Thanks to those who have read Did Candy find her happiness? (Part 1) and Did Candy find her happiness? (Part 2). Remember the Japanese fan ジャミーラ on Twitter (jyamiila) whom I mentioned in Last letter in Old CC Novel? I asked her afterwards if she had the first letter as well from the Old Candy Candy Novel, and jyamiila was so nice that she kindly replied in a tweet
フォロワーさんからの質問があったのでここにUPして置きますね。
キャンディキャンディの小説第3巻のキャンディとアルバートの往復書簡の部分から
＞アルバートさん(丘の上の王子さま)への最初の手紙がありますか? pic.twitter.com/R8jEry2Bvb— ジャミーラ (@jyamiila) May 21, 2017
As you can see, the right page of the first picture shows one of the illustrations in the manga, in which Candy longed to see Albert again during his absence in her life. The title of this page is “7. The correspondence between Candy and Albert-san“. Besides, the short passage underneath the beautiful illustration is Candy’s own words, apparently right after Albert’s confession to her at the end of the manga. Here is my attempt to translate the paragraphs:
This is what it’s like to go crazy with happiness, isn’t it?
Albert-san is Granduncle William; in addition, I can’t believe he is actually Prince on the Hill! But, but still, I have lots that I don’t understand. Please, oh please write me many letters, Albert-san!
That’s it, so this serves as the introduction to why they began to write to each other. Note that in Japanese she wrote the first sentence in a very feminine way, which reminds me of Annie. (There’s no equivalent in English unfortunately.) We all know Candy was a tomboy, so it’s unusual and not very Candy-like. 😅 Hence, no doubt she was suffused with happiness and surprise that Albert was her prince.
On the left hand side is the beginning of her first letter to her prince. It’s quite long when compared to the equivalent one in Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS). However, I will say that the one in CCFS shows Candy’s shock even more vividly. It’s almost like she was still reeling from the truth of Albert’s last secret and needed more time to sort this out, 😀 whereas the one in the Old CC novel was to recapitulate what had happened that day. In CCFS, Candy didn’t recap until after getting a reply from Albert, which was weeks later (remember the snail mail back in that era? 😉 ). Mizuki showed that Candy’s happiness and excitement had lasted, and she even demanded Albert to come again on her birthday to spend time with her (by casting a spell on him in her letter). If you still insist Candy wasn’t in love with Albert, please consider re-examining her letters with an open mind. Thanks for reading, my friends. ❤ Please stay tuned for Part 4; I will discuss Candy’s letter to Anthony in the old novel. For Spanish version of this post plus Yue Chan’s own thoughts, please click “¿Candy encontró su felicidad? (Parte 3)” ❤