Chapter 75: Deceiving Fate
At the royal harbor of Enderland, two children appeared on the streets—one a silver-haired boy, the other a golden-haired girl.
"I have a question, teacher," Aurora asked, looking up.
"If you don’t actually want Prince Eric and Ariel to elope into the sea, then why did you create a potion that turns humans into rfolk?"
Throughout their journey, Aurora had co to realize sothing.
Though her blessings had granted her an exceptional talent, she was still too young, too inexperienced. Much of the knowledge she had learned from books remained just that—dead knowledge, impractical and difficult to apply. The blessing had enhanced her mory, but it had not directly increased her intelligence.
There was still so much she needed to learn... Aurora thought to herself.
"That potion isn’t truly ant to let them elope into the sea," Rhine replied.
"Huh? Then what’s it for?" Aurora asked, puzzled.
"Fate is a funny thing," Rhine chuckled. "There’s an old saying in a distant land—‘The will of heaven must not be revealed.’"
And he was telling the truth. Prophecy was bound by countless limitations—it required a dium, only provided vague fragnts of the future, and above all, revealing certain details to others could distort their accuracy.
"Fate truly is strange," Rhine mused as he gazed at the drifting clouds in the sky.
He still rembered when he first advised the King of the Rose Kingdom to invite the Black Witch, thinking it would prevent the infamous event where she stord in uninvited in a fit of rage.
Yet fate found another way. Maleficent still beca furious over sothing else and cast her curse regardless.
Likewise, when Grandma Rosa searched for the Tinderbox, she had deliberately kept the information from others, unknowingly preventing any warnings—ensuring that the soldier ultimately obtained it.
It was as if so events were destined to happen no matter what.
These two incidents had been a harsh lesson for Rhine.
He had once believed he could easily change fate.
But now, with his newfound prophetic powers granted by the crystal ball, he had sensed sothing even greater—
For an outsider like himself, fate possessed an overwhelming self-correcting force.
Certain critical monts—scenes so fundantal that changing them would unravel the entire story—seed impossible to truly alter.
Even if he attempted to forcefully interfere, the world itself would twist events to ensure they still took place.
"But that doesn’t an fate is unchangeable," Rhine thought.
From his past failures, he had learned a better thod.
Rather than preventing these critical events outright—rather than fighting fate head-on, which would only lead to unintended consequences—
The key was to ensure that while these events appeared to happen as they should, their true outcos were entirely different from the original fate.
For example, changing the nature of Aurora’s blessing had been one such approach.
"Fate can be deceived!"
Rhine couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
"I suspect we’ll soon hear the news that Prince Eric and the Princess of Enderland are getting married," Rhine said.
"What?!" Aurora was stunned. "But that’s impossible! Prince Eric would never agree to the marriage. And Enderland has no reason to force him, right?"
"Oh? No reason?"
Rhine flipped his hand, revealing a small amount of shimring powder in his palm.
"Earlier, I transford into a bird and secretly inspected the costics used by the Princess of Enderland. That’s when I found sothing strange."
"I used divination to analyze them—these powders are ground from enchanted herbs and imbued with powerful spells.
"The magic only affects n.
"If Prince Eric is exposed to this fragrance for long enough, he will beco a puppet under the caster’s control."
Aurora’s expression turned grave.
"So their so-called ‘alliance through marriage’ is nothing but a cover for an even darker sche. We have to warn the King of the Western Asia Kingdom!"
Rhine shook his head.
"Other people—including ordinary diviners and magicians—would never detect the hidden magic within the scent. Even I wouldn’t have discovered it without my crystal ball’s assistance."
"One piece of evidence isn’t enough. Enderland can simply deny it. They’ll claim it’s just a magician’s baseless accusation. The alliance will continue as planned."
Aurora frowned in concern, lost in thought. "Then… what should we do?"
"Think about it—Prince Eric will surely reject the marriage.
"But that Old Witch of Enderland will never allow that to happen."
Rhine smiled.
"They’ll soon start making mistakes.
"They’ll be the ones to hand us all the evidence we need."
"If our plan succeeds, we won’t just prevent this unholy alliance between the Western Asia Kingdom and Enderland…
"We will also shatter the prejudices that humans hold against rfolk!"
The Old Witch found the heartbroken princess crying in her chambers.
"My dear princess, do not despair. I have long heard that Prince Eric of the Western Asia Kingdom is a rebellious youth."
"Perhaps he is deceiving you. Perhaps he rely made up a nonexistent lover to escape his father’s arrangent."
The princess’s sobbing quieted. She lifted her tear-streaked face, her sapphire-blue eyes filled with hesitation.
"Really?"
"You can test him yourself," the Old Witch said, handing the princess a bottle of wine.
"It is often said that people only speak the truth when they are drunk."
"Offer the prince this fine liquor from my personal collection.
"Once he is intoxicated, ask him again—does this mysterious ‘lover’ of his truly exist?"
The Old Witch gently whispered,
"My dear princess, I suspect that you are the one he truly loves."
The Princess of Enderland accepted the wine.
"Alright… I suppose it’s worth trying."
She wiped away her tears and left her room to seek out Prince Eric.
Watching the princess’s departing figure, the Old Witch grinned wickedly.
She had laced the wine with a powerful potion—one that could permanently erase a single mory from the drinker’s mind.
The mont Prince Eric drank it—
He would forget Ariel forever.
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