Sure enough, the next morning a messenger from the palace arrived with news: the prince had seen a beautiful girl at the festival last night, and wished to marry her. She had lost her shoe as she left, and so, to identify the girl, all of the maidens in the kingdom were to travel to the palace and try the shoe.

  What a stupid way of doing things, I thought, sweeping the courtyard as the messenger left and Madam Jin began preparing Poppy for her palace visit. Poppy looked… different, today, in a way I couldn’t define.

  “What a stupid way of doing things,” said Lee Wai Meng, popping his head out of the pond.

  “I was just thinking that. How are you this morning?”

  “Oh, tired.” He yawned ostentatiously. “What about you? Seems like you successfully seduced the prince. Unless that’s someone else’s shoe.”

  “I don’t know about seduced, but I ran into him. He’s the same guy I met in my tutorial.”

  “Hm… What’s his name?”

  “Han Sung-hyuk.”

  “I meant his username.”

  “His username is his name.”

  “Seriously? He could have come up with some cool name and he just chose to – Ohhhh, he’s handsome.”

  “You can see him?” I asked, wishing I could peek at the Administrator window.

  “Well, his avatar. At least you’ll have something nice to look at.”

  “I don’t really care. Poppy’s kind of keen on him though.”

  “She’s the Stepsister. It doesn’t matter what she wants if you’re following the story.”

  “Hey, Lee Wai Meng… What usually happens to the Stepsister in these stories?”

  We pondered for a moment.

  “Because I was thinking… In the cartoon, they just kind of… disappear.”

  “And in the live-action movie they get shipped off to some other country. Kind of a pity, Lady Tremaine had such great costuming.”

  “So Poppy has to go into exile? That sucks. But it shouldn’t last too long, right? In previous scenarios…”

  “But it’s Poppy,” Lee Wai Meng said. He leaned on the side of the pond, turning a lily-pad with his finger. “She probably hates it but isn’t saying anything.”

  “Why would she hate it? She’s not going to die.”

  “She’s not like you, Mik Tsaam. You might be happy just to survive another day, but Poppy’s super competitive.” He fixed me with his golden eyes. “Remember when you beat her that one time in karaoke?”

  I frowned. I vaguely remembered one time after school when we had piled into a karaoke room. It was somebody’s birthday. The cake had tasted great. “I… think so?”

  “She went and got singing lessons after that.”

  “What? No way! It was just that one time. I don’t even remember.”

  “Yeah, I know. You don’t care about stuff like that. But Poppy does.”

  First Rohan, then Poppy. Did I even know my own friends?

  “Hey, Wai Meng… I’m kind of an idiot, aren’t I?”

  “Ehhhh, you can be. You get hung up on weird ideas of justice. No-one else cares as much as you do, Mik Tsaam. Still…” He floated on his back, hands tucked behind his head. “It means you’re like our group’s moral compass. But I think you’re tired, right? Just because it’s the right thing to do, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do, do you know what I’m saying? I think you’re burning out.”

  “I can’t stop just because I’m tired, Wai Meng. What kind of excuse is that?”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “I know that Tommy’s already told you that you’re a human, Ah Tsaam, not an angel or something. Give yourself a break before you break, okay?”

  Tommy. That gentle guy was always telling me to stop.

  How could I stop?

  “Have you seen him?”

  “Tommy? Nope. I’ve seen you, Calvin, and… that’s it.”

  “Wait, what about Poppy?”

  “She hasn’t come to see me, and I’m kind of stuck in this pond.”

  “You’re kidding. I’ll drag her over.”

  “Haven’t you got a story to finish? It’s fine, I’ll see her later, when this is all over.”

  “Aren’t you worried at all?”

  “A bit, but there’s no point in worrying, is there? We’ve just got to do whatever we can.”

  “You’re unbelievable.”

  “I’m practical. Now get going.”

  He snapped his fingers one more time.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  The noise was immediate.

  All around were families, entire households, in some cases, with what seemed like every single female present in the country. Some had even brought their children, girls who looked no more than five years old, or their elderly grandmothers. I swore that I could see a couple of ‘women’ that had very masculine qualities. I had no idea about the history of cross-dressing or transsexuality in old China, but it just seemed to me that these people were trying to pull pathetically obvious scams.

  I had landed in some kind of outer courtyard, it seemed, and guards were filtering out the hopefuls lined up. The class divide was painfully obvious; those who arrived by carriage were seen first, and the more ornate the vehicle, the quicker. I was standing amongst the plebs on foot.

  “Women between fifteen and twenty-five years of age only! The Years of the Water Snake to Wood Dragon!” The guards at the gate were shouting, occasionally beating back anyone who tried to sneak through the gate or refused to back down even after they had been told they were too young, too old… or not female.

  I wondered briefly how this situation would have played out if I had been a boy. What role would I be playing? Would I be one of the guards instead, and Poppy would be standing out here? Or maybe Jesse…

  No, being a guard suited Jesse to the ground. Actually, being a boy would probably suit her as well. She’d make a cool guy.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose to try and stem the stupid thoughts. What on earth was I rambling about? I pushed forwards, trying not to be squashed in the crush of people. I had to have been standing and pushing for at least an hour before I began to reach the front of the crowd, and had been cursing Lee Wai Meng for not dropping me closer when a guard caught sight of me. He waded into the crowd to bring me out.

  “Are you with family?”

  “No, I’m alone.”

  “Come with me. Move! Move! Go home, all of you! We’ve already told you that you don’t match the criteria!”

  I was pulled and pushed through the gateway where the guards stood, then directed further in. The guards turned back to the crowd, craning their necks to look for anyone else who matched the requirements of ‘women between fifteen and twenty-five’.

  Beyond the round moon gate was a garden, elegant and formal. The only blooms in the winter cold were on a bare-branched tree with dark bark and twisting, narrow limbs. A lovely scent drifted from the small yellow flowers.

  I followed the stone path until I came to the end of a much more orderly queue.

  Great. More waiting.

  “There you are.”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Jesse!”

  “It’s about time you showed up,” she said, a big grin on her face. I passed a stealthy eye over her uniform. Yes, she definitely looked good as a guard. “Everyone is about ready to die of boredom. I think they’d prefer the poison, to be honest.”

  “What’s going on with that? The poison, I mean.”

  She jerked her chin almost imperceptibly into the distance. I could just about see the prince… Han Sung-hyuk, his sister and guards at a pavilion in the distance. “You know how you healed them up a bit yesterday?”

  “Yes, and you said there’s been several attempts on their lives.”

  “It’s typical court drama stuff. Have you ever watched Asian court dramas? Everyone always trying to kill each other. Well, this place is no exception. There’s been a couple of attempts on Sung-hyuk and Jihee. The guards have been pretty busy, but sometimes things slip through.” Her optimistic expression slipped momentarily. “I feel like this scenario is more complicated than the previous ones, and it’s not just the length of the situation. I feel like there are other things going on.”

  We spoke quietly as the queue crept slowly forwards.

  “Have you finished a scenario with 100% completion?”

  “Not at all. And yet as far as I can tell, we did everything we needed to.” Jesse’s thumb smoothed the pommel of the sword at her hip. “There must be more to the game than we realise. Not that we can go back and find out what that is.”

  “And errors? Have you seen the errors?”

  “What errors?”

  I dropped my voice even lower, and Jesse leaned in to hear me. The pale winter sunlight caught in her hair, making the dark strands shine even more red. “When I received items from completing the scenarios, I’d get a message: ‘You received a clue’ and then a bunch of empty box symbols. Then an error message and the item distribution would start again but the message about the clue was gone.”

  “I haven’t seen anything like that. I wonder if the others have.” Her eyes were unfocused, darting about towards the ground as though she could see something there. This was her way of thinking hard, I realised.

  “Hey, Jesse… You haven’t seen Tommy, have you?”

  “I’m afraid not.” She straightened and sighed. “I guess you haven’t either?”

  I shook my head.

  “Hopefully he pops up soon.”

  “I met Peach though. The girl you said was in the tutorial with you? She seemed nice.”

  “Oh, Peach? How was she? Yeah, she’s a nice girl. Cute.”

  “She was in my last scenario. She’s very… affectionate.”

  “Oh yeah?” Jesse seemed to be hiding a smile.

  I frowned at her. “What?”

  “I mean, she’s a cheerfully and friendly person, but affectionate? I wouldn’t say so. Maybe it’s just you.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked quietly.

  Jesse shrugged. “Maybe she’s into you.”

  “I… That might be the case, but I’m not a… lesbian.”

  “Oh yeah? Pity.”

  “Now what do you mean?”

  “It’s a bit of a waste.” Jesse threw an arm around my shoulders and raised a dramatic arm as if gesturing to a line of goods. “Think of how many more options you would have!”

  “That’s… what the heck?” Everyone was staring at us. “Jesse, stop it!”

  She laughed but complied. For a while, we proceeded in silence. I found my eyes sliding back to her involuntarily.

  Was Jesse gay? Or maybe bi? I wanted to ask but kept my mouth shut. She’d called Peach ‘cute’. Maybe that was her type?

  Well Jesse was a cool, capable woman, and Peach was a lovely, cute girl, and they’d probably look good together…

  I pinched the bridge of my nose again, harder this time. Seriously, what was wrong with me?

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Let’s try to get through this scenario as fast as possible. I don’t want anyone to find out the hard way whether dying in this place means dying in real life.”

  At last, I reached the front of the queue. A young noblewoman was trying the shoe on, but it didn’t fit, of course. Her own shoe was replaced, and she turned, face blank, while her mother tried to insist that the shoe be tried on again.

  Poppy.

  Her gaze snagged on mine as she began to try to descend the steps. Madam Jin had caught her arm and was speaking more and more sharply to the eunuch who was overseeing the shoe fitting.

  She looked tired. Her eyes barely registered me, then swam away from me like sick fish.

  “She doesn’t look good,” Jesse muttered. “She’s your friend that I met in the first scenario, right? Poppy or something. Is she okay?”

  “I don’t… know…” Guards were advancing to forcibly remove Madam Jin. She pulled herself coldly together before they could lay hands on her and began to descend the steps with Poppy. At the bottom, she raised her eyes and saw me.

  “You… YOU!”

  Jesse was already in front of me, sword half-drawn, by the time I realised that Madam Jin was advancing on me with every intention of striking me. “Go up, Maria.”

  “Wait! Your Highnesses, this girl can’t possibly be the one you’re looking for!” Madam Jin appealed to Han Sun-hyuk and his sister, watching silently from their ornate chairs within the pavilion. “This girl is a mere servant in my household. She couldn’t have gone to the festival in such finery!”

  Poppy stared at the ground. I tried to catch her eye as I began to climb the steps, but her gaze was anchored. Unease hooked my chest.

  Why? Why?

  I sat on a carved stool, and a servant replaced my worn slipper with the golden shoe I had worn the night before. It fit. Of course it fit.

  I had to drive it in, didn’t I? Standing, I reequipped my outfit from the previous night, sea-green dress and Camael’s cloak and golden shoes. To the NPCs watching, it must have appeared like magic.

  Han Sung-hyuk flicked his fingers carelessly at his guards and servants. The presiding eunuch called out to the gathering.

  “The prince’s bride has been found! Please return home!”

  Silent with rage, Madam Jin’s face changed colours several times before she swept away, Poppy in tow. I tried to reach out to Poppy with my eyes as they departed.

  Perhaps she felt it. Her eyes found mine one last time, but I couldn’t read them. Was it because my Intelligence had tanked with the outfit?

  Did I just not know my own friend?

  And then she was gone.