Hell’s Handbook

g for Cinderella with that glass slipper.
Many women who hoped to marry the prince for materialistic reasons thought of all sorts of ways to fit their feet into the glass slipper, with some going as far as to chop their heel off.
But all fairytales end well – the prince eventually found Cinderella, the stepmother was punished, while Cinderella and Prince Charming lived happily ever after.”

Chu Yi paused to think, then said, “Since we need Cinderella’s glass slipper, I suppose we need to head for the palace?”

“That’s not necessarily true.
If the story has come to the part where the prince is looking for her, then we’ll have to get one side from the prince and I’m afraid we might have to get the one that’s with Cinderella as well.
If she hasn’t gone for the banquet yet, then we just need to look for Cinderella,” said Su Jin.

Everyone nodded but they gave up on attempting to look for Cinderella.
It was going to be quite hard to track down a young lady secretly being abused by her stepmother in such a big city.

In the end, they decided to just head for the palace directly.
Along the way, Su Jin noticed several noticeboards but there weren’t a lot of people walking around.
Upon closer inspection, the few people walking around were all male.

“That’s really strange.” Su Jin was a firm believer that no anomaly happened without a reason.
This couldn’t be happening for no good reason.

Su Jin approached one of the noticeboards and realized that the language used here was the same as the one in the Little Mermaid’s story, so he didn’t have to make use of his Translation Watch again.
But after he read the notices, he finally understood why there wasn’t a single woman in sight.

The notices read: Summoning all women to the palace to try on a glass slipper.
Any woman whose foot fits the glass slipper will become the prince’s wife!

The content of the notice was very simple but Su Jin still found it strange.
Even if there was a summon for all women to head to the palace, did it seriously include every woman regardless of age? If that was the case, this prince must have some really strange fetishes…

“Well, given how our fairytales were distorted and made more evil than we remember them to be, this isn’t completely impossible either,” said Chu Yi with a sad laugh.

But it didn’t take long for Su Jin’s group to become part of this problem.
A group of soldiers representing the prince stopped them and said that all women had to go to the palace right now, including Ning Meng as well as Liu Jingjing, the girl paired with Chu Yi earlier.
They were to report to the palace right away to try on that glass slipper.

Su Jin and the rest didn’t put up a fight and followed the soldiers to the palace.
Once they entered the palace, the soldiers proceeded to escort the two ladies towards a different part of the palace.

“Be careful!” Su Jin instructed the two of them before the group was split up.

Su Jin and the other two boys were allowed to take a rest and Su Jin immediately noticed something amiss.
He spotted someone familiar – the scrivener from the Little Mermaid story was here too.

“Either all the officials in the stories are identical, or…these two stories’ universes are connected!” Su Jin realized that they might be in trouble if that scrivener noticed himself and Gu Ming.

Gu Ming had clearly discovered this problem as well, so he kept throwing worried glances at Su Jin.
Su Jin nodded slightly and motioned to him not to do anything.
The scrivener slowly strolled towards them and suddenly flashed a smile at Su Jin.

“Hello, gentlemen! What a surprise to see you two here!” said the scrivener with a mirthless smile.

“Now!” Su Jin shouted loudly.
The scrivener clearly recognized them, which meant that all of this could be a trap.
There was no point in trying to pretend that they didn’t know the scrivener.

Chu Yi reacted the quickest and thrust a palm out towards the scrivener’s face.
But a layer of green sparkles immediately surrounded the scrivener and Chu Yi’s attack completely failed.

“Double Qi Thrust, HAA!” Chu Yi gave a low shout as he threw a punch with Spirit Power, which broke through the green sparkles around the scrivener.

“Attack of the Demon Lord!” Su Jin retrieved his Boning Knife and used its skill without hesitation in hope of killing off this scrivener as quickly as possible.

The scrivener didn’t expect Su Jin and Chu Yi to attack him so aggressively at once.
He didn’t even get the chance to escape and was sliced into half by Su Jin’s attack instead.

“Die!” The scrivener had already been sliced into two, but managed one last angry roar just before dying.
His body turned into nothing but green sparkles and exploded on the spot.

Su Jin and Chu Yi were too close to the explosion and didn’t have time to get away.
But just then, a layer of dust suddenly rose and formed a protective barrier around them.
Gu Ming had made use of a magic scroll to protect the two of them.

After the impact of the explosion had faded, the protective barrier fell apart and they realized they were now surrounded by a large group of soldiers.
But as long as none of the soldiers were as powerful as the scrivener, the three of them could deal with them easily.

“Come on, we’ve got to go! I’m afraid that Ning Meng and Jingjing are in trouble!” said Su Jin as he dashed out first.
The soldiers were no match for Su Jin’s swift, nimble and strong body and his razor sharp Boning Knife, so Su Jin slashed a path through them in no time.
After all, if trying to get the treasure the clever way didn’t work, then they would have to use force!