The scene in the mirror continued to play out.
The thing that interested Princess Aurora most was listening to the learned magician Rhine and other scholars, every night before bed, turning pages and telling stories of the outside world.
Whenever a bedtime story ended and the lights were extinguished, the little princess would gaze at the shimmering starlit river outside her window.
Would falling down a rabbit hole truly lead to a wonderland beyond this world?
Were there really mermaids in the deep ocean?
Were the giant castles above the clouds just legends or real?
"Father, Mother, as soon as my 15th birthday passes, the curse will be lifted, and I'll be able to go out into the world, right?"
Beside her pillow, the young girl's jewel-like eyes were filled with hope.
This was a promise she had received since she first had memories.
"Tomorrow is my birthday!"
Aurora's tone was filled with undisguised excitement.
It was the day she had been waiting for through thousands of days and nights since her birth!
"Father, Mother, Magician Rhine, thank you all."
"After my birthday tomorrow, the curse will be lifted!"
"Then, I want to go out and see! There are so many, many things I want to see, so many, many places I want to go. I want to see if what the books say is true..."
The mirror's image froze on the young girl's smile, full of infinite longing for the future.
The scene then shifted to the next shot.
Aurora was celebrating her 15th birthday.
The King saw this scene, and the stone hanging in his heart slowly settled.
It seemed his precautionary measures had indeed been effective.
As long as he confiscated all the spinning wheels in the entire kingdom and imprisoned the Princess, theoretically eliminating all possibility of Aurora touching a spinning wheel, he could prevent the prophecy from coming true!
"Although I imprisoned my daughter for over a decade and the confiscation of spinning wheels across the country caused discontent, it was completely worth it!"
The aged monarch's white beard trembled.
Seeing the King's excited look, Rhine sighed softly, a feeling of emotion welling up in his heart.
The King was still too naive!
How could a so-called prophecy be avoided in such a simple way?
In many myths and fairy tales, all attempts to resist prophecy with human effort only ended up causing the prophecy to fulfill itself.
"Your Majesty..."
Conversely, the expressions of the several witches were far from as relaxed as the King's.
They were true spellcasters who understood magic, and vaguely, they could sense something ominous.
The next second, the scene in the mirror suddenly changed.
After the birthday celebration ended, before the midnight bells, the little princess, still adhering to the last half-hour curfew, wandered through the palace, moving through the countless rooms, large and small, that she had seen hundreds of thousands of times since birth.
Finally, she came to an ancient palace tower. Inside the tower was a very narrow staircase, at the end of which was a door, with a golden key inserted into it.
"Strange, I don't think I've ever walked here before?"
With a puzzled look, Aurora turned the golden key, and the door immediately sprang open.
An old woman sat inside, busy spinning.
The Princess had never seen a weaving tool before and asked in confusion:
"Hey! Old woman, hello! What are you doing?"
"Spinning," the old woman replied.
"This little thing spins so interestingly! Can I see it?"
Saying this, Aurora curiously stepped forward, wanting to pick up the spinning wheel and spin.
Seeing this scene, the Queen screamed loudly, reaching out her hand and pressing it against the silver mirror in Rhine's hand:
"No, don't! Daughter, don't go near that thing!"
The King also turned pale, greatly alarmed:
"Wait, no!"
But how could Aurora in the mirror hear the voices of her parents outside the mirror?
In the despairing and terrified eyes of her parents, Aurora touched the spinning wheel and immediately pricked her finger.
A spinning wheel was not a weapon, so the blessing that "man-made and natural weapons cannot harm Aurora" was naturally ineffective!
The next second, the golden-haired girl fell to the ground, losing consciousness.
The curse had come true.
However, the blessing that Magician Rhine had once bestowed also took effect—
The Princess did not die, but merely fell into a deep sleep, a dreamless slumber.
The King and Queen rushed back at this moment.
As soon as they entered the hall, they also fell asleep.
The horses in the stable, the dogs in the yard, the pigeons on the roof, the flies on the wall, all fell asleep as well.
Even the fire in the hearth stopped burning and went to sleep; the roasting meat stopped sizzling; everything became still, all falling into a deep slumber.
The sleeping spell enveloped the entire kingdom, plunging every resident of the kingdom into eternal sleep.
Soon, a large hedge of thorns grew over the kingdom's land.
Year after year, the wild plants grew taller and denser, eventually completely covering the palace, even obscuring the roof and chimneys.
10 years passed.
20 years passed.
50 years passed.
A legend spread about this kingdom, a legend of a beautiful sleeping princess.
From then on, many princes came to explore, hacking their way through the thorns to try and reach the palace, but none succeeded.
Every brave soul who stepped into this cursed land was either entangled by the thorns or tripped by the bushes, as if countless hands firmly held them, making it impossible to escape. They all eventually died in agony.
Outside the mirror.
The King watched his kingdom being ruled by thorns and thistles, becoming a cursed land that no one dared to set foot in, and he felt utterly weak and helpless.
"Why?"
"Why couldn't the curse be stopped!"
"Why did a staircase and rooms I'd never seen before appear in my palace? Why did a spinning old woman appear out of thin air?"
All of this was simply too illogical!
The monarch of the kingdom, at this moment, no longer looked like a King, roaring in distress, covering his face and weeping.
As if he had truly experienced decades of time just now.
As if all the disasters had already occurred.