Prince Eric could never forget that girl's face.
The amnesiac girl he picked up from the coast.
"Why? Why is she there?"
He had never expected to see the amnesiac girl again in this scene. A turbulent wave surged in his heart, much greater than the dark waves in the crystal ball.
He saw that the girl in the crystal ball had the same light figure and beautiful face as today. The difference was that her lower body was not the slender legs of today, but a beautiful and light fish tail decorated with pearls and shells, swaying flexibly in the turbulent waves.
"This is, this is?"
The prince trembled and could not speak, his eyes fixed on the little mermaid's face in the crystal ball, fixed on that unforgettable face that was imprinted deep in his soul.
How many times, how many times, he took the girl's arm to watch the sunrise and sunset.
Behind them was either the bright red rising sun or the bloody setting sun, and the sunlight near the ground stretched their shadows very long.
How many times, how many times, he gave the girl expensive clothes made of silk and gauze, and held the girl's hand as they walked in the corridors of the palace.
Everyone who saw the girl's walking posture could not help but turn around and praise her. It was the lightest posture they had ever seen in their lives, so light that it did not seem like a human walking on the ground, but like a fish leaping in the water - and today the prince saw the girl's appearance while she was still in the water.
He remembered that day when the girl stood alone in the center of the palace hall, gently raised her chin to reveal her slender neck, and sang a song.
It was the most beautiful ballad in the world, so beautiful that even migratory birds flying high in the sky could not help but turn around, and the waiter who poured wine forgot that fine wine was overflowing from the golden cup. When the prince heard the song, he only remembered to shed tears and applaud, forgetting all words of praise, because human words could not describe this song that did not belong to humans.
——Until today, the prince knew why the girl had such a beautiful singing voice, because it was indeed not a song for humans.
The prince was speechless. Hot tears flowed from his beautiful black eyes, drawing two lines of tear marks on the boy's handsome face.
In the crystal ball, the little mermaid hugged the prince tightly in the raging sea, not daring to relax for a moment.
The prince at that time was as pale as a dead man, his eyes were closed, and he kept coughing, coughing up salty and wet sea water.
The little mermaid used all her strength to lift his head out of the water so that he could breathe fresh air. A fierce storm enveloped them, and the fierce waves pushed them to nowhere, but the little mermaid never let go.
The image in the crystal ball circulated again.
The storm ended and the sky gradually brightened.
The bright red sun rises from the east and the sunlight falls on the sea.
The little mermaid swam with the unconscious prince as far as she could to the nearest land. She looked at his eyelashes wet by the sea water and his closed eyes, and smiled charmingly.
Then the little mermaid kissed the prince's forehead.
At the moment of the kiss, the prince's eyes opened slightly, and then closed again.
"So that's how it is? So that's how it is!"
The prince trembled. He understood, he understood everything.
No wonder the amnesiac girl's facial features were nothing like the human woman who woke him up on the shore, but he always thought the girl was the one who saved him.
When the little mermaid kissed the prince's forehead and his eyelids opened slightly, he remembered the little mermaid's beautiful yet brave face!
This memory merged with the appearance of the human girl who had awakened him, forming the appearance of his savior in his memory.
And indeed it was true: they had both saved him, one after sunrise, the other in the dark of a storm, risking her life by being crushed by broken masts and planks, swimming through the raging waves all night.
The former was remembered by him, while the latter was forgotten by him.
The magician fairly presented him with the images of his two saviors.
"It was two girls who saved you. But I think, in your memory, their images have perhaps merged into a blurry face," Rhine said, holding the crystal ball. "This is the answer you seek and the truth your father wants to know."
The prince then remembered his father's order:
"So, that amnesiac girl I picked up on the shore, the girl with the most beautiful singing voice in the world, is a mermaid? But I clearly saw that she has human legs!"
Rhine touched the crystal ball again.
"The mermaid princess Ariel—the girl you found on the shore, the girl who saved you on that stormy night—came to this shore to find you, to gain your love and an immortal soul. She went to the terrifying sea witch and had her beautiful fish tail cut into the shape of human legs."
The scene switches back to Ariel asking the sea hag for the potion.
"My beautiful princess, hahahaha, your wish is so foolish! You actually want to remove your fish tail, grow two human legs, and become a deformed human to get to the shore."
"You want a beautiful prince to fall in love with you, pour his passionate thoughts and emotions into you, and thus gain an immortal soul. It is a ridiculous fantasy for a human to fall in love with a sea creature."
"…"
The prince looked at the ugly smile of the sea witch and the mermaid princess Ariel recalling the firm words with a pale face and trembling voice, and he could no longer control his tears.
In the crystal ball scene, Rhine deliberately made his own and Aurora's images very blurry, making it look like the mermaid princess just happened to meet another magician in the ocean.
When the sea hag asked for the mermaid princess's voice as a reward, the kind magician gave the princess a bottle of magic potion for free.
"Thanks to that kind wizard!" said the prince. "God bless me. It's a blessing. Otherwise, I would never have been able to hear that girl's - I mean Ariel's - beautiful singing in my life! There is no greater regret in the world than this!"
Rhine touched the crystal ball again and again, and scenes from different time periods appeared one after another.
The images that he has personally experienced or is relatively familiar with are relatively clear, while the images that he knows relatively less about are relatively blurry.
The prince saw the old grandmother stroking Ariel's beautiful long hair and telling the mermaid princess stories about humans and their immortal souls; he saw Ariel and her sisters chasing schools of fish underwater; he saw the crowned Poseidon and his magnificent underwater palace; he saw every aspect of the mermaid kingdom - he had known the girl for so long, but he had never understood her as well as he did today.
He learned that the girl who had saved him was a princess from an undersea kingdom—he remembered how he had once described her as a princess from a foreign land, and indeed she was, except that the kingdom lay beneath the waves, not on earth. He learned the secret of the immortal soul, the curse Ariel bore, and that if he did not fall in love with her and marry her, she would disintegrate into sea foam.
He knew everything he was supposed to know.
Prince Eric could no longer control himself, turned around suddenly, and ran towards Ariel's palace!
He could not wait a moment longer to express his passionate love to her.
Looking at the prince's receding back, Rhine and Aurora smiled at each other.