A European folk tale that was featured on a wall newspaper in my elementary school library. It’s not really a "bad aftertaste" story, but it leaves me feeling a bit unsatisfied...
Once upon a time, in a rural village, there lived a hardworking but poor young man. No matter how hard he worked, his life never improved. One day, a fairy with the face of an ugly old hag appeared before him and made an offer: "I will make you rich, on the condition that from now on, you give me the best part of everything that passes through the gates of this house."
The young man agreed. From then on, whether it was bread or meat, he gave the best part of whatever passed through his gate to the fairy. As a result, the young man's life grew increasingly prosperous, to the point where marriage talks began, and he ended up taking a beautiful bride.
On the night he brought the bride home, the fairy came to the young man and said, "A promise is a promise. I will take the best part of what passed through the gates of this house... the bride's face." The young man begged, saying he couldn't possibly do that and asking for mercy, but the fairy insisted that a deal was a deal and wouldn't budge. "I'll give you time. Tomorrow morning, I'm coming to take the bride's face," the fairy said, and vanished.
With no other choice, the young man confessed everything to his bride. She was shocked and broke down in tears. The next morning, the fairy appeared before the bride, carrying a knife to peel away her face. However, the moment the fairy looked at the bride, it screamed, "Eek! Who'd want such an ugly face?!" and vanished somewhere. Because the bride had spent the entire night crying, her face was horribly swollen and bright red.
After that, the fairy never appeared again, and the young man and his bride lived happily ever after. The end. Even back when I was an elementary school student, I remember thinking: Is it really okay for them to find happiness even after breaking a promise? And can someone really become conveniently ugly just from crying their eyes out?
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