I snipped off a lock of hair and scattered it. As soon as the golden strands hit the floor, the butlers and maids were once again too distracted by the treasure in front of them to pay attention to me.

The biggest problem right now was...

The [Hand Mirror of a Certain Queen], a crucial item for the escape.

Without it, the final escape would take far too much time.

The mansion’s final escape sequence was a system where the “Stepmother” would chase me relentlessly. While the butlers and maids would eventually give up after some time, the stepmother knew no such thing as giving up.

Moreover, even while being chased by the stepmother, the butlers and maids wouldn’t just stand idly by. In short, the final escape involved fleeing from the stepmother, butlers, and maids simultaneously.

The item that made this final escape manageable was the [Hand Mirror of a Certain Queen].

If I could just grab it, the speedrun would essentially be complete, but...

"The problem is the mirror’s location..."

Perhaps because it was such a game-breaking item that drastically lowered the difficulty, the developers had placed the hand mirror in the “Stepmother’s Room.”

In other words, the essential escape item was located in the final boss’s room. And once you entered the stepmother’s room, there was no avoiding a confrontation with her.

"On top of that, the scissors can only be used one more time now..."

What had once been golden hair flowing down to my feet had now been cut and scattered so much that it barely reached my shoulders.

If I didn’t use the final chance carefully...

"...Enough thinking! I don’t care! It’ll work out somehow!"

Under normal gameplay, one would gather other "Remnants of a Witch" to grow stronger before attempting an escape. But I was speedrunning. If I needed something, I’d grab it—there was no such thing as retreating.

Straight ahead! Always straight ahead!

Bursting out of the wardrobe, I headed directly to the “Stepmother’s Room.”

"Here I come!"

Without hesitation, I flung the door open with a loud bang! and rolled into the room. Inside, the stepmother, who had been reading a book, stared at me with wide eyes, her expression asking, "What in the world is this?"

"Wow, she’s even prettier than her illustration."

I couldn’t help but marvel at her appearance. Although every character in this female-oriented game was either cute or beautiful, the stepmother’s face was especially my type.

Her dark navy hair, reminiscent of the night sky, paired with violet-tinted eyes. Her sharp, elegant features, which would be breathtaking with a smile, were now fixed on me in astonishment.

"You...?"

...This wasn’t the time to be captivated by the stepmother’s face. Like a defensive armadillo, I spread my arms wide to make myself look bigger while scanning the room, ensuring I didn’t turn my back to her.

It seemed the stepmother hadn’t grasped the situation yet. She continued to stare at me with a dumbfounded expression, unable to utter another word. In the game, she would have charged at me immediately...

“Ah, so this is dream logic.”

Rather than feeling alarmed, I saw this as an opportunity and immediately moved toward the location of the hand mirror. Moving sideways like a crab, I approached the bookshelf and groped the narrow gap between it and the wall. My fingers brushed against the cold surface of a mirror, and I couldn’t help but grin.

Finding the hand mirror, I locked eyes with the stepmother and...

“Eheheek!!”

I turned around and bolted without a second thought.

Just a few seconds after I exited the room—

I heard the flustered voice of the stepmother behind me, accompanied by the sound of her footsteps chasing after me.

“I-is there anyone out there?! Catch her!! Catch that girl!!! Quickly!!!!!”

Was it because this was the final escape? Or was it because I knew that these people would chase me to the ends of the earth until they caught me?

The thrilling sensation of danger crawling up my spine made me burst out laughing.

“Eheheheek!! Kekek! Cough cough! Haha, ahahaha!!”