The ‘princess’ appeared to be fascinated, gasping in amazement. “Wow, I’ve never been this deep into the forest before… where is this place? How could there be such a beautiful lake in our kingdom, but no one knows?!”
The ‘lake’ was actually just a giant, soft mattress, with dozens of white lilies on top, but the princess made it sound like she had stumbled upon some dreamland.
Of course, what attracted the attention of the audience the most was the big hut that was placed right beside the ‘lake’, but the princess seemed to not have noticed it at all.
”What clean and fragrant water, ahh… it would be a shame not to take a dip!”
Surprised and shocked exclamations rose from the crowd as the ‘princess’ spontaneously pulled her dress up and clean off, as if it was a hat she could remove on a whim.
Fortunately, she was still wearing some tight-fitting clothing underneath, or the rating of the live broadcast would need a change.
After folding her dress and placing it on top of a prominent, giant stone, the princess jumped into the ‘lake’ without a care in the world.
Looking at her flopping on the mattress like a fish out of water, Emilia couldn’t help but giggle along with the others. ‘Cute.’
The princess never noticed, but the audience gasped when a giant green monster suddenly jumped on the stage.
Instead of attacking the princess, however, it awkwardly climbed on top of the stone with the dress, balancing itself on its hands and legs and trying desperately not to slip to the floor.
Given that there was a silky dress between it and the ‘stone’, Emilia imagined it couldn’t be easy, and the crimson-haired girl couldn’t help but feel some pity for the actor. ‘Ah wait… didn’t Randy message me saying he was going to play a prince in this play? Don’t tell me…’
Just as the audience was dumbfounded, the princess also seemed to notice something wasn’t right. When her gaze turned to her clothes, she froze. “What is this big gly frog doing on top of my dress?!”
It was only then that the audience realized that the strange monster was supposed to be a frog, though it looked more like some alien beast from a horror movie with its elongated limbs and slimy skin.
The ‘frog’ jumped. “Oh fair maiden, my name is Prince Vincent, and I have been cursed by an evil witch! Please bestow upon me a kiss to undo this curse, and I shall forever be in your debt!”
Hearing Randy’s voice coming from the ‘frog’ confirmed Emilia’s conjectures, and she couldn’t help but giggle. ‘This guy… his luck really is terrible. Even when he lands the role of a prince in a school play, it’s like this… But hey, at least he’ll get to kiss a girl in the end, though, right?’
She couldn’t help but indulge herself in the play with an amused smile.
The princess stared at the fat, talking green frog on her previously pristine white dress with a grim expression, and then abruptly burst out of the lake like a shot from a cannon, startling the fat frog into a terrified jump. “Which stupid witch dared to play a prank on this princess?! I’ll skin her alive!”
The frog could only stare at the so-called ‘princess’ who didn’t even bother putting on her dress before she rushed off in the direction of the previously ‘ignored’ hut, seemingly in disbelief. “D-Don’t go there! That’s where the witch lives!”
”I know, dumb frog!” The princess flipped the frog a finger without looking back, and the audience gasped.
Smashing open the door with a mighty kick, the princess sneered at the dumbfounded witch. “How dare you play a prank on this princess and dirty my dress with your stupid frog?! I challenge you to a fight!”
The girl playing the role of the witch was quite tall… if compared to Penny. In front of the regular-sized princess, however, she looked like a middle-schooler at best, and made the audience completely lose the feeling of threat from the word ‘witch’ in her role.
After taking one look at the half-naked girl who had barged in so rudely, the ‘middle-schooler witch’ sent her out flying right back into the ‘lake’ with a wave of her hand.
”How dare you—?!”
Naturally, the second time the princess rushed into the hut had the same result, and it wasn’t any different the third time around either.
But as the king had long since discovered, the witch also realized that this princess was stubborn as a mule, and kept at it all the way till the sun went down, albeit at a slower and slower pace.
Being dunked in the cool lake water after rushing off again and again, however, soon proved to be too much even for the sturdy body of the princess, and the witch was stunned when she found that the girl had collapsed at her door.
Antisocial as she was, even the witch realized that she couldn’t just brush this ‘idiot’ off anymore. “If I flung her into the lake like this, won’t she die?”
Of course, if the girl was really a princess as she claimed… that would be too much trouble.
Since the witch didn’t want to confront the kingdom she was already on bad terms with, she could only temporarily shelter the princess and give her a potion for speedy recovery.
Unfortunately, since the princess had already been exhausted, she still slept like a baby after getting the potion, forcing the witch to wait till the next day before she could kick the annoyance out of her home.
The ‘frog’ could only croak while waiting for the ‘fair maiden’ to return, but soon realized that witch had kept her. Of course, since he was cursed to never be able to leave the vicinity of the lake, he could only jump around helplessly. “Fair maiden! Fair maiden!”
And then he slipped from his stone, croaking helplessly on the floor.
Who knew when the next person who had the chance of undoing his curse would come to this place?
The curtain fell as the audience chuckled at the frog ‘lamenting his fate’, and reopened to show the castle once more.
The news of the princess never returning soon reached the king’s ears, but he only laughed. “Ahaha… she’s probably mad at me. Don’t worry, she’ll be back in a day or two… probably. More importantly, how is the training of our kingdom’s noble young men going?”
The curtain fell once more, and within a few seconds, the scene was back to the forest.
Dixie couldn’t help but mumble to herself in surprise. “How can they move all this stuff so quickly? It’s not just a few background frames, but also all the props, and the hut!”
Emilia smiled. “The stage has two sides, and people can work on setting the scene on the other side while the play goes on like normal in front, and the whole thing can be rotated after the curtain falls.”
The dark-haired girl blinked. “Our school had something like that?”
Emilia giggled. “They do now. Now hush and watch.”
Dixie blushed and turned her head back to the stage, where the princess had already ‘woken up’.
Naturally, anyone who found themselves in just their inner garments in an unfamiliar bed wouldn’t be too pleased, and the princess was no exception. “How dare you—!”
The witch, who had been fiddling with a few flasks on her desk, could only look up at her in surprise. “You’re up? Don’t tell me you’re going to say something ridiculous like ‘how dare you sleep with me’ or something? For your information, I—”
”How dare you not beat this princess fair and square?!”
The witch couldn’t help but be dumbfounded. “Huh?”
The princess sneered. “Using magic is cheating! If you’re a real man, fight me with cold weapons, or better yet, your bare hands!”
”I’m not a man, though? And neither are you, by the way.”
The princess was even more infuriated that the witch ‘mocked’ her, and continued to ‘whine’ until the witch had had enough and threw her back into the lake.
The dumbfounded princess was only silent for a minute before all the birds and critters in a two-mile radius were scared away by her enraged shriek.
Emilia couldn’t help but rub her cheek in embarrassment. ‘Penny mentioned my fans are involved… so does this mean they think I’m so unreasonable?’
Cynthia snorted, but didn’t respond. Anyway, if she said yes, it wouldn’t really be true, but she couldn’t say no either, so it was better to just stay silent.
The princess and the witch continued to ‘entangle’ each other for the following few scenes, and the frog prince could only watch their ‘interaction’ while croaking helplessly. “Fair maiden, fair maiden, don’t fight the witch!”
”Shut up, stupid frog!”
”I-I’m a prince!”
”Stop croaking!”
At this point, the ‘frog’ would have to be stupid to not realize that the girl had long since stopped caring all about him and his curse, and was only concerned with ‘beating the witch’.
Three days later, the king finally realized that something wasn’t right, and decided to look for the princess. And it took another two days before some of his men stumbled upon the fat frog by the lake.
The ‘prince’ couldn’t help but jump up and down in excitement. “Brave soldiers, are you looking for your princess?! This prince—!”
The startled soldier almost skewered the fat frog in shock, but fortunately, the ‘prince’ was quite agile and managed to avoid the pike by a hair’s breadth.
”Holy fuck, a talking frog!”
”Isn’t it going to be worth a fortune if we sell it?!”
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