The Tale She Wrote

Is this really the castle office? It's hard to tell with the damage like this...

The battle with the beastfolk was really that terrible...

But are you really sure about this? You know, wandering around the castle like this.

Why, of course. The decorations and the interior may be damaged... But that does nothing to take away from the history of this castle.

There's nothing like experiencing history firsthand!

Well, as long as you're happy.

And not just that...

There are so many precious books that would be impossible to find anywhere else in this time period!

What a beautiful sight this is!

I didn't realize you liked books so much.

Oh, I really do. The history and wisdom... But more than that, they're a connection between the writer's thoughts and the future.

Some of the bindings are a little burnt, but the letters are still legible.

What's this? It looks like a book fell down from the shelf. I'd hate to just leave it there on the ground. I'll put it back where it belongs...

"The Lonely Monster and the Kind King"...

Hmm... Is this what I think it is?

Huh? What's up with that book?

I can't tell you how many times I read that book as a child. It was my favorite fairy tale!

But take a look at this... The original author's signature is here!

Wow, that's pretty cool! So you're saying the fairy tale made it all the way to your future?

Exactly! This brings back so many memories.

It's hard to believe that the same fairy tale is still read hundreds of years in the future...

Not all stories and fairy tales have survived that far into the future... But it's not unheard of. The sign of a great story is when it is passed down the generations and loved by its readers.

Is the story that interesting?

Why not read it for yourself if you want to know?

Umm... Reading's not really my cup of tea. Books usually put me right to sleep...

That's fine! This story is an easy read, so even you should be able to get through it without nodding off!

It's a story about a mischievous monster who becomes friends with humans with the help of a king. It's a short, funny story.

Well... If you say so, then I guess a little reading wouldn't hurt.

Huh?

What happened?

The book... The pages are blank.

Huh? That can't be right.

Just look at it, there's nothing written here.

H-How strange... This page is blank, and so is this one.

Hey! Cynthia... Look at this page!

What do you see, Lord Aldo?

Oh my! Some letters are suddenly appearing...

What was that about?

Is this book trying to lead us somewhere?

What? How's that even possible?

This is just something I heard before... But the writer of this story was rumored to be a powerful magic user in the past.

And this book was signed by his own hand...

It may be possible that some of his magical power was transferred into this book...

That's quite the surprise... If that's true, why in the world would the book want us to go to Unigan?

I have no idea... But there's nothing we can do other than find out the truth.

Let's see what happens if we go to Unigan. We should be able to find something!

Well, we came here just like the book told us. So what the heck do we do now?

Please allow me to confirm something.

Just as I thought. A new message has appeared!

This time we've got to find someone. Let's see... A troubled man on the corner of the street...

What a strange request... Pretty much anyone could be a trouble man on a street corner.

I do not understand this either, but let's look around for a man.

Well would you look at that...

Ho-hum...

That has got to be him! Look at how he's sighing!

Yeah, he looks troubled to me!

Now that we've found the man, what do we do next?

Understood. Lord Aldo! Let's go stand next to that man!

Got it!

Excuse me, Mister. You got a moment?

Yet another cloudy day. I don't remember the last time I saw the sun...

Huh? It's really not that cloudy today.

Indeed, the sun is out and shining...

Yet another cloudy day. I don't remember the last time I saw the sun...

Look up for yourself... There's barely a cloud in the sky.

Exactly. So why is he saying the same thing over and over?

Maybe he can't hear us?

That'd be a tad odd. Why would Baron Von Bookington ask us to find this man?

Goodness! What's going on, Baron Von Bookington?!

What's the meaning of this?! Baron Von Bookington is floating on its own!

Umm...

Hmm...

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!

Th-The book... It eats people?!

B-B-B-But! What's going on?!

Is it some kind of... green-people-eating-monster-book?!

Mommy, mommy! Are we gonna eat at a restaurant today?

You bet. It's just about lunch time, isn't it?

Yay!

Th-This is very bad, Lord Aldo! They are coming this way!

Ah crud! That thing's gonna eat them up too!

W-W-We've must do something about this!

I'll run interference and you go warn them not to get any closer!

Understood!

You two over there! The way to the tavern is closed now due to dangerous conditions! You are asked to distance yourself from the area immediately!

Wh-What?

I don't see any danger around. What are you trying to pull here?

Seriously, do not come any closer! That book'll eat you up!

Mommy, that woman's scaring me...

What a creepy girl... Let's come back later.

Lord Aldo, we're in the clear now!

Phew... We're okay...for now. I tried pushing the thing, but it won't budge an inch.

This makes no sense at all... Why would Baron Von Bookington consume that man... But then completely ignore the mother and daughter back there?

Uh oh, it's moving again...

Ah! It has a new message for us!

Do you think it's aiming to eat the girl, too?!

I really hope not!

Wah wah...

If the book gets too close to that girl, she's gonna be turned into lunch like the other guy!

We can't allow that to happen! We must hurry and get her away from here!

Ahhhh! What's this now?!

Darn it... It must've not eaten the others just by chance.

Lord Aldo... The book's only going to cause more and more damage in a populated city like this!

I see what you mean... Let's get this book outta here!

Just a little bit further...

Whoops! My bad!

A monster ruined another one of my business deals! I might as well ask the king to end my miserable life!

Huh? What's with that kind of talk?

Those words sound familiar...

A monster ruined another one of my business deals! I might as well ask the king to end my miserable life!

This guy's repeating himself over and over again too! What does this all mean?

I think I have an idea!

Really? What is it?

You see, Baron Von Bookington is...

Aw no, not again! The heck is wrong with this thing!

Some more letters are appearing on the page...

Oh, no you don't!

Wait, Lord Aldo!

Why are we stopping, Cynthia?! We can't just allow that murderous book to continue its rampage! We've got to go catch it!

You don't have to worry about that. Because you see...

Baron Von Bookington is carefully selecting which people he consumes. I have no reason to believe that it'll harm anyone at random.

What do you mean by it selecting those people?

Please allow me to explain once we have caught up to it.

Does that mean you know where it's heading?

I think I do.

It's a bit of a stretch, but are there any port towns around here?

A port town? Let's see...

If we travel past Serena Coast, there's a port town called Rinde.

Well, then Rinde is our next stop! Baron Von Bookington should be there!

Whelp, we've arrived in Rinde... But I don't see the book around.

Heeeeeelp!

Sounds like someone needs us!

Could that be it?

What the heck was that back there?!

I think I saw that book...eat someone! We've gotta get outta here!

It appears that Baron Von Bookington has already arrived!

Seems like it.

But how did you know it would come here?

I told you that I've read that fairy tale so many times.

You mentioned before that you'd read it a lot as a child.

Correct. It was called "The Lonely Monster and the Kind King."

And what does that have to do with all this going on now?

Simply put, we can take clues from the story. I recalled that there was a scene where the hero goes to a port town.

Is that right?

I believe it'll be easier for you to see for yourself what I mean. First, let's find someone who I'm thinking should be around here somewhere...

Ahah! There he is!

Now, Lord Aldo. Look very carefully at that man.

I see a regular soldier and a cat...

My orders are to hunt down the monster. Once the king and I have defeated that monster in the forest, I'll come back for sure!

Are you worried about me, Emeowzabeth?!

There's no doubt about it this time!

What's he saying?

That's the kind-hearted harbor guard and his pet cat, Emeowzabeth. In Baron Von Bookington's story...

You can find these characters!

Are you serious?!

This confirms my suspicions. It isn't consuming real people at all. It is simply consuming the characters that escaped from its pages into the real world.

You can think of it as a kind of...retrieval!

What?! Are you crazy?! You're saying that characters from a fairy tale have jumped off the pages and entered the real world, that right?

At this point it's an indisputable fact. The only proof you need is that they can only repeat lines from the story.

My orders are to hunt down the monster. Once the king and I have defeated that monster in the forest, I'll come back for sure!

Are you worried about me, Emeowzabeth?!

You're right.

Those people back in Unigan were just repeating the same words over and over again...

Assuming that I'm correct, Baron Von Bookington should be around here retrieving those characters. Let us just sit back and wait for it.

And here it is!

Baron Von Bookington! We've been looking all over for you!

Please wait! We have no intention of getting in your way anymore!

I am aware of your terrible situation. All you want to do put your story back together...

Isn't that right?

It's just like I predicted! The pages that used to be blank now have writing on them!

Here's the man who was worried about the weather... And the young man talking about the monster... And the soldier with his cat... Everything's just as you said. Those people were characters from the story.

But that leaves the question of why the characters were able to cross into our world.

The book possesses a powerful magic that allows it to move around on its own. It could be that each sentence in the book also has its own power. And then something happened that caused them to materialize in this world...

Don't you think that's possible?

Well, I guess that makes sense in a way.

Teehee... Once it has its full power back, it'll be able to express more feelings.

It can express feelings?

Well, from what I've seen so far, it has most of its characters back... However, there is still more to find. If it is all right with you, I would like to help Baron Von Bookington get the rest of its characters back.

It looks happy to hear that!

Which brings up the next question, where do we go from here?

Well, of course! You can't be missing your main character! Lord Aldo, do you know of any forests around here?

Yeah, there's Moonlight Forest. Do you think it's there?

There's not a doubt in my mind. Please lead the way!

If you say so. Let's get going to Moonlight Forest!

Are we really gonna find the monster around here?

This is the moment in the story where the king helps the monster, and the two become friends!

The monster, Jellily, just wanted to be noticed by the villagers, not cause any harm...

But some angry villagers begged the king to hunt down the monster and remove it from the village once and for all...

Despite that, the wise king saw the monster's intentions, and thus decided to befriend it!

So the people and the monster became friends in the end. Sounds like a nice story.

Huh?

Baron Von Bookington? Could you tell me what's going on?! It's as if it's...frightened. What could be causing that?

Something's coming!

Well, what do you know! Those glossy eyes and lustrous body! It looks just like how the monster was described in the book!

Well then, it's high time that the book took it back.

After that, it'll have recovered all the characters!

Okay, Baron Von Bookington! Go get it!

Hey, you okay, buddy? Is it still shaking?

Uh oh. What's that sound?!

Watch out!

Oh no. Could this monster be hunting Sir Jellily?!

It looks that way!

If that monster manages to hurt Sir Jellily, then who knows how the story in the book will turn out! We've got to protect the story no matter what!

Now we're talking! Come on, let's go!

We did it! Look Baron Von Bookington, Sir Jellily doesn't have a scratch on it. Please return it to your pages.

What's this? It doesn't look very happy.

This is most unusual. Shall we look at the condition of its pages?

Let's see...

Well well, look at this!

What did you find?

N-Nothing!

Huh? Did I not hear you right?

The ending to the story...

There's nothing written here at all!

The heck does that mean?!

The last page is nearly blank! What could all this mean?!

Baron Von Bookington?

......

Hey, Cynthia. It's kind of a shot in the dark, but... Is it possible that the monster we defeated was also a character from the story?

You must be joking! What would make you think that?!

Um... Well, when we defeated the monster, the book looked like it was sad.

Oh no! You may be right and that monster really was part of Baron Von Bookington's story!

This can't be! I read that story maybe a hundred times, but I don't remember that savage monster ever appearing!

Maybe you just can't remember it? I mean, the last time you read it was a long time ago, right?

Well, I guess...

Oh dear!

Did you remember something?

I've read that many fairy tales originally had darker elements in their stories. As the stories were passed down the generations, small changes were made. Which means this story could have changed as well.

And that savage monster was also a character...

N-Not again...

I messed up!

It's all my fault, Baron Von Bookington! Come to think of it, you were trembling because you wanted me to remember, is that right? I completely jumped the gun again...

Cynthia, it's not all your fault. I also didn't realize that monster was from the book.

*cry* Your concern for me only makes it worse... What a disaster... No matter how much I prepare for all situations I... I just can't...

Let's go back to the castle. It might make you feel better.

Yeah... You're right. Let's go, Baron Von Bookington.

Hmm... Is there really nothing we can do?

I'm so sorry... All I've done is make things worse.

Sounds like you're still not feeling better.

*sniffle* It's because I failed it... I want to disappear somewhere and never come back...

There's no need for that.

You should be proud that you restored its pages right up till the end... And if you look at it another way...

You don't need that other monster to complete the story, right?

Are you saying what I think you're saying?!

Why not? You could write what you remember on the final page.

And then the story would be complete, right?

I-I suppose you have a point... But this is me you're talking about! Even the idea of finishing the story terrifies me! I don't know if the original writer would ever forgive me.

Haha! The book sure doesn't seem to have any problem with it.

I still don't know whether I should rewrite the ending of the story...

What's the worst that could happen? Other than the ending coming out terrible that is... But it wouldn't be any different than the fairy tale you read as a child, right? So, I don't think it really matters.

I-I guess when you put it that way, and as long as Baron Von Bookington wants me to...

I, Cynthia, shall write the conclusion to the story!

Please excuse me while I find something to write with!

It's done!

It's perfect! I can't believe I really did it!

I couldn't have done this without your encouragement, Lord Aldo! There's no way I would have finished the story without the nice push you gave me.

We have successfully protected the fairy tale. Thank you very much!

I had no part in this at all. You were the one who memorized the story.

Stop it, that tickles!

All's well that ends well.

But there is one thing...

Could it be that you rewriting the ending was what caused it to change in the first place?

I'm just happy that I could be of assistance to Baron Von Bookington!

I'm so relieved after all that has happened! The three of us saved the fairy tale for future generations!

Umm... Well, I guess I don't have to think about it right now.

You found the book and saved the story... Sounds like a new fairy tale to me.

You know, you might be right about that!