Inside the palace, Ariel's room.
The mermaid princess Ariel anxiously awaits the arrival of the victorious fortuneteller, the sage of the Kingdom of Rose who will reveal her life story.
Her slender little hands were stroking, her heart was beating fast, and her new feet kept rubbing against the ground, as if she was about to go to the execution ground.
"Ariel!" The prince pushed open the door and hugged her in his arms.
He hugged her so tightly that he didn't dare to let go for a moment, as if the other person would disappear if he relaxed a little - because the prince knew that she had hugged him just as tightly on that stormy nightmare night.
"My girl, I know it, I know it all, I know all that I should know—and my God, I never knew it till today!"
The prince was so excited that he was incoherent. He wanted to say something but didn't know where to start.
Ariel was completely bewildered, not understanding what the prince meant. She felt her face wet, and then she realized it was from the prince's hot tears.
"My Highness, what did you say? What did you know?" Ariel was excited and panicked.
The next moment, she suddenly realized that the prince called out her name "Ariel" when he entered the door, which was her real name when she was the princess of the Sea Kingdom.
——This was the first time she heard the prince call out her name since they met.
"Ariel, that foreign magician told me everything about you. I know your background, that you're a mermaid from the sea, and a princess! Hahahaha, when I first saw you, I said you looked like a princess from a foreign country, and I was right."
"I saw the mermaid kingdom under the sea, your father and sisters, and the magnificent palace under the sea. Your kingdom under the sea is much more beautiful than the kingdom on land. Even an ordinary pearl adorning the palace is more round and beautiful than the one in my mother's crown."
"I know it was you who saved me on that stormy night. You are the girl I've been thinking about day and night, the one who saved me!"
"I also know the risks you took to walk on land and grow this ugly, deformed pillar of flesh!"
"…"
The prince spoke incoherently, wishing he could tell the girl everything he knew to prove that he finally understood her and was qualified to be with her.
"So, you know everything? You know it in such detail. Your Highness Eric, my Highness!" Ariel was so surprised that she couldn't speak.
She felt her cheeks were even wetter than before, but this time, they were wet from her own tears.
Ariel couldn't help but think:
"Who is that foreign sage? What a great magician he is! He can reveal my entire past. He can even peek into the ocean kingdom beneath the waves!"
"That magician hasn't even seen me yet?"
She hugged Prince Eric's neck, and her fair, slender hands caressed the handsome boy's face. She stared into the prince's dark, shining eyes and said word by word:
"My Lord, after knowing that I am a mermaid, don't you discriminate against me? Aren't you afraid of me? I am not even a human, but a monster from the deep sea. In your world, mermaids are regarded as the embodiment of shipwreck."
"Of course not," the prince trembled, "I knew all along that those were just rumors slandering you and your kind!"
He didn't say he just found out today.
"What's the difference between humans on earth and mermaids in the palace? What separates races is nothing more than physiological structure, but what determines whether we can be together is the resonance of our hearts!" The prince hugged Ariel tighter. "Everyone in this palace is of my kind, but no one is more similar to me than you. From my father, the king, to the princes and ministers who flatter me with lies, they're all focused on things that I have no interest in. But you're different. You discuss romantic stories in novels with me and tell me about my hunting experiences in the forest. Because we are romantic children, not adults."
Before the choking Ariel could reply, the prince kissed her lips:
"I love you, my princess, my Ariel!
"Whether you are human or mermaid, whether you have a fish tail or legs, I love you! Let us be together, forever and ever, never apart.
"I will walk down the aisle with you, and with the priest as witness, I will place my hands on your chest and pour all my affection and love into you. In this way, you will gain an immortal soul.
"Even if I exhaust all the stories, epics, and fairy tales I have ever read, there is nothing more romantic than giving your lover an immortal soul as a gift!"
He kissed the girl's long and beautiful eyelashes again, and the girl kissed him too.
"I will find a suitable time to see my father and ask him to allow us to be together," said Prince Eric.
"But how are you going to describe my origins to your father?" Ariel asked worriedly. "Even if you can accept me, will your father allow you to marry a deep-sea mermaid?"
"I will try my best to convince him!" The prince said firmly, "I don't want to marry the princess of Ender and make a vow of eternal love with someone I've never met! I won't fall in love with her. I only love you, my princess."
Just at this moment, the prince looked behind Ariel and saw the figure of a young man at the open door.
"You are here, respected magician!" said the prince excitedly.
"Ariel, turn around and look at him. It's him who made me understand you so well. It's him who told me everything I should know. Let's thank him!"
Ariel was a little nervous and uneasy, and turned her head slowly.
"What kind of person is the ultimate winner of the fortune-teller test, the sage of the Kingdom of Rose, the powerful magician who can reveal my true identity?"
"Will it be an old man with white hair and a beard?"
The mermaid princess's head turned completely around.
Reflected in her pupils was a boy in a light-colored cloak, looking like he had stepped out of a fairy tale. She saw his short, bright silver hair beneath his hood, his delicate features, his pale, almost translucent skin, and his eyes gleaming with a cold light.
Ariel's mouth opened wide and she almost screamed.
That foreign sage and great magician turned out to be him!
The human friend she had just met not long ago, the kind-hearted magician who allowed her to grow human legs and come to land!
No wonder, no wonder he knew so much... Ariel understood everything in an instant.
Rhine waved to his mermaid friend, put a finger to his lips and made a "hush" gesture.
The mermaid princess immediately shut her mouth and pretended she had never seen Rhine.
Seeing the prince on the ground and the princess in the sea hugging each other tightly, Rhine smiled.
This warm scene seems to last forever.
Of course, after a while, this beautiful silence was interrupted by the voice of someone outside:
"Your Highness, the envoys from Ender have arrived. His Majesty the King has asked you to come to the palace immediately to discuss your marriage with Princess Ender.
"Also, His Majesty reminds you to bring along the amnesiac girl with a beautiful singing voice. She will be responsible for singing a song for the Ender delegation!"
Hearing about this enemy country that had once invaded the Kingdom of Rose, both Rhine and Aurora, who had just walked in from the door, raised their eyebrows.
As far as Rhine knew, Ender was one of the most militarily powerful countries on the Western continent.
And their mighty ships on the sea were more famous than their cavalry and chariots on land.
This empire plundered its neighbors like a bandit, plundering their goods and lands. Their royal pirates, armed with letters of marque issued by the royal family, dominated the seas, plundering merchant ships from all nations except their allies.
Aurora has always held a grudge against Ender for deliberately spreading the truth about the curse, causing civil strife in the Kingdom of Rose, and taking advantage of the situation to rob her.
Although Aurora, as the commander, ultimately defeated the invaders, she only defeated one of the armies, causing Ender to realize that the war was unprofitable and naturally withdraw. This did not mean that the Kingdom of Rose was capable of resisting such a powerful military empire.
Moreover, in that war, not only did Aurora, who led the charge and stabilized the morale of the army, and the three big dogs summoned by the tinderbox participated in the battle, but the kingdom's sage Rhine and the 12 good witches also provided help to a greater or lesser extent, openly or secretly.
In such a magical world of supernatural powers, if Ender could become a powerful empire that dominated and was feared by other nations, it must have its own super warriors and magicians. However, they did not appear in that small-scale war.
"My apologies, respected Master Magician. Ariel and I have to go receive the envoys from Ender first, so we are unable to entertain you for the time being."
The prince arranged for his subordinates to prepare a luxurious guest room in the palace for Rhine and Aurora, and then hurriedly took Ariel away.
Just by seeing the worried look on the prince's face when he and Ariel left, Rhine knew that if he wanted to successfully arrange a marriage between the two, it was far from enough for the prince to just have love.
A member of the royal family cannot choose his or her marriage partner at will.
Aurora sighed:
"It's said that the King of the Western Kingdom has arranged a marriage for Prince Eric with Princess Ender. How could this be possible? Why is Ariel so unlucky?"
She looked at Rhine again:
"Teacher, since Prince Eric's father, the King of summer kingdom, is particularly interested in Ariel's singing, would he agree to her marriage to the prince?"
Rhine shook his head:
"The King doesn't need marriage as a bond to keep Ariel in the palace and serve him—at least that's what he thinks. If he wants His Majesty to agree to this marriage, Ariel must prove that she has greater political value than the Princess of Ender."
"Sure enough, it's not enough for Prince Eric to know that Ariel is a mermaid, understand her and accept her." Aurora said with a hint of sadness.
She didn't know when it started, but she had become more and more concerned about Ariel's future. She didn't want her mermaid friend's heart to be broken and turn into foam in the sea.
Aurora seemed to have thought of something and asked again:
"Teacher, do we really need to avoid the Ender delegation? Will they come and cause us trouble?"