"Thank goodness, thank goodness. He didn't notice that this old woman whose chest had been pierced was still alive!"
Grandma Rosa shifted slightly, and a scarecrow fell out from beneath her witch's robe.
The scarecrow's chest had been pierced, as though a tiny sharp sword had once run straight through it.
"Fortunately, I had a substitute take most of the damage for me. Otherwise, the wound would have been fatal."
Grandma Rosa struggled to prop herself up with her elbow and tried to rise, but unexpectedly failed.
"Cough, cough. Cough, cough."
The old woman coughed up a large mouthful of blood.
Again and again, she tried to push herself up. Or she concentrated on summoning wolves to drag her away, or ravens to bring medicinal herbs for her wounds.
But every attempt failed because of her terrible physical condition.
Dusk settled in, and the moon and stars rose into the sky.
Beneath the moonlight, Grandma Rosa lay in the middle of the road, shivering in the bleak, freezing wind.
Every gust of piercing night wind made the old woman tremble.
"I clearly survived. Am I really going to freeze to death here?"
Thinking of such an ironic ending, Grandma Rosa suddenly felt desolate.
"If only I'd called Violet Fairy or Rhine along as well. I really shouldn't have come out alone..."
"Wait, Rhine! That's right!"
All at once, hope rekindled in Grandma Rosa's clouded eyes.
The old woman turned her head toward the full moon in the sky, parted her lips, and recited the titles passed down in countless legends:
"Sage from beyond the world, Prophet of the Future, Wizard of Miracles and Wishes..."
Before long.
Rhine, a young man dressed in pure white classical mage's robes, and Aurora, a spirited girl with lustrous golden hair, swiftly appeared.
"Grandma Rosa!"
Seeing Grandma Rosa severely injured and unable to rise, Aurora hurriedly rushed over. "Teacher, please heal Grandma Rosa quickly!
"Damn it, who hurt Grandma like this?"
Rhine also hurriedly cast the Healing Art, bathing Grandma Rosa in a pure white radiance.
After regaining a little strength, Grandma Rosa briefly recounted what had just happened to her.
"That was such a rude, savage, greedy soldier! No, he doesn't deserve to be called a soldier. He's nothing but a complete bandit!" Aurora fumed.
A nearly imperceptible spark of fury burned in her clear eyes.
"It's a pity we don't know where that soldier went. If I ever meet him, I'll personally avenge Grandma Rosa."
After "killing" the old Witch, the soldier took all the money and The Tinderbox into the city.
This city was the nation's Royal Capital, solemn and beautiful.
The soldier checked into a grand hotel, rented its most comfortable room, ordered his favorite dishes, threw away the old leather boots people had mocked, and bought new boots and new clothes.
The ragged soldier of the past was gone. In his place stood a completely renewed gentleman!
People at the inn often gathered in the bar on the first floor to discuss everything happening in the city. Some stories were entirely true, while others were mere rumors, and quite a few concerned the King or the royal family.
Today, everyone was talking about the King's daughter, the Princess of the Rose Kingdom.
"They say she's an extraordinarily beautiful woman who was granted countless wonderful blessings by witches! Have you heard the legend about the Princess?" someone in the tavern said.
"They say our Rose Kingdom's Princess is a lovely young woman who possesses every blessing of beauty!"
And so the conversation took off. The inn's guests chimed in one after another, recounting the legends they had heard about this beautiful Princess.
The soldier was extremely interested in the subject. He put down his ale and listened intently.
Legend said that ten years ago, when the Princess was born, not only did guests from foreign lands come, but every Witch and mage in the kingdom came as well, offering blessings to the newborn Princess.
The first blessing granted the Princess peerless beauty capable of toppling cities and kingdoms, while the second gave her a heavenly voice that could make people lose themselves in it.
As for the other blessings, no one knew.
Some said the Princess had been gifted with exquisite dancing skills.
Others said she had been granted the kindest, gentlest heart, a heart of gold.
No matter what, everyone knew that Princess must possess every wonderful quality in the world.
"Where can one see the Princess?" The soldier's curiosity had been stirred, and he asked the people chatting around him.
He knew that with his former status, he certainly had not been worthy of approaching the Princess.
But now, he was no longer a soldier. He was a noble, wealthy gentleman!
"Good heavens! You want to see the Princess? What are you talking about?" The bartender looked stunned.
Had this gentleman never learned about the kingdom's Princess before? Everyone in high society should know! A chorus of jeers arose.
"No one is allowed to see the Princess!" everyone in the tavern declared in unison.
"The Princess lives in the deepest part of the royal palace, inside a palace cast from bronze. Only the King and Queen may enter or leave that secret place."
"I also heard that many princes from foreign lands learned that the Rose Kingdom had a Princess who possessed every beautiful quality in the world, yet was imprisoned deep within the palace. So those princes climbed into the royal palace in the dead of night, hoping to catch a glimpse of the legendary Princess's beauty!"
"Unfortunately, every prince who tried his luck failed!"
"No one has ever seen the Princess. Not a single person!"
The more the soldier listened, the more puzzled and curious he became. "Why would the King lock the Princess away in the depths of the palace?"
"No one knows. They say it's to prevent some dreadful prophecy."
"One version says that on the day the Princess was born, a Witch prophesied that she would die suddenly and tragically after growing up, which was why the King wanted to protect her."
"No, no, the version I heard said this: the Princess would marry an ordinary person without noble blood. The King couldn't bear that."
"Who told you that? Why is it different from what I heard?"
Everyone answered at once.
"Heh, a Princess with beauty unmatched in the world, who possesses every wonderful quality under heaven, is actually locked away deep in a palace. What a waste. I really want to see her!" the soldier thought.
The soldier was living very happily now.
Now that he had money, he indulged in food and drink and made many disreputable friends. These friends all praised him as a generous man. The soldier liked hearing such compliments and enjoyed being respected and admired. Anyone who praised him received a small bag of gold coins as a reward.
Yet the life of a rich man did not satisfy the soldier. Less than a week after moving into the inn, he had grown tired of it and felt he should find something new and exciting to change this dull, tedious life.
That night, the sky was especially dark.
The soldier took out The Tinderbox—the very tinderbox the Witch had guided him to obtain beneath the hollow tree—and struck it against its flint, intending to light a candle for illumination and fire.
Bang! Amid flashing sparks, the door opened by itself.
A copper-colored dog with eyes as large as teacups appeared out of thin air before him.
It was the dog he had seen inside the tree!
The soldier was terrified. He was not carrying the Witch's blue apron now! "No, don't, don't eat me!"
To his surprise, the dog lowered its head and respectfully said, "My master, what are your orders?"
The soldier froze for a moment, then suddenly understood.
"Bring me some money!"
The soldier said it with a try-it-and-see attitude.
With a whoosh, the dog vanished.
After a while, there came another whoosh, and the dog returned before him with a huge sack of money in its mouth.
"This is amazing!"
After several tests, the soldier understood. This was a magical tinderbox that could summon the three Big Dogs in the hollow tree to serve him.
Striking it once, twice, or three times would summon three different dogs. All of them obeyed the commands of him, the owner of The Tinderbox.
"Bless the gods. I'm no ordinary man now. I have a magical tinderbox and three magical dogs loyal to me." The soldier could not help feeling elated.
It was late at night, and the soldier once again felt the urge to see the Princess.
"No one else can see the beautiful Princess. Does that mean I can't?"
Note: In the story "The Tinderbox," the descriptions of the dogs' sizes are very strange.
Even the smallest dog had eyes as large as teacups. The medium-sized dog had eyes as large as mill wheels, while the largest dog had eyes comparable to Copenhagen's Round Tower—the latter would be enormous even on the set of an Ultraman show.
Yet in the actual story, the dogs do not seem that large. They feel more like ordinary beasts the size of lions or elephants.
For example, the soldier could place the dogs on the apron.
And besides, if the dogs truly were giant monsters from an Ultraman show, summoning such massive creatures in a city would have exposed him long before he could abduct the Princess.
This story assumes that "eyes as large as the Round Tower" was an exaggerated description. The largest dog was roughly the size of a house. Of course, for an ancient army, it would still have been a terrifyingly huge beast.
Before you continue